Jan 5, 2003 Op Eds

Jan 5, 2003 Opinion Editorials http://www.aljazeerah.info

The news was finally out. Stockholm announced Jimmy Carter as the winner of the Nobel Peace Prize for 2002. I glued myself to the television set waiting for the American reaction. I checked into every bit of news coming out from America but in vain.

I waited to hear President Bush’s reaction to Sweden’s massive insult. Surely he would be enraged at this most startling of news. I would have thought that he would, at the very least, add Sweden to the trio nations that make up his Axis of Evil and announce an economic embargo against it. After all Sweden did go against his “vision” and choose someone other than Ariel Sharon, “his” man of peace.

I begged Mr. Bush to take a stand, take action and do something but he disappointed me and let me down leaving Sweden untouched.

Sharon’s daily killing average has been improving, bless his little wicked heart, he is inching his way toward securing himself an honorable place in the Moron Hall of Fame right there between loan sharks and child molesters.

The career of Ariel Sharon has been nothing but bloody and sick. A man who killed in cold blood Egyptian POWs in the Sinai Peninsula during the 1967 war, he later topped it with the brutally orchestrated massacres at the Sabra and Shatila refugee camps. And now he is on a daily craze, massacring Palestinians in such a politically correct manner that his killers don’t discriminate between men or women, young or old, normal or handicapped. He has done it in such a way that every proponent of the affirmative action law would be proud of. After all, one would not find such an equal opportunity killer everyday who carries out his duties so effectively. But of course Sharon, unlike Saddam, never attempted to kill President Bush’s dad, that’s why he can get away with it!

Sharon has contributed more to violence, wars, hate and extremism than Saddam ever has. This is an undisputed fact to anyone with objectivity and moral decency.

For America to choose to turn away from its responsibility as the sole global superpower and not address this issue and act upon it, is nothing but hypocritical and shameful.

It is not merely Saddam who should go; Sharon should go too. Any solution short of that is biased, absurd and wicked.

Venezuela: What's the way out?
Arab News, 5 January 2003

The general strike in Venezuela, already disastrous in economic terms, is threatening to turn even uglier, now that the first two lives have been lost in a mysterious shooting into a crowd of demonstrators. The strike has already polarized Venezuelan society into the predominantly poor supporters of President Hugo Chavez and the middle classes and the upper class elite, who are resisting the president’s proposed reforms.

Part of Chavez’s problem is that he is a military man, used to giving orders and having them carried out. A modern industrial democracy does not work that way. What he has very probably achieved by his headstrong behavior is throw away the chance to engineer long-overdue changes. It seems inconceivable that any sort of settlement of this bitter general strike will lead to the sort of consensus necessary to implement more than the most superficial of reforms.

The concern now is that the strikers are now calling on the armed forces to join them. This is the point where their protests depart from the legitimate. It is not the business of armed forces to involve themselves in politics. Latin America has suffered enough from the maladministration of military men. If the strikers cannot attain their aims by protest, then they should acknowledge they have failed and return to their jobs.

By seeking to involve the military, they are placing their country in the gravest danger. Some units may be persuaded to intervene while others will rightly see it as their duty to stay loyal to the democratically elected president. If the military splits, the result could be civil war. Such a thing ought to be unthinkable to all parties. But the first blood has already been drawn and tempers are running higher. If the strike does not collapse soon, the government’s own stocks of fuel will start to run out and public order could evaporate completely.

Chavez may still be the elected head of state but the time is fast approaching when he must consider his own position. Can he really continue to occupy his office if, by doing so, his country will be plunged into armed conflict? His reform program is in ruins, Venezuelan society has been split into two rival camps and paralyzed by the general strike.

The answer may be that the president calls a snap election, to renew the reform mandate. Such a contest is likely to be as violent as it would be bitter, but it may be the least of the evils facing the country. If Chavez loses, then, the reform agenda will have been halted, but it will not go away. Other wiser heads can take up the torch of reform at a later date. If, however, he wins, then his political opponents will have lost ground, to the extent that their will to resist change will have been broken. Either way, by returning to the ballot box, Venezuela will have been steered away from civil war.

