March 21, 2005

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 MARCH 21, 2005


1//The Independent, UK--AID FOR POOR NATIONS ‘SHOULD BE LINKED TO DEFENCE NEEDS’ (Aid for some of the poorest countries should be linked to their defence and security needs, a Government paper says. … But the report, Fighting Poverty to Build a Safer World, produced by the Department for International Development, was likely to cause alarm in non-governmental aid organisations over concern that aid money could be switched to defence spending by poor countries. … The paper calls for changes in the approach by the World Bank to "respond positively when partner governments request that the security sector is included in a World Bank public expenditure review.")

2//Arab News, Saudi Arabia--BINLADEN GROUP WINS NEW AIRPORT PROJECTS (The Saudi Binladen Group has won the contracts to implement two airport projects in Egypt and Yemen financed by the World Bank, Al-Eqtisadiah business daily reported yesterday. … Egypt’s Minister of International Cooperation Fayza Abul Naga said the World Bank has approved loans worth $335 million to finance the development projects for Cairo and Sharm El-Sheikh airports. Egypt’s Prime Minister Dr. Ahmed Nazif met with World Bank President James Wolfensohn in October last year and held talks about economic cooperation between the two sides.)

3//The Sydney Morning Herald, Australia--ANALYSIS: SUICIDE BOMBING A MESSAGE TO PRO-WESTERN REGIME (The bombing that killed a British man and wounded 12 other people in Qatar on Saturday is the first post-Iraq war terrorist attack aimed at America's most comfortable - if not most powerful - ally in the Gulf. … Yet despite the obvious symbolism of the target, the real goal of this attack, as in similar ones in Kuwait and Saudi Arabia, was not the expatriates themselves but local regimes dependent on Western expertise to exploit their energy-rich economies. In the case of Qatar, the al-Thani dynasty has made numerous enemies down the years as it sought to preserve the kingdom against powerful neighbours. … Like Saudi Arabia's royal family, the Qatari rulers maintain tight control on security matters and are unlikely to be toppled by a few terrorist attacks. Unlike Saudi Arabia, Qatar has no large pool of disaffected citizens from which fundamentalists can recruit.)

4//Asia Times Online, Hong Kong--US NOT FINISHED WITH PAKISTAN YET (The United States is exerting maximum pressure on Pakistan to provide a detailed and "authentic" list of all of its nuclear cooperation with Iran over the years. ... Last week, Pakistan publicly admitted that Dr Abdul Qadeer Khan, the mastermind of the country's nuclear program, had given centrifuges - rather than just blueprints - to Iran as part of a package of materials that could be used to make a nuclear bomb, but only in "his personal capacity." Centrifuges are used to enrich uranium. Now the US wants hard evidence of this and all of Pakistan's other dealings so that it can build its case against Iran. This will include full scrutiny of Pakistan's nuclear program, especially from the late 1980s until the early 1990s, when Pakistan developed the nuclear device, which it eventually tested in 1998.)

5//The News International, Pakistan--ABOUT 10,000 PRO-DEMOCRACY PROTESTERS RIOT IN KRYGYZSTAN (Police fired shots in clashes on Sunday with opposition supporters demanding the resignation of Kyrgyzstan’s president but failed to stop them gaining control of key government buildings in the south of the country. At least 10,000 pro-democracy protesters stormed a police station and forced workers to flee a governor’s office in Kyrgyzstan on Sunday, a government spokesman said, in the biggest demonstration since allegedly fraudulent elections last month. … Critics claim the vote and a subsequent runoff election were marred by widespread abuses. Europe and the United States said the polls were seriously flawed, a charge denied by the government.)

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1//The Independent, UK 21 March 2005
http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/politics/story...
AID FOR POOR NATIONS ‘SHOULD BE LINKED TO DEFENCE NEEDS’
By Colin Brown, Deputy Political Editor

Aid for some of the poorest countries should be linked to their defence and security needs, a Government paper says.

Hilary Benn, the Secretary of State for International Development, said the strategy paper, published today, did not herald a return to "aid for arms" which was outlawed by the Blair government in 2001.

But the report, Fighting Poverty to Build a Safer World, produced by the Department for International Development, was likely to cause alarm in non-governmental aid organisations over concern that aid money could be switched to defence spending by poor countries.

The report rejects linking aid to global anti-terrorism goals, such as aid in return for poor countries making attacks on al-Qa'ida camps. But the paper says security should be brought "more squarely'' into the provision of aid and development. "Aid alone is not enough. Development cannot progress where there is instability. We need better collaboration between development, defence and diplomatic communities."

(SNIP)

The paper calls for changes in the approach by the World Bank to "respond positively when partner governments request that the security sector is included in a World Bank public expenditure review."

(MORE)

2//Arab News, Saudi Arabia 21 March 2005
http://www.arabnews.com/?page=6&section...

BINLADEN GROUP WINS NEW AIRPORT PROJECTS
P.K. Abdul Ghafour, Arab News

JEDDAH, 21 March 2005 — The Saudi Binladen Group has won the contracts to implement two airport projects in Egypt and Yemen financed by the World Bank, Al-Eqtisadiah business daily reported yesterday.

The group, whose chairman is Bakr Binladen, will construct a new passenger lounge for the airport in the Egyptian resort of Sharm El-Sheikh. In addition to the 44,000-sq.m. lounge, the project includes an air traffic observation building and other related facilities.

Egypt’s Minister of International Cooperation Fayza Abul Naga said the World Bank has approved loans worth $335 million to finance the development projects for Cairo and Sharm El-Sheikh airports.

Egypt’s Prime Minister Dr. Ahmed Nazif met with World Bank President James Wolfensohn in October last year and held talks about economic cooperation between the two sides.

