June 11, 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 11, 2004

1//Turkish Daily News, Turkey--KURDISH LEADERS: DO ARABS SEE KURDS AS FIRST CLASS CITIZENS? (Iraqi Kurdish tempers have come to boiling point with the failure of the United Nations Security Council to endorse the interim constitution of Iraq that assures Kurdish autonomy and the composition of the recently announced cabinet in Baghdad where Kurds have been denied top posts like the seat of the prime minister or the presidency. "We are deeply disappointed and feel deceived," said a leading Kurdish official in a telephone interview form northern Iraq. Asking not to be named officials said...Meanwhile, the TDN learnt that Kurdish leaders Masoud Barzani and Jalal Talabani are in close consultations to decide what future source to take in view of the U.N. resolution on Iraq.)

2//The Japan Times, Japan--KOIZUMI'S IRAQ PLEDGE SIGNALS NEW CHAPTER FOR SDF (The problem for Japan will be how to make sure that the SDF, as part of a multinational force, will not be involved in the use of force. The new resolution authorizes the U.S.-led multinational force to maintain security and stability "under unified command," but a special Japanese law enacted last year for the SDF dispatch to Iraq only allows the SDF to engage in humanitarian and noncombatant missions. Whether the SDF can be independent from that unified command "is the key point and will need further discussion after prime minister's return," Chief Cabinet Secretary Hiroyuki Hosoda said Wednesday.)

3//Asia Times Online, Hong Kong--RUSSIA CHOOSES TO REMAIN SKEPTICAL (At this week's Group of Eight annual summit in Georgia in the United States, Russia sounded upbeat over the US-backed United Nations Security Council resolution on Iraq, which effectively endorses the handover of sovereignty to the current interim administration on June 30. However, despite the optimistic official pronouncements, Moscow remains skeptical over President George W Bush's policies in Iraq and the Middle East.)

4//The Scotsman, UK--CRISIS IN SUDAN: EVERY REFUGEE CHILD UNDER FIVE FACES DEATH UNLESS UN ACTS (Not a single Sudanese child refugee under the age of five will be alive in six months unless there is immediate and dramatic international intervention, a senior United Nations official warned yesterday...Aid agencies despair about the lack of international assistance to prevent a greater humanitarian disaster, blaming the focus on Iraq and a lack of public awareness for the shortage of funds. "There is a lack of interest from some main donors, maybe because these people do not have diamonds in the ground or oil," Mr Dei said.)

5//The Toronto Star, Canada--WORRIED LIBERALS GO NEGATIVE (Shell-shocked Liberals are launching a blistering new anti-Conservative attack in a desperate bid to rally support and pin down the charging Tories with just over two weeks left in the election campaign...The ad plays on voter fears, warning that the Conservatives would scrap the Kyoto climate-change protocol, fail to protect a woman's right to have an abortion, and sacrifice medicare in favour of tax cuts...Harper dismissed the ad as a sign of desperation. "To treat the electorate as if they're imbeciles is a strategy that will backfire. "I will let the Liberals descend into the gutter. They will be punished accordingly.")

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1//Turkish Daily News, Turkey 10 June 2004
http://www.turkishdailynews.com/FrTDN/latest/for.htm#f3

KURDISH LEADERS: DO ARABS SEE KURDS AS FIRST CLASS CITIZENS?
Minister Nasreen Barwari says she and Kurdish colleagues in cabinet waiting for decision of Kurdish leaders to pull out of government

Ilnur Cevik
Ankara - Turkish Daily News

Iraqi Kurdish tempers have come to boiling point with the failure of the United Nations Security Council to endorse the interim constitution of Iraq that assures Kurdish autonomy and the composition of the recently announced cabinet in Baghdad where Kurds have been denied top posts like the seat of the prime minister or the presidency.

"We are deeply disappointed and feel deceived," said a leading Kurdish official in a telephone interview form northern Iraq. Asking not to be named officials said.

The highly placed official said Kurds want to be treated on equal standing with the Arabs in Iraq and fear this is not the case as Shiite Arabs especially oppose giving veto powers to the Kurds.