The plight of the beleaguered Palestinians

By Aref al-Aref

Syria Times, 4-1-2003

Unfortunately, the resolutions and the efforts made by the UN the EU to solve the long -standing conflict in the Middle East were totally ignored by Israel which, instead of halting criminal acts against the civilian population in the occupied territories, intensified their campaigns of terror to drive them out and confiscated their properties. The Israeli occupation authorities intensified the use of vicious schemes of deportation, violation of human rights, mass arrests and demographic changes, which have resulted in countless sufferings on the Palestinian.

The ultimate aim of the Israeli crimes against the Palestinians is to force them to capitulate, to impose Israeli will on them and to perpetuation occupation. The Israeli leaders extended their reign of terror to genocide proportions. International human rights organizations emphasized that the Zionist leadership, relying on US support, continued to violate international law, the UN charter and the Geneva conventions on the protection of civilian persons in time of war.

No one doubts that Tel Aviv is acting so insolently only because it has been given Washington's blessing. Facts are surfacing today showing that those who perpetrate crimes against the Palestinians find political cover and support from the US. While planning his Iraqi offensive - a conflict the world does not want- the US remains deaf to entreaties from governments across the glob to help sort- out the Palestinian - Israeli conflict. All Mr. Bush's support have been directed towards the ear of Ariel Sharon. Within Washington's support, the Israelis continue with their campaign of terror and oppression against the Palestinian people in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. . Indeed, the more president Bush twiddles his thumb over in the occupied territories, the stronger the resolve of the youthful dispossessed becomes. If recent self- sacrifice bombing have shown the world anything, it is that the Palestinians will never run out of potential martyrs.

However, any bargaining policy with the Israelis will make the Arab nation the only loser in the game and the Palestinian cause its first victim. The game of bargaining does not only mean offering more and more concessions but it exposes its initiators to the ugliest kind of political humiliation. It seems, however, that the United States and Israel are bent on presenting the Arabs with a clear picture of the type of " peace" they seek to impose on them. The Arabs should understand this fact before it is too late.

The Palestine people are prepared to pay the price for their freedom and repatriation. The sacrifices of the past generations of Palestinians were not in vain. For they safeguard the Palestinian national rights and underscored the legitimacy of the Arab claim to their national heritage. The supreme sacrifices of today's generation will transform the hopes and aspirations of the Palestinian people into reality.

The tragic fate of Palestinians subsumes all elements of foreign domination, exploitation and dispossession - and others besides. The territory of Palestine is under alien rule. Others exploit its resources. Its people are exiled from their homeland. The remnants of its Arab inhabitants languish under a regime of racist discrimination and oppression as harsh as any racist, nazist and fascist regime in the world. All this has been accomplished by connivance with western supper powers and by terror and violence. The Palestinian people are still suffering from all these evils and from dispossession and dispersion. They have no alternative but to fight by all possible means to regain their national rights. Such responsiveness cannot fail to augment the profound faith of Palestinians in their ultimate triumph of justice, liberty and human dignity in their homeland. Liberation of the occupied lands and the repatriation of the exiled are two faces of the same inalienable rights.

The right to national liberation is an extension to national self defense, which the Charter of the United Nations not only upholds but also declares to be inherent and beyond impairment by the provisions itself, (United nations charter, Article 51). If continued acquisition of the fruits of an attack is tantamount to continuation of the attack itself, the liberation of territories seized by aggression is an extension of the inherent right to resist the original aggression. Liberation and self- defense are two faces of the same inalienable right. Like any other people in the world, the Palestinians have no alternative but to resist occupation and fight for the liberation of their homeland. The revolutionary wave now sweeping the occupied territories reveals the Palestinians deep-rooted consciousness and awareness of the necessity to take the initiative in the struggle aimed at liquidating occupation. This revolutionary wave which have succeeded so far in imposing a series of retreats on the Zionist occupiers and which, is the culmination of a series of moves and popular uprisings, will force Israel to reconsider its stand on the issue of Palestinian territories and national rights

