May 26, 2004

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.

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WORLD MEDIA WATCH FOR MAY 26, 2004

1//The Telegraph, UK--IRAQ WILL HAVE MILITARY VETO, SAYS BLAIR (The new Iraqi government will have the power to veto military operations by British and US forces when it assumes power next month, Tony Blair has said. Mr Blair said that once sovereignty is transferred on June 30, coalition commanders would require the consent of the Iraqi administration for operations such as the recent US assault on Fallujah...His remarks are likely to prompt some misgivings in Washington, where some of the more "hawkish" elements in the administration have been arguing that the transfer should be largely symbolic.)

2//The News International, Pakistan--RUSSIA HESITATES ON IRAQ RESOLUTION (Russia Tuesday joined an international chorus of nations taking a grim view at a new UN draft resolution on Iraq pushed by Britain and the United States and hinted that it might use its veto power to kill the document. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Moscow would only back the draft after a new "legitimate" interim government was formed in Iraq...The source confirmed that Moscow wanted the US-led coalition to determine the structure of the new Iraqi government before a UN Security Council resolution confirming its rule can be adopted. "First, we have to decide the formation of the temporary government" in Iraq, the foreign ministry official said. "Then, the UN Security Council will adopt the appropriate resolution," the source said. The Russian foreign ministry said in a separate statement that it was trying to guarantee that a sovereign Iraq win control of its policies and economy, particularly its natural resources.)

3//The Sydney Morning Herald, Australia--PM HANDOVER TO COSTELLO WORRIES VOTERS (The leadership issue is set to hurt the Federal Government in the coming election, with a new Herald Poll finding almost half of all voters believe John Howard will not serve his full term if re-elected and have not yet warmed to Peter Costello. The poll reveals that 47 per cent of voters believe the Prime Minister will retire during the next term and that 41 per cent would be less likely to vote for the Coalition at the election late this year if they thought that Mr Costello, as is widely expected, would be his successor...Mr Howard warned a partyroom meeting that the Coalition faced "the fight of its life" and that the odds were against it winning the coming election - after the Herald Poll published yesterday showed Labor had a two-party-preferred vote of 56 per cent to 44 per cent.)

4//Asia Times Online, Hong Kong--IRAQ'S RELIGIOUS TIDE CANNOT BE TURNED BACK (...While the Americans handed control of Fallujah to a coalition of warlords and radical clerics, they are still searching for some authority in the south with any sort of legitimacy to take over the cities there where US troops have been battling Shi'ite militias. While Sunnis in Iraq have former military officers who can command authority, they still rely on radical Islamic clerics to provide them with legitimacy. In the Shi'ite south, there are no secular or military authorities, only clerics. It would seem that the United States is on the road to creating an Iraq of fiefdoms ruled by warlords and clerics, as is the case now in Afghanistan.)

5//The Globe and Mail, Canada-- MARTIN PLEDGES BILLIONS FOR HEALTH WITHOUT TAX BOOST (Liberal leader Paul Martin unveiled his party's health care platform Tuesday, promising to pump billions of dollars into the system without raising Canadian's taxes... Mr. Martin was also sure to take a shot at Conservative Leader Stephen Harper's tax cut plan, saying it would further damage Canada's system. "You cannot have a publicly funded, universally accessible health care system with American taxation levels," he said. "That is the fundamental issue -- It is not are you going to cut taxes a little bit? It is a very different philosophical base from which we start." Mr. Martin used Tuesday's speech to cement health care as the main plank of his election strategy, pledging to make lessening the strain on the system and hammering out a long-term solution with the provinces the top priorities of his government.)

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1//The Telegraph, UK Tuesday 25 May 2004
http://www.portal.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?x...

IRAQ WILL HAVE MILITARY VETO, SAYS BLAIR
(Filed: 25/05/2004)

The new Iraqi government will have the power to veto military operations by British and US forces when it assumes power next month, Tony Blair has said.

Mr Blair said that once sovereignty is transferred on June 30, coalition commanders would require the consent of the Iraqi administration for operations such as the recent US assault on Fallujah.

"The transfer of sovereignty has to be real and genuine," the Prime Minister said. "Let me make it 100 per cent clear, after June 30 there will be the full transfer of sovereignty to the Iraqi government."

His remarks are likely to prompt some misgivings in Washington, where some of the more "hawkish" elements in the administration have been arguing that the transfer should be largely symbolic.

