China, Russia Urge Quick End to Strikes

In a day of intense wartime diplomacy, the leaders of China and Russia appealed to the United States on Saturday to end its military campaign in Afghanistan as quickly as possible, while President Bush countered that the fight “to save the civilized world” will require patience and staying power.

But Bush, attending a Pacific Rim summit here, bowed to concerns of other members of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum by promising that U.S. forces will do their best to avoid civilian casualties.

The president said the military campaign is now “encircling” the militants of the Al Qaeda terrorist network and is making good progress in destroying their hideaways. And he asserted that the defenses of the extremist Islamic Taliban regime are being dismantled. He warned, however, that the war on terrorism will include “moments of sacrifice.”

Bush met with several Pacific Rim leaders in this seaside city Saturday, the first full day of the APEC summit, where the president is trying to build support from the group’s 20 other members for his fight against terrorism.

In talks with Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad, Bush said, he assured him that the United States is sensitive to fears of backlash in Muslim countries caused by collateral damage from Operation Enduring Freedom.

“He is concerned about the deaths of innocent people in Afghanistan, and I assured him I am too,” Bush told reporters.

Mahathir later told Malaysian journalists that he had informed Bush that he could not back the military attacks in Afghanistan. “I explained to him the anger and frustration of the Muslim world,” Mahathir was quoted as saying by Malaysia’s state-run Bernama news agency.

Despite strong international support here for a united fight against extremism, Bush is coming under growing pressure in Shanghai to limit operations that spill over onto Afghan civilians.

After their own talks here, Russian President Vladimir V. Putin and Chinese President Jiang Zemin also urged the United States to move quickly from military operations to efforts to reach a political settlement.

“We are in favor of the fight against terror, but the strikes should be aimed at clear targets and refrain from injuring innocent civilians,” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhu Bangzao told a news conference.

Russian spokesman Alexei Gromov said Moscow and Beijing also agreed that any negotiations on a new government in Afghanistan should be carried out through the United Nations.

Bush said the so-called Shanghai Accord on terrorism, expected to be formally approved today by APEC leaders, will provide a new international framework to deny terrorists sanctuary, funding, materiel and moral support.

“Together, we will patiently and diligently pursue the terrorists from place to place until justice is done,” he told a meeting of international business and government leaders. “This is the urgent task of our time.’

Bush said the international business community had already scored a major victory against terrorism by not succumbing to extremists’ efforts to damage the global economic system.

“The terrorists hoped world markets would collapse,” he said. “But markets have proven their resiliency and fundamental strength.”

The APEC summit symbolized the commitment to continue opening free markets, he added.

Since 1975, China’s per capita gross domestic product has soared by 513%; in South Korea, 73% of the homes have personal computers, and Indonesia has cut its infant mortality rate by half since 1980, Bush told global business leaders at the CEO summit.

The president pledged that the United States will take the initiative to restore what he called “economic momentum” to reignite global growth. Despite the slowdown worldwide, exacerbated by the Sept. 11 attacks in the United States, Bush said, the world economy could build on encouraging moves such as economic reform in Japan, the Philippines and Indonesia, new sources of capital in Russia and Mexico, and imminent membership for China and Taiwan in the World Trade Organization.

Improving both openness and security will be difficult, Bush acknowledged. But the Sept. 11 attacks also have created opportunities for nations to strengthen and rethink relationships, Bush said.

“We share more than a common enemy,” he said. “We share a common goal: to expand our ties of trade and trust.”

And trade, he said, is the engine of economic growth and prosperity that will in turn address the kind of grievances that give rise to extremism. “One of the three most important challenges in fighting terrorism is to ensure that freedom and prosperity are widely shared. The great alternative to hate is hope,” Bush said.

“To seize the hopeful opportunities of market and trade, people must be educated and healthy, and governments must be fair and just and committed to the rule of law,” he said.

Many Asian governments, including those of APEC members such as China, Malaysia, Singapore and Brunei, are holdouts against the democratic tide that has swept the world over the last two decades.

In a strong warning, Bush said no government should use the new global war on terrorism as an excuse to persecute minorities seeking basic rights within their own borders. “Ethnic minorities must know that their rights will be safeguarded--that their churches, temples and mosques belong to them,” the president said.

“We must respect legitimate political aspirations and, at the same time, oppose all who spread terror in the name of politics or religion,” he said.