The Palestinian people are ready to defend their right cause and are ready to offer more sacrifices for the sake of the land and freedom. They have in fact, materialized the motto of making martyrdom and a revolutionary march towards victory and freedom. What is being daily witnessed in the occupied Palestinian lands in the form of heroism and sacrifices are but bright pages that are being recorded by the militant heroes in the epic of Palestinian victory.

The unattainable peace!

By M. Agha

Syria Times, 4-1-2003

As a political observer, it is uneasy to give optimistic predictions on the possibility of the achievement of a real breakthrough in the Mideast peace process. This is a logical conclusion since the situation in the region is getting worse due to the continuous Israeli aggression on the defenceless Palestinian people on the one hand, and the current American military preparations to attack Iraq, on the other...

The prospects for reaching a peaceful solution to the US-fabricated Iraq issue seems little. It is the US Administration that is pushing things towards the worst. This Administration has been sending warships and troops to the region while the UN arms inspectors continue their mission peacefully and successfully.

Despite all cooperation with the international inspectors and submitting all information concerning the arms program in Iraq including a 12000-page report, the Americans are still resolved to continue their bellicose preparations. They do this regardless of all facts and information available, and despite the acceptance by Iraq to receive a CIA team to guide the inspectors to the alleged sites of mass destruction weapons!

It is regrettable that Washington is endeavouring to fabricate a pretext to carry out its strike which aims at achieving a number of strategic targets including controlling the Arab oil.

In line with this policy, the Israeli government of Ariel Sharon is stepping up the practices of killing and demolition in the occupied lands. Sharon is making use of the international atmosphere created after the 11th September attacks. He seeks to cover his war crimes by the so-called anti-terror campaign led by the US. Therefore, he continues to carry out the ugliest massacres murdering unarmed Palestinians including babies, children, women and elderly men.

Developments show that there are no positive signs in the near future. The peace process is still stalemated as a result of the US-backed Israeli practices and policies. Furthermore, Israel is keen to reject the very principles of the peace process and terms of reference agreed upon in Madrid in 1991. The US unlimited support to Israel is a major factor that aggravates the situation and makes peace unattainable. This is a bitter fact that we should take into consideration!

Misleading slogans: Fighting terrorism

By M.N., SyriaTimes, 4-1-2003

While the peoples of the world are celebrating the New Year and hoping to have peace and security prevailed in all parts of the earth and while the leaders of the world address calls for giving up wars and working for finding out peaceful solutions for the existing conflicts, particularly in the Middle East, U.S. President George Bush has renewed the determination to complete what he started last year under the cover of "fighting terrorism".

In his statement, Bush moved from the continuation of war on terrorism and disarming Iraq's weapons to the application of international laws and contribution to help peoples realize peace, freedom and democracy considering that the U.S.A. is a land of justice, freedom and fraternity.

Bush has ignored that presenting such slogans shows clearly open contradiction between saying and deed, between slogans and application. His battle ships are being amassed in the Gulf region in preparation for war on Iraq. The whole world, except Britain, are against this unjust war which threatens the region and the world of anarchy, instability and contributes to undermining the UN legal role.

As for the alledged war on terrorism, what is happening actually is done on the pretext of combatting terrorism while in reality it has become a scarecrow used to pass multi-faced policies with one content as President Bashar al-Assad said recently" the target is to humiliate human civilization, human rights, and constitute a certain danger to international peace and security. Fighting terrorism requires firstly, to work out an accurate definition for terrorism which must be fought and eliminated, secondly, to create an international unanimity for this definition and collective means and methods for it. This should be done under the supervision and leadership of the UN."

