Gloria R. Lalumia's World Media Watch for January 7, 2008

WORLD MEDIA WATCH

Summaries are excerpted from the source articles; the featured article follows the summary section.

1//The News International, Pakistan
THOUSANDS OF PPP WORKERS FACE ARREST

In what appears to be a major crackdown on the PPP, thousands of its workers are going to be arrested and arraigned on charges of ransacking, looting and damaging public and private properties including banks, especially in Sindh, during the protest against former prime minister Benazir Bhutto's assassination. "The figure could go up to even 10,000," a senior official told The News. "They will be shown no leniency for causing damages worth billions of rupees." The official said that several cases have already been registered against thousands of PPP workers in different cities while many more were in the pipeline in the light of preliminary investigations and reports. He said some cases have been lodged on the complaints of the PPP rivals whose properties were torched or ransacked. The official said many more arrests would also be made in Karachi while some PPP workers have already been apprehended and cases against them were being investigated. ... Most of the arrests of PPP activists, who were in the forefront of the violent agitation, are to take place in the next few weeks, which are crucial for the campaign for the Feb 18 election. Such measures will also dampen the PPP's electioneering. The action against the PPP workers involved in alleged criminal acts during the protest would embolden their rivals including the Pakistan Muslim League-Q (PML-Q) to some extent, who have been hiding themselves for fear of a severe backlash from the PPP.

AN EXPANDED EXCERPT OF THIS FEATURED ARTICLE FOLLOWS THE SUMMARIES

2//Azzaman in English, Iraq
POLICE CHIEF PURGES FORCE IN BASRA

Basra's police boss has transferred 1,000 of his police officers to stations outside the city in a move to purge the force of elements believed to be loyal to their political and sectarian factions.

It is the third time Basra's police commander, Abedjalil Khalaf, embarks on such large-scale transfer. Previously, he had ordered 2,000 more police officers to leave the city. The transfer is the largest of its type since the formation of the new police, security and army and comes amid reports that the city's police forces have drastically failed to reinstate law and order. The security of Basra is now solely Iraq's responsibility after the withdrawal of British occupation troops to barracks in the city outskirts. "We had obtained official permission to go ahead with the transfer as part of efforts to cleanse the police system in Basra of elements with political loyalties," Khalaf said. He did not say how he would make up for the loss of 3,000 policemen and what recruiting criteria he would adopt to have them replaced. ... Shiite political factions have been scrambling for influence and power and their disparate militias are said to be better armed and equipped than government forces.

3//The Turkish Daily News, Turkey
PKK SPIRAL OF VIOLENCE SPREADS TO CITIES

As Turkey concentrates on rooting out terrorism through military and possible legal and social means, the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) is shifting its focus from rural warfare against military targets to urban attacks on civilians. Barring the fact that this brutality is deemed to be the PKK's last playing card, the creation of panic and fear among the public is beyond doubt. Besides the deadly bomb attack late Thursday in the southeastern Anatolian province of Diyarbakr, the seizure of C-4 explosives in Van and Bursa as well as street violence that started with car torching in a number of cities including Istanbul stick out as the PKK's counter-strategy to retaliate against the Turkish military's cross-border offensive against terrorist hideouts in the north of Iraq. ... The terrorist organization is resorting to violence maybe to take a stronger seat at the negotiating table given the carrot and stick approach adopted by the government forcing the PKK to lay down arms and using military action on the other side of the border as a pretext to intimidate the terrorists, said Nihat Ali Özcan, a senior foreign policy researcher. The ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) intends to bring down terrorists from the mountains by enhancing the repentance law, a move slammed by opposition parties who are up in arms against a general amnesty. ... "The PKK is playing the last card: the international community, the United States and Iraqi President Jalal Talabani acknowledge the legitimacy of Turkey's fight against terrorism; and there is no lack of coordination between the government and the military. All of these are enough to infuriate the PKK," he said. [Security expert Sedat Laçiner] Laçiner admitted that the hard-core phase in the fight against the PKK has "now" started and how Turkey reacts from now on to PKK provocations will determine the fate of the collective battle to eradicate the PKK. "Patience and unity are what we need in the upcoming period. If Turkey moves ahead with the current strategy, 2008 will be the year when the PKK will be marginalized," he added.

