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Asia-Pacific Daily Report
December 04, 2008
Myanmar
UN chief rejects former world leaders' call to visit Myanmar
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on Wednesday (December 3) declined an appeal in a letter signed by 112 former presidents and prime ministers urging him to visit Myanmar (Burma) by the end of the year to push for the release of the mounting number of political prisoners in the military-ruled country. Instigated by former Norwegian Prime Minister Kjell Magne Bondevik, the letter was issued by the Oslo Center for Peace and Human Rights and the Washington-based advocacy group Freedom Now on Wednesday. The letter requested that Ban visit the country to follow up on the UN Security Council's October 2007 call for Myanmar to release all political prisoners, including Nobel laureate and opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi, who has been under house arrest for 13 of the past 19 years. Former US Presidents George H. W. Bush and Jimmy Carter, former British Prime Ministers Tony Blair and Margaret Thatcher, former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev, former Australian Prime Minister John Howard and former Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi were among the signers, according to Reuters and Agence France-Presse. Responding to the letter Wednesday, Ban spoke with Bondevik, telling him he will not return to Myanmar without reasonable expectations that there will be a meaningful outcome, the Associated Press attributed UN spokesperson Michele Montas as saying. Ban visited Myanmar after Tropical Cyclone Nargis struck in May to encourage the ruling junta to allow international aid workers access to affected areas. At that time he said he would like to visit the country again to discuss political issues, but diplomats say he is hesitant because there is little sign that the military, which has ruled Myanmar since 1962, will comply, according to Reuters. The letter sent by the former leaders urges the Security Council to take concrete action in light of the recently reported increase in the number of political detainees - from 1,200 in June 2007 to around 2,100 currently. According to the Irrawaddy news magazine, which is published by Myanmar exiles in Thailand, more than 200 political dissidents have received lengthy prison sentences in the last few months in Myanmar.
http://www.khaleejtimes.com/DisplayArticle.asp?xfile=data/international/2008/December/international_December209.xml§ion=international&col=
http://www.khaleejtimes.com/darticlen.asp?xfile=data/international/2008/December/international_December166.xml§ion=international
http://asia.news.yahoo.com/081203/afp/081203143452asiapacificnews.html
http://www.irrawaddy.org/article.php?art_id=14737
North Korea
US nuclear envoy meets with North Korean counterpart
The chief US envoy to nuclear talks with North Korea, said that he had "substantive" talks with his North Korean counterpart on Thursday (December 4). US Assistant Secretary of State Christopher Hill held a meeting with North Korean envoy Kim Kye-Gwan in Singapore, which comes prior to six-party talks on North Korea's denuclearization in Beijing starting December 8. "We have reviewed the major issues that we have all been working on. It is disablement, the fuel oil and the issue of verification of their declaration. We had substantive discussion of all the issues that we expect to come up during the six-party talks next week," the official Chinese Xinhua news agency reported Hill as saying to reporters. Hill had told reporters earlier that his meetings would focus on establishing a verification protocol, Xinhua news agency reported. The six-party talks involve North Korea, the US, South Korea, China, Russia and Japan. North Korea had agreed in six-party talks in February 2007 to dismantle its nuclear program in exchange for energy aid and security guarantees. In June, Pyongyang handed in a list of what it said was a complete declaration of its nuclear program and agreed to completely disable its nuclear facilities by the end of October. In return, the US agreed to lift some sanctions against the North and work to remove it from the US State Department list of state sponsors of terrorism. However, in a stand that has angered Pyongyang, the US said that it would not remove North Korea from the list until Pyongyang agrees to set up an internationally recognizable mechanism to verify its declaration. The disarmament deal had threatened to derail when the North, angered that it had not yet been removed from Washington's terror blacklist per the agreement, threatened to restart its nuclear program and banned international nuclear monitors from its facilities. Hill visited Pyongyang in early October to make a verification deal with the North, which resulted in Washington dropping the North from its terror blacklist on October 11. However, there have been some disputes over whether or not nuclear inspectors could take away samples from the nuclear facilities, according to Xinhua. The US contends that it could take away samples according to the deal, whereas the North says that it never agreed to allow samples to be taken. Hill reportedly will leave for Beijing on Saturday (December 6).
