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| August 29, 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//Asia Times Online, Hong Kong--IRAN'S REFORMERS, CONSERVATIVES SQUARE OFF (A new round of public confrontation between the ruling conservatives - a minority of non-elected clerics who rule Iran - and the official reformists who control both the executive and the legislative powers but have no say in decision-making, has set the tone for the run up to the majlis (parliament) elections, due in less than six months. The two heads of the Iranian political system are engaged in a cutthroat fight on two fronts, and the outcome could well determine, and eventually shape, the future of the present Iranian regime.) 2//Inter Press Service, Italy--POLITICS-LIBERIA: U.S. PULLBACK BRAKES MOMENTUM, EXPERTS SAY (Washington's removal of U.S. marines from Monrovia to ships offshore will hurt the recovery of war-weary Liberia in both real and symbolic ways, say humanitarian and political experts...U.S. military spokesmen said they recalled the marines because the soldiers can better assess the situation from offshore, although officials were earlier quoted saying that was a job better done on the ground. President George W Bush said earlier this month the soldiers would leave Liberia by Oct. 1...The pullback is ''a slap in the face to the U.N. and the whole peace effort'', said Robert Rotberg, director of the programme on intrastate conflict, conflict prevention and conflict resolution at the John F Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University. ''It shows that the U.S. doesn't take it seriously.'' ) 3//The Toronto Star, Canada--McCALLUM VOLUNTEERS TO CUT DEFENCE (Defence Minister John McCallum is leading the way in the federal government's push to find $1 billion in savings to help pay for new spending on social and environmental programs announced in this year's budget. In the largest proposed voluntary cuts among federal departments, National Defence has promised to find ways to trim $200 million from its $12.7 billion budget, according to a confidential memo distributed to government departments by the federal Treasury Board.) 4//The Japan Times, Japan--OPINION: WASHINGTON LAYS SIEGE TO WTO SYSTEM (Zoellick calls himself a free trader, fighting for the benefits of free trade over protectionism. However, what he is doing by setting up these FTAs is the opposite, and threatens the very system he is claiming to support. FTAs are agreements to establish protected trade flows, in which each of the members agrees to give trade preferences to its partner or partners. This is contrary to the spirit of the WTO.... A usually pro-U.S. newspaper, the London-based Financial Times, recently described the U.S. as a "bungling bully." It argued that the U.S. is making it clear that it will set up FTAs only with countries that support its broad foreign policy goals.) 5//The Moscow Times, Russia--CARLYLE, ALFA MULL JOINT EQUITY FUND ("We have been looking at Russia for a long time," the source said, on condition of anonymity. "But we have not made any firm deals so far." Carlyle snapped up a 68 percent stake in the pharmacy network Apteka Holding in 1999, its sole investment in Russia to date.) * * * 1//Asia
Times Online August 29, 2003 IRAN'S REFORMERS, CONSERVATIVES SQUARE OFF PARIS - A new round of public confrontation between the ruling conservatives - a minority of non-elected clerics who rule Iran - and the official reformists who control both the executive and the legislative powers but have no say in decision-making, has set the tone for the run up to the majlis (parliament) elections, due in less than six months. The two heads of the Iranian political system are engaged in a cutthroat fight on two fronts, and the outcome could well determine, and eventually shape, the future of the present Iranian regime. Two important ministries of Hojjatoleslam Mohammad Khatami's government are clashing with two major organs controlled by Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the leader of the Islamic Republic: these are the Interior Ministry against the Guardians Council (GC) and the Intelligence Ministry against the powerful judiciary. The first battle is about the future of the next majlis elections, where the conservatives, through the GC, a non-elected, 12-member institution, are responsible for vetting all candidates to all elections in Iran as well as for approving the conformity of all laws passed by the parliament with Sharia, or Islamic, canons. The Guardians have already rejected two government bills approved by the majlis. The first one calls for curtailing some extra powers of the GC, namely that of vetting the candidates. The other wants some of the president's constitutional prerogatives that are contested by the judiciary to be restored to him. Two weeks ago Interior Minister Hojjatoleslam Abdolvahed Mousavi-Lari ordered provincial governors not to cooperate with the GC in opening offices for the coming elections, a decision that was immediately denounced by the