World Media Watch for June 10, 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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//Ha'aretz, Israel--BEN-ELIEZER: NEW PA INTERIOR MIN. IS FROM 'OLD GENERATION' (Defense Minister Benjamin Ben-Eliezer said Sunday that the appointment of General Abdel-Razzaq al-Yahya as Palestinian Interior Minister is a step backward, since Yehiyeh "is a member of the old generation," who is dedicated to the past not the future... Most of the Palestinian opposition organizations such as Hamas, Islamic Jihad, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) and the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine (DFLP) have announced that they will not join the new Cabinet. Hamas said the appointments were a product of U.S. pressure and would not reduce corruption in the Authority.)

2//The Daily Star, Lebanon--HIZBULLAH AND ISRAELI ARMY SET FOR 'SERIOUS CLASH' (While diplomatic and security sources are united in believing that Israel and Hizbullah are set for a serious clash, there are differences in how it will occur. Some argue Israel will react if there is another kidnapping of Israeli soldiers or a serious cross-border attack resulting in civilian casualties. In this scenario, Israel would use air power to smash Lebanon's infrastructure... The second scenario suggests that Israel will bide its time until after Washington has dealt with Iraqi President Saddam Hussein in the expectation ­ or knowledge ­ that Hizbullah will be the target of phase three in America's "war on terrorism.")

3//Sydney Morning Herald, Australia--GRAND COUNCIL HOLDS KEY TO PEACE IN A LAND THAT DARES TO DREAM (Diplomats and Afghan analysts also fear that any deals reached at the loya jirga could easily unravel in the weeks and months ahead, especially with the outside world's refusal to extend its security role beyond Kabul. There are particular concerns that the interim leader, Hamid Karzai - while respected and increasingly popular among all ethnic communities - lacks the muscle to resist if the powerful forces lined up behind him should turn nasty if they do not get all they want from the new order.)

4//Pravda, Russia--SADDAM IS IN BAGHDAD, BUT THE OPPOSITION IS SOLVING HIS FATE ALREADY (...Representatives of four largest Iraqi opposition parties conducted negotiations today regarding the preparations to the conference of anti-Baghdad groups and parties. Al-Jazeera reported that the meeting took place in the USA. Representatives of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan ( the leader is Jalal Talabani), the Democratic Party of Kurdistan (the leader is Mustafa Barzani), the Supreme Council for Islamic Revolution in Iraq, or SCIRI (Shiah opposition, the leader is Sayed Mohammed Baqir Al-Hakim) and the Movement for the national consent took part in the discussion.)

5//The Guardian, UK--VOTER FURY AT SPINNING CUTS LABOUR POLL LEAD (The popularity of Tony Blair's government has slumped to its lowest level since the fuel protest in 2000 after repeated controversy over Labour's spin tactics. Its lead over the Tories is down to just six points, with Labour on 39 per cent and the Conservatives on 33 per cent.)

6//The Telegraph, UK--MURDOCH IN EU1.5 BN TV BID (Vivendi Universal, the financially stretched media giant, has agreed to sell its Italian satellite TV channel, Telepiu, to Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation for Eu1.5 billion (£970m). The deal gives Murdoch control of both of Italy's two pay-TV operators. He already owns the smaller operator, Stream.)

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1//Ha'aretz Monday, June 10, 2002 Sivan 30, 5762 Israel Time: 01:40 (GMT+3)
http://www.haaretzdaily.com/hasen/pages/ShArt.jhtml?itemNo=174558&contrassID=
1&subContrassID=0&sbSubContrassID=0

Last update - 23:40 09/06/2002

BEN-ELIEZER: NEW PA INTERIOR MIN. IS FROM 'OLD GENERATION'
By News Agencies

Defense Minister Benjamin Ben-Eliezer said Sunday that the appointment of General Abdel-Razzaq al-Yahya as Palestinian Interior Minister is a step backward, since Yehiyeh "is a member of the old generation," who is dedicated to the past not the future.

Ben-Eliezer was the first Israeli official to react to the Palestinian cabinet reshuffle, which was announced Sunday by Yasser Abed Rabbo at a press conference in Ramallah. Ben-Eliezer was speaking at the Herzliya Interdisciplinary Center, where his speech was interrupted by a highly vocal argument involving a group of a dozen high-school students who are refusing to serve in the territories.

Yahya was appointed Sunday to be the first ever Palestinian Interior Minister - a post Arafat has held since the PA's inception eight years ago - with responsibility for the PA's security apparatus, as part of a major cabinet reshuffle...

Yahya is expected to oversee a radical overhaul of the Palestinian security forces, and has agreed to the appointment, the Qatar-based television station Al Jazzeera reported Saturday.

(SNIP)

Most of the Palestinian opposition organizations such as Hamas, Islamic Jihad, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) and the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine (DFLP) have announced that they will not join the new Cabinet.

Hamas said the appointments were a product of U.S. pressure and would not reduce corruption in the Authority.

"We see in this new cabinet an American intervention and this is not the choice of our people," Hamas political leader Abdel Aziz al-Rantissi told reporters. "This is not a government but a redeployment of the faces of corruption."