Binladen has already completed the renovation of Aden International Airport in Yemen, Al-Eqtisadiah said, adding that World Bank financed the project.

(MORE)

3//The Sydney Morning Herald, Australia March 21, 2005
http://www.smh.com.au/news/Middle-East-...

ANALYSIS: SUICIDE BOMBING A MESSAGE TO PRO-WESTERN REGIME
By Ed O'Loughlin in Jerusalem

The bombing that killed a British man and wounded 12 other people in Qatar on Saturday is the first post-Iraq war terrorist attack aimed at America's most comfortable - if not most powerful - ally in the Gulf.

The satellite news channel Al-Jazeera quoted the Interior Ministry as saying an Egyptian suicide bomber was killed along with an unnamed Briton when he crashed his vehicle into a theatre where an English-language theatre group was staging a performance of Shakespeare's Twelfth Night.

Yet despite the obvious symbolism of the target, the real goal of this attack, as in similar ones in Kuwait and Saudi Arabia, was not the expatriates themselves but local regimes dependent on Western expertise to exploit their energy-rich economies.

In the case of Qatar, the al-Thani dynasty has made numerous enemies down the years as it sought to preserve the kingdom against powerful neighbours.

Little more than a sandy spit protruding into the Persian Gulf, Qatar has an uneasy relationship with the regional giant Iran, with which it shares access to one of the world's largest natural gas fields, while some Saudi Arabian quarters have long viewed it as an aberration that should have been incorporated into its own borders decades ago.

(SNIP)

Qatar's relative liberalism and closeness to the US have angered Islamic fundamentalists in the region, and this anger deepened last year after Qatar agreed to return to Russia two spies it had convicted of murdering a veteran Chechen Muslim resistance leader living in exile in Qatar.

Like Saudi Arabia's royal family, the Qatari rulers maintain tight control on security matters and are unlikely to be toppled by a few terrorist attacks.

Unlike Saudi Arabia, Qatar has no large pool of disaffected citizens from which fundamentalists can recruit.

4//Asia Times Online, Hong Kong Mar 19, 2005
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/South_Asia/GC19Df03.html

US NOT FINISHED WITH PAKISTAN YET
By Syed Saleem Shahzad

KARACHI - The United States is exerting maximum pressure on Pakistan to provide a detailed and "authentic" list of all of its nuclear cooperation with Iran over the years.

Contacts in the highest echelon of Pakistan's strategic quarters tell Asia Times Online that during her visit to Islamabad on Wednesday, US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice appraised Pakistan of the latest - and strong - US demands.

Many in the Bush administration believe that Iran's nuclear energy program is a smokescreen for developing nuclear weapons. Tehran has agreed with the European Union and the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) that it will temporarily suspend its uranium enrichment program.

Last week, Pakistan publicly admitted that Dr Abdul Qadeer Khan, the mastermind of the country's nuclear program, had given centrifuges - rather than just blueprints - to Iran as part of a package of materials that could be used to make a nuclear bomb, but only in "his personal capacity". Centrifuges are used to enrich uranium.

Now the US wants hard evidence of this and all of Pakistan's other dealings so that it can build its case against Iran. This will include full scrutiny of Pakistan's nuclear program, especially from the late 1980s until the early 1990s, when Pakistan developed the nuclear device, which it eventually tested in 1998.

Importantly, and to the consternation of Pakistan, the US demand includes direct access and interrogation of Pakistan's former chief of army staff, General Aslam Beg, who has on many occasions openly endorsed nuclear cooperation with Iran, former president Ghulam Ishaq Khan (August 17, 1988 until July 18, 1993) and Dr Khan.

The exhaustive US demand has sent shock waves through General Headquarters Rawalpindi. To date, the belief had been that Pakistan's cooperation has been sufficient to avoid people like Dr Khan from being handed over.

The contacts tell ATol that the initial reaction in Rawalpindi is that the requested people will not be placed in the hands of US interrogators. It is not known what "inducements" Washington is offering Islamabad for its cooperation, or, conversely, what stick it is waving for not cooperating. Pakistan has for a long time wanted F-16 fighters from the US, especially since India is reported to also be in the market, and already receives financial and other US military aid for collaborating in the "war on terror".

(MORE)

5//The News International, Pakistan Monday March 21, 2005-- Safar 10, 1426 A.H.
http://www.jang.com.pk/thenews/mar2005-daily/...

ABOUT 10,000 PRO-DEMOCRACY PROTESTERS RIOT IN KRYGYZSTAN

BISHKEK: Police fired shots in clashes on Sunday with opposition supporters demanding the resignation of Kyrgyzstan’s president but failed to stop them gaining control of key government buildings in the south of the country.

At least 10,000 pro-democracy protesters stormed a police station and forced workers to flee a governor’s office in Kyrgyzstan on Sunday, a government spokesman said, in the biggest demonstration since allegedly fraudulent elections last month.

(SNIP)

The riot was the latest in a string of nationwide protests sparked by the Feb 27 parliamentary elections in which President Askar Akayev’s allies fared overwhelmingly well.

Critics claim the vote and a subsequent runoff election were marred by widespread abuses. Europe and the United States said the polls were seriously flawed, a charge denied by the government. Sunday’s riot came a day after police forcibly evicted demonstrators from the governor’s office in Jalal-Abad and another government building in the city of Osh. More than a dozen people, including three police officers, were injured and more than 200 demonstrators were arrested, police and civic activists said.

Protesters were still occupying five other state buildings in southern and western districts. "The authorities’ decision to use force against people won’t bring any good. It will only provoke anger,’’ said Kurmanbek Bakiyev, leader of the opposition People’s Movement of Kyrgyzstan, after the forced evictions.

The Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe issued a statement on Sunday, urging the government and the opposition to refrain from using force and to begin a dialogue.