Al-Ahram Weekly On-line 26 Oct. - 1 Nov. 2000 Issue No. 505
Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875

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Winner takes all

IVORIANS went to the polls on Sunday to vote in the country's first presidential election since General Robert Guei's military takeover last December. Despite assurance by Guei that the vote would peacefully return the country to civilian rule, his two main competitors were excluded from running, sparking international mistrust of the general's willingness to transfer power. A supreme court ruled that Former Prime Minister Alassane Outtara and the former ruling party candidate, Emile-Constant Bombet, could not compete in the elections on the basis that they are not Ivorian nationals -- a claim both deny.

The outraged candidates called on their supporters to boycott the vote and voter turnout was weak overall. Even so, Guei has pledged that he will respect the results, noting that "All will happen calmly, the winner will win."

Losing friends fast

WHEN Vladimiro Montesinos, the former spy-chief and right-hand man to Peruvian President Alberto Fujimori, flew out of Panama City on Sunday, it was probably the low-point of his notorious career. Only a few months ago, Montesinos was still arguably the most powerful man in Peru, but power held with an iron fist can come undone with amazing speed.

The airing of a video that caught him in the act of bribery publicly disgraced Montesinos and it didn't take long before it was clear that Fujimori was going to let his former champion take the fall. Amid rumours of more incriminating evidence, Fujimori promptly announced that he would call new elections and step down. Montesinos fled the country, but it seems that stripped of his once impenetrable armour, he is decidedly unwanted by his neighbours. Even though his asylum bid in Panama was supported by both the Unites States and the Organisation of American States (OAU), Jose Aleman, Panama's foreign minister, said that Montesinos' asylum application had been suspended.

Hit and run

WITH only two weeks before the US presidential election, Republican candidate George W Bush pulled a quick punch on Democrats with his intentions to end US involvement in peacekeeping in the Balkans. Senior Bush advisor Ari Fleischer said that the Texas governor's position was that the US military should "fight and win wars", not be the world's peacekeepers.

Bush, who is slightly ahead of democratic candidate Vice President Al Gore in polls, has been fighting the image that he is unsavvy in foreign affairs. Condoleeza Rice, Bush's senior national security aide, told The New York Times that Bush feels peacekeepers in Bosnia and Kosovo should be the responsibility of Europe. But Gore retorted that abandoning missions in the Balkans betrayed a "lack of judgement and a complete misunderstanding of history." Some 11,400 American troops remain in the Balkans, less than half of the 25,000-strong force sent there in 1995 after the Bosnian War.

A different tune

IN WHAT may be one of the more bizarre twists in the aftermath of the Suharto regime, former commander of Indonesia's armed forces General Wiranto has launched a singing career with an album of love longs. Wiranto played to a $100-per-plate dinner crowd in Jakarta, although it is questionable whether the packed house was there for the singing or for the bizarre spectacle.

Proceeds from the sale of the album, For You, My Indonesia, will go to the countries refugees, 130,000 of whom are from East Timor. Human rights organisations were aghast, calling the album an insult to the people of East Timor. The pro-Jakarta militias that terrorised East Timor after its UN-sponsored vote to secede from Indonesia took place under Wiranto's tenure as military chief. He was later held ultimately responsible for the atrocities committed by the militias and subsequently dismissed from his seat in the cabinet.

Conflict of interests

CITING claims by US President Bill Clinton that considering the Armenian Genocide Resolution would "adversely impact the situation in the Middle East and risk the lives of Americans," House Speaker Dennis Hastert decided on 19 October not to bring the measure to the House floor for a vote. The resolution seeks formal recognition of atrocities committed under Ottoman rule.

Last week, Ankara warned Americans of what would ensue should the bill be passed: the closing of Incirlik airbase, the reopening of an oil pipeline running between Iraq and Turkey and the freezing of lucrative armament tenders with American firms.

Following the shelving of the bill, Congressional Armenian Caucus Co-chairman Frank Pallone called Turkey a "bully" and noted that, "If America is going to ... continue to lead the world in affirming human rights everywhere, we need to stand up and recognise the Armenian catastrophe for what it was -- the systematic elimination of a people."

Compiled by Nyier Abdou

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