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DECEMBER 1999, pages 38-40 Issues In The News
ARABIAN PENINSULA
Pilgrims visiting Saudi Arabia outside the main hajj season for umrah (minor pilgrimage) can now visit other Saudi areas in addition to the two holy cities of Makkah and Madinah under new government regulations, the Arab News of Jeddah reports. Umrah visits will be allowed throughout the year with no ceiling or quota system as in the case of the hajj.
Eleven Saudis and a Briton were killed when a Saudi ARAMCO oil company helicopter crashed into the Arabian Gulf on Oct 2. Another seven Saudis and a Canadian survived the crash, according to the Arab News, thanks to the quick response of a Saudi ARAMCO rescue team. ARAMCO employees working on platforms in the Gulf are routinely transported to the mainland after their shifts.
Among issues to be discussed at a Nov. 28 meeting in Riyadh of Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) leaders from Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates are relations with Iran and Iraq, the Middle East peace process and proposals for a regional common tariff. A common tariff is a key component of a regional trading bloc. Gulf sources cautioned, however, that the GCC is far from agreeing to a common tariff.
Kuwaiti special forces, using tear gas and live bullets, on Oct. 31 ended two days of rioting in the capital by Egyptian workers. The unrest, the worst ever seen in Kuwait, started when an Egyptian customer clashed with a Bangladeshi shopkeeper over a plate which the Arab broke by mistake, causing a fist fight between some Egyptian and Bangladeshi residents. Egyptians later clashed with police who came to the area to investigate the fight, claiming that they were badly and unfairly treated. There has been no official word yet on the number of arrests and injuries. Egyptian Ambassador to Kuwait Mahmoud Abu Zaid urged the more than 250,000 Egyptians in Kuwait to exercise restraint. Some 65 percent of Kuwait’s population of 2.2 million are foreign workers and their families.
Germany is completing a feasibility study in the UAE for a railway proposal to link Abu Dhabi City and its international airport with the emirates of Dubai, Fujairah and Al Ain. The Gulf Today of Sharjah, UAE, also noted that Germany is helping the UAE with a waste management and environmental protection study.
Kuwait’s Crown Prince Sheikh Saad al-Abdulla al-Sabah told parliament his government was determined to introduce far-reaching economic reforms, but analysts said the plans were expected to run into stiff opposition in parliament. His government, formed after parliamentary elections in July, has been working for months on a plan to cut capital expenditure and generous subsidies and raise non-oil income through higher rates for basic services. This will increase the cost of living for some 800,000 Kuwaitis accustomed to a cradle-to-grave welfare system.
Hunters in Bahrain could be jailed for up to three years and face fines of up to $130,000, Gulf News of Dubai reported Oct. 4. The emirate’s total hunting ban, covering all wildlife, was imposed because some species face extinction because of illegal hunting in the Gulf state.
Oman launched a project on Oct. 11 to build a new port in Sohar, north of Muscat, the capital of the Gulf Arab state, the official Oman News Agency reported. In September 13 firms from Europe, Asia and the United States bid to dredge the port and build new piers. Oman signed a 25.2 million rial ($65.5 million) deal in June with South Korea’s Daewoo Corp. to build a reef at the port. Oman, which wants to boost its non-oil revenues, opened a major container terminal in Salalah in the south last year.
Sultan Qaboos of Oman has named its first woman ambassador, Khadija bint Hassan ibn Salman Al Lawati, to head its embassy in the Netherlands. The mother of four graduated with a degree in English from Baghdad University in 1974, the Khaleej Times of Dubai reports. Kuwait is the only other Gulf Arab state to have a female ambassador. Another royal decree established a Sultan Qaboos chair in international relations at Harvard University, which will place special emphasis on international and regional diplomacy and the advancement of women.
Yemen’s national airline has banned travelers from chewing the mild stimulant qat on its flights, the official al-Thawra newspaper reported on Oct. 12. Yemeni President Ali Abdallah Saleh is encouraging a national campaign against the qat-chewing habit on which Yemenis spend about $6 million each day.
Three Americans seized by disgruntled Yemenis from the Bani Jabr tribe on Oct. 26 were released unharmed after two days of negotiations with Yemeni security forces. The hostages were Marta Colburn, resident director in Sanaa of the American Institute for Yemeni Studies, and her parents, who were visiting from Denver. Abductions and sabotage are often used to pressure the government and oil companies to provide schools, electricity and other services in poor tribal areas.
