June 2, 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 JUNE 2, 2004

1//The Independent, UK--CHOICE OF LEADERS RESTORES POLITICAL CLOUT FOR THE SUNNI ARABS (The disadvantage from the US point of view of Mr Yawar being chosen as president is that he will be more difficult to predict and control than Mr Pachachi, a vastly experienced diplomat. On the other hand, Mr Yawar may be able to use his links with Saudi Arabia, Syria and Jordan to gain a measure of acceptance in the Arab world. The new president was not part of the exiled opposition, much disliked by most Iraqis, so that may also help his popularity. He was heavily critical of the attack by the US Marines on Fallujah in April. But the interim government will be weak because it is dependent militarily on the US. The old Iraqi Governing Council, now disbanded, was discredited by its lack of real power over security and the economy.)

2//The Jordan Times, Jordan--JAFFARI, POPULAR SHIITE, TAKES VICE PRESIDENT POST (Ibrahim Jaffari, who was handed Tuesday one of Iraq's two vice presidential posts, is a religious Shiite Muslim who heads the Dawa Party and enjoys more grassroots support than any other government member...Based on alphabetical order, Jaffari took the first rotating chair of the US-installed Governing Council in July 2003. Unlike most of his successors and fellow returned exiles, he benefits from wide popular support. Some of his detractors accuse him of being corrupt, having shadowy ties with Iran and being a proponent of a conservative Islam hampering women's rights...The party's military wing also conducted spectacular attacks against the Iraqi embassy in Beirut in 1981 and against the French and US embassies in Kuwait in 1983. Jaffari's party quickly reestablished itself in the Shiite heartland of Iraq after the US-led invasion last March, and organised some of the first demonstrations in the south demanding the departure of US troops. Since then, his party has been successfully using its popular mandate to turn its Saddam-era cell-based structure into a leading political force.)

3//Arab News, Saudi Arabia--MANY WESTERNERS IN EASTERN PROVINCE CONSIDERING EARLY EXIT (Several big joint ventures and multinational groups have made mass bookings for their American and European executives to destinations ranging from the United States to Europe and Asia. Americans, it appears, have now started taking seriously their embassy's advice to leave the country... There is also word of mass resignations from big corporations, including unconfirmed reports of resignations from Saudi Aramco. Some large multinationals involved in oil operations are now reportedly thinking of sending first their American and European staff and later the Asians home. Such reports raised the question whether these companies are going to stop their operations in Saudi Arabia altogether. There are indications that some multinationals are contemplating moving their offices from here to either neighboring Bahrain or the United Arab Emirates. However, the companies declined to confirm or deny such reports.)

4//The Toronto Star, Canada--MINORITY DEALS START (Federal party leaders are beginning to lay down their conditions for forming a minority government, a prospect that looms larger each day in a tight federal election contest. Conservative Leader Stephen Harper, whose party is creeping closer to neck-and-neck contention against Prime Minister Paul Martin's Liberals, said yesterday he wouldn't make any formal deals with other parties simply to form a government after the June 28 vote..."Look, a few months ago everyone was talking about Mr. Martin winning practically every seat. Now they're talking about (the) possibility of us forming a minority ... I think we're going to win a majority when this is over." There was more trouble for the Liberals as an Ipsos-Reid poll broadcast on CTV News last night said 66 per cent of respondents said it's time for a change in government.)

5//The Manila Times, Philippines--GMA: GOVT CAN HANDLE COUP PLOTS (While in spiritual retreat in Cebu, President Arroyo is also apparently preoccupied with thinking about the reported plots to topple her administration. In her first public appearance after the May 10 elections, Mrs. Arroyo spoke in Cebu, assuring the people the government is doing all it can to stop alleged coup plotters and political extremists...Police and the military link the reported plots to allegations of massive cheating in the election and the vote count to ensure Mrs. Arroyo's victory. The plots are allegedly designed to prevent her from being proclaimed if she wins.)

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1//The Independent, UK 02 June 2004
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/middle_east/story.jsp?story=527295

CHOICE OF LEADERS RESTORES POLITICAL CLOUT FOR THE SUNNI ARABS
By Patrick Cockburn

The choice of Ghazi Mashal Ajil al-Yawar as the interim Iraqi president is a sign that the Sunni Arabs are beginning to restore the political influence they enjoyed under Saddam Hussein.

Mr Yawar, 46, is a Sunni businessman from northern Iraq's Shammar people, one of the most important Iraqi tribes, which also has members in other Arab countries. He was born in 1958, the year the Iraqi army overthrew and slaughtered the Iraqi royal family. A year later, it launched a revolt against the new Republican regime.

