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April 20:
The government of Philippine President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo has brokered a tenuous truce with the rebels of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), the BBC reports. Three days of peace talks between MILF leaders and Philippine officials appear to have netted a preliminary power-sharing agreement over Mindanao. The deal over the southern Philippine island, historically a bone of contention between the Islamic rebel group and the government, paves the way for the commencement of formal peace talks to end the MILF’s
nearly three-decade-old insurgency against Manila.
April 24:
India’s Border Security Forces (BSF) have accused Bangladeshi military helicopters of violating their country’s airspace. The Indian air force has been requested to confirm the intrusion, after which a formal complaint will be lodged. The intrusions, which the BBC reported to have taken place in India’s southern state of Tripura, the site of an armed conflict between the two countries earlier this year, have been followed by a build-up of Bangladesh Rifles (BDR) forces along the border. Suresh Kumar Dutt, the BSF’s Inspector General said that India’s outposts have reported substantial reinforcements by the BDR - a move that has provoked Delhi to also build up their armed forces along the border to match the additional BDR deployments.
After dissolving the government and assuming direct power earlier this year, King Gyanendra is promising to restore democracy to Nepal. The BBC reports that the King’s decision was announced after India promised to resume military supplies to the South Asian state. According to the King, the Nepalese government has already called for municipal elections, and the lifting of emergency measures – which he said were put in place to protect the national democracy from Maoist rebels – would take place “in due course.”
April 25:
Mounting criticism over Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra’s handling of unrest in Thailand’s restive south has prompted the government to establish a bipartisan commission aimed at defusing domestic tensions. The
Christian Science Monitor reports that former Thai premier Anand Panyarachun has been tapped to head the so-called “National Reconciliation Commission,” whose 49 members span the country’s political, religious and social spectrums. According to its new chairman, the commission will spend several months exploring the roots of the conflict, and give non-binding recommendations to the government. “The work of the panel is not to provide instant solutions,” Panyarachun has explained. Rather, “[w]e are looking for sustained peace.”
April 28:
Officials in Japan have announced plans to participate in the region’s most prominent military war games, the Agence France Presse reports. The annual 11-day “Cobra Gold” maneuvers, held cooperatively by the United States and Thailand, will focus this year on coordinated disaster relief and humanitarian assistance. Japan’s Self-Defense Forces (SDF), which have participated in the maneuvers since 2001 as observers, will “formally participate in the drill for the first time,” Yoshinori Ono, Director-General of the SDF, has disclosed. Currently, Japan plans to send 25 air, ground and maritime forces to the exercise.
April 29:
The Taipei Times reports that the rebel Shan government which declared independence from Burma earlier
in April is appealing to the international community for recognition. “We are in the process of seeking recognition from a number of countries including the United Nations,” Hkun Hom, foreign minister of the provisional government of the Shan state in Burma’s northeast, has told reporters. Shan Prince Surkhanpha, son of the country’s first post-independence president, formally announced the independence of the small quasi-autonomous region, which is home to some eight million people, in mid-April.
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