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OCTOBER/NOVEMBER 1999, pages 38-40 Issues in the News
Britain’s Prince Charles will visit the UAE, Oman, and Saudi Arabia from Nov. 17 to 23, staying on in Saudi Arabia privately after his week of meetings with the ruling families. A British Embassy official told the Khaleej Times of Dubaithat the prince’s visit underlines the importance attached by Britain to the region.
A wedding tent collapsed and burned on July 28 in Qatif, Saudi Arabia, trapping women and children inside. The Saudi Gazette of Jeddah reported 44 deaths including the 20-year-old bride, who died after three days in intensive care, and 130 other serious injuries. The tragedy touched Saudis, who contributed money, blood and medical assistance while the Saudi oil company, Aramco, offered counseling programs for the traumatized victims and their families.
Saudi women can keep up with the world by surfing the World Wide Web. There are no figures for how many of the more than 65,000 Internet subscribers in Saudi Arabia are women, but the numbers should double by the end of this year. Women now can work, shop, read books, and chat with friends without having to leave home.
Bahrain’s Emir Sheikh Hamad bin Isa Al-Khalifa has pardoned an apologetic Bahraini air force pilot who defected to Qatar in 1996 but then returned to Bahrain and turned himself in, according to a Sept. 6 Gulf News Agency report. The apparent defection of Nasser Majed Nasser al-Khalifa had occurred when tensions between the two neighboring Gulf Arab states seemed to be easing after Bahrain’s then-emir, the late Sheikh Isa bin Sulman al-Khalifa, pardoned two Qataris sentenced to three years in jail in Manama for spying. The two countries have a long-standing territorial dispute over islands in an oil-rich area of the Gulf.
The UAE vowed to ban the sale of all Disney products if a controversial exhibit expected to depict undivided Jerusalem as “Israel’s eternal undivided capital” goes ahead in Disney’s Florida theme park. The UAE has called upon all other Arab and Islamic nations to join in the boycott. Disney sells at least $100 million of its products in the Middle East annually and sales are projected to reach $500 million by 2005. Israel’s Foreign Ministry contributed $1.8 million to the controversial Disney project, which highlights Jerusalem’s centrality to the Jewish people in a 2,400-square-foot exhibit, depicting Israel’s history and Hebrew language as well as its technology and agriculture.
Expert ornithologists named the UAE as the number one birdwatching destination in the Middle East, according to a recent report in the Khaleej Times of Dubai. Eight U.K.-based birdwatching tour operators feature a Dubai holiday package touting the fact that the UAE lies near the flyways of migratory Indo-Malayan, Palearctic and African birds, and that nearly 400 species transit the Gulf region annually.
An Australian archeologist has found 200,000-year-old flint hand axes, arrowheads and other stone tools near Ghaba, east of Qarn Alam in central Oman. This is the third site discovered on the edge of what was once a large lake, the remains of which are now the Sabkh salt flats.
Five members of Kuwait’s parliament introduced a women’s rights bill in August hoping to rescue reforms proposed by Emir Jaber Al-Ahmad Al-Sabah from a constitutional conflict between the legislature and the government. The emir ordered a change in the election law to grant women the right to vote and hold office starting in 2003. However, his decree requires parliamentary approval, which some lawmakers may try to block.
Qatar’s Emir Shaikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani became the first Gulf Cooperation Council head of state to visit the Palestinian territories on Aug. 8. Palestinian President Yasser Arafat welcomed Sheikh Hamad at Gaza International Airport, thanking him for his “brotherly visit” and for economic assistance to the Palestinian territories. The Qatari ruler called upon Israel to make peace with Syria and Lebanon and fulfill its obligations in negotiations with Palestinians.
Shaikh Hamad bin Jassem bin Hamad Al Thani, a former director of police and economic minister under former Qatari ruler Shaikh Khalifa bin Hamad Al Thani, was arrested at an undisclosed location abroad and returned to Qatar July 25 for trial, the Khaleej Times reported. The former police chief is accused of plotting a coup in 1996 against his cousin, Qatar’s emir Shaikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani.
