November 23, 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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Look for the next World Media Watch on Monday, November 28, 2005.

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WORLD MEDIA WATCH FOR NOVEMBER 23, 2005

1//Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA), Iran--SUPREME LEADER: IRAN PROUD OF IRAQ’S PROGRESS, NATIONAL SOVEREIGNTY (Supreme Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyed Ali Khamenei said on Tuesday that Iran is proud of Iraq's progress, security, independence and national strength and there is no limits on development of cooperation with Iraq. … President Talabani expressed pleasure with his visit to Iran and said that Iran-Iraq relations are strategic. "We will never forget assistance of the Iranian nation and government to the Iraqi people and we hope to develop cooperation in all fields," President Talabani said. He said that the Iraqi nation regards the Iranian nation as real friend and briefed the Supreme Leader on establishment of a democratic government in Iraq and approval of Iraqi Constitution by votes of the majority of people.)

2//EurasiaNet.org, USA--CLIMACTIC POLITICAL BATTLE BETWEEN HARDLINERS AND PRAGMATISTS LOOMS IN IRAN (A window opened on Iran’s normally murky political process when the country’s foremost pragmatist politician, Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, issued a scathing attack against President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s administration. Rafsanjani’s remarks, including a warning that Ahmadinejad’s policies were sending Iran into an economic tailspin, confirmed what many observers had started to suspect – that a climactic power struggle between pragmatists and hardliners is looming. … The personnel changes, along with an underlying sense of uncertainty, have wrought economic havoc in Iran. The stock market has lost roughly 30 percent of its value since Ahmadinejad took office, and manufacturing activity has dropped approximately 35 percent over the same period. Some economic observers add that the volume of capital flight has grown significantly in recent months. Those mid- and high-level bureaucrats who have survived the purge to date are now reluctant to undertake new projects, or consider policy initiatives, out of fear of attracting unwanted scrutiny. As a result, the state’s bureaucratic machinery has reached a state of near-paralysis as the country confronts an imploding economy. … Some analysts believe that Iran’s Supreme Leader, Ali Khamenei, has become a tacit supporter of Rafsanjani.)

3//Institute for War & Peace Reporting, UK--A DANGEROUS TRADE (… It’s not known how many prostitutes work in Baghdad or how many have been killed or threatened. But prostitutes, community leaders and police reported that prostitution has significantly changed in the capital. Once an open secret, the business is now run as an underground operation. Jabar, a 50-year-old madam who has worked as a prostitute for a decade, has not always run her ring covertly. During Saddam's time, she said, she and her women serviced - and were protected by - Ba'athists. She described it as "a paradise. We played with money." … A ministry of labour report released in July estimated that 58 per cent of Iraq's population is female, and that women have had to carry heavy financial burdens as a result. Iraq's male population began declining during the Iran-Iraq war in the 1980s and has continued due to fighting and terrorism. Even women from respectable families are turning to prostitution, according to Suad Khalaf, a 30-year-old social worker in Baghdad. "The social structure is crumbling" under war and worsening economic conditions, she said.)

4//Xinhuanet.com, China--JAPAN DRAFTS NEW CONSTITUTION TO BOOST GLOBAL ROLE (Japan's ruling Liberal Democratic Party formally presented Tuesday a draft new constitution designed to provide legal support for its ambition of playing greater political role in global stage and of boosting defense force's status. The draft was announced at an assembly in Tokyo to mark the 50th anniversary of the party's foundation. The draft maintains that the emperor is the symbol of the state and leaves intact the first paragraph of Article 9 that says "The Japanese people forever renounce war as a sovereign right of the nation and the threat or use of force as means of settling international disputes." The words that deny Japan's possession of military forces and the right of belligerency of the state were deleted. Instead, the draft says Japan can own a self-defense army under the leadership of prime minister. The force's task is safeguarding Japan's peace and independence as well as the security of the country and its people. Besides, it can take part in international security operations.)

