World Media Watch for August 23, 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//sia Times Online, Hong Kong--US WILL DELAY ATTACK ON IRAQ AT ITS PERIL (The longer that Washington delays in attacking Iraq, the greater are the chances of a new military, strategic and economic alliance being formed in the Middle East and the Gulf to counter US designs in the region.)

2//The Moscow Times, Russia--ARMING CHINA MAKES U.S. NERVOUS ("Beijing's close connections to terrorist-sponsoring states provide ample reason for concern. ... Foreign companies helping China's military and security apparatus should be denied any participation in U.S. government procurement or development programs..."If there is a conflict over Taiwan, both Taiwanese and U.S. forces will be fighting against Russian weapons," said Richard Fisher, a China military expert with the Jamestown Foundation, a conservative think tank with close ties to the Bush administration. "Russia's arms sales to China amount to gasoline on smoking embers. This is simply unacceptable," he said.)

3//Far Eastern Economic Review, Hong Kong--HOW U.S. FEARS HURT BUSINESS (American companies are crying 'Foul.' As they rush to sell more hi-tech goods to China, some have hit a wall thrown up by a U.S. government worried about national security and suspicious of Chinese intentions. And critics say the strategy isn't even working.)

4//The Dawn, Pakistan--INFORMERS FOUND DEAD NEAR AFGHAN BORDER (Three Pakistani tribesmen found murdered close to the Afghanistan border are suspected of being informers for U.S.-led forces in the region, news reports said Wednesday...Hands, noses and ears of the three were chopped off by the unknown murderers, and U.S. currency was found in the victims' pockets, according to Islamabad's Urdu-language newspaper Ausaf.)

5//Japan Today, Japan--MOONIES ORDERED TO COMPENSATE FOR THREE FORCED MARRIAGES (A lawyer for the three said it is the first time a ruling has recognized the illegality of forced participation in such arranged mass marriages and ordered the Unification Church, whose members are commonly known as "Moonies" after its founder Sun Myung Moon, to pay compensation... Presiding Judge Hirotsugu Koizumi described the mass marriages as illegal and infringing on the concept of freedom in marrying...Koizumi said that in recruiting followers the Moonies simply wanted to get hold of people who would make use of their products, and not because they were sincerely spreading their teachings.)

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1//Asia Times Online Aug 23, 2002
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/DH23Ak01.html

US WILL DELAY ATTACK ON IRAQ AT ITS PERIL
By Syed Saleem Shahzad

KARACHI - The longer that Washington delays in attacking Iraq, the greater are the chances of a new military, strategic and economic alliance being formed in the Middle East and the Gulf to counter US designs in the region.

Preparations for such an alliance have been under way for some time, at the instigation mainly of Saudi Arabia and Iran, but the initiative is gaining pace as US President George W Bush still appears bent on staging a "regime change" in Baghdad to oust Saddam Hussein.

(SNIP)

To counter this, backroom maneuvering has intensified to try to draw together those opposed to the US into an effective grouping. It is envisaged that once this social contract is cemented, a clear divide would emerge between the Arab world and the US. And unlike the initially muted response to the attacks on Afghanistan, the US and expect a far more vociferous, and even physical, reply to moves against Iraq, especially the longer it delays.

(SNIP)

Another example of the changing mood in the Arab world is Zamzam Cola, an Iranian soft drink named after a holy spring in Mecca which has won an enthusiastic reception in Saudi Arabia. Zamzam Cola is now seen as an alternative to Coca-Cola and Pepsi, and has gone on sale in the region as an Arab boycott of American goods gathers momentum. US exports to Saudi Arabia declined by more than 40 percent in the first three months of 2002. Preparations are under way to establish a bottling factory for Zamzam Cola in neighboring Bahrain, where the drink has also proved very popular.

Meanwhile, Asia Times Online spoke to the Iraqi ambassador in Islamabad, Dr Kazim Abdul Hameed Al-Rawi, who is considered very close to Saddam Hussein. The envoy is of the strong opinion that the US has long had designs on Iraq, which is why it has kept up pressure on the country, even after the ceasefire following the Gulf War of 1991.

(SNIP)

The ambassador also scoffs at suggestions that Iraq's political system, which is 30 years old, will be as easily replaced as some in Washington seem to believe, pointing out that it has survived many intrigues in the past, and it will continue to do so.

