December 6, 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 DECEMBER 6, 2004

1//Asia Times Online, Hong Kong--IRAN, US DIVIDE STANDS IN IRAQ’S WAY (…Yet, simultaneously, just about every salient feature of Iran's Iraq policy today is in tandem with US policy, which is why at the Sharm el-Shaikh conference in Egypt two weeks ago, Iran followed the US's policy toward Iraq, i.e., with respect to the elections, and this was partly to disallow the US to paint Iran as non-cooperative at a delicate time when Iran was negotiating with Europe over the nuclear issue. There are, however, serious side effects to Iran's Iraq policy in tandem with the US approach, given the second George W Bush administration's stubborn resistance to acknowledging any positive role played by Iran in regional crises, depicting Iran instead as a "rogue" power that, in the words of Kenneth Pollack in his new book, Persian Puzzle, aims to overthrow its neighbors. Such caricatures of Iran's regional foreign policy are not helpful and the Bush administration must sooner or later reckon with the fact that Iran is a major regional player with a sophisticated, multilayered foreign policy, featuring certain shared or parallel interests with the US.)

2//Arab News, Saudi Arabia--SAUD SLAMS NEIGHBORS FOR UNDERMINING GCC SOLIDARITY (Saudi Arabia yesterday criticized its neighbors for forging separate economic and security agreements with foreign powers, accusing them of weakening Gulf solidarity. "It is alarming to see some members of the GCC enter into separate bilateral agreements with international powers in both the security and economic spheres, taking precedence over the need to act collectively," said Foreign Minister Prince Saud Al-Faisal…"In the military sphere, any agreement with a third party cannot compensate or substitute for the necessity of developing the indigenous resources of the GCC," the foreign minister said. In 2002, Kuwait renewed for a second 10-year term a defense pact with the United States and it also has a defense pact with Britain. Qatar also signed a defense agreement with the United States in 2002. Prince Saud stressed that the GCC states must realize that their individual and collective needs are best served by uniting economically and militarily, and developing a clear security strategy.)

3//The Moscow Times, Russia--RUSSIA, INDIA REKINDLE TRADE TIES (Putin and Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Friday signed a joint declaration and several deals that they said will help boost trade to $5 billion in five years…Putin backed a bigger role for India at the UN Security Council. "India is our No. 1 candidate in terms of enlarging the geographical representation of the Security Council," Putin said when asked about New Delhi's long-standing desire for a permanent seat on the UN body…Putin and Singh discussed the possibility of holding a three-way summit with China next year aimed at countering the dominance of the United States in international affairs, a newspaper reported Saturday.)

4//The Sydney Morning Herald, Australia--GREENHOUSE GAS: AUSTRALIA WON’T SIGN KYOTO DEAL (Australia was on track to meet targets for reducing greenhouse gas emissions, but Environment Minister Ian Campbell today confirmed the government would not sign the Kyoto agreement. He said an Australian Greenhouse Office report released today revealed the country was on track to double the size of the economy yet only have greenhouse emissions increase by eight per cent…"We know the economic downsides of being part of the protocol, ...what are the economic benefits?" Senator Campbell told journalists.)

5//Inter Press Service News Agency, Italy--HEALING THE INVISIBLE WOUNDS OF VIOLENCE (One billion people in the world today are psychologically scarred by violence and armed conflicts, a problem that brought together health ministers from around the planet in the search for ways to help heal these invisible wounds. Richard Mollica, director of the Harvard University Programme in Refugee Trauma, told IPS that one-sixth of the world's population suffers the psychological consequences of such traumatic phenomena as war, ethnic conflicts, natural disasters, social upheavals, torture, terrorism and landmines, which kill over 15,000 people every year and mutilate many thousands more… Mollica added, it has been scientifically proven that there is hope for recovery for these victims if a mental health action plan were put into effect in the societies where they live. This was the objective behind the International Congress of Ministers of Health for Mental Health and Post-Conflict Recovery, held in Rome Dec. 3 and 4.)

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1//Asia Times Online, Hong Kong Dec. 4, 2004
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/FL04Ak01.html

IRAN, US DIVIDE STANDS IN IRAQ’S WAY
By Kaveh L Afrasiabi

(Kaveh L Afrasiabi, PhD, is the author of After Khomeini: New Directions in Iran's Foreign Policy [Westview Press] and "Iran's Foreign Policy Since 9/11," Brown's Journal of World Affairs, co-authored with former deputy foreign minister Abbas Maleki, No 2, 2003. He teaches political science at Tehran University.)

TEHRAN - A two-day conference with Iraq's neighbors plus Egypt and Bahrain ended in Tehran this week with mixed results. The conference, attended by a United Nations envoy, Iraq's deputy prime minister, Saudi Arabia's interior minister, and others, was supposed to reflect the spirit of unanimity and consensus on a host of issues ranging from the upcoming January elections in Iraq to border control, terrorism and Iraq's economic reconstruction. Yet the overall impression that emerged after intense, and often divisive discussions, was the depth and significance of divergent perspectives barely glued together in a final communique.

