World Media Watch for May 28, 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//The Independent, UK--'FRIENDS' ACT BY BUSH AND CHIRAC FAILS TO HEAL RIFT (Mr Bush seemed, however, to be in a rather skittish and unfocused mood after a demanding five day tour to Germany and Russia. He referred twice to Mr Chirac as "President Jacques" and pronounced the French President's second name through- out as "Shrak".)

2//Russian Observer.com, Russia--THE SUMMIT OIL DEAL - SETTING THE STAGE FOR EVEN BIGGER OIL BARGAINS (A new element in the U.S.-Russia agenda has emerged at this Summit: energy deals…Specifically, they will cooperate against instability in global oil markets; which in practice means that Russia should increase its oil supplies to make up for the shortfall in case of cuts in oil supplies to the West from the Middle East. Meanwhile, America is to help develop Russian oil sources and markets: this means investment. Evidently there is to be cooperation on developing Central Asian oil markets.)

3//Asia Times Online, Hong Kong--ARMS EMBARGO AGAINST AL-QAEDA DEEMED INEFFECTIVE (The eight-month-old United Nations arms embargo against Afghanistan's former Taliban rulers and the al-Qaeda network has proved ineffective, a UN monitoring group said on Wednesday…The Security Council also imposed financial prohibitions on both groups in attempts to cut off funding for terrorist operations…Despite these restrictions, it has been difficult to differentiate among transactions related to laundered money, organized crime, and funding for terrorism.)

4//The Times of India, India--INDIA LACKS GUTS TO ATTACK PAK: FAROOQ ("The United States of America thinks only of its own national interest... No country in the world wants to see a strong India, be it Pakistan or any other country," he said, warning the Indian leadership not to trust anybody.)

5//Pakistan News Service, Pakistan--ASHRAF QAZI RULES OUT N-WAR WITH INDIA (Pakistan's High Commissioner to India Ashraf Jehangir Qazi, who arrived here on Saturday from New Delhi, ruled out nuclear war between Pakistan and India.)

6//Philippine Daily Inquirer, Philippines--US POWER, PRAYERS NO HELP TO BURNHAMS ("It's like losing a tiny tack in the backyard," said Brig. Gen. Donald Wurster, chief of US Special Forces training Philippine troops in counter-terrorism on Basilan Island. The mountainous, jungle-clad province is about three times the size of Singapore…he 1,000 US soldiers training Philippine troops to fight the Abu Sayyaf bandits, linked by the United States to Bin Laden's al-Qaeda network, represent America's biggest troop deployment in its war on terror after Afghanistan.)

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1//The Independent 26 May 2002 23:43 GMT+1
http://news.independent.co.uk/europe/story.jsp?story=299301

'FRIENDS' ACT BY BUSH AND CHIRAC FAILS TO HEAL RIFT
By John Lichfield in Paris, 27 May 2002

Presidents Jacques Chirac and George Bush insisted that Europe and the US were committed to a continuing alliance of "friends" yesterday to combat terrorism.

After two hours of talks at the Elyseé Palace, President Bush attempted to calm European fears that Washington might try to badger its allies into a new war with Iraq. He said: "There is no plan of war on my desk."

Mr Bush arrived to comparatively muted demonstrations in France, the third of four countries he is visiting on his one-week European tour.

(SNIP)

On the many other issues nettling transatlantic relations - from global warming to trade to aid for the Third World - the two presidents appear to have found little common ground.

President Chirac lectured the US leader on why Europe found America's attitude to these subjects overbearing and self-serving. Their discussion was described as "frank", which is the standard diplomatic code for a failure to agree. On the environment, in particular, the French President said all countries should learn to reduce pollution and the consumption of "resources that cannot be renewed".

Repeated at a joint press conference, this assertion brought a blank stare from the US president, who spent almost his entire career before politics in the oil industry.

(SNIP)

Mr Bush seemed, however, to be in a rather skittish and unfocused mood after a demanding five day tour to Germany and Russia. He referred twice to Mr Chirac as "President Jacques" and pronounced the French President's second name through- out as "Shrak".

(SNIP)

The Caen march was addressed by the ubiquitous small farmers leader and anti-globalist and anti-capitalist campaigner, José Bové. He said that President Bush's declaration of a "war of good against evil" was part of a "hegemonic" American strategy for world domination. Mr Bové said it was "shocking" that Mr Bush should be received with pomp in Paris when the US had for many years treated Europeans with "contempt", on issues from trade to global warming.

