December 7, 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 DECEMBER 7, 2005

1//Spiegel Online, Germany--A SNAKE WITH A HUNDRED HEADS (The road to Baghdad's airport, long considered the city's most notorious deathtrap, is flanked by the two neighborhoods Jihad and Amiriya. They have never been considered as exclusive as the area along the banks of the Tigris River, where the cronies of deposed dictator Saddam Hussein once lived. But the districts were nevertheless refuges for members of the Iraqi middle class, who lived there in small villas from the 1970s. A comfortable distance from the perilous center of power, there were plenty of green spaces, shops, ice cream parlors, schools, parks and mosques. Life was pleasant in Jihad and Amiriya. But anyone returning to the two neighborhoods these days will have difficulty recognizing the western sections of the Iraqi capital. Within half an hour after sundown, the streets are pitch-black in an area where there is no electricity, and where the only houses with lights are those with rattling, fume-belching generators in their front yards. In the old days, Baghdad's streets came alive at night, but nowadays the day literally comes to an end by early evening. No one dares set foot outside, since taking a walk means gambling with one's life. Shots can be heard every night and every morning more people are dead. … One in four houses in Amiriya is now for sale, as western Baghdad's once-mixed neighborhoods gradually become more segregated. Shiites are fleeing in droves from primarily Sunni neighborhoods like Jihad and Amiriya, while Sunnis are getting out of majority Shiite areas of the city as fast as they can. But none of Iraq's religious groups can feel safe as the violence in the once-peaceful neighborhoods spins out of control. "Sunni gangsters shoot faster," says English teacher Hussam Ali, a Shiite. "That's the only difference.")

2//The Turkish Daily News, Turkey--IRAN PLANS ATOMIC REACTOR IN RESTIVE OIL STATE (Iran's Cabinet on Sunday decided to build a new nuclear power station in the restive southwestern oil province of Khuzestan, state television said. … "The Cabinet in its meeting this afternoon agreed to construct an atomic power station in Khuzestan using local technology," a state television report said. The report gave no indication of when Iran would start work on this reactor. … Khuzestan is home to the biggest oilfields of the world's fourth biggest crude producer. The province is also home to most of Iran's Arab minority who complain of discrimination from non-Arab Iranians. Iran's Arab south has simmered with ethnic unrest since April, when five people died in anti-government protests. These were sparked by rumors that the government was considering re-locating more non-Arabs to Khuzestan to water down Arab influence there.)

3//The Hindustan Times, India--N-ENERGY: RUSSIA WILL HELP (Russia will do all it can to ensure India's energy needs are fulfilled. At the same time it wants New Delhi to sort its differences with the nuclear supplier group (NSG) countries on the separation of civil and military uses of nuclear technology. Also, the two countries said the Iranian nuclear programme issue must be solved within the parameters of the IAEA. “As a strategic partner we will actively work to ensure India is able to cope in all its difficulties and issues regarding the peaceful use of nuclear technology,” said Russian President Vladimir Putin at a joint news conference with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Tuesday. … The united stand on Iran also came in response to a question. Putin said, “We believe the potential for the IAEA to resolve the Iranian dossier has not been exhausted.” The PM responded with, “India endorses that position.” Very clearly, neither country wants the issue to go under a vote and reach the UN’s Security Council. On trilaterals among India, Russia and China, the two leaders said they saw considerable potential — both as a means towards bringing peace and stability to the region and to tap the latent potential for economic cooperation.)

4//The Moscow Times, Russia--EMBLEM CALLED TOO CHRISTIAN (In a sign of resentment over growing ties between the Russian Orthodox Church and the state, several senior Muslim clerics and scholars demanded Tuesday that Christian symbols be removed from the national emblem to reflect that Russia has many faiths and is a secular state. The state-recognized leader of the country's Muslims, Ravil Gainutdin, insisted, however, that there was nothing wrong with the national emblem and said Muslims should not take offense. The emblem contains a portrait of Saint George the Victory Bearer killing a dragon, and includes four crosses -- three of them on crowns above the heads of a double-headed eagle and one on an orb being held by a claw. … Ashirov said the problem went beyond the national emblem. "Crosses are erected at border guards' stations and on roads leading into towns. Icons are hung in offices," he said. "A single religion should not be forced on anyone on the state level." Sergei Mozgovoi, president of the Liberty of Consciousness Institute, a think tank, said the Muslim clerics were upset about growing ties between the Russian Orthodox Church and the state. "Under these circumstances, the emblem has become the embodiment of state politics for Muslims," he said.)

