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India, China jostle for influence in Indian Ocean

AP, Hambantota

This battered harbor town on Sri Lanka's southern tip, with its scrawny men selling even scrawnier fish, seems an unlikely focus for an emerging international competition over energy supply routes that fuel much of the global economy.

An impoverished place still recovering from the devastation of the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami, Hambantota has a desolate air, a sense of nowhereness, punctuated by the realization that looking south over the expanse of ocean, the next landfall is Antarctica.

But just over the horizon runs one of the world's great trade arteries, the shipping lanes where thousands of vessels carry oil from the Middle East and raw materials to Asia, returning with television sets, toys and sneakers for European consumers.

These tankers provide 80 percent of China's oil and 65 percent of India's - fuel desperately needed for the two countries' rapidly growing economies. Japan, too, is almost totally dependent on energy supplies shipped through the Indian Ocean.

Any disruption - from terrorism, piracy, natural disaster or war - could have devastating effects on these countries and, in an increasingly interdependent world, send ripples across the globe. When an unidentified ship attacked a Japanese oil tanker traveling through the Indian Ocean from South Korea to Saudi Arabia in April, the news sent oil prices to record highs.

For decades the world relied on the powerful U.S. Navy to protect this vital sea lane. But as India and China gain economic heft, they are moving to expand their control of the waterway, sparking a new - and potentially dangerous - rivalry between Asia's emerging giants.

China has given massive aid to Indian Ocean nations, signing friendship pacts, building ports in Pakistan and Bangladesh as well as Sri Lanka, and reportedly setting up a listening post on one of Myanmar's islands near the strategic Strait of Malacca.

Now, India is trying to parry China's moves. It beat out China for a port project in Myanmar.

And, flush with cash from its expanding economy, India is beefing up its military, with the expansion seemingly aimed at China. Washington and, to a lesser extent, Tokyo are encouraging India's role as a counterweight to growing Chinese power.

Among China's latest moves is the billion dollar port its engineers are building in Sri Lanka, an island country just off India's southern coast.

The Chinese insist the Hambantota port is a purely commercial move, and by all appearances, it is. But some in India see ominous designs behind the project, while others in countries surrounding India like the idea.

A 2004 Pentagon report called Beijing's effort to expand its presence in the region China's "string of pearls."

No one wants war, and relations between the two nations are now at their closest since a brief 1962 border war in which China quickly routed Indian forces. Last year, trade between India and China grew to $37 billion and their two armies conducted their first-ever joint military exercise.

Still, the Indians worry about China's growing influence.

"Each pearl in the string is a link in a chain of the Chinese maritime presence," India's navy chief, Adm. Sureesh Mehta, said in a speech in January, expressing concern that naval forces operating out of ports established by the Chinese could "take control over the world energy jugular."

"It is a pincer movement," said Rahul Bedi, a South Asia analyst with London-based Jane's Defense Weekly. "That, together with the slap India got in 1962, keeps them awake at night."

B. Raman, a hawkish, retired Indian intelligence official, expressed the fears of some Indians over the Chinese-built ports, saying he believes they'll be used as naval bases to control the area.

"We cannot take them at face value. We cannot assume their intentions are benign," said Raman.

But Zhao Gancheng, a South Asia expert at the Chinese government-backed Shanghai Institute for International Studies, says ports like Hambantota are strictly commercial ventures. And Sri Lanka says the new port will be a windfall for its impoverished southern region.

With Sri Lanka's proximity to the shipping lane already making it a hub for transshipping containers between Europe and Asia, the new port will boost the country's annual cargo handling capacity from 6 million containers to some 23 million, said Priyath Wickrama, deputy director of the Sri Lankan Ports Authority.

Wickrama said a new facility was needed since the main port in the capital Colombo has no room to expand and Trincomalee port in the Northeast is caught in the middle of Sri Lanka's civil war. Hambantota also will have factories onsite producing cement and fertilizer for export, he said.

