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| November 14, 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. * * * WORLD MEDIA WATCH FOR NOVEMBER 14, 2003 1//The Independent, UK--BLAIR 'DISHONEST, SHALLOW AND CHEAP' IN JUSTIFYING BUSH VISIT, SAYS COOK (Mr Cook attacks Mr Blair for attributing the huge protests planned next week to "resurgent anti-Americanism". He says this is "a dishonest, shallow, cheap argument, not worthy of such a consummate communicator ... It is entirely possible to want warm relations with the American people while keeping a prudent distance from the foreign adventures of President Bush.") 2//Asia Times Online, Hong Kong--JIHADI ANGER: AFTER ITALY, AUSTRALIA? (Australia has reasons to be more worried than any other country, except the US and the UK, about the threat of being targeted by the IIF. The campaign against it in the mosques and madrassas of Pakistan since last November has been quite virulent. The LET, which has close links with Jemaah Islamiyah and extremist organizations of Indonesia, shares their anger against Australia because of its perceived role in East Timor. Moreover, for the first time, reports coming out of the madrassas of Pakistan speak of the presence of Australian students in some of them.) 3//The
Sydney Morning Herald, Australia-- FRENCH-GERMAN ALLIANCE
WARMS AMID US COLD WAR (France is threatening
to unite with Germany to maintain their influence in an
enlarged European Union and strengthen their common front
against the United States, according to reports yesterday.
Foreign minister Dominique de Villepin was quoted by Le
Monde speaking explicitly about "Franco-German union" and
to have called the further deepening of ties between the
countries "the one historic challenge we cannot lose"...
Pascal Lamy, one of France's EU commissioners, spoke enthusiastically
of the idea in Le Monde. He said it could start with the
unification of France and Germany's diplomatic services
and the sharing of France's permanent seat on the United
Nations security council...Senior French diplomats concede
that they have given up on their relationship with America
as long as President Bush remains in office. Since opposing
the war in Iraq, France has been ignored in Washington
and Paris says its attempts at reconciliation have failed.) Related: THE BUZZ IS ABOUT YUKOS IN BOSTON 5//The Philippine Daily Inquirer, Philppines- MACAPAGAL BLAMES FOES FOR VIOLENT WEDNESDAY PROTEST (President Macapagal-Arroyo on Thursday blamed "unscrupulous political leaders" for egging on the poor to stage Wednesday's protest rally in Makati City -- even as ousted President Joseph Estrada literally distanced himself from the mass action...In a telephone interview with the Inquirer, Estrada strongly condemned the violent dispersal of about 10,000 protesters calling for the ouster of Ms Macapagal and Chief Justice Hilario Davide Jr... Noting the violent dispersal of the Makati protesters, Estrada asked: "Does this government still follow the Constitution?" The organizers of the Ayala march blamed Ms Macapagal for the mayhem and condemned the police for the "brutal" dispersal. Saying they would not be cowed by water cannons, tear gases and truncheons, the organizers vowed to stage bigger protest actions in the next few days.) * * * 1//The
Independent 14 November 2003 BLAIR 'DISHONEST, SHALLOW AND CHEAP' IN JUSTIFYING BUSH
VISIT, SAYS COOK Robin Cook has accused Tony Blair of making dishonest, shallow and cheap arguments to justify next week's controversial state visit to Britain by President George Bush. Writing in The Independent today, the former cabinet minister discloses that a proposed state visit by Bill Clinton was blocked because of the Monica Lewinsky affair. He says: "I was Foreign Secretary at the time the Royal Visits Committee quietly dropped President Clinton from the forward programme of state visits because of his impending impeachment. I am bewildered that the same committee that concluded Bill Clinton did not merit a state visit has decided that George Bush has the stronger claim to be so honoured." Mr Cook attacks Mr Blair for attributing the huge protests planned next week to "resurgent anti-Americanism". He says this is "a dishonest, shallow, cheap argument, not worthy of such a consummate communicator ... It is entirely possible to want warm relations with the American people while keeping a prudent distance from the foreign adventures of President Bush." Mr Cook, who resigned from the Cabinet before the Iraq war, says: "The state visit is the latest episode in a relationship with the Bush administration that has remained so one-sided that it has become an affront to our national dignity." (MORE)
