July 27, 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 JULY 27, 2005

1//The Daily Star, Lebanon--ANALYSIS: CAUTION IS THE KEY TO RAPPROCHEMENT BETWEEN IRAN AND IRAQ (These additional links would make economic and political sense for both countries, but would be cause for alarm in Washington. Part of the Iranian strategy is to make Iran indispensable to Iraq's and the region's future, defusing any potential threats from a hostile U.S. … Getting too close too early with Iran could thus hinder the Iraq government's central task of establishing its credibility and authority in the face of a bloody insurgency and pressures to break up the country along ethnic and religious lines. It would also feed a palpable paranoia across the Sunni Arab world where the emergence of the first modern Shiite-dominated Arab state in Iraq and the strengthening of a Shiite Iran is a nightmare scenario. … In Washington, the reaction so far has been atypically muted. Indeed, it is difficult to see the Iraqi leaders contemplating this week's visit and agreements unless they felt they had the green light from the U.S. U.S. officials have said they see no objection to cooperation between two neighbors so long as it does not go too far. However, the circumstances in which Iraq finds itself are not promising and the two neighbors may be drawn ever closer together in the coming months no matter what they or outside powers think.)

2//GulfNews.com, United Arab Emirates--SAUDI WOMEN MUST ACQUIRE NEW ID CARDS TO GET PASSPORTS (Saudi women will be issued passports after acquiring an identity card under new regulations issued by the Passports Department, a source at the department said. The new rule however will only become mandatory pending the opening of special female offices attached to the passport and civil affairs departments. … Civil status departments in the kingdom have been instructed to issue ID cards for women without a male guardian's consent. Under a new regulation a woman with a valid ID card can verify the identity of another woman in order for her to get her ID card. Women with special status like widows and single women who have no male guardian suffered under the old system that obliged all women to work through a male guardian to finalise legal and other proceedings. "The decision is definitely a good step in the right direction because it will allow women to establish their identity and become more independent in running their affairs away from the influence of men," said Saudi businesswoman Hessa Al Oun.)

3//The Independent, UK--SIX MONTHS ON, THE APPEAL OF UKRAINE'S 'ORANGE REVOLUTION' IS STARTING TO FADE (Revolutions are dangerous things, even when they are peaceful and bathed in an orange glow. Six months after Viktor Yushchenko's inauguration as democratically elected president of Ukraine, his government seems to have lost much of its early sense of purpose. … For those now swelling the ranks of doubters, all that the new government has produced to reward their heroic efforts in the snow are price rises, leadership squabbles and a series of excited and ill thought-out policy moves based on a free-market ideology very few Ukrainians fully understand. … There is a growing consensus in Ukraine that Mr Yushchenko and Ms Tymoshenko have frittered away much of their political capital. If they cannot regain momentum in the autumn, there is a real risk Ukraine will sink back into inertia.)

4//Kommersant, Russia--UKRAINE BEGINS GAS MANEUVERS (Ukraine has proposed to Iran that the two countries work bilaterally to start preparations for the construction of an Iran–Europe gas pipeline. Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Timoshenko said the other day that the project was a priority for the country and should be realized in the near future. Yesterday it was learned that, last Sunday, that Ukraine's fuel and energy minister and Iran's oil minister had signed a memorandum providing for the choice of one of two gas pipeline routes in September and an accelerated start of construction. Kiev has already developed a pipeline project that would detour around Russia. Gazprom is absolutely opposed to its construction without Russia's permission.)

5//Global Politician, US--SOUTH AMERICA'S NEW MILITARISM (South American societies are militarizing as a result of the regional superpower's intervention, which is undoubtedly a crucial factor on the continent, but also as a consequence of the profound economic and political changes we have come to call neoliberalism. … On the Brazilian army's webpage, Gen. Claudio Barbosa Figuereido, head of the Amazon Military Command, asserts that Brazil will face actions similar to those that have taken place in Vietnam, and now in Iraq, should the Amazon come into conflict. The resistance strategy does not differ much from guerrilla warfare, and it is an option the army will not hesitate to adopt facing a confrontation with another country or group of countries with greater economic and military power." He added, "The jungle itself should serve as an ally in combating the invader." The news had little impact on the media, but it demonstrates that Brazil's armed forces have their own strategic plans and that they see the United States as a potential military enemy. … In broad terms, four reasons for the emergence of a new militarism can be established: Washington's new Plan Colombia strategy for the region, which includes combating drug trafficking, guerrilla warfare, and controlling the biodiversity of the Andean region from Venezuela to Bolivia; the new forms war has taken in the neoliberal era, that is, the privatization of war; and Brazil's new role on the continent, that of being the only poor nation of the South that has strategic military autonomy. The fourth factor is a consequence of the attempts of each country's elite class, driven by Washington, to contain social protest through the militarization of society and the criminalization of social movements.)

