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Central Asia: Shanghai
Cooperation Organization Makes Military Debut
By Charles Carlson
On 6 August, the Shanghai Cooperation Organization
(SCO) will hold its first-ever military exercises,
with troops from five of the six member states
participating. Experts say the maneuvers are an
indication of the importance China attaches to the SCO
in its bid to counter the growing U.S. military
presence in Central Asia.
Prague, 5 August 2003 (RFE/RL) -- From 6-12 August,
troops from Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, China,
and Russia will participate in war games on Kazakh and
Chinese territory.
The overall goal of the two stages of the Interaction
2003 exercises is to implement the provisions of the
2001 Shanghai Convention on the joint struggle against
terrorism, separatism, and religious extremism, the
Tajik Asia-Plus news agency reported last week.
The first stage of the exercises begins tomorrow (6
August) in the Taldy-Qorghan region of Kazakhstan's
Almaty Oblast and runs through 11 August. According to
the Kazakh Defense Ministry, the exercises will begin
near the town of Ush-Aral and will involve a Russian
infantry unit, a unit of Kyrgyz paratroopers belonging
to the Kyrgyz Intelligence Agency, and Kazakh aviation
forces.
There will be no Chinese troops taking part in this
phase. Tajik military experts will be present as
observers.
A Caspian News Agency report said the initial phase
will be used to practice isolating and eliminating
terrorist groups.
The second stage of the exercises is due to start in
China's Xinjiang Province on 11 August. The specific
location will be the outskirts of the town of Inyin,
in the Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region, which
borders on Russia, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, and
Tajikistan and is home to some 15 million-20 million
Muslim Uighurs. Only Chinese and Kyrgyz troops are
expected to participate in this phase of the
exercises. Here soldiers will destroy a simulated
terrorist camp and practice liberating hostages.
The location does not appear coincidental. The nature
of the exercises reflects growing concerns about
Islamic extremism in the region. Officials in China
and Kyrgyzstan have expressed fears that Uighur
separatists in the East Turkestan Islamic Movement are
now joining forces with other banned groups, like Hizb
ut-Tahrir and the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan
(IMU). The IMU is suspected of fighting alongside
Taliban and Al-Qaeda troops in Afghanistan as well as
a series of terrorist attacks in Central Asia.
Moscow has accused ethnic Uighur separatists of
fighting with the Chechens in their protracted war
with Russia, and of seeking to annex parts of
Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan as well as separating
Xinjiang from China.
The Shanghai Cooperation Organization began life in
1996 as the "Shanghai Five," when Russia, China,
Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, and Tajikistan signed an
agreement on cooperating to resolve disputes along the
former Sino-Soviet border. Five years later, in 2001,
Uzbekistan joined the group, and its focus was
expanded under the Shanghai Convention to encompass
joint actions against terrorism, separatism, and drug
trafficking.
As concerns about terrorism mounted, SCO member states
concluded it was a problem better solved as a whole,
rather than individually. At a SCO summit in June
2002, Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov announced a
regional antiterrorism agency that would be part of
the SCO.
Interaction 2003 is part of a series of joint military
maneuvers taking place this summer in Central Asia,
and will mark the second time China has conducted
military maneuvers with a foreign country. The first
time was with Kyrgyzstan last summer. Uzbekistan,
which gives priority to military cooperation with the
U.S., is not participating.
China believes the SCO has played a positive role in
deepening regional security cooperation. But defense
specialists in Kazakhstan and in London have
questioned whether and how Kazakhstan and China will
benefit from participating in Interaction 2003.
Faizolla Orazay, who is president of the Private
International University in Almaty, suggested that
neither country will benefit militarily. "What will
those exercises give [Kazakhstan]? The main thing is,
what will the general task of those exercises be? The
Chinese army is self-sufficient without any kind of
joint exercises at all. What are these exercises, I
wonder -- are they really military, or political?"
Orazay said.
Alex Vatanka is the editor of "Jane's Sentinel: Russia
and the CIS," a security-assessment publication based
in London. He also said he is unsure about the
military value of the exercises for the Chinese. He
suggested that Beijing is more interested in the
political aspect of military cooperation with the
Central Asian states and advertising what China can
offer as a partner that the U.S. cannot.
"I think what we need to emphasize here is the
political importance of cooperation within the SCO,
and military cooperation is a point where China has
been able to grab the attention of the Central Asian
states, and it is therefore [that] we see this
significant emphasis on military cooperation," Vatanka
said. "It is more or less about how China could appeal
to the Central Asian states, not so much what China
could get militarily from having joint exercises. So
there is a political dimension here too, which is far
more important for China than the actual specific
benefits from having joint military exercises."
Other experts believe that China's main interest in
the exercises is to promote coordinated measures
against Uighur separatists in China's Xinjiang
Autonomous Region, which borders Russia, Kyrgyzstan,
Kazakhstan, and Tajikistan. Murat Auezov, a former
Kazakh ambassador to China, noted that China is
conducting a major crackdown on Uighur terrorists.
"China is pushing forward the issue of the fight
against terrorists in order to make it possible to
impose more pressure over Uighurs in Xinjiang," Auezov
said. China considers Uighurs separatists, "and uses
all means possible to strengthen its presence in
Central Asia, and especially in Kazakhstan."
(Merhat Sharipzhan of RFE/RL's Kazakh Service and
Tynchtykbek Tchoroev of RFE/RL's Kyrgyz Service
contributed to this report.)
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