Meanwhile, India is clearly gearing its military expansion toward China rather than its longtime foe, and India has set up listening stations in Mozambique and Madagascar, in part to monitor Chinese movements, Bedi noted. It also has an air base in Kazakhstan and a space monitoring post in Mongolia - both China's neighbors.

India has announced plans to have a fleet of aircraft carriers and nuclear submarines at sea in the next decade and recently tested nuclear-capable missiles that put China's major cities well in range. It is also reopening air force bases near the Chinese border.

Encouraging India's role as a counter to China, the U.S. has stepped up exercises with the Indian navy and last year sold it an American warship for the first time, the 17,000-ton amphibious transport dock USS Trenton. American defense contractors - shut out from the lucrative Indian market during the long Cold War - have been offering India's military everything from advanced fighter jets to anti-ship missiles.

"It is in our interest to develop this relationship," U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates said during a visit to New Delhi in February. "Just as it is in the Indians' interest."

Officially, China says it's not worried about India's military buildup or its closer ties with the U.S. However, foreign analysts believe China is deeply concerned by the possibility of a U.S.-Indian military alliance.

Ian Storey of the Institute of Southeast Asian Studies in Singapore said China sent strong diplomatic messages expressing opposition to a massive naval exercise India held last year with the U.S., Japan, Singapore and Australia. And Bedi, the Jane's analyst, added "those exercises rattled the Chinese."

India's 2007 defense budget was about $21.7 billion, up 7.8 percent from 2006. China said its 2008 military budget would jump 17.6 percent to some $59 billion, following a similar increase last year. The U.S. estimates China's actual defense spending may be much higher.

Like India, China is focusing heavily on its navy, building an increasingly sophisticated submarine fleet that could eventually be one of the world's largest.

While analysts believe China's military buildup is mostly focused on preventing U.S. intervention in any conflict with Taiwan, India is still likely to persist in efforts to catch up as China expands its influence in what is essentially India's backyard. Meanwhile, Sri Lankans - who have looked warily for centuries at vast India to the north - welcome the Chinese investment in their country.

"Our lives are going to change," said 62-year-old Jayasena Senanayake, who has seen business grow at his roadside food stall since construction began on the nearby port. "What China is doing for us is very good."

Sri Lankans live on the edge as rebels turn war on civilians

AFP, Colombo

Each time Indika Jayawickrema uses public transport, his wife Chamindri anxiously waits for a telephone call to let her know he has safely reached his destination.

His journey is one that has become more risky recently as a wave of bomb attacks targeting civilians sweeps through Sri Lanka, which is in the midst of 36-year-old civil war.

"With a 10,000 rupee (93 dollar) monthly pay, an infant and a wife to maintain, I can only afford the bus," he shrugs outside a bus stop in Colombo, a day after twin bus bombs on Friday killed 23 people.

Sri Lanka's defence ministry blames Tamil Tiger rebels for a string of attacks against civilian targets that have killed more than 170 and injured over 500 since January.

Attacks against civilians are of little strategic military or political importance, but they heighten public insecurity, said Ajai Sahni, head of the New Delhi-based Institute for Conflict Management.

"If you look at the pattern, they (the attackers) are hitting the softest of soft targets, the poorest of the poor, the most unguarded population. The sheer volumes doesn't allow meticulous checking to prevent future attacks," he told AFP.

However, the Colombo-based government is not easing up and instead has poured a record 1.5 billion dollars into this year's war effort, hoping for a quick end to a conflict that has left tens of thousands dead.

Endless bloodshed is also taking a toll on the island nation's finances, where inflation in May hit a high of 26.6 percent, fuel prices were recently raised by 30 percent and bus fares by 27.7 percent.

"We have to first look after our safety, in spite of economic hardships," said Sudeepa Jayakody, who drives a private minibus carrying office workers to Colombo.

