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| August 1, 2003 |
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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 Independent, UK--PRESCOTT TELLS LABOUR REBELS TO 'SHUT UP' FOR THE SUMMER (John Prescott bluntly told Labour's backbench critics yesterday to shut up and stop attacking Tony Blair. The Deputy Prime Minister told rebel MPs: "For God's sake, can you shut up for the summer and let me get on with my job." In an unprompted outburst during an interview on BBC Radio 4, he said: "Can I say to some of my colleagues: can we start thinking long and hard a bit about what we are doing?) 2//Al
Bawaba, Jordan--US APPROVES OPENING OF IRAQI-SYRIAN RAILWAY DESPITE
SANCTION THREATS (Despite tense relations between the United
States and Syria, the Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA) applauded
the resumption of railway services between northern Iraq and the
state labeled by the US as a supporter of terrorism. The train will
run twice a week and take approximately 15 hours to reach Baghdad
from the Syrian border...According to the US-led CPA, the train includes
mainly oil tanker cars and several passenger cars. The cars are expected
to allow Iraq's petroleum industry to increase refinery output by
one-third. "They are important for us here in Iraq because they
will significantly raise ability to move crude around the country
and particularly to get crude oil to the refineries," said a
coalition spokesman.) 4//The Turkish Daily News, Turkey--US INCHES OPEN DOOR FOR TURKISH
PARTICIPATION IN IRAQ REBUILDING (The United States has finally responded
to a set of Turkish offers of non-military contributions to the restructuring
of Iraq in a non-paper presented to Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul
during his visit to Washington last week, Turkish and U.S. officials
said...The U.S. side said it was looking at the offers, but many
in Ankara interpreted the delay in an official response to Turkish
offers as a sign of Washington's unwillingness to leave behind the
tension over Turkey's rejection of a U.S. request to open a front
on Iraq from Turkish land and move on to restore ties.) * * * 1//The
Independent 31 July 2003 PRESCOTT TELLS LABOUR REBELS TO 'SHUT UP' FOR THE SUMMER John Prescott bluntly told Labour's backbench critics yesterday to shut up and stop attacking Tony Blair. The Deputy Prime Minister told rebel MPs: "For God's sake, can you shut up for the summer and let me get on with my job." In an unprompted outburst during an interview on BBC Radio 4, he said: "Can I say to some of my colleagues: can we start thinking long and hard a bit about what we are doing? "Fine, this is the Labour Party, we can continue to be critical about things. If they want to make the criticisms, make the criticisms. But for God's sake, talk up what we have done. We've got a damn good record." Mr Prescott will be in charge of the Government while Mr Blair holidays in Barbados, despite speculation that the Chancellor, Gordon Brown, would take over. (SNIP) But within hours, Glenda Jackson, a former transport minister, restated her criticism of the Government. "I did not campaign in the 2001 election on a manifesto that committed this country to a pre-emptive strike on Iraq or the creation of foundation hospitals," she said. "And I was categoric, based on the manifesto ... that there would be no increase [in] university tuition fees."
US APPROVES OPENING OF IRAQI-SYRIAN RAILWAY DESPITE SANCTION THREATS (menareport.com) The first train to travel the route between Rabiyah, a border town and Baghdad left the station on Wednesday, July 30 ,2003 . Operations were renewed under the administration of the US Army, the official supervisors of Iraq's northern region, reported AFP. Some $1. 4million has been invested by the 101st Airborne Division on reparations in the region. "It's Iraqi money for Iraqis," said Captain Pat Costello, explaining that the funding comes from Iraqi assets frozen after the Gulf War. Payouts from the funds are released on a diminutive basis and are used to hire local contractors. According to the US-led CPA, the train includes mainly oil tanker cars and several passenger cars. The cars are expected to allow Iraq's petroleum industry to increase refinery output by one-third. "They are important for us here in Iraq because they will significantly raise ability to move crude around the country and particularly to get crude oil to the refineries," said a coalition spokesman. (MORE)
U.S. BARTERING ARMS FOR SOLDIERS FOR IRAQ UNITED NATIONS - Faced with a rising death toll among its soldiers in Iraq, the United States is trying to "buy" foreign troops for a proposed 30,000-strong multinational force in Baghdad. "When they were seeking UN support for a war on Iraq, they were twisting arms," one Asian diplomat said. "Now they are offering carrots in exchange for our troops." The inducements - including weapons and increased military aid - have apparently been offered to at least three countries whose troops Washington desperately needs to bolster the fledgling multinational force in Iraq and relieve the pressure on US forces in the war-ravaged country. The administration of President George W Bush has intensified efforts to seek troops from India, Pakistan and Turkey in order to bolster a multinational force that now includes troops mostly from former Soviet republics and Latin American nations. The Indian government, which withdrew its offer of 17,000 troops under heavy domestic political pressure, is being lobbied once again with an offer of sophisticated military equipment. The quid pro quo, according to diplomatic sources, is approval of the proposed sale of the state-of-the-art Arrow-2 missile defense system by