April 21, 2006

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.

* * *

WORLD MEDIA WATCH FOR APRIL 21, 2006

1//The Daily Times, Pakistan--US NOW VIEWING PAKISTAN WITHOUT MUSHARRAF: STRATFOR (There are indications that the Bush administration is now imagining a Pakistan without Gen Pervez Musharraf, according to Stratfor, an American news and analysis service. In two commentaries in the wake of Richard Boucher’s April 5 statement in Islamabad about America wishing to see the ascendancy of civilian rule in Pakistan, Stratfor says this shift in Washington’s thinking will create further domestic problems for the Pakistani leader, since his political opponents view the US statements as a signal to intensify their efforts to oust him. The analysis also noted US National Security Advisor Stephen Hadley’s comment that the Bush administration will work with Musharraf to ensure that Pakistan’s 2007 elections are “ free and fair,” as well as Condoleezza Rice’s congressional testimony earlier this month. “These statements from the highest echelons of the Bush administration illustrate that the United States is no longer fixated on supporting Musharraf,” says Stratfor. “This is probably because Musharraf’s usefulness to the United States is fast becoming negligible.)

2//The Moscow Times, Russia--GAZPROM WARNING HAS EU WORRIED (Amid growing tensions between the European Union and Gazprom, an EU spokesman said Thursday that the gas monopoly's warning to European countries not to block its expansion had intensified fears about growing reliance on Russian gas. The comments continued the verbal sparring that followed reports last week that Britain was conjuring up legal barriers to block Gazprom's potential takeover of Centrica, Britain's largest gas supplier. On Tuesday, Gazprom CEO Alexei Miller told European countries not to "politicize" gas supplies at a lunch with EU ambassadors in Moscow. Gazprom's "statement gives grounds to our concerns on the growing foreign dependency of European energy supply and ... our need to diversify both the origin of our supplies and our supply routes," said Ferran Tarradellas Espuny, spokesman for EU Energy Commissioner Andris Piebalgs, Reuters reported Thursday.)

3//EurasiaNet.org, US--RUSSIA RENEWS DIPLOMATIC-ECONOMIC OFFENSIVE IN CENTRAL ASIA (Russia is pressing ahead with its combined diplomatic-economic offensive in Central Asia. Tajikistan is the latest state to tighten ties with Russia. And next on the Kremlin’s agenda is Kyrgyzstan. Moscow has followed a predictable pattern in broadening its influence in the region, stressing both security and energy issues. In bringing pressure to bear on Central Asian states, Russia has taken advantage of both its own abundance of natural resources, and its near-monopoly of export pipelines. So far, no Central Asian nation has been able to spurn Moscow’s recent advances. In early April, for example, Russia and Kazakhstan signed agreements covering energy exports and joint projects to develop natural resources. Tajikistan’s main resource is water, and Russia is stepping up efforts to develop the Central Asian nation’s hydropower generating capacity. On April 12, Anatoly Chubais, head of the Russian conglomerate Unified Energy Systems [UES], announced that contractors would intensify work to meet the construction deadline for the Sangtuda-1 hydroelectric power station. … Following the September 11 terrorist tragedy, Tajikistan drifted away from Russia’s geopolitical orbit, and expanded political and economic relations with the United States. Over the last two years, however, Russia has restored its geopolitical dominance over Dushanbe.)

