May 20, 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 20, 2005

1//Inter Press Service News Agency, Italy--EXILED REBEL GROUP SAID TO TORTURE DISSIDENTS (An Iranian rebel group that is aggressively campaigning for Washington's support as part of a ''regime change'' strategy in its homeland has committed serious abuses including torture and prolonged isolation, against dissident members, according to a leading human rights watchdog. The group, the Mojahedin Khalq Organisation [MKO], also known as MEK after its Iranian initials, insists that it should lead a U.S.-backed effort to bring what it has termed democratic rule to Iran. Last month, it organised a rally, attended by several powerful Republican lawmakers and billed as the ''2005 National Convention for a Democratic, Secular Republic in Iran,'' at Washington's historic Constitution Hall. …)

2//Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, US--IRAN/IRAQ: TENSIONS LINGER BENEATH IRANIAN FM’S VISIT TO BAGHDAD (… The mood in Baghdad, however, was one of rapprochement. Iraqi leaders praised Kharrazi's "landmark" visit, stressing the need to build on brotherly relations with Iran. The position of the transitional government is starkly different from the position taken by the interim government toward its eastern neighbor. During Iraq's interim administration, defense minister Hazim al-Sha'lan routinely criticized Iran for interfering in Iraq's internal affairs on a variety of levels, including the regime's purported financial support of political parties and its funding of the insurgency. … While both Zebari and Kharrazi stressed the need for non-interference in Iraq's internal affairs, no mention was made of widespread reports of Iranian militias ruling the streets of Basra and other southern cities. … While the transitional government has claimed that it has no intention of duplicating an Iranian-style regime in Iraq, it appears to be taking the high road, at least publicly, in its dealings with Iran. As transitional President Jalal Talabani told Jordan's Television 1 on May 8, "We should not forget that Iran and Syria had thankfully assisted the forces ruling in Iraq now when they were in the opposition. Therefore, even if there are differences with these two countries, we seek to solve them in a brotherly manner. We do not want to export these differences to the press or television. We will exert efforts to solve differences cordially and through direct contact if such differences exist."
Both Iran and southern Iraqis might interpret that position as tacit approval of Iranian domination in the south. Like Hamas in Gaza, Iran's control over southern Iraq could slowly solidify - and later prove difficult to remove.)

3//Worldpress.org, US--AYATOLLAH SISTANI AND THE WAR IN YEMEN (Now that Iraqi Shiites and Kurds are in power after decades of repression, perhaps some other regional governments will embrace the concepts of pluralism and equal rights. Recently the Shiite religious establishment in Najaf, Iraq, including Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, said the Yemeni government is waging “a kind of war” against Yemeni Zaidis. … Transparency International, an anticorruption watchdog in Berlin that publishes an annual corruption perceptions index, notes Yemen as one of the world’s most corrupt states, where President Saleh is also the head of Yemen’s judiciary. Perhaps Iraq’s religious leaders are pointing to Saleh’s use of the law as another weapon against the Zaidi people, who make up nearly 40 percent of Yemen’s population. … Who better than Iraqis to recognize another Saddam? President Saleh has stolen the liberty of an entire country including the Sunni majority, but his jihad against the Zaidis includes artillery, mass arrests, and forcing children out of school. This is the jihad in Yemen that Iraq’s religious leaders mean to show the world.)

4//The Daily Star, Lebanon--NOBEL LAUREATES STRESS NEED TO STRENGTHEN DEMOCRACY AND ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT (Nobel Prize winners pooled their collective brain power to tackle the problems of "a world in danger," pinpointing the poor, oppressed and marginalized as holding a key to the future. The laureates meeting in Jordan's ancient city of Petra focused in a two-day conference on four main areas - peace and security; economic development; health, environment and science; and education, media and culture. … They were joined by among others the Hollywood actor Richard Gere and former U.S. President Bill Clinton. … Clinton spoke of the great challenges he saw facing the world including security, social justice and the environment. "We have to keep working to give people security," Clinton said, while Wiesel, a Holocaust survivor, commented: "We owe it to our children to give them hope.")

