April 4, 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.

* * *

WORLD MEDIA WATCH FOR APRIL 4, 2005

1//The Scotsman/Scotland on Sunday, UK--THE ENDGAME – HAS IRAQ’S INSURGENCY RUN OUT OF STEAM? (Two years after the huge statue of Saddam Hussein was toppled in the centre of Baghdad, the tide could finally be turning against the country’s insurgents. Although the euphoria that accompanied the demolition of the statue has long since evaporated, some observers are beginning to wonder whether the insurgency in Iraq is at last running out of steam. … But there is much to be cautious about. CNN, which publishes detailed analyses of casualties in Iraq on its website, including the identities of all those killed, says: "The fatality trend line is at 8.3 this week - the lowest level for a year. However, both fatalities and the number of wounded, while reaching low levels, have increased in each of the past three weeks. The recent increases may be indications of the start of a new second anniversary insurgency.")

2//KurdishMedia.com, UK--COMMENTARY: EVERYBODY’S BUSINESS IS NOBODY’S BUSINESS IN KIRKUK (… The governor of Kirkuk, Abdul-al-Rahman Mustafa, attributes the problems and ethnic tension in the city to the refusal of the central government to implement Article 58 of the interim Iraqi Administration Law. The article calls for the reversal of the effects of the ethnic cleansing project of the former regime, in particular the return of the displaced Kurdish families to Kirkuk and the return of the Arab settlers in Kirkuk to their original homes and places. In my opinion, the implementation of the article may greatly contribute to the normalization of the situation in Kirkuk, it will undoubtedly reduce intercommunal tension and redress most of the concerns of the Kurds. However, the article can offer very little help to bring the two sides, the Kurds and the central government, together. There is no provision in the article to address the issue of the identity of the city, the main demand of the people of Kurdistan. But there are rumours circulating among in some quarters in Kirkuk to the effect that the Kurdish leadership has again deferred the issue of Kirkuk. If this is proved to be true then it is a major blow to the hopes and dreams of the Kurdish people throughout Kurdistan.)

3//The Daily Star, Lebanon--LOCAL COMMUNITIES TAKE SECURITY MATTERS INTO THEIR OWN HANDS (Lebanon's recent string of bomb attacks directed against the country's Christian heartland has resulted in a weary population taking security matters into its own hands. … In a bid to protect their neighborhoods and assist overstretched security forces, local residents have come together to form security vigils. From Achrafieh to Ain al-Roumaneh, Bourj Hammoud to Hadath, groups of young men can be seen patrolling the streets and alerting the army of any suspicious activity. … A confrontation reportedly emerged Friday night between the army and residents of Dora who had set up their own security checkpoint. The groups were eventually ordered home. Nevertheless, officials readily acknowledge the need to beef up the security apparatus and complain of lack of resources.)

4//The Daily Times, Pakistan--DICTATORSHIP REAL THREAT TO PAKISTAN, SAYS IMRAN KHAN (The real threat facing Pakistan is from dictators who consider themselves above the law, Imran Khan, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf (PTI) chairman, said on Sunday. He was addressing a public meeting as part of PTI’s public mobilisation campaign to restore constitutional rule in the country. He said the threats facing the country emanated from unconstitutional rulers who acted as demigods. As long as there was no rule of law, he said, political uncertainty and instability would continue to threaten the very survival of the country. … The PTI chief said that Pakistan had a long list of military dictators who, in an attempt to cling on to power, professed and justified policies that suited the US. He said by charging the US $70 million dollars per month for conducting military operations in the Tribal Areas, the military rulers were acting like mercenaries.)

RELATED: BENAZIR SAYS NATION WANTS HER AS PREMIER DESPITE BAN

5//The Independent, UK--HOME FIRES IN INDIA HELP TO MELT ARCTIC ICECAP HALF A WORLD AWAY (Poor women cooking family meals in India are helping to melt the Arctic icecap, startling new studies show. Soot from their fires gets wafted into the atmosphere to fall out on the ice thousands of miles away, hastening its disappearance. In a vivid demonstration of interconnectedness, NASA scientists have found that one-third of the soot affecting the Arctic comes from South Asia. And Indian studies show that nearly half of the soot emitted in the region comes from cooking fires. Last November a major study by some 300 scientists found that the icecap had thinned by nearly half over the past 30 years. It is expected to disappear altogether by 2070, leaving open water all the way to the North Pole.)

* * *

1//The Scotsman/Scotland on Sunday, UK Sunday, 3rd April 2005
http://scotlandonsunday.scotsman.com/intern...

THE ENDGAME – HAS IRAQ’S INSURGENCY RUN OUT OF STEAM?
Ian Mather, Diplomatic Correspondent

Two years after the huge statue of Saddam Hussein was toppled in the centre of Baghdad, the tide could finally be turning against the country’s insurgents.