5//The News International, Pakistan--CHINA TELLS US TO STAY OUT OF HK (China bluntly told the United States on Tuesday to stay out of Hong Kong’s affairs, rejecting US calls for Beijing to quickly set up a timetable for full democracy in the territory following weekend protests. The rebuke came after Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao expressed concern over Sunday’s huge pro-democracy march in Hong Kong and urged the former British colony to stick to a programme of gradual reform. "The affairs of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region are the internal affairs of China, brooking no interference of any other country," China’s foreign ministry spokesman Qin Gang told a regular briefing. "The US has made unwarranted comments on Hong Kong affairs on many occasions. It is inappropriate and we firmly oppose it.")

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1//Spiegel Online, Germany December 5, 2005
http://service.spiegel.de/cache/international/spiegel/0,1518,388506,00.html

A SNAKE WITH A HUNDRED HEADS

Nightly shootings, daily suicide attacks and a flourishing kidnapping business have made life in Iraq increasingly unbearable. Are fanatical jihadists and frustrated Saddam Hussein supporters pushing the country towards civil war?

The road to Baghdad's airport, long considered the city's most notorious deathtrap, is flanked by the two neighborhoods Jihad and Amiriya. They have never been considered as exclusive as the area along the banks of the Tigris River, where the cronies of deposed dictator Saddam Hussein once lived. But the districts were nevertheless refuges for members of the Iraqi middle class, who lived there in small villas from the 1970s. A comfortable distance from the perilous center of power, there were plenty of green spaces, shops, ice cream parlors, schools, parks and mosques. Life was pleasant in Jihad and Amiriya.

But anyone returning to the two neighborhoods these days will have difficulty recognizing the western sections of the Iraqi capital. Within half an hour after sundown, the streets are pitch-black in an area where there is no electricity, and where the only houses with lights are those with rattling, fume-belching generators in their front yards. In the old days, Baghdad's streets came alive at night, but nowadays the day literally comes to an end by early evening. No one dares set foot outside, since taking a walk means gambling with one's life. Shots can be heard every night and every morning more people are dead.

Handwritten black cloth mourning banners have been fluttering for days on Amal al-Shabi Street in Amiriya. The banners are there to commemorate Bakr Mohammed, who was shot in his grocery shop, Abu Ahmed, who was murdered while on his way to his auto repair shop, and goldsmith Sharif Abd al-Khalid, whose shop was blown up.

"In the name of God the All-Merciful," begins the obituary for "Dr. Amal al-Mansuri, Martyr," a pharmacist. According to the obituary, "she was murdered by the cowardly hands of filthy criminals. Condolence visits from November 25-28. We all come from God and we all return to God."

Only six months after the US-led invasion, the last shop in Amiriya that still sold beer was forced to close its doors. Selling alcohol is a mortal sin for the gangs of young Iraqis who now control the neighborhood. In the changed reality of life in Baghdad today, even male hairdressers who cut women's hair risk losing their lives unless they abandon their profession.

The killers who forced their way into Sadia Abd al-Hussein's hair salon weren't looking for Western customers. Instead, they had their sights set on Hussein himself and his regular Iraqi customers. Three people were dead by the time the terrorists left his shop.

Many hairdressers have switched to the mobile phone business, but that too has become a dangerous profession. Mobile phones play music, and music is "haram" -- forbidden under the religious rules the fundamentalist militias seek to impose.

