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http://www.aljazeerah.info October 24, 2002 News |
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Human Price of the Israeli Occupation of Palestine Israeli daily aggression on the Palestinian people Mission and meaning of Al-Jazeerah
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Pravda, 01:14 2002-10-24 A group of between 20 and 30 kamikaze
Chechens stormed a packed Moscow theatre tonight, threatening to blow the
building up unless their demands are met. It is feared that due to the
fact that their demands are unrealistic, they will prefer to become
martyrs, rather than prisoners.
Chechens take 700 hostage MOSCOW, 24 October — Scores of Chechens armed with guns and grenades held hundreds of Moscow theater-goers hostage today, threatening to blow up the building if police tried to storm it. Some hostages who were freed said the group, including several women with some wearing masks and strapped with explosives, burst into the theater in southeast Moscow firing shots into the ceiling and shouting "Stop the war in Chechnya". Moscow city police chief spokesman Valery Gribakin told the state-run Rossiya television channel that according to released hostages the gang was demanding that authorities "resolve the situation in the Chechen republic." "They have grenades and they have guns," Gribakin said. "We are trying to establish contact with them." Russia has been fighting on and off for more than eight years to quell a separatist rebellion in the North Caucasus territory that is still costing lives daily among Russian troops and civilians. Several shooting incidents were reported in different parts of the five-story theater after the gang burst in during the second act of the musical "North-East". But there was no immediate word on casualties in the theater, a bland modern building known as the former House of Culture in Melnikov Street, in southeast Moscow. The group released up to 20 children immediately from among the audience as well as some Muslims. Police said between 400 and 700 people remained hostage while some 150 had been released. One witness said the guerrillas had strapped explosives to the internal supporting columns of the theater to prepare to carry out their threat to blow up the building if stormed by police. The Internet website of the Chechen separatists kavkaz.org said the raid was led by Movsar Barayev, the nephew of feared Chechen fighter Arbi Barayev, who was killed in June 2001. The rebel website identified the women commandos as " 40 widows of Chechen fighters." An anguished hostage, speaking by mobile telephone from inside the theater, pleaded live on NTV television for the security forces not to storm the building. "Please to not start storming. There are a lot of explosives. Don’t open fire on them. I am very scared, I ask you, please do not start attacking", said Tatyana Solnyshkina. As hundreds of heavily armed special forces and police took up position around the theater, President Vladimir Putin rushed to the Kremlin for a crisis meeting with senior security chiefs and his Prime Minister Mikhail Kasyanov. The Moscow hostage-taking incident would be the most audacious such attack carried out by Chechens since the first Chechen war of 1994 to 1996. In 1995 some 120 people were killed after rebels seized a hospital in the southern Russian town of Budennovsk. In 1996 a Chechen group took more than 2,000 people hostage in a raid on the Dagestani town of Kizlyar. A student called Alexei, who was among those immediately released, told reporters the group which burst in shouted out: "Release Chechnya and Russia from Russians. Stop the war in Chechnya." Another teenager released, Denis Afanasyev, told Russian television that the armed gang wanted "the war to be stopped", a clear reference to the protracted secessionist war in Russia’s seething Chechnya province. The man who led the group into the theater first fired a burst of bullets into the ceiling. "He told all the actors to sit down on the front rows. Then women and men came in with masks. Some women were strapped with explosives and they said they would blow up the place in 10 minutes if they (police) started to storm the building," Afanasyev said. A Reuters reporter close to the theater said he had heard four to five gunshots near the building. Other reports said the shots came from inside the theater. Police marksmen took up position on rooftops and other vantage points overlooking the theater. Afanasyev said that the initial assault by the hostage-takers was followed by sporadic shooting in a corner of the main hall, on one of the balconies and behind the stage. Police cleared neighboring buildings, as a security cordon was thrown up around the area. A city bus blocked off traffic while police cars closed off side streets to all traffic except ambulances. Around 50 policemen were on the scene, some marshalling a large crowd that gathered behind the police cordon. A man close to tears told a Reuters correspondent on the spot: "My friend’s wife is trapped inside. She said there are about 700 people trapped inside." That corresponded with the police estimate although the exact number remained unclear. A distraught woman in her 60s said her daughter and two granddaughters were inside the theater on a school trip. "My daughter managed to speak to me on the phone, literally three words. Then they took their phones away. I just don’t know what happened." Another grandmother struggled to get through a police cordon: "Let me through. Let me through. My children are inside. Let me know if my children are on the bus", she said referring to a bus carrying children who had been released.
Facts about Chechnya: Oil-rich region in northern Caucasus
Mountains of southern Russia, 7,720 square miles. The population is estimated
1.2 million people; several hundred thousand have fled region to escape
fighting. Population mostly Muslim with strong religious beliefs.
Clan-type groups with influential elders. The current conflict started when Chechen President Dzhokhar Basayev
declared Chechnya's independence in 1991, following the independence of
other Muslim republics of the Soviet Union. However, Russian did not allow
Chechens to get their independence. Russian troops invaded to oust Basayev
in December 1994, setting off 13-month war that killed up to 30,000. In
1997, Russian soldiers killed Basayev. Fighting resumed in 1999. Chechens
are fighting for independence. Russians are fighting to prevent Chechnya's
independence.
