|
World Media Watch
by Gloria R. Lalumia
BUZZFLASH NOTE: Once again, these are the views and perspectives of the individual papers, not of BuzzFlash or Gloria. They offer BuzzFlash readers a way of reading what other nations are saying about the crisis, whether we like it or not. We repeat: This is not an endorsement of their viewpoints.
* * *
1//The Toronto Star, Canada--IRAQ'S 'NEW PATRIOTS' ("We don't trust the motives of those now scrambling for power. What Iraq needs now are academics who can rise above these forces to push for an inclusive, moderate and unified democracy." For Nadthme and friends, these are words worth fighting for. The essence of their argument is that the true voice of a future and sovereign Iraq is being railroaded by the machinations of the American reconstruction effort and the formerly exiled opposition groups..."The sense we are getting is that America is finessing the situation in such a way that we have three choices - Ahmed Chalabi, Ahmed Chalabi or Ahmed Chalabi," he says in reference to the controversial leader of the exiles' Iraqi National Congress and a clear Pentagon favourite for post-war rule.)
2//The Jordan Times, Jordan--IRAQIS HOLD FIRST UNIVERSITY POLLS IN BAGHDAD (Iraqi academics voted to choose new deans for Baghdad universities on Saturday as part of a US-led campaign to rid the country of the influence of Saddam Hussein's Baath Party...US troops encircled Baghdad University and swarmed the campus where elections took place...While some staff and students welcomed the US troops' presence inside the Baghdad University campus as protection, others blasted it and boycotted the polling process. Instructed by the Americans, staff at Saddam University in Baghdad changed the institution's name to Al Nahrein (the two rivers). However, they voted for the same Baathist dean and Erdmann said the vote would be repeated.)
3//The Sydney Morning Herald, Australia--HILL PLAYS DOWN FEARS OF DIRECT THREAT (Defence Minister Robert Hill today said a plan to enlist army reservists to help fight terrorism at home was about playing safe rather than a response to a specific threat to Australia. Units of a part-time counter-terrorist Reserve Response Force (RRF) are expected to begin specialist training as early as next month and be supporting regular troops in the event of a terrorist emergency by the end of the year...The RRF are expected to be based in every mainland capital and will bring an armed vigil against terrorists to Australian streets.
4//The Moscow Times, Russia--PUTIN'S NAME SURFACES IN GERMAN PROBE (Caught in the center of a Germany-wide money-laundering investigation is a St. Petersburg real estate company whose advisory board once included President Vladimir Putin. The Hessen, Germany-based company, SPAG, was among 28 firms and homes raided by police in Hessen, Hamburg and Munich last week. The companies are suspected of laundering "tens of millions of euros" for "one of the biggest and most powerful" Russian organized crime groups, German prosecutors said in a statement.)
5//The Independent, UK--BELGIAN COALITION WINS POLL AS FAR-RIGHT GAINS GROUND (Belgium's far-right Vlaams Blok party made big gains and won a record number of protest votes in a national election yesterday which appeared to have been won by the ruling coalition of Liberals and Socialists. The anti-immigration Flemish separatist Vlaams Blok increased its showing in its strongholds and won almost one in five votes in Flanders, but seemed to have failed to become the third biggest party there by a narrow margin.)
* * *
1//The Toronto Star May. 18, 2003. 09:17 AM
Article
Link
IRAQ'S 'NEW PATRIOTS'
Mitch Potter
A Baghdad group plays `watchdog' in pursuit of a democracy that's inclusive, moderate and unified
BAGHDAD-Two months ago, a visit to Wamith Nadthme's home on the northern outskirts of the Iraqi capital was a cloak-and-dagger affair.
As Baghdad's most outspoken political scientist, Nadthme stood alone as one who would dare to publicly criticize the besieged leadership of Saddam Hussein from within the belly of the dying beast.
(SNIP)
Fast forward four fortnights, and Nadthme is holding court once again, but this time with the emboldened voice of a pundit free of his leash.
For the first time in decades, the 59-year-old professor can say what he really thinks.
In a wide-ranging interview, Nadthme at first sat alone, describing the political landscape.
But as darkness fell, his sitting room filled with fellow academics - drawn together by a common vision, grateful for their new-found freedom but adamantly opposed to the "invaders" who delivered it.
(SNIP)
"We are not a political party, because already there are too many partisan forces emerging. We don't want to be the government, but rather to be a watchdog to scrutinize whatever the Americans put in our path.