Hamas, which reject Israel's existence, turned down an offer of slots in the cabinet because Arafat still sought a peace deal with Israel.

The makeup of the new security apparatus, which CIA director George Tenet discussed with Arafat last week, has not yet been determined.

2//The Daily Star Beirut, Saturday, June 08, 2002. Updated 08:30 AM +2GMT
http://www.dailystar.com.lb/08_06_02/art15.asp

HIZBULLAH AND ISRAELI ARMY SET FOR 'SERIOUS CLASH'
Diplomats predict imminent showdown

'There wouldn't be a bridge left standing,' official says of Israeli retaliation

Nicholas Blanford
Daily Star staff

The sounds of construction emanating from both sides of the Shebaa Farms front line over the past week signal that Hizbullah and the Israeli Army are preparing for further fighting, which diplomats believe will lead to an imminent final showdown between the two foes.

The Israeli Army has spent the last week shoring up the defenses of the Jabal Summaqa and Rowsat Allam outposts on the skyline above Kfar Shuba. The sounds of drilling and hammering were clearly audible Thursday from the Lebanese side of the United Nations-delineated Blue Line, although the construction activity is on the other side of the Kfar Shuba heights and out of sight. The building work appears to contradict speculation in the past two weeks that the Israelis are planning to withdraw soon from the occupied farms.

(SNIP)

While diplomatic and security sources are united in believing that Israel and Hizbullah are set for a serious clash, there are differences in how it will occur. Some argue Israel will react if there is another kidnapping of Israeli soldiers or a serious cross-border attack resulting in civilian casualties. In this scenario, Israel would use air power to smash Lebanon's infrastructure. "There wouldn't be a bridge left standing," a European military diplomat said. The purpose of such an operation would be to provoke the Lebanese into blaming Hizbullah for the strikes, thus wiping out the party's domestic support and neutralizing its ability to keep operating along the border.

(SNIP)

Hizbullah's response would likely be devastating in comparison to past rocket attacks on northern Israel. If Hizbullah really does possess long-range rockets, as the Israelis have repeatedly maintained, then Haifa, 40 kilometers south of the border and home to Israel's largest industrial complex, will come under fire for the first time. Some 15 percent of Israel's population would be within range of Hizbullah's rockets. Some diplomats argue that Israel would tolerate the rockets if the military operation led to the undoing of Hizbullah.

The second scenario suggests that Israel will bide its time until after Washington has dealt with Iraqi President Saddam Hussein in the expectation ­ or knowledge ­ that Hizbullah will be the target of phase three in America's "war on terrorism."

(MORE)

3//Sydney Morning Herald June 10 2002
http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2002/06/09/1022982800217.html

GRAND COUNCIL HOLDS KEY TO PEACE IN A LAND THAT DARES TO DREAM But, writes Mark Baker, outside Kabul, anarchy still reigns, crime is rampant and the warlords hold sway.

...Seven months on, Kabul is a city transformed; a once liberal and cosmopolitan capital rediscovering its freedoms after awakening from the long nightmare of war and repression.

(SNIP)

And now, today, an event will begin that many see as the moment when Afghanistan can put
behind 40 years of war and embrace the hopes of a future in peace. In a giant air-conditioned tent erected on a sports ground in suburban Kabul, 1501 delegates will gather for a week-long loya jirga - a traditional grand council tasked with choosing a new head of state, cabinet and parliament to rule the country for the next two years pending general elections.

But Kabul is a deceptive window on the rest of the country and its future.

Beyond the city limits, guarded for now by thousands of international troops, anarchy reigns, crime is rampant and warlords again hold sway in many places where the Taliban at least brought their own harsh brand of law and order.

Across a swathe of eastern and southern Afghanistan, allied air and ground operations continue against remnants of the Taliban and Osama bin Laden's al-Qaeda network, making resettlement and reconstruction impossible for the time being.

In the north, a tense stand-off continues between two ostensible Northern Alliance allies for control of the key city of Mazar-e-Sharif and neighbouring provinces.

In the eastern city of Khost, the Pashtun commander Padshah Khan Zadran still defies the central government as he presses to retain control of the strategically important region on the border with Pakistan in a conflict that has claimed more than 50 lives in recent weeks.

Meanwhile, American and British officials have expressed fears that the anti-American warlord Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, who returned to Afghanistan this year after several years in exile in Iran, is building an alliance with fugitive Taliban and al-Qaeda forces in western tribal areas to mount a challenge to the interim administration.

The New York-based organisation Human Rights Watch warned this week that some warlords were using violence and intimidation to stack the selection of delegates to the loya jirga, and that repression and lawlessness had reached alarming levels in some areas.

"This is a make-or-break time for Afghanistan's future," one of the authors, Sam Zia-Zarifi, said in the group's report.

(SNIP)

Diplomats and Afghan analysts also fear that any deals reached at the loya jirga could easily unravel in the weeks and months ahead, especially with the outside world's refusal to extend its security role beyond Kabul. There are particular concerns that the interim leader, Hamid Karzai - while respected and increasingly popular among all ethnic communities - lacks the muscle to resist if the powerful forces lined up behind him should turn nasty if they do not get all they want from the new order.

