October 28, 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 OCTOBER 28, 2005

1//Asia Times Online, Hong Kong--IRAN ON COURSE FOR A SHOWDOWN (The call by Iranian President Mahmud Ahmadinejad on Wednesday for Israel to be "wiped off the map" has drawn instant and bitter condemnation, with Israel urging Iran's expulsion from the United Nations, and other countries saying that Tehran should now definitely be hauled before the UN Security Council over its nuclear program. Ahmadinejad's outburst, however, also signifies deep rifts within the country between his administration and Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei and his small clique that ultimately controls the levers of power. … Ahmadinejad has clearly raised the stakes, not only with the international community, but also - and perhaps potentially even more critically - within his own country.)

2//The Daily Star, Lebanon--SYRIA ILL-EQUIPPED TO COMBAT SANCTIONS (Syria looks set to escape immediate UN sanctions over Lebanese premier Rafiq Hariri's murder but its growing international isolation is already damaging the fragile state-controlled economy. … A spokesman for Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Wednesday that Moscow, as a veto-wielding member of the Security Council, would do "everything necessary" to prevent sanctions being imposed against Damascus. But a Western diplomat posted in the Syrian capital warned that even targeted sanctions rather than an all-out embargo would damage confidence in the Syrian economy. "Who would want to invest in a country which has been punished by the international community," the diplomat said, asking not to be named. Syria - unlike major oil producers Iraq and Libya - does not have the resources to stand up to the pressure of sanctions, with its output having declined to 485,000 barrels per day (bpd) last year from 590,000 in 1996. … Bassam Fattouh of the School of Oriental and African Studies at London University said most experts estimate Syria with its proven reserves of 2.5 billion barrels will become a net importer of oil within the next decade. "The decline of oil exports represent a fundamental challenge for the future of the Syrian economy," he said.)

3//The Independent, UK--CHINA CLAMPS DOWN ON ENVIRONMENTAL MONITORING GROUP (In a sign of China's growing unease over the growing influence of environmental activists, police in Hangzhou in eastern China's Zhejiang province have arrested a local man who attempted to set up his own environmental monitoring group. Tan Kai, who is thought to have helped informally organise an organisation called Green Watch, was detained along with five others on 19 October after opening a bank account to collect funds for the group. China's leaders are worried about the role played by environmental activists in protests about the devastation wreaked on rivers and farmland by severe air and water pollution. Outrage over polluting industry is now one of the major causes of rural unrest and the authorities fear a repeat of what happened in eastern Europe in the 1980s, when conservation groups were allowed to operate in relative freedom and swiftly progressed from campaigning for environmental protection to demanding wider political reform.)

4//tempointeractive, Indonesia--TNI NAVY REJECTS US INVOLVEMENT IN SECURING MALACCA STRAITS (Indonesian Military [TNI] Navy Chief of Staff Adm. Slamet Subianto once again stated his disapproval over the US involvement in securing the Malacca Straits. … "The Malacca Straits belong to us. Therefore, we should secure the Straits, not foreigners," Subianto stated in Jakarta on Thursday. If foreign countries wish to help Indonesia, Subianto said, they could just donate their equipment to Indonesia. "We will operate the equipment, not them. We're the ones who know the territory, not them," stated Subianto.)

5//The Chosun Ilbo, South Korea--SEOUL TO ABSTAIN ON N. KOREA HUMAN RIGHTS RESOLUTION (South Korea will abstain from voting on a resolution on North Korea's human rights violations which the EU is to submit to the UN General Assembly early next month. It will be the first time the General Assembly is being asked to vote on the Stalinist country's human rights abuses. A government official said Thursday while the vote had not been officially discussed, Seoul felt no need to change its existing position. South Korea has abstained on resolutions on the issue in the UN Human Rights Commission over the last three years, based on what it considers the special nature of inter-Korean relations. It fears provoking the North while six-party talks on its nuclear program are underway.)

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1//Asia Times Online, Hong Kong Oct 28, 2005
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/GJ28Ak03.html

IRAN ON COURSE FOR A SHOWDOWN
By Safa Haeri
Safa Haeri is a Paris-based Iranian journalist covering the Middle East and Central Asia.

PARIS - The call by Iranian President Mahmud Ahmadinejad on Wednesday for Israel to be "wiped off the map" has drawn instant and bitter condemnation, with Israel urging Iran's expulsion from the United Nations, and other countries saying that Tehran should now definitely be hauled before the UN Security Council over its nuclear program.

Ahmadinejad's outburst, however, also signifies deep rifts within the country between his administration and Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei and his small clique that ultimately controls the levers of power.