election watchdog, stating that the GC did not need the governors anyway. The second front is the theater of an unprecedented clash that opposes the Intelligence Ministry with the judiciary over the death of Zahra Kazemi, a Canadian-Iranian photojournalist killed in July by interrogators from the office of Sa'id Mortazavi, the prosecutor of both Tehran and the Islamic revolution tribunal, the Intelligence Ministry and the Law Enforcement Forces. (SNIP) Iranian political analysts are unanimous in predicting that not only are the conservatives determined not to allow the next unicameral house be controlled by the reformists (as is the case now), they also want an end to the present political chaos caused by the endless feuds between the system's two opposed concepts of theocracy based of one man's absolute rule versus a republicanism mixed with a "tolerant religion", as defined by Khatami. In the view of the analysts, the recent harsh crackdown on political dissidents and the independent press, which is close to the reformists, by the judiciary, a power that is directly controlled by Ayatollah Khamenei and which serves as the conservatives' political and police arms, is a clear indication of the hardliners' plans in that direction. (MORE)
POLITICS-LIBERIA: Marty Logan MONTREAL, Aug 27 (IPS) - Washington's removal of U.S. marines from Monrovia to ships offshore will hurt the recovery of war-weary Liberia in both real and symbolic ways, say humanitarian and political experts. Earlier this week, 150 soldiers in a rapid reaction force that had been patrolling Monrovia since Aug. 14 climbed into their helicopters and flew to three ships stationed nearby, leaving about 100 troops behind to guard the U.S. embassy and work with West African peacekeepers. (SNIP) (SNIP) The international community had strongly pushed Washington to intervene in Liberia, a nation created by freed U.S. slaves in the 19th century, for months before the troops set foot onshore without warning -- just as they left this week -- earlier this month. '''What is the U.S. approach?' is the question that's out there now,'' said Joel Frushone, Africa policy analyst for the U.S. Committee for Refugees (USCR). ''When U.S. troops landed on the ground -- I don't know if it was a coincidence, but the fighting stopped.'' In the following days, international non-governmental organisations (NGOs) had ventured out of the capital to assess the situation in other areas, he added. The pullback ''stops the momentum that started when U.S. troops hit the ground there, even in small numbers''. ''It was my hope that these peacekeepers would help open up humanitarian corridors to start bringing supplies in. Sure, they're emergency supplies, but you can't go in to any part of the country and start doing relief operations until you do assessments.'' The pullback is ''a slap in the face to the U.N. and the whole peace effort'', said Robert Rotberg, director of the programme on intrastate conflict, conflict prevention and conflict resolution at the John F Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University. ''It shows that the U.S. doesn't take it seriously.'' Rotberg compared the U.S. forces with the U.K. and French soldiers who continue to keep peace in their former colonies, neighbouring Sierra Leone and Cote d'Ivoire respectively. ''Eight hundred and fifty paratroopers in Sierra Leone turned the whole situation around and made elections possible next door, in Ivory Coast, 2,000 French Foreign Legion troops and others are there preventing Ivory Coast from descending into chaos -- so we need to do our part.'' (MORE)
McCALLUM VOLUNTEERS TO CUT DEFENCE Les Whittington OTTAWA-Defence Minister John McCallum is leading the way in the federal government's push to find $1 billion in savings to help pay for new spending on social and environmental programs announced in this year's budget. In the largest proposed voluntary cuts among federal departments, National Defence has promised to find ways to trim $200 million from its $12.7 billion budget, according to a confidential memo distributed to government departments by the federal Treasury Board. Treasury Board Minister Lucienne Robillard was expected yesterday to reveal planned spending reductions across the government, but the announcement was postponed so federal officials could take into account unexpected spending on the Ontario blackout and British Columbia's forest fires. One of Finance Minister John Manley's chief themes has been the need to reallocate government spending from low-priority programs to high-priority areas. With the hefty budget surpluses of past years disappearing, Manley demanded in his February budget that federal departments pinpoint a total of $1 billion in savings for the current 2003-04 fiscal year. McCallum, in hopes of freeing up more money to improve and purchase equipment for the hard-pressed military, has volunteered to find $200 million in savings in his department. He appointed a blue-ribbon committee to search for ways to cut spending on procurement, information technology, equipment maintenance costs and other operations. (MORE)