An explosion in a supermarket close to several embassies and government buildings in Yemen’s capital, Sana’a, killed at least six people and injured more than 12 on Aug. 28. Other explosions were reported outside a bank in the southern port city of Aden, the Saudi Gazette recorded, and earlier in Zinjibar. It is unclear if the blasts are related.
Jordan’s King Abdullah II posed on two separate occasions as a taxi driver and a television news reporter in order to mingle with his people to ask them about problems they face. The tradition dates back to the days of the Caliph Haroun-al-Rashid, whose eighth century adventures in Baghdad in disguise were celebrated in Arabic literature. With restrictions on free speech in the Jordanian press and with the recent arrest of Mohammad Nizami, who is accused of criticizing the king’s policies regarding Israel in an Internet discussion, venturing out in disguise may be the best way for the king to find out the concerns of his subjects.
The estimated cost to repair the Bsalim and Jambour power stations destroyed in massive Israeli airstrikes June 24 which killed nine Lebanese civilians and injured 57 others is $18.3 million, according to the Saudi Gazette. Total costs of repairs and upgrading of the electrical system could reach more than $30 million. Saudi businessman Prince Al-Waleed Bin Talal has promised financial assistance. Meanwhile many Lebanese have only 13 hours of power per day and many businesses are dusting off the generators that kept them going during the civil war. Following the June 24 raids Israeli artillery bombarded the southern Lebanese villages of Mimas, Qalia, Dellafa, Yohmor, and Zellaya outside the Israeli-occupied border strip Sept. 1, wounding civilians, destroying homes and killing two teenagers in the western Beka’a village of Libbaya.
Syrian Defense Minister Mustafa Talas declared his country has the right to strengthen its military forces as long as Israel does the same. He made the statement after the United States agreed in July to sell sophisticated F-16 warplanes to Israel and at the same time warned Russia that it would be denied U.S. assistance if it concluded new weapons deals with Syria.
Iran denied offering to release the 13 Iranian Jews arrested in February and March on charges of spying for Israel in exchange for Israel’s agreement to pay its old debts to Iran. An estimated 25,000 Jews live in Iran, whose population is 99 percent Muslim, but which recognizes Judaism as an official minority religion along with Christianity and Zoroastrianism.
Iraq protested to the United Nations Commission on Human Rights against what it termed deliberate killing by Western warplanes enforcing no-fly zones in its south and north. The official Iraqi News Agency quoted a National Assembly letter to the world body dated Aug. 24 as saying that the United States and Britain, which are enforcing the no-fly zones, were committing crimes against humanity “by bombing civilian regions.” Iraq charged that a family of 12 in the town of Jassan, southeast of Baghdad, was slain, bringing the total death toll to 20 on Aug. 17 from U.S. bombing. The first U.S. congressional delegation to visit Iraq since the 1991 Gulf war arrived Aug. 30 to assess the humanitarian situation and examine the effects of sanctions on the children of Iraq.
Iraqi Kurd Yayha Latif Al-Salihi, who spent years impersonating Saddam Hussain’s eldest son, Uday, whenever he felt it was too dangerous to appear personally, has moved his family from Jordan to Syria. Jordanian Interior Minister Nasser Al-Lawzi denied that Jordan had expelled the defector but said the family’s residence permit had expired. Salihi fled Iraq in 1992 and published a book in 1995 called I was Saddam’s Son, which accused Uday of kidnapping, murder, rape and stealing millions of dollars from the Iraqi people.
Former Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu has taken a job as a strategic marketing consultant for BATM, an Israeli data communications engineering company. BATM develops, manufactures, and markets communications equipment and counts the Israeli army among its customers.
