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| April 16, 2004 |
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World Media Watch by Gloria R. Lalumia BUZZFLASH NOTE: WMW provides BuzzFlash readers foreign views and perspectives that are not usually available from the media here in the U.S. The presentation of these articles from these international publications is not an endorsement of their viewpoints. * * * WORLD MEDIA WATCH FOR APRIL 16, 2004 1//The Scotsman, UK--BLAIR BID TO RESCUE PEACE PROCESS (TONY Blair will today attempt to steer George Bush, the United States' president, back to the "road map" for Middle East peace by saying the deal agreed with Israel on Wednesday was merely the opening of a wider plan. In an bold diplomatic move, the Prime Minister will urge Mr Bush to downplay his meeting with Ariel Sharon, the Israeli prime minister, by saying that the future of the West Bank remains undecided... Mr Bush made scant reference to the road-map peace plan on Wednesday where, in a joint press conference with Mr Sharon, he said it would be unrealistic to expect Israel to give back those conquests made since 1949. Officials in London yesterday said this represented a clear shift in policy, as Mr Bush had previously referred to these Israeli settlements as a barrier to peace. The task facing Mr Blair is to steer the US president back to the agenda.) 2//Deutsche-Welle/dw-World.de,
Germany--EU SKEPTICAL ABOUT ISRAELI PLAN (European
Union leaders responded
cautiously to U.S. President George W. Bush's announcement
that Israel could keep Arab land it captured in
1967. They made clear that they would not accept
a unilateral change to Middle East borders...Cowen
tried to put a positive shine on Bush and Sharon's
talks, despite the fact that the Palestinians and
some experts on the region say the U.S. policy
change has dealt a deadly blow to the peace process.
Cowen welcomed Bush's affirmation that the U.S.
is committed to the Road Map and a two state solution.
The German government's statement echoed the EU's...But
Chancellor Schröder's fellow party member
Gernot Erler, the Social Democrats' foreign policy
spokesman, called it an "affront to the EU,
Russia and the United Nations" that the United
States accepted Israel's settlement policies. "Bush's
policies deepen the rift between the United States
and the Arab world," he told DW-TV.) Related: Arab News, Saudi Arabia--EDITORIAL: ANOTHER LIE (AS the final military preparations were being made to overrun Saddam's Iraq, George W. Bush and his faithful British ally Tony Blair stood side by side and expressed their dedication to the road map for a peaceful and just settlement in Palestine. They offered the hope the war against Saddam would be coupled with US pressure on Israel to at long last deal honestly and fairly with the Palestinians...It is now clear that this was yet another lie to stand alongside claims about weapons of mass destruction and Saddam's involvement in Sep.11...When in November George W. Bush enters the history books as one of his country's most inept single-term presidents, he will leave his successor a poisoned legacy in the form of his Middle East policy.) 4//The Daily Times, Pakistan--MUSHARRAF WILL STEP DOWN AS ARMY CHIEF, SAYS RASHID (Information Minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmed on Thursday reiterated that President Gen Pervez Musharraf would step down as army chief at the end of the year as promised... Musharraf, who took power in a bloodless coup in 1999, promised to retire as head of the army by the end of 2004, paving the way for him to stay on as a civilian president. But when asked in an interview with the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) whether he would heed calls from supporters to stay on in uniform, Musharraf said: "We have to wait and see.") 5//Inter Press Service News Agency, Italy--IMF TO THE RESCUE OF GLOBAL TRADE (The International Monetary Fund is trying to coax developing countries, wary of western-dictated "free trade", to shelve protection of their own industries and embrace global trade liberalisation... Critics say the IMF's new plan amounts to a panacea for developing nations, which could plunge them further into poverty. "This is the same as all other safety nets," said Tony Avirgan of the Washington-based economic think tank, The Economic Policy Institute. "If you don't make the casualties in the first place, you do not need safety nets. Trade doesn't need to create casualties".) * * * 1//The
Scotsman, UK Fri 16 Apr 2004 BLAIR BID TO RESCUE PEACE PROCESS TONY Blair will today attempt to steer George Bush, the United States' president, back to the "road map" for Middle East peace by saying the deal agreed with Israel on Wednesday was merely the opening of a wider plan. In an bold diplomatic move, the Prime Minister will urge Mr Bush to downplay his meeting with Ariel Sharon, the Israeli prime minister, by saying that the future of the West Bank remains undecided. Although Mr Bush endorsed Israel's claim to the parts of the West Bank seized in 1967, Mr Blair will seek to make clear that the Palestinians, not the White House, have the final word. Mr Blair last night started his two-day trip to the US by meeting Kofi Annan, the United Nations secretary general, to discuss the Middle East and a new Security Council resolution on Iraq. The two are understood to have agreed an urgent plan to resurrect the three-stage road map to peace, agreed by a "quartet" of the European Union, UN, US and Russia. Mr Bush made scant reference to the road-map peace plan on Wednesday where, in a joint press conference with Mr Sharon, he said it