World Media Watch for July 12, 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//Middle East News Online, USA--IRAQ SAYS READY TO RESUME TALKS WITH UN (Meanwhile, Iraqi dissidents, who have been told that the administration of George Bush Jr is "serious about finishing the job" started by Bush Sr more than a decade ago, are putting the odds on an autumn-winter move to topple President Saddam..."Leaks suggest that next October-to-January will be a decisive period, that the operation will take place any time as of October," former Iraqi general Najib Al Salhi told AFP Wednesday before leaving Washington to attend an unprecedented conference of exiled Iraqi officers opening in London Friday.)

2//The Guardian, UK--HEAVY MERDE (...France's millions of other cannabis users can hope for little clemency from the new hardline interior minister, Nicolas Sarkozy. Announcing a massive increase in police funding yesterday as part of the centre-right government's much-vaunted crackdown on crime, Mr Sarkozy insisted that drugs were the root cause of almost all France's street crime.)

3//Asia Times Online, Hong Kong--THE CRIMINALIZATION OF INDIAN POLITICS (The entire Indian polity has thus united to defeat the long-overdue first step toward fighting the scourge of criminalization of politics and widespread corruption. Veteran columnist Inder Malhotra calls this show of unity blood-chilling. Though saddened by this curious crusade, he is by no means surprised. He explains, "Self-preservation and self-service are among the strongest human instincts. Among Indian politicos, this propensity, bordering on constant self-aggrandizement, is much stronger than in any other comparable group anywhere, barring perhaps the tycoons in the United States running entities such as Enron, Worldcom, Xerox and Merck." )

4//News24.com, South Africa--MOMS DEMAND TALKS WITH OIL GIANT (Mothers who have barricaded workers inside one of Nigeria's largest oil terminals to demand jobs for their sons entered the fourth day of their protest on Thursday, demanding talks with Chevron Nigeria's managing director...The women stormed the export terminal on Monday after seizing a boat bringing casual workers from the local Ugoborodu community, which has long claimed Chevron does not do enough for them. They are unarmed and non-violent, but have blockaded administrative facilities at the Escravos tank farm, a dock, landing strip and the site's main gate.)

5//Jane's Intelligence Digest, UK--MUSHARRAF'S REAL ENEMIES (Some Western journalists are now daring to print what JID has been warning for many months: Pakistan is not part of the solution to the threat posed to the West by Al-Qaeda; it is a central part of the problem. Pretending otherwise for reasons of realpolitik - as US Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld was forced to do in June - is not merely dishonest, it will ultimately undermine coalition efforts to combat Bin Laden and his network.)

6//TheNewsmexico.com, Mexico--ARGENTINA'S IMPOVERISHED MIDDLE CLASS LINES UP TO LEAVE (Thousands of Argentines live illegally in North America and Europe, which is why Spain is considering introducing visas for Argentines. Most emigrants want to go to Spain. And most people leaving are middle class because the middle class is becoming rapidly impoverished - and that means the country is losing well-trained people who have no work.)

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1//Middle East News Online (MENO) Thu Jul 11 19:03:57 EDT 2002
http://www.middleeastwire.com:8080/storypage.jsp?id=15097

IRAQ SAYS READY TO RESUME TALKS WITH UN
Publisher: Jordan Times (Amman)

As Russia said it was keen to avoid a conflict with the West over US plans to oust Iraqi President Saddam Hussein's regime, Baghdad said on Wednesday it was ready to resume talks with the United Nations to resolve an impasse on weapons inspections.

"We are ready to discuss this issue with the United Nations ... We have agreed at Vienna talks to continue contacts and discussions," Iraq's Foreign Minister Naji Sabri told Al Shabab television.

A UN team led by Secretary General Kofi Annan and an Iraqi delegation led by Sabri held two days of intensive talks in Vienna last Thursday and Friday but were unable to agree on the return of UN weapons inspectors.