Populist Ahmadinejad, a veteran of Iran's hardline Revolutionary Guards, took office in August after scoring an unexpected landslide win in June's presidential elections, in which he was backed by Khamenei at the expense of the more moderate former president, Hashemi Rafsanjani.

However, contrary to most predictions, the victory of Ahmadinejad, following the rout of reformists in February's legislative elections, has not led to a "homogenization" of power in the country.

This is evidenced by Iran's stance with the international community over its nuclear program, with its position swinging wildly from reconciliation to confrontation. Most recently, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) voted to declare Iran in "non-compliance" with the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, and next month will decide whether or not to send it to the United Nations Security Council for possible sanctions.

Ahmadinejad's performance on Wednesday puts Iran firmly on the path of confrontation.

"The danger of such a radical statesman [Ahmadinejad] is that by knotting religious beliefs with the nuclear issue, it makes for an explosive issue that will explode in the face of all Iranians," an Iranian analyst told Asia Times Online, adding that Ahmadinejad's statement would certainly strengthen the international consensus against Iran.

"It is exactly for this reason that Khamenei, realizing his mistake in promoting Ahmadinejad, placed the pragmatic and experienced Hashemi Rafsanjani above him in order to repair the damage the new, inexperienced but zealot Muslim might cause to the regime," the analyst said.

The analyst was referring to the recent decision by Khamenei to transfer some of his immense and unlimited power to the Assembly of Discerning the Interests of the State (ADIS, or Expediency Council), which is headed by Rafsanjani.

According to a new regulation, the ADIS will have the power to supervise the regime's macro-policies and long-term plans and projects, a power that had belonged to the Supreme Leader. This means that all the theocratic regime's three powers - legislative, judicial and executive - must submit their planning and policies to the 32-member, leader-controlled ADIS for approval before implementation.

Until this change, ADIS's main role was to mediate between the Council of the Guardians (CG) and the majlis, or parliament, as the 12-member, leader-controlled CG is in charge of both vetting all candidates in all elections and making sure that laws passed by the majlis are in conformity with Sharia law.

The increased powers given to ADIS were interpreted as a clear warning to Ahmadinejad and the Revolutionary Guards who provided him with millions of votes, against trying to wrest any powers from the clerical establishment.

The warning appears to have fallen on deaf ears, as Ahmadinejad, a former mayor of Tehran, would have been perfectly aware of the reaction - and consequences - of his verbal assault on Israel: if the US needed any further reason to put screws on Iran, Ahmadinejad has provided it.

(SNIP)

Ahmadinejad has clearly raised the stakes, not only with the international community, but also - and perhaps potentially even more critically - within his own country.

2//The Daily Star, Lebanon Thursday, October 27, 2005
http://www.dailystar.com.lb/article.asp?edition...

SYRIA ILL-EQUIPPED TO COMBAT SANCTIONS
Growing international isolation already damaging state-controlled economy

By Agence France Presse (AFP)

DAMASCUS: Syria looks set to escape immediate UN sanctions over Lebanese premier Rafiq Hariri's murder but its growing international isolation is already damaging the fragile state-controlled economy.

A U.S.-French draft resolution at the UN Security Council calls for sanctions against Syrian individuals suspected of involvement in Hariri's assassination in a massive Beirut bomb blast on February 14 that also cost 20 other lives.

It would slap travel bans on these individuals and freeze their assets, while economic sanctions against Syria itself are unlikely to be adopted in a final text.

A spokesman for Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Wednesday that Moscow, as a veto-wielding member of the Security Council, would do "everything necessary" to prevent sanctions being imposed against Damascus.

But a Western diplomat posted in the Syrian capital warned that even targeted sanctions rather than an all-out embargo would damage confidence in the Syrian economy.

"Who would want to invest in a country which has been punished by the international community," the diplomat said, asking not to be named.

Syria - unlike major oil producers Iraq and Libya - does not have the resources to stand up to the pressure of sanctions, with its output having declined to 485,000 barrels per day (bpd) last year from 590,000 in 1996.

Its oil exports are hovering at a modest 200,000 bpd, even though the sector accounts for half of state revenues and almost two-thirds of exports, according to World Bank figures.

Bassam Fattouh of the School of Oriental and African Studies at London University said most experts estimate Syria with its proven reserves of 2.5 billion barrels will become a net importer of oil within the next decade.

"The decline of oil exports represent a fundamental challenge for the future of the Syrian economy," he said.

Fattouh said Syrian strategy had been to rely on oil revenues to delay economic reforms and fund the inefficiencies, corruption and monopolies inherent in the mainly state-run Syrian economy.