One in four houses in Amiriya is now for sale, as western Baghdad's once-mixed neighborhoods gradually become more segregated. Shiites are fleeing in droves from primarily Sunni neighborhoods like Jihad and Amiriya, while Sunnis are getting out of majority Shiite areas of the city as fast as they can. But none of Iraq's religious groups can feel safe as the violence in the once-peaceful neighborhoods spins out of control.

"Sunni gangsters shoot faster," says English teacher Hussam Ali, a Shiite. "That's the only difference."

(SNIP)

Continuing violence

According to an American study just released, Iraq sees more than a hundred attacks a day -- twice as many as last year. Forty-six major bomb attacks, each claiming several lives, were committed in September, making it the deadliest month since the beginning of the Iraq war. About 400 people died in November 2005, more than four times as many as in November 2004.

Criminal statistics in Iraq no longer distinguish between politically motivated killings and conventional murder -- and no one even bothers to count the numbers of thefts, blackmailings, muggings and kidnappings. The abyss of violence seems bottomless, and the victims are almost always Iraqi citizens. "There are currently 48 Iraqi victims for each American death," says Kamran Karadaghi, the chief of staff of Iraqi President Jalal Talabani.

Despite the buzz of commerce in some parts of the country, like the northern Kurdish region, Iraq today is anything but the model democratic state the Americans promised and the Iraqis had hoped for after the fall of Saddam.

Instead, today's Iraq is the scene of daily horrors and sometimes little more than a deathtrap. Anyone who spends time standing in front of a police station or near a public institution, a hospital, for example, runs the constant risk of being killed by a suicide bomber. Most attacks are committed by Sunnis, and most acts of revenge by Shiites. The motive of revenge is a tremendous recruitment tool for all terrorist groups in the country -- revenge for the destruction of a house, revenge for having to lie in the dust for hours in front of the occupiers, revenge for the death of a friend or relative.

(SNIP)

Tradition of kidnapping

The kidnapping business is an especially dark facet of violence happening daily. Although abduction for ransom money began in Iraq in the first few days following the invasion, it was hardly noticed because the group most heavily affected was small and shrinking every day -- wealthy Iraqis who had not managed to get out of the country in time.

(SNIP)

As the wealthiest Iraqis have left the country, ransom payments have come down but the number of kidnappings has not. "Ten to 15 kidnapping cases are reported to us each day in Baghdad alone," says police colonel and Interior Ministry official Adnan al-Hajali. On some days that number is twice as high and Hajali doesn't even venture to speculate over how many cases go unreported, adding that countrywide statistics are currently being compiled.

Doubts about the Interior Ministry

The Interior Ministry has established a department dedicated to tackling the kidnapping epidemic, but few believe it can solve the problem, especially now that its agents' propensity for torture has been exposed. Even Iraqi police officers have little regard for the new department. "That would be the last place I would go if someone in my family had been kidnapped," says one police officer. His comment reflects the widespread suspicion that Interior Ministry officials have their own fingers in the pot when it comes to the flourishing trade in human lives.

(MORE)

2//The Turkish Daily News, Turkey Tuesday, December 6, 2005
http://www.turkishdailynews.com.tr/article.php?enewsid=30031

IRAN PLANS ATOMIC REACTOR IN RESTIVE OIL STATE
Khuzestan is home to the biggest oilfields of the world's fourth biggest crude producer. The province is also home to most of Iran's Arab minority.

TEHRAN (Reuters) - Iran's Cabinet on Sunday decided to build a new nuclear power station in the restive southwestern oil province of Khuzestan, state television said.

Washington accuses Tehran of seeking to produce nuclear fuel for use in warheads whereas Tehran insists its atomic scientists are only striving to meet booming domestic demand for electricity.

"The Cabinet in its meeting this afternoon agreed to construct an atomic power station in Khuzestan using local technology," a state television report said.

The report gave no indication of when Iran would start work on this reactor.

Iran has almost completed its first nuclear power station at the Gulf port of Bushehr, an $800 million investment contract built with Russian help. Tehran hopes the 1,000 MW project will go online in late 2006.