Although this is an extreme view, many French people share the wider European irritation with a US government which demands obedient allies but rarely agrees to look at things from its allies' point of view. In France, this is nothing new. Suspicion of American power has been a tradition, on the left, and unlike other European countries, on the right. There is some satisfaction that other, formerly staunch, US allies such as Germany are starting to share what was once dismissed as a typically awkward, French attitude.

"The divergences today are no longer Franco-American, they are Euro-American," said one French diplomat.

(SNIP)

There are hopes, in both Paris and Washington however, that the change of government in Paris will improve day to day relations between the countries. Freed from co-habitation with the centre-left, President Chirac is freer to shape French foreign policy.

The former foreign minister, Hubert Vedriné, infuriated the Americans by describing the US constantly as a "hyper-power", which could trample European interests.

President Chirac is the most pro-American of senior French politicians. In the coming months, he may find himself in an unaccustomed position for a French leader - alongside Tony Blair trying to mediate in the widening circle of transatlantic differences.

2//Russian Observer.com Issued on 24 May 2002 MCK
http://www.russianobserver.com/stories/02/05/24/1086/15432.html

THE SUMMIT OIL DEAL - SETTING THE STAGE FOR EVEN BIGGER OIL BARGAINS
by Ira Straus

A new element in the U.S.-Russia agenda has emerged at this Summit: energy deals. It is a subject where the two countries are basically on the same side; they can reach deals to greatly increase their success in realizing their mutual interests, if they first simply set up a framework to reconcile the secondary differences in interest.

Their initial agreement is meant to do this. They have agreed to work together on energy strategy, reconciling their national energy strategies: this means they both recognize it as a strategic matter in which they are on the same side. Specifically, they will cooperate against instability in global oil markets; which in practice means that Russia should increase its oil supplies to make up for the shortfall in case of cuts in oil supplies to the West from the Middle East. Meanwhile, America is to help develop Russian oil sources and markets: this means investment. Evidently there is to be cooperation on developing Central Asian oil markets.

This is, at first glance, a modest step, but it is one that is pregnant with a change in the basic nature of Russia-West relations. As Mikhail Khodorkovsky of Yukos wrote, "the opportunities would be almost limitless" if the U.S. and Russia started making bargains in this field (Financial Times, May 24). They have started. The effects should keep growing with time:

1. It makes Russia an ally of the West in a vital Western economic security interest.

2. It makes the West an ally of Russia in a vital Russian economic growth interest.

3. It places a new regular item on the agenda of U.S.-Russia relations. Nuclear weapons disagreements need not always have the spotlight at a summit; energy bargains might instead.

4. It creates an invigorating atmosphere. Energy bargains are win-win deals, not zero-sum deals (which is the depressing feeling that always accompanies nuclear arms talks). Everyone can feel in the wallet how their interests are being benefited.

This is not likely to be the last energy deal. It is just the opening wedge. Now that energy-dealing has gotten onto the agenda, people can start thinking about what the next deal could be. Pressure groups should soon come to see the benefits they have gained from the present bargain and mobilize in favor of further deals. This is the classic way for setting an integrative dynamic into motion.

This energy deal should be seen as Stage 1. It is already possible to envisage Stage 2 and Stage 3 deals that would multiply the benefits several times over.

A Stage 2 energy deal: Russia joins the International Energy Agency (IEA), a fair oil price is agreed upon for Russian oil, the West agrees to compensate Russia for financial losses when oil prices fall below this level, and Russia agrees to compete ruthlessly against OPEC to cut world oil prices as low as possible.

(SNIP)

A Stage 3 energy deal. A Russia-West Oil and Gas Community is established, incorporating the deals in Stages 1 and 2. The harmonization of Western and Russian oil price interests, achieved in Stage 2, makes it possible to form a strong joint organization in this sphere. The IEA is upgraded institutionally to form the basis for the Oil and Gas Community.

(SNIP)

Stage 4: the end of OPEC. By this stage, OPEC has been greatly weakened; and IEA, representing all the countries of the global "North", greatly strengthened. IEA can set norms for energy policy, energy taxation, stabilization funds and reserves, investment and production among its members. And the UN can set global norms on these matters and dictate to OPEC. A First World-Third World alliance can easily prevail in the UN against OPEC. UN regulations can undermine what is left of OPEC, outlawing its role as a cartel -- an illegitimate form of inter-governmental organization. Eventually OPEC members would no longer find it worth the embarrassment of maintaining the organization.