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1//The Daily Star, Lebanon Wednesday, July 27, 2005
http://www.dailystar.com.lb/article.asp?edition...

ANALYSIS: CAUTION IS THE KEY TO RAPPROCHEMENT BETWEEN IRAN AND IRAQ
By Nassir Shirkhan
Special to The Daily Star

Iraq has taken its first tentative steps toward reconciliation with Iran but caution is the keynote as the former foes seek closer diplomatic and commercial ties with far-reaching implications. Very few would have imagined until recently that it would take U.S. military intervention in Iraq to bring the long-time rivals and occasional wartime enemies closer together. But that, of course, is what is happening.

The two sides seem destined to move even closer over the next few years despite reservations in Washington and varying degrees of alarm in Arab countries. Certainly, the dominance of the Shiites in the Iraqi government is helping the reconciliation process.

Last week they took their most significant step yet in the two years of Iraq's military occupation, signing a preliminary agreement on oil and various trade deals. A large Iraqi delegation, headed by Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari, was given the red-carpet treatment in Tehran in the first such visit.

The main agreement focused on supplying Iraq with much-needed gas oil, kerosene and gasoline through a swap arrangement involving building a 40-kilometer pipeline to take up to 150,000 barrels per day of Iraqi crude to Iran's main Abadan refinery. The pipeline could apparently be built in three to six months.

The Iranians have also made available a $1 billion credit line for exports to Iraq including flour and other commodities.

Tehran would like to go much further by doing crude swaps involving 350,000 bpd, equivalent to more than one-fifth of Iraq's present exports, and to jointly develop shared oil and gas fields of which there are many, notably Naftshahr, Anaran, Mehr, and even the giant Azadegan, which could be linked to Iraq's equally massive Majnoon. The Iranians are also offering their ports and roads to facilitate Iraq's international trade.

These additional links would make economic and political sense for both countries, but would be cause for alarm in Washington. Part of the Iranian strategy is to make Iran indispensable to Iraq's and the region's future, defusing any potential threats from a hostile U.S.

(SNIP)

Getting too close too early with Iran could thus hinder the Iraq government's central task of establishing its credibility and authority in the face of a bloody insurgency and pressures to break up the country along ethnic and religious lines. It would also feed a palpable paranoia across the Sunni Arab world where the emergence of the first modern Shiite-dominated Arab state in Iraq and the strengthening of a Shiite Iran is a nightmare scenario.

Iran's leaders have told their Iraqi visitors that Iraq's unity, independence and stability are their "first priority," but they may find rapid rapprochement to be a double-edged sword, unwittingly drawing them into the violence across the border.

In Washington, the reaction so far has been atypically muted. Indeed, it is difficult to see the Iraqi leaders contemplating this week's visit and agreements unless they felt they had the green light from the U.S.

U.S. officials have said they see no objection to cooperation between two neighbors so long as it does not go too far.

However, the circumstances in which Iraq finds itself are not promising and the two neighbors may be drawn ever closer together in the coming months no matter what they or outside powers think.

2//GulfNews.com, United Arab Emirates Published: 26/7/2005, 07:53 (UAE)
http://www.gulf-news.com/Articles/RegionNF.asp...

SAUDI WOMEN MUST ACQUIRE NEW ID CARDS TO GET PASSPORTS
By Mariam Al Hakeem, Correspondent

Riyadh: Saudi women will be issued passports after acquiring an identity card under new regulations issued by the Passports Department, a source at the department said.

The new rule however will only become mandatory pending the opening of special female offices attached to the passport and civil affairs departments.

Officials have complained that the two departments were progressing very slowly in readying the required female offices and continue to operate through small offices functioning as reception centres in large cities like Riyadh and Jeddah.

The decision to have Saudi women carry independent ID cards which was approved by the Saudi Council of Ministers, has met with satisfaction from Saudi women in general and businesswomen in particular.

Male consent
Women involved in business activities considered the decision as an important move that would relieve them from having to depend on male guardians to do business.

Civil status departments in the kingdom have been instructed to issue ID cards for women without a male guardian's consent. Under a new regulation a woman with a valid ID card can verify the identity of another woman in order for her to get her ID card. Women with special status like widows and single women who have no male guardian suffered under the old system that obliged all women to work through a male guardian to finalise legal and other proceedings.

"The decision is definitely a good step in the right direction because it will allow women to establish their identity and become more independent in running their affairs away from the influence of men," said Saudi businesswoman Hessa Al Oun.