Jayakody, who narrowly escaped Friday morning's bus bomb, wants to buy a motorbike to escape the dangers of public transport.

"I tell everybody, Tamils, Muslims and Sinhalese, if you can afford it, hire private transport, buy a bike, rather than risk your life on a train or bus," Jayakody said.

But many, like financial analyst Anchana Kathirgamathamby and stockbroker Mohandas Thangarajah, say they have no choice but to use the bus.

"I can't afford to take cabs," Kathirgamathamby told AFP, calling the security situation "scary."

"Each time I step into a bus or stand at a bus stop, I try to be aware of people around me, the surroundings, people carrying bags and try to keep my distance from them," she said.

Thangarajah, a minority ethnic Tamil, says the rebels are "knowingly or unknowingly waging an economic war" on hapless civilians. "Terrorism is hitting people who are barely making ends meet. People are living on the edge."

Pak ruling party vows to cut Musharraf's power

Reuters, Islamabad

Pakistan's ruling party has said it is determined to curtail the powers of the presidency in favor of parliament, whether President Pervez Musharraf likes it or not. Staunch U.S. ally Musharraf, facing a chorus of calls to resign, told journalists on Saturday, in his first meeting with the media for weeks, that he had no plan to quit.

At the same time, Musharraf sounded a generally conciliatory tone saying parliament, dominated by opponents since his allies were defeated in a February election, was supreme.

Musharraf's fate has consumed the attention of the new coalition since the polls, despite an economy that is deteriorating rapidly and a potent threat from al Qaeda and the Taliban.

Pakistan's stock market and currency have both come under pressure because of a combination of factors, including the uncertainty over Musharraf and worry about more turmoil in the nuclear-armed country.

In the meeting with journalists on Saturday, Musharraf said he would accept proposed constitutional amendments the ruling Pakistan People's Party (PPP) of assassinated former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto aimed to push through parliament.

But in what media interpreted as a warning he would not tolerate a cut in his powers, a confident-sounding Musharraf indicated he would not like to be reduced to a ceremonial head of state, saying he could not become a "useless vegetable."

The People's Party brushed aside any objections, saying parliament was sovereign and could make or amend laws and the constitution regardless of whether Musharraf liked it or not.

"Such hollow warnings would not deter the democratic forces from restoring the powers of the parliament," PPP spokesman Farhatullah Babar said in a statement. "THROWING A GAUNTLET"

Bhutto's widower Asif Ali Zardari, who leads her party, has called Musharraf a "relic of the past" and says the PPP does not recognize him as a constitutional president.

Nawaz Sharif, the prime minister former army chief Musharraf overthrew in a 1999 coup and who leads the second largest party in parliament, wants Musharraf impeached or tried for treason.

Sharif's brother, Shahbaz, was on Sunday elected chief minister of Punjab, the country's richest and politically most important province, bolstering the power of their party that won the most seat in the province's assembly in February.

Another looming challenge to Musharraf is a lawyers' movement that sprang up last year to fight his attempts to dictate to the judiciary. It is seeking to hasten his departure with a countrywide protest campaign this week.

Asked how would he react if the government tried to impeach him, Musharraf said: "I will abide by whatever parliament decides. Let the parliament decide in a constitutional way."

Musharraf is believed to be seeking immunity for suspending the constitution and imposing emergency rule for six weeks in November. The PPP leadership, wary of a destabilizing confrontation, is trying to make his exit "dignified," according to an adviser to Zardari.

Despite Musharraf's public stance, political insiders say he recognizes that he will have to quit rather than be the cause of more upheaval, and it has become a matter of timing.

But the Dawn newspaper said on Sunday Musharraf appeared confident, perhaps because he had been assured he did not have to worry about impeachment: "He does not seem under pressure to go away in a hurry."

The News newspaper said Musharraf had thrown down a gauntlet to his opponents: "By stalling his departure and by forcing the political system to unnecessarily spend its energies on now trying and impeaching him, he is directly prolonging the uncertainty."