Stage 5: the end of global oil injustice. The UN Security Council proclaims oil and gas to be a commodity of global economic and security interest and to be subject to global antitrust regulation, as well as regulation motivated by environmental and other concerns. In low-population high-oil states such as the Gulf states (or perhaps all states where oil and gas production and reserves exceed population by a certain specified ratio), it undoes their nationalization of oil, placing the oil and gas fields under global ownership and authority. A UN energy agency could work closely with IEA to set overall management guidelines; a fair rent could be paid to the host states for use of their land.

And there we would have it. No more sucking of the world economy by a few barely populated states. No more letting the hundreds of billions of dollars go to financial destabilization, religious extremism, and terrorism, among other things. Instead a healthier Russia, a healthier Russia-West relation, and a healthier Northern leadership of the world system.

3//Asia Times Online May 25, 2002
http://www.atimes.com/c-asia/DE25Ag03.html

ARMS EMBARGO AGAINST AL-QAEDA DEEMED INEFFECTIVE
By Thalif Deen (Inter Press Service)

UNITED NATIONS - The eight-month-old United Nations arms embargo against Afghanistan's former Taliban rulers and the al-Qaeda network has proved ineffective, a UN monitoring group said on Wednesday.

"The ability of the Taliban and al-Qaeda to engage in heavy fighting with very well-equipped and -trained military forces implies they still have access to weapons and ammunition in sufficient quantities," the four-member group said in a 20-page report released at the UN's New York headquarters.

During the US-led "Operation Anaconda" military campaign in eastern Afghanistan in March, some firefights lasted for up to 18 hours. Under prevailing circumstances, Taliban forces could fire some 15,000 rounds of small-arms ammunition per hour, the group pointed out.

(SNIP)

The US administration has said the Taliban and al-Qaeda are terrorist groups supported and financed by Saudi dissident Osama bin Laden, described as the mastermind behind the September 11 terrorist attacks in the United States. Immediately after those attacks, the UN Security Council tightened an existing military embargo on Afghanistan and imposed a travel ban on bin Laden and on members of the Taliban government, which was ousted from power by coalition military forces in October.

But the monitoring group argued that the travel ban does not make sense since it carries weight only when applied against individuals who wish to travel internationally using international commercial flights. Neither members of the Taliban nor al-Qaeda have the need or desire to travel internationally, the study noted, adding: "This does not mean, however, that they may not attempt to cross the border into a neighboring country."

In the case of al-Qaeda, the travel ban is more meaningful because the organization is believed to have terrorist cells operating throughout the world, not just in Afghanistan.

The Security Council also imposed financial prohibitions on both groups in attempts to cut off funding for terrorist operations. By the end of March, about 144 countries had frozen bank accounts and other financial assets of suspected terrorist groups. As a result, about US$103.8 million in assets have been blocked around the world, according to the study. About half of this sum represents assets connected to bin Laden and al-Qaeda.

Despite these restrictions, it has been difficult to differentiate among transactions related to laundered money, organized crime, and funding for terrorism. The study also pointed out that criminals and terrorists are moving money by means of the Internet. The monitoring group expressed particular concern about the use of the Internet not only regarding financial transactions but also in support of communications, command, control and logistics by terrorist groups.

"Efforts to hinder and even neutralize this capability will continue to pose a major challenge for law-enforcement agencies worldwide, but methods of combating this aspect of al-Qaeda operations and those of its associates must be addressed with energy and resourcefulness and without delay," the report said.

The group is investigating, with key agencies, the feasibility of preventive measures and means of interdiction that could disrupt and neutralize these criminal operations. But the group admitted it has not been able to substantiate new allegations that al-Qaeda may be using alternative remittance systems and also converting its assets into gold, diamonds, and other precious stones in order to avoid detection.

4//The Times of India Monday, May 27, 2002
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow.asp?art_id=14069888

INDIA LACKS GUTS TO ATTACK PAK: FAROOQ
AFP [ Sunday, May 26, 2002 4:41:18 PM ]

JAMMU: India lacks the "guts" to attack militant training camps inside Pakistan, Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Farooq Abdullah charged on Sunday.

