May 13, 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 MAY 13, 2005

1//Asia Times Online, Hong Kong--IN IRAQ’S INSURGENCY, NO RULES, JUST DEATH
(… To fight the enemy, America cannot have any strategy other than its willingness to fulfill the desire of the insurgents. One has to paraphrase 18th century US statesman Patrick Henry's famous statement: "Give me liberty or give me death." In this instance, the Iraqi insurgents are not interested in living under what the Americans call a system based on liberty. They have chosen death as a price of destroying that system. In the process of dying, they are also willing to take a whole lot of Iraqis and Americans with them. This is not a reality that America wanted to create in Iraq. Still, the Bush administration is poised to stabilize Iraq through increased reliance on the indigenous security forces, while keeping a high operational tempo that is aimed at catching the insurgents off guard and capturing or killing their top leaders. It is hoped that the capture or eradication of the top leadership of the insurgency will eventually lead to the defeat of that movement. The American thinking is sound; however, the tactics used might produce contrary results. …)

2//The Middle East Times, Cyprus--WORST ANTI-US PROTESTS SPREAD ACROSS AFGHANISTAN (The biggest anti-US protests since the fall of the Taliban spread across Afghanistan on May 12, as unrest sparked by alleged abuse of the Koran at the US jail in Guantanamo Bay left three more people dead. Seven people have been killed and at least 76 injured during three days of violent demonstrations, all of them in clashes with security forces and police in conservative towns east of the capital Kabul. Angry Afghans shouting "Death to America" poured onto the streets of Kabul itself for the first time on Thursday and protests at the reported religious slur have now broken out in 10 of Afghanistan's 34 provinces. The Koran controversy has also spread to Pakistan, where demonstrations were held in Peshwar and Quetta, two major cities close to the border with Afghanistan. … Thousands of people also took to the streets in the northern provinces of Parwan, Kapisa and Takhar, Laghman in the east, Logar and Khost in the southeast and the southern province of Kandahar. The United Nations and foreign aid agencies evacuated hundreds of workers from Jalalabad fearing further violence.)

3//The Khaleej Times, United Arab Emirates--RUSSIA TO SEND FIRST FUEL TO IRANIAN NUKE PLANT AT YEAR’S END: OFFICIAL (Russia plans to make its first delivery of nuclear fuel to Iran at the end of the year or early next year under a landmark agreement to fire up the country’s first atomic power station, a senior Russian nuclear official said on Thursday. “They have to start to fire it up mid-2006. The fuel has to be at the plant six months before that,” Alexander Rumyantsev, the head of the Russian atomic agency said in an interview due for publication in daily Vremia Novosti, quoted by the Ria Novosti news agency. Under the accord between Russia and Iran signed in February, Russia is to send nearly 100 tonnes of fuel in several consignments under the supervision of the International Atomic Energy Agency [IAEA].)

4//RIA Novosti, Russia--FSB BELIEVES FOREIGN NON-GOVERNMENTAL ORGANIZATIOINS PREPARE NEW “VELVET REVOLUTIONS” (The Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) has information on preparation of new velvet revolutions on the post-Soviet space by a number of foreign non-governmental organizations. … According to him, the Russian special services know that a western non-governmental organization allocated about $5 million to finance a velvet revolution in Belarus. … Among these non-governmental organizations are the US Peace Corps, the Red Crescent from Saudi Arabia, some Kuwaiti organizations and others, he said.)

5//Deutsche-Welle/DW-World.de, Germany--GERMANY APPROVES EU CONSTITUTION (German parliamentarians overwhelmingly approved the EU constitution on Thursday. While the treaty has been at the center of impassioned public debate in France, it has failed to ignite similar interest in Germany. With 569 yes votes, 23 no votes and two abstentions, the German Bundestag approved the new European Union Constitution. The result masks growing public unease at the EU's direction. But reservations about the constitution have failed to gain momentum, partially due to widespread ignorance of its finer points. The anti-globalization activist group Attac has now launched a campaign entitled "Europe: No to the EU Constitution Treaty; Yes to a social, democratic and peaceful Europe," which it hopes will boost public awareness of an issue that has so far gone largely ignored. … Berlin's vote comes one day after Austria's lower house of parliament voted overwhelmingly for the charter -- with its upper house expected to approve the treaty right before France holds its hotly-contested referendum on May 29. Slovakia also approved the constitution Wednesday, bringing the number of states to have approved the treaty up to seven. In order for the constitution to take effect, it must be ratified by all 25 member states.)

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1//Asia Times Online, Hong Kong May 13, 2005
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/GE13Ak01.html

IN IRAQ’S INSURGENCY, NO RULES, JUST DEATH
By Ehsan Ahrari

In the very initial phase of evolution, Iraq's insurgents decided that Iraq would not be governed by the American-appointed government. After the elections of January 30, they also determined that a government elected under the American-written constitution would not govern it. But how are they are going to impose their will? Their decision all along seems to be that one side has to be either eradicated or defeated.

