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| August 6, 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 Scotsman, Scotland--SQUADRONS CUT AHEAD OF DEFENCE REVIEW (With thousands of British troops still on the ground in Iraq, cuts have already begun which will remove a quarter of the army's main battle tank squadrons. Among those regiments affected are the Royal Scots Dragoon Guards, whose tank crews led the charge into Basra in April. The cuts come amid growing concern at the scale of cost-saving measures in a government white paper due for release in the next couple of months...An MoD spokeswoman said she was not aware that cuts had begun in armoured regiments, but said speculation about changes which would be recommended in the white paper was "hugely upsetting" for soldiers and their families.) 2//The Jordan Times, Jordan--OVERCOME SECURITY FEARS, CONFERENCE TELLS BUSINESSMEN LOOKING FOR DEALS IN IRAQ (A two-day conference on reconstruction of Iraq urged participants and businessmen on Monday to overcome security fears that obstruct the flow of Arab and foreign investments into the war-stricken country...Although no deals were signed, many participants agreed that the objectives of the event were fulfilled as the organisers, the Washington DC-based American Iraqi Chamber of Commerce (AICC), managed to present the business prospects in Iraq. AICC President Sam Kubba stressed that economic development would pave the way for political stability and security, and called for giving local firms a bigger share of reconstruction tenders. He expected Iraq to go into a free trade agreement with the US in few yeas, adding that his organisation has already indulged itself in talks over the issue with US officials...However, Global Strategy Consultants President Larry Mills warned against high expectations, pointing out that postwar people in general tend to formulate their expectations on unsolid grounds. He stressed that the achievement of sustainable development needs time and hard work.) 3//DW-World.de/Deutsche Welle, Germany--GERMANY DISCUSSES EXTENDING
AFGHANISTAN MANDATE (A top German politician has called for sending
military troops beyond the Afghan capital of Kabul, when the country
hands over leadership of international peacekeeping troops in mid-August...Germany
has the largest number of troops in ISAF, with 2,600 soldiers stationed
in Kabul. Germany has been called upon by the United States, United
Nations, and Afghan President Hamid Karzai to extend its mission
beyond the capital. Currently, the only troops operating outside
Kabul are those in a U.S.-led coalition force hunting down Taliban
and al-Qaeda remnants in the south and east of Afghanistan.) * * * 1//The
Scotsman Tue 5 Aug 2003 SQUADRONS CUT AHEAD OF DEFENCE REVIEW The British Army has begun cutting its fighting strength more than a month before the results of a far-reaching defence review are due to be published, The Scotsman can reveal. With thousands of British troops still on the ground in Iraq, cuts have already begun which will remove a quarter of the army's main battle tank squadrons. Among those regiments affected are the Royal Scots Dragoon Guards, whose tank crews led the charge into Basra in April. The cuts come amid growing concern at the scale of cost-saving measures in a government white paper due for release in the next couple of months. (SNIP) Mr Mercer said it could take years to bring the regiments back up to full strength again but the army had little choice because of the need to find the cash to pay for new equipment. "The government will not give the army enough money. They cannot afford it," he said. "The army has got to modernise certain equipment and it has got a stark choice between equipment and manpower." Some defence experts believe the war in Iraq proved there was still a place in the modern army for the Challenger II, which, unlike lighter tanks or helicopters, is able to withstand repeated attacks from rocket-propelled grenades. Charles Heyman, the editor of the leading defence publication Jane's World Armies, said: "Those tanks are amazingly versatile. Attack helicopters are brilliant, but they are the equivalent of light cavalry. They cannot do what main battle tanks can do." He pointed to the experience of the United States forces which attempted to use helicopters in place of main battle tanks: "They came a cropper because that is not what they are for." An MoD spokeswoman said she was not aware that cuts had begun in armoured regiments, but said speculation about changes which would be recommended in the white paper was "hugely upsetting" for soldiers and their families.
OVERCOME SECURITY FEARS, CONFERENCE TELLS BUSINESSMEN LOOKING FOR
DEALS IN IRAQ AMMAN - A two-day conference on reconstruction of Iraq urged participants and businessmen on Monday to overcome security fears that obstruct the flow of Arab and foreign investments into the war-stricken country. At the end of their meetings, panelists advised investors to forge business alliances and partnerships with local Iraqi companies and other firms abroad and to seize the opportunity available in postwar Iraq. Although no deals were signed, many participants agreed that the objectives of the event were fulfilled as the organisers, the Washington DC-based American Iraqi Chamber of Commerce (AICC), managed to present the business prospects in Iraq. AICC President Sam Kubba stressed that economic development would pave the way for political stability and security, and called for giving local firms a bigger share of reconstruction tenders. He expected Iraq to go into a free trade agreement with the US in few yeas, adding that his organisation has already indulged itself in talks over the issue with US officials. Khalaf Saad, vice president of the Saudi Jereisi Group, told the conference that the state of instability prevailing in Iraq now would not last forever. "Uncertainty and risk are destined to vanish soon," he emphasised. However, Global Strategy Consultants President Larry Mills warned against high expectations, pointing out that postwar people in general tend to formulate their expectations on unsolid grounds. He stressed that the achievement of sustainable development needs time and hard work. (SNIP) Organisers have said the conference was meant to "help Iraqi firms and individuals to network and develop alliances with US, British and other contractors and business firms." The meeting attracted the participation of about 300 key businesspeople and firms representatives from the US, the UK, Iraq, the UAE, Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, India, Singapore and Malaysia, in addition to Jordan. The AICC was set up earlier this year following the fall of the Iraq regime. Its board includes US figures of Iraqi origin.
