World Media Watch for June 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//The Independent, UK--BLAIR IN RIFT WITH BUSH OVER ISRAEL (George Bush was facing his first serious rift with Tony Blair last night after Britain joined the European Union and the United Nations in rejecting American calls for Yasser Arafat to be ousted as leader of the Palestinian authority. In a sharp rebuff to President Bush, Downing Street and Jack Straw, the Foreign Secretary, said it was up to the Palestinian people to decide their leader.)

2//The Independent, UK-- WORLD REACTION: "GO ON BLEEDING FOR NOW, THEN EVENTUALLY WE'LL HAVE TWO STATES (Summary featuring quotations from various quarters, Full Text)

3//AfghanNews.Net, Holland--BRITAIN WON'T FUND TURKEY FORCE (The British government said Monday that it would not help finance Turkey's leadership of the peacekeeping force in Afghanistan. Defense Secretary Geoff Hoon said Britain was leaving computer and communications equipment and a fire engine for the use of the 19-nation international force, known as the International Security Assistance Force...Turkey, which is struggling with a deep economic crisis, is worried about the mission's cost and had asked the United States and other nations to provide the Turkish military with satellite communication systems and cargo planes.)

4//Pravda, Russia--BRAZIL: MANOEUVRING BY IMF, WASHINGTON (The International Monetary Fund and Washington begin a campaign of destabilisation against the Brazilian economy as Labour Party candidate Lula stands clear in the opinion polls, with 40% of voting intentions for next October's presidential elections. The traditional closing of ranks by Brazil's entrepreneurial class and foreign investors has predictably begun. The IMF risk factor report for Brazil has inexplicably shot up to 1,728 points, a rating higher than that of Nigeria, which does not service its debt repayments, whereas Brazil does, having reduced its foreign debt from 225 to 208 bn. USD.)

5//The Australian, Australia--EFA ALARM OVER EMAIL SNOOP LAW (CIVIL liberties groups and community legal organisations say clauses in the Federal Government's proposed anti-terror laws that could increase the power of governments to intercept email, and extend the use of existing surveillance systems. Online civil liberties group Electronic Frontiers Australia said confusing wording in the counter-terrorism laws could threaten the security of personal email.)

6//The Times of India, India--RSS, BJP ALLIES OPPOSED TO FDI IN PRINT (TDP MP K Rama Mohan Rao said the intention of any prospective foreign investor would not be profit. "They will come with their political agenda," he said. CPI General Secretary A B Bardhan said the presence of foreign players would "distort our political and economic orientation apart from trying to influence our foreign policy.")

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1//The Independent 25 June 2002 23:00 BDST
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/middle_east/story.jsp?story=309118

BLAIR IN RIFT WITH BUSH OVER ISRAEL
By Paul Waugh, Phil Reeves and Stephen Castle

26 June 2002

George Bush was facing his first serious rift with Tony Blair last night after Britain joined the European Union and the United Nations in rejecting American calls for Yasser Arafat to be ousted as leader of the Palestinian authority. In a sharp rebuff to President Bush, Downing Street and Jack Straw, the Foreign Secretary, said it was up to the Palestinian people to decide their leader.

President Bush's speech delighted the Israeli government, but was greeted with anger and despair in the Arab world, bringing protests that the US is trying to dictate to the Palestinians who should be their leader.

Buoyed by the presidential message, Israeli troops raided the Palestinian Authority's security headquarters in Hebron and killed four policemen, including a senior intelligence officer, in an exchange of gunfire.

Mr Bush's call for a new Palestinian leadership was rejected not only by the Palestinian Authority but by a wide range of world leaders. Kofi Annan, secretary general of the UN, warned last night that President Bush's call for the removal of Mr Arafat could backfire if a more hardline leader was elected. The former US senator George Mitchell, who tried last year to broker a Middle East peace deal, expressed similar worries that Islamic Jihad or Hamas could take over from the PLO leader.

The British Government's stance echoed that of the EU and foreshadowed similar conflict with the US over Third World debt and trade tariffs that could dominate the G8 summit that begins today in Canada. Mr Blair tried to play down differences with the Americans, welcoming the broad thrust of President Bush's strategy, setting out a timetable for Palestinian statehood within three years. But the refusal of both Downing Street and the Foreign Office to endorse the removal of Mr Arafat made it clear that this was the biggest foreign policy clash between America and Britain since 11 September. Mr Blair's official spokesman said that although the Prime Minister believed Mr Arafat should do much more to bear down on suicide bombers, Palestinians had the final say. "In terms of Chairman Arafat, we have always said that it is for the Palestinian people to choose their own leader," the spokesman said. "The British Government uses its words. The American administration uses its words," he added.