"These [Iraqi] opposition groups claim that they will topple the government, yet the majority of them have never even visited Iraq. In fact, many of them cannot even speak Arabic or any other local dialect. They are all pampered by the United Kingdom and the US, yet they still number no more than 70," said Al-Rawi.

2//The Moscow Times Thursday, Aug. 22, 2002. Page 1
http://www.themoscowtimes.com/stories/2002/08/22/003.html

ARMING CHINA MAKES U.S. NERVOUS
By Lyuba Pronina
Staff Writer

Officially, Prime Minister Mikhail Kasyanov's three-day visit to China, which began Wednesday, is about trade -- namely, energy, aviation, transportation, electronics, banking and telecommunications.

But the item not on the public agenda is the one worrying Washington and Taipei the most: arms.

Since U.S. President George W. Bush came to power last year, the U.S. defense establishment has taken an increasingly alarmist approach to China's burgeoning defense procurement program, in which Russia, as its main supplier, is playing the leading role. Washington's growing concern over Beijing's buildup -- and Russia's role in it -- is clearly spelled out in two recent reports, one from the Pentagon and the other sponsored by Congress.

"Despite overwhelming U.S. military and technological superiority, China can still defeat the United States by transforming its weakness into strength and exploiting U.S. vulnerabilities through asymmetric warfare ... deception, surprise and preemptive strikes," concluded the U.S.-China Security Review Commission, which is funded by Congress.

In the addendum to the report, one of the authors, Arthur Waldron, went even further, saying China's buildup is aimed at excluding the United States from Asia and establishing the ability to threaten and coerce neighboring states, ranging from Mongolia to Japan to India.

"With respect to China's proliferation behavior, we have all the evidence we need: China is a major source of advanced weapons to terrorist-sponsoring and other dangerous states. ... Far more work is required, both from the commission and the government on China's role (or lack of it) in international terrorism," Waldron wrote.

"Beijing's close connections to terrorist-sponsoring states provide ample reason for concern. ... Foreign companies helping China's military and security apparatus should be denied any participation in U.S. government procurement or development programs."

The main foreign company helping China's military and security apparatus is Rosoboronexport, which dismisses Washington's concerns.

"I think that Russia is not doing anything illegal by [selling arms to China]," Rosoboronexport chief Andrei Belyaninov said Wednesday. "We are acting within the framework of international law."

(SNIP)

"If there is a conflict over Taiwan, both Taiwanese and U.S. forces will be fighting against Russian weapons," said Richard Fisher, a China military expert with the Jamestown Foundation, a conservative think tank with close ties to the Bush administration. "Russia's arms sales to China amount to gasoline on smoking embers. This is simply unacceptable," he said.

"While the Clinton administration chose not to make a public issue of Russian military sales to China, there are some in the Bush administration, especially in the Pentagon, who now want to engage Moscow on the larger costs to Russian security and Asian stability of its military sales to China. This marks the beginning of a real change in U.S. policy," Fisher said.

(MORE)

3//Far Eastern Economic Review Issue cover-dated August 29, 2002
http://www.feer.com/articles/2002/0208_29/p012region.html

HOW U.S. FEARS HURT BUSINESS
By Murray Hiebert/WASHINGTON with Ben Dolven/SHANGHAI

American companies are crying 'Foul.' As they rush to sell more hi-tech goods to China, some have hit a wall thrown up by a U.S. government worried about national security and suspicious of Chinese intentions. And critics say the strategy isn't even working.

(SNIP)

The justification for vigilance is simple: national security. By controlling exports of items considered to have both civilian and military applications--powerful computers, hi-tech telecommunications gear, equipment used in semiconductor manufacturing, and sophisticated machine tools--the U.S. believes it can prevent other countries from upgrading their weapons capability.

What's more, the new administration believes it can do it better than the last, which was perceived by Republican hawks as lax on export controls. U.S. companies say that since Bush took office, and particularly since the terrorist attacks on the U.S. nearly one year ago made national security a driving force in decision-making in Washington, they have faced longer delays, more scrutiny, and more rigorous conditions placed on licences that are approved.

U.S. businesses, struggling to boost global sales in the midst of an economic downturn, complain privately that for every unexpected day spent waiting for an export licence, money is lost. Furthermore, say corporate representatives and former U.S. officials, restrictions don't keep technology out of Chinese hands: They just allow rivals to snare sales from American firms.

