Gloria R. Lalumia's World Media Watch for January 25, 2008

WORLD MEDIA WATCH 

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

1//The Globe and Mail, Canada
CANADA QUIETLY HALTS PRISONER TRANSFERS

Canada stopped transferring prisoners into Afghan custody months ago after discovering compelling evidence of torture, Ottawa admitted yesterday.  The government kept its decision under wraps, even as it prepared to fight rights groups seeking a halt to transfers in court today.

Justice Department lawyers acknowledged yesterday that Canadian Forces had stopped handing over detainees in November after a prisoner told diplomats visiting a secret jail in Kandahar that he had been beaten. He also told them where they could find the electrical cable and rubber hose used by his torturers, which the diplomats later discovered beneath a chair.  "Canadian authorities were informed on November 5, 2007, by Canada's monitoring team, of a credible allegation of mistreatment pertaining to one Canadian-transferred detainee held in an Afghan detention facility," the lawyers said in a letter to Amnesty International Canada and the British Columbia Civil Liberties Association.  "As a consequence there have been no transfers of detainees to Afghan authorities since that date," the letter confirmed.  "It's staggering," Jason Gratl, president of the BCCLA said of the government's belated admission. "In matters as important as complicity in torture and its conduct of war, the government owes Canadians some explanations in an open and frank manner."  The government, which is trying to drum up support for extending the Afghan mission, only revealed it had ceased transfers as it tried to make a deal with Amnesty and the BCCLA to drop their application for an injunction.  But Ottawa refused a counteroffer in which it would have agreed to give seven days notice before resuming transfers.  The hearing on the injunction is expected to proceed this morning [Jan. 24]. ... More than a month after it stopped handing prisoners over to Afghanistan's National Directorate of Security, the Harper government sent a senior general to give a sworn affidavit in the case brought by Amnesty and BCCLA.  The rights groups wanted transfers banned, claiming the government is bound by both international law and the Canadian Constitution from delivering detainees to those likely to torture or abuse them.  Brigadier-General André Deschamps, chief of staff to Canada's Expeditionary Forces Command, which runs the counterinsurgency operation in Afghanistan, asserted that Canada would have to quit fighting if it was barred from transferring detainees. ... "The insurgents could attack us with impunity knowing that if they fail to win an engagement they would simply have to surrender and wait for release to resume operations," he said.        

AN EXPANDED EXCERPT OF THIS FEATURED ARTICLE FOLLOWS THE SUMMARIES 

2//Gulfnews.com, United Arab Emirates
MILITARY BUDGET SOURS RELATIONS BETWEEN KURDISH AND ARAB LEADERS

The relationship between Kurdish and Arab political forces in Baghdad is on the verge of slipping down a dangerous slope if the two parties cannot solve a number of pending issues, Iraqi military officials and analysts warned.  These issues, they added, include the fate of article 140 of the Iraqi permanent constitution to decide the future of the oil-rich northern city of Kirkuk and some parts of Mosul and Diyala provinces. Kurds want to include it in the Kurdistan region because the areas are inhabited by a Kurdish majority. Apart from a number of oil contracts, which Kurdish officials have tried to set up independently of the central government in Baghdad, the most "explosive" issue is the Kurdish Peshmerga budget, analysts and military officials said.  Jabbar Al Yawer, a spokesman for the Kurdistan region border guards, revealed that the region had applied for a budget for 100,000 Peshmerga soldiers. A budget to cover pensions for 90,000 retiring soldiers has also been requested. ... "But we were surprised that Al Maliki's office asked the Kurdistan region presidency to reduce the number of the Peshmerga from 100,000 to 30,000 soldiers." 

According to Al Yawer, the Iraqi government questioned the purpose of the troops. "Al Maliki's office asked whether Kurds intend engage in war with Iraqi opponents or declare their independence, in its reply to the request of the budget. Kurds responded that countering terrorism and border controls require that number of soldiers."  "We are ready to reduce the number of soldiers but it requires securing new opportunities for dismissed soldiers," Al Yawer explained.

He warned that any attempt to resolve the issue without guarantees may lead to a dangerous situation. Al Yawer said that the issue of Peshmerga forces is a documented article in the Iraqi constitution, and the Kurdish request is both constitutional and legal. 