(MORE)

2//The Independent
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/middle_east/story.jsp?story=309114

WORLD REACTION: "GO ON BLEEDING FOR NOW, THEN EVENTUALLY WE'LL HAVE TWO STATES (full text)

26 June 2002

Former Senate Majority Leader George Mitchell, who headed the commission that developed the peace plan: "There's a risk that someone from Hamas or Islamic Jihad could succeed Arafat, which would make it much, much worse."

UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan: "President Arafat was chosen freely by the Palestinian people in elections that were widely welcomed by the international community in 1996. He remains their leader and it will be up to them to decide through fresh elections already announced who will lead them in the future."

Hanan Ashrawi, Palestinian legislator: "Bush adopted the Israeli approach by putting preconditions on any type of movement in the peace process, and the preconditions are on the Palestinians only. Bush is presenting a vision without giving us a road map. Instead of taking up the Arab initiative and running with it, he didn't allude to it even obliquely. He based his position on the simplistic polarisation, either you are with us or you are against us. He didn't launch any effective process. He bought more time for Sharon and gave him the green light to continue with these very dangerous policies."

Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak: "The Palestinian Authority has supported this statement. If it has agreed upon it, then we support it, because it is balanced to a great extent... I do not see in this speech the removal of Arafat, but a demand for reforms of the Palestinian Authority and the formation of a new administration."

The Jordanian government: "We urge Israel to live up to this moment in history. Delay is a recipe for disaster."

Yossi Beilin, former Israeli justice minister and an architect of the 1993 Oslo peace accords: "The worst thing we can do is just to say we got a kosher stamp from the US President to do nothing. To do nothing means the continuation of the vicious circle of violence. Since there is no reference to an international conference, Bush is telling the parties to go on bleeding for now, then eventually we'll have two states."

3//AfghanNews.Net Wednesday, June 26, 2002
http://www.afghannews.net/

BRITAIN WON'T FUND TURKEY FORCE
Date: 6/25/02

LONDON -- The British government said Monday that it would not help finance Turkey's leadership of the peacekeeping force in Afghanistan.

Defense Secretary Geoff Hoon said Britain was leaving computer and communications equipment and a fire engine for the use of the 19-nation international force, known as the International Security Assistance Force.

Last week, Turkey took over command from Britain of the more than 4,000 international peacekeepers now in Afghanistan. About 75 percent of Britain's 1,500-strong contingent will leave by the end of the month, while the number of Turkish troops will rise to about 1,400.

Turkey, which is struggling with a deep economic crisis, is worried about the mission's cost and had asked the United States and other nations to provide the Turkish military with satellite communication systems and cargo planes.

The U.S. administration has promised Turkey that it would ask Congress for $200 million in economic aid and $28 million in military aid for Turkey.

(MORE)

4//Pravda 2002-06-25
http://english.pravda.ru/main/2002/06/25/31030.html

BRAZIL: MANOEUVRING BY IMF, WASHINGTON
Marcia Miranda, Brazil

The International Monetary Fund and Washington begin a campaign of destabilisation against the Brazilian economy as Labour Party candidate Lula stands clear in the opinion polls, with 40% of voting intentions for next October's presidential elections. The traditional closing of ranks by Brazil's entrepreneurial class and foreign investors has predictably begun.

The IMF risk factor report for Brazil has inexplicably shot up to 1,728 points, a rating higher than that of Nigeria, which does not service its debt repayments, whereas Brazil does, having reduced its foreign debt from 225 to 208 bn. USD.

The result is a shockwave around the community of investors, controlled by Washington, the exchange rate of the Real (Brazilian currency) falling to an eight-year low of 2.84 to the USD. The message to Brazil from Washington is crystal-clear: Washington does not see with good eyes the eventual victory of Luis Inacio Lula da Silva, the candidate for the Partido dos Trabalhadores (Labour), whose political background has been as a leader of the Brazilian Metalworkers' Union.

This, despite the fact that Lula has repeatedly proved that he will not be the radical leader from the loony left that many of Brazil's corrupt elite, who own 95% of the country's resources while 40,000,000 people live below the poverty line, would like to paint him as. Evidence of this is the electoral alliance with the conservative PFL (Liberal Front Party), a clear indication that Lula is not the radical he is hysterically denounced as being, a clear indication that he is a level-headed, responsible and experienced politician who has a clear vision of how much he can do and where his limitations lie. It is not in his interests to antagonise the entrepreneurial class, and proof of this is the choice of PFL Senator and industrialist Jose Alencar for his Vice President. The motion was carried in the PFL congress by 95 votes in favour and 4 abstentions.

