Author: Paul Danahar
Publication: BBC News
Date: September 3, 2007
URL: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/6975934.stm
Britain has privately complained to Beijing
that Chinese-made weapons are being used by the Taleban to attack British
troops in Afghanistan.
The BBC has been told that on several occasions
Chinese arms have been recovered after attacks on British and American troops
by Afghan insurgents.
The authorities in Beijing have promised to
carry out an investigation.
This appears to be the first time Britain
has asked China how its arms are ending up with the Taleban.
Boasting
At a meeting held recently at the Chinese
foreign ministry in Beijing, a British official expressed the UK's growing
concern about the incidents.
When asked about the latest British concerns,
the Chinese foreign ministry referred back to a statement made by their spokesman
Qin Gang in July who said China's arms exports were carried out "in strict
accordance with our law and our international obligations".
For their part, the Taleban have recently
begun boasting that they have now got hold of much more sophisticated weaponry
although they refused to say from where.
Afghan officials have also privately confirmed
to the BBC that sophisticated Chinese weapons are now in the hands of the
Taleban.
They said these included Chinese-made surface-to-air
missiles, anti-aircraft guns, landmines, rocket-propelled grenades and components
for roadside bombs.
A senior Afghan official told the BBC: "Chinese
HN-5 anti-aircraft missiles are with the Taleban, we know this... and we are
worried where do the Taleban get them, some of these weapons have been made
recently in Chinese factories."
Another Afghan official who deals with counter-terrorism
said: "Serial numbers and other information from most of the Chinese
weapons have been removed in most cases and it's almost impossible for us
to find out where they come from but we have shared our concerns with the
Chinese and the Americans also."
Worried
The Afghan government considers China to be
a friend, and a much less meddlesome ally than the other big player in its
neighbourhood, India.
But, the counter-terrorism official added,
"China is worried about the presence of the US in the region".
Southern Afghanistan has been awash with Chinese
made arms for decades which are some of the cheapest on the market.
In the past the Taleban got them via the Pakistan
intelligence agency, the ISI, or bought them directly from arms smugglers.
But it is extremely unlikely the ISI would
now allow them access to anti-aircraft missiles or armour-piercing ammunition.
The Pakistani army's relationship between
militants in its tribal areas along the Afghan border has deteriorated sharply
in recent years after Washington put pressure on President Musharraf post-9/11
to crack down on al-Qaeda and Taleban groups operating inside Pakistani territory.
So the Taleban might well use any sophisticated
new weapons it received against the Pakistani army.
It is not in China's interest either to arm
Pakistan-based militants.
Over the last couple of years Chinese workers
in Pakistan have been targeted by militants, in retaliation for the Pakistani
army allegedly going after hard-line Muslim Uighur leaders from China's Xinjiang
province, hiding in the tribal areas.
Proxy network
So instead of Pakistan being the transit point
for these weapons, the finger is being pointed by many commentators towards
Iran.
The Afghan government has long acknowledged
privately that Iranian intelligence agencies have been active in southern
Afghanistan post-9/11.
Iran has been pursuing a policy of building
up proxy networks to be able to attack American forces in response to any
US attacks against Teheran's nuclear infrastructure.
A Shia Iran and the Sunni Taleban had been
firm enemies since 1998.
Then, Iran threatened to invade western Afghanistan,
when the country was largely controlled by the Taleban, after nine of its
diplomats were massacred in Mazar-e-Sharif.
But times have changed, now America is a common
enemy and senior American commanders in Afghanistan have acknowledged the
growing ties between the two.
The complication for both the UK and US is
China.
Unnamed US officials have recently been quoted
as saying that China has been selling arms to Iran which Iran is then passing
on to insurgent groups in Afghanistan and Iraq.
China's booming economy and its seat at the
UN security council have made it an important player on the world stage.
It is a major trading partner for the UK whose
economy has benefited enormously from China's cheap goods.
Prime Minister Gordon Brown's newly-appointed
British Minister for Asia, Lord Mark Malloch Brown acknowledged to journalists
in Beijing last week that countries "need to work with China to get things
done in today's world".
China is going to have to show that getting
things done also means stopping its arms illegally ending up in the hands
of men bent on killing British troops.
