June 23, 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 23, 2004

1//Inter Press Service New Agency, Italy--ABU GHRAIB TACTICS INSPIRE TORTURE IN NEIGHBOUR EGYPT (In what may be the first concrete example of the effects of the Abu Ghraib prison torture scandal in Iraq, lawyers and human rights groups in Egypt, a major U.S. ally in the Middle East, say that local police are increasingly resorting to new torture tactics similar to those used by U.S. soldiers in Iraq…But perhaps most disturbing to domestic human rights groups is the growing use of the name "Abu Ghraib" by officers to threaten further torture of detainees, and its significance as a code term for applying electricity to the genital area. "It is clear that the U.S. has now spread the culture of barbaric torture," said Gamal Tajeldeen Hassan, a lawyer who heads the Sawasya Human Rights and Anti-Discrimination Center in Cairo.)

2//The Institute for War and Peace Reporting, UK--MUJAHEDIN SET THE RULES IN FALLUJA (Captain Mohammed al-Issawi, 35, an officer in the Fallujah Protection Army, stood at his checkpoint with a squad of his men and a handful of anti-Coalition "mujahedin" insurgents. "We work together with the mujahedin to provide security," he admitted. And even if they did not work together, he said, "we would cooperate to give them the news" - in other words information about United States troop movements, foreigners in town, or anything else of interest to the anti-Coalition guerrilla movement. Despite the creation of the Coalition-sponsored Fallujah Protection Army, FPA, de facto control of this predominantly Sunni town is exercised by the mujahedin, dressed in their trademark yishmagh headscarfs and armed with Kalashnikov rifles and rocket-propelled grenade launchers.)

3//Arab News, Saudi Arabia--KURD ISSUE LIKELY TO FUEL CHAOS IN FUTURE IRAQ (With the end of the14 -month occupation, Iraq is likely to be faced, once again, with some of the problems it has had ever since it was put on the map as a nation-state in 1921. The most complex of these concerns the Kurds whose leaders are playing a game of bluff and counter bluff in the hope of exacting maximum advantage in a period of uncertainty…A closer look at the reality of the situation, however, would show that there is little chance for a breakaway Kurdish state in northern Iraq. There are several reasons for this. To start with Iraqi Kurds do not constitute a single ethnic entity let alone a "nation" in the accepted sense of the term.)

4//The Moscow Times, Russia--SHIPPERS RACE TO HIT TERROR DEADLINE (Hundreds of Russian ships could be denied entry to foreign ports if they do not meet new international anti-terrorism requirements by July 1, Transportation Ministry officials said…On Monday, the IMO reported that only a third of 21,374 ships surveyed worldwide had been certified. Moscow is even further ahead in approving port security plans. Only 16 percent of 6,117 port facilities globally had their plans approved, the IMO survey found…However, some maritime security specialists have warned that in the rush to comply with the new regulations, a black market in phony security certificates is emerging. There is also concern that not all IMO member states are policing the rules effectively.)

5//The Guardian, UK--GYPSIES WIN RIGHT TO SUE IBM OVER ROLE IN HOLOCAUST (A Swiss appeals court yesterday ruled that the US computer giant IBM may have helped Adolf Hitler pursue mass murder more quickly and more efficiently than would otherwise have been possible, opening up the prospect of a $12bn lawsuit against the company by Gypsy organisations…IBM's pioneering punch cards and prototype computer systems were used by the Nazis to systematise and collate information on the Jewish population and others under the Third Reich from the 1930s, an operation that oiled the wheels of the Holocaust. At least 600,000 Gypsies as well as six million Jews were ultimately murdered.

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1//Inter Press Service New Agency, Italy June 21, 2004
http://www.ips.org/index.htm

ABU GHRAIB TACTICS INSPIRE TORTURE IN NEIGHBOUR EGYPT
Emad Mekay

WASHINGTON, Jun 22 (IPS) - In what may be the first concrete example of the effects of the Abu Ghraib prison torture scandal in Iraq, lawyers and human rights groups in Egypt, a major U.S. ally in the Middle East, say that local police are increasingly resorting to new torture tactics similar to those used by U.S. soldiers in Iraq.

Several lawyers and human rights groups told IPS in phone interviews over the past two weeks that the Egyptian State Security Police used methods that mirrored those in Abu Ghraib, like stripping some detainees naked -- a rare practice in Egyptian prisons, even though the country has a long record of human rights abuses and prison torture.

Other practices include taking pictures or threatening to take pictures of prisoners naked, which the groups say was a hugely uncommon occurrence in the past; and blindfolding and handcuffing detainees for long periods of time, which also prevented them from fulfilling their religious obligations, such as praying five times a day.

