June 8, 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 JUNE 8, 2005

1//The Khaleej Times, Unite Arab Emirates--IAEA CHIEF SET TO GET US BACKING FOR THIRD TERM: DIPLOMATS (International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) chief Mohamed ElBaradei is to travel to Washington on Thursday to meet US Secretary of State Condeleezza Rice, diplomats said Tuesday, amid growing speculation that Washington was ready to back him for a third term.“Dr. ElBaradei has been invited by Ms. Rice. The anticipation everybody has is that the United States has decided to support him” when the UN nuclear watchdog agency meets next week to vote on a new director general, a European diplomat said under condition of anonymity.)

2//The News International, Pakistan--TEHRAN DEPORTED 5,000 AL-QAEDA MEN (Iran has arrested nearly 5,000 al-Qaeda operatives over the past three years and handed them over to their countries, the head of the powerful National Security Council said on Monday. Hasan Rowhani denied recent allegations that leading terror suspects have been living in Iran. "I don’t think any country could claim superiority over us (in combatting al-Qaeda)," he told reporters on a visit to Kuwait. He said Iran had given the names of the detainees to the United Nations.)

3//The Daily Star, Lebanon--SYRIA OPPOSITION TOO WEAK TO CONFRONT STATE (Bludgeoned by 40 years of authoritarian rule and riven by internal bickering, Syria's diverse and often fractious opposition is in a poor state to confront a Baathist regime undergoing a process of consolidation. This week's Baath Party Congress is seen by analysts as an attempt by President Bashar Assad to stiffen domestic resolve against unrelenting international pressure and demonstrate that the regime is not about to collapse. "It' a terrible situation," said Syrian political analyst Sami Moubayed. "There is no united organization or liberal opposition at this stage. Most of them have old and outdated mentalities. With these people representing the opposition, the majority of Syrians prefer Bashar." Yet a growing number of opposition figures recently have begun discussing ways of forging a united front, which could include Islamists and secular groups, to promote an effective program for change, one which the government cannot ignore.)

4//Inter Press Service News Agency, Italy--‘WAR ON TERROR’ HAS INDIGENOUS PEOPLE IN ITS SIGHTS (The ”war on terror”, identified in Amnesty International's annual report as a new source of human rights abuses, is threatening to expand to Latin America, targeting indigenous movements that are demanding autonomy and protesting free-market policies and ”neo-liberal” globalisation. In the United States ”there is a perception of indigenous activists as destabilising elements and terrorists,” and their demands and activism have begun to be cast in a criminal light, lawyer José Aylwin, with the Institute of Indigenous Studies at the University of the Border in Temuco (670 km south of the Chilean capital), told IPS. … . In Latin America, the Andean subregion is seen as the ”hottest” area, because of the growing political role played by well-organised indigenous movements in Bolivia and Ecuador, but also because of the impact on indigenous peoples of armed conflict and drug trafficking in Colombia. Farther south in the Andes mountains, Mapuche organisations in southern Chile and Argentina have become more and more radical in recent years in their claims to their ancestral territory, demands for autonomy and the creation of indigenous reserves, and defence of the environment, which is threatened by transnational mining and forestry corporations that are granted tax breaks and other incentives by governments.)

5//RIA Novosti (Russian News and Information Agency), Russia--RUSSIA TODAY TV TO MAKE UNIQUE CONTRIBUTION TO GLOBAL INFORMATION – GERMAN EXPERT (RIA Novosti is establishing an English-language television channel, Russia Today. It will come as a unique contribution to the global public information cause - provided it will be independent, said Alexander Rahr, prominent German political expert. . … Russia Today will come as a kind of Russian BBC, project chiefs said at its public introduction, on the RIA Novosti premises today. "That will be a glimpse of the world from Russia. We are not going to change a professional format, which such channels as the BBC, CNN or Euronews have got smoothly going. We want to reflect the Russian opinion of the world, and we want Russia to get clearer visible," said Margarita Simonyan, project manager.)

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1//The Khaleej Times, Unite Arab Emirates 7 June 2005
http://www.khaleejtimes.com/DisplayArticle.asp?xfile=...

IAEA CHIEF SET TO GET US BACKING FOR THIRD TERM: DIPLOMATS

VIENNA – (AFP) - International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) chief Mohamed ElBaradei is to travel to Washington on Thursday to meet US Secretary of State Condeleezza Rice, diplomats said Tuesday, amid growing speculation that Washington was ready to back him for a third term.

“Dr. ElBaradei has been invited by Ms. Rice. The anticipation everybody has is that the United States has decided to support him” when the UN nuclear watchdog agency meets next week to vote on a new director general, a European diplomat said under condition of anonymity.

Washington has so far opposed ElBaradei, 62, serving more than two terms.

The former Egyptian diplomat triggered the ire of Washington for using his position as IAEA chief to question US intelligence that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction under now deposed leader Saddam Hussein.