5//RIA Novosti, Russia--RUSSIA TO SELL 100,000 KALASHNIKOV SUBMACHINE-GUNS TO VENEZUELA (On Tuesday Venezuela and Russia signed an agreement on supplies of 100,000 Kalashnikov submachine-guns to that South-American country.The sum total of the transaction is $54 million. Russia undertook to supply to Venezuela, alongside weapons, also 2,000 handbooks, as well as spare parts and accessories for the AK submachine-guns. … According to Rosoboronexport representative Sergei Ladygin who participated in the signing ceremony, Venezuela will become the first country in the world after Russia where the Russian AK-103 submachine-guns will be assembled, and the first country of the Western hemisphere to have them in service. Earlier this year Russia and Venezuela signed a $120-million contract for supplies of Russian helicopters to Venezuela.)

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1//Inter Press Service News Agency, Italy May 19, 2005
http://ipsnews.net/interna.asp?idnews=28738

EXILED REBEL GROUP SAID TO TORTURE DISSIDENTS

Jim Lobe

WASHINGTON, (IPS) - An Iranian rebel group that is aggressively campaigning for Washington's support as part of a ''regime change'' strategy in its homeland has committed serious abuses including torture and prolonged isolation, against dissident members, according to a leading human rights watchdog.

The group, the Mojahedin Khalq Organisation (MKO), also known as MEK after its Iranian initials, insists that it should lead a U.S.-backed effort to bring what it has termed democratic rule to Iran. Last month, it organised a rally, attended by several powerful Republican lawmakers and billed as the ''2005 National Convention for a Democratic, Secular Republic in Iran,'' at Washington's historic Constitution Hall.

But MKO's own human-rights record during its almost 20 years as an armed group sheltered and supported by former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein belies its professed commitment to democratic rule, Human Rights Watch (HRW) said in a 28-page report, ''No Exit: Human Rights Abuses Inside the MKO Camps,', released Thursday.

''The Iranian government has a dreadful record on human rights,'' said Joe Stork, Washington director of HRW's Middle East division. ''But it would be a huge mistake to promote an opposition group that is responsible for serious human rights abuses.''

The report comes amid rising tensions between Washington and Teheran focused primarily on U.S. charges that Iran is building a nuclear weapon, a development that President George W. Bush has described as ''unacceptable."

The U.S. administration has not yet explicitly endorsed ''regime change'' in Iran but hardliners based primarily in Vice President Dick Cheney's office and at the Defence Department have made little secret of their belief that such a policy should be adopted. Their only question is how best to achieve that goal.

Since the March, 2003 U.S.-led invasion of Iraq, where the MKO had been based since 1986, the group has tried to persuade Washington that it holds the key to overthrowing the Islamic Republic next door.

It has been backed in this quest by right-wing lawmakers, a group of hard-line neo-conservatives and retired military officers called the Iran Policy Committee (IPC), and some U.S. officials -- particularly in the Pentagon, as the Defence Department also is known -- who believe that the MKO could be used to help destabilise the Iranian regime, if not eventually overthrow it in conjunction with U.S. military strikes against selected targets.

While the group's supporters in the Pentagon so far have succeeded in protecting the several thousand MKO militants based at Camp Ashraf near the Iranian border from being dispersed or deported, they have failed to persuade the U.S. State Department to take the group off its terrorist list, to which it was added in 1997 based on its attacks during the 1970s against U.S. military contractors and its participation in the 1979 seizure of the U.S. Embassy in Teheran. The European Union (EU) also cites the MKO as a terrorist organisation.

After a year-long tug-of-war between the two U.S. agencies, a truce between State and the Pentagon was apparently worked out. MKO members at Camp Ashraf were designated ''protected persons'' under the Geneva Conventions.

Since then, the Pentagon has recruited individual members of the MKO to infiltrate Iran as part of an effort to locate secret nuclear installations, according to recent articles published in The New Yorker and Newsweek magazines. At the same time, nearly 300 members have taken advantage of an amnesty in Iran to return home, leaving a total of 3,534 MKO members inside Camp Ashraf as of mid-March, according to the HRW report.