JIHADI ANGER: AFTER ITALY, AUSTRALIA? (SNIP) While there has been some expression of anger against Italy, it was not strong enough to have made one think that that country could be a target of attack. And that too, in such a devastating manner. More than a reflection of anger against Italy because of its support to the US, the explosion is also meant to warn other countries to keep away from Iraq. Being a suicide attack, the explosion targeting the Italians is most probably the work of non-Iraqis. There is so far no reliable evidence of any Iraqi, Sunni or Shi'ite participating in suicide explosions. According to sources in the Binori madrassa of Karachi in Pakistan, most of the suicide blasts in Iraq have been carried out by Chechen members of the IIF, particularly of the Lashkar-e-Toiba (LET). There has recently been an infiltration of two fresh groups with a total strength of about 70 members, most of them Arab nationals of Chechen ancestry, into Iraq from Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and Jordan, taking the total number of foreign jihadis operating in Iraq to about 270 to 320. Funds are being collected in the streets, mosques and madrassas of Pakistan by the LET and other Pakistani components of the IIF to support the families of 30 jihadis who, according to them, martyred themselves by volunteering for suicide missions in Iraq. It is not clear whether this 30 formed part of the above-mentioned figure. Australia has reasons to be more worried than any other country, except the US and the UK, about the threat of being targeted by the IIF. The campaign against it in the mosques and madrassas of Pakistan since last November has been quite virulent. The LET, which has close links with Jemaah Islamiyah and extremist organizations of Indonesia, shares their anger against Australia because of its perceived role in East Timor. Moreover, for the first time, reports coming out of the madrassas of Pakistan speak of the presence of Australian students in some of them. A report carried by the News, the largest circulated English daily of Pakistan, on September 23, said that 147 foreign students were studying in the madrassa Jamia Abu Bakar of Karachi and that they have come from Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia, Uganda, Djibouti, Niger, Nigeria, Rwanda, the Philippines, Maldives, Australia, Ghana, Somalia, Cambodia, Cameroon, Kenya, Senegal and Afghanistan. The total number of Australian Muslims, almost all of them foreign converts to Islam and not Muslim migrants, studying in the various madrassas of Pakistan, is estimated at not more than about 12 to 15. Even such a small number could pose a grave threat if they were motivated to take to suicide terrorism. (MORE)
FRENCH-GERMAN ALLIANCE WARMS AMID US COLD WAR France is threatening to unite with Germany to maintain their influence in an enlarged European Union and strengthen their common front against the United States, according to reports yesterday. Foreign minister Dominique de Villepin was quoted by Le Monde speaking explicitly about "Franco-German union" and to have called the further deepening of ties between the countries "the one historic challenge we cannot lose". Le Monde gave most of its first three pages to reports on the proposed union, noting that it was an idea whose time might have come. Pascal Lamy, one of France's EU commissioners, spoke enthusiastically of the idea in Le Monde. He said it could start with the unification of France and Germany's diplomatic services and the sharing of France's permanent seat on the United Nations security council. M Lamy said: "A Franco-German parliament could focus on whatever the EU and the German regional parliaments do not cover." This would include foreign and defence policy, economic and social policy and research. The details of further union are yet to be sketched out but are likely to include foreign, defence, economic and social policy. The leaking of his remarks to a Paris think-tank was designed to underline French determination not to be sidelined by American power and its inevitable loss of influence when the EU expands from 15 to 25 members in May. But France also hopes to put pressure on Britain to dilute its transatlantic relationship in favour of Europe. Paris is determined to press the rest of Europe into accepting the new EU constitution put forward by the former French president, Valery Giscard d'Estaing. Senior French diplomats concede that they have given up on their relationship with America as long as President Bush remains in office. Since opposing the war in Iraq, France has been ignored in Washington and Paris says its attempts at reconciliation have failed. All its diplomatic energies, therefore, are now focused on Europe and in particular on prising Britain away from America. With Britain won over, France and Germany believe they can dominate the enlarged Union. (MORE)