5//Asia Times Online, Hong Kong--NORTH KOREANS EXPOSED TO FOREIGN MASSES (The North Korean capital from August to late October hosted the Arirang Mass Games, a pompous and kitschy Stalinist festival for which 50,000 participants (largely students) were trained for months. The festival was attended by an unprecedented number of foreigners and South Koreans. … There were many Westerners. But most unusual and striking, perhaps, was the powerful presence of South Koreans. For the first time since the division of the country in 1953, pretty much every South Korean who wished to do so could travel to Pyongyang for a short stay. … Only time will tell how dangerous the entire affair was for the regime, which survives on isolation and myth-making. It seems the first conclusions are an indication: North Korea decided in early November to close its borders to all tours from mid-December until probably mid-January. One might assume that they will use this break from tourists to reeducate their tour drivers and explain to them that South Koreans only look rich while really they are poor. Will this work? I doubt it.)

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1//Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA), Iran News sent: 15:59 Tuesday November 22, 2005
http://www.irna.ir/en/news/view/line-24...

SUPREME LEADER: IRAN PROUD OF IRAQ’S PROGRESS, NATIONAL SOVEREIGNTY

Supreme Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyed Ali Khamenei said on Tuesday that Iran is proud of Iraq's progress, security, independence and national strength and there is no limits on development of cooperation with Iraq.

In a meeting with President Jalal Talabani in presence of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the Supreme Leader said that Iranian and Iraqi nations enjoy long-standing religious, cultural and historical affinity and Iran is pleased with the political process for establishment of a democratic government in Iraq.

"Setting up of a democratic government in Iraq and holding of a national referendum for new Constitution are exceptional opportunity for the Iraqi people to determine their own fate. The Iraqi nation is great and enjoys extensive capacity. Iraq will shine on top of the Muslim world in near future by overcoming the current hardship and destructions," the Supreme Leader said.

"Your security is our own security and Iran honors Iraq's independence and power. You will extend assistance to you in those fields," the Supreme Leader said.

(SNIP)

The Supreme Leader predicted that the US and British forces will withdraw from Iraq with a bitter experience.

Ayatollah Khamenei castigated US propaganda campaign against Iran aimed at damaging Iran-Iraq relations and said that Iraqi President Talabani's statement is a clear example of baselessness of US conspiracy.

Ayatollah Khamenei said that Iraqi people will be exposed to US pressure if the government and Iraqi people fail to strengthen their unity.

"Attempts of certain elements to satisfy the US are doomed, because, Iraq and its neighbors will remain in the region forever, but, US presence there is temporary."

The Supreme Leader called for implementation of the accords between Iran and former Iraqi transitional administration.

President Talabani expressed pleasure with his visit to Iran and said that Iran-Iraq relations are strategic.

"We will never forget assistance of the Iranian nation and government to the Iraqi people and we hope to develop cooperation in all fields," President Talabani said.

He said that the Iraqi nation regards the Iranian nation as real friend and briefed the Supreme Leader on establishment of a democratic government in Iraq and approval of Iraqi Constitution by votes of the majority of people.

2//EurasiaNet.org, USA 11/21/05
http://www.eurasianet.org/departments/insight...

CLIMACTIC POLITICAL BATTLE BETWEEN HARDLINERS AND PRAGMATISTS LOOMS IN IRAN

Kamal Nazer Yasin
(Editor’s Note: Kamal Nazer Yasin is a pseudonym for a freelance journalist specializing in Iranian affairs.)

A window opened on Iran’s normally murky political process when the country’s foremost pragmatist politician, Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, issued a scathing attack against President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s administration. Rafsanjani’s remarks, including a warning that Ahmadinejad’s policies were sending Iran into an economic tailspin, confirmed what many observers had started to suspect – that a climactic power struggle between pragmatists and hardliners is looming.