In a dawn showdown with Muslim clerics Aug. 10, Israeli police sealed an opening made during Islamic Trust renovations in the outer wall of the Al Aqsa mosque compound. Israel’s police minister said that enlarging the opening was a violation of the unwritten agreement not to make any changes at the holy site. Muslim leaders accused Barak’s new government of trying to provoke a confrontation. Jordan is ready to transfer its religious authority over the Al Aqsa and Dome of the Rock mosques within the Haram al-Sharif, Islam’s third holiest site after Mecca and Medina, to the Palestinians. Jordan’s 49-year role as custodian of the holy sites in Jerusalem is recognized by the 1994 peace treaty with Israel. In 1967 Israel captured the Al Aqsa compound, reputed site of the Jewish Temple destroyed by Romans in 70 A.D. In 1996, Israel opened a tunnel under the compound which resulted in three days of gun battles and the deaths of 80 people.
After two Jewish settlers were wounded Aug. 3, Israeli troops imposed a curfew on the Israeli-controlled downtown area of Hebron and set up roadblocks around the city preventing Palestinians from leaving or entering. The Israeli sector of Hebron is home to 30,000 Palestinians, who were confined to their homes, and 450 Jewish settlers, who were permitted to move freely. In a separate incident an Arab driver, thought to be a car thief and drug addict, was shot and killed after he plowed into a group of Israeli soldiers Aug. 10 in a suburb near Jerusalem. Two car bombs in Tiberias and Haifa, both within Israel’s borders, killed three people, probably the would-be bombers themselves, on Sept. 5, hours after the signing of the latest peace agreement.
After another year of drought in the Middle East, water is a crucial question as negotiations are reopened with Syria for the Golan Heights. Israel is seeking to retain control of the main source of water to the Jordan River and the Sea of Galilee, which provides Israel with a third of its drinking water. Israel controls 80 percent of the aquifers in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. Gazans complain that Israeli water consumption is excessive while many Palestinian towns have water only one or two days a week. The water pressure is so low that people living at higher elevations have to haul water from their neighbors’ homes below. Palestinians are working to repair 30 years of neglect of pipes and pumping stations during the Israeli occupation.
Israel’s Supreme Court ruled that Shin Bet security service interrogators can no longer use physical force while interrogating Palestinians in a landmark Sept. 6 decision. For 12 years the Supreme Court permitted routine “moderate physical pressure” of thousands of detainees which included violent shaking, tying people in painful positions for extended periods, placing hoods smelling of urine and vomit over their heads, depriving them of sleep with bright lights and blasting loud music into their cells for hours, and stripping them naked, dousing them with cold water, and then forcing them to sit manacled to chairs under air conditioners. At least 10 Palestinians have died during interrogation over the years, according to the Israeli group B’Tselem.
In an interview published Aug. 24, Algerian President Abdelaziz Bouteflika said France had agreed to reopen its cultural centers and two consulates in Algeria, closed in 1994 for security reasons, and that presidents of the two countries agreed to meet and improve relations strained since the start of an Islamic insurgency in Algeria in 1992. Bouteflika said Algeria would establish links with Israel only after Israel withdraws from southern Lebanon and Syria, and respects Palestinian rights to nationhood.
Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak escaped with a slight wound to the hand Sept. 6 when a man armed with a “sharp instrument” attacked Mubarak in his automobile during a visit to northern Egypt. Bodyguards shot and killed a 40-year-old street vendor who four years ago was diagnosed with a psychotic disorder and who had no links to the Islamist groups which have waged a seven-year campaign of violence against Mubarak’s government. Voters are expected to approve Mubarak’s fourth six-year term in office in a Sept. 26 referendum. In the third such incident in 10 days, an El Al flight from Tel Aviv to Bangkok was denied permission to enter Egyptian airspace Aug. 18 and had to return to Tel Aviv. Egypt has no diplomatic or political point to make, according to Egypt’s Ambassador to Israel Mohamed Bassiouny, but Israel must obtain the proper permits and request permission to use Egyptian airspace.
The U.S. has agreed to provide Egypt with a $3 billion arms package that includes the armor-piercing “silver bullet” made of depleted uranium that can punch though any armor system on earth, and a Patriot air-defense missile system that, according to the Jerusalem Post, Israel doesn’t yet have.
