April 18, 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 APRIL 18, 2005


1//The Daily Star, Lebanon--CALM RETURNS TO IRANIAN CITY AFTER VIOLENT PROTESTS (The predominantly Arab city of Ahvaz in Iran was calm Sunday, with anti-riot police cruising the streets after two days of violent demonstrations. At least one demonstrator died and eight others were wounded in the protests, sparked by rumors that Tehran planned to decrease the proportion of Arabs in the oil-rich area near the Iraqi border. … Iran's official IRNA news agency said a forged letter calling for a plan to relocate non-Arabs to the city to make them the majority population had started the fighting, which it said was limited to Ahvaz. … Al-Jazeera television said the London-based Popular Democratic Front of Ahvazi Arabs in Iran had called for demonstrations in the area "to mark 80 years of Iranian occupation.")

2//KurdishMedia.com, UK--ARABS AND TURKMEN FEAR KURDISH CONTROL OF KIRKUK (… Just as politicians in Baghdad have been struggling for more than 10 weeks to form a national government, the Kurds, Arabs and local Turkman minority of Kirkuk have failed to form their own council executive. "The situation has reached a critical point," said Tahsin Kahya, a leader of the local Turkman minority who, with the local Arabs, fear that Kurds are out to seize control of the region. Kahya, a former head of the Taamin province council, was reelected to the council in January but has since seen Turkman enthusiasm wilt in the continuing political bickering. … Besides political problems, Kirkuk -- like the rest of the country -- is not immune to violence. Last Thursday, three Iraqi policemen were killed and four people wounded when gunmen attacked a new police station in the city, while the day before 10 members of Iraq’s special oil facilities protection force were killed in a bomb attack just north of the oil-rich city. … "We want a sharing out of the top jobs, but if the Kurds insist on controlling everything, then let them do it," says a depressed Tahsin Kahya. His opposite Arab number on the council, Sheikh Abdullah Sami al-Assi, appears just as downcast, but points out that marginalizing Arabs and Turkmen could backfire against the Kurds.)

3//The Asahi Shimbun, Japan--N. KOREA SHUTS DOWN NUKE REACTOR (North Korea has stopped operations at a nuclear reactor at Yongbyon north of Pyongyang, several sources here have confirmed. The stoppage is likely in preparation for extracting spent fuel rods to reprocess into plutonium, they said. North Korea resumed operations about two years ago at the nuclear facility, which Pyongyang in 1994 agreed with Washington to halt. Pyongyang has said it completed the reprocessing of 8,000 spent nuclear fuel rods, and in February, a senior North Korean official said it had become a "nuclear power.'' If the 8,000 spent fuel rods are reprocessed, they could produce enough plutonium for about five more nuclear weapons, experts said. That could double the amount Pyongyang likely already has, which is enough to make four to six weapons, according to some estimates.)

4//The Toronto Star, Canada--FOR TEAM MARTIN, ONE LAST CHANCE (In this prosperous, peaceable kingdom, Paul Martin's government still has a pulse, but just barely. Public-opinion polls last week, days after the most sensational testimony at the Gomery inquiry so far, showed the federal Liberals plummeting to as low as 25 per cent in popular support. … The Tories, meanwhile, are stuck at about the same 30 per cent level that denied them victory last June, the recent Liberal slide having mostly benefited the Bloc Québécois, the NDP and the Greens. So what gives? … One wonders if image management, obviously not a core competency of this PMO, even rates as a principal function.)