(MORE)

4//Pravda 16:03 2002-06-08
http://english.pravda.ru/main/2002/06/08/29982.html

SADDAM IS IN BAGHDAD, BUT THE OPPOSITION IS SOLVING HIS FATE ALREADY
Oleg Artyukov, Translated by Dmitry Sudakov

...Representatives of four largest Iraqi opposition parties conducted negotiations today regarding the preparations to the conference of anti-Baghdad groups and parties. Al-Jazeera reported that the meeting took place in the USA. Representatives of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan ( the leader is Jalal Talabani), the Democratic Party of Kurdistan (the leader is Mustafa Barzani), the Supreme Council for Islamic Revolution in Iraq, or SCIRI (Shiah opposition, the leader is Sayed Mohammed Baqir Al-Hakim) and the Movement for the national consent took part in the discussion. For the time being it is not known, where the anti-Saddam conference will take place. However, it has been reported that the conference will make a decision pertaining to the future political organization of Iraq. Kurds and Shiahs will definitely try to preside over the anti-Saddam coalition, since they have their armed groups. In this connection, the fight for the leadership is inevitable. The opposition has been fighting against Saddam for years, but it failed to achieve any significant results, because there are a lot of contradictions within the opposition and this is its sore problem. It would be enough to say that Talabani's and Barzani's organizations fought with each other, allying with Saddam Hussein one after another. It is hard to believe that they will forget about that longstanding fight overnight, taking into consideration the fact that Kurds are against Shiah's claims for the leadership.

There are almost no doubts that the leaders of the Kurd opposition started those negotiations because of the pressure on the part of the United States, which was doing its best to organize something like the Northern Alliance in Afghanistan. Who knows, if the USA succeeds or not in this respect, but the Iraqi opposition said that they would not ask even a cent of help from the States, although such statements are rather meant for the public opinion of Arab countries, for which the USA is a headache.

Washington will have a lot of problems with the Kurd opposition. Even if Hussein's adversaries manage to overthrow him, there will be no peace and welfare in Iraq. Washington has either to overthrow the regime of the Baghdad dictator and arrange anarchy in Iraq, or not to bother Saddam at all. The latter is not likely to happen.

5//The Guardian Sunday June 9, 2002
http://politics.guardian.co.uk/polls/story/0,11030,730255,00.html

VOTER FURY AT SPINNING CUTS LABOUR POLL LEAD
Gaby Hinsliff, chief political correspondent
The Observer

The popularity of Tony Blair's government has slumped to its lowest level since the fuel protest in 2000 after repeated controversy over Labour's spin tactics.

Its lead over the Tories is down to just six points, with Labour on 39 per cent and the Conservatives on 33 per cent.

This suggests voters are far from ready to forgive allegations of excessive spinning and dishonesty in the Government, despite Stephen Byers's resignation as Transport Secretary.

Forty-six per cent believe the Government is 'mostly or always dishonest and untruthful', says the YouGov poll for the Mail On Sunday.

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6//The Telegraph Sunday 9 June 2002
http://www.portal.telegraph.co.uk/money/main.jhtml?xml=/money/2002/06/09/
cnviv09.xml&sSheet=/portal/2002/06/09/ixport.html

MURDOCH IN EU1.5 BN TV BID
By Mary Fagan (Filed: 09/06/2002)

Vivendi Universal, the financially stretched media giant, has agreed to sell its Italian satellite TV channel, Telepiu, to Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation for Eu1.5 billion (£970m).

The deal gives Murdoch control of both of Italy's two pay-TV operators. He already owns the smaller operator, Stream.

The disposal of Telepiu, part of Vivendi's loss-making TV division Canal Plus, will provide a much-needed lifeline for Vivendi, which has earmarked 100 per cent of the proceeds to pay off part of its Eu17.5bn debt.

Vivendi shares have been falling sharply as investors have become increasingly concerned about the company's stretched balance sheet. Its plight has led to speculation that Jean-Marie Messier, its domineering chairman who turned the group from a utility into the world's second largest media group, would be forced out.

(SNIP)

Relations between Vivendi and Murdoch have been strained for many months. The two are locked in a legal battle over Vivendi's claims that a News Corporation subsidiary is implicated in the pirating of smart card technology used to obtain free access to pay-per-view digital television.

(SNIP)

The deal is Murdoch's first significant investment in a eurozone economy. It will encourage hopes among British ministers that his longstanding opposition to UK membership of the euro will be tempered by his new commercial interests.

News Corporation is acquiring Telepiu in conjunction with a group of unnamed investors. It will emerge with a 50 per cent stake in the combined Telepiu/Stream business.

One potential obstacle is that approval is required from Telecom Italia, the Italian telecommunications giant, which owns half of Stream. Brussels and Italian competition authorities will also have to give their consent.

Over the past year, investors have become increasingly concerned about Vivendi's ability to service its debts. Its board met only last week to discuss a series of measures to reverse a slide in its share price from a high of Eu141 in the spring of 2000 to around Eu30.

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

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