August 4, 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 AUGUST 4, 2004

1//Inter Press Service News Agency, Italy--LAND DISPUTES IN KURDISTAN COULD BOIL OVER INTO VIOLENCE (Unresolved land claims between Kurds, Turkomans and Arabs in northern Iraq could erupt into violent conflict if they are not addressed fast enough, warns a leading international human rights organisation. The warning was given by the U.S.-based Human Rights Watch (HRW) in its 78-page report 'Claims in Conflict: Reversing Ethnic Cleansing in Northern Iraq' released Tuesday. The HRW report says simmering tensions over conflicting land claims between Kurds, Turkomans, and Arabs living in the region that could burst into armed conflict at any time due to the failure of the authorities - either the U.S.-led Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA) or the new Iraqi government headed by Interim President Iyad Allawi - to begin resolving those disputes.)

2//Institute for War and Peace Reporting, UK--GUNRUNNING OUT OF IRAQ (Weapons bought cheap in Iraq are sold for double the price in neighbouring Saudi Arabia. Iraqi arms dealers have no shortage of domestic clients, but their latest and most lucrative market is Saudi Arabia, where increased demand for small arms has caused a spike in prices inside Iraq..."I make a lot of money easily," said Abu Ahmed, talking to an IWPR reporter posing as a buyer. He attributes the booming Saudi market to recent attacks by Islamic militants there, which he said have undermined confidence in the Kingdom's ability to provide security or prevent even ordinary crimes such as kidnappings.)

3//Asia Times Online, Hong Kong--PAKISTAN PRODUCES THE GOODS, AGAIN (When US Central Command commander General John Abizaid visited Islamabad last week, his first priority was not Pakistan sending troops to Iraq, but the arrest of high-value al-Qaeda targets. Almost magically, just days later, a Tanzanian al-Qaeda operative, Ahmed Khalfan Ghailani, was arrested in the Punjab provincial city of Gujrat...Security experts close to the corridors of power in Pakistan tell Asia Times Online that as the November presidential elections in the US draw closer, more such dramatic - and timely - arrests can be expected. The announcement of Ghailani's arrest coincided with the Democratic Party's convention in Boston during which John Kerry was confirmed as challenger to President George W Bush. According to the experts, Abizaid met with all top Pakistani officials and discussed plans to broaden the net for the arrest of foreigners in Pakistan from South Waziristan to all of the other six tribal agencies, as well as to the southwestern province of Balochistan.)

4//The Guardian, UK--HOME OFFICE DRAWS UP TIGHTER TERRORISM LAWS (David Blunkett, the home secretary, is believed to be close to backing a specific criminal offence of "acts preparatory to terrorism" as part of his extension of anti-terror legislation planned for this autumn... Mr Blunkett is expected to introduce the new "broadly drawn" offence of acts preparatory to terrorism alongside the renewal of his emergency powers to detain foreign nationals who are certified as suspected international terrorists - known as executive detention powers. He is also considering introducing new civil orders to restrict the activities of people linked to terrorism but who are not themselves considered serious terrorist suspects... The review of the anti-terrorism laws, which are to form a major plank of the government's legislative programme this autumn, is likely to suffer a fresh setback today when a cross-party group of MPs and peers is expected to publish a highly critical report. The report from the joint parliamentary committee on human rights is likely to give its strong backing to alternatives to the renewal of the emergency powers of detention without trial of suspected international terrorists.

5//The Moscow Times, Russia--BENEFITS BILL STEAMROLLERED THROUGH (Federation Council senators will be forced to give their approval Sunday to the controversial Kremlin-backed bill replacing benefits for socially vulnerable groups with cash payments or risk losing their seats, a senior Federation Council adviser said Tuesday. The adviser, who asked not to be identified for fear of reprisal, also said that regional governors have been warned not to speak out against the bill if they want to be re-elected...The bill, approved by the Duma in a first reading on July 2, annuls 55 laws and amends 196 more to end Soviet-era benefits to millions of retirees, military veterans, the disabled, Chernobyl cleanup workers and other socially vulnerable groups. The Kremlin has argued that cash payments, which will be divided between the federal and regional governments, will give recipients more money in their pockets -- and ease the strain on the federal budget.)

Related: OPINION: ERRORS COULD COME BACK TO HAUNT PUTIN (Mistakes, not acts of cruelty, bring down regimes. The mistakes made by rulers normally contain an element of brutality, but not always. Josef Stalin was cruel but he never blundered. Nicholas II wasn't brutal, but he was forever making mistakes, by which I mean not contempt for the good of the people but mistakes in the exercise of power. Such mistakes have come fast and furious in the last six months.)