Although the euphoria that accompanied the demolition of the statue has long since evaporated, some observers are beginning to wonder whether the insurgency in Iraq is at last running out of steam.

The US military has experienced its least deadly month for more than a year. Operations along with the newly formed Iraqi police have snared a number of leading terrorists with links to al-Qaeda and Abu Musab al-Zarqawi. The casualty data for March shows that 39 American and coalition troops were killed during the month - the lowest toll since February 2004.

US deaths have now dropped for three months in a row, from 106 in January to 56 in February and 35 in March. Attacks on US troops are also down from over 100 before the January 30 election to around 60 today. Among the March figures were one British death and three from other coalition countries.

Pentagon spokesman Larry Di Rita says: "The intelligence is getting better. We have apprehended or killed an enormous number of insurgents, so we may well be seeing people who are less skilled at what they’re doing. Their ability to anticipate and target is becoming cruder because the coalition’s intelligence is getting better."

But there is much to be cautious about. CNN, which publishes detailed analyses of casualties in Iraq on its website, including the identities of all those killed, says: "The fatality trend line is at 8.3 this week - the lowest level for a year. However, both fatalities and the number of wounded, while reaching low levels, have increased in each of the past three weeks. The recent increases may be indications of the start of a new second anniversary insurgency."

Grim confirmation that the insurgency can still inflict lethal blows came with the deaths of four more US soldiers in separate incidents at the end of last week. Yet the downward trend in attacks since the January 30 elections may be a sign that the tide has turned.

The Pentagon’s view is that the insurgency is losing momentum in the wake of Iraq’s experiment with democracy. It also believes that US counter-insurgency operations are having an effect, with US commanders reporting that troops are finding more bombs before they go off and that the bombs are less sophisticated.

Last week, Iraq’s interim interior minister, Falah al-Naqib, claimed that the progress was due to the growing number of Iraqi security forces, and that not only were the attacks decreasing but also claiming fewer victims. He said it was easier for them to gather intelligence on insurgents than it was for US troops.

American defence officials now put the number of trained Iraqi security forces at 142,472. The total includes only those who have both the training and equipment to fight. These forces consist of 81,889 trained and equipped police, highway patrol and other forces in the Ministry of Interior Forces, and 60,583 troops in the Ministry of Defence Forces.

The suicide bombing of army barracks, police stations and recruiting queues resulting in many deaths is the biggest obstacle to building up local forces.

(MORE)

2//KurdishMedia.com, UK 04/04/2005
http://www.kurdmedia.com/reports.asp?id=2556

COMMENTARY: EVERYBODY’S BUSINESS IS NOBODY’S BUSINESS IN KIRKUK
By Saadulla Abdulla

The ethnic communities in Kirkuk, particularly the Kurds and the Turkomans, claim the ownership of this ancient city - the Kurds, for example say the city has a Kurdish identity, historically home to the Kurdish people and must therefore be administratively part of Kurdistan.

However, none of the communities in Kirkuk make any effort to promote the city culturally, socially or economically, invest in the city, make compromises for the sake of their city or take any effective steps to reduce tensions between the ethnic groups that make up the population of the city.

(SNIP)

Kirkuk has probably the worst local government, which is rendered ineffective and powerless by futile intercommunal rivalries. The elected city council, comprising Kurdish, Arab, Turkoman and Assyrian members, is indecisive, ineffective and lacks the political will to put an end to the self-destructive splits among the ethnic communities it claims to represent.

The newly elected council held a meeting on the 29th of March to elect the governor, the deputy governor and the head of the council. After briefings by the interim head of the council, the governor and the commander of the US forces in Kirkuk, the representatives of the Turkoman Front and the Arab bloc stormed out of the meeting hall in protest over the distribution of a number of executive posts. The remaining councilors, comprising Kurdish, Turkomans and Chaldeo-Assyrians with an overwhelming majority of seats in the council, continued the meeting but miserably failed to take any decision in the absence of the minority bloc.

This intercommunal deadlock has been going on for two months and there are no signs of any progress towards solving the problems. The disagreement, in the words of a Kurdish council member, has dragged on for too long and is paralyzing the city, its local government and adversely affects the council services.

At the level of Iraq, Kirkuk belongs to nobody and nowhere. The city is the victim of its vast oil resources, unique ethnic composition and hostile policies of successive Iraqi governments.

The city has been and still is the major stumbling block between the Iraqi government and the Kurdish people and its leadership. The Kurds insist that the city has a Kurdish identity, that it is part of Kurdistan and therefore must be administratively attached to the Kurdistan federal region. The central government, the Turkomans and the majority of the Iraqi Arab population ridicule the Kurdish demands and publicly describe them as unrealistic, dangerous and therefore unacceptable.

