Free Republic

BEIJING, 04/14 - China will further military exchanges with Belarus, said Vice-Chairman of the Central Military Commission Xu Caihou on Friday. The friendly exchanges and cooperation between China and Belarus have been fruitful in the political, economic, scientific and cultural fields, Xu said when meeting with a Belarusian delegation headed by Gurulev Sergey, chief of general staff of the Belarusian armed forces. The two sides also support and closely cooperate with each other in international affairs, Xu said, stressing that keeping the long-term stable and friendly cooperative relations is in the fundamental interests of the two peoples and conducive to...

From Myanmar to Russia with love By Sergei Blagov MOSCOW - Russia has never let human-rights abuses get in the way of a good bilateral relationship. During the Cold War, the Soviet Union overtly supplied arms and concessionary loans to anti-Western allies such as Iraq, Syria, Vietnam and North Korea. Although the Soviet collapse in 1991 undermined those ties, President Vladimir Putin's accession to power in 2000 has seen Russia move to re-establish itself as a military ally to small countries that are willing to stand up against the United States. So when Myanmar's General Maung Aye recently visited Moscow,...

Russia has agreed to supply a wide range of arms including air defence systems and MiG-29 fighters to Myanmar in exchange of access to the rich oil and gas resources of the country, local reports said. General Maung Aye, the number two in the ruling military junta of Myanmar, is currently on a three-day visit to Russia, first by a top Myanmar official in 40 years, held wide ranging negotiations with Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Fradkov and other senior officials on Monday. "We are interested in deepening Russia's role in the Asia-Pacific region and Russian-Burmese ties in this context have...

MINSK, Belarus -- More than 10,000 Belarusians took to the streets of Minsk to mark the national Day of Liberty this past Saturday. The celebration, including a concert by a national orchestra and a peace protest against unfair elections and mass arrests, was planned to be held in the central Oktyabrskaya Square. But it was not to be. Thousands of troopers in militia and special forces uniforms surrounded the square and the streets around it. The dictatorship used truncheons, riot gear and gas grenades on peaceful marchers carrying flowers. A massive campaign of intimidation started two weeks ago in Belarus,...

Burma’s second most powerful general, Vice Snr-Gen Maung Aye, plans to visit Russia on Sunday, according to official press reports. State-owned newspaper, The New Light of Myanmar, reported on Friday that Maung Aye will pay an official visit at the invitation of Mikhail Fradkov, prime minister of the Russian Federation. Further details of the trip were not announced. Gen Maung Aye, commander in chief of the army, is the highest-ranking Burmese official to visit Russia since the late dictator Gen Ne Win visited Moscow in 1965. Maung Aye will lead a major delegation comprising high-ranking officials, including the ministers of...

Ask any normal teen-ager about his or her spending money as a minor and most likely they will let you know that their parents in some ways control their wallets. So, too, does the Congress of the United States jealously control its parvenu: U.S. federal finances, first by authorization and then by legislated appropriations. Often called, `the Power of the Purse,’ it is more a reminder of the wisdom in an old rhythm and blues song, `First, I look at the Purse.’ Any effort to understand U.S.-Latin foreign policy needs-must first look at the purse and that means: the primacy...

U.S. military and intelligence officials tell ABC News that they have caught shipments of deadly new bombs at the Iran-Iraq border. They are a very nasty piece of business, capable of penetrating U.S. troops' strongest armor. What the United States says links them to Iran are tell-tale manufacturing signatures — certain types of machine-shop welds and material indicating they are built by the same bomb factory. "The signature is the same because they are exactly the same in production," says explosives expert Kevin Barry. "So it's the same make and model." U.S. officials say roadside bomb attacks against American forces...

Iran forces 'infiltrating Iraq' Policing the border between Iraq and Iran has proved difficult Iranian revolutionary forces have been infiltrating Iraq, US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld has said."They [Iran] are currently putting people into Iraq to do things that are harmful to the future of Iraq," Mr Rumsfeld told a news conference. "We know it, and it is something that they... will look back on as having been an error in judgement," he added. His comments come amid an upsurge in sectarian violence in Iraq, touched off by the bombing of a sacred Shia shrine. Weapons claim Asked whether...

WASHINGTON - Playing down predictions that Iraq is headed toward civil war, President Bush said Saturday that he's optimistic a new government will unify the nation. He denounced any moves by Iran or Syria to interfere in Iraq's effort to build a democracy. "I'm optimistic that the leadership recognizes that sectarian violence will undermine the capacity for them to self-govern," Bush said. "I believe we'll have a unity government in place that will help move the process forward." The president's hopeful words came a day after Iraqi President Jalal Talabani called the new parliament into session March 19 for the...

On March 19, Belarus, the last dictatorship in Europe, will hold presidential elections. These elections occur in an atmosphere of political repression, and in all likelihood, President Aleksander Lukashenko will win an easy victory, thanks to thuggish tactics, a crooked electoral system, and a large slush fund courtesy of Russia. With Belarus’s terrible human rights record and its intimate relations with other rogue regimes, including Iran, Syria, and Saddam Hussein’s Iraq, the West cannot be complacent. The United States and the European Union should take steps to strengthen the Belarusian opposition and prod the Lukashenko regime to change course. The...