5//The Moscow Times, Russia--NASHI VOWS TO FIGHT LIBERALS, BUREAUCRATS (New youth movement Nashi, or Us, pledged to defend the policies of President Vladimir Putin against liberals, corrupt bureaucrats and fascists as it held its founding conference Friday. Nashi appears to be a Kremlin effort to help safeguard itself against a popular uprising. … Delegates elected Nashi founder Vasily Yakemenko as their leader, and he said he would step down as leader of Moving Together, another pro-Putin youth movement, to accept the post. Reading from Nashi's manifesto, Yakemenko said Nashi would help Putin overcome resistance from domestic enemies such as corrupt bureaucrats and "an unnatural union of liberals, fascists, pro-Western politicians and ultranationalists," Yakemenko said. … Reading from the manifesto, he said Nashi also would fight foreign foes such as "international foundations and international terrorists" and seek to counter U.S. influence. He said the United States and terrorists want to weaken Russia to gain control over it. He said Nashi would support Putin to make Russia the world's leader and to dismantle "oligarchic capitalism.")

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1//The Daily Star, Lebanon Monday, April 18, 2005
http://www.dailystar.com.lb/article.asp?edition...

CALM RETURNS TO IRANIAN CITY AFTER VIOLENT PROTESTS
Compiled by Daily Star staff

The predominantly Arab city of Ahvaz in Iran was calm Sunday, with anti-riot police cruising the streets after two days of violent demonstrations. At least one demonstrator died and eight others were wounded in the protests, sparked by rumors that Tehran planned to decrease the proportion of Arabs in the oil-rich area near the Iraqi border.

(SNIP)

The fracas started Friday after hundreds of Arab residents of Ahvaz, the capital of Khuzestan Province, gathered to chant slogans against an alleged government plan to move more non-Arabs into the city.

The protests turned violent as people set fire to banks and police stations. Police made more than 250 arrests.

Iran's official IRNA news agency said a forged letter calling for a plan to relocate non-Arabs to the city to make them the majority population had started the fighting, which it said was limited to Ahvaz.

A local official said the letter was attributed to former Vice President Mohammad Ali Abtahi and dated from when he ran President Mohammad Khatami's office.

But Abtahi denied on his Web site that he was behind the letter, which reportedly said that "Arabs must emigrate, Arab names of towns and villages must become Persian [in Khuzestan]."

"Good friends have told me that people are trying to provoke ethnic violence in the province," Abtahi said on the Web site, adding that neither he nor anyone else had the power to change the ethnic composition of an area.

Al-Jazeera television said the London-based Popular Democratic Front of Ahvazi Arabs in Iran had called for demonstrations in the area "to mark 80 years of Iranian occupation."

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2//KurdishMedia.com, UK 17/04/2005
http://www.kurdmedia.com/news.asp?id=6627

ARABS AND TURKMEN FEAR KURDISH CONTROL OF KIRKUK

KIRKUK, Iraq, April 17 (AFP) - 6h05 - The northern oil city of Kirkuk, a melting pot of rival communities, reflects in miniature Iraq’s turbulent make-up -- dominated by suspicion, frustration and squabbling.

Just as politicians in Baghdad have been struggling for more than 10 weeks to form a national government, the Kurds, Arabs and local Turkman minority of Kirkuk have failed to form their own council executive.

"The situation has reached a critical point," said Tahsin Kahya, a leader of the local Turkman minority who, with the local Arabs, fear that Kurds are out to seize control of the region.

Kahya, a former head of the Taamin province council, was reelected to the council in January but has since seen Turkman enthusiasm wilt in the continuing political bickering.

Kirkuk, the regional capital of Taamin province, around 250 kilometersmiles) north of Baghdad, is home to some 850,000 people -- Kurds, Arabs and Turkmen, a Turkish-speaking minority backed by authorities in Ankara.

"People are very frustrated, the man in the street doesn’t care about the council make-up. He just wants his representatives to get down to work and make sure water and electricity are back on tap," said Colonel Gordon Petrie of the US army.

Besides political problems, Kirkuk -- like the rest of the country -- is not immune to violence.

Last Thursday, three Iraqi policemen were killed and four people wounded when gunmen attacked a new police station in the city, while the day before 10 members of Iraq’s special oil facilities protection force were killed in a bomb attack just north of the oil-rich city.

Ethnic tensions do nothing to help calm the situation.