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2008-12/04/content_10457742.htm
http://in.reuters.com/article/worldNews/idINIndia-36872420081204
Philippines
Six killed in separate security incidences across Philippines
Late on Thursday (December 4), two powerful bomb blasts jolted Isulan City on the southern violence-ridden island of Mindanao, wounding at least five people, officials told Reuters. According to city police cheif Ruel Sermese, a crude bomb exploded near a drug store in Isulan City, where five passers-by were wounded by the blast. Just minutes after the first explosion, another crude bomb was detonated a short distance away outside the office of an electric cooperative. The second bomb blast was detonated in a deserted area and did not cause any injuries. Sermese reported that initial investigation into the incident has so far shown that both bombs were made from mortar shells and placed in a shoe box tucked inside a bag. No one has claimed responsibility for the attack, however, Muslim rebels have been fighting a long-running insurgency in Mindanao and since July have been responsible for at least three bomb attacks on bus terminals on the southern island. Meanwhile, in the northern island of Luzon, the mayor of Rizal town in Cagayan province, Mayor Raul dela Cruz, was killed along with three of his security escorts after they were ambushed by a group of unidentified men on Wednesday (December 3) night, the Manila Times reported. Four others were wounded during the attack and were taken to the Saint Paul Hospital, police told the Inquirer. According to reports reaching Camp Carme national headquarters in Quezon City, the government bus they were traveling in was ambushed at around 10:00 pm at Maddarulug Village in Solana town. Following the incident, Senior Superintendent Moro Virgilio Lazo, Cagayan police director, told the Inquirer that police had mobilized checkpoints in the province and had also organized teams to pursue the assailants. During a phone interview with the Inquirer in Manila, Chief Superintendent Roberto Damian, director of police regional office 2 (PRO 2) said the investigation was ongoing, but that they were initially looking at political rivals, personal enemies and even the communist New People's Army (NPA) as possible culprits for the deadly ambush. Damian reported that there had yet been a definite motive behind the attack and that only theories had been presented. He told the Manila Times that Dela Cruz had been given three police security escorts due to recent death threats since becoming mayor of Rizal. In a separate incident, a policewoman was killed Wednesday and at least four others were wounded when alleged members of the NPA, hiding in a sugarcane field, ambushed their patrol vehicle in Victorias City in Negros Occidental province. The Deustche Presse-Agentur (DPA) reported two backpacks and a rifle grenade were recovered by police officers following the attack. In addition, more government troops have been dispatched to the area to pursue the rebels responsible for the attack. Since the late 1960's the communist rebels have been battling the government, making the movement one of the longest-running leftist insurgencies in Asia, DPA reported.
http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/MAN419683.htm
http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/breakingnews/regions/view/20081204-175999/Cagayan-mayor-3-others-slain-in-ambush
http://www.manilatimes.net/national/2008/dec/05/yehey/prov/20081205pro3.html
http://www.khaleejtimes.ae/DisplayArticleNew.asp?col=§ion=international&xfile=data/international/2008/December/international_December227.xml
http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/breakingnews/regions/view/20081204-176038/Cop-killed-4-hurt-in-Negros-ambush
Sri Lanka
Sri Lanka seizes rebel naval base
Sri Lankan soldiers seized a key Tamil Tiger naval base, the Sri Lankan defense ministry said Thursday (December 4). "Troops entered the Sea Tiger bastion of Alampil, located about 10 kilometers (six miles) south of Mullaitivu, (town) this morning," Agence France-Presse reported the ministry as saying in a statement. The ministry did not provide any further details on casualties, but said that the rebel Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) had used Alampil as a key sea port to land supplies. Officials said that the capture of the town would open another front to the LTTE stronghold of Mullaitivu. "Mullaitivu has become untenable as the fall of Alampil would facilitate the assault on Mullaitivu," the ministry said. There was no immediate response from the LTTE, who maintain a fleet of ships to launch attacks and to smuggle in weapons and supplies. The military also said that Sri Lankan air force jets bombed two rebel positions Wednesday (December 3), the Associated Press (AP) reported. The jets reportedly targeted two areas where rebels had been resisting troops attempting to advance into Kilinochchi, the AP reported the military as saying. In addition, soldiers killed one rebel in an ambush in eastern Ampara district, according to the AP. Meanwhile, fighting was reported to be continuing on the ground as Sri Lankan troops continue their assault towards the rebels' political capital of Kilinochchi. The government said last week that the fall of Kilinochchi was "imminent" but the advance has reportedly been slowed by monsoon rains and flooding. The military has vowed to crush the LTTE, who say they are fighting for an independent homeland for minority ethnic Tamils in Sri Lanka's north and east. Over 70,000 have been killed in the 25-year-old ethnic conflict.