Build-up sidelines Blix
Gulf News, 1/5/03
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Despite there being three weeks left before UN chief weapons inspector Hans Blix reports to the Security Council, the U.S. and the UK apparently cannot wait that long. For already they are increasing the stakes of the likelihood of a war against Iraq. America is sending an additional 45,000 troops to the Gulf region to join those already stationed there, including those who have been conducting exercises in Kuwait in preparation for - whatever is to be seen. Britain, meanwhile is preparing to send 20,000 regular troops and 7,000 reservists to the Gulf. This, combined with reports that some 3,000 Iraqi exiles are going to Hungary to train for and act as interpreters for the U.S. is indicative that both the American President George W. Bush and British Prime Minister Tony Blair have the foregone conclusion that, come what may of the report from Blix, war will be waged against Iraq.

It does not seem logical for America and Britain to have in excess of 100,000 troops in the Gulf region, with additional forces in Afghanistan, on ships on the Gulf and at Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocean, all primed and ready to go. But with nowhere to go. The cost of moving such troops and matériel is far too expensive merely to be a bluff. For a bluff is not needed at this time - or at any time.

Saddam Hussain and his officials are complying in every way with the conditions of UN Resolution 1441. There has been no obstruction or difficulty from the Iraqis, despite provocation to do so in retaliation for the cavalier way in which the inspectors sometimes go about their business. So if it is not a bluff, then it means war, regardless of what Blix might say. Which makes the weapons inspection process a farce.

If Blix bows to U.S. pressure
By Shakir Al Taee, Gulf News, 1/5/03
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Iraq has recently handed over to the Unmovic a list of 500 Iraqi scientists who worked on the Iraqi nuclear, chemical, biological and missile armament programme. This long list has been delivered in compliance with the terms of the Security Council Resolution No. 1441 and upon the request of the head of Unmovic.

Hans Blix is expected to visit Baghdad during the third week of this month. He had already requested Iraqi officials that the list be handed over to him without even specifying the end purpose of it. However, political observers here see that this request falls within the frame of the decisive stage of the weapons inspection process being carried out by the Unmovic in Iraq since the government had already delivered to the Security Council its 12,000-page report on its armament programme.

Analysts also see that the purpose of obtaining the list by the Unmovic is to interrogate scientists inside or outside Iraq, according to Unmovic's schedule.

In fact, three Iraqi scientists, including the Chancellor of the Iraqi Technology University, were interviewed by the Unmovic inspectors during the closing days of last year. Though the interrogation of the scientists had given rise to some misunderstanding which later was rectified, Baghdad still fears that interrogating its scientists would be used as "a legal cover for the forthcoming war which the U.S. intends to launch on Iraq, especially if the U.S. insisted on interrogating some of them abroad.

The statements given by some of the senior Iraqi officials reflect Baghdad's real fears of sending such a huge number of its top scientists abroad. Iraq believes that this will involve many risks, including providing pretexts for the U.S. to launch the war, apart from emptying the country of its most important scientific minds on whom it relies in its scientific progress.

Iraq's full cooperation with inspection teams on the basis of open doors in order to avoid providing an excuse for the Americans to attack the country reflects Baghdad's serious desire to close the file of weapons of mass destruction.

Hence, the Iraqi government has announced what it called the ten-year plan for building the country in various fields – economic, social, cultural and scientific. This plan will necessitate in addition to financial potential, the presence of scientists of various specialties. So Baghdad's obligatory handover of the list of its scientists to the UN means there are serious fears that many of them will be forced to emigrate abroad.

This will have very serious repercussions on the future of development plans in the country. Although this gives rise to real fears within Iraq, the Iraqi government is compelled to deal with the matter frankly since the alternative is war. Hence the first objective now is to avoid war. Nevertheless, emptying the country of its best scientific minds is the lesser of two evils at the present.