US pro-Israel policy fueling
Arab ire: Saud RIYADH, 24 October — Foreign Minister Prince Saud Al-Faisal said
yesterday that US failure to rein in Israeli military actions against
Palestinians was poisoning Arab opinion toward Washington. In a Reuters interview, Prince Saud also said he was optimistic there
would not be a US-led attack on Iraq, because of US willingness to work
through the United Nations. Asked about anti-American attitudes in Saudi Arabia, one of
Washington’s oldest allies in the Middle East and a key member of the
1991 Gulf War alliance against Iraq, Prince Saud said only one thing
prompted criticism and this was US support for Israel. He said Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon claimed he had full backing
for his actions against Palestinians following a string of bombings.
"If this is not true, we think the United States should deny it. But
Mr. Sharon says he has the go-ahead of the United States and this is what
is poisoning attitudes in the Arab world," Prince Saud said, adding
that Israel used US planes and military equipment for its campaign against
Palestinians. Asked what Washington should do, Prince Saud said:
"Stop Israeli attacks on the Palestinians...and start serious
negotiations for peace." At least 1,625 Palestinians have been killed since the uprising began
in September 2000. Prince Saud said he hoped US President George W. Bush’s willingness
to work through the United Nations on Iraq would not only lessen the
chance of war but remove it altogether. Asked if he believed there would be no war, he replied: "Of
course, I am optimistic. I hope it will lead to a peaceful solution. That
is the best of all worlds." He said he saw no reason for military action against Iraq if Baghdad
responded positively to UN resolutions as it had promised fellow Arab
countries. "Indeed that is what the (US) president has indicated. His
intent is not military action." The UN Security Council has been deadlocked for a month on a new
resolution on sending arms inspectors into Iraq to look for weapons of
mass destruction, with strong opposition from veto-wielding nations France
and Russia to a tough US draft.
US calls Security Council
meeting UNITED NATIONS/WASHINGTON, 24 October — The UN debate on action
against Iraq came to a head yesterday after the United States called a
meeting with the full Security Council to discuss its resolution and
looked set to force a vote next week. "I think that the end is coming into sight," White House
spokesman Ari Fleischer told reporters in Washington. "It is not
there yet, but it’s coming into sight." Fleischer said the outcome
would be "either an agreement or a failure to reach agreement, and it
could be either one right now." But even as the White House pressured the world body to back its
revised proposal aimed at ending a month-long deadlock on action against
Iraq’s suspected weapons of mass destruction, it faced continued
opposition among UN members and only Britain has said it will back the
draft. The revised proposal that drops explicit authorization of force if Iraq
does not comply with UN demands on weapons inspections but leaves the door
open for war is opposed by the other veto-holding countries Russia and
France, at times supported by China. By seeking support in the full Council, the United States is putting
pressure on Russia and France and may be daring them to veto the draft,
diplomats said. US Ambassador John Negroponte could push the resolution to a vote next
week or he could withdraw the resolution entirely, they said. The United
States would then make its own decision about any attack against Iraq,
although going it alone would jeopardize international political support,
they added. Negroponte said the US draft resolution would be discussed but not
necessarily introduced immediately. "Whether we will table a
resolution or simply discuss its content, we haven’t finally decided
that," Negroponte told reporters about the closed-door meeting. The United States accuses Iraq of developing weapons of mass
destruction — a charge Baghdad denies. Faced with stiff opposition, the
Bush administration has dropped an earlier demand for explicit UN
authorization for military action against Iraq. But in insisting on
intrusive UN weapons inspections, the new US draft recalled that Iraq had
been warned of "serious consequences" and said Baghdad was in
"material breach" of UN resolutions, according to the text
obtained by Reuters. Russia and France, backed by China, fear this is a hidden trigger to
attack Iraq, while diplomats said Washington considered it a warning for
Baghdad to take UN Security Council demands seriously. In Baghdad, Iraq accused the United States of wanting war — with or
without Security Council backing. Baghdad’s official Al-Thawra daily
newspaper said in a front-page editorial: "There is no need for the
Security Council to adopt a new resolution...The US objective is to find a
new pretext to launch its aggression on Iraq after all its other pretexts
failed, and to try to find a fake international cover for this
aggression." And Iraqi President Saddam Hussein vowed that Baghdad
was prepared to put up a fight to defend itself. Iraq’s official INA
news agency quoted Saddam as telling an Arab journalist that Iraq
"was determined to fight to defend its principles, goals and
role." US and British warplanes attacked Iraqi air defenses in a
"no-fly" zone south of Baghdad overnight in the second such
strike in two days, the US military said. An Iraqi air defense spokesman
confirmed the raid but said civilian targets were hit. He did not report
any casualties.
