World Media Watch for April 26, 2002

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. We repeat: This is not an endorsement of their viewpoints.

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1//Asia Times Online, Hong Kong-IRAQ DIARY PART 12: THE CARTHAGINIAN SOLUTION (Today, the gangsters of the Iraqi National Congress provide gullible Anglo-American journalists with supposedly high-ranking "defectors" who pinpoint the locations of a deadly arsenal with which Saddam could incinerate the whole region. That's rubbish. Tony Blair may keep on whining, but there's no evidence - as former UNSCOM inspector Scott Ritter has stressed - that the regime holds weapons of mass destruction, apart from a few old bottles of anthrax.)

2//The Philippine Daily Inquirer, Philippines--PALACE: NEWS LEAK WAS MEANT TO EXPOSE 'JUNTA' PLOTTERS ("You did a service to the nation. [The news leak] achieved its purpose," the official said of the Inquirer.)

3//The Moscow Times, Russia--POLICE CART AWAY NUCLEAR PROTESTERS (Twenty-four activists and about half a dozen journalists, including camera crews from Reuters and the new Ekho television company, were detained by police at the demonstration, held on the eve of the 16th anniversary of the Chernobyl disaster. Police yanked the film from the cameras and video cameras of many of those who photographed the event; journalists loudly complained that their equipment had been damaged.)

4//The Frontier Post, Pakistan--REFERENDUM AMOUNTS TO UNILATERAL PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION (The upcoming referendum will virtually strip the citizens of their right to elect a President through their chosen representatives in the assemblies, one of the lawyers challenging the referendum in the Supreme Court of Pakistan said Wednesday.)

5//The Sydney Morning Herald, Australia--LET US SEE AL-QAEDA SUSPECT, AUSTRALIA TELLS US (So far, the US has failed to respond even to specific Australian Government requests for information about the case... Diplomatic strains over the case will worsen if the US moves Mr Habib to its military base at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba without allowing him to be interviewed by Australian intelligence and police officers.)

6//Yemen Times, Yemen--BOMB BLASTS TO FORCE GOVERNMENT'S HAND (But these recent blasts show al Qaeda still represents a threat despite the government's efforts in the past to contain it. And it now remains to be seen if the government will negotiate with the group, or if it attempts to eradicate it. It also remains to be seen what impact the presence of American trainers will have. They have been in Yemen to help authorities purge the country of terrorists, part of its international war in terror since attacks against it on Sept. 11.)

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1//Asia Times Online April 26, 2002
http://www.atimes.com/front/DD26Aa01.html

THE ROVING EYE
Iraq Diary Part 12: The Carthaginian solution
By Pepe Escobar

(SNIP)

...Dennis Haliday has never stopped saying for these past three years that "genocide is taking place right now, every day, in Iraqi cities. It's an active policy of continuing sanctions." But it was Noam Chomsky, in a lecture in Cambridge, Massachusetts, also in the beginning of 1999, who best explained the rationale for the sanctions and the slow motion Anglo-American war against the people of Iraq. It's worth quoting him at length:

"There is indeed a way to eliminate the capability of producing weapons of mass destruction, only one way, and that is the Carthaginian solution: you totally destroy the society. If you do that, they won't be able to produce weapons of mass destruction. If you leave an infrastructure, if you leave educational and scientific facilities of any kind, if there's a revenue flow, then you have a capacity to produce weapons of mass destruction. So, the only way to end that capability - we talk about 'terminating' it - is to wipe the place out.

"That's not going to happen, for a simple reason: Iraq is the second-largest oil producer in the world, and it's much too valuable to wipe out. But you can wipe out its population. In fact, it's in a way beneficial to do that. If you look at the history of oil production around the world, you find that it mostly takes place in areas where there aren't many people. Then there's little pressure to stop the profits from going to the people who really should have them: Western oil companies and the US Treasury. So, if the population of Iraq were reduced or marginalized, maybe even reduced to such a level that they're barely functional, then when the time comes - and it will - to bring Iraqi production back on line, they'll be less of an impediment. Iraq will be more like, say, Saudi Arabia, where there's a lot of oil but not many people around pressing for economic development and educational facilities."

