Subject: Re: Wakhan Corridor<br/>
Date: Oct 18, 2001 @ 08:16<br/>
Author: David Birch (&quot;David Birch&quot; &lt;dbirch@...&gt;)<br/>
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<div id="ygrps-yiv-1948154880">--- In BoundaryPoint@y..., &quot;Jesper & Nicolette Nielsen&quot; <br/>
&lt;jesniel@i...&gt; wrote:<br/>
<blockquote><span title="ireply"> &gt; Are there any Afghan-China border crossings?<br/>
&gt; <br/>
&gt; Jesper<br/>
<br/>
 </span></blockquote>There was an article in the UK newspaper &quot;The Sunday Telegraph&quot; on <br/>
Sept 23rd about the Afghan-China border. Most of it was rambling on <br/>
about possibilities of Islamic threats to China so I&#39;ll just copy <br/>
below the first part which mentions the border.<br/>
<br/>
David<br/>
<br/>
-----------<br/>
<br/>
 <br/>
CONVOYS OF Chinese military lorries roared along the Karakoram <br/>
Highway last<br/>
week heading for the Afghan and Pakistan borders as Beijing scrambled <br/>
to protect<br/>
its far-western Muslim region from infiltration by Islamic <br/>
extremists. As<br/>
tourist buses and goods vehicles dwindled to a trickle along the <br/>
highway that<br/>
ascends 11,000ft in 500 miles to the Pakistan border, People&#39;s <br/>
Liberation Army<br/>
lorries roared by, loaded with troops and supplies. At the Khunjerab <br/>
Pass<br/>
border point, 14,000ft above sea level at the foot of the spectacular<br/>
snow-capped peaks of the Pamir mountain range, the chaotic process of <br/>
entering<br/>
China from Pakistan has become an interminable process of Chinese <br/>
scrutiny.<br/>
From behind the breeze-block customs posts comes the sound of PLA <br/>
officers<br/>
preparing expeditions to scour the nearby mountains and thwart <br/>
attempts by<br/>
Afghan refugees to flee the turmoil of their homeland. Fifty miles <br/>
north<br/>
through a patchwork of villages populated by Tajiki Ismalis, the <br/>
single dirt<br/>
track that leads up the narrow Wakhan Corridor to Afghanistan is out <br/>
of bounds<br/>
to all but local villagers and Chinese soldiers. Since the area <br/>
across the<br/>
border is controlled by the Northern Alliance, which buried its <br/>
commander,<br/>
Ahmad Shah Masood, last week, the risk has increased that refugees <br/>
will attempt<br/>
to flee down this wild and verdant pass. For fleeing Afghans, heading <br/>
east to<br/>
China would be an act of complete desperation because Beijing is <br/>
determined not<br/>
to allow a single refugee into its territory. With the border sealed, <br/>
refugees<br/>
are a minor part of Beijing&#39;s Central Asian fears.</div>