Morocco’s new 35-year-old King Mohamed VI addressed his nation for the first time July 30 after assuming the throne July 23 after the death of his father, King Hassan II. The new monarch freed 8,000 prisoners and reduced the sentences of 38,224 others as a goodwill gesture. He also promised to improve Morocco’s human rights record, work on social issues, and revive an economy in which 2 million of Morocco’s 29 million people are unemployed. The Saudi Gazette also reports that the new king praised Algerian President Abdelaziz Bouteflika, who attended the deceased king’s funeral despite past disagreements between the two countries over the Western Sahara.
President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali announced Aug. 31 that an independent commission will be set up to monitor Tunisian presidential and legislative elections, scheduled for Oct. 24, 1999. “We will make every effort to ensure that the next elections take place in absolute transparency, respect for the law, fair competition and resort to the will of the people through the ballot boxes,” the president declared.
Sudanese officials arrested two suspects immediately after the bombings of U.S. Embassies in Kenya and Tanzania in August 1998 and notified the United States. The White House and State Department ignored the suspects and Sudanese help in the investigation, refusing to deal with Sudan, according to the Los Angeles Times, because of the country’s alleged terrorist links. Sudan angrily released the suspects after the U.S. bombed Sudan’s al-Shifa pharmaceutical plant.
Two passenger trains collided Aug. 2, killing nearly 500 people and injuring 1,000 at Gaisal, 50 miles southwest of Jalpaiguri on the border of West Bengal and Assam. Train accidents are frequent in India, which has just become the second nation in the world with one billion people. China now has 1.25 billion but in the year 2030 India’s population may exceed China’s.
The Anglo-Dutch Shell group found oil in the Sanchor Basin in India’s northwestern desert on Aug. 15, as India celebrated the 52nd anniversary of its independence from Britain. The crude oil discovery was the first by a private international oil company in over 20 years.
India has denied Arab League charges that Israel is assisting India with its nuclear program. Israel sold an advanced electronic warfare system to India at the beginning of 1999, despite U.S. objections, and also agreed to speed up shipments of arms and military equipment during India’s recent crisis with Pakistan over Kashmir. Trade between India and Israel now totals $700 million a year. Kashmiri pro-independence groups have called for a boycott of September parliamentary elections in Kashmir. Voter turnout is often only 20 percent in Kashmir, where thousands are now living in refugee camps after years of violence between security forces and guerrillas that has killed more than 60,000 people and destroyed homes, livestock, and crops. This year again the economy was devastated after the 11-week battle between India and Pakistan-backed guerrillas in the mountains frightened away tourists. Pro-independence spokesmen say extensive Indian human rights violations by Indian security forces have propelled hundreds of young Kashmiris toward militancy.
Some 16 Pakistani and Afghan children were injured Sept. 6 in two bomb explosions outside a religious school in Karachi’s Gulshan Iqbal area. One bomb exploded in a drain close to the school and the other four minutes later on a van as more than 30 children were boarding it. Police described the bombings as an “act of terrorism,” without assigning blame. Pakistan urged the international community on Sept. 6 to give a coherent and determined response to India’s nuclear doctrine in order to stop New Delhi’s “dangerous plans” for nuclear and conventional arms buildup.
The earthquake that struck east of Istanbul in part of Turkey’s most populous and industrialized region Aug. 17 killed 15,303, injured 23,954, with 30,000 or more still missing, and ruined more than 21,390 buildings, rendering 250,000 people homeless, according to figures released Sept. 9. (See related reports on pp. 6-10.)
Cyprus released two Israeli spies Aug. 12 “to serve the national interest,” after they had served only five months of a three-year term. The two Israelis pleaded guilty to charges of approaching a prohibited military area in southern Cyprus and possessing unlicensed wireless scanning equipment, after charges of conspiracy and espionage were dropped. The men were told that if they ever returned to Cyprus, they would be arrested and forced to serve the rest of their sentences. |
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