(SNIP)

This is certainly not music to the ears of the Bush administration, which is perceived as pro-business. Says a senior Commerce Department official, "We at Commerce are sensitive to the need for U.S. companies to have a level playing field internationally."

(SNIP)

"Licences have gotten tighter with the new administration," says an executive of a U.S. telecoms giant who, like most of the representatives of the 18 U.S. companies and industry associations interviewed for this story, asked not to be identified. "The operating committee is raising questions about commercial products that have long been sold and transferred into China. The nature of these questions indicates that they are throwing up every obstacle they can at us." Spokespersons at the departments of State and Defence have not responded to questions for this article.

(SNIP)

In fact, many analysts question whether the export controls actually work. Lewis, the former official in the State Department's military affairs department, told the U.S.-China Security Review Commission in January that export controls are "irrelevant to Chinese military modernization," adding that "efforts to restrict hi-tech trade are more likely to damage than improve U.S. national security." Because China can get the technology from other countries, Lewis said, the U.S. loses more than corporate sales: It also gives up access and the intelligence-gathering opportunity that comes with it.

(SNIP)

Despite their frustrations, U.S. companies have been reluctant to take their complaints public. Their reasons are twofold: first, they don't want to worsen their working relations with government officials. "We may not like the process, but we have to be careful how vociferously we complain because we have to keep working with these people," says an official with a hi-tech trade association.

The second reason that business isn't protesting loudly is anxiety about being condemned for putting profit above national security. "When the Defence Department comes to the table with security concerns, it's hard for others to fight back," another trade association representative says. "No one wants to be the person who sells something to China and then becomes responsible for [military] proliferation."

4//The Dawn 22 August 2002 Thursday 12 Jamadi-us-Saani 1423
http://www.dawn.com/2002/08/22/top14.htm

INFORMERS FOUND DEAD NEAR AFGHAN BORDER

ISLAMABAD, Aug 21: Three Pakistani tribesmen found murdered close to the Afghanistan border are suspected of being informers for U.S.-led forces in the region, news reports said Wednesday.

Their bodies were found in separate areas in South Waziristan territory bordering the Paktia-Khost region of Afghanistan, where United States forces and allies had hunted for al-Qaeda and Taliban elements.

Hands, noses and ears of the three were chopped off by the unknown murderers, and U.S. currency was found in the victims' pockets, according to Islamabad's Urdu-language newspaper Ausaf.

(SNIP)

U.S. forces are stationed on the Pakistani side to pursue remnants of al-Qaeda and Taliban.

The presence has aroused anti-American sentiment not only among the pro-Taliban Pakistani tribesmen, but within nationalist circles also.

(SNIP)

Ausaf reported a fourth Mehsud man was being held by Ahmadzai tribesmen in the area on the suspicion of being an informer.

The tribe is split whether to execute or to hand him over to the Pakistani government's representative in the territory.

Local customs and traditions, not Islamabad's laws, rule Pakistan's semi-autonomous tribal belt along Afghanistan.

5//Japan Today Friday, August 23, 2002
http://japantoday.com/e/?content=news&cat=1&id=227310

MOONIES ORDERED TO COMPENSATE FOR THREE FORCED MARRIAGES
Thursday, August 22, 2002 at 09:30 JST (Kyodo News)

TOKYO - The Tokyo District Court on Wednesday ordered the Unification Church to pay about 9.2 million yen in damages to three former followers for illegally enticing and forcing them into marriage against their will.

A lawyer for the three said it is the first time a ruling has recognized the illegality of forced participation in such arranged mass marriages and ordered the Unification Church, whose members are commonly known as "Moonies" after its founder Sun Myung Moon, to pay compensation.

(SNIP)

In handing down the ruling, Presiding Judge Hirotsugu Koizumi described the mass marriages as illegal and infringing on the concept of freedom in marrying.

(SNIP)

Koizumi said that in recruiting followers the Moonies simply wanted to get hold of people who would make use of their products, and not because they were sincerely spreading their teachings.

He added that the movement tried to inculcate fear and anxiety in its followers and confuse them enough to prevent them from breaking away.

The Unification Church said it is disappointed with the ruling and will appeal against it after studying the details.

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

Updated listings of Radio for Progressives on the internet at http://www.zianet.com/insightanalytical

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