4//The Scotsman, UK--INSIDE THE DEAD ZONE (Nothing scares you in Chernobyl's Zone of Alienation as much as leaving it. A snowbound police checkpoint guards the entrance to this contaminated zone, which stretches 30km (18.64 miles) from the stricken nuclear plant in all directions. If you enter this zone, you can't leave it again without taking the test. … Walking around here is eerie: like finding yourself in of one of those science fiction films where the hero wakes to find his city mysteriously deserted. … We move on to the power plant itself. Chernobyl is vast, not one reactor but four. Standing in the shadow of the great grey sarcophagus that now covers the smashed reactor hall, the Geiger counter that is mandatory on such trips starts to flip. Up to 300, then, simply by crossing the street, to 600. This, Max assures me, is the same dose of radiation you'd get from flying over the Atlantic for eight hours. The first that the outside world knew of the accident here on 26 April 1986 was when a power worker arrived for the night shift at the Forsmark nuclear power plant in Sweden, and set off alarms. At first they thought it was a mistake - those alarms were for people leaving the plant, not arriving. But a check showed that the plant, like much of southern Sweden and, later, much of northern Europe, was being bathed in an atomic cloud that eventually ranged as far as Scotland and the Welsh hills.)

5//The Independent, UK--CREATIONIST DESCENDS ON BRITAIN TO TAKE DEBATE ON EVOLUTION INTO THE CLASSROOM (A leading creationist who claims to use science to prove the Bible's version of how the Earth was made begins a controversial tour of Britain today. John Mackay, an Australian geologist who believes he has uncovered fossil evidence which dismisses evolution and proves that Noah's flood really did happen will speak at several state schools and universities during his eight-week visit to the UK. His visit has provoked anger among educationalists who are concerned about what they see as an increasing focus by evangelists on children. … Steve Jones, the award-winning geneticist and author, argued that suggesting that creationism and evolution be given equal weight in education was "rather like starting genetics lectures by discussing the theory that babies are brought by storks".)

* * *

1//The Daily Times, Pakistan Friday, April 21, 2006

US NOW VIEWING PAKISTAN WITHOUT MUSHARRAF: STRATFOR
By Khalid Hasan

WASHINGTON: There are indications that the Bush administration is now imagining a Pakistan without Gen Pervez Musharraf, according to Stratfor, an American news and analysis service.

In two commentaries in the wake of Richard Boucher’s April 5 statement in Islamabad about America wishing to see the ascendancy of civilian rule in Pakistan, Stratfor says this shift in Washington’s thinking will create further domestic problems for the Pakistani leader, since his political opponents view the US statements as a signal to intensify their efforts to oust him. The analysis also noted US National Security Advisor Stephen Hadley’s comment that the Bush administration will work with Musharraf to ensure that Pakistan’s 2007 elections are “ free and fair,” as well as Condoleezza Rice’s congressional testimony earlier this month.

“These statements from the highest echelons of the Bush administration illustrate that the United States is no longer fixated on supporting Musharraf,” says Stratfor. “This is probably because Musharraf’s usefulness to the United States is fast becoming negligible. The principal reason the Bush administration supported the Musharraf regime was due to Pakistan’s critical role in the US-jihadist war. It would appear Washington believes it does not need Musharraf at the helm for the United States to continue to prosecute its struggle against militant Islamism, and no longer believes the Pakistani state would collapse without Musharraf. Moreover, the Bush administration likely feels Musharraf is no longer able to keep domestic affairs in order, and sees pinning Washington’s entire Pakistan policy on one individual as a liability. Thus, Washington has decided to put some distance between itself and the Pakistani president.”

(SNIP)

In a second commentary, Stratfor said the Bush administration has kept itself from assuming a tough position against the Musharraf administration, even though Islamabad’s cooperation against Al Qaeda, from the US point of view, has remained “sub-par”. Washington has chosen to overlook the fact that the world’s only nuclear-armed Muslim state is ruled by a military leader, even amid its wider push for democracy in the Muslim world. “Now, however, it appears that the United States wants to correct not only the political aberration that has allowed Musharraf to hold two offices - the presidency and military chief of staff - simultaneously, but also that there is a concern about the political role of Pakistan’s military establishment. Put differently, as the mount, Washington is working toward a political order in Islamabad that can help to contain the instability stemming from the imbalance in civil-military relations,” according to the analysis.