It was the third round this year of high-level talks aimed at getting weapons inspectors back into Iraq after an absence of more than three years. Annan had said before the latest talks that he hoped they would be "decisive".

(SNIP)

Russia seeks to avoid conflict with US over Iraq - Ivanov

In Moscow, Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov said in an interview published Wednesday that his country was keen to avoid a conflict with the West over US plans to oust the Iraqi regime.

His comments in the Izvestia daily interview appeared to soften the official line previously taken by Moscow which included a foreign ministry statement on Tuesday warning such an attack could have "catastrophic" consequences in the Middle East.

"Our goal right now is focused on avoiding complications" with the West over military intervention in Iraq, Ivanov told the daily in a broad-ranging interview.

Asked what Russia would do should an attack on Iraq seem imminent, Ivanov replied: "We will judge the situation by how it develops."

Russia, which is owed eight billion dollars by Iraq, has long sought to persuade Baghdad to allow UN weapons inspectors to return to the country in exchange for a total lifting of sanctions.

Iraqi parliament to meet Monday

A senior MP said Wednesday the Iraqi parliament will hold an extraordinary meeting on Monday to discuss US threats against Baghdad.

It will evaluate "US threats against Iraq and support from certain members of (US) Congress for `Bush's plan for an attack on Iraq'," Salem Al Qubaissi, head of the parliamentary committee on Arab and international relations, said.

(SNIP)

Dissidents put odds on autumn-winter attack

Meanwhile, Iraqi dissidents, who have been told that the administration of George Bush Jr is "serious about finishing the job" started by Bush Sr more than a decade ago, are putting the odds on an autumn-winter move to topple President Saddam.

But opposition figures sounded out by AFP remain in the dark about the course Washington will take to unseat the Iraqi leader.

George W. Bush, whose father led the 1991 Gulf War that evicted Iraqi troops from Kuwait after a seven-month occupation, renewed a pledge on Monday to use "all tools" at his disposal to oust Saddam but skirted a question on whether that goal would be achieved by the end of his first term in January 2005.

"Leaks suggest that next October-to-January will be a decisive period, that the operation will take place any time as of October," former Iraqi general Najib Al Salhi told AFP Wednesday before leaving Washington to attend an unprecedented conference of exiled Iraqi officers opening in London Friday.

"My personal expectation is that an operation would be more likely to take place between next November and March 2003," said Hamed Al Bayati, London representative of the Supreme Assembly for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq (SAIRI), the main Iran-based Shiite Muslim opposition faction.

Election year 2004 would be too risky for the US president. An educated guess would therefore favour the period between the end of November's congressional elections and the months preceding the onset of the region's hot summer, said Bayati, one of a group of opposition figures who met with administration officials in Washington last month.

Bayati said the group voiced fears that the United States "would go half way as it did in 1991 by striking at Iraq while leaving Saddam in place, but US officials stressed that they were serious about finishing the job this time.

"It's a matter of when and how, and they are not excluding any option," he said.

"I figure that the options range from using special forces to encourage a mutiny within the Iraqi army, to an Afghan-style operation in which they would work with the opposition on the ground, to a massive invasion launched from neighbouring countries in the north, west and south."

Salhi, a former commander in Saddam's elite republican guard, said US options ranged from assassination to a coup to a major military offensive, but he expected any action to be "unconventional."

He dismissed as an "old recipe" the contention that Washington was simply looking for a Sunni Muslim military officer like himself to replace Saddam.

The United States has altered its "wary" attitude to Iraq's Shiites - estimated to make up 55-65 per cent of the population - recognising that they are "part of the Iraqi fabric," and it would want any new leader to be acceptable to a majority of Iraqis, he said.

Another prominent Iraqi dissident with close US contacts, speaking to AFP on condition of anonymity, had no doubt that Bush was dead serious about overthrowing Saddam, but said his administration was still working out the way to do it.

