Bouteflika defends rescue efforts

ALGERIAN President Abdelaziz Bouteflika on Tuesday defended his government's response to last month's devastating earthquake and appealed to the European Union for reconstruction aid.

At a news conference after addressing the European Parliament, Bouteflika appealed to the EU for more financial aid to rebuild damaged property caused by the 21 May quake. The earthquake killed more than 2,500 people and injured over 10,000.

In his speech before the EU assembly, Bouteflika defended his government's response to the earthquake against accusations that it acted too slowly. Many Algerians have blamed the government for the high death toll and shortage of food and water.

"Under these difficult circumstances, the state has done its duty and the government has shouldered its responsibility," Bouteflika told the parliament. "I intend to ensure assistance is given to all the victims and ensure them that we will reconstruct the zones affected by the earthquake. Solidarity is not just a word."

Bouteflika travelled to Strasbourg after attending the Group of Eight (G-8) Summit in nearby Evian last weekend.

The G-8 leaders said they would examine what aid they could give to Algeria.

Officials said assistance could come in the form of development aid, investment or debt relief. This is in addition to the humanitarian aid already promised in the wake of the disaster.

Iran condemns verdict

IRAN on Monday condemned the verdict of US a federal judge as "political" and unfounded -- it declared Tehran liable for the 1983 bombing of a US Marine barracks in Beirut that killed 241 troops.

Iran's Foreign Ministry accused "Zionists" of being responsible for the US court's finding.

According to Friday's ruling by US District Judge Royce Lamberth, "the Islamic Republic of Iran and the Iranian Ministry of Information and Security are jointly and severely liable to the plaintiffs for the compensatory and punitive damages."

But Foreign Ministry spokesman Hamid Reza Asefi said the court was "engaged in political activities instead of practicing legal issues". "Their verdicts are not credible," he said.

The US court ruling appeared to step up pressure on the Islamic Republic. This comes at a time when the Bush administration was expressing "serious unhappiness" with Tehran's alleged harbouring of Al-Qa'eda operatives, its nuclear programme and its meddling in the affairs of US-occupied Iraq.

Asefi acknowledged that pressure was increasing.

"It seems that certain circles in the US are beginning to resort to whatever means possible to increase pressure on Iran and to push their hostile policies towards Iran, even if it is at the expense of the credibility of the US judiciary," he said. "Such measures will bear no fruit, but will only discredit the US Justice Department."

Journalist gets reduced sentence

A JAPANESE journalist was jailed on Sunday for 18 months after blowing up a Jordanian airport security guard as he tried to show that a souvenir cluster bomblet from the Iraq war was harmless.

The State Security Court sentenced Hiroke Gomi, 36, a photographer for Japan's Mainichi daily, to a reduced 18-months sentence after dropping charges of possession of explosives -- which is punishable by up to 15 years.

Gomi was, instead, convicted on a lesser count of causing unintentional death and inflicting bodily harm, in the blast at Amman's International Airport on 1 May that killed Sergeant Ali Sarhan and wounded four others.

"Although the court realises he possessed explosives, it was clear he was not aware he was carrying any live explosives," chief judge Colonel Fawaz Al-Baqour said.

Gomi, who has covered Iraq for over a decade for the large daily, found the cluster bomblet near a road in Iraq not knowing it was still active.

A charge of premeditated murder was dropped after the editor of Gomi's newspaper met King Abdullah to personally apologise. Sarhan's family also limited their claims to financial compensation.

Moussa slams occupation

ARAB League Secretary-General Amr Moussa criticised the US and British occupation of Iraq at the opening of the Arab Parliamentary Union meeting in Beirut.

"The foreign occupier has not yet presented a programme capable of reassuring Iraqis and clearing the way to the adoption of a new constitution," said Moussa, calling for respect of Iraqi sovereignty.

He said the Arab League could "offer the Iraqi people the opportunity to find a political arrangement".

On the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Moussa hoped the US-Arab summit -- which took place the same day in Egypt -- would signal 'the start of a constructive, strategic and full dialogue encompassing all Arab countries".

The internationally-backed roadmap peace plan should be widened to include Syria and Lebanon, with an Israeli pullback from Arab land to the borders as they stood before the June 1967 Middle East war, he said.

Moussa said a comprehensive settlement for Iraq and the Palestinians would allow the United States "to remodel its role in the region, not as a military power".

Out of Iraq

LIBYA said on Sunday it had shut down its embassy in Baghdad and was withdrawing its staff, after the United States warned it would not grant diplomats the immunity they enjoyed under Saddam Hussein.

Libya's African Unity Ministry, which handles relations with Arab and African states accused US forces in Iraq of "contravention of international law and conventions".

It said diplomatic links with Baghdad would be restored as soon as Iraq recovered its "sovereignty and independence".

French connection

MOROCCAN authorities arrested on Tuesday a French national suspected of involvement in the 16 May suicide bombings in Casablanca that killed 43 people, the official MAP news agency said.

Quoting sources close to the investigation, the agency said Robert Richard Antoine Pierre, who used the aliases Lhaj and Abu Abderrahmane -- suggesting that he converted to Islam -- was arrested in the northern city of Tangiers. It gave no other details.

Thirty-one people were killed in the attacks along with the 12 suicide bombers who simultaneously targeted five sites in the sprawling city, including a Spanish restaurant, a five-star hotel and a Jewish community centre.

Authorities said they have charged at least 30 men in connection with the attacks which have been blamed on a small Islamic group based in a poor Casablanca neighbourhood.

The alleged mastermind of the bombings died from chronic heart and liver disease, two days after his arrest while in police custody, they said.

Israel watch

FOLLOWING the decision of the Belgian Supreme Court on 12 February 2003, the Brussels Appeal Court must again render a decision concerning the admissibility of the complaint lodged against Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and Amos Yaron by 23 victims of the 1982 massacre in Sabra and Shatila. A request for indefinite postponement of the case, lodged by Adrien Masset, counsel for Ariel Sharon and Amos Yaron, was rejected on 6 May by the Appeals Court. On the eve of the 27 May hearing, Masset announced that his clients would no longer participate in the pre-trial hearings.

The timing of the announcement cannot be ignored. It came exactly one day after Sharon's government adopted "the steps" of the Mideast roadmap.

Intifada fact sheet

BETWEEN 19-25 May, the International Committee of the Red Cross distributed what the agency considered a high number of relief kits to 93 Palestinian families in the Gaza Strip and five in the West Bank whose houses have been demolished or damaged by the IOF. The kits, distributed weekly by ICRC, contain blankets, tents, hygiene supplies and household goods essential to a family that was forced to become homeless.

Al-Ahram Weekly Online : 5 -11 June 2003 (Issue No. 641)
Located at: http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/2003/641/re11.htm