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Al-Ahram Weekly 8 - 14 June 2000 Issue No. 485 
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Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Al-Ahram Weekly 8 - 14 June 2000 Issue No. 485
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| Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Egypt Region International Economy Opinion Culture Features Travel Living Sports Profile People Time Out Chronicles Cartoons Trans-Atlantic turbulence
THE UNITED States and the European Union ended their semi-annual summit last week in the Portuguese capital Lisbon with more than a little tension over cyber-crime and trans-Atlantic data protection -- issues, not surprisingly, of vital importance in the new information age. Economic issues, like the lingering trade disputes between the US and the EU, featured prominently, but the main concern was easing European fears that many European dot.coms would be gobbled up by rapidly expanding US Web companies.Time was also spared for the world's poor. US President Bill Clinton stressed the need to "make sure that today's revolution in science and technology serves all humanity," and voiced concern over the global health crisis, especially the AIDS pandemic in Africa, India and other developing countries. Clinton drew on some grim figures: in some African countries, 30 per cent of teachers and 40 per cent of soldiers have AIDS, he said. A third of the world has been exposed to tuberculosis, and millions suffer from strains of malaria that are increasingly resistant to any drug.
Romancing the Russians
CLINTON'S trip to Lisbon kick-started a European tour that took him to Germany, Russia and Ukraine. In Moscow Clinton and Russian President Vladimir Putin resolved to slash weapon-grade plutonium stocks and agreed to create a joint early-warning missile system. The two leaders renewed their commitment to the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile (ABM) treaty and pledged to intensify work on a new arms reduction treaty (START III), but no agreement was reached on the prickly subject of US plans for a new "Star Wars" anti-missile defence system.The Russian leadership contends that the new National Missile Defence (NMD) would breach the ABM treaty and Putin has warned that if Washington violates the ABM treaty, Moscow will consider all other arms control agreements null and void.
"I don't think that the desire to amend [the ABM treaty] is prompted by any real threat to America from anyone. It is connected with the interests of the US military-industrial complex," explained Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov.
Commotion in the Pacific
THE ASIA-PACIFIC region witnessed yet another week of political tensions and agitation. In the Philippines, a bomb went off in Manila International Airport and another one exploded at a bus depot in the southern island of Mindanao. No organisation claimed responsibility, but authorities suspect the separatist Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), who are fighting for an independent Muslim state. Scores of Muslims were arrested last week following similar bomb blasts around the country. A separate militant Muslim group, Abu Sayyaf, are still holding several foreign tourists kidnapped at a Malaysian resort in April on the southern Philippine island of Jolo.Meanwhile, separatist leaders in the Indonesian province of Irian Jaya unilaterally declared the independent state of West Papua, and called on the world to recognise their independence. Irian Jaya forms the eastern half of New Guinea island. The western half, Papua New Guinea, was administered by Australia until it gained independence in 1975. Dutch colonial authorities finally handed Irian Jaya over to Indonesia in the early 1960s, but Indonesia then reneged on its pledge to give the people of Irian Jaya national self-determination. The secessionist Free Papua Movement was eventually formed and has been waging an armed independence struggle for the past 30 years.
Not only is the racial composition of Irian Jaya different from the rest of Indonesia -- its inhabitants are predominantly black Melanesian -- but with its capital Jayapura on the Pacific Ocean, it turns its back on the rest of Indonesia to face fellow Melanesian-peopled island nations.
In Fiji, ethnic Melanesian coup leader George Speight failed to reach any agreement on the nation's political future in his talks with the traditional chiefs and military leaders. The crisis began almost three weeks ago, when Prime Minister Mahendra Chaudhry, an ethnic East Indian, and other parliamentarians were taken hostage by armed gunmen. Army chief Commodore Frank Bainimarama then stepped in and declared martial law.
Fiji has been dogged by ethnic tensions between the indigenous Melanesians and Indians brought to the island as indentured labour by British colonial authorities. Speight has demanded that Indians be barred from holding political office.
In the nearby Solomon Islands, armed rebels seized control of Honiara, the capital, on Sunday, holding Prime Minister Bartholomew Ulufa'alu at gunpoint and demanding his resignation.
'God's country' falls from grace
IN Japan, Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori barely survived a censure vote by Japanese parliamentarians last Wednesday demanding his resignation after he described Japan as a divine nation centred on the emperor. The controversial statement is reminiscent of Japan's militaristic and ultra-nationalistic wartime past, when Japan was officially regarded as "God's country," with the Japanese emperor deified as a descendant of the sun and a "living god." The defeated censure motion comes barely a month before the Japanese go to the polls -- general elections are scheduled for 25 June.
Compiled by Gamal Nkrumah