US military rethinks invasion
of Baghdad WASHINGTON, 24 October — Ever since the closing days of the war in
Vietnam — when in the 1970s American troops found themselves fighting a
rearguard action in the streets of Saigon — the US military has had a
succession of failed operations involving urban warfare. The most disastrous example was in Mogadishu, Somalia, when in 1993, US
Army Rangers in Somalia got tied down in a bloody fight in the streets of
Mogadishu. For this reason, there is legitimate apprehension among many American
military commanders that an invasion of Iraq, and its requisite ground
action in Baghdad, will likely result in heavy casualties and an uncertain
outcome. Military specialists fear that, despite state-of-the-art weapons
and training, American troops will face real difficulties in urban combat
in the streets of Baghdad. Retired Army Lt. Col. Russell Glen, now an
analyst for urban warfare at the Washington-based Rand Corporation,
recently said US commanders are thinking hard about the Baghdad mission. "The American military has, in the last five years, realized that
this an area that does require a lot more in the way of focus. We moved
away from both the Marines and the Army having doctrines — which before
1998 that was essentially based on the way urban operations were conducted
in World War II — to something considerably more advanced. There’s a
much increased consciousness that this is an area that can pose
considerable problems to the US military." That consciousness has come in part from recent war simulations, where
US commanders are shown examples of what could happen in urban warfare.
One recent and especially alarming study showed that if the "bad guys
in Baghdad" have access to shoulder-fired missiles, as the Iraqis do,
many American helicopters could be shot down. The simulations revealed that US helicopters are very vulnerable in an
urban setting, and predicted that helicopter casualties would likely range
from 50 to 75 percent. As a result of this finding, a new recommendation
has been put to the Pentagon to build more unmanned aircraft, such as the
‘Predator,’ armed for urban warfare with missiles that can be fired
through remote control. This would be a big departure from current US military plans, which for
now seems content to use helicopters in urban situations. Russell Glen
says the lesson to be learned from urban war fighting experience should
not be that helicopters have no place in urban operations, but that
commanders should work harder in finding ways to make helicopter use less
risky. Urban warfare challenges are being studied at the Pentagon, and just
last month the US military adopted new doctrinal guidelines for urban war
fighting. One main conclusion is the understanding that troops should
avoid direct combat in cities as much as possible. But many of those responsible for creating the urban simulated war
games say they are worried that the lessons are not being taken as
seriously as they should be. They say that during the past six years, no
concrete adjustments regarding urban military action have been made within
the military.
Israeli MPs support
deportation OCCUPIED JERUSALEM, 24 October — The Israeli Parliament yesterday
rejected a proposed bill that would ban from the assembly any party trying
to incite the expulsion of Palestinians or Arab Israelis from their land,
officials said. The Knesset voted down the proposal, drafted by the
communist Hadash party, by 51 to 23 out of 74 members present,
parliamentary officials said. Deputies from the right-wing majority parties voted against the motion
which was backed by Arab Israeli deputies and the left-wing opposition
Meretz party, as well as Hadash, which has three seats. Several members of the center-left Labour party, which sits in the
right-wing government of Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, also voted in favor,
although most did not participate in the heated debate. The idea of transfer — moving large segments of the Arab population
either from Israel to the Palestinian territories, or from the Palestinian
territories to Arab states — has gained currency recently in the
country’s right as the low-level war with the Palestinians moves into
its third year. Hadash’s Arab deputy Mohammed Barakeh said that "incitement to
transfer is in fact a call to ethnic cleansing and should be subject to
Israeli law which bans any incitement to racial hatred." Justice Minister Meir Sheetrit said that a call for "voluntary
transfer" could be considered legitimate, saying it was no more
shocking than calls by the left to expel 200,000 Jewish settlers living in
the occupied Palestinian territories. Recent polls show that 20 to 30 percent Israelis favor some form of
transfer, whose champion Rehavam Zeevi, a former general and
ultra-nationalist tourism minister, was assassinated last year in revenge
for an Israeli target killing of a Palestinian activist. At the last general election in 1999, Zeevi’s far-right National
Union party won four seats on its platform to "transfer"
Palestinians abroad. His successor Benny Elon advocates the same position. After two years of the latest Palestinian uprising and the failure of
the army’s reoccupation of the West Bank to stop bombings, the concept
has gained new currency. "At the beginning of the intifada, one of
the most popular slogans among the right wing, was: ‘Let the army win
the war.’ You don’t hear that anymore," says Danny Rubinstein, an
expert on Palestinian affairs at the Haaretz daily. "People think: ‘We won, so what’s going on here with this
victory if we can’t stop the intifada.’ So in the right-wing corner,
you see graffiti slogans for transfer. It’s become more popular to talk
about it." US special envoy William Burns arrived here to push a new peace
roadmap, but Israel’s leadership was due to give the plan a frosty
reception. Defense Minister Binyamin Ben Eliezer, who is expected to meet
Burns today, denied Washington had leaned on Israel to stay its hand after
Monday’s bombing. "The army will react at the time and place of its
choosing," said Ben Eliezer. Burns has been touring the region touting a roadmap to tackle the
Palestinian uprising. The assistant secretary of state for the Near East
is discussing the blueprint of the diplomatic "quartet" of
Washington, Moscow, the European Union and United Nations which aims to
establish a Palestinian state alongside Israel by the end of 2005. But the daily Haaretz quoted Sharon, who will meet Burns this evening,
as slamming the plan, which calls for a Palestinian state with temporary
borders by 2003. "It’s not credible that Israel takes irreversible
steps while the other side only makes statements," he was quoted by