The governor of Kirkuk, Abdul-al-Rahman Mustafa, attributes the problems and ethnic tension in the city to the refusal of the central government to implement Article 58 of the interim Iraqi Administration Law. The article calls for the reversal of the effects of the ethnic cleansing project of the former regime, in particular the return of the displaced Kurdish families to Kirkuk and the return of the Arab settlers in Kirkuk to their original homes and places.

In my opinion, the implementation of the article may greatly contribute to the normalization of the situation in Kirkuk, it will undoubtedly reduce intercommunal tension and redress most of the concerns of the Kurds. However, the article can offer very little help to bring the two sides, the Kurds and the central government, together. There is no provision in the article to address the issue of the identity of the city, the main demand of the people of Kurdistan.

But there are rumours circulating among in some quarters in Kirkuk to the effect that the Kurdish leadership has again deferred the issue of Kirkuk. If this is proved to be true then it is a major blow to the hopes and dreams of the Kurdish people throughout Kurdistan.

“It seems that our leaders have again sold our city,” said Kakasur, a veteran peshmerga and now a shop owner. He said, “Every time the people liberate Kirkuk, the leadership hand it back to the government, this is unfair to say the least and we are very upset.”

The political landscape in Kirkuk has been further complicated by ongoing rivalry between the two main Kurdish political parties, the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) and the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK). “The unholy competition for position and power between the KDP and the PUK has considerably weakened the Kurds in Kirkuk,” said Jamal Mohammad, a resident of Rahimawa, a flagship Kurdish neighbourhood in Kirkuk.

(MORE)

RELATED:

BICKERING AND JOCKEYING FOR POSTS PARALYSE KIRKUK ADMINISTRATION
http://www.kurdmedia.com/news.asp?id=6528

Kirkuk - South Kurdistan (KurdishMedia.com) Amid car bombs and security alerts the Kirkuk administrative council held a meeting last week (29 March)to elect a new governor, a deputy governor and the head of the council.

After the opening speeches by the governor, the interim head of the council and the former head of the council, Arab and Turkoman members stormed out of the meeting hall.

(SNIP)

The inter-communal deadlock is badly affecting the city and its growing population. Following the January elections the three main blocs - The Brotherhood List, the Turkoman List and the Arab List - held numerous meetings and engaged in endless negotiations without reaching an agreement. The result is that the governorate has no executives and local government is at standstill.

(MORE)

3//The Daily Star, Lebanon Monday, April 04, 2005
http://www.dailystar.com.lb/article.asp?edition...

LOCAL COMMUNITIES TAKE SECURITY MATTERS INTO THEIR OWN HANDS
Vigilante groups patrol tense streets

By Marianne Stigset and Rola Haddad
Daily Star staff

AIN AL-ROUMANEH: Lebanon's recent string of bomb attacks directed against the country's Christian heartland has resulted in a weary population taking security matters into its own hands.

Set against the backdrop of the ongoing political crisis spurred by the assassination of former Premier Rafik Hariri, the late-night bombings have taken place at a regular four to five day intervals. Added to this have been several bomb threats and isolated incidents of clashes between pro-Syrian and anti-government factions on the street, racking up a climate of fear.
In a bid to protect their neighborhoods and assist overstretched security forces, local residents have come together to form security vigils. From Achrafieh to Ain al-Roumaneh, Bourj Hammoud to Hadath, groups of young men can be seen patrolling the streets and alerting the army of any suspicious activity.

"All the Christian areas have vigil groups now, operating at night," explains Maroun Fares, a 43-year-old taxi driver from the Ain al-Roumaneh suburb of Beirut, who does a four hour vigil shift every night. "The biggest and most efficient ones are those in Doura and Ain al-Roumaneh, because these are areas that have most Lebanese Forces members and most youth. We started doing this right after Hariri was killed, because we knew that there was going to be trouble, especially in our area."

From 9 p.m. to 7 a.m., groups of men gather on street corners, chatting and smoking their nargilehs as they monitor traffic. Others do rounds on the block which has been assigned to them.

"Lebanon has suffered a lot of attacks lately, and the police can't do it all themselves, so we are helping them out," says 22- year-old Wassim Khoury, sitting with a group on the corner of the old green line which divided Ain al-Roumaneh. "We are here every night, some stay put at a specific corner, and others do rounds in the area. We will continue doing this until we have found out the truth about who killed Rafik Hariri."

(SNIP)

A confrontation reportedly emerged Friday night between the army and residents of Dora who had set up their own security checkpoint. The groups were eventually ordered home.

Nevertheless, officials readily acknowledge the need to beef up the security apparatus and complain of lack of resources.

(SNIP)

The vigil groups insist they are unarmed. Should they come under attack, they would resort to legal means to defend themselves, asserts Geagea. "Nobody here is armed. Should there be any trouble, everybody in our group knows a martial art - karate, aikido or tae kwon do."