Mr Blair told reporters at his monthly press conference that the transfer of sovereignty would not involve putting British troops under the command of the new Iraqi government.

(MORE)

2//The News International, Pakistan Tuesday May 25, 2004-- Rabi-us-Sani 05, 1425 A.H.
http://www.jang.com.pk/thenews/may2004-daily/25-05-2004/main/update.shtml#46

RUSSIA HESITATES ON IRAQ RESOLUTION
(Updated at 2230 PST)

MOSCOW: Russia Tuesday joined an international chorus of nations taking a grim view at a new UN draft resolution on Iraq pushed by Britain and the United States and hinted that it might use its veto power to kill the document.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Moscow would only back the draft after a new "legitimate" interim government was formed in Iraq.

The statement hinted that Moscow -- which had strong economic ties to Baghdad during the Soviet era -- was lobbying for position as Washington and London seek a globally-acceptable way of handing over power to a new Iraqi leadership.

Lavrov told Russia's parliament that the mission of UN special envoy to Iraq Lakhdar Brahimi -- backed by Washington and London -- offered the opportunity to "discover if there is agreement in Iraqi society."

But he firmly stressed: "Only after receiving this information will we be able to study the question of recognizing this government."

(SNIP)

Earlier Tuesday, in what appeared to be a new round of diplomatic attacks from Russia -- which opposed the US-led war from the start -- a foreign ministry source told the Interfax news agency that Moscow had "many questions" about the resolution.

"This document presents us with many questions about how the new leadership of Iraq will be formed," the official was quoted as saying.

The source confirmed that Moscow wanted the US-led coalition to determine the structure of the new Iraqi government before a UN Security Council resolution confirming its rule can be adopted.

"First, we have to decide the formation of the temporary government" in Iraq, the foreign ministry official said.

"Then, the UN Security Council will adopt the appropriate resolution," the source said. The Russian foreign ministry said in a separate statement that it was trying to guarantee that a sovereign Iraq win control of its policies and economy, particularly its natural resources.

(SNIP)

Russia posed an international "peace camp" together with France and Germany in opposing the war, and putting its ties with the United States to the test.

A spokeswoman for President Jacques Chirac said Tuesday in Paris that the French leader told Bush that the US-backed plan poses a good "basis for discussion" but needs further work.

German Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer echoed those comments by saying the draft was "a good basis from which to start work to improve it."

Russian President Vladimir Putin himself has not yet spoken out -- a similar approach to the days leading into the war, when the Russian leader kept his silence while leaving the foreign ministry attack Washington's military plans.

Putin is due to meet Bush on the sidelines of a Group of Eight (G8) summit in the US state of Georgia next month.

3//The Sydney Morning Herald, Australia May 26, 2004
http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2004/05/25/1085461759802.html

PM HANDOVER TO COSTELLO WORRIES VOTERS
By Louise Dodson and Mark Metherell

The leadership issue is set to hurt the Federal Government in the coming election, with a new Herald Poll finding almost half of all voters believe John Howard will not serve his full term if re-elected and have not yet warmed to Peter Costello.

The poll reveals that 47 per cent of voters believe the Prime Minister will retire during the next term and that 41 per cent would be less likely to vote for the Coalition at the election late this year if they thought that Mr Costello, as is widely expected, would be his successor.

This "anti-Costello" effect includes more than one in five current Coalition supporters - although 36 per cent of Greens supporters say they would be more inclined to vote for the Coalition if Mr Costello was certain to take over after the election.

Mr Howard warned a partyroom meeting that the Coalition faced "the fight of its life" and that the odds were against it winning the coming election - after the Herald Poll published yesterday showed Labor had a two-party-preferred vote of 56 per cent to 44 per cent.

The Prime Minister also appeared to end speculation of an August election, hinting instead that it would be held later rather than earlier, after the poll revealed a sudden drop of 3 percentage points in the Coalition's primary vote.

(SNIP)

He also acknowledged for the first time that Iraq was an electoral negative for the Coalition and that the connection with the United States could be dragging down Australia. The Herald Poll showed a 12 percentage point increase in voters who believe the war in Iraq was not justified.

One backbencher quoted Mr Howard saying: "The images coming out of Iraq are a negative. Let's face it, they reflect on the United States, to a lesser extent on the United Kingdom and because we are part of the Coalition, on us."