Stratfor points out that the focal point in the US-jihadist war no longer is South Asia, but the Middle East. Capturing jihadist leaders such as Osama Bin Laden, Ayman al-Zawahiri and Mullah Mohammed Omar remains a priority for the Bush administration, but as time goes by, it has become clear that the jihadists’ strength has been reduced - to the point that Al Qaeda now seems to be, at best, a regional player, and largely unable to carry out meaningful attacks, even on its own turf. The Bush administration is realising that rocking the Pakistani boat will not lead to instability of unbearable proportions. Given Pakistan’s history of military rule, Washington has surmised that instability alone does not threaten Pakistan’s survival. “And it appears that backing an autocrat in a military uniform is a path Washington no longer wishes to tread,” the analysis concludes.

(Source article by subscription only at www.stratfor.com)

2//The Moscow Times, Russia Friday, April 21, 2006. Issue 3398. Page 1.

GAZPROM WARNING HAS EU WORRIED
By Maria Levitov, Staff Writer

Amid growing tensions between the European Union and Gazprom, an EU spokesman said Thursday that the gas monopoly's warning to European countries not to block its expansion had intensified fears about growing reliance on Russian gas.

The comments continued the verbal sparring that followed reports last week that Britain was conjuring up legal barriers to block Gazprom's potential takeover of Centrica, Britain's largest gas supplier. On Tuesday, Gazprom CEO Alexei Miller told European countries not to "politicize" gas supplies at a lunch with EU ambassadors in Moscow.

Gazprom's "statement gives grounds to our concerns on the growing foreign dependency of European energy supply and ... our need to diversify both the origin of our supplies and our supply routes," said Ferran Tarradellas Espuny, spokesman for EU Energy Commissioner Andris Piebalgs, Reuters reported Thursday.

In reaction to Espuny's comments, Gazprom spokesman Sergei Kupriyanov said Thursday that the European Union needed to clarify its goals. If the EU was concerned about its increasing reliance on Gazprom, then it should figure out just how much gas it wants to buy from Russia, Kupriyanov said.

"The rest we can sell to North America and China," Kupriyanov said.

"The position expressed by the European Commission today was just the position we were responding to on Tuesday," Kupriyanov said.

Sparking fears of renewed supply disruptions to Europe, Gazprom has also threatened to introduce new price hikes for Ukraine beginning July 1.

Gazprom deputy CEO Alexander Medvedev told Ukrainian business weekly Kontrakty that Gazprom would increase gas prices for Ukraine, while leaving transit charges for routing Russian gas to Europe unchanged, Reuters reported Thursday. Concessions would be considered only if Ukraine gave up control over its pipeline network, Medvedev said.

In his comments to EU ambassadors Tuesday, Miller said, "Attempts to limit Gazprom's activities in the European market and to politicize questions of gas supplies, which in fact lie entirely within the economic realm, will not lead to good results.

"It must not be forgotten that we are actively moving into new markets, such as North America and China," Miller said, according to a version of his comments released by Gazprom.

European countries first questioned Russia's reliability as an energy partner in January, when Gazprom cut supplies to Ukraine over a price dispute. The cuts precipitated gas shortfalls across Europe.

Miller met Thursday with U.S. Ambassador William Burns to discuss progress in forming a consortium to develop the Shtokman natural gas field in the Barents Sea. Gazprom is expected to announce its partners next week for developing the field, which contains 3.7 trillion cubic meters of gas and from which it intends to supply liquefied natural gas to the United States. Five companies are on the shortlist: France's Total, Norway's Statoil and Hydro, and U.S. majors ConocoPhillips and Chevron.

Last month, during a visit to Beijing, President Vladimir Putin said Russia would begin gas shipments to China by 2011, and could eventually supply the country with up to 80 billion cubic meters of gas per year.

While Gazprom's supply commitments are growing as it seeks to forge new energy deals in Europe, Asia and the United States, analysts have said the gas monopoly has ample resources to meet its obligations.

