Swiss set to drop sanctions on ex-Libya minister

ZURICH | Fri Apr 15, 2011

(Reuters) - Switzerland is set to remove former Libyan foreign minister Moussa Koussa from its sanctions list, a government spokeswoman said on Friday, following a similar move by the European Union.

In a move by the West to encourage more defections from Muammar Gaddafi's regime, the EU has lifted a freeze on the assets of Koussa, who fled to Britain on March 30. The United States lifted sanctions against him on April 4.

"The Swiss sanctions list will be adapted analogously to that of the EU," Antje Baertschi, spokeswoman for the State Secretariat for Economics (SECO) told Reuters. The SECO oversees the sanctions list.

Switzerland has sought to improve its image as a haven for ill-gotten assets and in February froze assets of 29 Libyans linked to Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi.

Relations between Switzerland and Libya have been poor in recent years after Geneva police arrested one of Gaddafi's sons on charges -- later dropped -- of abusing two domestic employees. Libya withdrew millions of dollars from Swiss banks, halted oil exports to Switzerland and barred two Swiss businessmen working in Libya from leaving the country.

(Editing by Elizabeth Fullerton)

Source: Reuters.
Link: http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/04/15/us-swiss-sanctions-libya-idUSTRE73E6WD20110415.

Swiss freeze Ben Ali assets worth millions of dollars

Wed, 26 Jan 2011

Geneva - The Swiss government has frozen assets worth millions of dollars tied to ousted Tunisian president Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali, his family and wider entourage, a spokesman said Wednesday.

A precise figure could not be given, Andre Simonazzi said according to the SDA news agency, as the situation was in flux.

The latest move by Berne followed a request for official legal assistance from Tunis in reclaiming assets that might have been diverted by the ousted leader from public coffers to his own pocket.

Tunis has also requested an international arrest warrant for Ben Ali, his wife Leila and other relatives.

Last week, Switzerland said it would block Ben Ali's accounts after the deposed autocrat fled to Saudi Arabia.

According to Swiss National Bank figures, there were 621 million Swiss francs (659 million dollars) of Tunisian assets in the country in 2009, though the central bank could not say to whom exactly they belonged. Switzerland has very strict banking secrecy rules.

At Geneva airport, Swiss guards were keeping an eye on a plane reported to belong to Ben Ali, while further clarifications are made. For now, the aircraft is grounded.

Similarly, authorities are looking at land records, to see if the the former president or anyone in his top entourage own property in Switzerland.

Source: Earth Times.
Link: http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/news/364377,assets-worth-millions-dollars.html.

Switzerland calls for full freedoms for Aung San Suu Kyi

Sat, 13 Nov 2010

Geneva - Switzerland's federal government on Saturday welcomed the release from house arrest of Myanmar democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi and called for all political prisoners in the Asian country to be freed.

"Switzerland now expects her to be granted human and civil rights, including the freedom of expression, association and movement without restriction," a statement from Bern said after Suu Kyi's release.

The Swiss also appealed "for the immediate release of all political prisoners" in Myanmar, noting that there are more than 2,100 such people in the country.

Suu Kyi, who won the 1990 Nobel Peace Prize, has been under some form of detention for 15 of the last 20 years.

Source: Earth Times.
Link: http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/news/353383,switzerland-calls-for-full-freedoms-for-aung-san-suu-kyi.html.

Successful Maiden Flight of Swiss Solar Plane

By Aurelien Girard
Epoch Time Staff

Solar Impulse, a Swiss airplane prototype entirely powered by solar energy, successfully performed its first hours of flight in the morning of April 7.

The success came as good news for the 70 engineers who spent the past seven years of their lives with adventurer Bertrand Piccard on the project.

“This first mission was the most risky phase of the entire project,” said a delighted André Borschberg, CEO and co-founder of the project, adding that the flight took place in an hour and 27 minutes of “intense emotion.”

“Never has an airplane as large and light ever flown before!” Borschberg said. “The aim was to verify the prototype’s behavior in flight and to test its reaction to various maneuvers. The success of this first flight allows us to envisage the further program with greater serenity!”

Solar Impulse is powered by 12,000 photovoltaic cells mounted onto wings large as those of a Boeing 747 superjumbo. However, the plane body is around the size of a car, giving Solar Impulse the strange appearance of a dragonfly carried by four electric motors (10 horsepower each) linked to 880 pounds of lithium batteries.