The Iraqi Kurdish official said the Kurds are angry and the local people in northern Iraq are demanding prompt action by their leaders as a reaction to what they see as Arab efforts to deny their rights.

Nechirvan Barzani, the prime minister of the Kurdish Regional Government in Erbil, has already threatened to pull Kurdish ministers out of the cabinet as a protest if the United Nations failed to approve the Iraqi interim constitution that recognizes Kurdish autonomy. The U.N. Security Council passed a resolution on Tuesday night endorsing the transfer of sovereignty to Iraq's new government by the end of June.

(SNIP)

Iraqi Kurdish leaders wanted either the post of the prime minister or the president in the cabinet but did not get either. They were given a post as vice president and as deputy prime minister but that did not satisfy them. They also had the portfolios of foreign minister, minister of municipalities and public works, Ministry of Irrigation and two state ministries. Barham Salih who was named deputy prime minister in charge of national security has still not accepted the post and is awaiting some clarifications from Prime Minister Iyad Alawi, the Turkish Daily news was told.

Meanwhile, the TDN learnt that Kurdish leaders Masoud Barzani and Jalal Talabani are in close consultations to decide what future source to take in view of the U.N. resolution on Iraq.

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2//The Japan Times, Japan Friday, June 11, 2004
http://www.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/getarticle.pl5?nn20040611f1.htm

KOIZUMI'S IRAQ PLEDGE SIGNALS NEW CHAPTER FOR SDF
By Nao Shimoyachi, Staff writer

Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's pledge to keep the Self-Defense Force troops deployed in Iraq after a scheduled end-of-June transfer of power to an interim government will open a new chapter for the SDF.

Koizumi made the pledge Tuesday during talks with U.S. President George W. Bush on Sea Island, Ga., on the sidelines of the annual Group of Eight summit. The SDF has been under scrutiny since its creation due to the nation's war-renouncing Constitution.

(SNIP)

Koizumi's statement was widely seen as an effective promise of the SDF's participation in a multinational force, the first such role in the SDF's 50-year-history.

"That would be a deviation from the government's traditional interpretation of the Constitution that has guaranteed the nonuse of force when (the SDF) participates in U.N.-backed peacekeeping missions," said Tetsuo Maeda, a security expert and professor at Tokyo International University.

"This isn't something you just tell the leader of the United States," he said. "Why didn't he follow the due process of explaining to the Japanese people (the decision) and then report it to the United Nations?"

The government says that the humanitarian nature of Japan's mission in Iraq, currently overseen by a 500-strong contingent of Ground Self-Defense Force troops in the southern Iraqi city of Samawah, will not change.

(SNIP)

The problem for Japan will be how to make sure that the SDF, as part of a multinational force, will not be involved in the use of force.

The new resolution authorizes the U.S.-led multinational force to maintain security and stability "under unified command," but a special Japanese law enacted last year for the SDF dispatch to Iraq only allows the SDF to engage in humanitarian and noncombatant missions.

Whether the SDF can be independent from that unified command "is the key point and will need further discussion after prime minister's return," Chief Cabinet Secretary Hiroyuki Hosoda said Wednesday.

"When you become part of a certain framework, you have to follow its practices," said Admiral Toru Ishikawa, Chairman of the SDF's Joint Staff Council. "But I understand that each force will carry out its mission under the orders of its government."

When Japan formally commits to joining the multinational force, the government will explain how the move relates to the new U.N. resolution and the Constitution, as well as the relationship between the SDF and the multinational force, he said.

(MORE)

3//Asia Times Online, Hong Kong June 11, 2004
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Central_Asia/FF11Ag01.html

RUSSIA CHOOSES TO REMAIN SKEPTICAL
By Sergei Blagov

MOSCOW - At this week's Group of Eight annual summit in Georgia in the United States, Russia sounded upbeat over the US-backed United Nations Security Council resolution on Iraq, which effectively endorses the handover of sovereignty to the current interim administration on June 30. However, despite the optimistic official pronouncements, Moscow remains skeptical over President George W Bush's policies in Iraq and the Middle East.

