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| March 3, 2004 |
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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 MARCH 3, 2004 1//The Independent, UK--HOWARD DELIVERS NEW BLOW TO BLAIR OVER IRAQ AS TORIES PULL OUT OF BUTLER INQUIRY (Tony Blair's attempts to draw a line under the Iraq war suffered another setback yesterday when the Conservative Party withdrew its support from the inquiry into the intelligence about Saddam Hussein's weapons. Michael Howard, the Tory leader, said the investigation by Lord Butler of Brockwell, the former cabinet secretary, would not give "equal weight" to the actions of individuals and the process of intelligence-gathering. He feared that the inquiry would not hold anyone responsible for any failings.) 2//Asia Times Online, Hong Kong--PAKISTAN STIRS A TRIBAL WAR (The weekend's incident of "mistaken fire" in which Pakistani soldiers killed at least 11 people in a shooting incident in Wana in the tribal region of South Waziristan near the Afghan border has virtually overnight changed the rules of the game in the region...With the weekend's killing of 11 tribals, sentiment among even the pro-establishment tribals has changed, and they find themselves on the same "side" as the nationalists, and political and religious affiliations have been blurred. (This was fueled in part by unconfirmed reports that US soldiers had been involved in the shooting and were being given a free run in the tribal areas.) Now tribals threaten that if there is another major mobilization of Pakistan troops in the area, "Pakistani forces will only take their own body bags back home".) 3//Inter Press Service, Italy--PAKISTAN: CONCERN RISES OVER TORCHING OF FOREIGN-FUNDED SCHOOLS (Arsonists have struck nine schools in the remote hills of northern Pakistan, sparking official concern that Taliban or other Islamist groups critical of organisations that get foreign aid could be targeting the area...''All these schools established by the government under the Social Action Programme were funded by the World Bank. It is quite likely that that could very well be the reason,'' said Mir Aman, resident editor of 'The Kunjarab Times International', a Gilgit newspaper.) 4//The Sydney Morning Herald, Australia--GOING TO WAR SECURED US ALLIANCE, SAYS DOWNER (Australia's alliance with the US would have weakened "very substantially" if the Government refused to go to war against Iraq, the Foreign Minister, Alexander Downer, said yesterday. The claim came as new questions were raised about the legality of the Iraq war following the findings handed down by the parliamentary intelligence committee on Monday... Many strategic analysts have said that the US alliance was the prime motivator for the Government going to war, despite the stress Government members put on Iraq's alleged weapons of mass destruction and the terrorist threat before the war.) 5//Gulf News Online, United Arab Emirates--RAPID REFORMS RECIPE FOR CHAOS (The most populous Arab nation, Egypt, under pressure from its ally Washington to promote reform in the Middle East, said yesterday that instant freedoms would lead to anarchy and it would then be hard to pick up the pieces...The Egyptian proposal also refers obliquely to the US invasion of Iraq, saying that another condition for the success of reform is respect for the sovereignty of Arab peoples. An Egyptian official said the submission was a direct response to Washington's ideas, which have had an overwhelmingly hostile reception in the Arab world because of suspicion of the US motives.) * * * 1//The
Independent 02 March 2004 HOWARD DELIVERS NEW BLOW TO BLAIR OVER IRAQ AS TORIES
PULL OUT OF BUTLER INQUIRY Tony Blair's attempts to draw a line under the Iraq war suffered another setback yesterday when the Conservative Party withdrew its support from the inquiry into the intelligence about Saddam Hussein's weapons. Michael Howard, the Tory leader, said the investigation by Lord Butler of Brockwell, the former cabinet secretary, would not give "equal weight" to the actions of individuals and the process of intelligence-gathering. He feared that the inquiry would not hold anyone responsible for any failings. The decision is a blow to Mr Blair, who hoped the Opposition's backing for the Butler inquiry would help him to defuse the controversy over the failure to find weapons of mass destruction (WMD) in Iraq. The move undermines the inquiry's credibility and leaves the Tories free to criticise its report in July. Ministers are worried that it will be dismissed as a "whitewash" and critics of the war are already expected to demand a more detailed investigation. (SNIP) The winners from yesterday's wrangle were the Liberal Democrats, who decided to boycott the inquiry when it was set up a month ago. Charles Kennedy, the party's leader, said: "This is not effective opposition politics, it's farce. Michael Howard's political credibility will be very seriously damaged." (SNIP) The Opposition's decision provoked a furious political row. Jack Straw, the Foreign Secretary, accused Mr Howard of "shameless opportunism" and trying to "jump on a passing bandwagon and flirt with those opposed to the war in an attempt to win cheap political points." (SNIP) The review was set up in haste by Mr Blair. Although he was considering the move after the Hutton report into the death of David Kelly was dismissed as a "whitewash", his hand was forced by President George Bush, who announced an independent inquiry of his own in the United States. This was prompted by the remarks of David Kay, the outgoing head of the Iraq Survey Group, that he no longer expected to find stockpiles of illicit weapons. The US inquiry will not report until after the presidential election in November and the timing could prove difficult for Mr Blair, who is expected to call a general election in May or June next year. (MORE)
