by Gloria R. Lalumia
WORLD MEDIA WATCH FOR NOVEMBER 19, 2001
BUZZFLASH NOTE: Once again, these are the views and perspectives of the individual papers, not of BuzzFlash or Gloria. They offer BuzzFlash readers a way of reading what other nations are saying about the crisis, whether we like it or not.
1//Pravda, Russia-THE TALIBAN SURRENDER POSITIONS, RUSSIA SPEAKS ABOUT POST-WAR STRUCTURE OF AFGHANISTAN (Russian Foreign Minister says "he is much more worried not with contradictions inside Afghanistan, that are 'natural and real,' but with how to "bar discords in the framework of international community."
2//The Dawn, Pakistan-Editorial: ON WESTERN BORDERS ("…it should not be all that difficult for a Taliban fighter to lay down his arms, blend into the local civilian population and come knocking on Pakistan's door to be let in as a refugee.")
3//The News International, Pakistan-Editorial: BEATING UP JOURNALISTS ("Malik had committed the same crime, asked a direct unpleasant question, and he was reprimanded and disciplined by his newspaper administration, under government pressure, or on its own.)
4//The Daily Pioneer, India-Editorial: MILITARY THEATRE ("Apart from the old one of vilifying India, the intention this time has been to create an impression at home that Pakistan is in danger.")
5//Kahleej Times, U.A.E.--INDIAN ARMY SEES POST-TALIBAN RISK IN KASHMIR ("Islamic militants are likely to try to make their way into the Indian state of Jammu and Kashmir as they are routed in Afghanistan and then in turn pushed out of Pakistan…")
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1//Pravda 15:00 2001-11-17
http://english.pravda.ru/main/2001/11/17/21220.html
THE TALIBAN SURRENDER POSITIONS, RUSSIA SPEAKS ABOUT POST-WAR STRUCTURE OF AFGHANISTAN
The Taliban are leaving Kandahar by mullah Omar's order, who is still there, and go to mountains to continue partisan war. Probably today, the power in the city will be handed over to two Pashtun field commanders - to mullah Nakibullah and Haja Bashir, whose units are located near to Kandahar. This was reported today by Afghan Islamic Press agency.
(SKIP)
Russian diplomacy is seriously worried with the situation in Afghanistan. The Foreign Ministry's head Igor Ivanov announced today it was necessary to "avoid danger of a new civil war in Afghanistan".
While speaking with journalists in New York, the foreign minister stressed this danger really existed. According to him, "many things depend on to what degree international community will be co-ordinated".
The minister confessed, he is much more worried not with contradictions inside Afghanistan, that are "natural and real", but with how to "bar discords in the framework of international community." Because in this case, it would be really complicated to avoid a negative development of the situation in Afghanistan."
(SKIP)
Igor Ivanov warned some countries against tug-of-war what about forming state bodies of Afghanistan. According to the minister, "we see that now certain manoeuvres are being carried out by some countries that want to guarantee their interests through certain persons." "We suppose this pretension to be dangerous, that could cause aggravation of contradictions within Afghanistan," - he said.
(MORE)
2//The Dawn, Pakistan 18 November 2001 Sunday 02 Ramazan 1422
http://www.dawn.com/2001/11/18/ed.htm
Editorial ON WESTERN BORDERS
The collapse of the Taliban regime seems to have created a serious problem for Islamabad because of the possibility of some retreating Taliban fighters entering Pakistan well armed. Reports in several newspapers and from various sources suggest that, as early as the fall of Kabul last week, some Taliban leaders - including the governor of the Nangarhar province and the chief justice of the regime - had fled to Pakistan. Acting swiftly, the Pakistan government has sent troop reinforcements to the border area in Balochistan directly opposite Kandahar and plans to take similar measures all along the western border.
It must be remembered that Pakistan's 1,200-kilometre border with Afghanistan is extremely porous. The mountainous and inhospitable terrain make patrolling logistically very difficult and costly. Add to this the fact that much of the border opens out into areas with known pro-Taliban leanings, and where the writ of the government does not necessarily run all that effectively, and we have a difficult situation.
(SKIP)
Apart from monitoring all non-regular entry points into Pakistan, the government must also look into further strengthening controls at more frequented border crossings like Chaman and Torkham. This is essential, because it should not be all that difficult for a Taliban fighter to lay down his arms, blend into the local civilian population and come knocking on Pakistan's door to be let in as a refugee. The current situation warrants vigilance on our western border of the highest order and only those who know inside out of tribal life can deal with the situation.
3//The News International, Pakistan November 19, 2001--Ramadan 03,1422
Editorial-BEATING UP JOURNALISTS
It may just be a coincidence that the third Islamabad journalist who was mauled, totally pointlessly, by an arrogant, out of his mind army major, in front of the Press Information Department, was someone who had irritated President Pervez Musharraf at one of his live televised conferences. Faraz Hashmi, the Dawn reporter, was thrashed just because his car got involved in an ordinary fender bender with the army major's vehicle.
The other two victimised journalists in recent months were, Chief Reporter of this newspaper Shakil Sheikh and Nawa-i-Waqt's Masood Malik. Malik had committed the same crime, asked a direct unpleasant question, and he was reprimanded and disciplined by his newspaper administration, under government pressure, or on its own. Shakil was picked up from his car inside Islamabad, kidnapped, thrashed badly with military boot marks on his back and ended up in a hospital, all blue.
The pattern is a cause for serious concern to the journalistic community and may even be so to President Musharraf himself, as he has established over the months that he is a good listener and tolerates a lot of rubbish, coming from journalists and hacks of all hue. So why does he allow his minions and over-zealous cronies to tarnish the image he has tried to build over a long period of time.