A host of factors is being taken into consideration, starting from the position of allies such as Saudi Arabia - "who would dread a Shiite-ruled Iraq" - and ending with questions in the US military about where the involvement of hundreds of thousands of US troops would ultimately lead, he said.

US attempts to enlist neighbouring countries and Iraqi Kurds controlling northern Iraq also have to overcome suspicions about Washington's intentions, he said.

2//The Guardian Thursday July 11, 2002
http://www.guardian.co.uk/elsewhere/journalist/story/0,7792,753584,00.html

Paris dispatch
HEAVY MERDE
Jon Henley

France's new government looks set to take the opposite line from Britain on drugs, handing down stiff penalties even for casual users of cannabis, writes Jon Henley.

A couple of days before the British home secretary, David Blunkett, announced he was reclassifying cannabis as a less dangerous drug, the doorbell rang at Jerome Expuesto's home in Le Tour-de-Salvagny near Lyon.

The gendarmes on his doorstep were there to escort the 29-year-old off to Saint-Paul prison, where he is now serving a three-year term for drug dealing in what many see as the latest distressing injustice in France's increasingly aggressive war on drugs.

(SNIP)

Sentenced to four years, including 18 months suspended, he appealed in 2000 and saw the sentence increased to three years with no remand. His request for a presidential pardon was turned down within days of President Jacques Chirac's re-election last month.

"It's the toughest sentence I've seen in 10 years for this sort of offence," said his lawyer. "The problem is that the extreme common law penalties established in French law with the Medellin cartel and its equivalents in mind are now being applied to very ordinary young French people."

Cannabis - rather unappetisingly known in French as shit - has always been a touchy subject here. Surveys show 31% of French adults have tried it at least once and 14% of 15-19 year-olds are regular users, and yet the former prime minister, Lionel Jospin, prompted howls of media outrage during the recent presidential election campaign when he said smoking a quiet joint was "certainly less dangerous" than having a drink or two before sitting behind the steering wheel.

(SNIP)

Sadly, Jerome and France's millions of other cannabis users can hope for little clemency from the new hardline interior minister, Nicolas Sarkozy. Announcing a massive increase in police funding yesterday as part of the centre-right government's much-vaunted crackdown on crime, Mr Sarkozy insisted that drugs were the root cause of almost all France's street crime.

"The words 'soft' and 'drugs' will always be incompatible," he said. "There is quite simply no such thing as a 'soft drug'. We are determined to fight against drug dealers and against drugs of whatever kind wherever, whenever and however we can."

Several associations of cannabis users - including the Cannabis Information and Research Collective (CIRC), which has sent postcards to all 577 newly elected MPs pleading for a change of heart - say the new administration shows every sign of stiffening rather than relaxing France's drugs policies.

"This government quite plainly prefers repression to prevention," the CIRC said in a statement. "It risks turning France's many cannabis users into scapegoats for the country's crime and insecurity problem. Ten years of work will go up in smoke if police again start pushing soft-drug users underground, where no one can reach them."

3//Asia Times Online Jul 12, 2002
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/South_Asia/DG12Df04.html

THE CRIMINALIZATION OF INDIAN POLITICS
By Sultan Shahin

NEW DELHI - Chor chor mausere bhai. (Thieves are all maternal cousins.)

India was reminded of this old adage early this week with the force of a thunderbolt. As many as 21 political parties representing the entire spectrum of Indian politics came together in a rare show of unity to reject unanimously the Election Commission's (EC's) order making it mandatory for candidates seeking election to declare their financial assets, their criminal antecedents and their educational background along with their nomination forms.

Roughly 10 percent of legislators at both the central and state level are believed to be hardened criminals and "history-sheeters" (those whose history of crimes is recorded in police stations for quick reference when any crime takes place) facing charges of murder, rape and armed robbery. At the last official count, 700 state assembly members and 40 central parliament members had such an unsavory background.