The solar airplane made an easy take-off at speeds as low as 27 mph from Payerne military training center in western Switzerland, and smoothly landed at the same place 1 ½ hours later.

"Thanks to the extraordinary work of an entire team, an essential step towards achieving our vision has been taken," said Bertrand Piccard on his Web site. "Our future depends on our ability to convert rapidly to the use of renewable energies. Solar Impulse is intended to demonstrate what can be done already today by using these energies and applying new technologies that can save natural resources."

With dimensions of 71 feet in length, 208 feet in wing length, and 21 feet in height, and an average flight speed of 43 mph, Solar Impulse is definitely not intended to be distinguished by its speed.

Rather, the challenge is to prove that the future lies in renewable energy, and to illustrate this, Piccard’s team plans a 2013 flight around the world without using a single drop of oil.

Despite the major step, many additional tests will be needed before the around-the-world flight, the first one of which will be a 36-hour flight between May and June this year to assess the ability of Solar Impulse to fly—day and night.

Source: The Epoch Times.
Link: http://www.theepochtimes.com/n2/content/view/32954/.

Two Uighur brothers held in Guantanamo arrive in Switzerland

Wed, 24 Mar 2010

Geneva - Two brothers held at the United States military detention center in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, have arrived in Switzerland after being released, an official said Wednesday.

The two men, who hold Chinese nationality and are members of the minority Muslim Uighur group, arrived Tuesday after being held in Guantanamo for eight years.

The pair are will make new lives for themselves in the canton of Jura, in the north-west of the Alpine country.

The French speaking canton will host the brothers, aged 33 and 45, and help integrate them into local society, Julliard Charles, head of the Jura government, was quoted as saying.

Switzerland's federal government agreed with Washington to take in former Guantanamo inmates as part of an effort to help the current US administration close the controversial prison.

Despite the long imprisonment, the two men were not charged of any crime.

Charles told the local parliament that the brothers were being aided by the Jura services for refugees. Deputies in the house applauded the announcement.

China has slammed the Swiss decision to host the men, but the Jura has said the decision was based on humanitarian considerations alone.

Source: Earth Times.
Link: http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/315538,two-uighur-brothers-held-in-guantanamo-arrive-in-switzerland.html.

Swiss antagonist of minarets embraces Islam

January 30, 2010

RENOWNED Swiss politician Daniel Streich, who rose to fame for his campaign against minarets of mosques, has embraced Islam.

A member of the Swiss People’s Party (SVP) and a well-known politician, Daniel Streich was the first man who had launched a drive for imposition of ban on mosques minarets, and to lock the mosques in Switzerland. The proclamation of Streich’s conversion to Islam has created furore in Swiss politics, besides causing a tremor for those who supported ban on construction of mosques minarets.

Streich propagated his anti-Islamic movement far and wide in the country, sowed seeds of indignation and scorn for Islam among the people, and paved way for public opinion against pulpits and minarets of mosques.

But now Streich has become a soldier of Islam. His anti-Islam thoughts finally brought him so close to this religion that he embraced Islam. He is ashamed of his doings now and desires to construct the most beautiful mosque of Europe in Switzerland.

The most interesting thing in this regard is that at present there are four mosques in Switzerland and Streich wants to lay the foundation for the fifth one. He wishes to seek absolution of his sin of proliferating venom against Islam. He is thinking of a movement contrary to his previous one to promote religious tolerance and peaceful cooperative living, in spite of the fact that ban on mosques minarets has gained a legal status.

This is the greatest quality of Islam that it comes up with even greater vigour, when it is faced with confrontation.

Abdul Majeed Aldai, the president of OPI, an NGO, working for the welfare of Muslims, says that Europeans have a great desire to know about Islam. Some of them want to know about the relationship between Islam and terrorism; same was the case with Streich.

During his confrontation, Streich studied the Holy Quran and started understanding Islam.

He wished to be hard to Islam, but the outcome was otherwise. Aldai further says.
Recently the question of ban on minarets was put to voting in Switzerland, wherein the Swiss nationals gave the issue a legal status.

Source: The Nation.
Link: http://www.nation.com.pk/pakistan-news-newspaper-daily-english-online/International/30-Jan-2010/Swiss-antagonist-of-minarets-embraces-Islam.