would be unrealistic to expect Israel to give back those conquests made since 1949. Officials in London yesterday said this represented a clear shift in policy, as Mr Bush had previously referred to these Israeli settlements as a barrier to peace. The task facing Mr Blair is to steer the US president back to the agenda. "It's a question of emphasis," said one diplomatic source. "We must welcome Israel's decision to pull out of Gaza as the start of a process: the first step, not the final step. So the onus is on the Palestinians to make the next step." Any talk about the future of Israel's settlements in the West Bank is regarded in London as premature. "That will be discussed during final status negotiations. We have not reached that stage yet." At a press conference last night, Jack Straw, the Foreign Secretary, was visibly thrown when asked his opinion about the Bush-Sharon deal and was forced to read a carefully-worded response from a script. He focused on Israel's plans to pull out all of its 21 settlements from Gaza and said that this was the only hard fact. "All sides - Israel, the Palestinians and the international community - have always accepted that at the end of the final status negotiations there will have to be compromises on each side," said Mr Straw. "In all the previous negotiations, it has been accepted that the final components of any agreement will have to take account of certain realities. What realities and what account depends on the final agreement." This was seen as a deliberate contrast to the position of Mr Bush, who counted "existing major Israeli population centres" as "new realities on the ground". But Mr Straw offered no criticism of the US. (MORE)
EU SKEPTICAL ABOUT ISRAELI PLAN European Union leaders responded cautiously to
U.S. President George W. Bush's announcement that
Israel could keep Arab land it captured in 1967.
They made clear that they would not accept a unilateral
change to Middle East borders. Cowen also pointed out that the Road Map meant
to chart the course to a Middle East peace plan
required that a final agreement ending the Israeli-Palestinian
conflict must also resolve the refugee issue. The
German government's statement echoed the EU's.
Germany praised the talks between Bush and Sharon,
which it said got the peace process moving again,
as well as Israel's plan to pull out of the Gaza
Strip. Chancellor Gerhard Schröder will discuss
the issues in the coming days in meetings planned
with the Egyptian president, the Lebanese prime
minister and the Israeli president, government
spokesman Béla Anda said in the statement.
German Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer also welcomed
Israel's plans to leave the Gaza Strip and stressed
that the Road Map must be adhered to. (MORE) 3//The
Jordan Times, Jordan Friday-Saturday, April
16-17, 2004 EDITORIAL: 'SUPREME DIPLOMATIC FOLLY' "IT SEEMS clear," begins the sentence that dashes Palestinian hopes of return to the towns and villages from whence they came. The paragraph that destroys international legitimacy vis-ý-vis the occupied territory aims to soothe with the phrase "mutually agreed changes." There are subtleties and niceties, and a logician will undoubtedly point out that in effect nothing new was promised to anyone. But politics is not logic, and while US State Department officials will be keen to stress the linguistic ambiguities on His Majesty's upcoming visit to Washington, nothing can disguise the fact that the US has embarrassed and humiliated those in the Arab world who have consistently argued for a peaceful and negotiated settlement and strengthened the hand of those who argue that armed resistance is the only way to achieve Palestinian aspirations. After all, how can the Palestinian National Authority now go and plead for calm from Hamas and other Palestinian factions? Can the PNA, with a straight face, tell these factions that negotiations are the best hope for progress? Progress to what, will be the reply, and there will be no answer to that. And if the PNA is powerless in that respect, where does that leave His Majesty King Abdullah and President Hosni Mubarak of Egypt? With what should they plead calm from the Palestinians? (SNIP) It certainly will endear America and American ideals to no Arabs in the region. While the ideals of democracy and freedom should never be confused with the bizarre whims of this US administration, this is exactly what may happen. Consider the hypocrisy: America is occupying one Arab country, assisting in and now legitimising the occupation of another, all the while insisting that what it is doing, it is doing for the sake of peace and the furtherance of democracy in the Middle East. Politics may not be logic, but a small dose of it wouldn't hurt. What conclusion is there for any Arab, be he Palestinian, Iraqi or Jordanian, to draw? That the US is fundamentally untrustworthy? That it can never claim to be an arbiter of any credibility? That it cares nothing for the ideals that it pretends to champion? That it pays no heed to moderate Arabs and considers radicals only target practice? It is a supreme diplomatic folly. It can only
be hoped that the American people themselves will
understand that American Middle East policy is
not forged in the interest of the US, but only
in the interest of Israel. Arab
News, Saudi Arabia Friday,16 , April, 2004
(26, Safar,1425 ) EDITORIAL: ANOTHER LIE AS the final military preparations were being
made to overrun Saddam's Iraq, George W. Bush and
his faithful British ally Tony Blair stood side
by side and expressed their dedication to the road
map for a peaceful and just settlement in Palestine.