the daily as telling a delegation of American Jews. Khaleej Times, 10/24/02
AMMAN - A new draft resolution submitted by Washington to fellow permanent members of the UN Security Council constitutes a "declaration of war", Culture Minister Hamed Yusef Hammadi said on Wednesday. "This draft resolution amounts to naked aggression and a declaration of war against Iraq," Hamadi told reporters on the sidelines of an Arab culture ministers' conference here, in the first official reaction to the new text. "President George W. Bush wants to use the United Nations as a tool to attack Iraq but this tool does not want to play his game," he said, noting continued French and Russian opposition to the US draft. "The United States intends to invade Iraq, without or without a Security Council resolution." - AFP
US envoy in Israel with peace "roadmap"
JERUSALEM - US envoy William Burns arrived in Israel on Wednesday armed with a peace "roadmap" aimed at ending two years of Middle East conflict as Washington courts Arab support for a possible war on Iraq. A US embassy spokesman said Burns was expected to hold talks later on Wednesday with Israeli officials, including Foreign Minister Shimon Peres, and would meet Palestinian officials on Thursday. Peres told Israel radio: "We have accepted President Bush's vision. What I can say is that the roadmap given to us can be considered a draft and they expected us to submit our remarks by December." US President George W. Bush said in a speech in June that the Palestinians should choose a leadership "not compromised by terror". The plan Burns is carrying is expected to map out a way to establish a Palestinian state by 2005. Burns arrived in Israel in the wake of a Palestinian suicide bombing on Monday that killed 14 people, the deadliest attack in four months. On a tour of the region before arriving in Israel, Burns called the bombing "reprehensible" and a blow to the goal of Palestinian independence. He called on both sides for restraint to help advance toward a Palestinian state and regional stability. Israeli Defence Minister Binyamin Ben-Eliezer said on Tuesday Israel was running out of military options to combat suicide bombings and suggested it may be time to return to diplomacy. Washington sees the Israeli-Palestinian conflict as a source of discord as it seeks to persuade Arab states of the need for a possible military campaign against Iraq over its alleged development of weapons of mass destruction. "If we are to succeed in ending occupation, building two states and resuming progress toward comprehensive peace it is critically important to stop the violence that has done so much to undermine legitimate Palestinian aspirations," Burns told reporters in Damascus on Tuesday. "There has been far too much suffering and bloodshed on both sides and both sides have an obligation to make it stop." LIMITED ISRAELI RESPONSE The militant Jihad group said two of its members carried out Monday's suicide attack in Israel as revenge for Israel's assassination of its founder in 1995 and recent raids which have killed Palestinian civilians and combatants. Israel responded to previous attacks with tough army assaults. But this time, Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, mindful of US desire to keep a lid on Middle East violence, refrained from swift retaliation. Israeli forces mounted only limited operations in the West Bank and Gaza Strip on Tuesday. A tank force thrust into a neighbourhood in the southern Gaza town of Rafah and destroyed the family home of a militant killed in a shootout with the army recently. Palestinian hospital officials said that 20 people were injured when the explosion rocked three nearby houses. Speaking on Israeli television on Tuesday night, Ben-Eliezer said Israel's lack of military options to stop suicide bombings indicated it may be time to explore a return to peacemaking. "In effect, our inventory of what more can be done is running out," Ben-Eliezer, Labour Party leader in the coalition government, said. "I think that...it would be worthwhile to begin some soul-searching and say that perhaps this is the time to begin to present our diplomatic agenda." The statement exposed cracks in Sharon's coalition. He has said peacemaking cannot resume until anti-Israeli violence ends and Yasser Arafat is replaced as Palestinian leader. Arafat, under pressure for democratic reforms, has decided the makeup of a new Palestinian cabinet and will present it to parliament early next week for approval, officials said. The United States has conditioned the creation of a Palestinian state on reforms to Palestinian institutions, especially security services, and a change in leadership. - Reuters
Burns: I conveyed Bush's vision SyriaTimes, 23-10-2002
US Assistant State Secretary for Middle East Affairs William Burns said talks conducted on Tuesday with President Bashar al-Assad and the Foreign Minister Farouk al-Shara were frank and useful. Burns said he, during the meeting, conveyed President George Bush's vision on establishing an independent Palestinian state and on achieving progress with the objective of attaining a comprehensive Middle East peace based on the Madrid conference terms of reference, the land for peace principle, UN resolutions 242, 338 and 1397, President Bush's speech on ME and the Beirut summit Arab peace initiative. In a news conference held here at the American Cultural Center on Tuesday, Burns referred to efforts being made by the four-way committee as regards the ME peace process and to the necessity for all parties to abide by their obligations with a view to terminating the suffering of the Palestinian people living under Israel's occupation and to establishing peace and prosperity in the region. Violence and terrorism should be halted and both the Israeli and Palestinian sides have to honour their obligations, Burns said, recalling Washington's commitment to end occupation and to set up two Israeli and Palestinian states living together in peace and security. The American official said he renewed his country's stand on the importance of issuing a new UN Security Council on Iraq and of obtaining a full Iraqi commitment to implementing the Security Council resolutions. Burns said the war is neither imminent nor inevitable. He also said no decision is yet made to strike at Iraq as his country is still committed itself to the safety of the Iraqi territories and to Iraq's stability. On the availability of any American guarantees connected with what was achieved on the Syrian-Israeli track, Burns said the US is determined to go on with achieving progress on what was attained in the past and on reactivating a new political march eventually aimed at establishing the hoped-for comprehensive peace.