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1//Inter Press Service News Agency, Italy August 3. 2004
http://www.ipsnews.net/interna.asp?idnews=24916

LAND DISPUTES IN KURDISTAN COULD BOIL OVER INTO VIOLENCE
Jim Lobe

WASHINGTON, Aug 3 (IPS) - Unresolved land claims between Kurds, Turkomans and Arabs in northern Iraq could erupt into violent conflict if they are not addressed fast enough, warns a leading international human rights organisation.

The warning was given by the U.S.-based Human Rights Watch (HRW) in its 78-page report 'Claims in Conflict: Reversing Ethnic Cleansing in Northern Iraq' released Tuesday.

The HRW report says simmering tensions over conflicting land claims between Kurds, Turkomans, and Arabs living in the region that could burst into armed conflict at any time due to the failure of the authorities - either the U.S.-led Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA) or the new Iraqi government headed by Interim President Iyad Allawi - to begin resolving those disputes.

Patience on all sides is running out, adds the report, as tens of thousands of Kurds, as well as Turkomans and Assyrians, who were forced out of their homes during the three decades that preceded last year's U.S.-led invasion, remain camped out, often in dire conditions, waiting to reclaim the homes they lost in the Baathist regime's ''Arabisation'' program.

At the same time, thousands of Arabs who were forced to leave their homes as Kurdish militias, or pesh merga, advanced into southern Kurdistan and into the oil centre of Kirkuk, which Iraqi Kurds regard as their spiritual capital, during the first months of the U.S. occupation, are also living out in temporary camps, waiting for their fates to be resolved and with nowhere else to go.

''If these property disputes are not addressed as a matter of urgency, rising tensions between returning Kurds and Arab settlers could soon explode into open violence'', said Sarah Leah Whitson, executive director of HRW's Middle East and North Africa division.

(SNIP)

The report notes that the U.S.-led CPA essentially failed to address any of these issues or to implement a strategy to resolve claims.

(SNIP)

HRW said that many of the Arab settlers interviewed for the report last year indicated that they recognised Kurdish claims to their properties and were willing to giVe up their homes in return for aid and help in finding new homes and livelihoods.

But, with the passage of time, it appeared that all sides were becoming increasingly impatient with the lack of progress in both resettlement and the provision of aid, contributing to a steady rise in tensions throughout the region.

2//Institute for War and Peace Reporting, UK (ICR No. 77, 03-Aug-04)
http://www.iwpr.net/index.pl?archive/irq/irq_77_1_eng.txt

GUNRUNNING OUT OF IRAQ
By Mohammed Fawzi in Baghdad
Mohammed Fawzi is an IWPR trainee in Baghdad.

Weapons bought cheap in Iraq are sold for double the price in neighbouring Saudi Arabia.

Iraqi arms dealers have no shortage of domestic clients, but their latest and most lucrative market is Saudi Arabia, where increased demand for small arms has caused a spike in prices inside Iraq.

Abu Ahmed, an elderly man from Baghdad, has an eclectic local clientele for his gunrunning business, finding buyers among northern Kurds and southern Shia, as well as Sunnis from Fallujah and western Iraq.

"I make a lot of money easily," said Abu Ahmed, talking to an IWPR reporter posing as a buyer.

He attributes the booming Saudi market to recent attacks by Islamic militants there, which he said have undermined confidence in the Kingdom's ability to provide security or prevent even ordinary crimes such as kidnappings.

The dealer described a smuggling pipeline involving multiple participants. The starting point comes when Abu Ahmed's family approaches other dealers in Iraq to purchase arms.

One favoured weapon is the Browning pistol, which can be bought on the domestic market for 400,000 dinars, or 270 US dollars, and eventually sold to a Saudi arms trader for 700,000 dinars, about 500 dollars.

Abu Ahmed and his sons transport their cargo southwards via the Shia holy city of Karbala. They use an old car and they fly banners from the windows to make the authorities think they are pilgrims.

In Karbala, Abu Ahmed switches to a newer and more reliable car for the next stage of the journey - the desert road leading through the southern town of Arar to the Saudi border. This is seen as a good route because checkpoints are rare.

Abu Ahmed meets up with a Saudi merchant 50 kilometres before the border. Under the supervision of his Saudi trading partner, he hands the weapons over to Iraqi and Saudi shepherds.

"Most of the shepherds are Iraqis, but a few of them are Saudis who practice smuggling," says Abu Ahmed's eldest son, Ahmed.

The Saudi shepherds are among the Kingdom's poor, unable to find work in the cities.

(MORE)

3//Asia Times Online, Hong Kong August 4, 2004
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/South_Asia/FH04Df03.html

PAKISTAN PRODUCES THE GOODS, AGAIN
By Syed Saleem Shahzad

KARACHI - When US Central Command commander General John Abizaid visited Islamabad last week, his first priority was not Pakistan sending troops to Iraq, but the arrest of high-value al-Qaeda targets.

