Asian leaders concerned about Afghans

Asian leaders concerned about Afghans

Simon Cameron-Moore, Reuters, Bandar Seri Begawan

Asian leaders at a summit in Brunei voiced concern on Monday over the fate of Afghan civilians caught in the midst of a U.S.-led bombing campaign.

The 10 members of the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) met their North Asian neighbors China, Japan and Korea in a summit primarily focused on economic issues, but unable to escape the shadow of the Afghan conflict.

Their misgivings over Washington's military strategy surfaced in a statement, read by host and chairman Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah of Brunei, at the end of the ASEAN+3 summit.

"In reiterating their condemnation of the terrorist attacks, leaders expressed their concern for the welfare of innocent people as a result of the military action on Afghanistan and considered extending humanitarian assistance," the statement said.

It was the one reference to the conflict in a summation of the first day's talks which focused on the economic challenges posed by the global downturn, the fight against AIDS, and dreams of creating a vast East Asian free trade area.

Leaders of Muslim nations like Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad and Indonesia's President Megawati Soekarnoputri have called for air strikes against Afghanistan to stop.

Mahathir, at a news conference alluded to the split in ASEAN over the issue, and summit sources said Singapore and the Philippines had refused to go along with any joint call on Washington to rethink its strategy.

"We differed on this and we prefer not to insist," Mahathir said. "Whereas Malaysia and Indonesia had felt that it should stop, others did not express strong views on that."

Mahathir said the bombing would not root out terrorism, but cause civilian casualties and make Muslims angry.

More than half of ASEAN's 500 million people are Muslim and daily reports of casualties in the run-up to the holy month of Ramadhan are intensifying criticism of Washington's tactics. Indonesia, Malaysia and Brunei have Muslim majorities, while five other ASEAN members have significant minorities.

On the eve of the summit the 10 ASEAN leaders agreed on an anti-terrorism declaration condemning the Sept. 11 attacks and pledging to work to counter cross-border militancy in the region, but omitting any mention of Afghanistan.

Japan's Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi explained to the summit Tokyo's decision to send troops overseas to provide non- combat, rearguard support for the U.S.-led campaign.

They concentrated on economic issues, along with a joint declaration to combat HIV/AIDS, which has infected around 1.6 million people in the region.

At the ASEAN+3 summit in the afternoon the leaders discussed the report by its East Asia Vision Group, which proposed establishing an East Asia Free Trade Area and speeding up trade liberalisation, the statement said.

The final report would be submitted at next year's summit in Cambodia.

On Tuesday the ASEAN leaders will meet the leaders of China, Japan and Korea separately.

Talks with Chinese Premier Zhu Rongji on Tuesday will focus on how first to link China's growing economy with Southeast Asia, and create a trade block of nearly two billion people, but it may be a decade or more before that vision is realised.

Zhu floated the idea last year at ASEAN's summit in Singapore. Of more immediate concern for ASEAN is how to cope with an economic slowdown lengthened and deepened by the world reaction to the Sept. 11 attacks.

The region's exporters have been hard hit by a slump in demand from the United States and Japan, and foreign direct investment has dwindled.

The most developed member Singapore is in recession and the second-most developed Malaysia is in danger of following suit. ASEAN's best answer, aside from increased government spending and keeping borrowing conditions easy, is to keep liberalising and integrate its economies into a competitive force.

The ASEAN Free Trade Area (AFTA) opens in 2002, and members hope to list more goods in a zero to five percent tariff band, and make cross-border transportation of goods easier.

The statement said ASEAN members would also speed up negotiations to liberalise trade in service industries and start negotiations for mutual recognition for professionals like lawyers and architects.

"The idea is to consolidate ASEAN'S competitiveness and one way to do this is to integrate ASEAN economies into a single production base to make production more efficient," ASEAN's official spokesman M.C. Abad told Reuters.