(MORE)

3//The Independent, UK Published: 25 July 2005
http://news.independent.co.uk/europe/article301479.ece

SIX MONTHS ON, THE APPEAL OF UKRAINE'S 'ORANGE REVOLUTION' IS STARTING TO FADE
By Mary Dejevsky in Kiev

Revolutions are dangerous things, even when they are peaceful and bathed in an orange glow. Six months after Viktor Yushchenko's inauguration as democratically elected president of Ukraine, his government seems to have lost much of its early sense of purpose.

On the surface, the capital, Kiev is still high on the euphoria of "people power". Independence Square is a dawn to dusk festival starring hundreds of Ukrainians from all over the world feeling good about being Ukrainian.

(SNIP)

But the chat behind the stalls is no longer uncritical. "Were you there?" One excited visitor asked a rough-hewn seller of folk music CDs. "Yes," he replied slowly, "and the crowds were unbelievable: they covered the square and went way down the Khreshchatik" (Kiev's renowned main thoroughfare). He went on: "And you know what: they set up stalls selling beer every few yards and there weren't any loos, and you can just imagine what it was like."

The disappointment is echoed in the columns of newspapers that had once been lavish in their support for the orange batallions. The revolution belonged in part to them, because it was they who insisted the elections conform to the law and then ensured that they did.

But it also belonged to Ukraine's young urban population, who saw in Mr Yushchenko and Ms Tymoshenko not only a different future for themselves and their country but a future in which they and Ukraine would be part of Europe. Of course, it was always going to be hard for the orange revolution to live up to the expectations invested in it. And, like the somewhat hazy and idealised vision of Europe, those expectations were often ill-defined. So far as the intelligentsia was concerned, they hoped above all for an end to the pervasive corruption. Many journalists hoped for the freedom to report as they wished, and without any financial constraints.

Such aspirations were utopian. But many Ukrainians - not only those who had flocked in person to Independence Square - had convinced themselves they had accomplished a revolution and thought that after December everything would be possible.

For those now swelling the ranks of doubters, all that the new government has produced to reward their heroic efforts in the snow are price rises, leadership squabbles and a series of excited and ill thought-out policy moves based on a free-market ideology very few Ukrainians fully understand.

Top of the list of misfired government initiatives is the review of earlier company privatisations, which were widely seen as corrupt. To the population at large, it seemed so simple: just confiscate the ill-gotten gains from the millionaire oligarchs and spread the largesse around. For an elected government, operating - or trying to operate - in an international context, however, it is not so easy. How can privatisations be reversed without destabilising Ukraine's fragile market and discouraging wary foreign investors? The prime example is the country's largest steel mill, Kryvorizhstal, sold last year for what was regarded as an unfairly low price to a consortium that included the then president's son-in-law and, in effect, renationalised last month. A new auction has been promised but the timing and mechanics seem to change by week, if not by the day, and lawsuits are already looming. Responsibility for reviewing privatisations rests with the prime minister, Julia Tymoshenko, herself a first-wave "oligarch" who has sworn henceforward to work by the book.

(SNIP)

If, as some expect, the March elections reflect disillusionment with Mr Yushchenko and do not produce a more reformist parliament, then any chance of legislating for serious restructuring of the economy, let alone of early EU accession, could be lost for several years.

Among Mr Yushchenko's many foreign patrons, there is deep concern that progress is not nearly so fast as had been hoped. One visiting US dignitary with an interest in the success of the "revolution" said: "These people just don't know how to do politics. They are not schooled in the techniques and the necessary give and take."

He was not alone in his frustration. There is a growing consensus in Ukraine that Mr Yushchenko and Ms Tymoshenko have frittered away much of their political capital. If they cannot regain momentum in the autumn, there is a real risk Ukraine will sink back into inertia.

(MORE)

4//Kommersant, Russia July 27, 2005 05:06 AM (GMT +0400) Moscow
http://www.kommersant.com/page.asp?id=596188

UKRAINE BEGINS GAS MANEUVERS
The route from Iran to Europe will detour around Russia

Ukraine has proposed to Iran that the two countries work bilaterally to start preparations for the construction of an Iran–Europe gas pipeline. Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Timoshenko said the other day that the project was a priority for the country and should be realized in the near future. Yesterday it was learned that, last Sunday, that Ukraine's fuel and energy minister and Iran's oil minister had signed a memorandum providing for the choice of one of two gas pipeline routes in September and an accelerated start of construction. Kiev has already developed a pipeline project that would detour around Russia. Gazprom is absolutely opposed to its construction without Russia's permission.