Israel. Since the US$100 million system includes US components and funding, Israel needs US approval to close the deal. (SNIP) "The Bush administration is doing the right thing in looking for additional help in Iraq," said Natalie J Goldring, executive director of the Program on Global Security and Disarmament at the University of Maryland. "But the US government should be seeking that help through the United Nations. Instead, US political and military leaders are once again trying to buy countries' cooperation with weapons transfers and military aid," she said. Goldring added that there is no evidence that providing India with a missile defense system will decrease the level of conflict in the unstable South Asian region. "Quite the contrary. Past attempts by India or Pakistan to gain military advantage have inevitably been matched or countered by the other country, continuing and often accelerating the already dangerous arms race in that part of the world," she said. (MORE)
US INCHES OPEN DOOR FOR TURKISH PARTICIPATION IN IRAQ REBUILDING The US official response to Turkey's proposals of non-military contribution to Iraq's restructuring, offered during Ziyal's visit, finally arrives, as a beginning for the two countries to work together in Iraq. The United States has finally responded to a set of Turkish offers of non-military contributions to the restructuring of Iraq in a non-paper presented to Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul during his visit to Washington last week, Turkish and U.S. officials said. Turkey has presented a list of proposals to help the U.S. efforts to improve living conditions of Iraqis in a last month visit by Undersecretary of Foreign Ministry Ugur Ziyal to Washington. Turkish proposals ranged from helping to meet electricity and running water needs of Iraqis to modernizing the computer system of the Iraqi Foreign Ministry and providing holiday facilities in Turkish tourist spots for U.S. soldiers operating in Iraq. The U.S. side said it was looking at the offers, but many in Ankara interpreted the delay in an official response to Turkish offers as a sign of Washington's unwillingness to leave behind the tension over Turkey's rejection of a U.S. request to open a front on Iraq from Turkish land and move on to restore ties. (MORE)
By Catherine Belton OFFICIAL: YUKOS AFFAIR IS TRICKY President Vladimir Putin is determined to keep the escalating investigations into Yukos from evolving into a wholesale review of early privatizations, according to a senior official. "We have to steadily move away from this situation without revisiting the results of privatization," the senior official told foreign journalists late Tuesday on the condition of anonymity. "The position of the president is that privatization will not be revised." The official said Putin was well aware that the legal onslaught against the nation's biggest oil producer had rocked investor confidence and had a negative affect on the economy. But, he said, the tense standoff, which began July 2 with the arrest of core Yukos shareholder Platon Lebedev on charges of stealing state property in 1994, is proving difficult to defuse. "It is very easy to get into such situations, but it is very difficult to get out of them," he said. "You can't tell prosecutors to close their eyes to possible violations of the law. But on the other hand, the political aim is to try and get out of this situation." (SNIP) The attack on Yukos appears to have transformed the fortunes of its founder, Mikhail Khodorkovsky, almost overnight, as he has gone from the pro-Western wonder boy of the market to oligarch-under-siege. The sudden turnaround is a sharp reminder to foreign investors that Russia's business climate is far from stable. The stock market has slumped 13 percent since the investigations began, and a decline in the Central Bank's foreign currency reserves suggests that domestic players are starting to take money out of the country amid fears the case could set a precedent for a new attack on property rights. (SNIP) Despite the massive waves of anxiety that the attack on Yukos has produced among investors, however, the official claimed he was at a loss to explain what had prompted the affair. (SNIP) "The situation with Yukos, when one day it suddenly turns out that the leadership of one of [Russia's] biggest companies has been accused of stealing, killing, violence, embezzlement and, on top of all that, tax evasion, looks like a campaign." He said that prosecutors should not act on "political orders or those of Yukos' competitors. If this continues systematically it will destroy the political and economic system." He claimed that Putin had not known the attack was going to be unleashed before it happened, and that it was "unlikely" it was launched by the Kremlin. Most analysts polled, however, suggested that an attack of such scope could not have been launched without a nod from the president. The official, however, said blame for the attack lay partly on big businesses for frequently using law enforcement agencies in the past to drive out competitors. But he dismissed suggestions that it indicated a power struggle between the old elite that thrived under the freewheeling Yeltsin regime and the siloviki, who are former KGB men brought in by Putin. "This current situation is not due to [the siloviki] having strengthened their position. This looks more like the hand of individuals. This has been thought up by a group of omonovtsy that think they represent the interests of the country," he said, referring to the word for elite police. He said Putin had already sent out all the "necessary signals," both in public and in private, that the affair is hurting the economy. | |||||
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