Islamabad Sets Terms for Sending Troops to Iraq--New World Media Watch

[Gloria]

Up now at http://www.zianet.com/insightanalytical
Tomorrow at Buzzflash.com

WORLD MEDIA WATCH FOR JULY 26, 2004

1//The Daily Star, Lebanon--SADR BOYCOTTS UPCOMING POLLS IN IRAQ (Radical Shiite Muslim cleric Moqtada al-Sadr boycotted polls held here Sunday to elect participants in an upcoming Iraqi national conference that will in turn select a legislative council. Sadr, who re-emerged Friday in Kufa, near the holy city of Najaf, after keeping a low public profile for the past two months, has dismissed interim Premier Iyad Allawi as an instrument of the US-led occupation… But Sadr's camp was not the only one voicing reservations."This process comes nowhere near the true ambitions of the Iraqis," said Hassan Abtan, a spokesman for the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq (SCIRI), one of the largest mainstream Shiite political parties.)



2//Gulf News Online, United Arab Emirates--ISLAMABAD SETS TERMS FOR SENDING TROOPS TO IRAQ (Pakistan yesterday announced three conditions for sending its troops to Iraq - a formal request from the Iraqi interim government, troop deployment by other Islamic countries and above all approval by the national parliament…Ahmad dismissed as "baseless" opposition claims that the decision to send troops had already been made. "The opposition is trying to gain political mileage through false propaganda." The minister said the matter was still premature and there was no need to take it to the parliament at this stage, adding that national interest would be the supreme factor in making a decision.)



3//KurdishMedia.com, UK--IRAQI KURDS DEMONSTRATE FOR INDEPENDENT KURDISTAN(Around 500 intellectuals and students marched through the city of Suleimaniya on Saturday to demand an independent Kurdistan, incorporating Iraq’s main northern oil centre of Kirkuk. Holding aloft banners saying "Independence for Kurdistan," and "Kirkuk: Kurdish City," the protest flouted a ban issued by the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan, which controls the northeastern Iraqi province of Suleimaniya…Demonstrations calling for an independent Kurdistan are rare in Iraq, where neither of the two mainstream Kurdish parties, the PUK, nor its rival Kurdistan Democratic Party, include independence as an aim in party literature.)



4//Arab News, Saudi Arabia--HRW EXAGGERATED INCIDENCE OF LABOR ABUSE IN KINGDOM, AL-GOSAIBI SAYS (Minister of Labor Dr. Ghazi Al-Gosaibi yesterday accused Human Rights Watch (HRW) of exaggerating the incidence of foreign labor abuse in the Kingdom. He described as “unbalanced “ the New York based human rights group’s report, released on July 15 alleging that foreign workers in Saudi Arabia were “systematically abused and exploited, some of them living in conditions resembling slavery.”…He said the labor committees set up to review disputes that arise between the employees and employers handled more than 7,000 cases last year, most of which were filed by expatriate workers and during the current year more than 3,500 cases have been reviewed so far.)


5//Asia Times Online, Hong Kong--MILITARY MIGHT AND POLITICAL MESSAGES(Military exercises often have as much political use as tactical utility, and this week, China, Taiwan and the US all have conducted major exercises in or around the Taiwan Strait. These maneuvers send messages about the various countries' intentions in the Taiwan Strait…There were very clear reasons that the US would choose to conduct parts of Summer Pulse in the Western Pacific at the same time that China and Taiwan were conducting their own exercises: to demonstrate the United States' ability to project power and to show China that the US can still play a deterrent role in the region, despite its other operational commitments worldwide, as in the Middle East. In short, the exercises are being held by the US to remind China that it is still serious about its commitment to defend Taiwan.)