This is a ruthless "strategy". Asia Times Online visited hospitals in Baghdad and Basra that barely have electricity and no access to even basic medicines to treat a population that is malnourished and increasingly ill. Professors and lawyers are forced to make a living driving battered taxis - usually Volkswagen Passats made in Brazil in the '70s. Iraq cannot import books, or paper to print its own books, or even pencils. This is a culture whose modernity has always been dependent on constant, vibrant communication and interaction with the US, Europe and the Middle East. Men now confront their angst smoking like chimneys: in fact the notoriously profitable cigarette-smuggling business is controlled by Uday, Saddam Hussein's elder son.

Daily life in Iraq can be hell. There are practically no working phones: the American bombs destroyed the telecom infrastructure. Food in restaurants - for those lucky few who can afford it - is chicken or kebab, and kebab or chicken. Booze - sold in a few shops by Christians - could hardly be a solace: a bottle of good arak is half the average monthly salary. On the other hand, Baghdad is awash with exchange shops: these are for the merchants who do dubious deals with neighboring countries bypassing the embargo.

Who profits from the embargo? According to an unimpeachable source - a guard in one of Saddam's palaces who couldn't take it any more and decided to talk - "only a few government officials and merchants who got rich". He confirms that "in every street corner, and in every neighborhood, people are bought to work as informers". He says that "the Americans, even if they bomb, want to keep the 'King' [as Saddam is referred to], because he serves their interests ... All cultivated Iraqis have left," adds the guard, "There is an opposition, but silent and uneducated. It's very easy to control them."

(SNIP)

It's easy to forget that the US was in love with Saddam Hussein in the 1980s. US and European firms provided Iraq with the necessary materials to build Saddam's fabled "weapons of mass destruction". Today, the gangsters of the Iraqi National Congress provide gullible Anglo-American journalists with supposedly high-ranking "defectors" who pinpoint the locations of a deadly arsenal with which Saddam could incinerate the whole region. That's rubbish. Tony Blair may keep on whining, but there's no evidence - as former UNSCOM inspector Scott Ritter has stressed - that the regime holds weapons of mass destruction, apart from a few old bottles of anthrax.

After a month in Iraq, the inescapable conclusion is that the embargo, the sanctions and the regime have completely corroded society - and provoked widespread corruption. There are only three social strata left: the poor (the overwhelming majority), the merchants who profit from the embargo, and the members of the Baath Party.

Robert Fisk has already pointed out in The Independent that "what we want in Iraq is another bullying dictator - but one who will do as he is told, invade the countries we wish to see invaded [Iran], and respect the integrity of those countries we do not wish to see invaded [Kuwait]".

But a war to remove a leader - Saddam Hussein - simply does not justify a slow-motion war to decimate a whole society. The embargo and the sanctions - not what's allegedly under Saddam's palaces - are the real weapons of mass destruction in this case. America, though, is the new Rome, and Iraq the new Carthage. Delenda est Carthago is a motto enshrined in history - Carthage must be destroyed. And destroyed it was. But Iraq, warns Dr Ammash, won't die quietly.

2//The Philippine Daily Inquirer Friday Apr. 26, 2002
http://www.inq7.net/nat/2002/apr/26/nat_1-1.htm

PALACE: NEWS LEAK WAS MEANT TO EXPOSE 'JUNTA' PLOTTERS
Posted: 11:58 PM (Manila Time) | Apr. 25, 2002

By Carlito Pablo and Dona Pazzibugan
Inquirer News Service

'Cleared with President'

"We wanted to stop them right then and there."

This is the reason Malacañang deliberately leaked to the Inquirer the alleged plan by the Freedom Force to install "collective leadership" in place of President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, a high-ranking Palace official admitted to the Inquirer Thursday.

Conrado Limcaoco, presidential adviser on media and ecclesiastical affairs, was assigned to do the leaking, said the Palace official, who asked not to be named.

The leak was cleared with Ms Macapagal herself, the official said.

Limcaoco himself admitted Thursday in a radio interview that he had leaked the story to the Inquirer but said he was asked by the office of Jaime Cardinal Sin to do so, and not by the President.

(SKIP)

The Palace official said, "As a result of the story, durog (alleged proponents of a junta were crushed)."