US threats will hamper peace talks: Sudan
KHARTOUM - A Sudanese minister said a US law that might lead to sanctions on Sudan would only hamper talks to end its 19-year civil war and showed US bias. Under the Sudan Peace Act, signed by US President George W. Bush on Monday, Bush could take steps to block oil revenues and loans through international financial institutions, seek a UN arms embargo against Sudan and downgrade diplomatic ties if he finds the government is impeding peace efforts. "If the aim of this message is to add more pressure on the Sudanese government so that it can accept any kind of peace, then this step would only lead to a stalemate in the peace process," Foreign Minister Mustafa Osman Ismail said late on Tuesday on Sudanese television, monitored by the BBC. The government and the southern rebel Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA) resumed peace talks in Kenya this month aiming to end the war that has killed two million people. Analysts say US pressure has played a key role in bringing the two sides together to end the war in Africa's biggest state. "The successive steps taken recently confirm, day after day, that the neutral role which we had been expecting from the US administration regarding the peace process is turning out to be negative and is biased in favour of the rebel movement," Ismail said. The SPLA is seeking more autonomy for the mainly Christian or animist south from the mostly Muslim, Arabic speaking north. Oil, ethnicity and ideology have complicated the conflict. A truce -- the first in the 19-year war -- was supposed to begin on last Thursday for the duration of the five-week talks, with an option to extend the ceasefire until the end of the year. But both sides accuse the other of violations. Ismail also dismissed a move by the United States to add 12 Sudanese corporations to a list of entities whose assets have been blocked. He said few, if any, of the firms had assets in the United States. "I am very confident that most of these organisations, if not all of them, have no assets in the US market that the US administration could freeze," Ismail said. The US Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control, which enforces sanctions, said on its Web site dated Monday it had added 12 bodies, including the state broadcasting firm, a petroleum company, a sugar company and a cigarette firm. Sudan is rich in oil with proven reserves of more than 1 billion barrels, generating revenue the Khartoum government has used to buy new weapons. The United States imposed sanctions on Sudan in 1997, charging Khartoum with "international terrorism" and trying to destabilise its neighbours, among other issues. - Reuters
Trigger-happy Iraqis told to hold their fire
BAGHDAD - Saddam Hussein has told the men who keep firing in the air to celebrate his new seven-year mandate as Iraqi president to keep their bullets for the enemy. State television broadcast on Tuesday night a statement from the presidential office imposing "a ban on shooting to celebrate the results of the presidential referendum" on October 15. Shooting continued to ring out around Baghdad and other cities days after the ballot. "Our great, faithful and honest people have the right to rejoice after they expressed a noble position on the Great Allegiance Day," the statement said referring to the official 100 percent vote and 100 percent turnout. "The people expressed happiness in various ways. We wished shooting was not among these, because shooting haphazardly is an uncivilized phenomenon in today's world and because dear ones may get hurt as a result. "Everyone should save their guns to terrorize the enemy of God and their enemy, should the evildoers entertain the idea of trespassing on Iraq, its sovereignty, security, and independence," said the statement signed Ahmad Hussain Khudair, chief of the presidential office. - AFP
Bahrain election boycott campaign draws thousands to
rally
MANAMA - Tens of thousands of Bahrainis turned out for a rally overnight Tuesday-Wednesday in a show of strength by four political groups who are boycotting Thursday's elections, the first in nearly three decades. The organisers, including the Islamic National Accord Association (INAA), the main political formation of Bahrain's majority Shiite Muslim population, estimated the crowd at 75,000. "Your presence in, such numbers is an eloquent message that this faithful, living nationalist force cannot be marginalised," said INAA president Sheikh Ali Salman. "To come here, you had no free transport, no stamp on your passports and no honorary certificates," added the Muslim preacher. He was referring to a decision by the election commission to lay on transport, to stamp passports and hand out certificates to people who do vote for a new parliament. "Of course, we will be outside parliament which will be born handicapped and will be unable to grow and evolve normally," Sheikh Ali said. "But we promise the people and the government to continue to defend in a peaceful and civilised manner the 1973 constitution and to consolidate national unity. The four boycott groups are protesting an amendment to the 1973 constitution stipulating that legislative power will be split equally between an elected chamber and a consultative council appointed by King Hamad. They are also displeased that the division of the Gulf archipelago into 40 constituencies did not take into account demographics and the size of each electoral area, arguing there will be a situation whereby some MPs are elected by 12,000 voters and others by only 