PUTIN CALMS IMF AS PROSECUTORS TURN UP HEAT President Vladimir Putin on Thursday reiterated his position that the legal assault on Yukos and its top shareholders is not part of a wider campaign to redistribute property. But the Prosecutor General's Office suggested otherwise. "There is no basis to suppose that the use of laws is selective or will be selective," Putin told visiting International Monetary Fund chief Horst K?hler, according to the president's top economic advisor Andrei Illarionov, who attended the meeting. "The president stressed that [the Yukos affair] cannot be seen as aimed at reviewing the results of privatization. The prosecutor general must prove its case in an open and fair trial," Interfax quoted Illarionov as saying. Putin's remarks seemed to be enough to allay the concerns of an IMF worried about the economic impact of the arrests of Yukos founders Mikhail Khodorkovsky and Platon Lebedev and the subsequent sequestering of nearly half the oil giant's shares. (SNIP) K?hler also said the actions of the Prosecutor General's Office were troubling. "I am really concerned over how prosecutors are handling the Yukos case, but I have no expertise to figure it out," Interfax quoted him as saying. Deputy Prosecutor General Vladimir Kolesnikov appeared to confirm the IMF's fears. The Yukos case, he said, is simply "one part of a chain" of presumed wrongdoings by other companies. "The prosecutor's office receives complaints and discovers violations [by] all kinds of enterprises. Thus, the Yukos case should only be seen as just an episode in our work," Kolesnikov told Interfax. Kolesnikov's remarks came the day after he issued a public warning to "those who are not yet jailed" to be careful, and voiced regrets that the Criminal Code cannot offer a prison term longer than 10 years for the crimes that Khodorkovsky is charged with. (MORE) Related: Although invited to the seventh annual U.S.-Russia Investment Symposium to discuss economic diversification, participants are mainly talking about the Yukos crisis, with investment guru George Soros even calling for Russia's expulsion from the G-8 over the "political persecution" of oil magnate Mikhail Khodorkovsky. (SNIP) U.S. Commerce Secretary Don Evans told the conference Thursday that Russia must show that its justice system is fair and transparent if it is to continue to attract foreign investment. (MORE)
MACAPAGAL BLAMES FOES FOR VIOLENT WEDNESDAY PROTEST Desperate measures PRESIDENT Macapagal-Arroyo on Thursday blamed "unscrupulous political leaders" for egging on the poor to stage Wednesday's protest rally in Makati City -- even as ousted President Joseph Estrada literally distanced himself from the mass action. "I have nothing to do with that. I'm too far away from them," Estrada said, speaking from Camp Capinpin in Tanay, Rizal, where he is detained on plunder and graft charges. In a telephone interview with the Inquirer, Estrada strongly condemned the violent dispersal of about 10,000 protesters calling for the ouster of Ms Macapagal and Chief Justice Hilario Davide Jr. But Ms Macapagal justified the dispersal, and attacked the organizers of the protest. "I am saddened that our people are obviously being misled out of desperation by some plotters of destabilization," she said at the De La Salle University symposium in Dasmarinas, Cavite. Ms Macapagal did not name names but, speaking in Filipino, she expressed dismay that "unscrupulous political leaders" were using the poor as "cannon fodder" for destabilization, saying this deprived them of their dignity as human beings. "We should have unity and reconciliation based on respect for the dignity of the masses and a healthy respect for their constructive role in society," she said. Ms Macapagal said her enemies had "exploited the emotions generated by the impeachment crisis and the Naia siege" to try to bring her government down. She was referring to the Davide impeachment crisis and the brief takeover of the Naia control tower. While her administration respects and upholds the full expression of civil rights, "we cannot allow anyone to cross the line of public order because of the harm wrought upon the general welfare," Ms Macapagal said. (SNIP) Noting the violent dispersal of the Makati protesters, Estrada asked: "Does this government still follow the Constitution?" The organizers of the Ayala march blamed Ms Macapagal for the mayhem and condemned the police for the "brutal" dispersal. Saying they would not be cowed by water cannons, tear gases and truncheons, the organizers vowed to stage bigger protest actions in the next few days. "Who knows? Next week or the week after we will mount a bigger rally. We have started it and we have seen that we can do it," said laywer Estelita Cordero, spokesperson of the October 28 Movement which spearheaded Wednesday's massive protest action. (MORE) |
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