South Korea president has his work cut out
By Dr. Abdullah Al Madani , Gulf News, 1/5/03
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In February South Korea's current president Kim Dae-jung will carry his baggage and leave the presidential Blue House, transferring his power to Roh Moo-hyun. The latter defeated all his rivals in the recent South Korean presidential election, winning 48.9 per cent of the total votes and scoring 2.3 per centage points more than his strongest contender, Lee Hoi-chang, a former prime minister and conservative Grand National Party candidate who had participated in the 1997 election but was defeated by Kim Dae-jung.

The success of Roh meant a lot to the outgoing president who constitutionally was not able to serve for a second term. Leaving the Blue House without accomplishing his promised reforms or fully normalising the relationship with North Korea and with financial scandals involving his two sons, Kim Dae-jung needed Roh, his own party candidate, to win as it would prove the failure of his opponents in exploiting the aforementioned scandals to damage his image.

The irony is that Roh differs from Kim in many ways despite their similar long history of working for human rights, advocating greater democracy and being imprisoned by the country's military leaders. Unlike the outgoing president, who is known for his high academic qualifications, profound knowledge of the world, and varied political experience, the next president has no formal education beyond high school.

Roh, born in 1946 in the ramshackle farming village of Kimhae near the southern city of Busan, came from an impoverished family of peach and chicken farmers and, therefore, could not afford to go to college upon his graduation from Busan Commercial High School in 1966. As a result, he took low-paying odd jobs but simultaneously began self-study, choosing law as a field for his future career.

Only in 1975 he could pass the state tough bar examination and go into a law practice in Busan. He quickly built a good reputation for himself as a brilliant advocate of labour activists and radical students accused of treason during the country's military dictatorship in the 1980s. However, such a reputation was behind his arrest and suspension from his law practice on charges of supporting a takeover of the American consulate in Busan by radical students and a strike by a shipyard's workers.

According to South Korean newspapers, which dug up Roh's school records, he was pro-democracy and freedom from the time he led a student boycott in 1960 against mandatory essays praising Korea's autocratic first president. They also quote a note from his first-grade teacher saying that Roh had talents in all subjects, particularly presentation of his opinions, and that he was known among his colleagues by the nickname "stone bean" as he was tiny but tough. However, he describes himself in an autobiography as a hot-and-cold student in high school, doing well when he studied but suffering plummeting grades after he skipped class to smoke and drink with friends.

Roh's direct involvement in politics did not take place until 1987 when he formally joined the pro-democracy movement through working with Kim Young-sam, former opposition figure and later president of the country.

He, then, successfully employed his reputation and prominence in the field of law to win a parliamentary seat from Busan in 1988 elections. In the National Assembly, he zealously participated in a legislative committee looking into the past offences of the Chun Doo-hwan military regime, an act with which he made headlines. However, his dispute with his mentor, Kim Young-sam, in 1992 over a political deal between the latter and the pro-military ruling conservative party nearly cost him his political career. He lost an election for mayor of Busan as well as his seat in the National Assembly before returning to the assembly upon winning a 1998 by-election in Seoul in the name of Kim Dae-jung's party, the Millennium Democratic Party.

Thus, apart from two terms in the parliament and only an eight-month high-level post as minister for maritime affairs and fisheries in 2000-2001, Roh, unlike the outgoing president, has relatively little experience in government and politics. Not only that but he lacks familiarity with the outside world. He has only travelled to three countries and has never visited the U.S. unlike most South Korean politicians and elite.

Dissimilarity between the outgoing president and next president goes beyond their qualifications and experiences. Roh, unlike Kim who married a member of Korea's old royal dynasty, chose 30 years ago to marry Kwon Yang-sook, the youngest daughter of a peasant family. She is a mother of two: a 29-year-old son and a 27-year-old daughter. The son, Geon-ho, is a graduate of Yonsei University and works at LG Electronics Co. The daughter, Jung-yon, graduated from Hongik University where she studied history. She currently works at the British Embassy in Seoul as a technology business assistant but is expected to quit as it is not proper for the president's daughter to work at a foreign embassy.

