China rolls out red carpet for Sudan's Bashir

2011-06-29

Sudanese President insists southern independence will not affect relationship between Beijing and Khartoum.

By Susan Stumme - BEIJING

Sudanese leader Omar al-Bashir, who is wanted on genocide charges, was given a red-carpet welcome Wednesday by Chinese President Hu Jintao, despite criticism from Washington and human rights groups.

The two presidents sat down for talks in the Great Hall of the People in the heart of Beijing after the usual pomp and circumstance of a welcoming ceremony not often afforded to Bashir, who is unwelcome in many countries.

"Mr Bashir, you are a guest who has traveled from afar, and we welcome you," Hu said in opening remarks, adding that he hoped the talks would help bolster the "traditionally friendly relations" between the two countries.

The Sudanese leader, who called Hu his "friend and brother", thanked the Chinese leader for the "warm welcome and treatment" he had received since arriving in Beijing on Tuesday.

The pair later witnessed the signing of a economic and technological cooperation agreement, as well as two loan deals including one for a bridge project in eastern Sudan. No further details were given.

Bashir is wanted by the International Criminal Court (ICC) on charges of genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity that occurred in Sudan's western Darfur region, where about 300,000 people have died since 2003.

China nevertheless remains an unabashed supporter of the Sudanese leader, who was the first sitting head of state to be served an ICC arrest warrant.

The two presidents were expected to discuss the ongoing north-south peace process in Sudan, the situation in war-torn Darfur -- and perhaps how Bashir's regime intends to safeguard Chinese investment in his country.

Beijing is a key military supplier to the regime in Khartoum and the biggest buyer of the country's oil, although the majority of Sudan's oil fields are located in the south, which will become independent on July 9.

In an interview with China's official Xinhua news agency ahead of the visit, Bashir insisted that southern independence "will not affect the relationship" between Beijing and Khartoum, hailing China as a model "real partner".

China and Sudan on Tuesday signed an agreement to "deepen" oil and gas cooperation in the presence of Bashir and other ministers, China National Petroleum Corp (CNPC), the country's top oil producer, said in a statement.

The company did not provide further details.

Beijing has defended its invitation to Bashir, with foreign ministry spokesman Hong Lei saying Tuesday: "As a friendly country of China, the Sudanese leader's visit to China is quite reasonable."

The Sudanese leader's visit has sparked outrage among rights groups, and earned the reproach of the US State Department.

"We continue to oppose invitations, facilitation, support for travel by ICC indictees," State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said Monday.

ICC statutes dictate that any member country should arrest Bashir if he visits. China is not a party to those statutes, nor is the United States.

"We reserve our opinion on the ICC's prosecution against President Bashir," China's Hong said Tuesday.

Bashir -- who last visited China in 2006 -- arrived in Beijing on Tuesday, one day late after his presidential plane was turned back to Iran while flying over Turkmenistan. Hong attributed the delay to "technical reasons".

New York-based Human Rights Watch described Bashir's trip as "an affront to victims of heinous crimes committed in Darfur" and had urged Beijing to arrest Bashir on arrival.

Amnesty International said earlier this month that China risked becoming a "safe haven for alleged perpetrators of genocide" if it hosted Bashir.

Bashir and Hu may also have discussed Chinese aid to Sudan and problems in Abyei, a disputed border area claimed both by Bashir's Khartoum-based northern Sudan regime and the rival government in the south.

The United Nations Security Council voted unanimously on Monday to send a 4,200-strong Ethiopian peacekeeping force to Abyei in a bid to douse tensions.

The Sudanese leader had been due to stay in China until Thursday, but it was unclear whether his delayed arrival would now prolong his stay.

Source: Middle East Online.
Link: http://www.middle-east-online.com/english/?id=46982.

Arab-Israeli imam faces deportation from Britain

2011-06-29

British Home Secretary says unaware how Sheikh Raed Saleh – who was due to speak at House of Commons alongside three Labor MPs – entered UK.

LONDON - Arab-Israeli Islamist leader Sheikh Raed Saleh faced deportation from Britain on Wednesday after being arrested for entering the country despite a government ban.

Home Secretary Theresa May said arrangements had begun to remove Saleh, the leader of the northern wing of Israel's Islamic Movement, and an investigation had been launched into how he managed to enter the country.

But Saleh's lawyers said he had no idea he was subject to an exclusion order and vowed to "strongly challenge" attempts to deport him.

Saleh was arrested in London at about 11:00 pm (2200 GMT) on Tuesday after returning from a public event in the central English city of Leicester, one of several he was attending during a week-long visit, his lawyers said.

