Powell gets support, defends U.S. image in Asia

Powell gets support, defends U.S. image in Asia

Elaine Monaghan , Reuters, Washington

U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell shored up support for what
will clearly be a messy, complex and long war on terror during an
eight-stop tour from India and Pakistan to the Philippines that
ended on Saturday.

He soothed suspicions of U.S. intentions post-Sept. 11 in six
Southeast Asian nations including Indonesia, the world's most
populous Muslim country and seen as the weakest link in fighting
Islamic militancy in the region.

Powell's second tour built around an annual Asia-Pacific forum
showed how ambivalent attitudes can be towards the United States
-- and how tough a task it has improving a reputation for
treating poorer states like pawns.

Fears of terrorism dominated the Association of Southeast
Asian Nations (ASEAN) meeting in Brunei. Powell signed a
declaration with ASEAN vowing to share intelligence, block
terrorist funds, tighten borders and crack down on forged travel
documents.

In Indonesia, Powell started on a path of renewed military
ties that were broken off because of the army's human rights
record. He announced about US$50 million in counterterrorism aid,
most of which will help build a modern police force but some of
which will train the army, if Congress approves.

At most stops, Powell found himself having to deny Washington
was planning to extend its military presence in the region.

Even though the only military exercise in the region linked
directly to the post-Sept. 11 campaign involved 1,000 troops sent
temporarily to train the Philippine army, protesters suspicious
that Washington had bigger plans for domination clashed with
police while Powell was in Manila.

But pro-American protesters also welcomed him, asking the
United States to take the Philippines back as a protectorate.

Powell's trip showed the war on terrorism is not always as
clearly defined in black and white as President George W. Bush's
rhetoric sometimes suggests it is.

Powell had to contend with allies seeking to draw parallels
between Sept. 11 and threats to their own interests in ways that
clash with Washington's point of view.

Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov met Powell in Brunei and
made a case for an international effort to crush Chechen and
other Muslim rebels on Georgian soil.

Powell urged India and Pakistan to begin talks on Kashmir,
India's only mainly Muslim state, center of a potential nuclear
flashpoint and scene of attacks by Pakistan-based militants seen
as "terrorists" by New Delhi but not under attack by the United
States like the al-Qaeda network in Afghanistan.

The picture of Islamic militancy fluctuates widely in
Southeast Asia, a fact obscured by Bush's depiction of the world
as "with us or against us," John Gershman, senior analyst at the
Interhemispheric Resource Center, wrote recently in the U.S.
Foreign Affairs magazine.

"Such a simplistic paradigm ignores the fact that many Islamic
organizations genuinely oppose al-Qaeda (and similar extremist
groups) yet also disapprove of the U.S. military campaign in
Afghanistan and other Bush administration policies, especially
its Middle East strategy," Gershman wrote.

Thoughts of the Middle East were never far away during
Powell's tour, and he said he got support for U.S. peacemaking in
the region during his tour of India, Pakistan, Thailand,
Malaysia, Singapore, Brunei, Indonesia and the Philippines.

But he had to reassure frequent critic Prime Minister Mahathir
Mohamad of Malaysia, also a mainly Muslim nation, that Washington
backs a Palestinian state as the way to make peace.

The U.S. labeling of North Korea as a state sponsor of
terrorism is seen as highly controversial by critics because
Pyongyang has not been linked to an attack in years.