He was referring to the principal players identified in the alleged scheme: newspaper columnist Teodoro Benigno, former Tarlac congressman Jose Cojuangco Jr. and Pastor Saycon, all prominent leaders of the Council for Philippine Affairs (COPA), who have been identified as among the organizers of Freedom Force.

"They tried to talk to some generals but they were not able to convince any one of them," the official said, describing the seriousness of the alleged plan to unseat the President.

He did not identify the generals whom COPA and Freedom Force leader allegedly tried to recruit.

"You did a service to the nation. (The news leak) achieved its purpose," the official said of the Inquirer.

"The President owes you lunch or dinner," the official laughed.

(MORE)

3//The Moscow Times Friday, Apr. 26, 2002. Page 1
http://www.themoscowtimes.com/stories/2002/04/26/003.html

POLICE CART AWAY NUCLEAR PROTESTERS
By Robin Munro, Staff Writer

Police, Kremlin security officers and plainclothes officers forcefully broke up a peaceful demonstration against nuclear waste imports on Red Square on Thursday, cuffing young protesters in the face before hauling them by their collars to waiting police cars and roughly slamming them in.

Twenty-four activists and about half a dozen journalists, including camera crews from Reuters and the new Ekho television company, were detained by police at the demonstration, held on the eve of the 16th anniversary of the Chernobyl disaster. Police yanked the film from the cameras and video cameras of many of those who photographed the event; journalists loudly complained that their equipment had been damaged.

The journalists were released almost immediately, while the protesters were still being held late Thursday evening. The protesters were supposed to appear in court Friday on charges of participating in an unauthorized meeting, Interfax reported.

(SNIP)

The protest was against a law that President Vladimir Putin signed in July allowing spent nuclear fuel to be imported for reprocessing.

Environmentalists say Russia has enough problems with its own nuclear waste that it can ill deal with any other countries' waste. Supporters of the law say the imports could earn the country $20 billion over 10 years.

(SKIP)

Nadezhda Kutepova, from the Planet of Hopes organization in the Chelyabinsk region, said before she was detained that the Chernobyl disaster should be a warning to those who handle nuclear materials.

An explosion and fire at Ukraine's Chernobyl nuclear power plant on April 26, 1986, sent radiation across Europe and contaminated large parts of the Soviet Union. The disaster has led to thousands of deaths, especially among those who took part in the cleanup, and 7 million people in Belarus, Russia and Ukraine are estimated to suffer physical or psychological effects of radiation related to the Chernobyl catastrophe. A series of commemorations and protests are planned across the nation Friday.

(SNIP)

The police could not be immediately reached for comment, but a spokeswoman for the Federal Guard Service, or FSO, said the demonstration had been properly broken up. "In this case the law was correctly observed," said the spokeswoman, who asked not to be identified. "The territory of the Kremlin and Red Square is a special zone and photos can only be taken there with permission."

Asked why tourists were allowed to take photos freely on Red Square, she said they were not professionals and "there is a big difference." She denied that the officers' actions amounted to censorship. "There are rules on how you should behave on the Kremlin proper, and these rules are well known to all journalists. You need to get permission to take photos," she said, adding that most people who apply get permission.

Oleg Panfilov of the Center for Journalism in Extreme Situations, said the officers had no right to destroy the journalists' film. "According to the media law, journalists have complete freedom to do their work covering meetings and demonstrations, even if the protest is an illegal one. No one should stop them from doing their work," he said. "Unfortunately, the authorities are using force more and more against journalists. In my opinion, the Russian authorities have completely lost their sense of respect toward journalists," he said.

(MORE)

4//The Frontier Post Updated on 4/25/2002 4:34:57 PM
http://www.frontierpost.com.pk/main.asp?id=3&date1=4/25/2002

REFERENDUM AMOUNTS TO UNILATERAL PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION
F.P. Report

ISLAMABAD: The upcoming referendum will virtually strip the citizens of their right to elect a President through their chosen representatives in the assemblies, one of the lawyers challenging the referendum in the Supreme Court of Pakistan said Wednesday.

Earlier, when proceedings of the third consecutive day of the hearing started, Dr Frooq Hassan, counsel of the petitioner Amir Jamaat-e-Islami Qazi Hussain Ahmad, told the apex court that the people of the country were not collectively supportive of the government policies.