(MORE)

2//Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, US May 18, 2005
http://www.rferl.org/features/features_Article.aspx?...

IRAN/IRAQ: TENSIONS LINGER BENEATH IRANIAN FM’S VISIT TO BAGHDAD
By Kathleen Ridolfo

As Iranian Foreign Minister Kamal Kharrazi arrived in Baghdad this week to stress Iran's support for a stable, unified Iraq, Iran's Arabic-language al-Alam television station was broadcasting footage showing desecrated Korans strewn across a mosque floor in Iraq.

Playing on allegations made recently in Newsweek that US soldiers desecrated a Koran at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, the news channel claimed that the footage was taken following a US military raid on an Iraqi mosque in March.

The mood in Baghdad, however, was one of rapprochement. Iraqi leaders praised Kharrazi's "landmark" visit, stressing the need to build on brotherly relations with Iran.

The position of the transitional government is starkly different from the position taken by the interim government toward its eastern neighbor. During Iraq's interim administration, defense minister Hazim al-Sha'lan routinely criticized Iran for interfering in Iraq's internal affairs on a variety of levels, including the regime's purported financial support of political parties and its funding of the insurgency.

Iraq's southern discomfort

Historic visit
As Iraq's leadership was quick to point out, Kharrazi is the first minister from an Arab or Islamic neighbor to visit Iraq. From that perspective, the visit can be viewed as historic for Iraqis, who fought an eight-year war with Iran that left some 1 million people dead. In addition, many of Iraq's Shi'ite leaders - including Prime Minister Ibrahim Jaafari - spent years of exile in Iran, and are said to be on good terms with the Iranian regime.

During his visit, Kharrazi stressed to reporters Iran's support for a stable, unified Iraq. "We believe that security on the border with Iraq is security for the Islamic republic of Iran," he said. He also said that Iran has gone to great lengths to secure its border with Iraq over the past two years. "Had the Islamic republic of Iran exploited the situation in Iraq to interfere in Iraq's affairs and allow terrorists to enter Iraq from Iran, the situation in Iraq would have been much worse," he said.

Meanwhile, Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar al-Zebari defended Iran, telling reporters: "We do not deny that infiltrations occur but we cannot say that these operations take place with the approval of the [Iranian] government." He acknowledged, however, that the transitional government views some of Iran's interests in Iraq to be "illegitimate," but cautioned that the Iraqi government is "against anything that harms relations between the two peoples and countries,"

(SNIP)

While both Zebari and Kharrazi stressed the need for non-interference in Iraq's internal affairs, no mention was made of widespread reports of Iranian militias ruling the streets of Basra and other southern cities. Nor was there any mention of the growing drug trade that flows from Afghanistan through Iran to Iraq. As London's al-Sharq al-Awsat reported on April 12, "An infiltrator from Iran ... needs only to cross a small land barrier in the al-Shalamjah area to get to Iraqi territory. Alternatively, this infiltrator can go through the palm orchards and then cross into Iraqi territory. If the infiltrator wants to use the river, he can use a small boat to cross the Shatt al-Arab to be in Iraq."

The report illustrates the level of Iranian penetration in Basra, and substantiates earlier reports by RFE/RL that Basrans are fearful to speak against the growing Iranian presence on the streets of Iraq's second city. In addition to a thriving smuggling trade, Iran has taken what the daily calls "humanitarian steps" to spread its political influence while distributing much-needed aid to the elderly and poor, much like the tactics successfully employed by the Palestinian Islamic group Hamas to win political support in Gaza. Iran has allocated $1 billion in aid that "is meant to implement projects that reinforce its intervention in Iraqi affairs," the daily reports.

Other media reports, including a May 14 article in Baghdad's al-Furat, talk of armed militias seizing the homes of Iraqis and redistributing them to Iranian families, in what the author calls "an organized process by Iranians to occupy Iraqi towns under various pretexts."

Iraqi Islamic Party member Iyad al-Azzi told al-Sharq al-Awsat in early April that Iran and Syria "have plans to further drown the United States in the Iraqi quagmire at the expense of [Iraq's] security, blood, and citizens" in order to divert US attention away from those states.