500. The sheikh nonetheless paid tribute to King Hamad, who has pushed through democratic reforms leading to the restoration of parliament, saying: "Thank you your majesty, without you we would not have been able to meet today in such large numbers." He urged people to disperse "calmly and in peace" from the rally held in Juffair quarter, home to a giant US naval base where the Fifth Fleet is headquartered. The United States had warned its citizens to avoid the area in the Bahraini capital where the rally took place, saying US officials feared it could turn into an anti-American demonstration. In a notice to US citizens, the US embassy in Manama said a large crowd was expected and that it had the potential to deviate from its planned agenda to discuss the upcoming election. "While the purpose of the rally is to discuss local political issues in anticipation of this weekend's elections, there remains the possibility that anti-American sentiments may be expressed," the embassy said. "In view of the possibility that events may proceed in unanticipated ways, Americans are advised to avoid the area of Juffair to the extent possible tonight," it said. "Those Americans who are in Juffair by necessity should exercise caution and avoid large crowds."- AFP
US puts pressure on UN over Iraq
DOWNINGTOWN (Pennsylvania) - The United States warned yesterday that the United Nations 'does not have forever' to pass a new resolution aimed at disarming Iraq, and strove to win support for the measure from wary allies. "We will continue to work in the United Nations," White House spokesman Ari Fleischer told reporters on Air Force One as US President George W. Bush travelled to Pennsylvania. "It is coming down to the end. The United Nations does not have forever, and we'll continue to work it and see when we get an agreement, if we get an agreement, how to proceed." Anxious to get quick approval for any future action against Iraq, the United States on Monday gave the other four permanent Security Council members a new draft resolution, but no decisions were reached. The new US draft obtained by AFP yesterday sets strict conditions for UN weapons inspections in Iraq and a tight timetable for starting them. While the draft does not spell out the harsh consequences which Mr Bush has said would follow Iraq's failure to comply, it uses language associated with the use of military force. In a concession to France, China and Russia, the draft would allow the United Nations a greater role in the process leading to a military attack on Iraq. But it stops short of saying that force must be approved by the council. The draft begins by recalling that in its Resolution 687, adopted after a US-led coalition drove Iraqi forces out of Kuwait in the 1991 Gulf War (1991), the council declared that a ceasefire would be based on Iraq's acceptance of its obligations to dismantle its weapons of mass destruction. The draft "decides that Iraq is still, and has been for a number of years, in material breach of its obligations," in particular by failing to cooperate with United Nations arms inspectors. Recalling also that "the council has repeatedly warned Iraq that it will face serious consequences as a result of its continued violations," the draft goes on to give Iraq 30 days in which to make "a full and complete declaration" of its weapons of mass destruction. It gives the UN Monitoring, Verification and Inspection Commission (Unmovic) and the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) another 45 days to start work once Iraq has done that. Iraq would have seven days from the moment the draft was adopted as a council resolution in which to accept its terms. Iraq told the UN General Assembly on September 16 that it would let the arms inspectors back, but it has failed to explicitly confirm practical arrangements agreed at a two-day meeting in Vienna two weeks later with Unmovic chief Hans Blix and the director-general of the IAEA, Mohammed El-Baradei. The draft endorses the agreement as set out in a letter from Mr Blix and Mr El-Baradei and says it shall be binding on Iraq. The inspectors must have "immediate, unimpeded, unconditional and unrestricted access to any and all" sites they wish to inspect, the draft says. It adopts other tough conditions for inspections and in fact if not in word rescinds a February 1998 agreement giving special status to eight presidential palaces and their surrounding areas which Iraq tried to declare off-limits. - AFP
Revised resolution not acceptable: Russia
MOSCOW - A revised US resolution on Iraq is not acceptable to Russia, Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov said yesterday. "The US resolution project which was presented yesterday so far does not correspond to the criteria (for a settlement of the Iraqi crisis) which Russia has put forward and by which it stands," the Interfax news agency quoted Mr Ivanov as saying. Mr Ivanov added that he had discussed the Iraq situation by telephone with US Secretary of State Colin Powell and French Foreign Minister Dominique de Villepin. He said in Luxembourg that France was "examining it with the aim of reaching an overall balance which is acceptable to all parties." He added: "Some progress is still needed and so we have much work to do." - AFP
S Korean leader opposes sanctions against