The American side cannot be eradicated, but the insurgents seem to have decided that they will not be defeated, as long as they are willing to die for their cause. One US Marine recently described the battle with insurgents in Ubaidi, 15 miles east of the Syrian border, by observing, "They came here to die. They were willing to stay in place and die with no hope. All they wanted was to take us with them." How do you develop an effective strategy to fight those who follow no rules, except their willingness to die for their cause? No one on the American side seems to have an answer.

The insurgents in Iraq comprise a variety of groups. First and foremost are the Ba'athists and pan-Arabists, including persons of civilian bureaucracy and armed forces under Saddam Hussein. They had careers and retirement plans. They had guaranteed sources of income to support their families. Even in the uncertain political environment of Iraq under a dictator, they did not harbor grave doubts about having a secure means of earning a living, as long as they did not antagonize the wicked regime. Today, almost 90% of them have no job, no income and no future. Thus, they form a majority of the Iraqi insurgency. A large number of army personnel are reportedly well trained in urban warfare. They are eager to destroy the current evolving system, which, from their point of view, is highly illegitimate because it is created by the United States.

Then there are the Sunni Islamists who wish to see their country ruled under the banner of Sunni Islam. There is also the Iraqi branch of al-Qaeda, whose goals of having an Islamist Iraq may not be too much different than that of the Sunni Islamists, like Ansar al-Islam, and its offshoot, Ansar al-Sunnah. They are driven by the jihadi frame of mind. The "super-Infidel" is occupying the land of Islam, according to this perspective, and should be driven out, no matter the cost. In this frame of reference, there is no compromise, just death, either for them, or for their enemy, or for both. Consequently, Iraq has gone beyond a point where it could be described as "hell."

To fight the enemy, America cannot have any strategy other than its willingness to fulfill the desire of the insurgents. One has to paraphrase 18th century US statesman Patrick Henry's famous statement: "Give me liberty or give me death." In this instance, the Iraqi insurgents are not interested in living under what the Americans call a system based on liberty. They have chosen death as a price of destroying that system. In the process of dying, they are also willing to take a whole lot of Iraqis and Americans with them. This is not a reality that America wanted to create in Iraq.

Still, the Bush administration is poised to stabilize Iraq through increased reliance on the indigenous security forces, while keeping a high operational tempo that is aimed at catching the insurgents off guard and capturing or killing their top leaders. It is hoped that the capture or eradication of the top leadership of the insurgency will eventually lead to the defeat of that movement. The American thinking is sound; however, the tactics used might produce contrary results.

(MORE)

2//The Middle East Times, Cyprus May 12, 2005
http://www.metimes.com/articles/normal...

WORST ANTI-US PROTESTS SPREAD ACROSS AFGHANISTAN
Sardar Ahmad

KABUL -- The biggest anti-US protests since the fall of the Taliban spread across Afghanistan on May 12, as unrest sparked by alleged abuse of the Koran at the US jail in Guantanamo Bay left three more people dead.

Seven people have been killed and at least 76 injured during three days of violent demonstrations, all of them in clashes with security forces and police in conservative towns east of the capital Kabul.

Angry Afghans shouting "Death to America" poured onto the streets of Kabul itself for the first time on Thursday and protests at the reported religious slur have now broken out in 10 of Afghanistan's 34 provinces.

The Koran controversy has also spread to Pakistan, where demonstrations were held in Peshwar and Quetta, two major cities close to the border with Afghanistan.

Two protesters were killed on Thursday when gunfire broke out as police stopped them marching into the eastern Afghan city of Jalalabad from a district just to the northwest, a provincial official said.

Jalalabad was the scene of a major riot on Wednesday in which four people died when police opened fire to control a mob that torched the buildings of several aid agencies, the Pakistani consulate and the governor's house.

(SNIP)

The protests were sparked by a small report in Newsweek magazine last week that interrogators at the US military detention center in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, desecrated copies of the Koran by leaving them in toilet cubicles and even stuffing one down a lavatory to rattle Muslim prisoners.

More than 500 detainees, most captured in Afghanistan or Pakistan following the September 11, 2001 attacks on the United States, are held as "enemy combatants" at Guantanamo.

The US, which leads a coalition of some 18,000 troops hunting Taliban militants three years after the regime was toppled, has promised to look into the claims. The US military has not been involved in policing the protests.

But in Kabul, student demonstrators shouted slogans calling on US President George W. Bush to apologise to Islamic countries and set a US flag ablaze. The protest ended peacefully.

Thousands of people also took to the streets in the northern provinces of Parwan, Kapisa and Takhar, Laghman in the east, Logar and Khost in the southeast and the southern province of Kandahar.

The United Nations and foreign aid agencies evacuated hundreds of workers from Jalalabad fearing further violence.