The local Kurdish list controls 26 seats on the council. The Turkmen have nine and the Arabs six.

The Arabs and Turkmen charge that the Kurdish vote was artificially inflated by the enfranchising of thousands of Kurdish returnees who had been expelled from the city under Saddam Hussein’s Sunni Arab-dominated regime.

The make-up of the council executive is only one of the issues dividing the communities.

Turkmen and Arabs fear the Kurds want to include Kirkuk province in the semi-autonomous area they already control in northern Iraq, an ambition openly expressed by Kurdish leaders.

(SNIP)

Ethnic tension has since risen and while each of the three communities was to have received a key post in the new council, the Kurds are now only prepared to offer one post of deputy governor to both Arabs and Turkmen, according to US officers.

"The ball is in their court to decide who will take this post," said Mahmoud Mohamed Ahmad, a council member from the Kurdistan Democratic Party.

Ahmad said he deplored "the mentality of ethnic division" responsible for the deadlock on the council.

In the body’s latest session last week, all Turkmen members boycotted the session, while two Arab members made only a brief appearance.

"We want a sharing out of the top jobs, but if the Kurds insist on controlling everything, then let them do it," says a depressed Tahsin Kahya.

His opposite Arab number on the council, Sheikh Abdullah Sami al-Assi, appears just as downcast, but points out that marginalizing Arabs and Turkmen could backfire against the Kurds.

If the Kurds take full control "then if anything goes wrong they will be solely responsible," he says.

3//The Asahi Shimbun, Japan 04/18/2005
http://www.asahi.com/english/Herald-asahi/...

N. KOREA SHUTS DOWN NUKE REACTOR
By Nobuyoshi Sakajiri

WASHINGTON-North Korea has stopped operations at a nuclear reactor at Yongbyon north of Pyongyang, several sources here have confirmed.

The stoppage is likely in preparation for extracting spent fuel rods to reprocess into plutonium, they said.

North Korea resumed operations about two years ago at the nuclear facility, which Pyongyang in 1994 agreed with Washington to halt.

Pyongyang has said it completed the reprocessing of 8,000 spent nuclear fuel rods, and in February, a senior North Korean official said it had become a "nuclear power.''

If the 8,000 spent fuel rods are reprocessed, they could produce enough plutonium for about five more nuclear weapons, experts said.

That could double the amount Pyongyang likely already has, which is enough to make four to six weapons, according to some estimates.

Washington confirmed this month that the reactor stopped, based on satellite images of the Yongbyon facility and surrounding areas and on temperature estimates of the facility's concrete walls and of steam emissions, sources said.

Washington will likely send Christopher Hill, assistant secretary of state in charge of East Asian and Pacific affairs, to Japan, South Korea and China to discuss the situation, sources said.

The United States has suggested the United Nations Security Council could consider sanctions against Pyongyang as an alternative to the six-nation talks on North Korea's nuclear ambitions.

Although Beijing seems reluctant to take up the issue of sanctions against Pyongyang, the news that the North may be producing more plutonium could accelerate calls for sanctions, sources said.

Experts said Pyongyang likely wants to use the spent fuel rods as a negotiating tool to pull further concessions from Washington.

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4//The Toronto Star, Canada Apr. 17, 2005. 09:05 AM
http://www.thestar.com/NASApp/cs/ContentServer...

FOR TEAM MARTIN, ONE LAST CHANCE
David Olive

In this prosperous, peace-able kingdom, Paul Martin's government still has a pulse, but just barely.

Public-opinion polls last week, days after the most sensational testimony at the Gomery inquiry so far, showed the federal Liberals plummeting to as low as 25 per cent in popular support.

The sordid testimony, alleging fraud and kickbacks, and labelled "abhorrent" by the PM himself, set loose what Jean Chrétien called the nervous Nellies in the Liberal caucus, including the reratting of Edmonton's David Kilgour, a Tory turncoat who turned independent last week.