Rafsanjani launched his verbal broadside at Ahmadinejad during a November 15 meeting of Muslim clerics. Rafsanjani -- who served two terms as Iran’s president and currently heads the Expediency Council, one of Iran’s most important religious bodies – singled out Ahmadinejad’s personnel policy for special criticism. Since the June presidential election, Ahmadinejad and his team have carried out sweeping changes in Iran’s diplomatic corps, bureaucracy, and the state-run business and banking sectors. Long-serving diplomats, bureaucrats and managers have been replaced by administration loyalists. Many of the new appointees have experience in Iran’s security establishment, in particular the Revolutionary Guard, while possessing little diplomatic or technocratic expertise.

Rafsanjani said members of the Ahmadinejad administration were acting like "termites" by pursuing personnel changes that were "gnawing at our system."

(SNIP)

Ahmadinejad and his political allies have carried out the personnel changes in the name of fighting corruption. Rafsanjani, however, suggested that the anti-corruption explanation was being used as a cover by hardliners to pursue their own political aims. "They soil the reputation of our political and economic managers with abandon in the name of fighting corruption. Restoring their names is no easy matter," Rafsanjani said. "This is a gross injustice to the system and the [Islamic] revolution."

The personnel changes, along with an underlying sense of uncertainty, have wrought economic havoc in Iran. The stock market has lost roughly 30 percent of its value since Ahmadinejad took office, and manufacturing activity has dropped approximately 35 percent over the same period. Some economic observers add that the volume of capital flight has grown significantly in recent months. Those mid- and high-level bureaucrats who have survived the purge to date are now reluctant to undertake new projects, or consider policy initiatives, out of fear of attracting unwanted scrutiny. As a result, the state’s bureaucratic machinery has reached a state of near-paralysis as the country confronts an imploding economy.

On top of the domestic repercussions, Iran finds itself increasingly isolated on the world stage. In the last three months, Iran has been on the receiving end of two strongly-worded statements — one from the UN Security Council and one from the International Atomic Energy Agency’s board of governors — increasing the odds that Tehran may be referred to the Security Council over its nuclear research.

Immediately after his election win, Ahmadinejad appeared to be politically unassailable, as his conservative backers held all three branches of government, and controlled many important religious posts. A series of serious political missteps, however, helped to create the opening for Rafsanjani’s riposte. In his highest profile gaffe, Ahmadinejad provoked global outrage for saying in a public speech that Israel should be "wiped off the map."

Rafsanjani enjoys a reputation of being Iran’s cagiest politician, and political analysts believe he launched his public attack on Ahmadinejad only after lining up behind-the-scenes support from Iran’s clerical hierarchy, as well as from key political and economic leaders. Some analysts believe that Iran’s Supreme Leader, Ali Khamenei, has become a tacit supporter of Rafsanjani.

(MORE)

3//Institute for War & Peace Reporting, UK (ICR No. 153, 23-Nov-05)
http://www.iwpr.net/?p=icr&s=f&o=258189&apc_state=henpicr

A DANGEROUS TRADE
Once protected by Saddam's regime, prostitutes now fear for their lives.

By Basim al-Sharie in Baghdad

Salima Jabar dresses as a peasant when she goes to the market near Baghdad Gate to sell produce. But the prices she charges for fruits and vegetables are shockingly high.

A kilogramme of tomatoes goes costs 20,000 dinars (about 13 US dollars) she told this reporter. "A kilo of apples," she said coolly, "goes for 25,000."

She then turned towards three young women, aged 18 to 25, who work with her at the market. The produce is her cover, and they are her actual product.

It’s not known how many prostitutes work in Baghdad or how many have been killed or threatened. But prostitutes, community leaders and police reported that prostitution has significantly changed in the capital. Once an open secret, the business is now run as an underground operation.

Jabar, a 50-year-old madam who has worked as a prostitute for a decade, has not always run her ring covertly.