(MORE)

, Hong Kong May 26, 2004
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/FE26Ak05.html

IRAQ'S RELIGIOUS TIDE CANNOT BE TURNED BACK
By Nir Rosen

BAGHDAD - With the June 30 deadline for the handover of sovereignty from the occupying coalition powers to an Iraqi authority, the search is on for a suitable recipient. While the Americans handed control of Fallujah to a coalition of warlords and radical clerics, they are still searching for some authority in the south with any sort of legitimacy to take over the cities there where US troops have been battling Shi'ite militias. While Sunnis in Iraq have former military officers who can command authority, they still rely on radical Islamic clerics to provide them with legitimacy. In the Shi'ite south, there are no secular or military authorities, only clerics. It would seem that the United States is on the road to creating an Iraq of fiefdoms ruled by warlords and clerics, as is the case now in Afghanistan.

A year after conquering Iraq, the US military fought bloody battles to retake many cities, and in the case of Fallujah it was forced to cede control of the city to the very people it had wrested it from a year before. A mere two months before a promised transfer of sovereignty to the Iraqi people, the United States was fighting a two-front war against Sunnis and Shi'ites, belying official claims that "the enemy" is a small minority of "former regime loyalists" and foreign fighters and increasingly proving that the enemy is the Iraqi people who have rejected the occupation.

Armed gangs control the streets. To anyone listening to the Iraqi people, this was all fore-ordained and the only surprise has been how quickly US blunders provoked the inevitable. It will get worse before it gets even more worse. Though Iraq's Sunnis and Shi'ites are united in their hatred of the United States, when the common enemy has left they will not celebrate long before turning on each other in a bloody civil war over who will define the nature of the new theocracy in Iraq.

Signs of trouble were evident already in the December 2002 London Iraqi opposition congress. The final statement of that meeting declared that Islam was the official religion of Iraq and that Islam was "the" source of legislation, rather than merely "a" source, as the English translation of the interim constitution now says. But this was the opposition in exile. What were the Iraqi people thinking and what would they want? The administration insisted that Iraqis were secular, like their regime, and would not seek to establish a theocracy, as is the case with their neighbors in Saudi Arabia and Iran. When US civil administrator L Paul Bremer announced that Islam would not be the primary source of law for the new constitution, his decision was greeted with universal condemnation by Shi'ite and Sunni leaders alike.

While Iraqi society was once among the most secular in the Middle East, it has become increasingly religious. Iraq's once avowedly secular Ba'ath Party was founded by a Shi'ite, and Shi'ites had once dominated the Communist Party. In the late 1950s, the Dawa (Religious Call) movement was formed by Shi'ite theological students to combat this communist influence in their slums. The movement benefited from the regime's decimation of their communist rivals. Its leader Muhammad Baqir Sadr wrote books about Islamic politics and economics to prove that Islam provided solutions to all social questions. He was killed in 1980 for opposing the regime, and has since been known as "the first martyr".

(MORE)

5//The Globe and Mail, Canada Updated at 1:37 PM EDT Tuesday, May. 25, 2004
http://www.globeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.200405...

MARTIN PLEDGES BILLIONS FOR HEALTH WITHOUT TAX BOOST
By Darren Yourk
Globe and Mail Update

Liberal leader Paul Martin unveiled his party's health care platform Tuesday, promising to pump billions of dollars into the system without raising Canadian's taxes.

After dodging reporter questions about if he would increase taxes to fund his health plan Monday, the Liberal Leader made a bold promise in a province where voters are still feeling the sting of the Liberal Premier Dalton McGuinty's budget that broke his promise of not raising taxes by increasing health premiums.

"There are no increases in taxes in this report," Mr. Martin said during a campaign stop at Northumberland Hills Hospital in Cobourg, Ont. "There are no premiums in this report and I can tell you... that in fact there will be no tax increases, there will be no premium increases, in order to achieve this.

"We will achieve this within the funding that we have available."

Mr. Martin was also sure to take a shot at Conservative Leader Stephen Harper's tax cut plan, saying it would further damage Canada's system.

"You cannot have a publicly funded, universally accessible health care system with American taxation levels," he said. "That is the fundamental issue -- It is not are you going to cut taxes a little bit? It is a very different philosophical base from which we start."

Mr. Martin used Tuesday's speech to cement health care as the main plank of his election strategy, pledging to make lessening the strain on the system and hammering out a long-term solution with the provinces the top priorities of his government.

"Canada's health care system is an expression of our values as a nation - a belief that care must be based on need and not income," Mr. Martin said. "...This plan will let us move from band aid solutions to a sustainable fix that can last for a generation."

(MORE)