But perhaps most disturbing to domestic human rights groups is the growing use of the name "Abu Ghraib" by officers to threaten further torture of detainees, and its significance as a code term for applying electricity to the genital area.

"It is clear that the U.S. has now spread the culture of barbaric torture," said Gamal Tajeldeen Hassan, a lawyer who heads the Sawasya Human Rights and Anti-Discrimination Center in Cairo.

(MORE)

2//The Institute for War and Peace Reporting, UK (ICR No. 69, 21-Jun-04)
http://www.iwpr.net/index.pl?archive/irq/irq_69_1_eng.txt

MUJAHEDIN SET THE RULES IN FALLUJA

Armed insurgents openly man checkpoints alongside Coalition-created force.

By Naser Kadhem in Fallujah

Captain Mohammed al-Issawi, 35, an officer in the Fallujah Protection Army, stood at his checkpoint with a squad of his men and a handful of anti-Coalition "mujahedin" insurgents.

"We work together with the mujahedin to provide security," he admitted.

And even if they did not work together, he said, "we would cooperate to give them the news" - in other words information about United States troop movements, foreigners in town, or anything else of interest to the anti-Coalition guerrilla movement.

Despite the creation of the Coalition-sponsored Fallujah Protection Army, FPA, de facto control of this predominantly Sunni town is exercised by the mujahedin, dressed in their trademark yishmagh headscarfs and armed with Kalashnikov rifles and rocket-propelled grenade launchers.

Not only do they stand guard on the street, either with the FPA or by themselves, they also enforce their own brand of religious puritanism on the town's inhabitants.

Posters on the walls of Fallujah homes, shops, mosques, and schools warn that anyone caught drinking alcohol or bringing it into the town will be "severely punished".

Young people in the town said the rules are enforced by the mujahedin, who say that residents of the town must obey God's decrees since He helped them win the battle with the Americans.

(SNIP)

Many Fallujah residents welcome some of the changes such as an order calling on doctors to keep their fees down.

"We thank the mujahedin, because they did us a big favour by threatening doctors who took high fees from their patients," said Raed Muhammad, 26, a history student.

"There were some doctors who charged high fees, but now they've reduced them to the same as other doctors," said pediatrician Abd al-Sitar Jawad, 46. "It's a positive step."

Others expressed gratitude for the tighter social controls imposed by the guerrillas.

Taxi driver Shami Abd al-Jabar, 32, praised the mujahedin for taking "good steps to prevent young people from wandering around at night drinking alcohol... Such actions are against our religion and tribal society.

"I feel there is security and stability, because the mujahedin are protecting the Fallujah people."

3//Arab News, Saudi Arabia Wednesday, 23, June, 2004 (06, Jumada al-Ula,1425 )
http://www.arabnews.com/?page=7&section=0&article=47218&d=23&m=6&y=2004

KURD ISSUE LIKELY TO FUEL CHAOS IN FUTURE IRAQ
Amir Taheri, Arab News

With the end of the14 -month occupation, Iraq is likely to be faced, once again, with some of the problems it has had ever since it was put on the map as a nation-state in 1921.

The most complex of these concerns the Kurds whose leaders are playing a game of bluff and counter bluff in the hope of exacting maximum advantage in a period of uncertainty.

Both Massoud Barzani and Jalal Talabani, the two most prominent leaders of the Iraqi Kurds, have dropped hints that they might decide to "part ways" if their demand for a Kurdish veto on some key national decisions is not included in the new constitution.

This may or may not be a bluff. But the threat of Kurdish secession has already met with two different reactions from Iraq's non-Kurdish leadership elite.

Some Iraqi Arab leaders are horrified at the thought of the Kurdish problem dominating the nation's agenda once again. They are prepared to do all they reasonably can to satisfy Kurdish demands within a multi-ethnic pluralist system.

Others, however, manifest some frustration against the Kurds.

"The Kurds have been the source of all our national miseries from the start," says one Iraqi Arab leader on condition of anonymity. "We became involved in several wars because of them. We also had to submit to dictators because we believed they would prevent the Kurds from secession. But now that Iraq is free why should we return to the failed policies of the past just to keep the Kurds under our flag?"

Many Iraqis, and some policy-makers in Washington, see the Kurdish secession as the worst case scenario for the newly-liberated nation. Barzani and Talabani, arguably the most experienced politicians in Iraq today, know this and try to exploit such fears.

A closer look at the reality of the situation, however, would show that there is little chance for a breakaway Kurdish state in northern Iraq.

There are several reasons for this. To start with Iraqi Kurds do not constitute a single ethnic entity let alone a "nation" in the accepted sense of the term.

Iraqi Kurds speak two different, though mutually intelligible, languages, each of which is divided into several sub-dialects, with distinct literally and cultural traditions.