(SNIP)

Washington is believed however to be ready to yield on ElBaradei, as it has been unable to get an alternative candidate to come forward to oppose the widely respected IAEA chief.

2//The News International, Pakistan Wednesday June 08, 2005-- Rabi-us-Sani 30, 1426 A.H.
http://www.jang.com.pk/thenews/jun2005-daily/08-06-2005/world/w9.htm

TEHRAN DEPORTED 5,000 AL-QAEDA MEN

KUWAIT CITY: Iran has arrested nearly 5,000 al-Qaeda operatives over the past three years and handed them over to their countries, the head of the powerful National Security Council said on Monday. Hasan Rowhani denied recent allegations that leading terror suspects have been living in Iran. "I don’t think any country could claim superiority over us (in combatting al-Qaeda)," he told reporters on a visit to Kuwait. He said Iran had given the names of the detainees to the United Nations.

A number of al-Qaeda operatives remain in Iranian jails for crimes they committed against national security in Iran and will be eventually tried in the country, he said. Those in custody are not wanted internationally.

US and foreign intelligence agencies have recently said that mounting evidence gathered over several years has them increasingly convinced that leading terror suspects have been living in Iran. The evidence includes communications by a fugitive mastermind of the 1996 Khobar Towers bombing in Saudi Arabia and the capture of a Saudi militant who appeared in a video in which Osama bin Laden confirmed he ordered the Sept. 11 attacks, according to US and foreign officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because much of the evidence remains classified.

(End Item)

3//The Daily Star, Lebanon Wednesday, June 08, 2005
http://www.dailystar.com.lb/article.asp?edition_id=10&categ_id=2&article_id=15728

SYRIA OPPOSITION TOO WEAK TO CONFRONT STATE

By Nicholas Blanford

Special to The Daily Star

Baath Party Congress

DAMASCUS: Bludgeoned by 40 years of authoritarian rule and riven by internal bickering, Syria's diverse and often fractious opposition is in a poor state to confront a Baathist regime undergoing a process of consolidation.

This week's Baath Party Congress is seen by analysts as an attempt by President Bashar Assad to stiffen domestic resolve against unrelenting international pressure and demonstrate that the regime is not about to collapse.

"It' a terrible situation," said Syrian political analyst Sami Moubayed. "There is no united organization or liberal opposition at this stage. Most of them have old and outdated mentalities.

With these people representing the opposition, the majority of Syrians prefer Bashar."

Yet a growing number of opposition figures recently have begun discussing ways of forging a united front, which could include Islamists and secular groups, to promote an effective program for change, one which the government cannot ignore.

"Any change which does not allow other forces to take part is not sound change," said Mohammad Sawan, secretary general of the opposition Gathering for Democracy and Unity. "Any reform process to be successful must have all forces, without exception including the Muslim Brotherhood."

But the secular opposition has long way to go to set aside its differences, even before holding dialogue with Islamists.

"Unless we can work out our differences, nothing will happen," said Ammar Abdel-Hamid, a Syrian social analyst and staunch critic of the regime. "We have had 40 years of authoritarianism which has decimated the political class. There are no professional politicians anymore."

On May 24, the Syrian authorities arrested all eight members of the Attasi forum, the last of the political salons that flourished during the Damascus Spring of 2001. Their detention stemmed from the public reading of a statement written by Ali Sadreddin Bayanuni, the exiled head of the Syrian branch of the Muslim Brotherhood. The Islamists potentially represent the most powerful and organized opposition to Baathist rule, which is why more than two decades after its bloody war against the state, the Muslim Brotherhood remains banned in Syria and membership is punishable by death.

Although there is widespread suspicion of the Muslim Brotherhood because of its past association with violence, analysts say it would be a mistake to write off the strength of the Islamists.

"The regime needs to acknowledge the Islamists," Moubayed said. "Unless they are given an outlet to voice their frustrations they will move underground and present a challenge in Syria. This is a very strong danger."

The authorities have been holding their own dialogue with the Muslim Brotherhood, issuing them with passports and allowing some to return home.

"The government believes that the Americans and the opposition are courting the Muslim Brotherhood and they won't allow that. They want the Muslim Brotherhood to themselves," said Joshua Landis, a professor of history who lives in Damascus and is author of the www.syriacomment.com blog.

The Kurdish community represents another source of trouble for Damascus which suspects it could be used by the U.S. in neighboring Iraq as a tool to undermine the regime.

(MORE)

4//Inter Press Service News Agency, Italy Jun 6, 2005
http://ipsnews.net/interna.asp?idnews=28962

‘WAR ON TERROR’ HAS INDIGENOUS PEOPLE IN ITS SIGHTS

Gustavo González*

SANTIAGO, (IPS) - The ”war on terror”, identified in Amnesty International's annual report as a new source of human rights abuses, is threatening to expand to Latin America, targeting indigenous movements that are demanding autonomy and protesting free-market policies and ”neo-liberal” globalisation.