Afghan officials have suggested that elements opposed to the US-backed effort to rebuild the war-ravaged country have coordinated the violence, and protests come amid a recent deterioration in security.

(SNIP)

Veteran Afghan analyst Rahimullah Yusufzai said the protests gave the public a chance to vent their anger at President Hamid Karzai's government and the United States itself, but were unlikely to be coordinated.

"This is the biggest protest campaign in Afghanistan since the ouster of Taliban regime. This is bloody, widespread and countrywide," the Pakistan-based analyst said.

"This also shows that they are fed up with the United States and they just needed a spark to vent their feelings," he said.

(MORE)

3//The Khaleej Times, United Arab Emirates 12 May 2005
http://www.khaleejtimes.com/DisplayArticle.asp?xfile...
RUSSIA TO SEND FIRST FUEL TO IRANIAN NUKE PLANT AT YEAR’S END: OFFICIAL

MOSCOW (AFP) - Russia plans to make its first delivery of nuclear fuel to Iran at the end of the year or early next year under a landmark agreement to fire up the country’s first atomic power station, a senior Russian nuclear official said on Thursday.

“They have to start to fire it up mid-2006. The fuel has to be at the plant six months before that,” Alexander Rumyantsev, the head of the Russian atomic agency said in an interview due for publication in daily Vremia Novosti, quoted by the Ria Novosti news agency.

Under the accord between Russia and Iran signed in February, Russia is to send nearly 100 tonnes of fuel in several consignments under the supervision of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).

“All the necessary precautions have been made in line with international standards,” Rumyantsev said.

The United States alleges that the Bushehr nuclear power plant in southern Iran is part of a cover for weapons development.

(SNIP)

As a concession to Western concerns, Russia will fuel the reactor on condition that Iran sends back spent fuel, which could potentially be upgraded to weapons use.

Tehran initially rejected the condition, but eventually relented after two years of negotiations.

4//RIA Novosti, Russia 13/05/2005
http://en.rian.ru/world/20050512/39973262.html

FSB BELIEVES FOREIGN NON-GOVERNMENTAL ORGANIZATIOINS PREPARE NEW “VELVET REVOLUTIONS”

MOSCOW, May 12 20:06 (RIA Novosti) - The Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) has information on preparation of new velvet revolutions on the post-Soviet space by a number of foreign non-governmental organizations. "Foreign special services are proactively using non-traditional methods. They promote their interests using educational programs of various non-governmental organizations and collect information, particularly, on the post-Soviet space," FSB director Nikolai Patrushev told the Russian State Duma deputies.

According to him, the Russian special services know that a western non-governmental organization allocated about $5 million to finance a velvet revolution in Belarus.

"Moreover, oppositionists who made the orange revolution in Ukraine can be involved in the training of Belarussian oppositionists," Patrushev added.

Among these non-governmental organizations are the US Peace Corps, the Red Crescent from Saudi Arabia, some Kuwaiti organizations and others, he said.

(MORE)

5//Deutsche-Welle/DW-World.de, Germany 12.05.2005
http://www.dw-world.de/dw/article/0,1564,1581297,00.html

GERMANY APPROVES EU CONSTITUTION

German parliamentarians overwhelmingly approved the EU constitution on Thursday. While the treaty has been at the center of impassioned public debate in France, it has failed to ignite similar interest in Germany.

With 569 yes votes, 23 no votes and two abstentions, the German Bundestag approved the new European Union Constitution.

The result masks growing public unease at the EU's direction. But reservations about the constitution have failed to gain momentum, partially due to widespread ignorance of its finer points.

The anti-globalization activist group Attac has now launched a campaign entitled "Europe: No to the EU Constitution Treaty; Yes to a social, democratic and peaceful Europe," which it hopes will boost public awareness of an issue that has so far gone largely ignored.

One of its signatories is Jörg Huffschmid, director of the Institute for European Economics and Social Policy (EWIG) at Bremen University. "The German ratification process is a stitch-up," he said. "The politicians are simply going ahead with its implementation."

While other European nations have been mulling over the pros and cons of the EU Constitution in recent months, Berlin has managed to sweep the issue under the carpet.

"If we were to hold a general knowledge quiz about the contents of the European Constitution in France and Germany," pointed out Huffschmid, "Germany would come out of it pretty badly."

"Not even the media are paying any attention to the matter," said Janis. A. Emmanouilidis, EU expert at the Munich Center for Applied Political Research and an advisor at the Foreign Ministry's European Department.

"The best compromise"

Berlin's vote comes one day after Austria's lower house of parliament voted overwhelmingly for the charter -- with its upper house expected to approve the treaty right before France holds its hotly-contested referendum on May 29.

Slovakia also approved the constitution Wednesday, bringing the number of states to have approved the treaty up to seven. In order for the constitution to take effect, it must be ratified by all 25 member states.

(MORE)