Rising oil prices mean Qatar could clear off its budget deficit for the first time in 12 years in fiscal 1999-2000. Finance, Economy and Trade Minister Youssef Hussein Kamal said, “If the current trend in oil prices stays, it will have a positive impact on our budget, perhaps a little beyond our expectations, and we should be able to meet debt payments on industrial projects.” The Gulf Arab state relies on oil revenues for 70 percent of its income. IRAN /IRAQ
Iran announced its biggest oil find in 30 years, a 26-billion-barrel field in the southwest Khuzestan province, close to Iraq’s border. The oil field could produce up to 400,000 barrels a day after development begins in March 2001, oil minister Bijan Zanganeh told the Khaleej Times Sept. 29. Iran has the world’s second largest natural gas reserves and the fifth largest oil reserves, but exploration has been neglected for 20 years.
The English-language daily Iran News reported on Oct. 27 that U.S. State Department spokesman James Rubin offered unconditional face-to-face negotiations between Washington and Tehran to forge “more normal” relations after two decades of hostility. Rubin said in an exclusive interview: “We believe there should be no preconditions or limitations on such a dialogue, only a sincere commitment on both sides to explore ways to resolve the policy differences between us.” Diplomatic relations between Iran and the United States were severed during the crisis over 52 U.S. diplomats held hostage for 444 days in Tehran after the 1979 Islamic revolution.
In Iraq only half the schools are considered “adequate” by UNICEF, which reports that in some schools desks built for one accommodate three, and textbooks are tattered and outdated. Along with severe shortages of supplies, many schools lack clean drinking water and sanitary, working bathrooms. Before U.N. economic sanctions were imposed on Iraq for its 1990 invasion of Kuwait, Iraq had one of the highest literacy rates in the Arab world. In the 1988-89 academic year, the Iraqi government spent $230 million on education. Average spending during the past six years has been $23 million a year.
British Labor MP George Galloway, who is leading a sanctions-breaking convoy to Iraq, appealed to Arabs on Oct. 10 to support the lifting of U.N. sanctions imposed on Iraq for its 1990 invasion of Kuwait. “Arab support is of great importance to help lift the embargo which is causing the deaths of more than 700 Iraqi children each month,” said Galloway. His group visited Britain, France, Spain, Morocco, Algeria, Jordan, and other Arab countries on its way to Iraq to bring medicine and other relief supplies collected during the journey. ISRAEL/PALESTINE
A group of settlers cursed and heckled a Jordanian parliamentary delegation visiting Hebron and its Ibrahimi mosque on Oct. 11. The MPs, led by Speaker Abdul-Hadi al-Majali, and their Palestinian escorts had to retreat to their cars and drive off as the settlers shoved them and banged their fists on the vehicles.
An Israeli soldier fatally shot Mousa Abu Hilail, a Bethlehem souvenir vendor, on Oct. 25, sparking days of Palestinian protests in the West Bank town of Bethlehem. Israeli soldiers claimed Abu Hilail had tried to stab the Israeli soldier. Palestinian witnesses, who were not interrogated by Israeli investigators, said the soldier asked the vendor for a cigarette and the soldier’s gun went off by accident as Hilail reached for his cigarette pack. Protesters threw rocks and empty bottles at soldiers guarding Rachel’s Tomb in an Israeli enclave in Palestinian-run Bethlehem. Israeli troops responded with tear gas and rubber-coated steel bullets, wounding 29 Palestinians.
Israeli police arrested two bodyguards of Faisal Husseini, the senior Palestinian official responsible for Jerusalem affairs, alleging they had attacked an Israeli security official accompanying British Foreign Secretary Robin Cook on Oct. 26. The uniformed bodyguards blocked an Israeli secret service agent from making an advance check of the American Colony hotel room where Husseini and Cook were to meet. Though the Palestinians were released after questioning, the incident raised sensitive questions about sovereignty claims to the city, one of the toughest issues facing Israelis and Palestinians.