(SNIP)

Russia has long opposed the US-led invasion of Iraq to depose Saddam Hussein. The Kremlin has repeatedly warned that the war could lead to chaos and a rise in terrorism in Iraq. Nonetheless, in recent months, Moscow has not wanted to disturb US sore spots on Iraq, and top Russian officials have made virtually no "I told you so" comments.

Russia has also suggested that an international conference on Iraq be organized before June 30 to discuss the new government. Putin's foreign policy adviser, Sergei Prihodko, said that Moscow was pleased that Washington was moving toward supporting Russia's desire to organize an international conference for Iraq, much like that held for the reconstruction of Afghanistan in Bonn in 2002.

However, as the international conference on Iraq is unlikely to be held before June 30, some "I told you so" comments came from Moscow after all. Notably, Russia has indicated that it wants the situation surrounding allegations over Iraq's weapons of mass destruction (WMD) to be "fully" clarified. "Since the issue of weapons of mass destruction led to the war against Iraq, it should not be left unresolved," Russian Foreign Ministry spokesman Alexander Yakovenko said on Wednesday. By adopting its new resolution on Iraq, the Security Council reiterated that more clarity was needed on this issue, Yakovenko added.

Russia had sought a reference in the resolution to resumed weapons inspections for Iraq by UNMOVIC, the UN monitoring, verification and inspection commission. The US said it was premature to address the status of UNMOVIC while the US-led Iraq Survey Group continues its investigation into WMD programs.

Russia also refuses to send troops to Iraq and said the UN resolution had not changed its position. Russia had no plans of joining the multinational forces in Iraq, Deputy Foreign Minister Yury Fedotov said on Wednesday. However, he conceded that the Security Council resolution "fully resolved the issue of multinational forces in Iraq" as it authorizes a US-led multinational force to maintain security in the country.

Moreover, at the G8 summit, Washington reportedly pressed Iraq's foreign creditors to forgive "the vast majority", or some 80%, of the country's US$120 billion in debt. But Russia's debt reduction pledges fall short of US demands. Last December, Russia offered to write off more than half of Iraq's $8 billion debt to Moscow. The Kremlin also pledged multi-billion investments in rebuilding Iraq. Preliminary estimates suggest that investments by Russian companies could reach $4 billion, Putin said. In exchange for the debt write-off, Moscow expects some bounty from rebuilding Iraq.

Russia also disapproves of Bush's Greater Middle East initiative. Officially, Russia has no quarrel with the democratic and economic reform plan, also known as the "Broader Middle East and North African Initiative", which also calls for measures against terrorism, a key part of Russia's official policies.

However, Moscow rejected the Greater Middle East initiative. Reforming the region is something that should be done by Middle East countries themselves, Yakovenko said. "Russia believes a more general, multi-sided approach is required to solve the problems in the Middle East," he stated.

In the meantime, the Kremlin has made a number of positive gestures toward Washington in recent days. Moscow has made yet another overture by pledging to increase oil output and exports regardless of world prices, as requested by the US.

It is understood that the Kremlin is pleased to see the West coming to seek Russian help over crude, allowing Moscow to reap political dividends internationally. With about 10% of the world's proven oil reserves, Russia produces about 9 million barrels a day, a sizable share of global consumption of around 80 million barrels. Only half of that is exported, mainly to Europe, but the revenues from those oil sales provide more than half of the Kremlin's annual budget.

(SNIP)

Meanwhile, Bush urged a wider role for the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) in post-occupation Iraq. This month's NATO summit in Turkey is set to deal with Iraq and the Greater Middle Eastern initiative.

Yet Putin will skip this summit, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has announced. Lavrov gave no official reason, but insisted Putin was not snubbing the 26-nation talks in Istanbul. Nonetheless, Putin's refusal came as yet another blow to an event for which ambitions have already been scaled down with the decision not to invite Arab states.