In the middle of the 1980s, Mr Yawar moved with his family to Saudi Arabia where he studied engineering at the Petroleum and Minerals University. He also studied in the US and became a senior official in a technology company in Saudi Arabia. He was not involved in opposition to Saddam Hussein and returned to Iraq only after his overthrow by the US-led invasion last year.

As a member of the Iraqi Governing Council, he has been critical enough of the US to retain his credibility with many Sunni Iraqis although his rival for the Presidency, the 80-year-old former foreign minister Adnan Pachachi may have been more popular. Mr Yawar also has the advantage that he has a political base in his home -city of Mosul, and his uncle is head of the Shammar tribe.

The choice of Mr Yawar as president, following the selection of Iyad Allawi as Prime Minister of the interim government, strengthens the Sunni over the Shias. Although Mr Allawi is a Shia he was a member of the Baath party, and his organisation, the Iraqi National Accord, draws its membership from mostly Sunni former officers in the Iraqi army and security forces. He does not have support from the Shia religious leaders and, unlike the Shia religious parties, the Supreme Council for Islamic revolution in Iraq (Sciri) and Dawa, he has no relationship with Iran.

The disadvantage from the US point of view of Mr Yawar being chosen as president is that he will be more difficult to predict and control than Mr Pachachi, a vastly experienced diplomat. On the other hand, Mr Yawar may be able to use his links with Saudi Arabia, Syria and Jordan to gain a measure of acceptance in the Arab world.

The new president was not part of the exiled opposition, much disliked by most Iraqis, so that may also help his popularity. He was heavily critical of the attack by the US Marines on Fallujah in April.

But the interim government will be weak because it is dependent militarily on the US. The old Iraqi Governing Council, now disbanded, was discredited by its lack of real power over security and the economy.

(MORE)

2//The Jordan Times, Jordan Wednesday, June 2, 2004
http://www.jordantimes.com/wed/news/news10.htm

JAFFARI, POPULAR SHIITE, TAKES VICE PRESIDENT POST

BAGHDAD (AFP) - Ibrahim Jaffari, who was handed Tuesday one of Iraq's two vice presidential posts, is a religious Shiite Muslim who heads the Dawa Party and enjoys more grassroots support than any other government member.

A recent opinion poll published by the Financial Times ranked the 56-year-old as the third most influential public figure in Iraq, behind Ayatollah Ali Al Sistani and the radical Shiite cleric Moqtada Sadr. The Hezb Al Dawa Al Islamiyya (Islamic Call Party), which was founded in 1957-58 by Sadr's uncle, Mohammed Baqr Al Sadr, is the oldest Shiite party in Iraq and advocates Islamic reform and modernising religious institutions. Jaffari, who was born in Karbala and studied at Mosul University, joined the party in 1966 after finishing his training as a doctor.

Based on alphabetical order, Jaffari took the first rotating chair of the US-installed Governing Council in July 2003. Unlike most of his successors and fellow returned exiles, he benefits from wide popular support.

Some of his detractors accuse him of being corrupt, having shadowy ties with Iran and being a proponent of a conservative Islam hampering women's rights.

When talks were under way last February over the drafting of the fundamental law which will serve as Iraq's interim institution, Jaffari was among those leading the camp who favoured Islam as the only source of legislation.

Yet his renunciation of a purely theocratic Iraq and his participation in the Governing Council has enabled him to shift his party closer to the mainstream.

In April, Jaffari further raised his profile when he travelled to Tehran to seek Iranian President Mohammed Khatami's mediation in ending the deadly fighting between Sadr's militia and US forces in the holy city of Najaf.

Jaffari's party enjoys the prestige of its past resistance in and outside Iraq against Saddam's regime and was conferred legitimacy by years of oppression matched only by Kurdish groups in the north.

(SNIP)

The party's military wing also conducted spectacular attacks against the Iraqi embassy in Beirut in 1981 and against the French and US embassies in Kuwait in 1983. Jaffari's party quickly reestablished itself in the Shiite heartland of Iraq after the US-led invasion last March, and organised some of the first demonstrations in the south demanding the departure of US troops.

Since then, his party has been successfully using its popular mandate to turn its Saddam-era cell-based structure into a leading political force.

Jaffari will serve alongside fellow vice president Roj Nuri Shawis, a Kurd, under president Ghazi Al-Yawar, a Sunni Muslim tribal leader.