The Islamic Republic has pledged to build more power stations. Some officials say Iran seeks 6,000 MW from atomic reactors by 2020, while others say the country simply wants 20 nuclear power stations.

(SNIP)

Khuzestan is home to the biggest oilfields of the world's fourth biggest crude producer. The province is also home to most of Iran's Arab minority who complain of discrimination from non-Arab Iranians.

Iran's Arab south has simmered with ethnic unrest since April, when five people died in anti-government protests.

These were sparked by rumors that the government was considering re-locating more non-Arabs to Khuzestan to water down Arab influence there.

Seven people were killed in a bombing in June and six more in a blast in October. Some minor oil facilities were bombed in September.

Arabs make up about 3 percent of Iran's population of some 68 million.

3//The Hindustan Times, India December 6, 2005
http://www.hindustantimes.com/news/181_1566816,0008.htm

N-ENERGY: RUSSIA WILL HELP
Yashwant Raj

Russia will do all it can to ensure India's energy needs are fulfilled. At the same time it wants New Delhi to sort its differences with the nuclear supplier group (NSG) countries on the separation of civil and military uses of nuclear technology. Also, the two countries said the Iranian nuclear programme issue must be solved within the parameters of the IAEA.

“As a strategic partner we will actively work to ensure India is able to cope in all its difficulties and issues regarding the peaceful use of nuclear technology,” said Russian President Vladimir Putin at a joint news conference with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Tuesday.

He was responding to a question on the possible failure of the NSG to change rules so that nuclear technology could be sold to India. Putin said India was taking all necessary measures to take care of the NSG’s misgivings.

“India is separating nuclear technology for military use from civilian-use technology and has adopted all the necessary legislations,” said Putin.

The united stand on Iran also came in response to a question. Putin said, “We believe the potential for the IAEA to resolve the Iranian dossier has not been exhausted.”

The PM responded with, “India endorses that position.” Very clearly, neither country wants the issue to go under a vote and reach the UN’s Security Council.

On trilaterals among India, Russia and China, the two leaders said they saw considerable potential — both as a means towards bringing peace and stability to the region and to tap the latent potential for economic cooperation.

The two leaders had a restricted meeting for 75 minutes during which only National Security Advisor M.K. Narayanan was present, before others joined in for delegation-level talks. The two countries signed four agreements.

With the strategic partnership well on course, the two leaders made a major pitch for improving economic ties through investments, joint ventures and more. Putin said the two countries had similar geopolitical interests, which was “heartening”.

He said there was a need now to increase “business contact” and enhance and diversify ties with trade and mutual investment.

Russia saw considerable potential in the field of energy, telecommunication, space research and transport.

(MORE)

4//The Moscow Times, Russia Wednesday, December 7, 2005. Issue 3311. Page 1.
http://www.themoscowtimes.com/stories/2005/12/07/002.html

EMBLEM CALLED TOO CHRISTIAN
By Nabi Abdullaev, Staff Writer

In a sign of resentment over growing ties between the Russian Orthodox Church and the state, several senior Muslim clerics and scholars demanded Tuesday that Christian symbols be removed from the national emblem to reflect that Russia has many faiths and is a secular state.

The state-recognized leader of the country's Muslims, Ravil Gainutdin, insisted, however, that there was nothing wrong with the national emblem and said Muslims should not take offense.

The emblem contains a portrait of Saint George the Victory Bearer killing a dragon, and includes four crosses -- three of them on crowns above the heads of a double-headed eagle and one on an orb being held by a claw.

The law recognizes the Russian Orthodox Church, Islam, Judaism and Buddhism as the country's four "traditional" faiths.

"If President Vladimir Putin says that Russia -- which is both a Christian and Muslim country -- is still a secular state, then it should be one," said Nafigulla Ashirov, the leader of the Spiritual Board of Muslims of the Asian Part of Russia, an organization of fundamentalist-leaning Muslims.

"Otherwise, the Constitution should be changed and it should be publicly declared that Russia is a Christian state," he told reporters, Interfax reported.