North "There are three ways to solve this issue -- war, economic sanctions and dialogue," Kim was quoted as saying, addressing leading candidates in presidential elections due this year. "War can bring about horrible results and economic sanctions may let North Korea free (to develop its nuclear arms)." Kim stressed: "What I firmly believe is that it should be settled through dialogue, not economic sanctions or war." The South Korean leader's comments, made in a statement, is seen as indicating his line on how to solve the issue, before holding a flurry of talks with world leaders. He is due to meet leaders of the United States, Japan and other countries during an Asian-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum summit in Mexico at the weekend. The United States last week revealed that North Korea had admitted to pushing ahead with a nuclear weapons program using enriched uranium in violation of its safeguard accord agreed in Geneva in 1994. US President George W. Bush has said he wants to solve the North Korea issue peacefully, but economic sanctions still remain as a possible option. But the South Korean leader opposes the idea of taking economic sanctions. "Chances are high that to scrap the Geneva agreement through economic sanctions would set North Korea free in relation to the nuclear arms," Kim said. He said he wants to discuss the nuclear issue with world leaders during the APEC forum, but his country should be in the center of efforts to settle it. "We would appreciate cooperation with the United States and Japan to resolve the Korean peninsula issue, but no matter what it is, I think we should be the key player," Kim said. Bush travels on Saturday to Mexico's Los Cabos resort for the annual APEC forum, which the US officials said may be dominated by Iraq, the war on terrorism, and North Korea. One major issue is whether the United States will resume a dialogue with North Korea aimed at securing a final peace agreement on the Korean peninsula and the future of a five-billion-dollar project to build two nuclear reactors for Pyongyang, part of the 1994 deal that was to have frozen its nuclear weapons program. The United States has already scrapped plans for the time being to engage in a dialogue with the North under which it would offer economic and diplomatic benefits in exchange for government and military reform. - AFP US cannot understand events in Mideast — Assad Jordan Times, 10/23/02
DAMASCUS (AFP) — Syrian President Bashar Al Assad told US Middle East envoy William Burns on Tuesday that “the United States does not seem able to understand events in the Middle East,” official Syrian radio reported. He also called for Washington to act “with wisdom” over a possible strike on Iraq. “The US administration must act with wisdom because it does not know what will be the repercussions in the Middle East of an attack,” he said. “To plunge into the moving sands of Iraq will be more difficult for the United States than those of Afghanistan. Nobody will be able to stop such a dangerous (attack) nor control its outcome,” warned Assad. Burns said the United States was aware of the concerns of Iraq's neighbours in case of US military action. The United States has “made it clear about its commitment to the territorial integrity of Iraq and to its stability, he said. But “war is not imminent or unavoidable. President Bush has made it clear. We and our partners in the international community want to see full Iraqi compliance,” he said. A UN Security Council resolution on Iraqi disarmament sought by Washington and London is aimed at “sending as strong as possible an international message to the Iraqi regime to must comply fully,” he said. On the Arab-Israeli conflict, Assad was also critical of the biased US policy, saying: “The United States seems incapable of understanding the reality of the Middle East, and that is dangerous. “Because that means that US policy in the Middle East is not founded on the veracity of events but rather on biased sources, particularly Israeli,” he was quoted as saying. “The American vision of a Palestinian state is not sufficient, the United States must intervene rapidly to end the war of extermination being waged by (Israeli Prime Minister) Ariel Sharon against the Palestinian people.” Later in Beirut, Burns called Tuesday for a “fair and peaceful” settlement to the crisis over a Lebanese water project which has angered Israel. “It gave me an opportunity to stress the commitment of the US to a fair and peaceful resolution of the water issue in the south, working closely with the Lebanese government, with Israel, with the United Nations and the European Union,” he said after talks with President Emile Lahoud. On Oct. 16, Lebanon inaugurated a project to exploit the Wazzani border river waters despite threats of war from Israel that brought about a visit by US State Department water expert Charles Lawson. Burns said he also stressed “the importance to all parties of maintaining a relative quiet along the blue line” established by the United Nations to demarcate the Lebanese-Israeli border after the Jewish state ended its 22-year occupation of southern Lebanon in May 2000. “I would like to stress our strong commitment to our bilateral relations with Lebanon, to the growth and development of the Lebanese economy, based on the impressive economic reforms that the government of Lebanon is undertaking now,” he said. Burns said that his talks with Lahoud also tackled Bush's views on Iraq. “We reviewed the efforts we're making on the issue of Iraq, the president's commitment to trying to achieve a strong new UN resolution, the president's statements that war was not imminent or inevitable, was really the last resort, but that the bottom line remains that Iraq must comply with its obligations fully,” he said.