During Saddam's time, she said, she and her women serviced - and were protected by - Ba'athists. She described it as "a paradise. We played with money."

Today, the fees have significantly declined and the threats have risen. The deteriorating security situation and the increasing power of Islamists have forced Jabar and other prostitutes to move their businesses from areas like Kamalia and Abu Graib outside of Baghdad to busy residential neighbourhoods, particularly the Baghdad Gate area.

In one day during the Saddam era, prostitutes, she said, could rake in as much as 700 dollars, but now they struggle to earn 100 dollars for seven customers, because security is poor and incomes have declined. The "most beautiful," she said, sought opportunities in the Gulf and Syria because they can make more money or at least work under safer conditions.

Jabar left the Kamalia area after she received two death threats and heard about other prostitutes being killed. She still fears that an Islamist will kill her or one of her women.

"They regard themselves as God," she said. "They have no mercy."

A source in the ministry of justice who asked to remain anonymous said the government is not investigating the killing of prostitutes. He said that authorities believe fundamentalist groups and militias are threatening prostitutes but officials are unwilling to confront them about the issue.

(SNIP)

A ministry of labour report released in July estimated that 58 per cent of Iraq's population is female, and that women have had to carry heavy financial burdens as a result. Iraq's male population began declining during the Iran-Iraq war in the 1980s and has continued due to fighting and terrorism.

Even women from respectable families are turning to prostitution, according to Suad Khalaf, a 30-year-old social worker in Baghdad. "The social structure is crumbling" under war and worsening economic conditions, she said.

(MORE)

4//Xinhuanet.com, China 2005-11-22 16:17:01
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2005-11/22/content_3818068.htm

JAPAN DRAFTS NEW CONSTITUTION TO BOOST GLOBAL ROLE

TOKYO, Nov. 22 (Xinhuanet) -- Japan's ruling Liberal Democratic Party formally presented Tuesday a draft new constitution designed to provide legal support for its ambition of playing greater political role in global stage and of boosting defense force's status.

The draft was announced at an assembly in Tokyo to mark the 50th anniversary of the party's foundation.

The draft maintains that the emperor is the symbol of the state and leaves intact the first paragraph of Article 9 that says "The Japanese people forever renounce war as a sovereign right of the nation and the threat or use of force as means of settling international disputes."

The words that deny Japan's possession of military forces and the right of belligerency of the state were deleted.

Instead, the draft says Japan can own a self-defense army under the leadership of prime minister.

The force's task is safeguarding Japan's peace and independence as well as the security of the country and its people. Besides, it can take part in international security operations.

The draft will also enable Japan to extend military support to its ally, a practice forbidden by the current constitution, but recognized by the government's interpretation.

Japan's peaceful constitution was made after the defeat of its militarism in World War II.

The calls from conservatives to revise the supreme law are rising as the politicians intend to translate Japan's economic superiority into larger political and military influence.

Prime Minister and LDP President Junichiro Koizumi place the revision as one of the major tasks in his tenure ending next September.

Former Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori, who heads the party's Constitution drafting panel, addressed Tuesday's gathering that the proposed new constitution is aimed at "winning sympathy broadly from the public."

Meanwhile, the party's new six-point philosophy states the LDP's resolve to enable Japan to protect itself, to promote reform "from long-term and international view points" and to promote "respect for Japan's tradition and culture," while maintaining three principles -- that the LDP is a liberal, democratic and pacifist party.

Except for about 11 months from 1993 to 1994, the LDP has been dominating Japan in the past 50 years.

(MORE)

5//Asia Times Online, Hong Kong Nov 23, 2005
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Korea/GK23Dg01.html

NORTH KOREANS EXPOSED TO FOREIGN MASSES

By Andrei Lankov
(Dr Andrei Lankov is a lecturer in the faculty of Asian Studies, China and Korea Center, Australian National University.)