The latter, consisting of nine items, mentions that the next meeting will take place in Turkey, a previous host of the group. One must wonder about the role of Egypt, which has already hosted the group's meetings twice, since it has no border with Iraq and is considered as "out of area" by Iranian policy-makers.

With less than two months to the general elections in Iraq, all eyes are focussed on the thorny question of Shi'ite-Sunni relations and, in the light of the recent request by some 17 Sunni and Kurdish groups from the Iraqi interim government of Iyad Allawi, a postponement of the elections. Although the Kurds have backtracked somewhat, it is hardly surprising to see that the Sunni Arab governments have officially or semi-officially backed this request, hoping that time will somehow turn the tides back in favor of the Sunni minority that ruled Iraq for so long.

Still, perhaps realizing that the momentum for the January elections is at this point irreversible, the Arab participants at the Tehran conference finally relented and signed on to item number 2 of the final communique, referring to the January elections "under the UN's auspices". Yet, given the token presence of UN workers, i.e., less than 50, the communique's singular emphasis on the central role of the UN may have been a misnomer aimed to give the impression of greater unity than actually exists among the participant countries.

(SNIP)

Iran's worry, on the other hand, is that a stable Iraq will be used against it, that the new Iraq may be added to the Gulf Cooperation Council thus enhancing the hands of United Arab Emirates, which is in dispute with Iran over three Persian Gulf islands, and that the regional security framework will be reshaped to the detriment of Tehran's interests, not to mention the insecurity over US military bases near Iran's borders and the occasional US-Israel threats of surgical strikes inside Iran against its nuclear facilities.

Thus, an Iranian conundrum: its participation and cooperation for stable borders and Iraqi stability may not pay off in the end and, instead, cause a bigger problem down the line, suggesting the protean value of multiple strategies inclusive of the threat card meant to maintain hostility toward the US presence in the region and increasing fears of the US Western power self-entrenching in a crucial corner of the abode of Islam.

Yet, simultaneously, just about every salient feature of Iran's Iraq policy today is in tandem with US policy, which is why at the Sharm el-Shaikh conference in Egypt two weeks ago, Iran followed the US's policy toward Iraq, i.e., with respect to the elections, and this was partly to disallow the US to paint Iran as non-cooperative at a delicate time when Iran was negotiating with Europe over the nuclear issue.

There are, however, serious side effects to Iran's Iraq policy in tandem with the US approach, given the second George W Bush administration's stubborn resistance to acknowledging any positive role played by Iran in regional crises, depicting Iran instead as a "rogue" power that, in the words of Kenneth Pollack in his new book, Persian Puzzle, aims to overthrow its neighbors. Such caricatures of Iran's regional foreign policy are not helpful and the Bush administration must sooner or later reckon with the fact that Iran is a major regional player with a sophisticated, multilayered foreign policy, featuring certain shared or parallel interests with the US.

Until and unless the US comes to this new realization, or new threshold, any chance of even a mini-breakthrough in US-Iran relations remains remote.


2//Arab News, Saudi Arabia Monday, 6, December, 2004 (24, Shawwal, 1425)
http://www.arabnews.com/?page=1&...

SAUD SLAMS NEIGHBORS FOR UNDERMINING GCC SOLIDARITY
P.K. Abdul Ghafour, Arab News
JEDDAH, 6 December 2004 — Saudi Arabia yesterday criticized its neighbors for forging
separate economic and security agreements with foreign powers, accusing them of weakening Gulf solidarity.

"It is alarming to see some members of the GCC enter into separate bilateral agreements with international powers in both the security and economic spheres, taking precedence over the need to act collectively," said Foreign Minister Prince Saud Al-Faisal.

"These separate arrangements are not compatible with the spirit of the charter of the Gulf Cooperation Council. They diminish the collective bargaining power and weaken not only the solidarity of the GCC as a whole but also each of its members in both the intermediate and long terms," he told a conference in Manama on security in the Gulf.

"In the economic sphere, the agreements entered into are in clear violation of the GCC’s
economic accords and decisions. What is more important, these agreements impede the
progressive steps needed to achieve full GCC economic integration... They will ultimately have a negative impact on the economic sectors in all GCC countries, which in turn will have dire consequences and will adversely affect the GCC business community," he said.
The GCC, which groups Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar and the United Arab
Emirates, is due to hold a summit in Manama later this month. Saudi Arabia is the only GCC state that is not a member of the World Trade Organization.

"In the military sphere, any agreement with a third party cannot compensate or substitute for the necessity of developing the indigenous resources of the GCC," the foreign minister said. In 2002, Kuwait renewed for a second 10-year term a defense pact with the United States and it also has a defense pact with Britain. Qatar also signed a defense agreement with the United States in 2002.

