Al-Ahram Weekly | International

		Al-Ahram Weekly Online 26 July - 1 August 2001 Issue No.544
Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875		Current issue \| Previous issue \| Site map

In denial
FOLLOWING months of uncertainty and tense threats of wide-spread rioting and violence, Indonesian Vice- President Megawati Sukarnoputri was sworn in as president on Monday minutes after the People's Consultative Assembly (MPR), the country's highest legislative body, voted 591-0 to oust beleaguered President Abdurrahman Wahid.
Wahid was throwing up the sandbags at the presidential palace, where he remained, stunned, two days after Megawati was sworn in. The impeachment bandwagon, set in motion with parliament's 1 February censure of Wahid over corruption charges, reached its logical conclusion on Saturday with the convening of a special session of the People's Consultative Assembly (MPR), the country's highest legislative body. The impeachment proceedings -- the first test of the country's legally complex constitutional laws -- came an unexpected 11 days early, sparked by exasperation among parliamentarians over Wahid's continued defiance and his decision to remove Police Chief Suroyo Bimantoro, who had stated that he would not support Wahid's threat to declare a state of emergency.
A feeble attempt by Wahid to declare a state of emergency in the early morning hours of Monday went unheeded, and it is clear that both the police and the military are behind Megawati. World leaders welcomed the peaceful transfer of power -- the first in the history of the country -- but it came at a hefty price: the impeachment of the country's first democratically elected president. And though there were fears of a massive uprising among Wahid's legion of supporters, only a few hundred peaceful demonstrators showed up next to the presidential palace on Monday to show their support.
After a painfully long period of fence-sitting, Megawati had finally threw her and her party's support behind the impeachment proceedings. The daughter of the country's first president, Sukarno, and head of the largest party in parliament, Megawati is virtually untested as a stateswoman. It is said she will be forced to rely heavily on advisers and her as-yet- unnamed vice-president, expected to be elected on Wednesday.
Green dream dashed
ENVIRONMENT ministers and delegates from 178 countries came together in Bonn, Germany, to pick up where turbulent talks on climate change in The Hague last November left off. After several days of heated deliberations, delegates joyously announced on Monday that they had managed to hammer out a compromise that will salvage the derailed Kyoto Protocol, adopted in 1997.
Though there seemed to be a collective sigh of relief among delegates and environmental groups, most parties acknowledge that the miracle is no cure: the final bargain significantly waters down the already modest demands of the Kyoto treaty and the US still refuses to sign on. US President George W Bush has dismissed the Kyoto Protocol as "fatally flawed" and has questioned the validity of scientific studies indicating that so-called greenhouse gases are spurring a rapid and dangerous warming of the climate.
Where life begins
PUTTING President George W Bush's "compassionate conservatism" to the test, a study by the US National Institute of Health released last Wednesday made plain that the only way to determine the real potential of stem cell research is to press further with more study. Embryonic stem cells are capable of developing into almost any kind of human tissue, but deriving the stem cells is controversial.
A congressional ban on embryo research was sidestepped by the Clinton administration by allowing federally- funded researchers to work on embryonic cells so long as they themselves did not destroy the embryo. This allows researchers to retrieve stem cells from aborted fetal matter and discarded embryos created in fertilisation clinics. The pressure is on Bush to determine whether he will overturn the Clinton guidelines. Last Friday, some 61 senators, both Republican and Democrat, put their names to two letters imploring Bush to sanction federal funding of stem cell research.
Forbidden love
THOUGH suffering an unexpectedly low turnout, Berlin's now infamous Love Parade marched on last Saturday, having weathered tense negotiations with the city council and suffering a legal wrangle over the raucous annual music-fest's status as a demonstration. Billed as the world's biggest and most extravagant dance party, the parade draws Europe's top DJs and partygoers seeking the ultimate rave.
A group of concerned environmentalists almost spoiled the show, registering their own demonstration on the day the parade is usually held. The organisers were ultimately forced to hold the parade a week later. The first Love Parade was in 1989 -- the year the Berlin Wall came down -- when one jubilant pied piper led some 150 of his friends down the streets of Berlin. But alternative culture purists bemoan the commercialisation of parade, saying that it has lost its edge. An estimated 400,000 ravers showed up for this year, compared to an estimated 1.3 million last year.

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