Uighurs will be relocated to Switzerland

By Mary E. O’Leary, Register Topics Editor

Two Chinese Uighurs, imprisoned at Guantanamo Bay for eight years after being turned over to the U.S. military by bounty hunters, will soon be learning French in their new home in Switzerland thanks to the efforts of a New Haven attorney.

Elizabeth Gilson, whose practice was mainly environmental issues until she volunteered to represent the brothers, got the word this week that they will be relocated in about 60 days.

“It took millions of dollars of attorney costs, eight years and two innocent people before it all came together,” Gilson said of her long fight as part of a team of attorneys.

She worked with lawyers from the Center for Constitutional Rights in New York, who donated their services on behalf of the Uighurs and others held at Guantanamo.

The siblings were among 22 Uighurs swept up in the chaos in Afghanistan after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. The Uighurs are a Turkic ethnic minority in China, who often flee that country in response to oppression, according to congressional testimony.

Never charged with a crime and eventually found not to be a threat to the U.S., the brothers are part of a group of prisoners who have languished for years at Guantanamo when the U.S. could not find a country willing to grant them asylum. They could not send them back to China for fear they would be tortured.

Bahtiar Mahnut, 32, had an opportunity earlier to leave for Palau, a tiny island in the Pacific, but Gilson said he turned it down when his brother, Arkin Mahnut, 45, did not want to go there because it was temporary and they feared Chinese intervention.

Gilson said the men’s mother in 2001 sent the older brother after Bahtiar to bring him home when he ended up in Afghanistan on his way to Turkey. She said Arkin Mahnut developed a mental illness from his detention, basically post traumatic stress syndrome, but has been doing better lately.

Gilson recently spent a week in Switzerland lobbying on behalf of her clients as the Swiss Federal Council and the Canton Jura agreed to admit them.

“There was intense interest in the case in Switzerland, which was getting pounded by the Chinese” and threatened with loss of a trade agreement if they accepted them, Gilson said. “The Swiss don’t like being threatened by anyone,” she said. Those in opposition argued the U.S. should take in the men.

Imprisoned in solitary confinement for 18 months, the brothers recently have been in a less restricted area at Guantanamo, Gilson said.

She said the Swiss “have a very good system of resettlement. This is a great place to go.” The immersion program includes job training, which they are eager to embrace, she said.

Arkin Mahnut, who was married with two children, is now divorced. “They can never go back to China,” she said.

The advocates have won several court battles in their long fight over habeas corpus rights, but as many reversals. Gilson will stay involved, including working on Supreme Court appeal briefs due March 23.

Source: New Haven Register.
Link: http://newhavenregister.com/articles/2010/02/06/news/a3-neuighurs.txt.

China slams Switzerland for accepting Uighurs from Guantanamo

Beijing - China criticized the Swiss government on Thursday for agreeing to accept two Uighur brothers currently held at the US military detention center at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba. "The Chinese authorities have expressed their dissatisfaction," said a spokesman for the Swiss embassy in Beijing.

The spokesman said the Swiss ambassador went of his own accord to the Chinese Foreign Ministry to explain his government's decision to accept the brothers from the Uighur ethnic minority group.

Ma Zhaoxu, a ministry spokesman, said the decision would "surely undermine China-Switzerland relations."

Ma said the Uighurs still held at Guantanamo Bay were all suspected members of the East Turkestan Islamic Movement, which is listed by the United Nations as an international terrorist group.

Switzerland said the two brothers - members of a mainly Muslim minority in China that has long complained of discrimination at the hands of the Han majority - would be housed in Jura, a canton in the alpine land's north-west, said a statement from the Federal Council, or cabinet.

Rebiya Kadeer, the head if the US-based Uighur American Association advocacy group, welcomed the Swiss decision, saying it would allow the two men "to live free and productive lives."

"The government and people of Switzerland have made an extraordinary humanitarian gesture, which is even more remarkable in the face of unrelenting pressure from China not to accept the two men," Kadeer said in a statement Thursday.

US State Department spokesman PJ Crowley said the United States was also grateful to the Swiss for the "humanitarian gesture and for its consistent support of our efforts to close the Guantanamo Bay detention facility."