The Kremlin is eager to use Gazprom -- one of the few aces in its political arsenal -- to boost the country's prominence on the global economic arena, they said.

(MORE)

3//EurasiaNet.org, US 4/19/06

RUSSIA RENEWS DIPLOMATIC-ECONOMIC OFFENSIVE IN CENTRAL ASIA
Sergei Blagov
(Sergei Blagov is a Moscow-based specialist in CIS political affairs.)

Russia is pressing ahead with its combined diplomatic-economic offensive in Central Asia. Tajikistan is the latest state to tighten ties with Russia. And next on the Kremlin’s agenda is Kyrgyzstan.

Moscow has followed a predictable pattern in broadening its influence in the region, stressing both security and energy issues. In bringing pressure to bear on Central Asian states, Russia has taken advantage of both its own abundance of natural resources, and its near-monopoly of export pipelines. So far, no Central Asian nation has been able to spurn Moscow’s recent advances. In early April, for example, Russia and Kazakhstan signed agreements covering energy exports and joint projects to develop natural resources.

Tajikistan’s main resource is water, and Russia is stepping up efforts to develop the Central Asian nation’s hydropower generating capacity. On April 12, Anatoly Chubais, head of the Russian conglomerate Unified Energy Systems (UES), announced that contractors would intensify work to meet the construction deadline for the Sangtuda-1 hydroelectric power station. Construction on Sangtuda-1 started in April 2005, and as of mid-April about 37 percent of the plant had been completed. The power station is scheduled to go into full operation in 2009, with the first unit expected to begin generating electricity in March 2007, Chubais indicated.

(SNIP)

UES is spending approximately $500 million to build Sangtuda-1, and the Russian entity will retain a 75 percent share in the power plant, which will generate a projected 2.7 billion kWh of electricity per annum. The power station will have an estimated capacity of 670 MW – enough to meet Tajikistan’s domestic needs and allow for the export of electricity, namely to Afghanistan.

Chubais’ trip to Dushanbe followed a major gas deal between Russia and Tajikistan. Alexei Miller, head of the Russian energy giant Gazprom, and Tajik Energy Minister Jurabek Nurmakhmadov signed a memorandum on March 28 to establish an oil-and-gas joint venture. "Initially, we are allocating $6 million from our budget to the joint venture," Miller said, adding that Gazprom would have a controlling stake in the venture. Under the deal, Gazprom is to develop four gas fields: Sarikamysh and Rengan in the west, and Sargazon and Olimtoi in the south.

(SNIP)

Following the September 11 terrorist tragedy, Tajikistan drifted away from Russia’s geopolitical orbit, and expanded political and economic relations with the United States. Over the last two years, however, Russia has restored its geopolitical dominance over Dushanbe. In October 2004, Russian President Vladimir Putin and Rahmonov signed a series of agreements that enabled Moscow to cement its strategic presence in Tajikistan. In return, Dushanbe obtained debt relief.

Since then, Russia has steadily tightened its economic hold on Tajikistan. The fact that up to 1 million Tajiks work in Russia as migrant laborers, remitting crucial income to their impoverished homeland, has provided the Kremlin with tremendous negotiating leverage.

Russia has combined its economic expansion with a strengthening of security ties. In early April, Russian and Tajik military units conducted joint anti-terrorist maneuvers at the Lohur training area, roughly 35 kilometers outside Dushanbe. The three-day exercise was designed to replicate an operation to thwart an attempt by an Islamic militant band to infiltrate Tajikistan from neighboring Afghanistan. Putin and Rahmonov applauded the maneuvers during a telephone discussion April 7, describing them as a milestone in cooperation.