Almost all legislators are, however, believed to be engaged in some kind of corruption. In fact, a legislator routinely embarks on his legislative career by signing a false affidavit claiming to have spent much less money on his election than he has actually done. It is normal for a politician to spend about 50 million rupees (US$1.02 million) during an election. Some spend twice this amount.

It is only natural that they would want to make at least 10 times as much money back during their five years in parliament. This, indeed, is the source of the criminalization of Indian polity, as an honest politician - and there used to be many - can no longer think of entering into the election fray. Businessmen and industrial houses, too, would not support an honest person as he (or an occasional she) would be useless for them once in parliament, in fact he may even become an obstruction that would then have to be removed.

No wonder the normally fractious political class has unanimously decided to supplant the EC's directive, which was based entirely on a May 2 judgment by the supreme (highest) court with what is being touted as a comprehensive legislation to address the question of criminalization and corruption in politics. But the general drift of the discussion has made it clear that although the ostensible purpose of the proposed legislation would be to implement the supreme court judgment, the actual object would be to dilute it so much that its impact would be negated.

(SNIP)

The entire Indian polity has thus united to defeat the long-overdue first step toward fighting the scourge of criminalization of politics and widespread corruption. Veteran columnist Inder Malhotra calls this show of unity blood-chilling. Though saddened by this curious crusade, he is by no means surprised. He explains, "Self-preservation and self-service are among the strongest human instincts. Among Indian politicos, this propensity, bordering on constant self-aggrandizement, is much stronger than in any other comparable group anywhere, barring perhaps the tycoons in the United States running entities such as Enron, Worldcom, Xerox and Merck."

(SNIP)

This popular attitude is generally ascribed to the lack of do's and don'ts in Hindu philosophy. Hinduism recognizes the acquisition of wealth, hankering after sensual pleasures and power, etc, as legitimate goals of life. "If we were to take Hinduism as a whole," says theologian Huston Smith, "its vast literature, its complicated rituals, its sprawling folkways, its opulent art - and compress it into a single affirmation, we would find it saying: You can have what you want."

No restrictions are placed on an individual's pursuit of wealth, power or sex. The idea is that one of these days, if not in this lifetime then in one of the next, he will himself realize the folly of his pursuit and thus spiritually grow to the next stage. Stopping him from his worldly pursuits will only amount to impeding his spiritual progress.

How can any one quarrel with religion? And since one can't, the pursuit of goals enshrined in secular constitutions must take a back seat. Laws or no laws, ordinances or not, ultimately a religious people will defeat secular goals. A supreme court or election commission can perhaps force the government and the political class one day to provide the voters with information about the criminal and corrupt antecedents of the potential lawmaker. But it is the voter who is supreme even under the secular constitution; no one can stop him or her from voting for lawmakers of his or her choice.

4//News24.com (South African Press Association) 1/07/2002 13:39 - (SA)
http://www.news24.com/News24/Africa/0,1113,2-11_1212211,00.html

MOMS DEMAND TALKS WITH OIL GIANT

Lagos - Mothers who have barricaded workers inside one of Nigeria's largest oil terminals to demand jobs for their sons entered the fourth day of their protest on Thursday, demanding talks with Chevron Nigeria's managing director.

"The talks are still continuing, the situation is the same as it was yesterday," said Wole Agunbiade, spokesperson for the firm, a subsidiary of US oil giant ChevronTexaco.

Managing director Jay Pryor was not in Nigeria, he said, but other officials were in talks with leaders of the 150-strong group which has blockaded the terminal.

(SNIP)

More than 700 workers have been trapped in the terminal, which is on an island in a coastal swamp, and operations at the site are severely disrupted.

Chevron Nigeria is the third-largest oil producer in the country. It runs Escravos jointly with the state-owned Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation.

The firm's production is estimated to be about 500 000 barrels a day, with 450 000 normally passing through the besieged terminal, but officials would not confirm this.