Stephen Harper, balancing the temptation to bring down Martin's government with his fear of an electorate that might prove wrathful at being recalled to the polls so soon, did manage last week to remind us that "one thing that's become increasingly obvious is that (Martin] has no agenda for the country."

No agenda. No vision. Not even one big defining idea of where Martin wants to take the country. Corporate CEOs are supposed to be good at that, but the erstwhile head of Canada Steamship Lines is not.

Yet Martin does have a busy agenda, most elements of which enjoy popular support by majorities or strong pluralities among the roughly 70 per cent of Canadians occupying the centre-left of the political spectrum.

The Tories, meanwhile, are stuck at about the same 30 per cent level that denied them victory last June, the recent Liberal slide having mostly benefited the Bloc Québécois, the NDP and the Greens.

So what gives?

How has Martin made himself so vulnerable to such casual assertions last week that he is a moral eunuch (Ed Broadbent's implication), a likely perjurer (Jason Kenney's speculation) and, like Liberals in general, not convincingly "above the levels of criminals" (Harper).

Can anyone here play this game?

The liaisons employed by this Prime Minister's Office to hand-hold wayward premiers, balky backbenchers, tetchy special interest groups and the like are the least competent operatives of recent times.

(SNIP)

One wonders if image management, obviously not a core competency of this PMO, even rates as a principal function. Canadians actually like their Prime Minister, when Martin is staring down Williams over his flag stunt, or touring tsunami-stricken regions more conspicuously than other heads of state, or mixing self-deprecation with resolve in chairing the first ministers meeting on health care from which Ralph Klein ducked out for a rendezvous with the slot machines across the river in Hull.

But too often, Martin has been seen not to be governing. He's seen to be hiding.

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5//The Moscow Times, Russia Monday, April 18, 2005. Issue 3148. Page 3
http://www.themoscowtimes.com/stories/2005/04/18/011.html

NASHI VOWS TO FIGHT LIBERALS, BUREAUCRATS
By Anatoly Medetsky, Staff Writer

New youth movement Nashi, or Us, pledged to defend the policies of President Vladimir Putin against liberals, corrupt bureaucrats and fascists as it held its founding conference Friday.

Nashi appears to be a Kremlin effort to help safeguard itself against a popular uprising.

Nashi began to take shape late last year, and 30 regional branches sent 680 delegates to Friday's conference in the main building of the Russian Academy of Sciences. The delegates, mostly well-dressed college students aged 17 to 22, were greeted by Nashi flags, a white X-shaped cross on a red background, and posters of the first man in space, Yury Gagarin. Some posters read: "Yury Gagarin. That's Where Nashi Is From!"

Delegates elected Nashi founder Vasily Yakemenko as their leader, and he said he would step down as leader of Moving Together, another pro-Putin youth movement, to accept the post.
Reading from Nashi's manifesto, Yakemenko said Nashi would help Putin overcome resistance from domestic enemies such as corrupt bureaucrats and "an unnatural union of liberals, fascists, pro-Western politicians and ultranationalists," Yakemenko said.

He later told reporters that Nashi would start a campaign against Putin's enemies that would include the passing out of pamphlets. He identified Putin's enemies as liberal politicians Irina Khakamada, Vladimir Ryzhkov and Garry Kasparov, among others.

Reading from the manifesto, he said Nashi also would fight foreign foes such as "international foundations and international terrorists" and seek to counter U.S. influence. He said the United States and terrorists want to weaken Russia to gain control over it.

He said Nashi would support Putin to make Russia the world's leader and to dismantle "oligarchic capitalism."

Nashi intends to become a main political force in the 2008 presidential election, Yakemenko told reporters. It now has 3,500 members, he said.

In a sign of Kremlin support, Science and Education Minister Andrei Fursenko gave a speech in which he urged delegates to study, stay healthy and strive to help Russia create an economy based on intellect rather than oil.

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