China had pressed the Swiss to not accept the prisoners although the canton, or state, had expressed willingness to accept the two.

Swiss authorities said they discussed the matter with the Uighur brothers prior to making the decision. A security assessment was also conducted.

Switzerland, which considers the jail a violation of international law, has said it would help the US shut down the center by taking in some of the about 190 detainees left at Guantanamo.

Source: Earth Times.
Link: http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/307480,china-slams-switzerland-for-accepting-uighurs-from-guantanamo.html.

Swiss take two Uighurs from Guantanamo, despite China - Summary

Geneva - Switzerland will accept two Uighur detainees currently being held at the US military detention center at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, the Swiss government announced Wednesday. The two Uighur brothers - members of a Muslim minority in China - would be housed in Canton Jura, in the Alpine land's north-west, said a statement from the Federal Council, or cabinet.

US State Department spokesman PJ Crowley said the US was grateful to the Swiss for the "humanitarian gesture and for its consistent support of our efforts to close the Guantanamo Bay detention facility."

China had pressed the Swiss to not accept the prisoners, though the canton (state) had expressed willingness to accept the two. Beijing has called the two a security threat, and sees Uighur separatist inclinations as a risk.

Swiss authorities said they discussed the matter with the Uighur brothers prior to making the decision. A security assessment was also conducted.

Last month, Geneva, in Switzerland's south-west, took in an Uzbek detainee who was held at the US military base.

Switzerland, which considers the Guantanamo jail a violation of international law, has said it would help the US shut down the center by taking in some detainees.

US President Barack Obama has said he remains committed to close the controversial facility, despite missing a self-imposed deadline of January 22.

There are still about 190 detainees left at Guantanamo.

Source: Earth Times.
Link: http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/307400,swiss-take-two-uighurs-from-guantanamo-despite-china--summary.html.

Davos ends on uncertain note

Edith M. Lederer
Davos, Switzerland — The Associated Press

The world's foremost gathering of business and government leaders wrapped up a five-day meeting Sunday with widespread agreement that a fragile recovery is under way, but no consensus on what's going to spur job growth and prevent another global economic meltdown.

In a group of big egos and many power players attending the annual World Economic Forum, there was even some humility and a realization that overcoming the first global financial crisis is uncharted territory.

The gathering of roughly 2,500 VIPs in this Swiss alpine resort saw much spirited debate on whether more regulation is needed for the financial industry, how to reduce global unemployment, and finding ways to ensure the nascent recovery is kept on course through 2010.

The atmosphere of doom and gloom that pervaded last year's forum, which took place at the height of the economic crisis, was replaced this year by a feeling of some satisfaction that a modest recovery is under way, but uncertainty about the way forward and how banks should respond.

Deutsche Bank chief executive Josef Ackerman told a closing panel that the worst of the financial and economic crisis had been managed “quite successfully,” but decision-makers now had a tough choice: “Should we take more risk, be a creative force for growth, or should we focus on security?”

Peter Sands, the CEO of Britain's Standard Chartered Bank, said at the panel that the right balance must be struck “between making a safer banking system and a financial system that can support the sort of dynamism and growth in job creation.”

“Get it wrong one way and we risk a new crisis; get it wrong the other way and we'll take the steam out of the recovery and reduce the chances of creating new jobs,” he said.

At the same time, Mr. Sands said, everyone must have “a degree of humility about what we actually know, and how confident we can be, that the ideas we're going to put in place are going to have the consequences that we thought they were going to have.”

At Davos, the pendulum swings between a focus on the economy and other global issues.

The spotlight at past forums has been on celebrity guests such as Angelina Jolie and Bono, but this year it fell on the big bankers and government financial regulators. Many participants remarked on the absence of high-profile figures from the Obama administration. The highest-ranking delegate was Lawrence Summers, director of the White House National Economic Council.

In the keynote speech, French President Nicolas Sarkozy called for a return to ethics and morality in business and gave a broad riposte to free-market capitalism.

Klaus Schwab, the forum's founder, ended the meeting with a call to the business and government leaders to reflect “on values” and social responsibility.

Mr. Sarkozy told international bankers and CEOs just what they didn't want to hear: Brace for bonus curbs, tighter banking regulations and new bookkeeping rules. He echoed rallying cries of workers from the United States to Europe and Asia, and hours later, President Barack Obama also called for reforms on Wall Street.