Rice: Iran 'terror's central bank' SYDNEY, Australia (AP) -- U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice on Thursday urged Iran to resume negotiations over its nuclear program, while also calling the country a central banker for terrorism. Rice was speaking after meeting her Australian counterpart Alexander Downer for talks that covered topics including Iraq, Iran's nuclear ambitions, Indonesia's development and the recent nuclear deal between Washington and India. Rice called Iran a "troublesome state" and the "central banker of terrorism," though she didn't elaborate on that, and said it was time for the country to "heed the international community's call" to...

WHEN Aleksandr Lukashenko, the authoritarian ruler of the former Soviet republic of Belarus, met Vladimir Putin at the Kremlin leader’s Black Sea residence shortly before Christmas, there was no disguising the Russian president’s influence over his erratic neighbour. While Putin appeared relaxed as they made small talk for the television cameras in an oak-panelled reception room, the man described as Europe’s last dictator was clearly impatient to be left alone with his host. “There are some questions but I would like to discuss them privately,” said Lukashenko, 51, before the cameramen were ushered out. “A presidential election is ahead of...

The North Atlantic Treaty Organization was created in 1949 as an alliance against the Soviet Union and maintained that role for more than four decades. With the end of the Cold War NATO’s future appeared uncertain and a focus emerged in building relations with Moscow. However, the expansion of the Atlantic alliance throughout the 90's was an unwelcome development for Russia, viewing itself as increasingly surrounded by a potentially hostile force. This acted as the driving contributor towards Russia’s decision to join China in the establishment of the Shanghai Five. What later became the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, the SCO is...

NA SOI, Thailand — Lu Khu Paw says soldiers shot her father as he gathered bamboo in the forest, laid waste to the rice fields and burned down their home three different times. The 16-year-old orphan vividly remembers her native village in flames, survivors fleeing and her mother dying of disease in a jungle hide-out. Nang Poung, a 33-year-old farmer, recounts how troops dragged 30 males, three of them relatives, to an execution ground and herded everyone else out of her village. What finally impelled her to escape from Burma just days ago, she says, was working as a conscripted...

In his inauguration speech one year ago, President George W. Bush announced a goal for the US and its allies of "ending tyranny in our world". Since the attacks of 9/11, Russia has figured prominently as a nominal partner to the US in the Global War on Terrorism. This past January 11, Russian Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov published a piece in The Wall Street Journal entitled "Russia Must Be Strong". Ivanov argued that Russia is threatened by "foreign states" meddling in its "internal affairs", affirmed Russia's commitment to pre-emption as a military strategy, boasted of Russia's advances in nuclear capability...

KANT (Kyrgyzstan), February 15 (RIA Novosti) - Russia's Air Force commander said Wednesday that the country's military authorities were contemplating the deployment of an airbase in Belarus. General Vladimir Mikhailov said, "We intend to have a base in Belarus as a standby option." However, he stopped short of saying whether this possibility had been discussed with Belarusian authorities. Mikhailov is currently visiting the ex-Soviet Central Asian republic of Kyrgyzstan. On Thursday, he is scheduled to meet with the Kyrgyz defense minister for talks on the status of the Russian airbase at Kant. The Kant base, set up in the fall...

If life were a football game, we'd be commending Muslims for an artful fake. While half the Muslim world was rioting in reaction to a few unremarkable cartoons - thanks to the fancy footwork of the anti-West Muslim Brotherhood - nuclear-minded Iran was making new kissy sounds with head cheerleader Fidel Castro. In a little-noticed news item the same week as the riots, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad accepted an invitation to visit Cuba in September to show gratitude for Castro's support of Iran's nuclear program. A few days earlier, Cuba, Venezuela and Syria had voted against the International Atomic Energy...

While the liberal media focus on the Middle East, Iraq, Afghanistan, Samuel Alito and the like, Cuba’s Castro government announced recently it will be opening a consulate in Guandong, China, in order to support Chinese trade and investment in Cuba. Just before Christmas, reports from Havana said China extended a “multimillion-dollar loan” to the Castro government as well. The reports also said Cuban Parliament Leader Ricardo Alarcon and Luo Gan, a member of the Chinese Communist Party's Central Committee, talked about the “excellent political, economic and [Communist] party ties between China and Cuba.” Alarcon, according to some wire service reports,...

Fidel Castro must feel that he has returned to his golden age. Latin America’s tilt to the left has left the Cuban dictator in a position he could only dream of a decade or two ago. Thanks in large part to the oil wealth from Venezuela fueling socialist policies throughout the region, Castro is once again in the position to actually play a considerable role in shaping events in Latin America and beyond. The prevailing sentiment in Havana’s propaganda machine is that the revolution is alive and well. In fact, so much so that Cuba’s official news service Prensa Latina...

SITTING in his campaign headquarters, a rundown flat in a Soviet-era tower block, Alexander Milinkevich seems an unlikely choice to take on Europe's last dictator. He vowed that people would take to the streets if, as widely expected, President Alexander Lukashenko rigs the vote in an attempt to cling on after 12 years in power. His defiance has raised the prospect of clashes between the police and opposition supporters in this impoverished nation of 10million sandwiched between Russia and Poland. Lukashenko, 51, a moustachioed former collective farm boss, warned: "If there are any provocations, we'll give them such a going-over...