Almost magically, just days later, a Tanzanian al-Qaeda operative, Ahmed Khalfan Ghailani, was arrested in the Punjab provincial city of Gujrat. He is wanted in the United States in connection with the bombings of US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania in 1998. He was one of the United States' 22 most-wanted terrorists, and had a US$5 million bounty on his head.

Security experts close to the corridors of power in Pakistan tell Asia Times Online that as the November presidential elections in the US draw closer, more such dramatic - and timely - arrests can be expected. The announcement of Ghailani's arrest coincided with the Democratic Party's convention in Boston during which John Kerry was confirmed as challenger to President George W Bush.

According to the experts, Abizaid met with all top Pakistani officials and discussed plans to broaden the net for the arrest of foreigners in Pakistan from South Waziristan to all of the other six tribal agencies, as well as to the southwestern province of Balochistan.

The Pakistan army has launched two major offensives in South Waziristan this year in an attempt to capture foreign militants, managing only to stir resentment from the local tribespeople.

Already, though, under intense pressure from the US, Pakistan has handed over as many as 350 suspected al-Qaeda operators into US custody. Most have been low-ranking, but some important names are, according to Asia Times Online contacts, being held in Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) safe houses to be presented at the right moment.

The contacts say that Pakistan's strategic circles see the high-value al-Qaeda operators as "bargaining chips" to ensure continued US support for President General Pervez Musharraf's de facto military rule in Pakistan. Had Pakistan handed over top targets such as Osama bin Laden, his deputy Dr Aiman al-Zawahir, Tahir Yuldash (leader of the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan) and others - assuming it was in a position to do so - the military rulers would have lost their usefulness to the US in its "war on terror".

(SNIP)

The next 'target'?

Dr Aafia Siddiqui, in her mid-30s, has a PhD in neurological sciences from the US. She is believed to have Pakistani and US nationality. She is wanted by the US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) as an "al-Qaeda operative and facilitator" and in connection with "possible terrorist threats" in the US. September 11 mastermind Khalid Shaikh Mohammed (caught in Pakistan) is believed to have told authorities about Aafia.

She disappeared, with her three children, a few months ago in Pakistan. Asia Times Online sources claim that she is in the custody of the ISI. All calls by her family and humanitarian groups for her to be produced in court have been ignored.

Acquaintances of Aafia say she was an ISI contact and played an active role as a "relief worker" in Chechnya and Bosnia - a role the government now does not want to reveal. She has also been connected with different Arab non-governmental organizations in the US, through which she also helped to supply aid and funds to Chechens.

However Aafia's case turns out, doubtless a number of al-Qaeda operators are already in detention in Pakistan to be produced when and as necessary.

4//The Guardian, UK Wednesday August 4, 2004
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk_news/story/0,3604,1275549,00.html

HOME OFFICE DRAWS UP TIGHTER TERRORISM LAWS
Alan Travis, home affairs editor

David Blunkett, the home secretary, is believed to be close to backing a specific criminal offence of "acts preparatory to terrorism" as part of his extension of anti-terror legislation planned for this autumn.

This has been repeatedly urged by the Liberal Democrat peer, Lord Carlile, who has carried out the official reviews of the emergency anti-terror legislation. He argues that such a law would allow suspected international terrorists being interned indefinitely in Britain to face criminal trials instead.

Mr Blunkett is expected to introduce the new "broadly drawn" offence of acts preparatory to terrorism alongside the renewal of his emergency powers to detain foreign nationals who are certified as suspected international terrorists - known as executive detention powers.

He is also considering introducing new civil orders to restrict the activities of people linked to terrorism but who are not themselves considered serious terrorist suspects.

(SNIP)

The new counter-terror package is expected to spark sharp criticism from civil liberties groups, who will be dismayed that Mr Blunkett has not used the opportunity to replace his emergency executive detention powers with realistic alternatives.

New legislation is needed to renew the powers or they will lapse in November 2006 under the "sunset clause" in the original emergency legislation passed in the immediate aftermath of the September 11 attacks.

The official consultation on the government's new counter-terrorism package will close at the end of the month with final decisions expected before November.

It is expected that the emergency powers will continue to be used only against those who are suspected of being members of the al-Qaida network and their immediate associates.

(SNIP)

The home secretary has already been forced to drop his ideas of reducing the standard of proof in terrorist cases and holding pre-emptive trials with secret evidence heard before vetted counsel in the face of open opposition from the attorney general and the director of public prosecutions, among others.

It is believed that the security services also continue to oppose his more widely-supported plans to lift the ban on telephone tap evidence being used in British criminal trials in an attempt to secure more prosecutions as an alternative to executive detention without trial.