China 'quake lake' still dangerous despite drainage

AFP, Dujiangyan

China claimed initial success on Sunday in draining a swollen "quake lake" in the country's southwest, but water levels kept rising and senior officials warned the situation remained dangerous.

Soldiers had already dug one drainage channel to contain Tangjiashan lake, and were working Sunday to clear a second one in hopes of reducing the risk that it might burst through its banks, state-run Xinhua news agency reported.

"Generally speaking, construction of the lake's drainage projects is proceeding well, but the lake remains dangerous for hundreds of thousands of people downstream," said General Ge Zhenfeng, Deputy Chief of the General Staff of the People's Liberation Army (PLA).

"It will take us a few days to eliminate the potential danger of the lake," Xinhua quoted the general, who is supervising the relief work at the site, as saying.

The lake has become one of the most pressing issues in the aftermath of the May 12 quake that struck mountainous Sichuan province, killing 69,136 and leaving 17,686 others missing, according to the latest toll issued Sunday.

Millions more have been left homeless by the 8.0-magnitude quake, which triggered massive landslides that blocked rivers and created more than 30 unstable "quake lakes," including the Tangjiashan one on the Jianjiang river.

Troops on Saturday began draining water from the Tangjiashan lake through a hastily dug channel to stop it from breaking through its banks and emptying 220 million cubic metres (7.8 billion cubic feet) of water downstream.

Between 400 and 500 millimetres (16 and 20 inches) of rainfall, well above the normal level, was forecast upstream in June and July, Xinhua reported, citing Water Resources Minister Chen Lei.

"This poses a challenge for the already swollen laket Aftershocks, landslides and leakage are also threatening the lake's barrier," Chen said during a visit to Sichuan, according to Xinhua.

Landslides could take place on mountains not far from the lake, causing another 17 million cubic metres of rocks and earth to crash into the water, Xinhua said.

Myanmar denies evictions from cyclone relief camps

Reuters, Yangon

Myanmar's military government denied on Sunday it was evicting victims of Cyclone Nargis from relief camps, saying it was working on a voluntary resettlement program more than a month after the disaster.

The New Light of Myanmar, the voice of the ruling generals, quoted Prime Minister Thein Sein as saying survivors of the May 2 storm would be given aid to return home or settle in new areas.

"If victims want to live in areas where relief camps are being opened, arrangements will be made to resettle them there," Thein Sein said during a tour of a relief camp on Saturday in the hardest-hit Irrawaddy delta.

"In addition, the government will provide for their basic needs to a certain degree for some time," he said, adding survivors would receive food rations and farming equipment.

More than a month after the storm, which left 134,000 people dead or missing and another 2.4 million destitute, many survivors have not yet been reached and Western nations and foreign aid groups say the relief effort is being hampered by the country's military rulers.

In its first assessment of the junta's response to the disaster, Amnesty International said last week the government was stepping up its eviction of victims from emergency shelters, but said it was unclear whether this was official policy.

"The government's actions place tens of thousands of already vulnerable survivors at increased risk of death, disease or starvation," the London-based rights group said.

Six killed in Tokyo stabbing frenzy

AFP, Tokyo

A man went on a stabbing spree Sunday in a Tokyo neighbourhood famed for comic-book subculture, killing at least six people and leaving more than a dozen others injured, officials and reports said.

The assailant, who later told police he was "tired of living," swerved a truck into a crowd of pedestrians shortly after noon in Tokyo's bustling Akihabara area before jumping out screaming and stabbing strangers.

The assailant was identified as Tomohiro Kato, 25. He first said he was a gangster before retracting his story.

"I came to Akihabara to kill people. It didn't matter whom I'd kill," he was quoted by Jiji Press as telling police.

By the time Kato dropped his knife at the gunpoint of a police officer, 17 people lay bloodied on the street of the crowded district, according to fire department and police officials.