(SNIP)

Gazprom said yesterday that it had not received any offers from the Ukrainian side to participate in the choice of route for the Iran–Europe gas pipeline. Without Gazprom's consent, neither of these routes can be constructed, since the first route would pass through Russian territory and the second, along the Black Sea floor, where construction of a new pipeline intersecting the Blue Stream pipeline is impossible without Russia's permission. Naftogaz responded with assurances that all interested parties, including Gazprom, would be able to take part in the talks in September. However, Sergey Titenko, Ukraine's deputy minister of fuel and energy, told Kommersant yesterday that it was planned to build the pipeline along the Iran–Armenia–Georgia–Ukraine–Europe route with 550 km of pipe laid on the Black Sea floor from the Georgian port of Supsa to Feodosia. Given the worsening of relations between Ukraine and Russia in the area of gas policy, there can be no doubt that the Ukrainian government is attempting not only to search for alternative sources of gas supplies, but also to put tactical pressure on Gazprom with the aim of getting additional volumes of gas that could be immediately reexported.

5//Global Politician, US 7/26/2005
http://www.globalpolitician.com/articledes.asp...

SOUTH AMERICA'S NEW MILITARISM
Raúl Zibechi

South American societies are militarizing as a result of the regional superpower's intervention, which is undoubtedly a crucial factor on the continent, but also as a consequence of the profound economic and political changes we have come to call neoliberalism.

Several months ago, an official Brazilian commission visited Vietnam. With the goal of "sharing information about resistance doctrine," the commission composed of colonels and lieutenant-colonels visited Hanoi, Ho Chi Min City (formerly Saigon), and the Cu Chi Province, where 250 kilometers (150 miles) of underground tunnels constructed during the war with the United States still remain. On the Brazilian army's webpage, Gen. Claudio Barbosa Figuereido, head of the Amazon Military Command, asserts that Brazil will face actions similar to those that have taken place in Vietnam, and now in Iraq, should the Amazon come into conflict.

The resistance strategy does not differ much from guerrilla warfare, and it is an option the army will not hesitate to adopt facing a confrontation with another country or group of countries with greater economic and military power." He added, "The jungle itself should serve as an ally in combating the invader."1 The news had little impact on the media, but it demonstrates that Brazil's armed forces have their own strategic plans and that they see the United States as a potential military enemy.

Last December, Venezuela signed an agreement with Russia to purchase 110,000 Kalashnikov rifles; 33 assault, attack, and heavy transport helicopters, and 50 fighter bombers. It signed another with Spain to acquire naval aeronautical material, including four corvettes; and it signed one with Brazil for 50 training and combat jets. The purchases form part of "the constant updating of the Venezuelan armed forces, their high level of maintenance, and permanent plans for modernization and arms acquisition," the South American Military Balance study states.2

The news was received with strong criticism from White House Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, and the Department of State calls it "the beginning of an arms race." For its part, the South American nation activated its reserve command last April, "which should reach 2 million members and is included in Venezuela's new doctrine of defense."3 The decision was made on April 13, the three-year anniversary of the coup d'etat that drove Hugo Chavez from office during a period of several hours.

Media sources say that Peter Goss, director of the CIA, announced last February to a United States Senate commission that the agency has "evidence" of meetings between the FARC (Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia) and Osama Bin Laden's Islamic network to coordinate terrorist attacks in the region.4 According to this version, the "terrorist threat" looms large in Latin America, as evidenced by the attacks on the Israeli Embassy and the Jewish solidarity institution AMIA in Buenos Aires, carried out in the 1990s, in which hundreds of people died.

Taken out of context, these three pieces of news—and many others—could give the impression that South America is heading toward imminent military confrontation and that militarization is taking place a very rapid rate. The reality, however, is another matter. According to a study carried out by the Military Power Review in 2004, Venezuela, in spite of its revamped armed forces, is ranked just sixth for military strength in South America. Brazil ranks first (653 points), Peru is second (423), and Argentina is third (419), followed by Chile (387), Colombia (314), and Venezuela (282).

On the other hand, Latin America is one of the most stable areas in the world, and few of its resources from the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) are dedicated to the military budget, a mere 1.5%. This figures contrasts with the 4% of GDP dedicated to military spending by the European Union, 3% for the United States (which accounts for 47% of total military spending worldwide), and 12% for the Middle East. A good part of the current purchases and investment in armaments by various South American countries will cover nothing more than the renovation of war materials acquired in the 1960s, which have become useless and obsolete.

Nonetheless, and though it may seem contradictory, there can be legitimate discussion of a growing militarization on the continent. But it is passing through new channels, which have little to do with previous military strategies. In broad terms, four reasons for the emergence of a new militarism can be established: Washington's new Plan Colombia strategy for the region, which includes combating drug trafficking, guerrilla warfare, and controlling the biodiversity of the Andean region from Venezuela to Bolivia; the new forms war has taken in the neoliberal era, that is, the privatization of war; and Brazil's new role on the continent, that of being the only poor nation of the South that has strategic military autonomy. The fourth factor is a consequence of the attempts of each country's elite class, driven by Washington, to contain social protest through the militarization of society and the criminalization of social movements.

(MORE)