OPINION: WASHINGTON LAYS SIEGE TO WTO SYSTEM By David Wall Special to The Japan Times LONDON -- In the last few weeks the U.S. Congress has approved free-trade agreements with Chile and Singapore and has approved the opening of talks on FTAs with Bahrain and the Dominican Republic. The United States already has FTAs with Canada, Mexico, Israel and Jordan. It is also at varying stages of negotiation with the whole of South and Central America, the five members of the Southern Africa Customs Union and Australia. U.S. Trade Representative Robert Zoellick has also offered to negotiate FTAs with the six members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations that are also members of the World Trade Organization. Zoellick calls himself a free trader, fighting for the benefits of free trade over protectionism. However, what he is doing by setting up these FTAs is the opposite, and threatens the very system he is claiming to support. FTAs are agreements to establish protected trade flows, in which each of the members agrees to give trade preferences to its partner or partners. This is contrary to the spirit of the WTO. The WTO manages the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade, or GATT, which was established in 1947 to move the world away from the preferential trade arrangements of the 1920s and 1930s that were among the causes of the Great Depression. GATT is based on the principle of nondiscrimination, embodied in the Most Favored Nation (MFN) clause in the agreement (and in other agreements managed by the WTO, such as the General Agreement on Trade in Services). The MFN principle means that any trade preference offered to any member of the WTO must be extended to all members. Adhering to the MFN principle means that the sort of protectionist preferential trading arrangements being so aggressively pursued by the U.S. should be prohibited. They are not prohibited because when GATT was negotiated at the end of World War II it was thought that the Europeans could rebuild their war-torn economies more quickly if they were allowed to move toward freer trade among themselves more quickly than might be achieved through the various rounds of tariff-reduction negotiations engaged in by the full GATT membership. The clause that allows countries to abrogate the MFN principle has since been used to validate hundreds of bilateral and regional FTAs. The rapid growth in such protectionist trade arrangements is a serious systemic threat to the agreements managed by the WTO and to the survival of the WTO itself. Zoellick has made it clear that he does not have much faith that the WTO can achieve moves toward global free trade at a rate acceptable to the U.S. He and others in the Bush administration believe that the Doha Round of negotiations set up two years ago is likely to fail to realize the moves toward global free trade favored by the U.S. They have proposed that tariffs on all industrial goods be abolished completely and that tariffs and the many other obstacles to free trade in agricultural goods be substantially lowered. The next stage in the Doha Round, also known as the Development Round, takes place next month when trade ministers from the 144 or so members of the WTO get together in Cancun, Mexico, to review progress in the various sectoral negotiations. (SNIP) Among the dangers of FTAs, especially those in which the U.S. is one of the partners, is that they are not agreements among equals. The U.S. uses its economic power to force agreements on its partners that go beyond their obligations under GATT. There is the danger, already succumbed to, that the U.S. will want nontrade goodies in return for a partner's improved access to the U.S. market. A usually pro-U.S. newspaper, the London-based Financial Times, recently described the U.S. as a "bungling bully." It argued that the U.S. is making it clear that it will set up FTAs only with countries that support its broad foreign policy goals. (MORE)
CARLYLE, ALFA MULL JOINT EQUITY FUND Carlyle Group Inc., a U.S. private-equity company, is in discussions with Alfa Group on starting a $500 million private-equity fund, the Financial Times reported Thursday, without saying where it got the information. Each company would contribute $250 million to the fund, which aims to invest in a range of Russian businesses to take advantage of predicted growth in gross domestic product of as much as 7 percent, according to the FT. Carlyle and Alfa reportedly are close to reaching agreement, it said. (SNIP) A source at Carlyle said no official deal had been reached so far and Alfa Group was in talks with several private equity groups, not just Carlyle. "We have been looking at Russia for a long time," the source said, on condition of anonymity. "But we have not made any firm deals so far." Carlyle snapped up a 68 percent stake in the pharmacy network Apteka Holding in 1999, its sole investment in Russia to date. | |||||
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