"We don't trust the motives of those now scrambling for power. What Iraq needs now are academics who can rise above these forces to push for an inclusive, moderate and unified democracy."
For Nadthme and friends, these are words worth fighting for. The essence of their argument is that the true voice of a future and sovereign Iraq is being railroaded by the machinations of the American reconstruction effort and the formerly exiled opposition groups.
(SNIP)
"This is very disturbing."
Yet pronouncements on that future come daily. Despite promises of full Iraqi democracy, U.S. officials have signalled that Islam need not apply.
(SNIP)
In ruling out Islamic fundamentalism for any role in the new Iraq, the United States again risks backlash, Nadthme warns.
"The sense we are getting is that America is finessing the situation in such a way that we have three choices - Ahmed Chalabi, Ahmed Chalabi or Ahmed Chalabi," he says in reference to the controversial leader of the exiles' Iraqi National Congress and a clear Pentagon favourite for post-war rule.
"Look, we are tired. We have been through three wars - two big ones and one little one. The major impulse on the part of the Shiite Muslims, the Sunnis, the Kurds and the Christians is to come together, to be moderate, to live together.
"But the more they push us toward their vision, the more Iraqis will be pushed in the opposite direction. So, the people I know are simply refusing to discuss it."
(MORE)
2//The Jordan Times Sunday, May 18, 2003
http://www.jordantimes.com/Sun/news/news4.htm
IRAQIS HOLD FIRST UNIVERSITY POLLS IN BAGHDAD
By Wafa Amr
Reuters
BAGHDAD - Iraqi academics voted to choose new deans for Baghdad universities
on Saturday as part of a US-led campaign to rid the country of the
influence of Saddam Hussein's Baath Party.
The unprecedented polls were held under US monitoring as higher education resumed in Baghdad for the first time since the US-led war that ousted Saddam on April 9.
US troops encircled Baghdad University and swarmed the campus where elections took place.
(SNIP)
Baghdad University staff nominated nine candidates for the position of dean. Most nominees stood on stage in a lecture auditorium and said they were never Baathists, although professors said most were.
"But there are good Baathists. Many of us were forced to become members by the regime," one professor said.
US higher education adviser Andrew Erdmann told 5,000 staff at Baghdad University that the US-led forces would not keep Iraqi academics in any public institution if they were associated with weapons of mass destruction, involved in gross human rights violations or were core Baathists.
(SNIP)
While some staff and students welcomed the US troops' presence inside the Baghdad University campus as protection, others blasted it and boycotted the polling process.
Instructed by the Americans, staff at Saddam University in Baghdad changed the institution's name to Al Nahrein (the two rivers). However, they voted for the same Baathist dean and Erdmann said the vote would be repeated.
3//The Sydney Morning Herald May 19 2003
http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2003/05/19/1053196506152.html
HILL PLAYS DOWN FEARS OF DIRECT THREAT
Defence Minister Robert Hill today said a plan to enlist army reservists to help fight terrorism at home was about playing safe rather than a response to a specific threat to Australia.
Units of a part-time counter-terrorist Reserve Response Force (RRF) are expected to begin specialist training as early as next month and be supporting regular troops in the event of a terrorist emergency by the end of the year.
Senator Hill continued to stress that the reservists plan was in train long before the war in Iraq and was part of the response to the Bali bombings.
"It doesn't mean we have evidence of any direct threat to Australia, it's all part of being prepared," he told ABC Radio.
"This is not a decision post-Iraq. This a decision made out of the Bali attack."
The RRF are expected to be based in every mainland capital and will bring an armed vigil against terrorists to Australian streets.
Under the plan, armed reservists are expected to be deployed around potential targets such as the Sydney Harbour Bridge, power stations, oil refineries, telephone exchanges, roads, bridges and cultural landmarks.
Senator Hill said the reservists would provide Australia with an additional capability to fight terrorism.
"In the case of major events that may attract terrorism worries, there could be a role ... in relation to CHOGM the military assisted with vehicle searches and the like," he said.
(SNIP)
Meanwhile, Australian Federal Police (AFP) commissioner Mick Keelty gave his support today to a government plan to enlist army reservists in the domestic battle against terrorism.
Commissioner Keelty told ABC radio he was not uncomfortable with the government initiative.
"I see them as a positive outcome in a whole of government approach to what is a very difficult problem that no one agency can resolve," he said.