While the transitional government has claimed that it has no intention of duplicating an Iranian-style regime in Iraq, it appears to be taking the high road, at least publicly, in its dealings with Iran. As transitional President Jalal Talabani told Jordan's Television 1 on May 8, "We should not forget that Iran and Syria had thankfully assisted the forces ruling in Iraq now when they were in the opposition. Therefore, even if there are differences with these two countries, we seek to solve them in a brotherly manner. We do not want to export these differences to the press or television. We will exert efforts to solve differences cordially and through direct contact if such differences exist."

Both Iran and southern Iraqis might interpret that position as tacit approval of Iranian domination in the south. Like Hamas in Gaza, Iran's control over southern Iraq could slowly solidify - and later prove difficult to remove.

3//Worldpress.org, US May 18, 2005
http://www.worldpress.org/Mideast/2083.cfm

AYATOLLAH SISTANI AND THE WAR IN YEMEN
Jane Novak, Worldpress.org contributing editor

Now that Iraqi Shiites and Kurds are in power after decades of repression, perhaps some other regional governments will embrace the concepts of pluralism and equal rights. Recently the Shiite religious establishment in Najaf, Iraq, including Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, said the Yemeni government is waging “a kind of war” against Yemeni Zaidis.

There’s a jihad in Yemen? By the government?

Zaidis, one of three main Shia branches, are found almost exclusively within Yemen. They practice a moderate form of Islam and enjoy good relations with their Sunni co-patriots. So why would the highly respected Ayatollah Sistani tell the world that Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh is waging a war on the Zaidis?

Perhaps the Iraqis are referring to a civil jihad that uses the powers of government against the Zaidis. President Saleh recently began closing 4000 “underground” Zaidi schools serving 330,000 children. Yemeni public schools propagate Sunni doctrine. Officials of Saleh’s Sunni government have characterized Zaidi teachings as “blasphemous,” “backwards” and “deviant.” The curriculum of some hard core Wahhabi schools, the greater threat according to analysts, was not addressed in their statements.

Perhaps Ayatollah Sistani is drawing the world’s eye to President Saleh’s current military attack on Saada Province, a Zaidi region. Chasing a small band of Zaidi “rebels” through Saada, the Yemeni military has left behind a wide path of death and destruction. Residents claim that 65,000 people have had their homes destroyed.

(SNIP)

Transparency International, an anticorruption watchdog in Berlin that publishes an annual corruption perceptions index, notes Yemen as one of the world’s most corrupt states, where President Saleh is also the head of Yemen’s judiciary. Perhaps Iraq’s religious leaders are pointing to Saleh’s use of the law as another weapon against the Zaidi people, who make up nearly 40 percent of Yemen’s population.

Thousands are in prison without charges after mass arrests in Saada, and more are taken daily. A Zaidi judge, Mohammed Luqman, was sentenced to 10 years in prison after ruling against one of Saleh’s political cronies. A Zaidi editor, Abdulkarim al-Khaiwani, was jailed after a series of articles on governmental corruption. Both men were convicted of sedition for speaking against the bloodshed in Saada.

A deft master of propaganda, Saleh knows all the buzzwords to feed the West. He called the 4000 Zaidi schools “extremist” and said their closure was educational reform. He announced that imprisoning the respected judge was an anti-corruption campaign. He said the outspoken editor was flaming sectarianism by denouncing the violence.

As he attacked Saada, Saleh implied that the few hundred rebels were allied with Iran. (Actually, first he said they were supported by Jews, but he retracted that. Next it was Bahrainis, and then Kuwaitis that were financing them. Then the rebels were monarchists. Now it’s Hezbollah.) The Jamestown Foundation, an organization in Washington that monitors Eurasia, calls the likelihood of Iranian influence “questionable.”

(SNIP)

The Jamestown Organization forecasts a bleak future for Yemenis: “While Saleh grooms his son as his successor, Yemen threatens to become a replica of the hereditary Baathist presidencies of Iraq and Syria.”