They offered the hope the war against Saddam would
be coupled with US pressure on Israel to at long
last deal honestly and fairly with the Palestinians...It
is now clear that this was yet another lie to stand
alongside claims about weapons of mass destruction
and Saddam's involvement in Sep.11...When in November
George W. Bush enters the history books as one
of his country's most inept single-term presidents,
he will leave his successor a poisoned legacy in
the form of his Middle East policy. Both politically
and diplomatically, it will be well-nigh impossible
to claw back this momentous concession to expansionist
Israel. 4//The
Daily Times, Pakistan Friday, April 16,
2004 MUSHARRAF WILL STEP DOWN AS ARMY CHIEF, SAYS RASHID ISLAMABAD: Information Minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmed on Thursday reiterated that President Gen Pervez Musharraf would step down as army chief at the end of the year as promised. "He will stand by his commitment according to the 17th Amendment, by which he said he would hold only one portfolio," Mr Ahmed said. Musharraf, who took power in a bloodless coup in 1999, promised to retire as head of the army by the end of 2004, paving the way for him to stay on as a civilian president. But when asked in an interview with the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) whether he would heed calls from supporters to stay on in uniform, Musharraf said: "We have to wait and see." Musharraf made a deal in late December with a coalition of hardline religious parties - the Mutahida Majlis-e-Amal, or MMA - to amend Pakistan's constitution to give him extraordinary powers, including the right to dissolve parliament and sack the prime minister. . In return, Musharraf agreed to the religious coalition's main demand: that he resign as Army chief, which is the source of most of his power, by December 31, 2004. But in the BBC interview, Musharraf accused the MMA coalition of reneging on an agreement to support him in a vote of confidence in January and the creation of a new National Security Council, approved by Parliament this week. "I am certainly cheesed off with the MMA's attitudes after the agreements that we have reached with them," the president said. "They are going back on their word..." (MORE)
IMF TO THE RESCUE OF GLOBAL TRADE WASHINGTON, Apr 14 (IPS) - The International Monetary Fund is trying to coax developing countries, wary of western-dictated "free trade", to shelve protection of their own industries and embrace global trade liberalisation. The IMF unveiled a programme Tuesday, the Trade Integration Mechanism (TIM), which would give developing countries that agree to further reduce tariffs and other protectionist measures within multilateral trade agreements access to loans and other funding. The announcement follows a meeting last May between the IMF, World Bank and global trade agenda-setting World Trade Organisation (WTO) to develop a common approach to trade and other economic policies, called the ''coherence agenda''. Last year in Cancun, Mexico, a strong alliance of developing countries -- the so-called Group of 22 -- backed by civil society organisations, banded together to demand reforms that would permit them to also share in the benefits of global trade. Ultimately, the talks failed after the new group accused rich countries of ignoring their concerns, particularly about the need to cut agricultural subsidies in developed nations. Critics say the IMF's new plan amounts to a panacea for developing nations, which could plunge them further into poverty. "This is the same as all other safety nets," said Tony Avirgan of the Washington-based economic think tank, The Economic Policy Institute. "If you don't make the casualties in the first place, you do not need safety nets. Trade doesn't need to create casualties". (SNIP) The programme will also be temporary, she added in a statement. The Doha Development Agenda agreed to at a WTO ministerial conference in 2001 calls for multilateral trade liberalisation to be completed by Jan. 1, 2005. Talks to that end have been frozen since last year's failed Cancun discussions. Economists familiar with the new IMF plan say it is flawed and will not help developing nations. "They (the IMF and its sister institution the World Bank) keep promising countries that if you open up your economies and if you engage in free trade, as tied up with all the rest of their economic programmes ... you might suffer some short-term difficulties and in the end it's going to be great benefits," said Avirgan. "But this has been going on for 20, 30 years, and the benefits have not become apparent." Others fault the short-term nature of the TIM. "It is designed to be temporary assistance when it is not at all clear that the need will be temporary," said Sarah Anderson, a fellow at the Washington-based Institute of Policy Studies. (MORE) | ||||||
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