(SKIP)
If all those who ask unpleasant questions are to meet such, apparently unconnected, punishing treatment at the hands of angry majors, invisible gangsters or loyalist newspaper administrations, the claims of General Pervez Musharraf that he had allowed total Press freedom may appear to look like tainted with undeserved blood scars, boot marks or harassment. The army officer who took the law into his own hands should immediately be brought to book and the army should not make it a case of its prestige against the Press. His action, simply put, was unbecoming of an officer of his rank. General Musharraf should also try to find out why all those who irk him get into trouble. There may be no conspiracy behind it, but, there may be one.
4//The Daily Pioneer, New Delhi, India Sunday, November 18, 2001
http://www.dailypioneer.com/secon3.asp?cat=\edit1&d=EDITS
The Pioneer Edit Desk MILITARY THEATRE
Whatever may the other weaknesses of Pakistan's military regime be, its skill in putting together an act at short notice has never been in question. Nor has it ever been handicapped by an old-fashioned concern for truth. One had yet another exhibition of its expertise in the area on Wednesday when its top military spokesman, Major-General Rashid Qureshy, made the highly dramatic statement before the international media that "we" had "information wherein (sic) India has moved some troops and relocated some air force assets which may prove to be a threat."
He, however, asserted reassuringly that Pakistan's armed forces were fully alert to the situation" and ready to thwart any "aggression." That his statement was nothing short of blatant untruth became clear when he declined to specify sectors where India had moved its troops or explain Pakistani counter-measures. Had he done so, it would have been possible for people to verify his allegations which would then have been found to be baseless.
The real purpose, it then follows, was to malign India by projecting it as trying to take sinister advantage of the predicament created for Pakistan by the war against terrorism. A look at yet another gem from Major General Qureshy would dispel all doubts on the score.
(SKIP)
It did not occur to Pakistan that propaganda, to be effective, had to be intelligent. If it had, then Islamabad would have realised that one could talk convincingly of "hostile or belligerent action" if one could identify the areas of troop movement by India. This, however, should not unduly bother India. Pakistan, like all other nations, has an inalienable right to appear utterly foolish. What, however, should bother New Delhi is the motive behind Islamabad's propaganda which began with making a mountain out of a clash which would have normally been dismissed as yet another flare-up along the troubled Line of Control (LoC) in Jammu & Kashmir (J&K).
Apart from the old one of vilifying India, the intention this time has been to create an impression at home that Pakistan is in danger. The need for this becomes clear on considering the violent clashes that have occurred in that country ever since President Pervez Musharraf decided to give full support to the US' war against the Taliban and Osama bin Laden. Given the visceral hatred that the hardline fundamentalist Islamic parties and militias, which are making life difficult for the Pakistani Government, have for India, the only way to disarm them and unite all sections of Pakistan's society behind the Musharraf Government, would be to make it appear to them that an invasion by India is imminent. The trouble with such too-clever-by-half gambits, however, is that they can go out of control and actually lead to war. India must, therefore, recognise this and not only alert the world to the dangers inherent in the game Pakistan is playing, but also heighten its own preparedness to give a fitting reply to any aggressive move by Islamabad.
5//Khaleej Times, U.A.E. 18 Nov 2001. 3 Ramadan, 1422.
http://www.khaleejtimes.co.ae/subcont.htm#story3
INDIAN ARMY SEES POST-TALIBAN RISK IN KASHMIR (Reuters)
SRINAGAR: Islamic militants are likely to try to make their way into the Indian state of Jammu and Kashmir as they are routed in Afghanistan and then in turn pushed out of Pakistan, the Indian army chief in the tense border region said.
In a weekend interview with Reuters, Lieutenant General J.R. Mukherjee said the army was stepping up its efforts to stop guerrillas coming across the Line of Control which divides disputed Kashmir between India and Pakistan. But he denied charges by Pakistan that India was moving more troops to Kashmir. He said militants from Afghanistan's Taliban militia -- which has lost control of most of the country after six weeks of U.S. bombing -- were undoubtedly coming in to Pakistan, despite Islamabad's attempts to seal off its Afghan frontier.
(SKIP)
India wants Musharraf to end what it calls Pakistan's sponsorship of "cross-border terrorism"in Kashmir. Islamabad denies it arms or funds the Islamic militants who then cross the Himalayan mountains to join a nearly 12-year-old insurgency against Indian rule which has killed at least 30,000 people. Mukherjee said that despite U.S. pressure, there had been no let-up in Pakistan's promotion of militancy in Kashmir, apart from in the first week or so after the September 11 attacks.
(SKIP)
"I see an active period ahead," he said. "We'll try our best to ensure it doesn't get worse, but I see every possible attempt made to pump in more and more, including possibly the Taliban who have run out of Afghanistan. Pakistan can't afford to keep them on their hands either. It's too early to make a categorical statement but at least that is what it appears."
Mukherjee declined to comment on whether he believed Indian troops should cross the 742-km (464-mile) Line of Control to attack militants in Pakistan, copying the example of the United States in hunting out its perceived enemies in Afghanistan. But he said that in Kashmir troops had been stepped up along the military ceasefire line to stop infiltration by militants. "As far as Kashmir is concerned we have definitely stepped up the quantum of troops along the Line of Control," he said. But there were no more troops in the region as a whole than before.
(SKIP)
Mukherjee said India had been fairly successful in reducing infiltration this year and should be able to stop many Islamic militants from coming in from Afghanistan and Pakistan. "We have adopted a very strong counter-infiltration posture...with the same number of divisions that we have and we are quite sure that we would be able to stop a flood from coming in," he said.
Copyright 2001, Gloria R. Lalumia
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