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 SEPTEMBER 15, 2004

1//The Scotsman, UK--BLAIR MOVES ON FROM IRAQ...(The car bomb which killed them claimed 47 lives outside the police station. As if to underline the message, minutes later insurgents shot dead a dozen Iraqis in a police van patrolling the town of Baquba. And in London, Tony Blair gave a speech about the environment - the day after proclaiming "I'm back" to the Trades Union Congress. His audience could be forgiven for thinking the job in Iraq was close to being done...Instead of issuing the reinforcements demanded by commanders in the field, Mr Blair and Mr Bush have united in persuading their electorate that the worst has passed, willing the bad news away from the front pages. On both sides of the Atlantic, officials talk as if the problem is an internal matter being handled by Ayad Allawi, their hand-picked prime minister - as if he was a vehicle to outsource the blame. This will not last long. Mr Allawi, and the 25 million souls in Iraq, rely completely on the resolve of the West to finish what we started - to deliver the vision of democracy which was the only legitimate basis of the Iraq war. Around the scenes of death yesterday, Iraqis soon gathered with fists in the air, shouting: "Bush is a dog".)

2//The Independent, UK--LABOUR CONFERENCE TO HEAR ANTI-WAR PLEAS (Labour critics of Tony Blair plan to demand the withdrawal of British troops from Iraq at the party's annual conference in Brighton in a fortnight. Activists have tabled a raft of hostile motions in an attempt to scupper Mr Blair's hopes that the party will rally behind him ahead of the general election expected next May. Rebels will also try to trigger a formal leadership challenge to Mr Blair, but this is expected to be quashed by party managers...Several local parties have submitted "contemporary motions" that strike at the heart of the Prime Minister's strategy...The motion urges the conference to call on the Government "to dissociate the United Kingdom from the occupation by withdrawing British forces from Iraq". It has been backed by a coalition of groups including Labour Against the War, the Campaign for Labour Party Democracy and the Campaign Group of Labour MPs.)

3//The Moscow Times, Russia--PAPERS SAY KREMLIN MOUNTING A 'COUP' (President Vladimir Putin's plan to fight terrorism by seeking stronger Kremlin control over society is "a coup" that shows "disregard for the Constitution," Russian newspapers said Tuesday. Western countries voiced similar concerns over what they saw as a step back from democracy. "Putin Disregards the Constitution" declared a front-page headline in Kommersant, which like other newspapers dedicated their front pages to articles about Putin's announcement Monday to get rid of the popular vote for regional leaders and to change the way the State Duma is elected.)

4//The Daily Times, Pakistan--US AND RUSSIA SECRETLY REMOVE URANIUM FROM UZBEKISTAN (The United States and Russia carried out a secret operation last week to remove weapons-grade uranium from the former Soviet republic of Uzbekistan, whose government is facing growing Islamist unrest, said the Energy Department. But the removal also coincided with escalating criticism of President George W Bush by his democratic rival in the November 2 election, Senator John Kerry, who has accused the White House of being lax in confronting the spread of nuclear material around the world. Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham said on Monday the one-day operation, implemented last Thursday, was crucial for enhancing international security.)

5//The Dawn, Pakistan--'ARMS FOR PEACE' EXPO OPENS: PRESIDENT VOWS TO GUARD NATIONAL HONOUR (President General Pervez Musharraf said here on Monday that Pakistan had no offensive designs against any country and only wanted to safeguard its honour and integrity. Inaugurating Ideas-2004 defence exhibition at the Expo Centre, the president said maintaining conventional and non-conventional weapons was a guarantee for peace in the region. "Our arms are for peace," he added...The president spoke highly about successful collaboration with China and France in defence equipment production. He said he was glad to see participation from an increased number of companies, delegations and exhibitors in Ideas-2004.)

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1//The Scotsman, UK Wed Sep 15 2004
http://news.scotsman.com/index.cfm?id=1080472004

BLAIR MOVES ON FROM IRAQ
Fraser Nelson, Political Editor

The young men who queued in Baghdad to join the police knew they would be risking their lives for their country. By midday, they were already dead. In Western terms, it would have been a massacre - in occupied Iraq, it was just another morning.

The car bomb which killed them claimed 47 lives outside the police station. As if to underline the message, minutes later insurgents shot dead a dozen Iraqis in a police van patrolling the town of Baquba.