http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5glagpffgbVc3k4cJgPchTlt374JA
http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2008/12/03/asia/AS-Sri-Lanka-Civil-War.php
Other World News
Afghanistan
Two suicide attacks leave at least five dead in eastern Afghanistan
Two suicide attacks in eastern Afghanistan have left at least five people dead and several others injured, Afghan officials said Thursday (December 4). In one attack, a suicide bomber rammed his explosives-laden truck into the entrance of the National Directorate of Security (NDS) in Khost city, the provincial capital of Khost province, killing two employees and wounding three others. "The suicide car bomb at the intelligence office martyred two intelligence workers and wounded three others," Agence France-Presse (AFP) quoted Tahir Khan Sabari, the deputy governor of Khost province as saying. He said that in the other attack, another suicide bomber wearing an Afghan army uniform tried to get into the nearby anti-narcotics office but was stopped by police who fired at him. "Police fired at him and explosives strapped to his body went off, killing three policemen and wounding seven others including three civilians," Sabari says. According to AFP, Sabari said that police were still looking for other militants who were also wearing army uniform and were reported to have entered the NDS offices right after the blast. According to AFP, a Taliban spokesperson claimed responsibility for the attacks. "There were three suicide attackers who detonated themselves in Khost province. Their target was the deputy intelligence director," AFP quoted the Taliban spokesperson as saying. Reuters news agency also reported that gunfire had erupted in the NDS building. Separately, a French aid worker who had been kidnapped in Kabul has been released, the BBC reported France's President Nicolas Sarkozy as saying. The worker, Dany Egreteau was kidnapped in the Afghan capital, Kabul on November 3. His Afghan driver was reportedly killed as he tried to stop the kidnapping. Egretau, an education specialist, was kidnapped about a week after his arrival, according to the BBC. France's foreign ministry had been working with Afghan officials to secure Egretau's freedom. It is unclear who was behind the kidnapping. In October, British aid worker Gayle Williams was shot dead by two gunmen in Kabul, while days earlier, a British citizen working for the DHL company were also shot dead in Kabul.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/7763188.stm
http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/SP55674.htm
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/7764798.stm
http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5j457SDcaBu6Zhh7IKGKBzULmmT6A
Pakistan
Pakistan promises action on India bombing suspects
Maintaining that Pakistan's government had no connection to the bombings that killed at least 170 people in India's port city of Mumbai (Bombay) last week, the country's senior leaders vowed Thursday (December 4) to fully cooperate in investigating the attacks and take action against any Pakistanis found to be involved. The comments by President Asif Ali Zardari followed meetings with Chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff Adm. Mike Mullen and US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, who visited the country Wednesday (December 3) and Thursday, respectively. Both US officials also reportedly urged Zardari, Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani and Army Chief Gen. Ashfaq Kayani to continue to crack down on Taliban- and al-Qaeda-linked militants along Pakistan's northwestern border with Afghanistan. According to the BBC, Rice described the talks as satisfactory, saying Pakistan's leadership seems focused and committed to aiding the investigation of the attacks, which have heightened public anger in India toward Pakistan, its western neighbor. The attack, which began November 26 and ended on Saturday (November 29), was believed to have been carried out by 10 men who arrived in Mumbai by boat. Both Indian and US officials have implicated Lashkar-e-Taiba, a Pakistan-based Muslim militant organization formed in 1989 with suspected assistance from Pakistan's powerful Inter-Services Intelligence agency, the International Herald Tribune (IHT) reported. "The government will not only assist in investigation but also take strong action against any Pakistani elements found involved in the attack," the BBC quoted Zardari as saying in an official statement. The accusations of Pakistan's involvement have heightened tensions between the nuclear-armed neighbors that have gone to war three times since partition in 1947. Despite its commitment to the US-led war on terror, Pakistan has said that should it detect aggression from India, it will make securing its eastern border its top priority, redeploying tens of thousands of troops currently stationed in the northwest to fight rebels accused of attacking counter-insurgent forces who are fighting the Taliban in Afghanistan, the Pakistan-based Dawn news agency reported.
http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/12/04/asia/militants.php
http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/12/04/asia/04pakistan-cnd.php
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/7764381.stm
http://www.dawn.net/wps/wcm/connect/Dawn%20Content%20Library/dawn/news/pakistan/pakistan-delivers-clear-message-to-mullen-wk