The long-awaited safe passage linking Gaza with the West Bank opened Oct. 25 after more than three weeks of delays caused by security and technical disagreements. The 27-mile route along existing Israeli roads across Israeli-controlled territory is expected to serve as a corridor for migrating labor and trade between the Palestinian territories, officials said. Gazans said the safe passage would not only reunite families and friends but also support the Palestinian economy. Under the agreement, persons denied automobile access through Israel would be allowed to use the passage twice a week in special buses escorted by Israeli forces.
An FBI report prepared for U.S. law enforcement officials says, “The threat posed by extremists as a result of perceived events associated with the Year 2000 is very real,” The Washington Post reported Oct. 31. “The volatile mix of apocalyptic religious and [New World Order] conspiracy theories may produce violent acts aimed at precipitating the end of the world as prophesied in the Bible,” according to the report, most of which focuses on threats in the U.S. In one portion which is devoted to Jerusalem, the FBI says an influx of tourists making pilgrimages and the presence of millennial cults will add to the danger. “Israeli officials are extremely concerned that the Temple Mount, an area already seething with tension and distrust among Muslims and Jews, will be the stage for violent encounters between religious zealots,” the Post quoted the study as saying.
A fire in an unlicensed cigarette lighter factory that recently opened in a Palestinian-ruled section of Hebron killed 15 young Palestinian women and one man on Oct. 14. The factory contained large amounts of lighter fluid and had no emergency exits. The Palestinian Authority asked for help from Israeli fire brigade units.
In September Prime Minister Ehud Barak visited a Jewish settlement for the first time since taking office. He toured Ma’ale Adumim, with a population of 26,000, using the occasion to voice his commitment to keeping parts of the occupied West Bank under permanent Israeli control. “Every house you have built here is part of the state of Israel. Forever. Period,” Barak said. B’Tselem, an Israeli human rights group, has said that Ma’ale Adumim, the West Bank’s largest Jewish settlement near Jerusalem, was the product of land theft and expulsion of Bedouin who lived nearby.
FERTILE CRESCENT
A joint Lebanese-U.N. study has concluded the Lebanese government must be ready to reassert full control over south Lebanon if Israel withdraws by next July, either under a peace treaty or unilaterally. The study looked for ways to restore economic and social health to a region occupied by Israel for 21 years after fighting ends and the population returns. Israel launched invasions in 1978 and 1982, and in 1985 set up a “security zone,” a strip of south Lebanese territory it said was needed to prevent cross-border attacks.
Lebanese protesters and human rights activists demanded the closure of the notorious Khiam prison in south Lebanon run by Israel’s client militia, the South Lebanon Army (SLA). Human rights groups charge that 181 inmates, including women and children, are being held without trial and routinely subjected to torture. The prison is located inside Israel’s 15-km. (nine-mile) wide occupation zone in south Lebanon.
The first express passenger rail service between Amman and Damascus was launched July 30, the Saudi Gazette of Jeddah reports, and is expected to warm Jordanian-Syrian ties. The Hejaz railway line, built in 1910, was plagued by political tension, never recovering from its decline after Lawrence of Arabia sabotaged the tracks to aid the Arab revolt against the Ottoman Turks.
The English-language daily Syria Times said on Oct. 28 that Washington should persuade Israel to accept resumption of its peace negotiations with Syria from the point where they left off in early 1996. “The U.S., in its capacity as the main sponsor of the peace talks, should firmly and urgently say that the already agreed rules and issues should not be changed. This is right and urgent,” the newspaper said. Syria wants Israel to honor what it says was a commitment made by the late Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin to withdraw fully from the Golan Heights, captured by Israel from Syria in the 1967 war, in return for full peace with Damascus. NORTH AFRICA
Algerian President Abdelaziz Bouteflika held a referendum Sept. 16 to ask voters to say yes or no to his plans for ending the government’s war with Islamist militants that has claimed 100,000 lives. The uprising began in 1992 after the Algerian government canceled parliamentary elections that Muslim political parties were poised to win. Nearly 99 percent of voters approved Bouteflika’s plan to grant amnesty and reduction of prison terms for militants not guilty of murder, rape or bombing, as well as amnesty to more than a million draft-dodgers.