His complaint was echoed Tuesday by Nizhny Novgorod's deputy mufti, Damir Mukhetdinov, and Karelia mufti Ali Visam Bardvil. Both said the state was undermining national unity and violating the constitutional separation of church and state by using symbols from a single religion. Bardvil demanded that the crosses be removed from the emblem to make it "acceptable for representatives of all faiths."

Gainutdin, who heads the Council of Muftis of Russia, said the emblem should be left alone.

"We live in a secular state, and we respect the state symbols of the Russian Federation that have been adopted by the State Duma and approved by the president," he said, RIA-Novosti reported.

Georgy Vilinbakhov, a historian who holds the title of "king of arms" and works for a federal agency overseeing state symbols, said the symbols on the emblem were not Orthodox Christian.

"The Orthodox cross has eight tips, while on the emblem we have equal-length crosses with broadening tips, which are signs of universal culture and related to sun worship," he said on Ekho Moskvy radio.

(SNIP)

Ashirov said the problem went beyond the national emblem.

"Crosses are erected at border guards' stations and on roads leading into towns. Icons are hung in offices," he said. "A single religion should not be forced on anyone on the state level."

Sergei Mozgovoi, president of the Liberty of Consciousness Institute, a think tank, said the Muslim clerics were upset about growing ties between the Russian Orthodox Church and the state.

"Under these circumstances, the emblem has become the embodiment of state politics for Muslims," he said.

He accused the state of trying to "derive more legitimacy for itself by being closer to the church."

Geidar Jemal, the head of the Islamic Committee, an outspoken nongovernmental organization, said Russian Muslims "are fed up with the cultivation of Russia's image by the media as a mono-confessional state with an unambiguously ethnic Russian face."

He also criticized a march of nationalists and skinheads through central Moscow last month and xenophobic ads during the recent Moscow City Duma election campaign, saying the developments "went over the line."

(MORE)

5//The News International, Pakistan Wednesday December 07, 2005-- Zeeqa'ad 04, 1426 A.H.
http://www.jang.com.pk/thenews/dec2005-daily/07-12-2005/world/w1.htm

CHINA TELLS US TO STAY OUT OF HK

BEIJING: China bluntly told the United States on Tuesday to stay out of Hong Kong’s affairs, rejecting US calls for Beijing to quickly set up a timetable for full democracy in the territory following weekend protests.

The rebuke came after Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao expressed concern over Sunday’s huge pro-democracy march in Hong Kong and urged the former British colony to stick to a programme of gradual reform.

"The affairs of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region are the internal affairs of China, brooking no interference of any other country," China’s foreign ministry spokesman Qin Gang told a regular briefing.

"The US has made unwarranted comments on Hong Kong affairs on many occasions. It is inappropriate and we firmly oppose it." Washington on Monday urged Beijing to speed up the process of democratic reforms in the Chinese territory after tens of thousands of residents rallied on Sunday to demand the right to choose their leaders.

"We believe that it’s important to achieve universal suffrage in Hong Kong as soon as possible, that the people of Hong Kong are ready for democracy, and that the sooner that a timetable for achieving universal suffrage is established, the better," deputy State Department spokesman Adam Ereli said. Hong Kong returned to Chinese sovereignty in 1997 under an agreement between Britain and China in which Beijing promised the territory eventual full democracy. Democracy activists say Beijing has since been dragging its feet on the timeline for allowing citizens to vote for their political leaders.

They have threatened to veto in the legislature a government proposal for interim reforms, saying they do not go far enough. Under the present system agreed by China and Britain, a committee of Beijing-backed elites chooses the territory’s chief executive and only half of the 60-seat legislature is elected, while the other half is appointed.

China is reluctant to cede any control over Hong Kong, fearing reform in the territory might weaken its economy, and reduce Beijing’s influence as well as spark calls for democratic change within mainland China. The march was greeted with alarm by Wen, who is on a visit to France. "I am very concerned about Hong Kong’s situation and political development in Hong Kong," Wen said in comments reported in the Chinese-language press.

(MORE)