Continued inaction by India in the face of "terrorism" supported by Pakistan sent a message that India is a weak nation, Abdullah added in an address to a seminar on national security at Jammu university.

"We can't even damn well cross the Line of Control," he said, adding in Hindi: "We don't have the guts to do that." The message down the line, he said, "is that we are a weak nation."

(SNIP)

The Chief Minister has several times publicly demanded military strikes on what India claims are guerilla training camps in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir.

He was also critical on Sunday of New Delhi's call to the global powers to put pressure on Pakistan to give up "cross-border terrorism."

"The United States of America thinks only of its own national interest... No country in the world wants to see a strong India, be it Pakistan or any other country," he said, warning the Indian leadership not to trust anybody.

Abdullah also came down heavily on China, which he accused of supporting Pakistan's nuclear and missile programmes.

"Everyone knows where Pakistan's nuclear weapons and missiles come from," he said.

5//Pakistan News Service Updated on 2002-05-26 12:30:27
http://www.paknews.com/flash.php?id=4&date1=2002-05-26

ASHRAF QAZI RULES OUT N-WAR WITH INDIA

LAHORE, May 26 (PNS): Pakistan's High Commissioner to India Ashraf Jehangir Qazi, who arrived here on Saturday from New Delhi, ruled out nuclear war between Pakistan and India.

"We are not going for nuclear war as Pakistan too stands at the threshold of conventional weapons vis-a-vis India," said Ashraf Qazi while talking to journalists at Wahga Border. "Pakistan has the ability and determination to counter any aggression but it will show restraint up to great extent," he affirmed.

About his expulsion, Ashraf said that it would not be considered as expulsion because he was not declared persona non grata by the Indian government rather, he cleared, it was done on reciprocal basis as the Indian high commissioner was absent from here.

He said that he might resume his assignment at some appropriate time. On a query that what could the factors behind latest change in Vajpayee's stance towards Pakistan, he said such statements could have multi-dimensional implications. He said that he made the statement in his speech and different groups could have been among his audience with different messages.

(SNIP)

He said that the people all over the world lauded President General Pervez Musharraf's speech regarding ban on military outfits. Ashraf Jehangir Qazi said that Indian people did not want war any more as they were suffering a lot. He said that the Indian economy was suffering badly due to expenses of military mobilisation on borders and opening a number of fronts, including held Kashmir, Nagland, East Punjab, etc.

6//Philippine Daily Inquirer Monday May 27, 2002
http://www.inq7.net/nat/2002/may/27/nat_2-1.htm

US POWER, PRAYERS NO HELP TO BURNHAMS
Posted: 11:51 PM (Manila Time) | May 26, 2002
Inquirer News Service

2nd year in captivity

THE ELITE troops and the spy planes of the world's most powerful military have not helped and neither, it seems, have prayers.

US hostages Martin and Gracia Burnham, their bodies ravaged by hunger and forced marches through the jungles of Basilan, begin Monday their second year as captives of the Abu Sayyaf.

Nobody knows when the ordeal for the missionary couple from Wichita, Kansas, will end in the hands of the Abu Sayyaf.

"With the number of Philippine and US military troops on the ground, and everything that is available to them, it's hard to understand why we're still hearing that they don't know where they are," Robert Mycel, vice chair of the New Tribes Mission, to which the Burnhams belong, said.

(SNIP)

"It's like losing a tiny tack in the backyard," said Brig. Gen. Donald Wurster, chief of US Special Forces training Philippine troops in counter-terrorism on Basilan Island. The mountainous, jungle-clad province is about three times the size of Singapore.

(SNIP)

Unmanned spy drones, thermal imaging cameras and other high-tech equipment have all failed to find the Burnhams.

A Philippine commander compared the hunt for the Burnhams to the hunt for Osama bin Laden, prime suspect in the Sept. 11 attacks in the United States.

"It's like asking 'How come the US forces, with all their equipment, with all the bombings, we're not able to find Osama bin Laden?'" said Col. Alexander Aleo, who leads the bulk of the 5,000-plus Philippine troops on Basilan.

"Maybe it's easier to hide than to find," he said.

The 1,000 US soldiers training Philippine troops to fight the Abu Sayyaf bandits, linked by the United States to Bin Laden's al-Qaeda network, represent America's biggest troop deployment in its war on terror after Afghanistan.

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

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