Prince Saud stressed that the GCC states must realize that their individual and collective needs are best served by uniting economically and militarily, and developing a clear security strategy.
(MORE)


3//The Moscow Times, Russia Monday, December 6, 2004. Page 5.
http://www.themoscowtimes.com/stories/2004/12/06/042.html

RUSSIA, INDIA REKINDLE TRADE TIES
Combined Reports

NEW DELHI -- President Vladimir Putin wrapped up a three-day trip to India on Sunday having signed several deals designed to boost bilateral trade and instill new momentum in Russia's long-standing relationship with the world's second-most populous country.

Putin and Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Friday signed a joint declaration and
several deals that they said will help boost trade to $5 billion in five years.

"We have laid down several new milestones for expanding, widening and deepening our
cooperation with Russia," Singh told a news conference after his first talks with Putin since taking power in elections in May.

Putin backed a bigger role for India at the UN Security Council.

"India is our No. 1 candidate in terms of enlarging the geographical representation of the Security Council," Putin said when asked about New Delhi's long-standing desire for a permanent seat on the UN body.

India, in turn, has backed Russia's entry into the World Trade Organization. Russia needs
bilateral agreements with WTO members before it can join the global trade policy group.

(SNIP)

Putin and Singh discussed the possibility of holding a three-way summit with China next year aimed at countering the dominance of the United States in international affairs, a newspaper reported Saturday.

The newspaper The Asian Age reported that Singh held similar discussions with Chinese Prime Minister Wen Jiabao on the sidelines of a regional summit in Laos last week, the report said.

The report, which did not cite any source, could not be independently verified.


4//The Sydney Morning Herald, Australia December 6, 2004 – 11:16 AM
http://www.smh.com.au/news/National...

GREENHOUSE GAS: AUSTRALIA WON’T SIGN KYOTO DEAL

Australia was on track to meet targets for reducing greenhouse gas emissions, but Environment Minister Ian Campbell today confirmed the government would not sign the Kyoto agreement.

He said an Australian Greenhouse Office report released today revealed the country was on track to double the size of the economy yet only have greenhouse emissions increase by eight per cent.

The report said Australia was likely to achieve its target of limiting greenhouse emissions to 108 per cent of 1990 levels between 2008 and 2012, as specified by the Kyoto protocol.

Australian representatives will attend a meeting in Argentina this week of Kyoto agreement signatories.

Labor environment spokesman Anthony Albanese today said the government's refusal to sign the agreement was locking Australia out of economic opportunity, but Senator Campbell said signing the agreement would do more economic harm than good.

"We know the economic downsides of being part of the protocol, ...what are the economic benefits?" Senator Campbell told journalists.

"He's talking about carbon trading, there's no carbon trading taking place at the moment ... and the costs of setting that up are so high they outweigh the benefits."

Mr Albanese said Australia's attendance at the Buenos Aries conference was arrogant.

"The Environment Minister Ian Campbell doesn't mind jumping on a jet with staff and other
Australian government officials and going to the conference in Buenos Aires to talk about the protocol that they're not signing up to," he told reporters.

"This is an extraordinary example of government arrogance, of waste and mismanagement."

(MORE)


5//Inter Press Service News Agency, Italy December 5, 2004
http://ipsnews.net/interna.asp?idnews=26547

HEALING THE INVISIBLE WOUNDS OF VIOLENCE
María Vega

ROME (IPS) - One billion people in the world today are psychologically scarred by violence and armed conflicts, a problem that brought together health ministers from around the planet in the search for ways to help heal these invisible wounds.

Richard Mollica, director of the Harvard University Programme in Refugee Trauma, told IPS that one-sixth of the world's population suffers the psychological consequences of such traumatic phenomena as war, ethnic conflicts, natural disasters, social upheavals, torture, terrorism and landmines, which kill over 15,000 people every year and mutilate many thousands more.

The problem, he noted, is that victims of post-conflict trauma, especially in developing countries, rarely have access to the help they need, and are thus doomed to lives of depression, anxiety, nightmares and relentless fear, which seriously handicap their social and family relations.

Nevertheless, Mollica added, it has been scientifically proven that there is hope for recovery for these victims if a mental health action plan were put into effect in the societies where they live.

This was the objective behind the International Congress of Ministers of Health for Mental Health and Post-Conflict Recovery, held in Rome Dec. 3 and 4.

The health ministers of 49 countries joined together here to establish a plan of action based on the One Billion Project, an initiative developed by the Harvard University programme in conjunction with the Fulbright New Century Scholars Programme, the humanitarian organisation Caritas-Rome, and the Rome Higher Institute of Health.

(SNIP)

The project, initiated three years ago, has explored the effects of violence on mental health and shown that there is a direct correlation between mental health, economic development and human rights.

It has also succeeded in disproving two long-held myths: that survivors cannot overcome post-conflict trauma, and that there is no connection between individual and collective recovery.

(SNIP)

The congress participants concurred that mental health encompasses such factors as access to employment, education and health care, as well as respect for human rights. Consequently, any mental health care initiatives should be linked to fighting poverty.

For his part, Mollica stressed that the best treatment for children suffering post-conflict trauma is school, and for adults, it is work. Some victims need psychiatric treatment, and others require medication, but all of them need to work and get back to a normal life, or at least attempt to rebuild their lives, he said.