The two faces of Bush's 'axis of evil' Jordan Times, 10/23/02
WASHINGTON (AFP) — Iraq and North Korea come from the same "axis of evil" but President George W. Bush made clear Monday that he is using "tactics" at opposing ends of the spectrum. Bush is confronting Iraq's "evil" with a mounting threat of war. He said Monday that Stalinist North Korea can be disarmed "peacefully." Iraq, Iran and North Korea were lumped together in the "axis of evil" by Bush at the start of the year. All were accused of developing and spreading weapons of mass destruction that threaten the Western world. Conscious of accusations of double standards, national security adviser Condoleeza Rice put the administration's case to apply a dual policy. "These are not comparable situations. They're dangerous, both of them dangerous. But we believe that we have different methods that will work in North Korea that clearly have not and will not work in Iraq," she said Sunday. Rice emphasised the US view that Iraqi President Saddam Hussein has been flouting UN disarmament resolutions for 11 years and that Washington has tried "everything" to reduce the alleged Iraqi "threat." The United States has been pressing the UN Security Council to pass a tough resolution on Iraq and the White House said Monday that a breakthrough was imminent. "But we believe that we have different methods that will work in North Korea that clearly have not and will not work in Iraq," Rice said. Bush said that North Korea was "a chance for people who love freedom and peace to work together to deal with an emerging threat. I believe we can deal with threat peacefully, particularly if we work together." The US has a longstanding policy of coordinating policy on North Korea with South Korea and Japan. Deputy secretary of state for disarmament, James Bolton, was to be sent to Asian and European capitals for consultations on how to handle the prickly North Korean regime. Bush will also discuss the isolationist Stalinist state at an Asia-Pacific leaders summit in Mexico this week, Secretary of State Colin Powell said Sunday. Powell said the United States considers a 1994 deal freezing Pyongyang's nuclear weapons programme as "nullified" but that Washington would not immediately renounce the so-called Agreed Framework. "When we told North Korea a couple of weeks ago that we knew that they were participating in the enrichment of uranium, which was in violation of a number of agreements to include this one, they first denied it, then admitted it and said, "And therefore the agreement is nullified," Powell told ABC. "When you have an agreement between two parties and one says it's nullified, then it looks like it's nullified." Under the accord signed in Geneva in 1994, North Korea was to freeze its nuclear programme in exchange for two new light-water reactors, which produce less weapons grade fuel than its old graphite reactors, as well as fuel oil for heating and electricity production. The New York Times quoted unnamed senior officials as saying Washington has decided to halt annual shipments of 500,000 tonnes of fuel oil to Pyongyang. Powell indicated no decision had been taken and that Washington would "not take immediate, precipitous steps." Iraq says oil, Israel are driving force behind US threats WASHINGTON (AFP) — The United States is threatening Iraq because of “oil and Israel” not because of any concern over Iraq's secret weapons programme, Deputy Prime Minister Tariq Aziz said in an interview published in the New York Times on Tuesday. Aziz accused Washington of treating Iraq and North Korea differently even though it accused them both of pursuing weapons of mass destruction. President George W. Bush said Monday he believes that North Korea, which has admitted that it has been pursuing a secret nuclear arms programme, can be disarmed peacefully. “North Korea has admitted to having a secret nuclear programme. The United States is not asking that North Korea be inspected in the way they are asking for Iraq to be inspected” Aziz said. “Why? Because there are two things absent in North Korea: Oil and Israel. The reason for this warmongering policy toward Iraq is oil and Israel” he added. The Iraqi official also said Washington was seeking a pretext for a new war with Iraq so that President Saddam Hussein can be overthrown. “The inspectors will find that all the talk of Iraq stockpiling weapons of mass destruction is simply a lie, and put by Bush and (British Prime Minister Tony) Blair as a pretext for staging a war” he insisted.
Egypt court urges end to 21-year emergency as it frees 101 Islamists Jordan Times, 10/23/02
ALEXANDRIA (AFP) — An Egyptian court of exception called on MPs to lift a state of emergency in force since the assassination of President Anwar Sadat in 1981 as it ordered the release Tuesday of 101 members of the banned Muslim Brotherhood. The high state security court also called on the authorities to sharply reduce the growing number of cases referred to it as it acquitted 35 of the defendants and ordered the other 66 released on time served, court sources said. The competence of Egypt's courts of exception, whose verdicts cannot be appealed, should be “limited to trials of exceptional cases” posing a threat to national security, the court said in its verdict in the case which arose from a contested byelection here in June. The defendants celebrated the verdict with shouts of Allahu Akbar (God is greatest), the sources said. The 66 who were convicted were sentenced to just three months in prison, having already spent four months in custody. The defendants had been charged with “stirring up discord and undermining security” after police accused them of attacking polling stations, damaging buses and blocking traffic during the June byelection. Candidates from President Hosni Mubarak's ruling National Democratic Party won the vote, beating out 20 other candidates, including two backed by the Brotherhood. The pan-Islamic movement has long been banned here but some of its activities are tolerated. Seventeen of Egypt's 454 MPs were elected as independents with its open backing. In recent months the authorities have stepped up their actions against the movement, arresting eight members after a demonstration last week in support of the two-year-old Palestinian uprising. They included the son of an MP and, for the first time ever, a female supporter of the Brotherhood. Egypt's increasing use of courts of exception has drawn growing criticism from rights groups. On Sunday, 22 Egyptians and three young Britons went on trial before the supreme state security court in Cairo, accused of belonging to the banned Islamic Liberation Party. All of the accused pleaded not guilty and one of the Britons, Reza Pankhurst, said he and fellow defendants had been subjected to prolonged torture following their arrest.
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