11 - 17 January 2001
Issue No.516
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Al-Ahram Weekly On-line 11 - 17 January 2001 Issue No.516 |
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Polisario withdraws threat
COMPETITORS in the Paris-Dakar rally crossed safely through Samara town on Sunday despite earlier threats that the Polisario Front independence movement would break a UN-brokered cease-fire and disrupt the rally when it crossed from Morocco into the disputed Western Sahara.The militant Polisario Front, which is seeking independence for western Sahara, only withdrew the threat of violence after the end of the seventh stage of the rally, which went ahead under the protection of Moroccan troops.
Throughout the day, the group had remained silent, allowing its threat to stand, and issuing no statement until late evening. The group made the announcement in a statement saying it was bowing to international appeals.
"In response to appeals by the president of the Organisation of African Unity and friendly countries, among them Algeria and the United States, the Polisario Front has decided to suspend its decision of 22 December 2000 concerning resumption of its military activities," the statement said.
Polisario believed Morocco was using the rally to institutionalise its presence in the disputed territory in the eyes of foreign countries.
All against the PKK
JALAL Talabani, head of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK), has denied reports that Turkey had dispatched thousands of troops to northern Iraq in another crackdown against separatist rebels belonging to the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK).Talabani's statement, which came during his visit to Ankara this week, contradicts Turkish Prime Minister Bulent Ecevit's earlier confirmation that Turkish soldiers had indeed crossed into northern Iraq to help the PUK and another Iraqi Kurdish faction, the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP), fight PKK rebels who had taken refuge in the area. The Turkish press also reported that some 10,000 troops had penetrated deep into the mountains of northern Iraq.
For the past few months, the PUK, which controls Kurdish areas close to the border with Iran, has been fighting PKK rebels, which it accuses of attacking its positions in a bid to destabilise the region where Iraqi Kurds have enjoyed self-rule since the end of the 1991 Gulf war. The fighting comes after a long period of good relations between the PUK and the PKK, which has waged a 15-year armed campaign against Turkey for Kurdish self-rule in the country's southeast.
Turkish troops have frequently carried out operations against the PKK in northern Iraq, which Ankara says the PKK uses as a jumping board for attacks on Turkey. Turkey's incursions have attracted storms of criticism from Baghdad, which accuses Ankara of violating its territorial integrity.
Tehran bombs
FIVE mortar shells exploded in northern Tehran near a military base belonging to Iran's elite Islamic Republic Guards Corps on Sunday, the Islamic Republic News Agency reported.The rebel Mujahedin Khalq claimed responsibility for the attack, saying the base was the target.
The official Iranian agency reported no casualties. However, the Mujahedin Khalq said the explosions inflicted many casualties on Iranian security forces and caused damage to the military compound and vehicles. The Iraqi-based Mujahedin Khalq, which is seeking the overthrow of Iran's Islamic government, frequently attacks targets deep inside Iran and along its border with Iraq.
Meanwhile, in another development marking improvement in relations between Iran and Algeria, President Mohamed Khatami received on Sunday Abdelqader Hajar, Algeria's first ambassador to Tehran after an eight-year break in relations. Khatami said that Hajar's arrival marked "a new era" in ties between the countries
Hajar, who has also been Algeria's ambassador to Syria and Libya, served as ambassador to Iran in 1993, but was in place for just five days before Algiers broke off diplomatic relations, accusing Iran of openly supporting Algerian radical Islamist rebels whom the Algerian authorities blamed for the bloodshed it had suffered since 1992. Algerian President Abdel-Aziz Bouteflika's decision to restore ties with Iran was criticised by secular Algerian parties, who tried unsuccessfully to delay the move.
A first for People's Voice
FOR THE first time in 30 years, Syrians are able to read a local newspaper not published by the state or the ruling party. Sawt al-Shaab , or People's Voice, which appeared on news-stands a week ago, is the first paper to be published since President Bashar Al-Assad granted publishing rights to political parties in November. The newspaper is the mouthpiece of the Syrian Communist Party, one of seven parties making up the National Progressive Front, which the ruling Baath Party allows to exist. President Al-Assad's decision to allow non-state newspapers was seen as a move toward relaxing the authoritarian rule he inherited when he succeeded his father, Hafez Al-Assad, who died last June."The paper will defend workers and farmers," Sawt al-Shaab said in an editorial. It will appear every two weeks for the first two months, after which it will appear as a weekly. An article in Thursday's edition questioned the government's recent decision to allow private banks to operate in Syria, while another tackled reports on widespread corruption in the government's bureaucracy.
Besides allowing party newspapers, President Al-Assad has also freed hundreds of political prisoners and tolerated the publication of a call for political and economic reform by a group of pro-democracy intellectuals. The young Al-Assad also ordered the closure of the infamous Maza prison in Damascus, which for decades had hosted many of his father's political opponents.
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