It was a fine night in Pyongyang in mid-October as I walked a deserted street under the unusually bright stars of the North Korean sky (no industry means no pollution), accompanied by a knowledgeable expert on North Korea.

"Well, I do not understand what the hell they are doing," said the expert, a former student of mine. "You should not be here, frankly. And those South Koreans, they are even more dangerous. The commander-in-chief is making a mistake, but it will take months before they realize how destructive the impact of the Arirang Festival is for their regime."

The North Korean capital from August to late October hosted the Arirang Mass Games, a pompous and kitschy Stalinist festival for which 50,000 participants (largely students) were trained for months. The festival was attended by an unprecedented number of foreigners and South Koreans.

Pyongyang's international hotels, usually half-empty, were completely booked, and five or six flights left the city's international airport every day. This might not appear a particularly large number, but in more ordinary times the airport, by far the least busy capital airport in East Asia, serves merely four to five flights a week.

There were many Westerners. But most unusual and striking, perhaps, was the powerful presence of South Koreans. For the first time since the division of the country in 1953, pretty much every South Korean who wished to do so could travel to Pyongyang for a short stay.

(SNIP)

North Korean leader Kim Jong-il personally approved admission of the unprecedented numbers of foreigners. Nothing like this has been seen since the World Youth Festival of 1989, and even then no South Koreans (and only a few citizens of developed Western countries) were allowed in.

The reason for this openness is clear: tourists bring money. Obviously, earnings from the Arirang festival were very good, and Kim decided to use the opportunity to fill state coffers. The foreigners were allowed in without too many questions being asked, and the show was extended for a few additional weeks. It looked like easy money; the grandiose show would have taken place with or without fee-paying foreigners.

It is possible that Kim Jong-il was persuaded to open the doors so wide by officials who might have had hidden vested interest in the matter: the days of religious devotion to the official ideology are long gone, and bureaucrats are learning fast how to make their jobs profitable.

It seems, however, that in the long run opening the door will have serious political consequences. For me, on my first visit to Pyongyang in 20 years, it was quite clear that life in North Korea has changed, even if on the surface everything appeared almost the same as in 1985.

(SNIP)

However, the impression that Pyongyang is "unchanged and unchangeable" is completely wrong. The material environment has not changed much, but the spirit is very different from what it was in 1985.

The most remarkable aspect was the relative freedom with which North Koreans talked to foreigners, particularly about their great interest in everything that happens outside the state borders. This does not necessarily mean that my North Korean interlocutors rushed to say something critical about the authorities - on the contrary, from time to time most of them murmured the ritual phrases about superhuman wisdom and omniscience of the commander-in-chief.

(SNIP)

Sometimes it seemed some of my interlocutors suspected that the South was well ahead of the North in terms of living standards. This suspicion is dangerous to the regime whose claims of legitimacy are based on its alleged ability to deliver better standards of living. The actual gap between the two Koreas is huge. Still, North Koreans are told they are lucky to live in the North, in the prosperous state of juche (self-reliance), and not in the South, which is a destitute colony of the US imperialists.

Since the 1980s, an increasing number of better-informed North Koreans are uncertain about these official claims. However, in the past it would have been unthinkable to ask a stranger such dangerous questions after just a few minutes of conversation. It was also risky to demonstrate interest in the outside world, but this seems not to be the case any more.

(SNIP)

So, was my former student right? Was opening the door so wide to foreigners a mistake by Dear Leader Kim Jong-il, a master of survival who felt the allure of easy money and forgot the number one rule of his own policy - "stability is more important than development"?

Or perhaps he was misled by some officials who pocketed some of the revenues? Only time will tell how dangerous the entire affair was for the regime, which survives on isolation and myth-making. It seems the first conclusions are an indication: North Korea decided in early November to close its borders to all tours from mid-December until probably mid-January.

One might assume that they will use this break from tourists to reeducate their tour drivers and explain to them that South Koreans only look rich while really they are poor. Will this work? I doubt it.