Others acknowledge possessing weapons, but leave them at home, so as to not provoke the authorities.

"We all have weapons at home, but we never bring them with us when we do the vigils, so as to not have any trouble with the municipality," says Fares. "But the army knows we all have arms."

4//The Daily Times, Pakistan Monday, April 04, 2005
http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?..

DICTATORSHIP REAL THREAT TO PAKISTAN, SAYS IMRAN KHAN

KARAK: The real threat facing Pakistan is from dictators who consider themselves above the law, Imran Khan, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf (PTI) chairman, said on Sunday. He was addressing a public meeting as part of PTI’s public mobilisation campaign to restore constitutional rule in the country.

He said the threats facing the country emanated from unconstitutional rulers who acted as demigods. As long as there was no rule of law, he said, political uncertainty and instability would continue to threaten the very survival of the country.

Imran Khan criticised President General Pervez Musharraf for stating that the military had no role in decision-making. He said the people were not fools and knew that real power was with the military, which was the reason for General Musharraf’s refusal to take off his uniform despite his public commitment.

The PTI chief condemned the shipment of centrifuges to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and said that the country’s nuclear programme was under threat. He demanded that the parliamentary committee on defence be briefed about the indirect inspection of the nuclear programme, which was under threat because of the government’s policy of indicting the country’s nuclear scientists.

He said that despite the government’s claims, corruption was rampant and the methods of looting public money had become more sophisticated and lethal under General Musharraf’s regime. He termed the Rs 720 billion siphoning off from the stock market as the biggest scam in the country’s history. He said the money belonged to small and medium investors, both local and foreign-based, who had been robbed of their life savings.

The PTI chief said that Pakistan had a long list of military dictators who, in an attempt to cling on to power, professed and justified policies that suited the US. He said by charging the US $70 million dollars per month for conducting military operations in the Tribal Areas, the military rulers were acting like mercenaries.

(MORE)

RELATED:

BENAZIR SAYS NATION WANTS HER AS PREMIER DESPITE BAN
http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page...

… Benazir said she would have certainly returned to Pakistan during the last elections only if she had not been banned at the last moment.

She also called on the international community to support the restoration of democracy in Pakistan such as US President George W Bush’s doctrine of democracy for Afghanistan and Iraq.

She said the Pakistani establishment should review its policies as President Pervez Musharraf’s political system had failed.

(MORE)

5//The Independent, UK 03 April 2005
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/environment...

HOME FIRES IN INDIA HELP TO MELT ARCTIC ICECAP HALF A WORLD AWAY
By Geoffrey Lean, Environment Editor

Poor women cooking family meals in India are helping to melt the Arctic icecap, startling new studies show. Soot from their fires gets wafted into the atmosphere to fall out on the ice thousands of miles away, hastening its disappearance.

In a vivid demonstration of interconnectedness, NASA scientists have found that one-third of the soot affecting the Arctic comes from South Asia. And Indian studies show that nearly half of the soot emitted in the region comes from cooking fires. Last November a major study by some 300 scientists found that the icecap had thinned by nearly half over the past 30 years. It is expected to disappear altogether by 2070, leaving open water all the way to the North Pole.

The scientists concluded that the Arctic is heating up twice as fast as the rest of the globe. Mostly this is due to worldwide pollution by carbon dioxide and the other "greenhouses gases" that cause global warming. But Dorothy Koch of NASA and Columbia University, New York, says that the new research suggests that soot may also "have a significant warming impact on the Arctic."

Tiny soot particles both warm up the air, and darken the surface of the ice when they fall out in the Arctic. The darker surface then absorbs more sunlight, causing the ice to melt faster.

The NASA scientists were amazed to find that only one-third of the soot reaching the ice came from the nearby industrialised countries of Europe, and North America and the former Soviet Union.

(SNIP)

Even before this discovery, the cooking fires of the poor were known to be one of the world's gravest environmental hazards. A cocktail of poisonous chemicals swirling in the smoke from dung or wood fires kills 2.2 million people a year - mainly women cooking on them and their children.

The United Nations Environment Programme says they are responsible for 5 per cent of the world's disease - more than HIV/Aids - and cost the world economy up to £400bn a year in lost production through sickness and death.

Yet worldwide two billion people have to burn wood and dung because they cannot access or afford modern forms of energy. Soot from the fires is also one of the main causes of the so-called Asian Brown Cloud, a vast pall, two miles thick, that hovers over the south of the continent, reducing the amount of sunlight that reaches the ground by up to 15 per cent.

Now the NASA study shows that it may also have global effects. Dr Koch says that the soot has "potentially long-term implications on climate patterns for much of the globe." So as the Greenland ice-sheet melts, flooding in the Thames estuary may be caused by the cooking of sparse meals far away in the Indian countryside.