Uyghuristan: China deploys troops in force

China deployed many troops including tanks and other armored vehicles in Ürümqi, the capital of Uyghuristan (Xinjiang-Uyghur), annexed to China but ethnically distinct.

Around 19:00 Beijing time, thousands of heavily armed soldiers of the so-called Armed Police of the Pople were deployed in the Central Asian city, occupying the central square. I have never seen anything like that before, declared a local.

The deployment ended an hour and a half later. 

It appears to be scare tactics as the 4th anniversary of the Uyghur revolt of 2009 approaches. Recently some 100 activists attacked, armed with knives, a police station in the historical city of Hotan. 35 people were killed, although it is unclear to which side they belonged to. 

Four years ago, brutal riots confronted the native Uyghurs with the Han colonists, which make up some 40% of the population, resulting in a death toll of 200, including the victims of police repression.

Source: Gara[es].

Kyrgyzstan: miner uprising against Canadian multinational, at least one killed by police live fire

The clashes took place at the huge gold mine of Kuntor, in the North of Kyrgyzstan, owned by Centerra Gold since a decade ago. The protesters demand a greater share of the profits and that the company invests in local infrastructures (roads, a kindergarten, hospitals, more jobs and a long-term loan scheme).

This uprising is just the tip of the iceberg because it follows a chain of strikes last year that reduced CG's profits by 6.6%.

Instead of supporting the Kyrgyz worker-citizens, the government of President Atambayek has declared war on them, sending police to repress the uprising with live fire, resulting in at least one killed, 50 injured and 90 arrested. 

A curfew has been officially declared in the mining district of Dzhety Ohuz until June 10th. 

Kuntor is the largest gold mine in Central Asia and one of the largest on Earth. Kyrgyzstan is the only Central Asian state, other than Afghanistan, that still holds a US military base. 

Source: Webguerrillero[es].

NATO murders more Afghan civilians, mostly children

A NATO bombing in the Kunar province of Afghanistan resulted in the killing of at least ten children and two women, all them non- fighters. The victims were inside their homes when these were bomber. NATO talks of "human shields" but it is obvious that if you bomb inhabited villages, you will kill civilians, so this pretext is just an obvious propaganda lie. 

Source: Gara[es].

Negotiations in Afghanistan?

That is what David Lazkanoiturburu ponders about at Gara[es], in part following the latest spat of articles on Afghanistan that British newspaper The Guardian published yesterday (specially this one). 

Something that seems evident is that Obama wants Afghanistan solved before the next presidential elections in 2012 and that Petraeus has been demoted (yes, demoted - or put on probation if you wish) in a move that means: or you solve that somehow or you won't be the military media hero anymore. Or in other words: if that remains a burden for me, it will be even more of a burden for you.

But Petraeus is solving nothing it seems. He has managed to irk Pakistan enough (150 people killed by drone attacks in few weeks) as for these to get the Khyber Pass closed, what in turn has allowed three successive attacks against US supply convoys in less than a week (120 trucks burned). 

Whatever the case, it seems that criss-crossed negotiations between all the actors (and the USA is just one of them), including the most hardcore Taliban groups, the Haqqani, are going on. What is not clear is who is promoting the negotiations or who is more desperate for them (Petraeus, the Taliban, Islamabad, Kabul?) nor if these hold any future other than keeping the channels open while the war goes on.

Lazkanoiturburu also mentions that the war has extended to Tajikistan, where troops have been successfully attacked by Islamist rebels. 

It's obviously much like Vietnam, the problem is that while in Vietnam it was the good guys who eventually won (the communists, if you had any doubt), in Afghanistan all are equally evil and undesirable.