Jiji Press and other Japanese media said that six people were dead-five men aged 19, 20, 29, 47 and 74 and a 21-year-old woman-marking a rare deadly crime in a city famed for safety.

Ambulances with sirens blaring raced to the scene, where the assailant's white Isuzu truck was abandoned with a shattered windshield on streets that were closed to traffic on a balmy Sunday afternoon.

Hundreds of stunned pedestrians stared from a distance as medical workers set up green plastic sheets in the middle of an intersection to give privacy as they gave emergency treatment.

The daylight attack fell on the anniversary of one of modern Japan's most ghastly crimes-a stabbing frenzy that left eight children dead at an elementary school in 2001.

Wataru Amano, a 26-year-old truck driver who often visits Akihabara, voiced shock as he surveyed the scene.

"I was shocked to hear the news as I've visited this place quite often," Amano said. "I could have been a target if I had been here a few hours ago."

"I'm afraid this will give a negative image on Akihabara, where people are coming from around the world," he said.

Akihabara is best known for major electronics stores and in recent years has mushroomed into a haven for Japanese subculture, pulling in tourists from home and abroad interested in comic books and video games.

Akihabara's attractions include everything from a museum of Japanese animation to cafes where waitresses dress as maids and video-game characters, while it is also a major commuter hub.

"When I passed by, I saw a man collapsed on the street. He was stabbed in the chest and bleeding badly," a young woman said. "He was unconscious."

It is seven years to the day since a mentally disturbed man went on a rampage with a butcher's knife at the Ikeda elementary school in the western city of Osaka.

Mamoru Takuma, who had an apparent grudge against children of the elites, stabbed to death eight children.

At Takuma's sentencing, the judge called the killings "one of the most heinous cases in Japan's criminal history." Takuma was executed in 2004 at the age of 40.

The elementary school attack stunned Japan, which prides itself on its safety and moved to step up security at schools.

China and Taiwan set for landmark talks on flights

Reuters, Taipei

Negotiators from China and Taiwan, the self-ruled island Beijing regards as its own territory, meet this week for the first time in nine years, but backsliding on the direct flights deal they are set to agree may cool the mood of detente.

Taiwan's top China negotiator, P.K. Chiang, will lead a team to Beijing from June 11-14 to negotiate with his counterpart, Chen Yunlin, following recent warm but informal meetings between Chinese President Hu Jintao and Taiwan leaders.

China and Taiwan last spoke formally in 1999, before former Taiwan President Lee Teng-hui enraged Beijing by describing ties as "a special state-to-state relationship."

China has claimed sovereignty over Taiwan since 1949, when Mao Zedong's Communists won the Chinese civil war and Chiang Kai-shek's Nationalists (KMT) fled to the island. Beijing has vowed to bring Taiwan under its rule, by force if necessary.

But China, which is keen to avoid diplomatic rows in the run-up to the Beijing Olympics in August, is expected to take a conciliatory line this week.

"It's taken them so many years to meet, so I think talks between the two sides won't fail," said Chao Chien-min, a political science professor at National Cheng Chi University in Taiwan. "China doesn't want to see them fail.

Taiwan's independence-leaning main opposition party has appointed a team to monitor the talks, local media said.

For Taiwan President Ma Ying-jeou, who took office on May 20, the signing of a tourism and transit deal following talks this week will crack open his long list of campaign pledges to breathe life into the island's economy.

"There's no cause for any lack of optimism," said Corinna Wei, spokeswoman for the Taiwan government's China policymaker. "For the proposals we've made, there's consensus on both sides."

But the long-awaited deal to establish direct weekend charter flights and let Chinese tourists visit the island for the first time en masse-the only allowable discussion topic this week-may fall short of Ma's pledges trumpeted in the Taiwan media.

Taiwan's hospitality industry is retooling for Chinese tourists, from hiring extra tour guides to holding forums on how to handle Chinese people's expectations.

