In Asia bitter enemies gear up for peace

In Asia bitter enemies gear up for peace

Tim Sullivan, Associated Press, New Delhi

Asia heads into 2004 with two of its bitterest enemies dancing
delicately around a novel concept: peace. But while India and
Pakistan reach out tentatively to one another, issues ranging
from terrorism to SARS to sluggish economies remain driving
concerns across much of the continent.

Countries that have faced recent terrorist attacks will be on
the watch for further violence in the new year. In Indonesia,
authorities blame Jamaah Islamiyah, a group linked to al-Qaeda
that seeks to create a pan-Islamic state in Southeast Asia, for
the August bombing of the J.W. Marriott Hotel that killed 12
people. A suicide bomber in Karachi, Pakistan, killed 14
Pakistanis near the U.S. consulate in June.

In Afghanistan, where elections are scheduled for June, the
deposed Taliban militia has shown signs of resurgence. And the
search for terror mastermind Osama bin Laden continues along the
remote, mountainous border with Pakistan.

Tensions over North Korea's nuclear program remain high after
the isolated, autocratic state pulled out of the global nuclear
arms accord and said it was preparing to build a "nuclear
deterrent force," widely interpreted to mean its own atomic
arsenal. Six-nation talks on the issue ended with little
progress, and the countries involved have been scrambling to
arrange another round -- which now appears as if it won't happen
until at least mid-January.

China begins its first full year under President Hu Jintao,
who heads a new generation of leaders dealing with continuing
economic restructuring, trade tensions with the United States and
a rising regional profile. Looming large this winter are fears of
SARS, the virus that spread from southern China around the world
until it faded with summer.

October brought one of China's greatest modern triumphs -- its
entry into the exclusive group of spacefaring nations with the
successful launch and safe return of Shenzhou 5 and its
"taikonaut," Yang Liwei. China turned immediately to its next
plan -- a space station.

In Taiwan, President Chen Shui-bian is under enormous pressure
from China and the United States to cancel a March 20 referendum
asking voters to demand that China remove hundreds of missiles
pointing at the island. China sees it as a possible first step to
independence for Taiwan, against the mainland's wishes for
unification.

There's a new leader in Malaysia, where Mahathir Mohamad set
off a storm of Western criticism in the final days of his 22
years in power with his statement that "Jews rule the world by
proxy." Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, a former deputy of
Mahathir's, has pledged to keep a tough stance against the
insurgents that plague his country.

In South Asia, two years after an attack by Islamic militants
on the Indian parliament nearly set off another war between India
and Pakistan, the countries have begun talking. Their steps,
while limited so far, have been significant for the nuclear-armed
rivals: reopening land borders, the expected resumption of train
and air links, and a scaling back of forces along the frontier.

Sri Lanka's efforts to forge a lasting peace with the Tamil
Tiger rebels stalled, however, largely due to a standoff between
President Chandrika Kumaratunga and Prime Minister Ranil
Wickremesinghe. The war has killed more than 65,000 people since
1983.

The Himalayan kingdom of Nepal faces another year of battling
a Maoist-inspired rebel movement that has intensified its attacks
on both civilian and government targets since peace talks
collapsed in August. More than 8,200 people have been killed in
the conflict.

India will hold parliamentary elections in 2004. Indonesia
will have its first direct presidential election in April -- a
milestone in its tumultuous transition to democracy. In the
Philippines, presidential elections will see Gloria Macapagal
Arroyo, who was sworn in when Joseph Estrada was forced from
power in 2001, seeking her own six-year term. There are at least
three other announced candidates so far, including an action film
star who is a close friend of Estrada's.

In Singapore, the son of founding father Lee Kuan Yew is
expected to play an increasingly important political role.
Singapore, which in 2003 battled SARS, a slow economy, its worst
unemployment in 17 years and continuing terror fears, announced
in 2003 that Lee Hsien Loong would take over as prime minister by
2005.

While Asian countries did not play leading roles in the war to
overthrow Saddam Hussein, the deployment of troops to Iraq since
then has become a major issue in places like South Korea and
Japan. In early December, Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro
Koizumi's Cabinet approved sending about 1,000 soldiers to help
in Iraq's reconstruction -- the largest overseas deployment of
Japanese troops since World War II.