(SNIP)

He said that General Musharraf had taken referendum decision only to fulfil his selfish designs and to impose a system of his own choice on the masses.

Arguing that armed forces were not entitled to rule over the country, he said their duty was to defend the frontiers of the country.

(SNIP)

The senior counsel argued that only general elections were the means to know the opinion of the people. He accused the government of blindly using national resources on the referendum campaign.

President Supreme Court Bar Association Hamid Khan pleaded that the referendum was unconstitutional and unlawful, and that no amendment in the constitution could be made to legalize it.

He termed the exercise as "unilateral Presidential election" for General Musharraf, despite the fact that in his capacity as a serving General, he does not qualify to contest for Presidential office.

(MORE)

5//The Sydney Morning Herald April 26 2002
http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2002/04/25/1019441285612.html

LET US SEE AL-QAEDA SUSPECT, AUSTRALIA TELLS US
By Craig Skehan

The Howard Government has stepped up pressure on the United States to permit Australian intelligence agents and police to interview 46-year-old Mamdouh Habib over alleged links to the al-Qaeda terrorist network.

So far, the US has failed to respond even to specific Australian Government requests for information about the case.

Mr Habib, from Sydney, was arrested in Pakistan in October before being secretly sent to Egypt in November, then transferred to US military custody in Afghanistan 10 days ago.

Sources said Australia had formally re-issued questions, through the US State Department in Washington, about the circumstances that led to Mr Habib's detention.

A similar bid last week to obtain details of the covert handover was unsuccessful.

(SKIP)

The Sydney law firm Sandroussi and Associates has written to the Federal Attorney-General, Daryl Williams, expressing "grave concern" over Mr Habib's treatment. "Mr Habib has been denied access to legal representation, family contact, consular access, due process and natural justice," the letter says.

ASIO and Federal Police officers briefly talked to Mr Habib shortly after he was arrested on October 5, but have been unable to get to him since.

Diplomatic strains over the case will worsen if the US moves Mr Habib to its military base at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba without allowing him to be interviewed by Australian intelligence and police officers.

(MORE)

6//Yemen Times Issue 17 - April 22 thru April 28 2002, Vol XI
http://www.yementimes.com/02/iss17/front.htm#1

BOMB BLASTS TO FORCE GOVERNMENT'S HAND

SANA'A - Despite its commitment to purge Yemen of terrorists, the government has remained silent after Tuesday's huge explosion which rocked the Civil Aviation Authority building and damaged several other buildings in the area, including the Yemeni intelligence housing.

As with the April 12 bomb that went off near the U.S. embassy, a group calling itself Sympathizers of al-Qaeda has taken responsibility for the blast which damaged the windows of the CAA, front gate, and a neighboring house. It also broke windows of two buses. No injuries were reported.

Meanwhile, the clock is ticking on a 30-day ultimatum the group gave after its April 12 bombing, for authorities to release 173 Mujahedeen warriors the government is detaining. In its second statement via email, the sympathizers reiterated their demand for the government to release the 173 held in the PSO prison. The statement threatened more bombings if their demands were not met.

It pledged that after the 30-day ultimatum they would target high ranking officials who they described as 'agents for the US'. The statement advised the people living near the PSO to leave the area till 'the war is over.' It also pledged to give compensation for the damage to neighboring properties. And the statement called upon all al Qaeda elements in Yemen, mainly Fawaz al Rabee, Abdu Ali al Harithy and Abu Asem al Ahdal to join them in their mission.

(SNIP)

The explosions have raised worries among political observers, as well as foreign diplomats. Western diplomatic sources confirmed that their embassies received phone-call threats and that explosive devices were planted near some embassies and diplomats residents, but they were foiled.

The Yemeni government had said previously that the al Qaeda network has no organized presence here, and that it was hunting down al Harithi and al Ahdal. But these recent blasts show al Qaeda still represents a threat despite the government's efforts in the past to contain it.

And it now remains to be seen if the government will negotiate with the group, or if it attempt to eradicate it. It also remains to be seen what impact the presence of American trainers will have. They have been in Yemen to help authorities purge the country of terrorists, part of its international war in terror since attacks against it on Sept. 11.

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© 2002, Gloria R. Lalumia
insight@zianet.com

More Stuff at: http://www.zianet.com/insightanalytical

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