And in London, Tony Blair gave a speech about the environment - the day after proclaiming "I'm back" to the Trades Union Congress. His audience could be forgiven for thinking the job in Iraq was close to being done.

There is no danger of making the same mistake in Baghdad. The Iraqi death toll is 232 for the last seven days alone - striking wherever Iraqis have the temerity to protect their new country. Rather than be extinguished, terrorism has rarely known such success.

In London and Washington, political attention is turning away from Iraq at a time when the country has never needed it more. The request for more troops is not being heard: it does not fit the election timetable on either side of the Atlantic.

(SNIP)

The British and American troops in Iraq may be lacking in purpose or direction, but there is plenty of both in the insurgents' attack. After chasing the United Nations out of Iraq, they are now focusing on Iraqis and infrastructure.

Instead of issuing the reinforcements demanded by commanders in the field, Mr Blair and Mr Bush have united in persuading their electorate that the worst has passed, willing the bad news away from the front pages. On both sides of the Atlantic, officials talk as if the problem is an internal matter being handled by Ayad Allawi, their hand-picked prime minister - as if he was a vehicle to outsource the blame. This will not last long.

Mr Allawi, and the 25 million souls in Iraq, rely completely on the resolve of the West to finish what we started - to deliver the vision of democracy which was the only legitimate basis of the Iraq war.

Around the scenes of death yesterday, Iraqis soon gathered with fists in the air, shouting: "Bush is a dog".

It's increasingly hard to believe in liberators who send so few troops - and leave a country to be ravaged by a ragtag army of rebels.

Mr Blair may not like it, but democratising Iraq has become the defining theme of his second term - a mission he embarked on with the full support of this newspaper. Yesterday's death toll demonstrates that this mission requires more resolve and more troops - it is nowhere near accomplished.

2//The Independent, UK 15 September 2004
http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/politics/story.jsp?story=561812

LABOUR CONFERENCE TO HEAR ANTI-WAR PLEAS
By Andrew Grice and Colin Brown

Labour critics of Tony Blair plan to demand the withdrawal of British troops from Iraq at the party's annual conference in Brighton in a fortnight.

Activists have tabled a raft of hostile motions in an attempt to scupper Mr Blair's hopes that the party will rally behind him ahead of the general election expected next May. Rebels will also try to trigger a formal leadership challenge to Mr Blair, but this is expected to be quashed by party managers.

Several local parties have submitted "contemporary motions" that strike at the heart of the Prime Minister's strategy. One questions what it says was the changing justification for the invasion, first the alleged possession of weapons of mass destruction, then the restoration of democracy and human rights.

The motion urges the conference to call on the Government "to dissociate the United Kingdom from the occupation by withdrawing British forces from Iraq". It has been backed by a coalition of groups including Labour Against the War, the Campaign for Labour Party Democracy and the Campaign Group of Labour MPs.

Another motion describes Iraq as "Blair's poll tax" and warns that Labour could lose the next general election in a "reverse landslide". It says that "given the Prime Minister's dogged unwillingness to change course, conference considers that a change of leadership is the only option". Party officials are expected to rule that a contest can only be called by 20 per cent of Labour MPs.

(MORE)

3//The Moscow Times, Russia Wednesday, September 15, 2004. Page 1
http://www.themoscowtimes.com/stories/2004/09/15/002.html

PAPERS SAY KREMLIN MOUNTING A 'COUP'
By Anatoly Medetsky, Staff Writer

President Vladimir Putin's plan to fight terrorism by seeking stronger Kremlin control over society is "a coup" that shows "disregard for the Constitution," Russian newspapers said Tuesday.

Western countries voiced similar concerns over what they saw as a step back from democracy. "Putin Disregards the Constitution" declared a front-page headline in Kommersant, which like other newspapers dedicated their front pages to articles about Putin's announcement Monday to get rid of the popular vote for regional leaders and to change the way the State Duma is elected.

Independent State Duma Deputy Vladimir Ryzhkov told Kommersant that the move to abandon the popular vote for regional leaders runs counter to the Constitution, citing a Constitutional Court ruling from 1996.

But Vladimir Tumanov, chairman of the Constitutional Court at the time, told the newspaper that the Constitution did not directly determine how local elections should be held and that the 1996 ruling could be set aside in the interests of national security.

Kommersant, which is controlled by businessman and Putin critic Boris Berezovsky, concluded in a commentary that the president's plans would be "ineffective" and change hardly anything in practice.