Perhaps the most important meeting was unscheduled. It came Saturday on the sidelines of the forum when government regulators, finance ministers and central bankers from the U.S. and Europe laid out their financial-reform plans during a two-hour meeting with bank executives.

Mr. Sands called the discussions at this and other meetings “very constructive,” though he urged caution in the face of optimism: “They haven't ... solved the issues, but they certainly ... pushed them forward.”

Mr. Ackerman praised the major economic players for expanding their Group of Eight to the Group of 20. He said there should be a Business group of 20 to work alongside them and focus on business issues.

With China and India spurring the global economy, Azim Premji, chairman of Wipro Ltd., India, a global communications company, predicted that the difference between growth rates between the developing and developed worlds “are increasingly going to become larger.”

The result, he told a closing panel, is that richer countries will “more aggressively” invest in emerging markets in order to maintain their own growth, which will be “good for the emerging world.”

Muhammad Yunus, managing director of the micro-credit-pioneer Grameen Bank, said in an interview that “this is a good time to redesign the entire financial system.”

“Big guys are not the big sufferers,” he said. “Big sufferers are the small guys who lost their jobs, who lost their food, who lost their livelihood.”

Source: The Globe and Mail.
Link: http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/davos-summit-ends-on-uncertain-note/article1450870/.

Parliament divided over Uighur situation

There are continuing divisions this morning in parliament over whether Switzerland should take in two Guantanamo detainees, minority Uighurs from China.

Two parliamentary committees have issued opposing appeals to influence the cabinet on the matter.

Members of parliament’s committee on human rights published a letter earlier this week, urging the federal cabinet to stick to their decision to house the two men. They also criticize China for what they describe as a ‘campaign to denigrate’ the Guantanamo detainees.

But yesterday, following the publication of the letter, the country’s political institutions committee called on the cabinet to reject the Uighurs, saying they would pose a threat to national security and relations with China.

Anne Seydoux is a Christian Democrat MP and a member of the human rights committee. She says she hopes the cabinet will stay the course and honor its commitment to the U.S. government.

Whatever the divisions in parliament, the final decision rests with the Cabinet.

— Catherine Allen, World Radio Switzerland

Source: World Radio Switzerland.
Link: http://worldradio.ch/wrs/news/wrsnews/parliament-divided-over-guantanamo-detainees.shtml?17462.

Islamic umbrella organisation demands Swiss lift minaret ban

Thu, 10 Dec 2009

Geneva - The organization representing 56 Islamic nations on Thursday called for the lifting of Switzerland's minaret ban, passed in a controversial referendum last month. The Geneva-based Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC) said it feared that the ruling could set a precedent for other European countries.

Other symbols of Islam, not just minarets, were in danger of being banned, the organization said.

Ambassadors of the OIC nations appealed to Swiss United Nations ambassador Dante Martinelli to lift the ban, Pakistani UN ambassador Zamir Akram told journalists in Geneva.

"The Swiss authorities must use all constitutionally available and legal possibilities to make the result of this referendum void," said Akram.

Swiss legislator condemned by Islamic scholar as 'new Hitler'

Doha - The verbal war over Switzerland's ban on building new minarets on mosques escalated Tuesday during a talk show when an Islamic academic condemned a key backer of the Swiss referendum as the "new Hitler of Europe." The director of the Institute of Islamic Political Thought in London, Azzam al-Tamimi, made the remarks on al-Jazeera broadcaster about the Swiss legislator Oskar Freysinger.

"Freysinger is a danger for the future of Switzerland," Tamimi said.

Freysinger, a member of the right-wing Swiss People's Party (SVP) that called the referendum, who was also a guest on the show, retorted that it was "absolutely a democratic decision" and that unlike the Swiss referendum, "Hitler did not allow people to vote."

Freysinger also countered that in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, the building of Christian churches is banned.

Al-Tamimi praised Swiss church leaders who spoke out against the ban. He called on the people of Switzerland to protect the reputation of their "beautiful, free country" by opposing the ban.

On November 29, more than 57 per cent of Swiss voters agreed that new minarets on mosques should be banned. The vote has reignited passions around the role of Islam in Swiss society and other parts of Europe with large Muslim populations.