Both, the son and daughter, have expressed their desire to continue their normal life away from the Blue House, appealing to the media and public not to give them excessive attention. This, of course, differs from what has been known about Kim's power-loving sons.

But what are on the agenda for Roh, who links his quest for the presidency to that of U.S. president Abraham Lincoln? In fact, he is expected to deal with many issues such as creating more jobs, maintaining a balanced growth of seven per cent, a fairer distribution of wealth, and reforms in the presidency. However high on the agenda are two thorny problems, the growing anti-American sentiment in South Korea and the nuclear weapons programme of North Korea.

In his presidential campaign, Roh carefully employed the ongoing tension between Washington and Pyongyang to his benefit. He wooed the voters by introducing himself as the only key to solving the problem and preventing a possible American-North Korean nuclear confrontation that would cause huge casualties and total devastation of Seoul, home of more than half of South Korea's population. This was not a mere campaign slogan.

Roh believes that he can play an important role in the U.S.-North Korea dealings, bidding on three factors: First, his history in defending pro-Pyongyang students and workers, which possibly makes him acceptable and trustful in Pyongyang. Second, South Korea's standing as one of the last remaining source of aid to North Korea. Third, Washing-ton's current involvement in Afghanistan and its preparation for a war against Iraq probably leave the Americans no choice but to solve its problems with Pyongyang through dialogue and Seoul's mediation.

Such a view by Roh attracted many South Korean voters, particularly the young, who could not hide their anger of President Bush's crushing the national euphoria over progress between the two Koreas by listing Pyongyang in his "axis of evil" and saying that he did not trust North Korea's leader, Kim Jong Il.

But neither the North Koreans, nor the Americans, have accepted Roh's view. Instead of receiving it with appreciation, Pyongyang respo-nded by repeating its long-declared position that there was no room for Seoul in negotiations over strategic matters in the Korean peninsula, and that these matters were to be discussed only between the U.S. and North Korea.

As for Washington's cold response, it did not only stemmed from the American policy of keeping Seoul aside whenever American self-interest was involved, but also from the American suspicions and caution towards Roh. The latter's close association with radical students and workers, his soft language towards the regime in the north, his opposition to isolate Pyongyang, and his criticism of the American policy in Afghanistan and Iraq are probably the reason .Moreover, in the 1990s Roh repeatedly called for ending U.S. military presence in South Korea. Now he only wants to revise the law governing the 37,000 American troops in his country, saying that he must be realistic.

Dr. Abdullah Al Madani is a Gulf researcher and an expert in Asian Affairs.

Immigrants in Canada under pressure
By Nihal Kaneira, Gulf News, 1/5/03
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Immigrants in Canada, especially refugees and asylum seekers who have come into the country seeking greener pastures or to escape political oppression, may be the ones paying a heavy price if the massive manhunt currently underway across North America for five suspected terrorists wanted by the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigations for entering its territory from Canada illegally are not found soon.

Americans are again expressing concern about illegal immigrants in Canada. The indications are Ottawa is ready to respond to U.S. concerns with a plan to throw all undocumented immigrants into a "super-jail" and hold them there until they are able to prove their innocence, establish their bona fides as legitimate asylum seekers and refugees.

Naturally, the move is causing concern among immigrant communities in Canada. More so because the FBI is yet to say the wanted men are linked to any terrorist group or have gone to the U.S with any specific terrorist threat in mind.

There is also no evidence yet that the men have even been in Canada, let alone cross into the United States from Canada. Only some unsubstantiated reports say they may have gone there through the native Indian reserve of Akwesasne which straddles the Ontario, Quebec and New York state borders.

But the net effect is that all undocumented people in Canada are under pressure to prove their innocence. American officials are viewing them with suspicion and Canadian authorities are reacting to this with a plan to detain all illegal immigrants, especially people who are considered high-risk, in super-jails in central Ontario.

