4 - 10 January 2001
Issue No.515
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Al-Ahram Weekly On-line 4 - 10 January 2001 Issue No.515 |
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No holiday recess
PUNCTUATING the sensational impeachment trial of Philippine President Joseph Estrada, the holiday break that has suspended senate hearings until 2 January was far from a moment of calm. Five virtually simultaneous bomb blasts on Saturday sent people into a panic and forced Estrada to stop playing the role of victim long enough to return to the role of leader. Calling for calm, Estrada denounced the perpetrators of the attack as "desperate and cowardly people."The devastating blasts attacked highly-populated areas in Manila and nearby Quezon City like transportation centres and a luxury hotel. Though the country's main rebel movement, the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) has denied responsibility, Islamic separatist groups are widely seen as being behind the attacks, with suspicion falling heavily on the smaller, more militant Abu Sayyaf group. As of early this week, 14 people were killed and up to a 100 injured by the blasts.
A very nasty man
UNLUCKY passengers on the British Airways (BA) flight from Gatwick to Nairobi on Friday took a dangerous walk on the wild side when the Boeing 747 was briefly sent plunging off course during a tense struggle in the cockpit with an intruder. When the 27-year-old Kenyan attacker burst into the cockpit, the autopilot was disengaged and the plane was sent into a nose-dive, throwing the flight and its 398 passengers and crew into terrifying tumult. Within seconds of an irreversible crash course, the captain and co-captain were able to wrestle the man to the floor with the help of a few passengers. Another co-pilot then regained control of the plane.BA officials used the opportunity to proudly espouse the emergency capabilities of BA staff, but the story could have easily gone another, far more ghastly way. In the stunned aftermath of the crisis, Captain William Hagan put it most succinctly: passengers reported that shortly after the incident Hagan told them "A very nasty man just tried to kill us all."
Coup de grâce
ENDING a long and varied rule, the exit of Ghanaian President Jerry Rawlings on 7 January will mark a decidedly new era for the West African country. The ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC) candidate, Vice President John Atta Mills, called opposition candidate John Agyekum Kuffuor, of the New Patriotic Party, on Saturday and conceded the run-off election. Though Kuffuor, a British-educated lawyer, was unable to garner the necessary 50 per cent of the vote in the country's 7 December general election, the endorsement of five other eliminated candidates pushed Kuffuor ahead in the run-off to exceed 57 per cent.Rawlings, a former fighter pilot, seized power in 1979 and has shimmied between being a brutal dictator and a democratic mover for almost half of Ghana's 43 years of independence, eventually becoming a pet project of Western powers. Though the landmark election was blemished by spats of violence and claims that government supporters were impeding opposition observers at poll stations, the transfer of power has been promised both by Rawlings and his failed successor to be a peaceful one.
Unusual suspects
AS FRENCH magistrates grow more aggressive in their widening high-level corruption exposé, public figures are finding the ground beneath their feet increasingly shaky with the continued detainment of Jean-Christophe Mitterand, son of late Socialist President François Mitterand. A businessman and former Agence France Presse (AFP) Africa correspondent, Mitterand headed the clandestine and controversial "Africa cell" of his father's administration from 1986 to 1992. He was tapped by investigators for links to illicit arms deals with Angola in 1993.Mitterand was arrested on 21 December and detained in Paris's Sante prison, where he spent Christmas and rang in the New Year after an appeal court postponed a ruling on bail. Mitterand and writer Paul-Loup Sulitzer have been tied to arms dealer Pierre Falcone, but Mitterand claims that the $1.8 million that enriched his Swiss bank account from Falcone's company Brenco International is in no way tied to arms dealing. The move to imprison Mitterand is considered a bold one and more well-known figures are also being netted by the probe.
Spy world
HAVING eluded capture by a nation-wide manhunt, former Peruvian spy-chief and right-hand man to disgraced and dismissed Peruvian President Alberto Fujimori, Vladamiro Montesinos has been putting a life of espionage to use. Since October, Montesinos has reportedly skipped from Peru, to Costa Rica, to Aruba and finally to Venezuela, where it seems that he underwent facial reconstructive surgery before disappearing once again. On Saturday, Peruvian authorities arrested former armed forces chief and close Montesinos associate General Jose Villanueva Ruesta, possibly on charges of aiding Montesinos' escape.A police raid of Montesinos' beach house in October revealed palatial living quarters equipped with secret escape routes, underground chambers and secret cameras. If it all seems too much like the movies, then step into the downright surreal with the holiday celebrated in Russia at year's end originally known as "Chekist Day." Established to commemorate the formation of the feared Cheka Soviet secret police, it is now more subtly called the "Day of Security Organs." But the release of an album of "spy-songs" -- most of them written and sung by spies -- on the occasion tumbles the whole tale into the truly bizarre. The CD, titled This Difficult Job is Called Intelligence, features such songs as "Profession: Espionage," and "From Kabul to Washington," The Moscow Times reported.
Compiled byNyier Abdou
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