4//Scotsman on Sunday, UK
HEALTH CRISIS LOOMS IN KENYAN CHAOS

Kenya will face a health emergency within days if the wave of political violence there is not halted, a UK-based charity warned last night. With an estimated 180,000 people forced from their homes and many more too scared to venture outside, supplies of food and clean water in the east African country are running "dangerously low", sparking fears of health risks from diarrhoea, infection and dehydration, said medical aid charity Merlin. The warning came as hopes of an end to the politically inspired violence in Kenya rose when President Mwai Kibaki said he was ready to form a government of national unity. A statement was released by Kibaki after he met the top US diplomat on Africa, Jendayi Frazer, following a wave of violence in which at least 350 people died after last weekend's disputed election. But that optimism was dispelled when opposition leader Raila Odinga, whose supporters claim Kibaki rigged the election, later continued to insist that the president stand down and called for a new poll to be held. It was announced last night that Ghanaian president John Kufuor, the chair of the African Union, will visit Kenya this week to attempt to break the country's political deadlock.

5//The Globe & Mail, Canada
TORIES BREAK PROMISE ON LOBBYING

The Harper government broke its election promise yesterday to require ministers to record their contacts with lobbyists, instead ordering lobbyists to file monthly reports on their oral communication with federal officials. Draft regulations published yesterday to accompany the government's Lobbying Act create a new public registry of contacts between lobbyists and senior government officials. The registry will go further than the current system, under which lobbyists have to publicly disclose only who is paying them, which federal agencies they are targeting, and on which general files. But the new registry will not require reports on e-mails or letters between senior government officials and lobbyists. It will keep tabs on only "oral and arranged communication." The new regulations would not require lobbyists to report oral communications initiated by federal officials dealing with the development of policy, programs or legislation. Duff Conacher of Democracy Watch said the new registry, with its emphasis on verbal and arranged contacts, will capture only a fraction of lobbying activities. "These regulations have more loopholes than rules in them," he said. ... In the last general election, the Conservative Party vowed to stop the back-and-forth between politics and lobbying, which it said was corrupting government. In particular, a number of lobbyists were working for the government as well as for a Liberal leadership campaign or with Liberal ministers. The Conservatives vowed at the time to prevent lobbyists from obtaining contingency payments, and the new regulations require lobbyists to certify that they are not receiving success fees.

FEATURED ARTICLE

The News International, Pakistan Sunday, January 06, 2008, Zill-Haj 26, 1428 A.H.

THOUSANDS OF PPP WORKERS FACE ARREST

By Tariq Butt

ISLAMABAD: In what appears to be a major crackdown on the PPP, thousands of its workers are going to be arrested and arraigned on charges of ransacking, looting and damaging public and private properties including banks, especially in Sindh, during the protest against former prime minister Benazir Bhutto's assassination.

"The figure could go up to even 10,000," a senior official told The News.

"They will be shown no leniency for causing damages worth billions of rupees."

The official said that several cases have already been registered against thousands of PPP workers in different cities while many more were in the pipeline in the light of preliminary investigations and reports. He said some cases have been lodged on the complaints of the PPP rivals whose properties were torched or ransacked.

The official said many more arrests would also be made in Karachi while some PPP workers have already been apprehended and cases against them were being investigated.

(SNIP)

He said the criminal elements would be uncovered, who, in the garb of political workers, played havoc with the public and private properties including over 50 deaths during the rioting against Ms Bhutto's slaying.

(SNIP)

Most of the arrests of PPP activists, who were in the forefront of the violent agitation, are to take place in the next few weeks, which are crucial for the campaign for the Feb 18 election. Such measures will also dampen the PPP's electioneering.

The action against the PPP workers involved in alleged criminal acts during the protest would embolden their rivals including the Pakistan Muslim League-Q (PML-Q) to some extent, who have been hiding themselves for fear of a severe backlash from the PPP.

The federal government has consciously appointed a veteran retired Sindhi bureaucrat and former Vice Chancellor of the Quaid-e-Azam University Islamabad UAG Isani as the head of a commission that, among others, will "apportion blame and identify groups of miscreants/gangs who took advantage of the situation in the garb of outpouring of the grief and indulged in loot, arson, killings and destruction of private property." Isani, who was also principal secretary to prime minister Mohammad Khan Junejo, has been named for the position so that any protesting voice from Sindh, particularly from the PPP against the action being taken against its workers is blunted.

The commission will also include representatives of home department, the Inspector General of Police and revenue department.

Copyright 2007, Gloria R. Lalumia

WORLD MEDIA WATCH