(MORE)

5//The Australian Tuesday, June 25, 2002
http://australianit.news.com.au/articles/0,7204,
4570031%5E15306%5E%5Enbv%5E,00.html

EFA ALARM OVER EMAIL SNOOP LAW
James Norman

CIVIL liberties groups and community legal organisations say clauses in the Federal Government's proposed anti-terror laws that could increase the power of governments to intercept email, and extend the use of existing surveillance systems.

Online civil liberties group Electronic Frontiers Australia said confusing wording in the counter-terrorism laws could threaten the security of personal email.

EFA has challenged the Government on its Telecommunications Interception Legislation Amendment Bill 2002, which is part of a package of anti-terrorism Bills under the Security Legislation Amendment (Terrorism) Bill 2002.

EFA has said such ambiguities could give police powers to force ISPs to open up suspected users' accounts in the course of investigations.

EFA's position was that all methods of private communication should have the same degree of privacy protection as telephone calls, EFA director Irene Graham said. An interception warrant should be necessary if law enforcement agencies wished to intercept emails, voice mails and SMS messages in transit.

The Attorney General's department has rejected EFA's claim, saying the legislation did not allow law enforcement agencies to read emails and SMS messages at whim. Rather, it recognised that an interception warrant was not appropriate for a situation in which no interception was necessary and that other lawful means, such as search warrants, would be more useful, the department said.

Meanwhile, a spokeswoman for Attorney General Daryl Williams, Carina Tan-Van Baren, said border protection agencies were considering ways to improve their ability to carry out counter-terrorism and aviation security roles.

Trials of new systems, such as face recognition, have shown they can improve the capacity of customs and law-enforcement agencies to identify people of interest at the border.
Ms Tan-Van Baren said covert surveillance measures at airports were an enhancement of traditional methods such as scrutiny of passports.

(SNIP)

Damian Lawson, spokesperson for the Federation of Community Legal Centres, has expressed concern about such trials in the context of the proposed anti-terror package.

Ubiquitous use of a variety of systems to survey, record and collate the activities and identities of people posed serious threats to important rights, he said. In the context of the government's anti-terror package, all forms of surveillance including facial recognition could be used inappropriately and probably given too much weight in investigation and as evidence, Mr Lawson said.

There was also a danger that some ethnic groups could be unfairly targeted by such surveillance systems, he said.

"The use of such technologies is invariable framed by the context and power relations in which they operate," he said.

"In practice this could lead to racial profiling and unjustified harassment of particular communities," Mr Lawson said.

6//The Times of India Wednesday, June 26, 2002
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Articleshow.asp?art_id=13994971

RSS, BJP ALLIES OPPOSED TO FDI IN PRINT

NEW DELHI: Parties across the political spectrum have strongly opposed any move to open up the print media to foreign players.

The idea of allowing FDI in Indian publications, they say, is fraught with serious implications for national security and sovereignty. A unique unanimity prevails among the BJP allies and the opposition on the issue. "In principle we are against unrestrained FDI in any economic activity, we are totally against FDI in the field of education as well as information," RSS spokesman M G Vaidya said. He says that if the NRIs want to enter this segment, "we can have a different point of view". The RSS at its national executive meeting on June 29-30 is likely to discuss the issue.

During the long debate on the desirability of FDI in this segment in the recent months, the political parties have held that exposing the print media to outside forces would have a devastating impact on different aspects of Indian life.

"We are not in favour of FDI in the print media, that will lead to the death of local papers," said former BJP president Kushabhau Thakre. "Our main objection to opening up the print media is
from security considerations," said Samata Party spokesman Shambhu Srivastava. Congress spokesperson Anand Sharma reiterated his party's staunch opposition to the FDI in print media.

(SNIP)

TDP MP K Rama Mohan Rao said the intention of any prospective foreign investor would not be profit. "They will come with their political agenda," he said. CPI General Secretary A B Bardhan
said the presence of foreign players would "distort our political and economic orientation apart from trying to influence our foreign policy".

I&B Minister Sushma Swaraj had told a parliamentary consultative committee some time ago that the government still stood by the 1955 Cabinet resolution rejecting foreign participation in the print media.

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

"When there was joy..." a bittersweet picture/remembrance of the good times...at http://www.zianet.com/insightanalytical

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