In the coming days, Russian officials will turn their attention toward Kyrgyzstan, as Kyrgyz President Kurmanbek Bakiyev is scheduled to arrive in Moscow on a state visit April 24-25. The Kyrgyz president is due to discuss "specific economic projects," including the construction of the Kambaratinsk hydropower plant and a natural gas joint venture, the RIA-Novosti news agency quoted Kyrgyz Foreign Ministry spokesman Alikbek Dzhekshenkulov as saying. Putin could also exert pressure on Bakiyev, who is facing rising political opposition at home, to close an American air base in Kyrgyzstan. Bakiyev said on April 19 that he might order American forces to vacate the air base at Manas, outside the Kyrgyz capital Bishkek, if the US and Kyrgyz governments can not come to terms on a new leasing agreement, RIA-Novosti reported April 19.

4//The Scotsman, UK Friday, 21st April 2006

INSIDE THE DEAD ZONE
Chris Stephen
Twenty years after the Chernobyl explosion, Chris Stephen confronts the legacy of a disaster that shocked the world. As he explores the contaminated Alienation Zone, he finds amazing evidence of life thriving in and around it.

Nothing scares you in Chernobyl's Zone of Alienation as much as leaving it. A snowbound police checkpoint guards the entrance to this contaminated zone, which stretches 30km (18.64 miles) from the stricken nuclear plant in all directions. If you enter this zone, you can't leave it again without taking the test.

A blue-uniformed officer shows you into a grey building, where a tall machine, looking like a battered telephone kiosk, sits in the middle of a bare floor. This is the radiation detector.

There are pads here for your feet, thighs, arms and hands. If a green light shows on the side of the machine, you are clean. But a red light will mean something very different. The machine takes an age to make up its mind, time enough to remember all the beeps and boops of the Geiger counter you had with you during your tour through the zone.

That morning these same police waved us through the checkpoint with hardly a care. Few sane people want to break into a zone that will stay contaminated for tens of thousands of years. Beyond the checkpoint, a potholed road leads the way through the contaminated forests.

Out here in the snow there is a surprisingly positive legacy of Chernobyl: a herd of wild Przewalski horses, around a dozen of them, eating from a haystack. Contrary to all expectations, wildlife has thrived in the Zone of Alienation, the irradiated soil evidently having had little effect on the wolves, deer, lynx, boar, bears - and these rare horses.

"The radiation does not hurt the horses like people hurt horses," says Mary Mycio, the Ukrainian-American author of Wormwood Forest, a book which charts the zone's flourishing wildlife. This is the Chernobyl paradox. By getting rid of the people, the accident has made the area safe for wildlife."

Possibly, the animals are sicker than they look and, possibly, the radiation cuts short their original lifespan. Yet the fact remains that the zone has become one of Europe's key wildlife refuges.

Mycio is calling for a study of the wildlife and, in particular, the strange instinct that stops them migrating, despite the crumbling boundary fences. "They are intelligent animals; they seem to realise that in the zone they are pretty much undisturbed."

Progressing through the abandoned villages along the road, however, it is clear that people as well as animals are still living in the shadow of Chernobyl. Several hundred of the 145,000 evacuees have returned to their homes, among them pensioners Maria and Mikhail, both 70.

"When it happened we were evacuated, but later that year we came back. This is our home," explains Maria, as she feeds chickens and a turkey in their farmyard.

Mikhail worked for a while on the nuclear clean-up as a barge captain, bringing material for the concrete sarcophagus built over the smashed reactor.

He remembers a taste, "like salty metal on my tongue", in the air near the plant, but neither he nor his wife has noticed any specific health problems.

"The climate here is healthy, lots of open air," Maria says. "Not many people to bother you."
Ten kilometres (6.2 miles) from Chernobyl is another police checkpoint, and here things start to get serious. We face instant arrest if we stray from the path.

"This zone is frozen in a Soviet time warp," says my guide, Max, a mathematician working with staff monitoring the plant.

Here villages are not just abandoned; they are bulldozed. Houses, barns and churches sit under hillocks dotted with yellow radiation-warning signs. Stunted trees with weird branches dot the Red Forest, so named because the trees turned red and died soon after the disaster.

