WASHINGTON (NNN-AGENCIES) -- Pakistan's 'secret war' - separatist movement in Baluchistan province - and the military build-up by India has been ranked high by the prestigious Foreign Policy magazine for events and trends that were overlooked this year, but may be leading the headlines in 2012.
The unique list, released and topped by India's military build-up, has Euro, Mexico's drug war, US immigration crackdown, expanding wings of piracy, and Rwanda as other events that have missed the spotlight they needed.
"China 's new aircraft carrier -- actually just a refitted Gorbachev-era Soviet model purchased for $20 million from the Russians -- made international headlines when it began sea trials this year, signalling Beijing 's growing military ambitions in East Asia . But it isn't the only Asian giant investing heavily in new military hardware."
"India has kept pace with its neighbour to the north and, in some areas, is actually exceeding it -- a development that, though much less noted, is a sign of the growing militarisation of the region as a new generation of emerging powers with global ambitions jockeys for regional supremacy," says the Foreign Policy magazine's 'The Stories You Missed in 2011'.
It said India is now the world's largest weapons importer, according to a 2011 report by arms watchdog SIPRI, accounting for 9 per cent of the world's international arms transfers -- most from Russia -- between 2006 and 2010.
The Foreign Policy magazine said, "In particular, India
"By comparison, China
It added that on top of long-running tensions with Pakistan and festering insurgencies by Kashmiri separatists and Maoist rebels, India's military planners are increasingly concerned about the prospect of military hostilities with China -- hence the new focus on naval power.
For now, the US seems much more comfortable with India 's military ambitions than China India , including in the Indian Ocean region. But there are some troubling signs that the area might not be big enough for two rising superpowers," it said.
Ranking 'Pakistan's Other War' on sixth slot, the Foreign Policy says Baluchistan may be Pakistan's largest province, covering nearly half the country's land area, but the raging separatist violence in the region -- sometimes called Pakistan's secret war -- gets only a fraction of the attention that the country's other crises receive.
"Separatist groups, the largest of which is the Baluchistan Liberation Army, have been waging an insurgency since 2007 in the resource-rich province, which borders Iran and Afghanistan
Baluchistan saw the highest number of militant attacks of any Pakistani province in 2010, and the trend has continued in 2011, with multiple bombings of key gas pipelines, the murder of Punjab settlers who have moved to the region, and the assassinations of several prominent politicians and oil-company employees, the magazine writes.
Baluchistan's instability has international consequences, it says adding that the Taliban, headquartered in the provincial capital of Quetta , use Baluchistan's 800-mile-long border to slip in and out of Afghanistan
The sparsely populated region also provides safe haven for drug smugglers and Iranian rebel groups. The CIA is believed to launch drone strikes from bases in Baluchistan . "And then, of course, there's India , which Pakistan has repeatedly accused of funding the rebels, a charge India
"The mastermind of the 9/11 attacks, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, is an ethnic Baluchi, as is his nephew Ramzi Yousef, who plotted the 1993 World Trade Center bombing," it says.
The magazine added, "For now, the Pakistani government is benefiting from the scant media attention given to the region and its problems. But it can't be swept under the rug forever". -- NNN-AGENCIES
0 comments:
Post a Comment