The Home Office is working on producing a way of using intercept evidence in court without contravening the European Convention on Human Rights and with safeguards to prevent the disclosure of "sensitive capabilities" - information revealing how the security services go about their business.

(SNIP)

The review of the anti-terrorism laws, which are to form a major plank of the government's legislative programme this autumn, is likely to suffer a fresh setback today when a cross-party group of MPs and peers is expected to publish a highly critical report.

The report from the joint parliamentary committee on human rights is likely to give its strong backing to alternatives to the renewal of the emergency powers of detention without trial of suspected international terrorists.

(MORE)

5//The Moscow Times, Russia Wednesday, August 4, 2004. Page 1.
http://www.themoscowtimes.com/stories/2004/08/04/001.html

BENEFITS BILL STEAMROLLERED THROUGH
By Francesca Mereu, Staff Writer

Federation Council senators will be forced to give their approval Sunday to the controversial Kremlin-backed bill replacing benefits for socially vulnerable groups with cash payments or risk losing their seats, a senior Federation Council adviser said Tuesday.

The adviser, who asked not to be identified for fear of reprisal, also said that regional governors have been warned not to speak out against the bill if they want to be re-elected.

(SNIP)

The State Duma on Tuesday passed the bill in its key second reading by a vote of 304 to 120, with one abstention, after the pro-Kremlin United Russia majority steamrollered through about 300 votes on packages of nearly 5,000 amendments in an eight-hour session.

Opposition and independent deputies complained about being given just 24 hours to scrutinize the amendments to the bill, and also said they were handed a new, revised version of the bill minutes before Tuesday's debate started.

Ready or not, the Federation Council also will have to vote on the bill Sunday, but the adviser said it was very unlikely to encounter any opposition there.

"Everything was done in such a hurry that we had absolutely no time to study the bill carefully, but we have to pass it anyway next Sunday, the same way the Duma has done," the adviser said. "The Kremlin has transformed both the Duma and the Federation Council into rubber stamps. It is so unfair."

(SNIP)

The bill, approved by the Duma in a first reading on July 2, annuls 55 laws and amends 196 more to end Soviet-era benefits to millions of retirees, military veterans, the disabled, Chernobyl cleanup workers and other socially vulnerable groups.

The Kremlin has argued that cash payments, which will be divided between the federal and regional governments, will give recipients more money in their pockets -- and ease the strain on the federal budget.

But critics fear the payments will be not enough to cover costs such as medical care, and say that cash-poor regional administrations may not be able to meet their obligations.

From January 2005, when the law is due to come into effect, recipients will be entitled to a basic cash payment of 450 rubles ($15), plus other packages of benefits of between 650 rubles to 1,550 rubles, depending on the category, Interfax reported.

From January 2006, people will be asked to choose between taking the 450 rubles in cash, or in the form of a basic package of free medicine and free electrichka rides, said Oleg Shein, a Rodina deputy.

(SNIP)

The bill is being promoted as a crucial part of President Vladimir Putin's efforts to implement social reforms.

Valery Bogomolov, first deputy head of the United Russia Duma faction, said that the social reform was necessary, since "80 percent of people [who are entitled] will finally get benefits. Those people know that benefits exist, but never use them. With the cash, they will decide how to spend the money themselves," he said.

Bogomolov admitted that the bill was being pushed through the Duma very quickly. "If the law does not work, we will amend it," he said. "Only with practice do you know whether laws work or not."

(MORE)

Related:

Moscow Times, Wednesday, August 4, 2004. Page 7.
http://www.themoscowtimes.com/stories/2004/08/04/007.html

OPINION: ERRORS COULD COME BACK TO HAUNT PUTIN
By Yulia Latynina
Yulia Latynina hosts a political talk show on Ekho Moskvy radio.

Mistakes, not acts of cruelty, bring down regimes. The mistakes made by rulers normally contain an element of brutality, but not always. Josef Stalin was cruel but he never blundered. Nicholas II wasn't brutal, but he was forever making mistakes, by which I mean not contempt for the good of the people but mistakes in the exercise of power.

Such mistakes have come fast and furious in the last six months.

(SNIP)

The key to understanding current Kremlin policy is that not only does Putin make decisions contrary to his own interests, but his inner circle, which pushes him into these decisions, can't see beyond the end of their noses. Benefits? Get rid of 'em! It never occurred to them how this might play as they increased benefits for bureaucrats at the same time. Yukos? Let's take it! Never mind that historically privatization has proven much more profitable. Kasyanov? He's out of here! Despite the fact that he was the perfect surge protector, and now the least power surge blows every fuse in the Kremlin.

Mistakes are more dangerous than brutality.