Who better than Iraqis to recognize another Saddam? President Saleh has stolen the liberty of an entire country including the Sunni majority, but his jihad against the Zaidis includes artillery, mass arrests, and forcing children out of school. This is the jihad in Yemen that Iraq’s religious leaders mean to show the world.

4//The Daily Star, Lebanon Friday, May 20, 2005
http://www.dailystar.com.lb/article.asp?edition_id=10&categ_id=2&article_id=15224

NOBEL LAUREATES STRESS NEED TO STRENGTHEN DEMOCRACY AND ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT
Jordanian conference cites inequity and injustice as root causes of terror

By Agence France Presse (AFP)

PETRA, Jordan: Nobel Prize winners pooled their collective brain power to tackle the problems of "a world in danger," pinpointing the poor, oppressed and marginalized as holding a key to the future. The laureates meeting in Jordan's ancient city of Petra focused in a two-day conference on four main areas - peace and security; economic development; health, environment and science; and education, media and culture.

In a region noted for its wars, and with neighboring Iraq giving daily examples of bloodshed, the delegates called for peace to be promoted by linking economic development and education to efforts to end conflict.

In a statement issued after the meeting, they cited inequity and injustice as the "root causes of terrorism" and underscored the need to strengthen democratic institutions and foster economic development.

The prize winners also said that those people who most needed help should be part of the consultations involved in organizing official development assistance.

And in an area where women are frequently sidelined, the delegates said women should be empowered "so they can fully participate in economic development activities."

Among those at the conference were Nobel Peace Prize winners the Dalai Lama, Elie Wiesel, Israel's Shimon Peres, Northern Ireland's Betty Williams, Jose Ramos-Horta from East Timor, and Northern Ireland's David Trimble.

They were joined by among others the Hollywood actor Richard Gere and former U.S. President Bill Clinton.

(SNIP)

Host King Abdullah II of Jordan had told delegates that the world's future direction was especially critical for the young, highlighting the situation in the Middle East, where half the population was under the age of 18.

"They have no memory of a time without regional conflict. They see a huge gap between rich and poor. They see diseases that wealthy nations have wiped out, that are still crippling people in the developing world," he said.

Clinton spoke of the great challenges he saw facing the world including security, social justice and the environment.

"We have to keep working to give people security," Clinton said, while Wiesel, a Holocaust survivor, commented: "We owe it to our children to give them hope."

5//RIA Novosti, Russia 09:14 May 18, 2005
http://en.rian.ru/business/20050518/40372525.html

RUSSIA TO SELL 100,000 KALASHNIKOV SUBMACHINE-GUNS TO VENEZUELA

RIO DE JANEIRO, May 18 (RIA Novosti, Andrei Kurguzov) - On Tuesday Venezuela and Russia signed an agreement on supplies of 100,000 Kalashnikov submachine-guns to that South-American country.The sum total of the transaction is $54 million. Russia undertook to supply to Venezuela, alongside weapons, also 2,000 handbooks, as well as spare parts and accessories for the AK submachine-guns.

This transaction also provides for transferring technology of assembly of the submachine-guns of this model to the Venezuelans, for training of 45 Venezuelan technicians and engineers in Russia for 11 months, and for organizing assembly production of the AK-103 in Venezuela.

As Venezuela's Defence Minister Jorge Garcia Carneiro stated at the ceremony of signing the contract, the first batch of 28,000 AK-103 submachine-guns must be received already in October.

The Minister deemed it necessary to stress the absolute transparency of the talks on this deal.
According to him, 56 specialists of different specialties participated in the negotiating process from the Venezuelan side, and all their meetings with the Russian representatives were video and audio taped.

The Minister said that already on Wednesday the Russian technical commission will start analyzing and estimating the possibilities of the Venezuelan military-industrial company which will assemble the Russian AK-103 submachine-guns in the future.

(SNIP)

According to Rosoboronexport representative Sergei Ladygin who participated in the signing ceremony, Venezuela will become the first country in the world after Russia where the Russian AK-103 submachine-guns will be assembled, and the first country of the Western hemisphere to have them in service.

Earlier this year Russia and Venezuela signed a $120-million contract for supplies of Russian helicopters to Venezuela.