And then comes Pripyat, the town purpose-built for the nuclear power plant. This town's 35,000 inhabitants were given four hours to evacuate and they were never allowed back - leaving in their wake an urban Mary Celeste.

Books lie abandoned on schoolroom desks; a diary's entries stop suddenly at 26 April. In the props department of the local theatre, a giant painting of the former General Secretary, Mikhail Gorbachev, sits ready for a May Day parade that was never held.

Walking around here is eerie: like finding yourself in of one of those science fiction films where the hero wakes to find his city mysteriously deserted.

(SNIP)

We move on to the power plant itself. Chernobyl is vast, not one reactor but four. Standing in the shadow of the great grey sarcophagus that now covers the smashed reactor hall, the Geiger counter that is mandatory on such trips starts to flip. Up to 300, then, simply by crossing the street, to 600. This, Max assures me, is the same dose of radiation you'd get from flying over the Atlantic for eight hours.

The first that the outside world knew of the accident here on 26 April 1986 was when a power worker arrived for the night shift at the Forsmark nuclear power plant in Sweden, and set off alarms. At first they thought it was a mistake - those alarms were for people leaving the plant, not arriving.

But a check showed that the plant, like much of southern Sweden and, later, much of northern Europe, was being bathed in an atomic cloud that eventually ranged as far as Scotland and the Welsh hills.

(MORE)

5//The Independent, UK Published: 21 April 2006

CREATIONIST DESCENDS ON BRITAIN TO TAKE DEBATE ON EVOLUTION INTO THE CLASSROOM
By Sarah Cassidy, Education Correspondent

A leading creationist who claims to use science to prove the Bible's version of how the Earth was made begins a controversial tour of Britain today.

John Mackay, an Australian geologist who believes he has uncovered fossil evidence which dismisses evolution and proves that Noah's flood really did happen will speak at several state schools and universities during his eight-week visit to the UK

His visit has provoked anger among educationalists who are concerned about what they see as an increasing focus by evangelists on children.

They fear creationism - which rejects Darwin's theory of natural selection and insists that God created the world in six days - is becoming an increasingly accepted view in Britain's classrooms.

Mr Mackay will address meetings at St Andrews, Bangor and Northampton universities and plans to give presentations at a number of secondary schools, including most controversially one on the Fylde coast in Lancashire where he will give a series of talks over three days.and lecture halls.

The visits have already sparked controversy with teaching unions, scientists and secular groups rushing to condemn the exposure of a captive audience of children to his views.

It follows a statement from scientists issued by the Royal Society arguing that creationism has no place in schools. It says pupils must understand that scientific evidence supports the theory of evolution.

Steve Jones, the award-winning geneticist and author, argued that suggesting that creationism and evolution be given equal weight in education was "rather like starting genetics lectures by discussing the theory that babies are brought by storks".

As its supporters have become more vocal, creationism has become an increasingly contentious subject in the UK. The Archbishop of Canterbury recently warned that creationism should not be taught in schools, and the National Union of Teachers last week demanded new laws to prevent the teaching of creationism in science lessons.

Organisers of the trip declined to reveal the name and exact location of the Lancashire school on Mr Mackay's speaking tour, citing the need to protect staff and pupils from unwelcome attention.

One worried local resident said to the Blackpool Citizen: "Why is the location being kept secret? Why are parents, teachers and governors not being informed? Why is a man whose background cannot be verified being given three-day access to a secondary school?"

Keith Porteous Wood, executive director of the National Secular Society said he was appalled that Mr Mackay would be lecturing at the school.

"Giving a creationist three days to indoctrinate a captive audience of pupils is verging on intellectual child abuse," he said. "Who else but someone bent on brainwashing their pupils would invite a creationist to... for three days without any balancing scientist?

"If I were a parent I would be calling for a new headteacher.

(MORE)