3//Azzaman in English, Iraq
DENTAL COLLEGE DEAN KILLED IN BAGHDAD

Unidentified gunmen have killed the dean of Baghdad University's Dental College in what appears to be part of a campaign to intimidate the country's intelligentsia.  The killing of Dr. Mundher Muharej comes amid reports that certain parts of Baghdad were slipping out of control once again.  Fighters belonging to al-Qaeda and other groups resisting U.S. occupation are said to be regrouping for a comeback to the areas they were forced to abandon following massive U.S. military operations.  Since U.S. troops landed in Baghdad almost four years ago, scores of university professors have been killed. The campaign has not spared doctors and top Iraqi scientists, writers, artists and media celebrities.  More Iraqi intellectuals are leaving the country now than in the time of former leader Saddam Hussein.  Iraqi government and police as well as U.S. troops have practically been doing nothing to stop the murderous campaign against these intellectuals. 

4//EUObserver.com, Belgium
EU CLIMATE PLAN GETS COOL RECEPTION FROM BUSINESS AND GREEN GROUPS 

The European Commission on Wednesday (23 January) unveiled wide-ranging proposals on how the EU is to tackle climate change.  The package has had a mixed reception, with green organisations generally saying it does not go far enough while the business lobby fears industry's competitiveness could be harmed.  The renewable energy producers was decidedly content with the support they are now receiving from the commission.  "The solar thermal sector welcomes the renewables directive proposal. For the first time, renewable heating and cooling will be fully integrated into EU legislation," said a spokesperson for the European Solar Thermal Industry Federation.  The European Photovoltaic Industry Association, representing solar power firms, was also largely pleased: "The proposal is welcomed by the photovoltaic sector, as it should foster a strong uptake of solar photovoltaic electricity. However, a number of clarifications and improvements are necessary to ensure its concrete implementation."  Nonetheless the wider business community while welcoming parts of the package, is afraid of the cost.  The Confederation of European Businesses, or BusinessEurope - the European employers' organisation - said that the significant electricity price increases the will result from the package are "not satisfactory".  BusinessEurope president Ernest-Antoine Seillière said: "The new proposal will have a huge impact on the European economy. It will now be crucial that the competitiveness of European industry is maintained and not affected by unduly large direct and indirect cost increases." ... Environmental groups meanwhile are frustrated at what they believe is a lack of ambition in the emissions targets. Plans to cut the EU's greenhouse gas emissions by 20 percent will not be sufficient to avert dangerous climate change, says Friends of the Earth Europe. The environment group accuses the commission of backtracking from the position it took at international climate negotiations in Bali a few weeks ago.  "The promising parts of this energy package are overshadowed by a greenhouse gas target that falls well short of what is needed," said the group's climate campaigner, Sonja Meister. "Reducing greenhouse gases by only 20 per cent is simply not enough."  "The EU must live up to the agreements made in Bali and commit to at least 30 per cent emission cuts at home," she said. 

5//The Independent, UK
SLOVENIA'S DEBUT EU PRESIDENCY MARRED BY ROW OVER PRESS FREEDOM 

Taking over the revolving presidency of the European Union was meant to be a diplomatic passing-out parade for the tiny Balkan state of Slovenia. Instead it has become an embarrassment as it has been embroiled in a damaging dispute over press freedom.  Two journalists who launched a petition at the end of last year accusing the government of political meddling, which was signed by 571 Slovenian journalists, said yesterday that they still want an independent inquiry. Their campaign has been backed by the International Press Institute (IPI) and the European Federation of Journalists, which said in a statement: "Slovenia has failed the first test of leadership in Europe by failing to show that it is prepared to deal openly and honestly with serious questions over its own record on dealing with media and journalism."  "There is continuing pressure on journalists," said Matej Surc, a radio journalist who initiated the petition along with his newspaper colleague Blaz Zgaga.  In addition to direct censorship - the newspaper Vecer has pinned censored articles on an office wall known as the "bunker" - the government of the centre-right Prime Minister, Janez Jansa, is accused of indirectly influencing the media through exploiting business relationships with companies that have financial holdings in media interests.  "It all happened in 2006," said Mr Zgaga. "The editors fell like dominoes and editorial policies changed." The lawyer of Lasko Brewery, which owns the daily Delo, admitted on television, for example, that Mr Jansa decided on the appointments to the newspaper's supervisory board, its chief executive and its editor in chief. It is not the first time that Slovenia, the first republic to break away from former Yugoslavia, has been accused of tactics reminiscent of the Communist era. An international controversy broke out before it joined the EU in May 2004 over the denial of rights to tens of thousands of non-Slovenes, who lost their permanent residence and citizenship in 1992 and became known as "the erased".  