He had been due to speak at an event at the House of Commons organized by the Palestinian Solidarity Campaign (PSC) on Wednesday evening, alongside three opposition Labor lawmakers.

"I can confirm he was excluded and that he managed to enter the UK. He has now been detained and the UK Border Agency is now making arrangements to remove him," May said in a statement.

"A full investigation is now taking place into how he was able to enter."

The Home Office could not confirm when or why Saleh was placed on an exclusion list, although press reports said it happened a week ago.

One of Saleh's British lawyers, Tayab Ali, said his client had been arrested under a deportation order, which was issued "because the secretary of state considers the deportation to be conducive to the public good".

He said Saleh had had no idea that he was barred when he flew in to London Heathrow at the weekend.

"He traveled to the UK using his valid Israeli passport through perfectly normal means. He came to the United Kingdom to attend a number of lectures and give a couple of talks in a perfectly normal and lawful way," Ali said.

"We are instructed to strongly challenge the deportation order," he added, on the basis that the original exclusion order had no merit, and because the deportation interferes with Saleh's right to freedom of expression.

Sheikh Kamal Khatib, a spokesman for the Islamic Movement, blamed "the Zionist lobby in Britain" for pushing police into arresting him.

The detention was also denounced as political by another of Saleh's British lawyers, Farooq Bajwa, who has been instructed to pursue defamation proceedings against two British newspapers who accused his client of anti-Semitism.

Bajwa said: "He feels that this is a campaign by the Israeli government and people sympathetic to them to exclude him even though he's not a violent person."

Saleh has had multiple run-ins with the law in Israel, including most recently being arrested at the border with Jordan after allegedly striking an interrogator.

In 2010, he spent five months behind bars for spitting at an Israeli policeman, and he has been detained on a number of other occasions, including in connection with an alleged arson incident.

He was also held after taking part in a Gaza-bound aid flotilla that Israeli naval commandos stormed on May 31, 2010 in a botched operation that left nine Turkish activists dead.

The Islamic Movement is tolerated in Israel but is under constant surveillance due to its perceived links with Hamas, as well as with other Islamist groups worldwide.

PSC director Sarah Colborne defended inviting Saleh to their event Wednesday, admitting that he had faced "horrific allegations of anti-Semitism" in the past but had "completely refuted" them.

Israel's Arab community numbers 1.3 million, about 20 percent of the population. It is made of the Palestinians who remained after the 1948 establishment of Israel, and their descendants.

Source: Middle East Online.
Link: http://www.middle-east-online.com/english/?id=46999.

US Defense Secretary retires

2011-06-29

Gates, pragmatist who oversaw troubled wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, retires after four-and-a-half-year Pentagon stint.

By Dan De Luce - WASHINGTON

US Defense Secretary Robert Gates, who oversaw attempts to salvage troubled wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, retires Thursday after a stint that won him praise across the political spectrum.

The 67-year-old Washington insider rose through the ranks of the CIA during the Cold War to become the spy agency's director before returning to government to take over as defense chief at a fraught moment in the Iraq conflict.

Gates began his four-and-a-half-year Pentagon stint by helping to manage the troop surge credited with defusing spiraling violence in Iraq, a result he says is his most important accomplishment.

"I think, had we left here (Iraq) with our tail between our legs and with chaos, it would have been very bad for our army and for our military," the understated Kansan, known for plain speaking and pragmatism, told CBS news.

Former president George W. Bush named Gates in 2006 to the Pentagon job to succeed the combative Donald Rumsfeld, who had become a lightning rod for criticism over the controversial Iraq war and the handling of detainees.

In the aftermath of the turbulent Rumsfeld era, Gates eased tensions and repaired relations with the military brass, Congress and allies abroad.

But after more than four years as what he called "secretary of war," the weight of the job began to show. His voice would often crack with emotion when he spoke to young soldiers in the field.

When President Barack Obama called on Gates to stay on as Pentagon chief in 2009, he became the first defense secretary to be asked to remain in office by a newly elected president, a testament in part to his vaunted reputation in Congress -- where lawmakers from both parties rarely criticized him.

As a Republican who had been known as a hawk during the Cold War, Gates lent heft to Obama's national security team and to some extent shielded the younger, inexperienced president from criticism on the right.

But the bipartisan confidence Gates inspires today is a far cry from his searing experience in the late 1980s and early 1990s, when he faced a legal probe and hostile senate hearings over his role in the Iran-Contra scandal.

Upon taking the helm of the Pentagon in 2006, Gates inherited an unpopular war in Iraq that seemed on the verge of catastrophe.

He backed the last-ditch surge of US forces masterminded by General David Petraeus, helping to halt a slide towards all-out sectarian war.

