BISHKEK (AFP) Sep 29, 2004 Kyrgyzstan's government announced Wednesday it was blocking controversial plans to import nuclear waste from Britain and Germany for reprocessing. The government said it was banning imports of uranium-bearing graphite for treatment at the Kara-Balta ore reprocessing facility.
"The ban on imports of uranium-bearing material to Kyrgyzstan applies not only to Britain but to other countries, including Germany," a Kyrgyz government spokeswoman told AFP.
The announcement came after British media announced that British Nuclear Fuels would be sending 1,800 tonnes of such material from its first generation Magnox reactors to Kara-Balta.
The ban also applies to a plan approved by a Kyrgyz government commission in June by which a German firm RWE NUKEM GmbH was to send 1,700 tonnes of a similar material for reprocessing at Kara-Balta.
"The decision was made due to the absence of guarantees concerning the safe-keeping of the uranium-bearing material and in accordance with international security norms," the government's statement read.
While environmental groups and Kyrgyz Prime Minister Nikolai Tanayev had opposed the imports, Kara-Balta's management said they anticipated much-needed funds from such deals with which they could renew the decaying facility.
This impoverished country's Soviet-era nuclear sites are seen as threatening continued growth in the number of foreign tourists attracted to its spectacular mountain landscapes.
Attacks on China embassy feared: New Delhi tightens security
According to the Times report, in its letter to New Delhi, Beijing said it feared attacks by the East Turkestan Islamic Movement (ETIM) activists. The small militant separatist group is based in China's western Xinjiang province, a vast, thinly populated region that shares borders with several countries, including Afghanistan and Pakistan.
The head of the government in exile in Washington is Anwar Yusuf Turani, who heads a Uighur separatist group known as the East Turkistan National Freedom Center.
The East Turkistan National Freedom Center, however, is not on either the U.S. or China’s list of terrorist organizations. The group says its main purpose is to divulge information about conditions in Xinjiang, which also is home to ethnic Kazakh and Kyrgyz populations.
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Kong Quan said China considers a number of Uighur separatists, who refer to their homeland as East Turkistan, as terrorists. The mostly Muslim Uighurs are the dominant ethnic group in China's western region of Xinjiang.
China claims some 1,000 Moslems in its far western Xinjiang region have trained with the al-Qaeda network of Saudi militant Osama bin Laden.
Chinese officials blasted the United States following reports that the group headed by Uighur emigrants had announced their government in exile at the U.S. Capitol building in Washington believing them to be terrorists.
It should also be noted Bush has a penchant for harboring and dealing with terrorists. Bush has also granted asylum to Chechen terrorist, Akhmadov.
Both the Chechens and the Uighurs are backed by Bush and are with al Qaeda.
As in the case of Bush aligning with the oppressive Indonesian armed forces the Indonesian military's "worst abuses", said Ed McWilliams, former State Department political counselor for the US Embassy in Jakarta from 1996-99, "took place when we [the US] were most engaged", this also seems the norm considering Bush’s alliances with the Chechens and the Uighurs. #msg-4106028 #msg-4126775 #msg-4098311
-Am
Attacks on China embassy feared: New Delhi tightens security
By Jawed Naqvi
NEW DELHI, Sept 30: The Indian government has stepped up security at the Chinese embassy in Delhi over fears that Chinese extremists linked to Al Qaeda could be looking for soft targets here , Indian officials and diplomats said on Thursday, adding that similar steps were taken by Pakistan to protect Chinese officials.
The officials were commenting on a report in The Times of India that the Chinese government had asked India to beef up security not just around the Chinese embassy in the city, but also around all its establishments in the country.
The paper said that such a request from China was unprecedented. "There is a periodic review of threat perceptions for various diplomatic missions. And we agreed that we need to act to protect the Chinese embassy better," an Indian home ministry official said.
According to the Times report, in its letter to New Delhi, Beijing said it feared attacks by the East Turkestan Islamic Movement (ETIM) activists. The small militant separatist group is based in China's western Xinjiang province, a vast, thinly populated region that shares borders with several countries, including Afghanistan and Pakistan.
After 9/11, China warned the Bush administration that the ETIM had ties to Al Qaeda. In August 2002, after months of pressure from Beijing, the Bush administration announced it would freeze the group's assets in the United States.
Meanwhile, a meeting of Indian sleuths has asked the Delhi police to review security arrangements around the Chinese embassy in the Chanakyapuri diplomatic district, barely 200 yards from the Pakistan High Commission and closely flanked on two sides by the British and US missions.
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