FEATURED ARTICLE 

1//The Globe and Mail, Canada  January 24, 2008 at 5:08 AM EST

CANADA QUIETLY HALTS PRISONER TRANSFERS

Paul Koring 

Canada stopped transferring prisoners into Afghan custody months ago after discovering compelling evidence of torture, Ottawa admitted yesterday. 

The government kept its decision under wraps, even as it prepared to fight rights groups seeking a halt to transfers in court today. 

Justice Department lawyers acknowledged yesterday that Canadian Forces had stopped handing over detainees in November after a prisoner told diplomats visiting a secret jail in Kandahar that he had been beaten. He also told them where they could find the electrical cable and rubber hose used by his torturers, which the diplomats later discovered beneath a chair. 

"Canadian authorities were informed on November 5, 2007, by Canada's monitoring team, of a credible allegation of mistreatment pertaining to one Canadian-transferred detainee held in an Afghan detention facility," the lawyers said in a letter to Amnesty International Canada and the British Columbia Civil Liberties Association. 

"As a consequence there have been no transfers of detainees to Afghan authorities since that date," the letter confirmed. 

"It's staggering," Jason Gratl, president of the BCCLA said of the government's belated admission. "In matters as important as complicity in torture and its conduct of war, the government owes Canadians some explanations in an open and frank manner." 

The government, which is trying to drum up support for extending the Afghan mission, only revealed it had ceased transfers as it tried to make a deal with Amnesty and the BCCLA to drop their application for an injunction. 

But Ottawa refused a counteroffer in which it would have agreed to give seven days notice before resuming transfers. 

The hearing on the injunction is expected to proceed this morning. 

It's not clear whether troops are still taking prisoners only to release them, holding them in temporary cells run by Canadian Military Police on Kandahar Air Base or once again turning prisoners over to U.S. forces, which operate a prison at Bagram in Afghanistan. 

(SNIP) 

The letter to Amnesty and the BCCLA continued: "Canada will resume transferring detainees when it believes it can do so in accordance with its international legal obligations." 

Among those obligations is a Geneva Conventions prohibition against handing prisoners over to those who would abuse or torture them. 

Given the widely documented and widespread abuse and ill-treatment that is rife in Afghan prisons, Mr. Gratl said he "could not foresee detainee transfers resuming in the foreseeable future. 

"The government's decision amounts to a concession that the May, 2007, monitoring agreement has failed to prevent torture by Afghan authorities," he said. 

That agreement, which allows for follow-up inspections, was negotiated only after former defence minister Gordon O'Connor's assurances that the International Committee of the Red Cross would report abuse of transferred prisoners back to the Harper government were shown to be wrong. 

More than a month after it stopped handing prisoners over to Afghanistan's National Directorate of Security, the Harper government sent a senior general to give a sworn affidavit in the case brought by Amnesty and BCCLA. 

The rights groups wanted transfers banned, claiming the government is bound by both international law and the Canadian Constitution from delivering detainees to those likely to torture or abuse them. 

Brigadier-General André Deschamps, chief of staff to Canada's Expeditionary Forces Command, which runs the counterinsurgency operation in Afghanistan, asserted that Canada would have to quit fighting if it was barred from transferring detainees. 

(SNIP) 

Taliban fighters might surrender in droves, warned the general, if they knew Canada would release them because it could not either hold them or transfer them. 

"The insurgents could attack us with impunity knowing that if they fail to win an engagement they would simply have to surrender and wait for release to resume operations," he said. 

"The Canadian Forces has no capacity or ability to hold detainees other than for transfer purposes," said Gen. Deschamps, an air force officer. 

Building a NATO detention facility, perhaps on the Kandahar base, which currently houses more than 10,000 troops, has been repeatedly suggested by international human-rights groups. Canada and most NATO nations are opposed. 

"The long-term, indefinite detention of detainees in such circumstances would be inconsistent with the sovereignty of Afghanistan," Gen. Deschamps said. 

Madam Justice Anne Mactavish has ordered Gen. Deschamps to appear in Federal Court today where he is expected to face tough questioning from lawyers for Amnesty and the BCCLA. 

Copyright 2008, Gloria R. Lalumia

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