While other factors contributed to the improvement in security, including the decision of Sunni tribal leaders to turn on Al-Qaeda, Gates has touted Iraq as a qualified success.

But the outcome in Afghanistan remains an open question.

Gates, who at the CIA had once funneled arms to mujahideen forces fighting the Russians in the 1980s, found himself in charge of American troops deployed in a war that has surpassed the length of the Soviet occupation.

He was influential in Obama's decision to send an additional 33,000 troops to Afghanistan, as well as the timeline announced last week for a gradual withdrawal of the reinforcements next year.

Skeptical of the ideological use of military action, Gates often expressed caution about resorting to force when vital interests are not clearly at stake.

He warned of the risks of intervention in Iran and argued -- unsuccessfully -- against the air war in Libya.

He often said his highest priority was providing for troops, and he pushed the Pentagon bureaucracy to build heavily-armored vehicles to better protect soldiers and to reduce the time for medical evacuations in Afghanistan.

Despite his soft-spoken manner, Gates held military leaders accountable and did not hesitate to fire them if he believed they had failed.

He once sacked the air force secretary and chief of staff on the same day -- a firing without precedent -- after a series of nuclear blunders.

After a career in government that has spanned eight presidents, Gates hands over the reins to Leon Panetta, the outgoing CIA director.

Gates has joked that this is his second attempt at retirement. After stepping down as CIA chief in 1993, he worked on corporate boards before becoming president of Texas A&M University in 2002.

As defense secretary, he compared his work to when he was a university president, saying in both cases he had responsibility for young people under the age of 24.

"But instead of wearing J-Crew they wear body armor. Instead of carrying book bags they are carrying assault rifles.

"And a number of them -- far too many -- will not come home to their parents."

Source: Middle East Online.
Link: http://www.middle-east-online.com/english/?id=46993.

Kirkuk buys electricity from Kurdish region

2011-06-29

Oil-rich Iraqi city signs contract to solve its electricity problem during summer through buying 200 megawatts from Kurdistan.

KIRKUK - Iraq's oil-rich Kirkuk province has started buying electricity from a private supplier in autonomous Kurdistan, its governor said Tuesday, after a spat with Baghdad over power shortages.

"We have a signed contract to solve the electricity problem in Kirkuk during the summer through buying 200 megawatts from a supplier in Kurdistan," said Rakan Saeed al-Juburi, the governor of Kirkuk.

Jaburi said supplies had already started this month with 100 megawatts, which would double by the end of July, adding the contract was signed with Ahmed Ismaeel, one of the biggest private power suppliers in Kurdistan.

Kirkuk, which produces more electricity than it is allocated by Baghdad, in January briefly stopped supplying power to the national network.

It resumed only after officials agreed to immediately increase Kirkuk's quota by nearly 50 percent, still leaving the province woefully short of 24-hour power.

Jaburi said the final price had still not been agreed, but authorities in Kirkuk were negotiating for $0.06 per kilowatt.

The governor said supplies would be paid for with revenues from the Petrodollar agreement, through which Kirkuk receives $1 from the central government for every barrel of oil it exports, amounting to about $1.7 million dollars a month.

Massud Barzani, the president of the autonomous Kurdistan region, said Tuesday he hoped the deal would relieve some of his people's suffering, and reiterated Kurdistan's claim over the province.

"I understand your suffering very well, in the field of electricity and other services," he said in a statement.

Supplies would continue until Baghdad honors agreements and "returns all these areas to the Kurdistan region."

"We insist that Kurdistan takes care of the beloved Kirkuk province, and insists in helping it, especially during this hot season," Barzani added.

Kirkuk's three power stations produce about 500 megawatts of electricity, with the majority of that sent to Baghdad, Salaheddin and Dohuk provinces.

Residents in Kirkuk have been contending with only about 12 hours of state-supplied electricity a day.

With the exception of Kurdistan, Iraq's power supply remains drastically short of demand, with homes and businesses nationwide suffering daily cuts and relying on generators to fill the gap, as the war-ravaged country struggles to boost capacity.

Overall national demand totals around 15,000 megawatts, compared with supply of 7,000 megawatts -- 6,000 megawatts produced locally, and 1,000 megawatts imported.

For months, angry Iraqis have staged demonstrations demanding improved basic services, especially electricity.

Iraq's infrastructure was devastated during the 2003 US-led invasion and more than a decade of sanctions that preceded it.

Source: Middle East Online.
Link: http://www.middle-east-online.com/english/?id=46991.

Arab activists buy $800,000 boat for Gaza flotilla

2011-06-29

Boat is expected to join aid flotilla aimed at breaking Israel's five-year blockade on Palestinian territory.