Adolf Hitler and his Nazi party came to power after a series of democratic votes during Germany's Weimar Republic of the 1920s and 1930s. Only after he was named chancellor in 1933 did Hitler transform the country into a totalitarian one-party state and ban free elections.

Sarkozy rises in defense of Swiss minaret ban

French President Nicolas Sarkozy on Tuesday warned believers to be thankful for the religious freedom they enjoy in France, amid national debates over faith following a Swiss ban on minarets.

In an opinion piece published in the French daily Le Monde, the president defended the Swiss referendum against widespread international condemnation of the ban.

"Instead of condemning the Swiss out of hand, we should try to understand what they meant to express and what so many people in Europe feel, including people in France," he wrote.

Sarkozy linked the ban to the Alpine country's concerns over a potential loss of identity that should not be overlooked, and showed the importance of holding extended debates on national identity.

The government's recently launched "grand débat,” calling nationalists to describe what it is that makes them feel French, has been criticized as a ploy to appeal to the right-wing section of the population ahead of regional elections next March.

France, home to Europe's largest Muslim minority, passed a law in 2004, banning headscarves or any other "conspicuous" religious symbols in state schools in defense of secularism.

"Christian, Jew or Muslim... each one must guard against all ostentation and all provocation and, aware of the good fortune to be able to live in a free land, practice his religion with humble discretion," the president added.

Sarkozy went on to directly reassure French Muslims that he would dedicate himself to the battle against discrimination, maintaining that no one in Europe was seeking to deny Muslims their basic right to freedom of religion.

A poll published last week, however, exposed French hostility towards the building of not only the minaret — distinct architectural features built on top of mosques — but the Islamic prayer houses over all.

Nearly half the population (46 percent) were against building of mosques, while 41 percent favored a ban on the minarets.

"The peoples of Europe are welcoming and tolerant…But they do not want their surroundings, their way of thinking and their social relationships to be distorted," he argued.

France, with six million Muslims, has fewer than 2,500 prayers houses and mosques, many of which are housed in modest halls, according to AFP.

Swiss intellectuals seek to reverse minaret ban

Amid mounting controversy over Switzerland's ban on building minarets, the country's liberals are planning to push for a new referendum aimed at overturning the ban.

Club Helvetique, a group of over 20 Swiss intellectuals, are in the process of drawing up an action plan to overturn the ban, which the United Nations slammed as "deeply divisive" and "clearly discriminatory."

"A new initiative is the most democratic way of achieving this," the Sunday newspaper, Sonntag, quoted constitutional lawyer Joerg Mueller as saying.

According to the paper, two complaints questioning the legality of ban have already been handed to Switzerland's Federal Court.

A simple majority, 57 percent of the voters, said "yes" to a late November referendum declaring the construction of new minarets illegal. The approval was in defiance of the government's warning that initiative violated the Swiss constitution, freedom of religion.

The far right parties pushing for the vote had denounced the minaret, a distinct architectural feature built on top of Islamic mosques from which the faithful are called to prayer.

However, hundreds of protesters took to the street this weekend in Zurich, Basel and the capital, Bern, to show their opposition to the ban.

Muslim and European leaders, as well as the Vatican, quickly reacted to the ban. The UN has also question the legality of the ban, saying it was at odds with the country's obligations under international law.

Iran condemned the move with Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki saying that "the ban will undoubtedly change Switzerland's image as a leading advocate of human rights."

The most astonishing condemnation, however, came from Libya's eccentric leader Moammar Gadhafi, who argued that the ban would provide al-Qaeda militants with a pretext to launch attacks in Europe and particularly in Switzerland.

'Muslims should withdraw their money from Swiss banks'

Turkish State Minister and Chief Negotiator for EU talks Egemen Bagis has urged Muslim nations to withdraw their money from Swiss banks.

Bagis' comments came in response to a recently approved ban on the construction of new minarets in Switzerland.

Following a weekend referendum, the construction of any new minaret was declared illegal in Switzerland, a move which drew sharp criticism from Muslim and European countries, as well as the UN and the Vatican.

"This will prompt our Muslim brothers who have deposited their money in Swiss banks to rethink their decision,” the Turkish daily Zaman quoted Bagis as saying on Tuesday.

He suggested that Muslims could deposit their money in Turkish banks instead of Swiss banks.