EgyptAir Flight 990, a Boeing 767 with 217 people on board, crashed at sea Oct. 31 off the island of Nantucket on a flight from New York to Egypt. The flight, which originated in Los Angeles with a stopover in New York at Kennedy Airport, was headed to Cairo. There were 199 passengers on the flight, including two infants, plus 18 airline personnel, an EgyptAir official said in Cairo. EgyptAir, founded in 1932, has a fleet of 38 planes and flies to some 85 airports around the world. It was the airline’s first fatal crash.
An Italian judge endorsed a theory, hushed up for almost two decades, that a 1980 Libyan airliner crash off Sicily’s coast was caused by a dogfight between a Libyan fighter and NATO jets. Four Italian generals were indicted for witholding information that U.S. and French military jets were in the area with a Libyan jet, when the Libyan commercial plane with 81 passengers mysteriously crashed.
Moroccan opposition figure Abraham Serfaty, 73, arrived home Sept. 30 after eight years of exile in France to be greeted by supporters and government leaders. Serfaty asked newly installed King Muhammad VI if he could return to help the construction of a modern and democratic Morocco, the Arab News reports, and the king authorized his return. Serfaty was expelled in 1991 after spending 17 years in prison for threatening state security.
Tunisians overwhelmingly re-elected Zine El Abidine Ben Ali to a third term as president in the nation’s first multiparty presidential election Oct. 25. Ben Ali won more than 99 percent of the vote, with a voter turnout of about 90 percent. The country’s 3.5 million voters were given the choice between Ben Ali, 63, and two moderate opposition candidates—Behlag Amor, 62, head of the leftist Popular Unity Party; and Abderrahmane Tlili, 56, head of the Unionist Democratic Union, an Arab nationalist party. Until this year only one candidate had run in each election since Tunisia gained independence in 1956. Voters also cast ballots for the 182-seat parliament.
Britain and Sudan agreed to restore diplomatic relations at the ambassadorial level on Sept. 24. Foreign minister Robin Cook of Britain and Mustafa Osman Ismail of Sudan made the decision at a New York meeting. THE SUBCONTINENT
FBI expert Michael Vatis has declared that, under the guise of installing modifications to protect computers from Y2K-related program failures, malicious code changes have been inserted in some work undertaken by foreign contractors in the United States. Vatis, the top cyber cop in the FBI, assigned to the National Infrastructure Protection Center (NIPC), told a Reuters interviewer Sept. 30 it was “quite easy” for an outsider to code in ways of gaining future access or causing something to “detonate” down the road. Terrill Maynard, a CIA officer who also works in NIPC, was quoted in the June issue of Infrastructure Protection Digest as stating that India and Israel appeared to be the “most likely sources” of the malicious code. Indian officials have denied the accusations. Indian Elections Cause Deaths: Low voter turnout, land mine explosions, poll booth fighting and clashes between security forces and boycotters marred voting in India’s parliamentary election Oct. 3, leaving more than 32 people dead and many others afraid to go to the polls. Tens of thousands of security forces guarded voting booths to prevent private militias or guerrillas from terrorizing voters or stuffing ballot boxes. Voter weariness at the third election since 1996 and a Hindu festival contributed to low voter turnout.
More than 60 U.S. senators and representatives asked President Bill Clinton on Sept. 30 to appoint a special envoy to mediate the dispute between India and Pakistan over Kashmir. Calling the region the “most dangerous nuclear flash point in the world today,” the lawmakers, including Foreign Relations Committee chairman Jesse Helms, said it was imperative that Washington take a leadership role in quickly and peacefully ending the conflict, the Riyadh Daily reported.
A widening trade gap and little hope of a turnaround in foreign investment could force Pakistan to seek more help from its international donors to avoid a foreign exchange crisis, analysts said on Oct. 12. Investors have steered clear of Pakistan’s near-bankrupt economy since Pakistan narrowly missed bankruptcy after its May 1998 nuclear tests, which triggered international economic sanctions and a halt on fresh lending by donors. CENTRAL ASIA
Turkey should capitalize on the public thirst for change unleashed by last August’s earthquake and an easing in the Kurdish conflict to catch up on much-needed human rights reforms, Turkey’s Lawyers Committee for Human Rights said on Oct. 7. The Lawyer’s Committee cited a unilateral cease-fire declared by Kurdish rebels at the request of rebel chief Abdullah Ocalan from his death row cell as an opportunity for ending rights abuses. |
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