South Asia Security Monitor: No. 205

December 2:

Radical Muslim inmates in some of Australia's toughest prisons are working to take over the country's prison system from within, the Sydney Morning Herald reports. According to the paper, as many as 40 inmates in correctional facilities down under have formed a collective organization intent upon subverting and undermining the Australian correctional system, using an al-Qaeda training manual as the basis for their activities. Authorities in Canberra are now working to defuse the problem; a number of inmates at the country's maximum-security prisons have already been transferred to other correctional facilities in an effort to disrupt the group's communications.

The Ministry of Defense in Kabul has announced new plans to dramatically increase the size of the Afghan National Army, reports the BBC. Originally scheduled to peak at 70,000, new governmental targets more than double that size, to 200,000, a ministry spokesman has disclosed. The expansion will serve to “keep the balance of forces in the region” and “dissuade Afghanistan’s neighbors” from interfering in the country’s internal affairs. Already, the army – considered a rare success story in war-torn Afghanistan – is years ahead of schedule in recruitment and training. It now expects to reach its original target of 70,000 by the end of December.


December 11:

A new Congressional report has shed fresh light on North Korea's ties to international terror. "The State Department’s long-standing claim that North Korea 'was not known to have sponsored any terrorist acts since 1987' was particularly important in 2007 in view of the clear goal... to remove North Korea from the list of state sponsors of terrorism," the new Congressional Research Service study, entitled North Korea: Terrorism List Removal?, contends. "However, questions about the credibility of the claim are relevant in view of the appearance of reports from reputable sources that North Korea has provided arms and possibly training to Hezbollah in Lebanon and the Tamil Tigers in Sri Lanka." With regard to the former, the study cites French and South Korean reports of a detailed an extensive, ongoing effort on the part of the North Korean regime to provide arms and training to the Lebanese Shi'ite militia. As for the latter, the report cites Japanese press accounts that the DPRK recently attempted to provide the Sri Lankan separatist group with "conventional arms, including machine guns, automatic rifles, and anti-rocket launchers."


December 15:

Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf has lifted a six-week state of emergency, just weeks before national elections, al-Jazeera reports. According to a government spokesman, “[a]ll three pillars of government are [now] in harmony… the third phase of democracy is again on track.”

The removal of the measures will doubtless assuage international concerns about the recent crackdown on opposition parties, and open the door for critical parliamentary elections next month. But many Pakistanis remain skeptical of Musharraf’s democratic credentials: “This is like a murderer who turns in his weapon and then claims he has been absolved of the crime,” says Ashan Iqbal, spokesman for the Pakistan Muslim League, the 2nd largest opposition party in the South Asian state.