GERMANY DISCUSSES EXTENDING AFGHANISTAN MANDATE A top German politician has called for sending military troops beyond
the Afghan capital of Kabul, when the country hands over leadership
of international peacekeeping troops in mid-August. Erler
was speaking in reaction to reports suggesting that Germany could
be engaged in Afghanistan in a "regional reconstruction
team" that would go beyond Kabul. Until now German troops have
been confined to maintaining security in Kabul as part of ISAF. Seeking clarity (SNIP) Germany has the largest number of troops in ISAF, with 2,600 soldiers stationed in Kabul. Germany has been called upon by the United States, United Nations, and Afghan President Hamid Karzai to extend its mission beyond the capital. Currently, the only troops operating outside Kabul are those in a U.S.-led coalition force hunting down Taliban and al-Qaeda remnants in the south and east of Afghanistan. NATO stays in place (MORE)
NORTH KOREA TALKS: A DARK TUNNEL The announcement of North Korea's acceptance of a multilateral negotiating forum to discuss its nuclear program is cause for modified rapture. While a possibility for negotiating an end to this crisis, and perhaps to Pyongyang's nuclearization, is now a real option, there is no guarantee that this option will survive or that the negotiations will go anywhere. The fundamental asymmetries that have impeded progress toward a peace settlement of the Korean War and of inter-Korean relations remain intact. And possibly, in order to get to this moderately hopeful point, more complications have had to be added to the mix. Among these asymmetries is the fact that there is as yet no method short of war that can compel North Korea to terminate its nuclear program and submit to strict and verifiable inspections without paying for it. While this does not sit at all well with at least some members of the administration of US President George W Bush, nobody anywhere has been able to find a way around this conundrum. Thus in some way, either financially or politically, or both, North Korea will be able to extort some sort of tangible reward for extraordinarily bad behavior, thereby driving a rather large vehicle through the efforts to sustain non-proliferation of nuclear weapons. However, there is no guarantee that such a strict verification and inspection regime will come out of these talks, for the history of such regimes, dating back to the interwar restrictions on German rearmament, shows that they have inevitably proved to be ineffectual, porous, and often unsupported by the powers that drafted them. Indeed, the only arms-inspection and verification regimes that have worked have generally involved some form of occupation, and that certainly is unlikely in this situation. And to look at this contingency is to assume to some degree that North Korea will willingly accept the most intrusive violation of its sovereignty imaginable, or at any rate imaginable to it, again a most improbable expectation. Conversely, what does North Korea hope to gain from possibly acceding to an inspection and verification regime along these lines? Obviously it wants a non-aggression pact or declaration from the United States, which is very unlikely as well under the circumstances. Likewise it wants enormous amounts of aid and truly guaranteed sources of energy because it feels cheated by the dilatory US implementation of the Agreed Framework. Again it is difficult to see it obtaining such aid and guarantees without ending its nuclear-program lock. At the same time the presence of the other powers around the table besides the US and North Korea - namely South Korea, Japan, China and Russia - introduces some real wild cards into the game. While it is unlikely anyone wants North Korea to have nuclear weapons and everyone is scared of this possibility, with Russia going so far as to take emergency precautionary measures in neighboring zones, what will they pay to get rid of those weapons, and will that payment affect their overall policies toward the issues connected with Korean unification? In some cases, again including Russia's, it is difficult to see what these governments' objectives are once they have achieved their goal of being recognized as states who must be consulted in any part of the Korean "peace process". (MORE)
SIMPLE TEST MAY DETERMINE IF HONASAN SHOULD GO TO JAIL Blood compact An "Armpit Test" may help determine whether Senator Gregorio Honasan will go to jail. Should the former Army colonel decide to surface and meet with investigators, he would be asked to raise his left arm, a police official said Tuesday. The presence of a scar near his left armpit would partially confirm the government's claim that Honasan led the junior officers, who staged the July 27 mutiny, in a "blood compact" to seal their plot to oust President Macapagal-Arroyo, a police official said. In the Senate, the chair of the committee on national defense and security also said that some of the participants to the mutiny could be pinpointed if they had the same scar. After consulting with the Senate resident doctor, Senator Ramon Magsaysay Jr. said "linear scars can still be visible" even two months after the blood compact. Asked if he planned to ask mutiny leaders to show their upper arms when they testify before the Senate on Friday, Magsaysay said he would not be present in the hearing but might ask Senator Robert Barbers to make the suggestion. "If they want to show their underarms, if they are brave enough to participate in a blood compact and are equally man enough to show their arms," Magsaysay said. Police are now looking for a flag and a copy of a prayer for Honasan's National Recovery Program (NRP) stained by the blood of those who took part in the blood compact. If any of the stains matched with Honasan's blood type, the result would help convict the senator of coup d'etat charges, Eduardo Matillano, chief of the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group, said. The test would be done by either the PNP Crime Laboratory or the National Bureau of Investigation or even by the NBI's counterpart in the United States, the Federal Bureau of Investigation. "The results would show that he indeed took part in the blood compact," Matillano told the Inquirer in a telephone interview. The blood compact took place during a late-night meeting on June 4 between Honasan and the junior military officers who eventually staged the mutiny, according to the sworn statement of Major Perfecto Ragil, the government's star witness against Honasan. (MORE) | |||||
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