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| May 21, 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 MAY 21, 2004 1//Inter Press Service News Agency, Italy--WANTED
IN AFRICA, NEEDED IN IRAQ (Arms dealer Viktor Bout
was the merchant of death wanted for feeding conflicts
in Africa - until Iraq happened. Today the United
States and Britain are using his extensive mercenary
services in Iraq. The condemnation of his role
in the diamond wars and other conflicts in sub-Saharan
Africa over the past ten years is being silently
erased. The Tajikstan-born Bout would be an embarrassing
ally to acknowledge publicly. But the coalition
partners are showing him exceptional favours as
he does some of their job for them.) 3//The
Turkish Daily News, Turkey--KURDS WANT TO BE
GATEWAY FOR IRAQ FOREIGN INVESTMENT (As Western
nations urge their citizens to leave Iraq after
a surge of kidnappings and violence, Kurds in the
north are promoting their largely peaceful region
as a gateway for foreign investment. Apart from
suicide bombings in February which killed more
than 100 people in Erbil, the three Kurdish governorates
have been remarkably calm, a far cry from the uprisings
and hostage-taking which are driving some companies
out of Baghdad... Companies from Turkey, Iran,
France and India are already involved in projects
to rebuild Erbil and Suleimaniya airports, construct
luxury hotels, and various infrastructure schemes.
Foreign businessmen working in the Kurdish region
said they were alert to "conceivable" risks
because of its proximity to restive central and
southern Iraq, but felt secure thanks to tightened
border checkpoints and increased security after
the Erbil bombings.) 5//Times of India, India--LOOK BEYOND DOC, INDIA'S WORLD BIGGER THAN U.S. (Within days, PM-designate Manmohan Singh will be confronted with a number of urgent foreign policy issues demanding virtually immediate attention. Apart from the composite dialogue with Pakistan - scheduled to kick-off with foreign secretary-level discussions on Kashmir and 'peace and security' in "May/June" - the deteriorating situation in Iraq is making it inevitable that the US will again approach India with a request for peacekeeping troops. How the new government responds to the US over Iraq and its aggressive agenda on nonproliferation will be key litmus tests for the future of the 'strategic partnership' between New Delhi and Washington.) * * * 1//Inter
Press Service News Agency, Italy May
20, 2004 WANTED IN AFRICA, NEEDED IN IRAQ Julio Godoy PARIS, May 20 (IPS) - Arms dealer Viktor Bout was the merchant of death wanted for feeding conflicts in Africa - until Iraq happened. Today the United States and Britain are using his extensive mercenary services in Iraq. The condemnation of his role in the diamond wars and other conflicts in sub-Saharan Africa over the past ten years is being silently erased. The Tajikstan-born Bout would be an embarrassing ally to acknowledge publicly. But the coalition partners are showing him exceptional favours as he does some of their job for them. The UN Security Council drafted a resolution in March to freeze the assets of mercenaries and weapons dealers who backed ousted Liberian dictator Charles Taylor. Bout should top that list, French diplomatic sources say. But the diplomats and UN sources say the United States has been working to keep Bout off that list. U.S. officials have indicated unofficially that the reason is that Bout is useful in Iraq, the sources told IPS. One of Bout's many companies is providing logistical support to U.S. forces in Iraq, well-placed French diplomatic sources say. His private airline British Gulf is supplying goods to the occupation forces, they say. In recognition of these services both the U.S. and the British governments have been opposing French efforts to include Bout in the UN mercenaries list, the diplomatic sources revealed. "We are disgusted that Bout won't be on the list, even though he is the principal arms dealer," according to a diplomat involved in the UN negotiations over that list. "If we want peace in that region (West Africa), it seems evident that Bout should be on that list." (MORE)
CORRUPTION STENCH AS COMPANY LOSES IRAQ CONTRACT One of Australia's largest postwar contracts in Iraq has collapsed, with the partners embroiled in a multi-million-dollar legal battle and allegations of corruption in the awarding of contracts by a leading Pentagon supplier. Morris Corporation, a Queensland catering company that has delivered meals to the armed forces in hot-spots from Somalia to Cambodia, was dumped last year by the giant US military contractor Halliburton, losing a $100 million contract to supply meals to US troops in Iraq. Morris Corporation won the catering contract last June in partnership with a Kuwaiti company, KCPC, soon after the fall of Saddam Hussein. The deal was praised by the Howard Government as a signal that Australian companies would get fair treatment over postwar contracts in Iraq. The contract was to feed 18,000 troops at three camp sites in northern Iraq. But the US company quietly cancelled the deal six weeks later, saying that Morris and its Kuwaiti partner had not met their obligations. Now an insider involved in the deal alleges that the Australian-Kuwaiti joint venture was approached by a Halliburton employee seeking kickbacks worth up to $3 million during the contract negotiations. "We're not talking about a paper bag. This guy was after a percentage of your sales every month." The allegations surfaced during a messy legal brawl between Halliburton and its former contractors Morris and KCPC, who are seeking a settlement over the termination of the contract. (MORE)