3//Arab News, Saudi Arabia 2 June 2004
http://www.arabnews.com/?page=1&section=0&article=46105&d=2&m=6&y=2004

MANY WESTERNERS IN EASTERN PROVINCE CONSIDERING EARLY EXIT
Saeed Haider, Arab News

DAMMAM, 2 June 2004 - Scores of Western expatriates in the Eastern Province are preparing to go home after the Alkhobar attacks left 22 dead, mostly foreigners.

Travel agencies in Dammam and Alkhobar confirm that in the past 48 hours they have made a number of bookings. Several big joint ventures and multinational groups have made mass bookings for their American and European executives to destinations ranging from the United States to Europe and Asia.

Americans, it appears, have now started taking seriously their embassy's advice to leave the country.

A warden message from the US Embassy strongly reiterated its previous warning urging American citizens to depart the country.

There is also word of mass resignations from big corporations, including unconfirmed reports of resignations from Saudi Aramco.

Some large multinationals involved in oil operations are now reportedly thinking of sending first their American and European staff and later the Asians home.

Such reports raised the question whether these companies are going to stop their operations in Saudi Arabia altogether.

There are indications that some multinationals are contemplating moving their offices from here to either neighboring Bahrain or the United Arab Emirates. However, the companies declined to confirm or deny such reports.

(SNIP)

However, some leading multinational groups say that most of their staff who plan to leave the country will "soon come back once things settle down here."

"The killings of expatriates have unnerved many of our employees and they now need a change and hence some may go on an extended vacation. But surely they will be coming back," said a Saudi partner of a joint venture.

He, however, could not elaborate what he meant by extended leave and when exactly such foreigners will return.

A number of Westerners have said they are taking their summer vacations early and will then decide whether to return to the Kingdom.

Scores of Westerners shuttle between their workplace in Alkhobar and neighboring Bahrain where they live via the King Fahd Causeway.

Some big multinational groups say the option of making the same arrangement for all their foreign staff could not be ruled out.

4//The Toronto Star, Canada Jun. 1, 2004
http://www.thestar.com/NASApp/cs/ContentServer?pagenam...

MINORITY DEALS START
xious party leaders are beginning to set conditions; Harper says he won't make any formal agreements for power

Susan Delacourt, Ottawa Bureau Chief

OTTAWA - Federal party leaders are beginning to lay down their conditions for forming a minority government, a prospect that looms larger each day in a tight federal election contest.

Conservative Leader Stephen Harper, whose party is creeping closer to neck-and-neck contention against Prime Minister Paul Martin's Liberals, said yesterday he wouldn't make any formal deals with other parties simply to form a government after the June 28 vote.

"If we were in a minority, you wouldn't run the country as if you have a majority. You have to run it as if you have a minority and ... you do have to listen to all parties, but in the end you do what's best for the country," Harper said.

"Look, a few months ago everyone was talking about Mr. Martin winning practically every seat. Now they're talking about (the) possibility of us forming a minority ... I think we're going to win a majority when this is over."

There was more trouble for the Liberals as an Ipsos-Reid poll broadcast on CTV News last night said 66 per cent of respondents said it's time for a change in government.

The Liberals polled 34 per cent nationally compared with 30 for the Conservatives, 16 for the NDP and 6 for the Green party.

(MORE)

5//The Manila Times, Philippines Wednesday, June 02, 2004
http://www.manilatimes.net/national/2004/jun/02...

GMA: GOVT CAN HANDLE COUP PLOTS
By Ma. Theresa Torres, Reporter

While in spiritual retreat in Cebu, President Arroyo is also apparently preoccupied with thinking about the reported plots to topple her administration.

In her first public appearance after the May 10 elections, Mrs. Arroyo spoke in Cebu, assuring the people the government is doing all it can to stop alleged coup plotters and political extremists.

The President made the assurance when she met Monday night with Cebu local officials at the Waterfront Hotel Lahug.

Police and the military link the reported plots to allegations of massive cheating in the election and the vote count to ensure Mrs. Arroyo's victory.

The plots are allegedly designed to prevent her from being proclaimed if she wins.

Mrs. Arroyo said her administration is working hard to ensure that the canvassing of votes for president and vice president in Congress would proceed smoothly.

"Our Congress will ratify the will of the people. We will allow no one to stand in the way," she said.
The President on Sunday evening went into retreat at the Carmelites Monastery in Cebu and to meet with Cebu officials.

(SNIP)

She said voting in the Visayas reflected the general trend in the country "and nobody can deny it."

"If any irregularities were committed in the election, they should be examined. But the overwhelming reaction of many opposition candidates, nongovernmental organizations, civic groups, religious organizations and the international community is that this election was fair and democratic," the President said.

(MORE)