(MORE)
4//The Moscow Times Monday, May. 19, 2003. Page
http://www.themoscowtimes.com/stories/2003/05/19/002.html
PUTIN'S NAME SURFACES IN GERMAN PROBE
By Catherine Belton
Staff Writer
Caught in the center of a Germany-wide money-laundering investigation is a St. Petersburg real estate company whose advisory board once included President Vladimir Putin.
The Hessen, Germany-based company, SPAG, was among 28 firms and homes raided by police in Hessen, Hamburg and Munich last week.
The companies are suspected of laundering "tens of millions of euros" for "one of the biggest and most powerful" Russian organized crime groups, German prosecutors said in a statement.
Prosecutors believe the crime group is based in St. Petersburg and involved in "numerous crimes, including vehicle smuggling, human trafficking, alcohol smuggling, extortion and confidence trickstering," the statement said.
No arrests have been made.
Prosecutors said the firms are suspected of laundering funds for the St. Petersburg crime group through a complex web of international companies to boost the capital of a Hessen-based company and then sending the money back to Russia for investments in real estate.
(SNIP)
But a German prosecutor told Germany's Der Spiegel magazine in Monday's edition that the raids were part of a two-year investigation into SPAG, or the St. Petersburg Real Estate Holding Co.
A spokesman for a German bank that is a major shareholder in SPAG said in a telephone interview that more than 25 law enforcers raided his bank last week and seized all of its documents relating to SPAG.
"The investigations are in connection with people who worked at [SPAG] in the '90s," said Nico Baader, spokesman for Baader Wertpapierhandelsbank AG. "SPAG's headquarters were raided, too," he said. Baader said the bank owns a 30 percent stake in SPAG and organized the firm's initial public offering on the German stock exchange in 1998.
He said the bank had not known of SPAG's possible links with organized crime at the time and had agreed to handle the IPO partly because the company had such a highly placed patron as Putin on its advisory board. "We thought it was good business if there was someone like Putin on the board," he said.
He added that the bank has been unable to sell its stake in SPAG after the money-laundering allegations came to light three years ago, during a probe by the German foreign intelligence service.
Putin was named as a member of SPAG's advisory board when the company was founded in 1992, according to German registration documents obtained by Newsweek magazine two years ago. Back then, Putin was a deputy to St. Petersburg Mayor Anatoly Sobchak and in charge of attracting foreign investment.
By 1996, Putin was already on his way up the Kremlin ladder, moving to Moscow to work in the Kremlin's property department as a deputy to Pavel Borodin, who was later fined by Switzerland for his involvement in a money-laundering scheme. Borodin paid the fine but maintained his innocence.
Putin stepped down from his post on SPAG's board only upon his inauguration as president in March 2000, according to Newsweek.
(MORE)
5//The Independent 19 May 2003
http://news.independent.co.uk/europe/story.jsp?story=407463
BELGIAN COALITION WINS POLL AS FAR-RIGHT GAINS GROUND
By Stephen Castle in Brussels
Belgium's far-right Vlaams Blok party made big gains and won a record number of protest votes in a national election yesterday which appeared to have been won by the ruling coalition of Liberals and Socialists.
The anti-immigration Flemish separatist Vlaams Blok increased its showing in its strongholds and won almost one in five votes in Flanders, but seemed to have failed to become the third biggest party there by a narrow margin. The shape of the new coalition government will be determined in negotiations over the coming weeks but the outgoing Prime Minister, Guy Verhofstadt, who leads the centre-right Flemish Liberal party, claimed victory last night.
Mr Verhofstadt, whose party had been neck-and-neck with the Flemish Christian Democrats, led by Stefaan De Clerck, was hoping to retain power with his rainbow coalition, which included the Greens and Socialists. Support for the Greens slumped disastrously, according to yesterday's early results, but both the Liberals and the Socialists made gains.
"This is a fantastic result," Mr Verhofstadt said, adding
the coalition was ready to pursue his programme of economic reforms
and tax cuts. "The government emerges stronger from these election
results."
(SNIP)
There was no question of the Blok winning a place in government because mainstream parties refuse to work with the right-wing populists.
But much attention focused on the performance of the far-right, which has shown itself to be a growing force in Belgian politics. Under the slogan "Our own people first", the Blok wants to close borders, deport criminals and illegal immigrants and use cash inducements to persuade those legally in Belgium to "return home".
(MORE)
* * *
©2003, Gloria R. Lalumia, insight@zianet.com
Radio for the Left at http://www.zianet.com/insightanalytical/radio.htm