China wants to limit tourists to well-educated and high-income people to ensure their "quality," however, initially keeping the number below the 3,000 per day that Ma has pledged, said Chang Jung-kung, the ruling KMT's China affairs director.

The number of Taiwan airports involved in direct flights, which are designed to reduce time-consuming Hong Kong and Macau layovers, will drop from the eight reported earlier to four at first, because the others are not ready, Chang said.

There are currently no direct flights between the two rivals, except on major holidays.

Weekend direct flights, expected by July 4, would still fly through Hong Kong or Macau air space for security reasons, adding travel time, Chang said. Foreigners will not be allowed to board the planes.

A deal for direct cargo flights did not make the agenda, disappointing Taiwan, in part because China would gain relatively little from the of agreement, Chang said.

Iraq will not be used 'to harm’ Iran: Maliki

AFP, Tehran

Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki on Sunday assured Iran that Iraq would not allow its territory to be used as a platform to "harm" the Islamic republic, the official IRNA news agency reported.

"We will not allow Iraq to become a platform for harming the security of Iran and neighbours," Maliki said early Sunday after a late-night meeting with Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki in Tehran.

Maliki's comments come amid Iranian alarm over US pressure on Baghdad to sign an agreement that would keep US soldiers in the country beyond 2008. Iran has always called for the immediate withdrawal of US troops from Iraq.

US President George W. Bush and Maliki agreed in principle last November to sign the Status of Forces Agreement (SOFA) by the end of July. But Iraq has now said it has a "different vision" from the United States on the issue.

Iran's concern about the deal comes amid renewed tensions over its nuclear programme, which the United States fears is aimed at making atomic weapons, a charge vehemently rejected by Tehran.

The United States has never ruled out a military attack to punish Tehran's defiance while Israel has also been warning there may be no alternative to a strike against Iran.

Maliki said, according to IRNA: "Iraq's stability and security can have a great impact on the region."

"We see the implementation of peace and security in Iraq and Iran as what both countries want."

The Shiite premier-on his third visit to Tehran since taking office two years ago-is on Sunday due to hold talks with other top officials including President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

Turkish speaker wants new constitution after ruling

AP, Ankara

Turkey's parliamentary speaker on Saturday proposed a new constitution and re-establishment of an upper house of parliament, apparently with the aim of reducing the power of the country's top court.

The Constitutional Court infuriated the Islamic-oriented government on Thursday by rejecting legislation that would have lifted a ban on Muslim headscarves in universities. It said the move would violate Turkey's secular principles. Speaker Koksal Toptan, speaking in a hall at the parliament, said re-installing the upper house, or Senate, would remove what he called "the pressure on the court." The Senate was abolished two years after Turkey's 1980 military coup on the grounds that it slowed legislation.

Toptan accused the Constitutional Court of "overstepping its power and seizing the power of the parliament." The government leveled similar accusations against the court on Friday night.

"If powers encroach into each other's territory, that could most affect democracy," Toptan said.

Toptan's proposals immediately drew the ire of the main secular opposition party.

Onur Oymen, a prominent member of the Republican People's Party, said Toptan's suggestions "amount to threats to the Constitutional Court to cripple its powers after a ruling that annoyed the government."

Party head Deniz Baykal said the political environment was not suitable to debate a new constitution.

The court canceled legislation aimed at allowing women to wear head scarves on campus. The measure had been approved by 411 lawmakers in the 550-seat Parliament.

The court, if asked, will review any legislation. Its decision is final.

The ruling did not bode well for Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan's party, which faces closure in a separate case on charges of becoming "the focal point of anti-secular activities."

The government campaigned for re-election last year on a promise to lift the headscarf ban on grounds of religious and personal freedom.

Human Rights Watch on Saturday said the court's verdict "is a blow to freedom of religion and other fundamental rights."

The European Union, which Turkey is trying to join, said the ban was a domestic Turkish issue.