Iraqi Kurds are also divided into half a dozen religious communities, including a number of heterodox creeds.

Some of the people generally labelled "Kurdish" are, in fact ethnic Lurs and Elamites with their distinct languages, cultures and histories. At the same time the predominantly Kurdish area is also home to some non-Kurdish communities, including ethnic Arabs, Turcomans, Assyrians and Armenians.

To make matters more complicated, at least a third of Iraqi Kurds live outside the area that might one day become an independent Kurdish state. (There are more than a million Kurds in greater Baghdad, for example.) The creation of a breakaway Kurdish state in Iraq could trigger a process of ethnic cleansing, population exchanges, and displacements that could plunge the whole region into years of conflict.

A Kurdish mini-state in northeastern Iraq might not even be viable. It would be landlocked and will have few natural resources.

Almost all of Iraq's major oil fields fall outside the area under discussion. Also, the area's water resources would be vulnerable to manipulation from Turkey and Iran where the principal rivers originate.

(MORE)

4//The Moscow Times, Russia Wednesday, June 23, 2004 Page 7
http://www.themoscowtimes.com/stories/2004/06/23/042.html

SHIPPERS RACE TO HIT TERROR DEADLINE
By Greg Walters, Staff Writer

Hundreds of Russian ships could be denied entry to foreign ports if they do not meet new international anti-terrorism requirements by July 1, Transportation Ministry officials said.

Some 800 Russian ships have already received the necessary certification, said Dmitry Radobolsky, head of the international section at the Maritime Security Service in Moscow, and the Transportation Ministry has been issuing certificates at a rate of about 200 ships per month.

"Considering that we have about 400 ships left, it will be close," Radobolsky said. "Ships will not be allowed to enter a foreign port without a certificate."

An international agreement on ship and port security was drawn up by the United Nations' shipping body, the International Maritime Organization, in December 2002.

(SNIP)

On Monday, the IMO reported that only a third of 21,374 ships surveyed worldwide had been certified.

Moscow is even further ahead in approving port security plans. Only 16 percent of 6,117 port facilities globally had their plans approved, the IMO survey found.

(SNIP)

The IMO's own figures probably underestimate real levels of compliance, in part because governments are issuing certificates more quickly as the deadline approaches, said Lee Adamson, a spokesman for the IMO in London.

However, some maritime security specialists have warned that in the rush to comply with the new regulations, a black market in phony security certificates is emerging. There is also concern that not all IMO member states are policing the rules effectively.

(SNIP)

Even in the event that thousands of ships and ports miss the deadline, governments are likely to take a pragmatic approach to the problem, Adamson said.

"Clearly, what would be a bad outcome for everybody is if suddenly world trade collapses," he said. "I don't think anyone is going to let that happen."

Adamson said that under certain conditions, ports might still accept ships that have not been certified.

Conversely, ships could theoretically refuse to dock at an uncertified port.

(MORE)

5//The Guardian, UK Wednesday June 23, 2004
http://www.guardian.co.uk/secondworldwar/story/0,14058,1245284,00.html

GYPSIES WIN RIGHT TO SUE IBM OVER ROLE IN HOLOCAUST
Ian Traynor

A Swiss appeals court yesterday ruled that the US computer giant IBM may have helped Adolf Hitler pursue mass murder more quickly and more efficiently than would otherwise have been possible, opening up the prospect of a $12bn lawsuit against the company by Gypsy organisations.

In the first case of its kind, the Geneva-based Girca organisation - Gypsy International Recognition and Compensation Action, representing around 600 Roma associations - won an appeal and the right to sue IBM after a lower court last year dismissed the case on the grounds that Switzerland did not have jurisdiction on the matter.

IBM's pioneering punch cards and prototype computer systems were used by the Nazis to systematise and collate information on the Jewish population and others under the Third Reich from the 1930s, an operation that oiled the wheels of the Holocaust.

At least 600,000 Gypsies as well as six million Jews were ultimately murdered.

A book published three years ago documented how the model capitalist firm was implicated in mass murder.

The book, by Edwin Black, the son of Polish Holocaust survivors who has also written that Hitler's extermination policy was partly inspired by American eugenicists of the early 20th century, was the trigger for the initial lawsuit in Switzerland, launched in January 2002 and dismissed last year.

News of the appeal court ruling came yesterday from the Gypsies' lawyer, Henri-Philippe Sambuc, who argues that Geneva was the nerve centre of IBM's European operations in the 1930s. He told the Associated Press news agency that IBM's Geneva office organised business between the Nazis and IBM operations across Europe.

The litigation is being pursued on behalf of five European Gypsies who were orphaned in the Holocaust. Each is claiming $20,000 (£11,000) in "moral" compensation from IBM.

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