KURDS WANT TO BE GATEWAY FOR IRAQ FOREIGN INVESTMENT Seb Walker Apart from suicide bombings in February which killed more than 100 people in Erbil, the three Kurdish governorates have been remarkably calm, a far cry from the uprisings and hostage-taking which are driving some companies out of Baghdad. "When people think of Kurdistan they think it's part of Iraq, with explosions and so forth," said Falah Mustafa, a spokesman for the Kurdistan Regional Government in Arbil. "For investment you need a peaceful society but here there are no problems. Our people were part of the (U.S.-led) coalition and Kurdistan is safe." Apart from its security, he said the region's experience of autonomous rule had created a stable government structure more amenable to a free-market economy than the rest of Iraq. (SNIP) Companies from Turkey, Iran, France and India are already involved in projects to rebuild Erbil and Suleimaniya airports, construct luxury hotels, and various infrastructure schemes. Foreign businessmen working in the Kurdish region said they were alert to "conceivable" risks because of its proximity to restive central and southern Iraq, but felt secure thanks to tightened border checkpoints and increased security after the Erbil bombings. "Everyone in Iraq is security-conscious so the general level of caution remains high," said one British contractor. "But you may well be safer here than in London." "The area has a stable administration, judiciary and police force. If you leave your car parked in the city centre you get a parking ticket. The rest of Iraq is like the Wild West." In December Kurdish business leaders held a foreign investors' conference in Erbil. Next month, the KDC will host a similar event in London with more than 200 Kurdish business delegates flying in from Erbil International Airport. Officials of Iraq's U.S.-led Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA) see a bright future for the Kurdish economy. "Foreign business is certainly trying to find information. They're asking the tough questions like 'how long for a lease?'," said a U.S. official in charge of a CPA-funded programme helping local government develop economic strategies. (MORE)
THE BUSH FAMILY: MIDDLE KINGDOM RAINMAKERS (Originally published in the The Standard, Hong Kong, May 16, 2004) HONG KONG - George Herbert Walker Bush arrived in Beijing 30 years ago as the official United States representative to China with one goal above all else: expanding his buddy list. "My hyper-adrenaline, political instincts tell me that the fun of this job is going to be to try to make more contacts," he wrote in his first diary entry. "And it is my hope that I will be able to meet the next generation of China's leaders - whomever they may be. Yet everyone tells me that that is impossible." Bush Sr, already a champion networker, wasn't to be denied. In a final triumph at the end of his stay, Deng Xiaoping, then vice premier, threw a farewell lunch for Bush Sr and his wife. "You are our old friends," said Deng, according to a Chinese government website. "You are welcome to come back anytime in the future." Bush Sr and his relatives have turned that open invitation into a family franchise over the years, setting themselves up as gatekeepers between lucrative business opportunities created by the opening up of China's economy and the US corporate and political establishment. If Iraq is the place where the Bush men fight once they leave the oil fields of Texas, China is where they have made money. China policy has been a hot-button issue in US presidential campaigns for more than half a century. This time around, many politicians are linking US job losses to the country's exploding trade deficit with China, leaving the family trade in promoting US-China commerce with the potential to embarrass President George W Bush in his 2004 re-election drive. Bush Sr and his brother Prescott both lowered their profile in the family business last year. Yet the Bushes' business suddenly hit the headlines again in November, when documents and testimony from the divorce trial of the president's brother Neil showed that he had signed a contract to receive US$400,000 a year from Grace Semiconductor Manufacturing, a Chinese company co-founded by a son of former president Jiang Zemin, in return for business information and advice. Fair enough, but Neil Bush has no background in technology. His brother's administration, however, is leaning on Beijing to reduce tax discrimination against imported semiconductors. (SNIP) US companies also still see the Bushes as Middle Kingdom rainmakers. In December, Bush Jr invited a business group founded by Prescott to send 50 members to a reception on the White House lawn for visiting Premier Wen Jiabao. And a group of bankers and financiers travelled from the US with Bush Sr last month to an environmental protection conference in Shanghai that featured top officials from the standing committee of the National People's Congress and other government bodies, according to the Shanghai Star. It all makes for a lucrative niche. There are no publicly disclosed figures on how much the family has made overall in the last three decades as China brokers. But the deals continue to add up. (SNIP) Bush Sr has sidestepped questions on how much he's talked to his son about China during his presidency. Outside the family, Bush Jr counts among his biggest campaign donors two businessmen deeply invested in China, Hank Greenberg of AIG and Sam Fox of the low-profile Harbour Group. Certainly the Bush Jr administration's views on China have been affected by the need for Beijing's acquiescence to US actions in Iraq, Afghanistan and North Korea, countries that soared ahead of China as priorities after the September 11, 2001, terrorist strikes. "He is able," Bush Sr recorded in his diary when his son left town in 1975. "If he gets his teeth into something semi-permanent or permanent, he will do just fine."
LOOK BEYOND DOC, INDIA'S WORLD BIGGER THAN U.S. Apart from the composite dialogue with Pakistan - scheduled to kick-off with foreign secretary-level discussions on Kashmir and 'peace and security' in "May/June" - the deteriorating situation in Iraq is making it inevitable that the US will again approach India with a request for peacekeeping troops. How the new government responds to the US over Iraq and its aggressive agenda on nonproliferation will be key litmus tests for the future of the 'strategic partnership' between New Delhi and Washington. The Vajpayee government prided itself on its supposed proximity to the Bush administration and went out on a limb to endorse some of its more controversial policies like missile defence. At a fundamental level, it saw the enormous growth and frequent use of US military power - under the garb of the 'war on terror' and 'counter-proliferation' - as factors for stability rather than as sources of instability in international affairs. (SNIP) In concrete terms, this will involve three ruptures with the thinking which dominated the Vajpayee government. First, the new government must recognise that terrorism will not be eliminated by the kind of 'war on terror' the US has launched in which civilians have been killed in large numbers and prisoners tortured and humiliated. (MORE) | ||||||
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