AMMAN- Arab activists have purchased a boat to join a Gaza-bound aid flotilla aimed at breaking Israel's five-year blockade on the Palestinian territory, a leading Jordanian unionist said on Wednesday.

"Arab contributors have bought in Greece a 560,000-euro ($805,000) boat that can take up to 200 passengers to join the aid flotilla to the Gaza Strip," Wael Saqqa, former head of the Jordan engineers' union, said.

"The boat has been registered under the name of Nur company, established for the purpose of purchasing the boat," said Saqqa, adding 35 Jordanian activists would join the flotilla.

The vessel was expected to set sail for Gaza on Thursday, along with other ships.

"But it might be delayed because there is a general strike in Greek ports," Saqqa said, adding the boat would carry medical aid and construction material.

Israel has repeatedly said it is determined to stop the 10-boat flotilla -- recalling a similar attempt to reach Gaza in May last year that ended in violence when Israeli troops stormed the lead vessel, killing nine Turks.

Nearly 300 pro-Palestinian activists from 22 countries including Canada, France, Greece, Ireland, Italy and Spain are set to join the flotilla, among them a good number of middle-aged as well as elderly Americans and Europeans.

They are to be joined by 35 journalists from around the world, according to organizers.

Source: Middle East Online.
Link: http://www.middle-east-online.com/english/?id=46996.

A night on the town, Libyan revolution style

2011-06-27

Libyans in Benghazi still game for a night out despite war with Gathafi regime, shortage of services.

By Andrew Beatty – BENGHAZI, Libya

A night out in the eastern Libyan city of Benghazi is not everyone's idea of fun. There are no cinemas, no clubs, only a handful of open restaurants and alcohol is illegal.

But while the war being fought 240 kilometers (150 miles) away is on everyone's mind, Libyans are still game for a night out.

These days the place to be seen in the rebel stronghold of Benghazi is, without doubt, the freshly renamed Tahrir (Liberation) Square.

Bounded by the city on one side and the Mediterranean on the other, the square's concrete heart has been covered by a giant woven mat, converting the plaza into -- in turn -- a sit-down concert hall and an open-air mosque.

Children, families and men of all ages flock there each evening, listening to music, debating politics and finding out the latest news and rumors about the front and the fate of Moamer Gathafi.

By 9 pm the square is thronged with thousands of people in various states of recline. That is before the faithful snap into regimental lines for Isha, the final prayer of the day, and the real crowds start arriving.

Around the mat vendors sell kebabs, revolutionary branded T-shirts, key chains and, of course, the omnipresent red, black and green rebel flags.

Libya's post-revolution media are also out in force, with Libya Al-Hurra (Free Libya) television filming an endless stream of debates and projecting them live onto the wall of the courthouse.

In a sign of just how much has changed in the Islamic world this year, large US, British and French flags fly beside messages of thanks for NATO's decision to save this city's people.

Without irony, a giant portrait of Omar Mukhtar -- a hero of Libya's independence -- hangs beside the flag of Italy, the country that hanged him for insurrection.

On the corniche, which bounds the square to the northwest, there is a long string of tents sponsored by everything from football teams to military forces.

Some contain images of fighting in the city, and in Misrata, the rebel-held port city across the Gulf of Sirte which is still under fire by Gathafi's forces.

Children and adults queue up to sit in the cockpit of a nearby MiG-23, like the one downed by Gathafi's forces in the early days of the Battle for Benghazi. The only attraction with a longer waiting time may be the nearby bouncy castles.

"Sometimes we demonstrate and sometimes we play," said 13-year-old Ali Nasser as he waited his turn on one of the quad bikes racing up and down the corniche pulling wheelies.

Source: Middle East Online.
Link: http://www.middle-east-online.com/english/?id=46940.

Organization of Islamic Conference Changes Name: Chief

2011-06-28

Secretary General of the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC) Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu said on Tuesday that the body has changed its name into the Organization of Islamic Cooperation.

"I have the honor to inform you that senior official meeting preparatory to this esteemed council recommended for approval of the new logo and proposed name which reads 'Organization of Islamic Cooperation'," he said, addressing a meeting of the body's foreign ministers in Astana, Kazakhstan.

"This name has the advantage of preserving the organization's acronym OIC," he said in his speech, which was posted on the organization's website.

The 57-member body is largely made up of countries whose people are mainly followers of the Islamic religion.

Based in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, the body was established in 1969. The population of the body amounts to 650 million.

The first summit conference in Rabat, Morocco, in 1969 decided that member states would hold talks and consultations together for better and close cooperation in the economic, cultural and spiritual fields, inspired by Islamic teachings.

Source: CRIEnglish.
Link: http://english.cri.cn/6966/2011/06/28/2681s645270.htm.