Posted on 05/10/2006 5:57:30 PM PDT by milestogo
Sino-Pak cooperation provoking US, India
* Analyst says Balochs afraid of being displaced from Gwadar
Daily Times Monitor
LAHORE: The United States and India view the joint venture between Pakistan and China for the development of the Gwadar Port as “a serious provocation”.
Analyst Susanne Koelbl writes on the German web portal ‘Spiegel Online’ that New Delhi and Washington view the new port in Balochistan as detrimental to their interests in the region. “Gwadar is already seen as strategically important today,” Koelbl writes. “The Pakistanis are building a port which, unlike Karachi, would hardly be vulnerable to a naval blockade by archenemy India. The Chinese, for their part, want to use Gwadar as a base from which to keep an eye on the Americans in the Persian Gulf and the Indians in the Arabian Sea and, of course, to monitor both countries’ movements in the Indian Ocean. China has invested hundreds of millions of dollars into the Gwadar Port Project, and will be the majority owner of the port when it is completed, she writes.
Koelbl reports that the local Balochis fear displacement from their land upon the completion of the port project. “There have already been bombings at the harbour construction site and attacks on Chinese workers. Balochi politicians like Senator Sanaullah Baloch are busy stirring up the conflict with rhetoric such as: ‘We Balochis can easily keep the military regime busy with our attacks,’” writes Koelbl. Koelbl sees evidence of the expansion of Pakistan’s alliances as well. While the country had “limited” itself to partnering the United States in its “war on terrorism” following the September 11 attacks on the World Trade Centre, “Musharraf is also reaching out to China, the superpower of the future”, Koelbl writes. However, she says that Musharraf faces tough opposition from internal conflict with the Baloch sardars and the Federally Administered Tribal Areas. “I am the president of Pakistan, and I want Bugti to submit to the Pakistani flag,” Koelbl quotes him as saying. “I advise him (Bugti) not to challenge this flag.”
Koelbl says western experts are sceptical about the loyalties of officials within the ranks of the Inter Services Intelligence (ISI). “There is also a persistent rumour that President Musharraf controls only parts of his intelligence service and that a group of influential officers are steadily pursuing their own agenda. Their apparent aim is to weaken the influence of Western forces in Afghanistan so that, with the help of the Taliban, they will soon be able to reassume power there. Indeed, militant Islamists already control large portions of southern Afghanistan once again.”
.
.
They're with us or they're with the terrorists.
natural progression of events
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.