Putin's reluctance to attend the NATO summit seems to be yet another indication of Moscow's hesitant approach to Bush's policies in Iraq and the Greater Middle East.

4//The Scotsman, UK Thursday, June 10, 2004
http://news.scotsman.com/index.cfm?id=658342004

CRISIS IN SUDAN: EVERY REFUGEE CHILD UNDER FIVE FACES DEATH UNLESS UN ACTS
Gethin Chamberlain, on the Sudanese-Chad border

Not a single Sudanese child refugee under the age of five will be alive in six months unless there is immediate and dramatic international intervention, a senior United Nations official warned yesterday.

Hundreds of thousands of refugees have poured over the border from Sudan into Chad in the past few months, driven out by a genocidal campaign against black African inhabitants of the Darfur region.

Many are living in makeshift shelters, unable to get into established refugee camps, facing the constant threat of attack from the government-backed Janjaweed militias that have burned villages, killed thousands of people, raped women and girls and taken young children as slaves.

The UN has described the situation in Darfur - where something in the region of a million people have been driven from their homes and estimates have placed the potential death toll at 300,000 - as the world's worst humanitarian crisis, and the imminent arrival of the rainy season threatens to trigger a fresh catastrophe among the refugees who have sought shelter in Chad.

(SNIP)

Yesterday, the deputy director of the UN World Food Programme in Chad, Jean-Charles Dei, warned that the rains would make roads impassable for aid lorries bringing in food, leading to malnutrition and ultimately starvation for thousands of the refugees. He said the rains would also bring inevitable outbreaks of disease, including cholera and measles.

"There will be a tragedy if nothing happens," Mr Dei said. "I don't think any of the children under the age of five will make it, and the pregnant women too. For those who are under five there is no chance. They will die from starvation."

The UN has appealed, so far unsuccessfully, for more than $30 million before the end of this year to prevent a catastrophe. UNICEF, which alone says it needs $1.6 million to tackle the immediate crisis, has warned that with the rainy season about to start in earnest, the situation is now critical.

(SNIP)

Aid agencies despair about the lack of international assistance to prevent a greater humanitarian disaster, blaming the focus on Iraq and a lack of public awareness for the shortage of funds.

"There is a lack of interest from some main donors, maybe because these people do not have diamonds in the ground or oil," Mr Dei said.

"There is a saying: the best political friend is an economic friend. But this disaster can be avoided. We just need to act now."

(MORE)

5//The Toronto Star, Canada Jun. 10, 2004 06:20 PM
http://www.thestar.com/NASApp/cs/ContentServer?pagena...

WORRIED LIBERALS GO NEGATIVE
'I will let the Liberals descend into the gutter,' Harper responds

The Canadian Press

Shell-shocked Liberals are launching a blistering new anti-Conservative attack in a desperate bid to rally support and pin down the charging Tories with just over two weeks left in the election campaign.

But Stephen Harper, dealing with a fresh controversy over anti-gay comments by a Conservative candidate, warns the strategy will backfire.

The Liberals are rolling out a hard-hitting TV ad campaign amid fresh polls showing the sputtering party in a dead heat with the resurgent Tories - and with Grit MPs and strategists acknowledging they're in trouble.

The ad plays on voter fears, warning that the Conservatives would scrap the Kyoto climate-change protocol, fail to protect a woman's right to have an abortion, and sacrifice medicare in favour of tax cuts.

It ends with a Canadian flag fading as the narrator warns: ``Stephen Harper says that when he's through with Canada, we won't recognize it. You know what? He's right."

Harper dismissed the ad as a sign of desperation.

"Paul Martin is misreading public opinion and miscalculating in this election campaign," he said today during a stop in Brampton, Ont.

"To treat the electorate as if they're imbeciles is a strategy that will backfire.

"I will let the Liberals descend into the gutter. They will be punished accordingly."

Publicly, Martin stayed out of the fray today, meeting with advisers after returning from the G-8 Summit in Georgia.

The once-mighty Liberals have been stunned both by their huge drop in opinion polls and their apparent inability to recover.

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