PAKISTAN STIRS A TRIBAL WAR KARACHI - The weekend's incident of "mistaken fire" in which Pakistani soldiers killed at least 11 people in a shooting incident in Wana in the tribal region of South Waziristan near the Afghan border has virtually overnight changed the rules of the game in the region. (SNIP) The operations in the tribal region were considered a precursor to bigger ones in Afghanistan in April and onwards when the weather improves, but now the tribal regions themselves could become a part of the problem. Although President General Pervez Musharraf was quick to set up a commission of inquiry and announce compensation packages (US$1,700 for the families of the 11 dead, half that amount for those injured) tribals are now likely to take on the Pakistan military. Some rocket attacks on Pakistani military targets have already been reported over the past few days. (SNIP) Before the latest operations began in the tribal areas, Pakistani authorities mainly contacted the religious element and convinced them (falsely) that Pakistani military intervention was unavoidable, or the US would bomb Pakistani territory. The authorities assured the leaders that the Pakistan army would only flush out foreign fighters from Pakistan into Afghanistan, and would not let US forces into Pakistan territory. On this argument, the tribals agreed not to be hostile towards the army. Meanwhile, the US cultivated the nationalistic Pashtun element. With tangible "inducements", the tribals provided the US with intelligence on the presence of foreign fighters, al-Qaeda and the Taliban in Pakistani territory. Yet as soon as Pakistani troops began their operations, US agents used this as an example of Pakistan intervening in the tribal areas. With the weekend's killing of 11 tribals, sentiment among even the pro-establishment tribals has changed, and they find themselves on the same "side" as the nationalists, and political and religious affiliations have been blurred. (This was fueled in part by unconfirmed reports that US soldiers had been involved in the shooting and were being given a free run in the tribal areas.) Now tribals threaten that if there is another major mobilization of Pakistan troops in the area, "Pakistani forces will only take their own body bags back home". (MORE)
PAKISTAN: CONCERN RISES OVER TORCHING OF FOREIGN-FUNDED
SCHOOLS KARACHI, Pakistan, Mar 2 (IPS) - Arsonists have struck nine schools in the remote hills of northern Pakistan, sparking official concern that Taliban or other Islamist groups critical of organisations that get foreign aid could be targeting the area. However, local observers said the attacks highlighted a need to establish better ties between foreign aid groups and community members in the deeply religious and socially conservative region. On just one night, Feb. 15, unidentified attackers razed seven girls' community schools with dynamite in the Sunni Muslim-dominated area of Daril Tangir, 250 kilometres south of Gilgit, in the Northern Areas. Four days later two other schools, one of them for boys, were damaged in arson attacks in Chilas, about 120 kilometres south of Gilgit. (SNIP) The attacks came shortly after President Gen Pervez Musharraf called on religious leaders to help rein in extremism, and just before the holy month of Muharram. Religious leaders and other members of the local assembly have condemned the attacks as terrorism and said non-locals were to blame. They also have asked the government to provide security for the region's remaining schools. Local observers said the schools likely were targeted because they received funding from foreign aid groups. The region has seen similar attacks in the past. In July, two unknown attackers hurled hand grenades at the offices of International Fund for Agriculture Development (IFAD). A watchman was injured in the attack, the seventh such incident in recent years. ''All these schools established by the government under the Social Action Programme were funded by the World Bank. It is quite likely that that could very well be the reason,'' said Mir Aman, resident editor of 'The Kunjarab Times International', a Gilgit newspaper. (MORE)
GOING TO WAR SECURED US ALLIANCE, SAYS DOWNER Australia's alliance with the US would have weakened "very substantially" if the Government refused to go to war against Iraq, the Foreign Minister, Alexander Downer, said yesterday. The claim came as new questions were raised about the legality of the Iraq war following the findings handed down by the parliamentary intelligence committee on Monday. Talking of the weight the Government placed on the strength of the alliance when deciding the merits of the war, Mr Downer said Australia could ill-afford any fracture in relations with the global superpower. "It wasn't a time in our history to have a great and historic breach with the United States," Mr Downer said yesterday. "If we were to walk away from the American alliance it would leave us as a country very vulnerable and very open, particularly given the environment we have with terrorism in South-East Asia, the North Korean issue." Mr Downer said the Government believed the threat posed by Saddam Hussein justified war at any rate but added that the strength of the US alliance was a big consideration. "That was certainly an issue. There's no question that that was an issue, and to have walked away from the Americans on an issue where we thought they were right anyway would have been a curious thing to do." Many strategic analysts have said that the US alliance was the prime motivator for the Government going to war, despite the stress Government members put on Iraq's alleged weapons of mass destruction and the terrorist threat before the war. The parliamentary report on prewar intelligence published on Monday found that the Federal Government went beyond the advice of Australia's spy agencies when it described the Iraqi threat as "grave and gathering". (MORE)
RAPID REFORMS RECIPE FOR CHAOS As Arab foreign ministers met in Cairo under the shadow of a US campaign for Middle East democracy, President Hosni Mubarak warned of the dangers of pressing too hard. "Nobody imagines that we can press a button and freedoms will arrive. Otherwise it would lead the country to chaos, and that would be a danger to people," he told reporters. "If you opened the door wide open without any controls, it would be anarchy, and to go back and gather people up again would be difficult," Mubarak added. (SNIP) (SNIP) The Egyptian document said that to make modernisation succeed, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict must be settled to put an end to Arab feelings of frustration and despair. The Egyptian proposal also refers obliquely to the US invasion of Iraq, saying that another condition for the success of reform is respect for the sovereignty of Arab peoples. An Egyptian official said the submission was a direct response to Washington's ideas, which have had an overwhelmingly hostile reception in the Arab world because of suspicion of the US motives. |
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