"The presidential administration has so tightly controlled the election process that a victory by a candidate it does not favor has become an exceptional phenomenon," it said.

Stanislav Belkovsky, an analyst who was until recently thought to be close to a group of former security officers in Putin's entourage, called the proposals "an anti-federation coup," Nezavisimaya Gazeta reported.

"I think it's the biggest mistake of Putin's presidency," he said.

(SNIP)

The European Union said it was watching the developments closely.

"Obviously this is an internal affair for Russia, but ... all of us who are faced with the challenge of tackling the modern evil of terrorism have to at the same time pay due respect to democracy and human rights," Emma Udwin, foreign affairs spokeswoman for the European Commission, told reporters.

Daniel Cohn-Bendit, leader of the European Parliament's Greens, said Russia was using an "annihilation policy" to solve the conflict over Chechnya.

"Russia is going back to a tsarist dictatorship for the fight against terror," he told a news conference, adding that Moscow should start talks with Chechen rebel leaders to solve the conflict politically, Reuters reported.

(MORE)

4//The Daily Times, Pakistan Wednesday, September 15, 2004
http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=story_15-9-2004_pg4_13

US AND RUSSIA SECRETLY REMOVE URANIUM FROM UZBEKISTAN

WASHINGTON (AFP): The United States and Russia carried out a secret operation last week to remove weapons-grade uranium from the former Soviet republic of Uzbekistan, whose government is facing growing Islamist unrest, said the Energy Department.

But the removal also coincided with escalating criticism of President George W Bush by his democratic rival in the November 2 election, Senator John Kerry, who has accused the White House of being lax in confronting the spread of nuclear material around the world. Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham said on Monday the one-day operation, implemented last Thursday, was crucial for enhancing international security.

"The recovery, return and eventual elimination of this highly-enriched uranium are an important milestone in our campaign to reduce this dangerous material worldwide," he said in a brief statement. The operation targeted 11 kilograms of enriched uranium fuel, including highly enriched uranium that could be used for manufacturing nuclear weapons, that was brought to Uzbekistan during Soviet times, officials said.

(SNIP)

Over the past year, the United States repatriated a total of 48 kilograms of highly enriched uranium to Russia from Romania, Bulgaria and Libya, according to US officials. An equal amount of fuel was brought back from a research reactor near Belgrade, Serbia, in August 2002.

The removal comes as Uzbekistan is facing escalating violence local authorities blame on Muslim extremists associated with Hizb ut-Tahrir, a group aspiring to create an Islamic state in Central Asia.

But Abraham also added discernible political overtones to his announcement.

He recalled the recent break-up of the Pakistani-based, AQ Khan nuclear smuggling network and Libyas decision to give-up its nuclear weapons programme, insisting that the US administration's accomplishments in the field of nuclear non-proliferation have been "significant."

The remarks appeared to counter Kerry's oft-repeated charge that there was less nuclear weapons materials secured in the two years following the September 11, 2001, attacks than in the two years before.

5//The Dawn, Pakistan 14 September 2004 Tuesday 28 Rajab 1425
http://www.dawn.com/2004/09/14/top4.htm

'ARMS FOR PEACE' EXPO OPENS: PRESIDENT VOWS TO GUARD NATIONAL HONOUR

KARACHI, Sept 13: President General Pervez Musharraf said here on Monday that Pakistan had no offensive designs against any country and only wanted to safeguard its honour and integrity.

Inaugurating Ideas-2004 defence exhibition at the Expo Centre, the president said maintaining conventional and non-conventional weapons was a guarantee for peace in the region. "Our arms are for peace," he added.

He said the Ideas reflected the government's efforts to energize commercial and economic activities in the country through export of defence products. A robust defence manufacturing industry helps in reducing dependence on others. "We are now looking for the defence export joint venture and collaboration with foreign countries."

(SNIP)

President Musharraf said that since the holding of first Ideas-2000, "we have demonstrated progress in our defence industry and set up the Defence Export Promotion Organization which has acted as a showcase of our defence capabilities".

The president spoke highly about successful collaboration with China and France in defence equipment production. He said he was glad to see participation from an increased number of companies, delegations and exhibitors in Ideas-2004.

This indicates the interest the world is taking in Pakistan and which is enhancing the reputation of the country in the comity of nations.

(MORE)