Ottawa and the Ontario government are close to working out a deal for this purpose. The super jails are to be located in Kawartha Lakes, 100 kilometres northeast of Toronto. The sprawling institution was built by the Ontario government and inaugurated last summer as a correctional facility. But as pressure mounts from across the border to document all illegal immigrants in Canada, the federal government has decided the best way to keep them under close check is to round them up and detain them in a super-jail.

The new detention centre for illegal immigrants will be the first two super-jails being created, and will house all migrants and refugees considered a threat to public security in one location.

The officials with Citizenship and Immigration, however, deny that the current frenzy about the missing five men has anything to do with the move to detain all suspicious illegal immigrants in super-jails. They also say there is no plan to detain every refugee or asylum seeker who arrives in Canada without documentation.

Says Mark Dunn, a spokesman for Immigration Minister Denis Coderre: "It is not the Canadian way to detain law-abiding immigrants who want to come to Canada to make a better life for themselves. Only those who are suspicious are detained until we can find out who they are."

But immigrant welfare groups dispute this. They believe that while the officials talk about handling asylum and refugee seekers in the "Canadian way," the authorities, under pressure from the United States, are quietly moving to adopt the Australian model of detaining all illegal immigrants and holding them in jails until their bona fides are established and they are cleared of any terrorist links.

They point to a pilot project already in operation in Ontario as evidence of this. Under this project, people arriving at Toronto's Pearson International Airport are being detained if they are unable to produce proper documents or provide evasive answers during questioning at immigration counters.

Immigration groups also say that the government has made arrangements to transfer all undocumented immigrants who have been detained in prisons in and around Toronto to the new facility as part of this plan. Even refugees and asylum seekers who are currently being provided board and lodging at an airport hotel in Toronto are also to be moved to the new facility and held there until their investigations are over.

The federal government has the power under a law that came into effect last June to detain people who arrive in Canada without proper documents. Janet Dench, speaking for the Montreal-based Canadian Council for Refugees, says the new legislation has muddied the water as to what justifies detention. "It's difficult to tell exactly what's going on," she said.

Dench said her organisation has no quarrel with the government detaining people who the government has suspicions about terrorist links. But the move to incarcerate every immigrant, irrespective of whether they are bona fide refugees or asylum seekers simply because they lack documents, is inconsistent with Canada's image as a country with a conscious, its respect for human rights and human dignity.

She says Canada should acknowledge the fact that refugees often are unable to approach their governments for proper documents due to fear of persecution. "Many distinguished Canadian citizens today are people who fled Europe during the Second World War, and most of them came with no documents at all and were able to start a new life in Canada."

The Ontario government, which has a lot to lose if Washington slaps down further restrictions at the Canada-U.S. border, has a vastly different view about refugees. The provincial Security Minister Bob Ruciman, who is particularly sensitive to the U.S. pressure to detain all illegal immigrants, and makes no bones about the local government's desire that Ottawa should act without delay.

In fact, Runciman has just made a public call to Ottawa to detain all refugees who arrive in Canada without documentation. "I think it is an unwise approach, to say the least, to allow people to have documents, get on a plane, flush them down the toilet, then get off the plane and claim refugee status," he said this week. "And the most disturbing element of that is to allow them to disappear into the general population without determining who they are," he added.

Runciman praised the Australia model, and claimed that the number of illegal immigrants arriving on boats has declined after the government in Canberra began detaining all refugees without documents.

It is not difficult to understand Runciman's concern. By giving wide publicity to the claim that the missing five men are illegal immigrants who entered the United States through Canada - even though there is no evidence of this yet - the U.S. law enforcement authorities are ratcheting up the pressure on Ottawa to once again tailor its immigration and refugee policies in keeping with American security concerns.

The implicit threat, if Canada does not oblige, is more restrictions on Canadian goods and services at the Canada-U.S. border. And that is the last thing Canadians want at a time when the economy is starting to sputter a little.

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