In the United States ”there is a perception of indigenous activists as destabilising elements and terrorists,” and their demands and activism have begun to be cast in a criminal light, lawyer José Aylwin, with the Institute of Indigenous Studies at the University of the Border in Temuco (670 km south of the Chilean capital), told IPS.

Pedro Cayuqueo, director of the Mapuche newspaper Azkintuwe, also from the city of Temuco, wrote that the growing indigenous activism in Latin America and Islamic radicalism are both depicted as threats to the security and hegemony of the United States in the ”Global Trends 2020 - Mapping the Global Future” study by the U.S. National Intelligence Council (NIC).

NIC works with 13 government agencies, including the CIA (Central Intelligence Agency), and is advised by experts from the United States and other countries. Cayuqueo described the report as ”a veritable x-ray” of potential ”counterinsurgency scenarios” from now to the year 2020.

In the process of drafting the report, NIC organised 12 regional conferences around the world, one of which was held in Santiago in June 2004.

The reporter said the emergence of increasingly organised indigenous movements and the strengthening of their ethnic identities become, in that view, targets of ”the so-called low-intensity warfare doctrine, a renovated version of the National Security Doctrine” that formed the basis of U.S. interventionism in Latin America from the 1960s to the end of the Cold War in the early 1990s.

The indigenous question would thus appear to form part of what the United States sees as future threats to its hegemony.

In Latin America, the Andean subregion is seen as the ”hottest” area, because of the growing political role played by well-organised indigenous movements in Bolivia and Ecuador, but also because of the impact on indigenous peoples of armed conflict and drug trafficking in Colombia.

Farther south in the Andes mountains, Mapuche organisations in southern Chile and Argentina have become more and more radical in recent years in their claims to their ancestral territory, demands for autonomy and the creation of indigenous reserves, and defence of the environment, which is threatened by transnational mining and forestry corporations that are granted tax breaks and other incentives by governments.

”The indigenous nations exercise and preserve a profound democratic essence in their organisational and decision-making structures, but transnational corporations foment their exclusion from society and push indigenous people to violence, which could translate into armed struggle,” Aymara leader Juan de la Cruz Vilca told IPS in Bolivia.

In Bolivia, 70 percent of the population of 9.2 million identify themselves as indigenous, and the indigenous movement, along with other sectors, is demanding a constituent assembly to rewrite the constitution and ”re-found the republic” to grant self-determination to the country's 36 native groups, added de la Cruz Vilca.

The activist, the former president of Bolivia's Confederación Sindical Unica de Trabajadores Campesinos de Bolivia, a peasant farmer union, accused foreign oil companies of backing the demands for regional autonomy put forth by business and large landowners in the wealthy eastern regions of Santa Cruz, Tarija, Pando and Beni, where the country's natural gas reserves are concentrated.

”Behind that movement lies a hidden plan aimed at generating a violent reaction by the indigenous movements, in order to justify external military intervention,” he maintained.

”It's true that indigenous peoples are a threat, from the point of view of the political and economic powers-that-be. They see us as terrorists, but we aren't, because our struggle is open, legal and legitimate,” said Ricardo Díaz, an indigenous lawmaker with the leftist Movement Towards Socialism (MAS), the strongest opposition party in Bolivia.

In Ecuador, indigenous people account for an estimated 40 percent of the population of nearly 13 million.

(MORE)

5//RIA Novosti (Russian News and Information Agency), Russia 7/06/05 21:42
http://en.rian.ru/society/20050607/40486831.html

RUSSIA TODAY TV TO MAKE UNIQUE CONTRIBUTION TO GLOBAL INFORMATION – GERMAN EXPERT

BERLIN, June 7 (RIA Novosti Taras Lariokhin) - RIA Novosti is establishing an English-language television channel, Russia Today. It will come as a unique contribution to the global public information cause - provided it will be independent, said Alexander Rahr, prominent German political expert.

"That will be a unique acquisition for the global information field. However, to become such an acquisition, the new channel is to possess genuine independence. It must not bear even the slightest resemblance to old Soviet television companies, with their sheer propaganda."

The expert has no objections at all to the Russian government taking part in project funding. "Many Western-based television and radio companies are entitled to government support - suffice it to mention the BBC or the Deutsche Welle. The state is not to pressure editors for their policies. That matters most."

Rahr approved the announced prospects for Russia Today to have a public council of its own, with fifteen community activists on it, to represent Russia and other countries. "That will be an earnest of its unbiased attitudes," he said.

Russia Today will come as a kind of Russian BBC, project chiefs said at its public introduction, on the RIA Novosti premises today. "That will be a glimpse of the world from Russia. We are not going to change a professional format, which such channels as the BBC, CNN or Euronews have got smoothly going. We want to reflect the Russian opinion of the world, and we want Russia to get clearer visible," said Margarita Simonyan, project manager.

(MORE)