But this policy could have "strangled the goose that lay the golden egg."

Syria's deputy prime minister for economic affairs, Abdullah Dardari, warned earlier this month that private and public sector monopolies were standing in the way of planned reforms toward a market economy.

On top of the bleak assessment of experts, Syria has been under U.S. economic sanctions since May 2004 in a dispute over is role in Lebanon, Iraq and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Under pressure from Washington, the U.S. oil major ExxonMobil withdrew this summer from what was the sole joint venture in Syria between an American firm and the private sector.

And the European Union, Syria's main trading partner, has frozen the signing of an association agreement with Damascus.

(MORE)

3//The Independent, UK Published: 28 October 2005
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/asia/article322829.ece

CHINA CLAMPS DOWN ON ENVIRONMENTAL MONITORING GROUP
By David Eimer in Beijing

In a sign of China's growing unease over the growing influence of environmental activists, police in Hangzhou in eastern China's Zhejiang province have arrested a local man who attempted to set up his own environmental monitoring group.

Tan Kai, who is thought to have helped informally organise an organisation called Green Watch, was detained along with five others on 19 October after opening a bank account to collect funds for the group.

China's leaders are worried about the role played by environmental activists in protests about the devastation wreaked on rivers and farmland by severe air and water pollution.

Outrage over polluting industry is now one of the major causes of rural unrest and the authorities fear a repeat of what happened in eastern Europe in the 1980s, when conservation groups were allowed to operate in relative freedom and swiftly progressed from campaigning for environmental protection to demanding wider political reform.

"We are surmising that they [the activist group] were detained because they are not established as an organisation, but were still trying to raise funds," said Stacy Mosher, communications director of the New York branch of Human Rights in China.

"In China, you cannot legally fundraise until you are set up as an organisation, which requires a deposit of ¥30,000 (£2,100), an enormous sum for most Chinese.

"It's a catch-22, because unless you have very deep pockets to begin with, you have no way of reaching out to local or foreign organisations who might want to contribute."

Mr Tan is believed to have helped found Green Watch this summer after witnessing the successful protests mounted by villagers in Huaxi, near Dongyang city in Zhejiang, against chemical plants that had polluted their water supply, rendered their land unfit for raising rice and vegetables and caused babies to be born dead or deformed.

In April, after unsuccessfully petitioning officials in both Beijing and Dongyang, the villagers mounted one of the most audacious challenges to the government's authority in recent years.

(MORE)

4//tempointeractive, Indonesia Thursday, 27 October, 2005 | 22:47 WIB
http://www.tempointeractive.com/hg/nasional/2005...

TNI NAVY REJECTS US INVOLVEMENT IN SECURING MALACCA STRAITS

TEMPO Interactive, Jakarta:Indonesian Military (TNI) Navy Chief of Staff Adm. Slamet Subianto once again stated his disapproval over the US involvement in securing the Malacca Straits.

"We still stick to our first stance, that is rejecting the involvement of a foreign country. The Malacca Straits belong to us. Therefore, we should secure the Straits, not foreigners," Subianto stated in Jakarta on Thursday (27/10).

If foreign countries wish to help Indonesia, Subianto said, they could just donate their equipment to Indonesia. "We will operate the equipment, not them. We're the ones who know the territory, not them," stated Subianto.

Indonesia has established cooperation with Singapore and Malaysia in securing the Malacca Straits. Thailand will also join the three countries in securing the Straits. "We're formulating standard operating procedure on this matter and begin the procedure within in a short time," stated Subianto.

(MORE)

5//The Chosun Ilbo, South Korea Updated Oct.27,2005 19:29 KST
http://english.chosun.com/w21data/html/news/200510/200510270016.html

SEOUL TO ABSTAIN ON N. KOREA HUMAN RIGHTS RESOLUTION

South Korea will abstain from voting on a resolution on North Korea's human rights violations which the EU is to submit to the UN General Assembly early next month. It will be the first time the General Assembly is being asked to vote on the Stalinist country's human rights abuses.

A government official said Thursday while the vote had not been officially discussed, Seoul felt no need to change its existing position. South Korea has abstained on resolutions on the issue in the UN Human Rights Commission over the last three years, based on what it considers the special nature of inter-Korean relations. It fears provoking the North while six-party talks on its nuclear program are underway.

The EU has unofficially sent the draft resolution to Seoul, which says it will announce its position once the final draft has been decided.

The EU will submit the resolution to the UN Economic and Social Council early next month, and if it finds the support of a majority there, it will go up to the General Assembly.

(MORE)