The women stormed the export terminal on Monday after seizing a boat bringing casual workers from the local Ugoborodu community, which has long claimed Chevron does not do enough for them.

They are unarmed and non-violent, but have blockaded administrative facilities at the Escravos tank farm, a dock, landing strip and the site's main gate.

Agunbiade said that if any tanker arrived to load oil stored at the terminal for export the firm was confident it could be accommodated. - Sapa-AFP

5//Jane's Intelligence Digest 08 July 2002
http://www.janes.com/security/international_security/news/jid/jid020708_1_n.shtml

MUSHARRAF'S REAL ENEMIES (Non-Subscriber Extract)

Pakistan's self-appointed President General Pervez Musharraf should be a deeply worried man. Internal opposition to his rule is mounting, militants are threatening to assassinate political leaders in Kashmir and even his Western allies are beginning to lose patience with his apparent inability to track down fugitive supporters of the former Taliban regime and the Al-Qaeda network.

(SNIP)

Some Western journalists are now daring to print what JID has been warning for many months: Pakistan is not part of the solution to the threat posed to the West by Al-Qaeda; it is a central part of the problem. Pretending otherwise for reasons of realpolitik - as US Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld was forced to do in June - is not merely dishonest, it will ultimately undermine coalition efforts to combat Bin Laden and his network.

Intelligence reports from Pakistan indicate that Musharraf has surrounded himself with tight security and rarely appears in public. This is an indication of his fear of the rising discontent that is spreading throughout the more militant sector of Pakistani society.

In part, this is the consequence of the general's own policy. He tells Western politicians and diplomats what he knows they want to hear - particularly his repeated promises to crack down on militant groups - yet then fails to implement appropriate measures to target groups such as Harakat al-Mujahideen that are known to have close links with Al-Qaeda and which are reported to be operating quite openly in northern Kashmir.

Musharraf is well aware that actually taking steps to detain these militants would be deeply unpopular with a majority of his citizens. So Islamabad bans the groups in order to appease Washington, while the Pakistani armed forces and the ISI, which both contain a significant number of anti-Western officers and agents, do nothing to combat the activities of Al-Qaeda backed militants.

However, this policy is planting the potential seeds of Musharraf's own destruction. Recent incidents, such as the deaths of 10 Pakistani soldiers during a gun-battle on the Afghan border with Al-Qaeda supporters, merely serve to confirm the mounting conviction amongst the militants that Musharraf's administration is a US puppet. It is the members of these groups who pose the major threat to his personal security.

6//TheNewsmexico.com 7/11/2002
http://www.thenewsmexico.com/noticia.asp?id=30004

ARGENTINA'S IMPOVERISHED MIDDLE CLASS LINES UP TO LEAVE
Markus Rimmele, DPA

BUENOS AIRES - Argentines are leaving the country in droves to escape the continuing economic crisis.

Those with claims to a passport from another country - preferably European - have the best chance. Help with the embassy formalities is available through agencies.

(SNIP)

But people keep applying to leave. The truth is that this former land of immigrants has become a country of emigrants. The queues at the Spanish and Italian embassies grow longer and longer.

There are no statistics on the number of Argentines wishing to flee since the economic crisis began four years ago. The La Nacion daily estimates that 140,000 have departed in the past two years alone. But the real number is probably far higher.

Thousands of Argentines live illegally in North America and Europe, which is why Spain is considering introducing visas for Argentines. Most emigrants want to go to Spain. And most people leaving are middle class because the middle class is becoming rapidly impoverished - and that means the country is losing well-trained people who have no work.

(SNIP)

Things are much easier for Argentina's 200,000 Jews.

Israel, the so-called Alia, wants migrants as a matter of policy. Newcomers are offered free accommodation, financial assistance in the first six months and plenty of help in other ways. Every Tuesday, about 100 Jews board a plane in Buenos Aires to fly to Tel Aviv - three times as many as a year ago.

Better a new life in the Middle East hotspot than misery in Argentina.

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

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

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