“In 2008, when banks around the world were falling, no bank was affected in Turkey, and the door of Turkey's banking system is open to them,” Bagis added.

Turkish president criticizes minaret vote in Switzerland

ANKARA, Dec. 1 (Xinhua) -- Turkish President Abdullah Gul said on Tuesday that Switzerland's vote on Nov. 29 to ban minarets in the country is contrary to fundamental rights and freedoms, the semi-official Anatolia news agency reported.

"This is a shame for the Swiss," Gul was quoted as saying at the Esenboga airport in the Turkish capital of Ankara prior to his departure for a formal visit to Jordan.

"This issue should be monitored seriously," Gul said.

Meanwhile, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said at a meeting of his ruling Justice and Development Party in the parliament Tuesday that it was a wrong decision to hold the minaret vote in Switzerland, Erdogan said.

The majority of Swiss voters on Sunday said yes to a ban on the construction of Muslim minarets. The Swiss government said in a statement that it respected the decision made by Swiss voters, and "consequently the construction of new minarets in Switzerland is no longer permitted."

Iran criticizes Swiss ban on minarets

Tehran - Iran on Tuesday deplored as "discriminatory" the referendum in Switzerland where voters approved a ban on the construction of mosque minarets. Foreign Ministry spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast said the ban contradicted the Western world's claims of freedom of religion.

UN slams 'discriminatory' Swiss minaret ban

By BRADLEY S. KLAPPER, Associated Press Writer

GENEVA – The United Nations called Switzerland's ban on new minarets "clearly discriminatory" and deeply divisive, and the Swiss foreign minister acknowledged Tuesday the government was very concerned about how the vote would affect the country's image.

U.N. human rights chief Navi Pillay said Sunday's referendum to outlaw the construction of minarets in Switzerland was the product of "anti-foreigner scare-mongering."

The criticism from Pillay, whose office is based in the Swiss city of Geneva, comes after an outcry from Muslim countries, Switzerland's European neighbors and human rights watchdogs since 57.5 percent of the Swiss population ratified the ban.

The Swiss government opposed the initiative but has sought to defend it as an action not against Islam or Muslims, but one aimed at improving integration and fighting extremism.

"These are extraordinary claims when the symbol of one religion is targeted," Pillay said in a statement. She said she was saddened to see xenophobic arguments gain such traction with Swiss voters despite their "long-standing support of fundamental human rights."

The referendum doesn't affect Switzerland's four existing minarets, or the ability of Muslims to practice their religion. It only bans the towers used to put out the Islamic call to prayer.

But wealthy Arab tourists might think twice now about spending their money in Geneva and other Swiss cities, and the neutral country's efforts to mediate in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict could also suffer.

In Athens on Tuesday, Swiss Foreign Minister Micheline Calmy-Rey said the government was worried about the ban.

"We are very concerned with this referendum. The reality of our societies in Europe and throughout the world is that each limitation on the coexistence of different cultures and religions also endangers our security," Calmy-Rey said during a meeting of foreign ministers of the 56-nation Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe.

"Provocation risks triggering other provocation and risks inflaming extremism," she added.

Sunday's referendum, which was backed by nationalist parties, forced the government to declare illegal the building of any new minarets.

Calmy-Rey stressed that Muslims were accepted in Swiss society, and the decision would not change the foreign policy of the country, which would continue to maintain close relations with Muslim nations.

"Swiss Muslims are well integrated and will continue to attend the 200 mosques in the country," she said.

The minister said if an appeal against the referendum is lodged at the European Court of Human Rights, it would be up to the court to decide on its legality.

Swiss minaret ban is religious oppression, Kouchner says

Paris - Sunday's vote by Swiss voters to ban the construction of additional minarets in the country is an expression of intolerance and religious oppression, French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner said Monday. The vote "is negative regarding what worries even the Swiss because if the construction of minarets is not allowed this means that a religion is oppressed," Kouchner told RTL radio.

"I'm a little scandalized by this decision," Kouchner added, which he compared to the banning of bell towers. "It's an expression of intolerance and I detest intolerance."

Kouchner added that he hoped the Swiss would reverse the decision "quickly."

However, the Swiss vote may find a sympathetic echo in France, where controversy has been brewing over the wearing of the burqa by a small number of Muslim women and the construction of a large mosque in Marseille that will have two 25-meter-high minarets.