The Moscow Times East vs. West in Central Asia
23 July 2008 Updated at 23 July 2008 0:13 Moscow Time.
By Adrian Pabst
In a little-noticed news story last week, U.S. lawmakers strongly condemned what they called China's brutal pre-Olympic crackdown in the far northwest Xinjiang region, which is populated by the Uyghurs, a mostly Muslim Turkic ethnic group...
...It is still unclear whether Monday's two bomb blasts in the southwestern Chinese city of Kunming, in which two people were killed, were in any way related to Islamic terrorism or separatist movements, but the attacks will undoubtedly fuel fear and suspicion with the Olympics just three weeks away...
...China, Russia and their Central Asian partners accuse the West of double standards and illegitimate interference. They say they are simply defending their territorial integrity against secessionist threats. They suspect the United States and others of orchestrating the Muslim minorities and supporting secessionism to strengthen the Western presence in Central Asia.
Both are right about each other, but wrong about Asian Islam. In fact, both the East and West pursue questionable goals and policies. Under the cloak of the "global war on terror," both sides intervene against Islamic extremists in order to advance their rival interests. In a region rich in minerals, oil and gas, the United States established military bases in Manas, just north of the Kyrgyz capital Bishkek and in Karshi-Khanabad, in southern Uzbekistan, not far from the Tajik border. These are both key locations in the fight against the Taliban and al-Qaida-related networks in nearby Afghanistan. China has undoubtedly exaggerated the terrorist threat in order to suppress political opposition and extend its sphere of influence in Central Asia...
Completely unrelated to the above article on how the muslims are stuck in the middle of an East West tug rope thingy, but of interest to me, because I love water--
posted July 22, 2008 4:13 pm
Tomgram: Elizabeth de la Vega, Those Hard Rains Are Gonna Fall
...In the end, when it came to an assessment of the current state of our national water policy,...
...hodge-podge.
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