keralamonitor.com June 26, 2002.

William J. Burns , Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern
Affairs Testimony Before the House International Relations Committee,
Subcommittee on the Middle East and South Asia Washington, DC
June 18, 2002. US Government released this press release yesterday.

Thank you, Chairman Gilman. I appreciate this opportunity to discuss
with all of you the challenges we face in the Middle East, and how
we can best promote American interests and values. Mr. Chairman, the fight against terrorism remains central to defending our interests in the Middle East. As President Bush has stated plainly on many occasions since the terrible events of September 11, we
simply cannot tolerate the notion that any political cause justifies
attacks against innocent civilians. In the Middle East, we continue to work
hard to strengthen regional coalitions to fight terrorism. We are
pressing leaderships to speak out clearly, and act decisively,
against terror and violent extremism. We are working hard to close down
terrorist financing networks.

We are also working hard to deny
terrorists and their state sponsors the materials, technology and
expertise to make and deliver weapons of mass destruction. In that
regard, we continue to have very serious concerns about the behavior
of some states in the region, particularly Iraq and Iran. The Iranian
regime continues to develop weapons of mass destruction, and to
export terror. There can be no doubt about our determination to prevent any
attempt by Saddam Hussein s brutal and repressive regime in Baghdad
to build weapons of mass destruction and once again threaten the region.
And there can also be no doubt that the region, and especially the
people of Iraq themselves, would be better off with a different
leadership one dedicated to preserving Iraq s sovereignty and
territorial integrity, to developing the enormous potential of its
people, and to living in peace with its neighbors.

This afternoon, Mr. Chairman, I would like to touch briefly on two
other challenges that we face: the importance of rebuilding hope in
Arab-Israeli peace; and the profound longer-term economic, social
And political dilemmas facing peoples and leaderships in the region. The
United States obviously has a powerful interest in showing that
terrorism, violence and the use of force can never bring a just,
lasting and comprehensive settlement of the Arab-Israeli conflict.
But it seems to me that we have an equally compelling interest in
demonstrating that a political process can and must produce that
outcome.

Like many members of this committee, I have travelled frequently to
The region in recent months. I have seen for myself the anger and
frustration of ordinary Israelis and Palestinians. I have seen for
myself the horrific aftermath of a suicide bombing in Jerusalem, and
the terrible destruction inside Jenin refugee camp. I have seen the
toll taken on both sides in lives lost and families shattered. And I
have seen something less tangible, but no less troubling the loss
of hope on both sides, the erosion of the dream of peace and
reconciliation, the collapse of faith in a better future, a future
in which two states, Israel and Palestine, live side by side in peace,
security and dignity.

There has been too much suffering, and too much death. Israelis and
Palestinians deserve better than this. Both peoples deserve a future
that puts an end to terror and violence, a future that removes the
daily threats to the security of ordinary Israelis who worry about
whether their children will return safely from school or their
spouses from the market, a future that ends incitement and hate-language, a
future that preserves Israel as a strong and vibrant Jewish state.


Both peoples deserve a future that puts an end to the corrosive impact of
occupation and settlements, a future that stops the daily
humiliations of life under occupation, a future that brings Palestinians their
own state, responsible governance and the chance for the normal,
dignified lives that they and their children must have.
None of us should have any illusions about the task before us. It
Will be very, very hard. Moving forward will require many difficult
decisions. It will require courage and vision and compassion from
leaders, and a willingness to speak plain truths to their peoples.
It will require the international community to supply a sense of
Purpose and determination and generosity. And it will require all of us to
understand that today, even in the grimmest of moments and the most
bitter of circumstances, the outlines of enduring peace and security
for Israelis and Arabs alike are clearer than ever.

President Bush intends to address those issues shortly, and I hope
You will understand that I am not able today to address them in any detail.
Let me emphasize simply that there are opportunities, as well as
dangers, before us. As we seek to apply American leadership
energetically to those challenges, we have a number of assets. The
U.S.-Israeli relationship is stronger than it has ever been, and
There can be no doubt of this Administration s commitment to Israel s
security and well-being. Key Arab states are more actively engaged
in support of a return to peacemaking than in many months; the recent
efforts and visits to the United States of Crown Prince Abdullah of
Saudi Arabia, President Mubarak of Egypt and King Abdullah of Jordan
have all been quite constructive. There is genuine interest among
many Palestinians in political reform and institution-building in their
own self-interest, not as a favor to us or anyone else. And there is
growing international cooperation, centered on American leadership,
and reflected in the efforts of the "Quartet," which includes the United
States, Russia, the European Union and the UN Secretary General.
Broadly speaking, our approach will involve a commitment to progress
In parallel along three tracks, all aimed at the ultimate goal of a
permanent two-states solution. The first track is security, where
all terror and violence ends. The second is reform and economic
recovery, where Palestinians with the active support of the international
community build strong institutions in preparation for statehood.

The third is political, where Palestinians and Israelis renew
discussions about their future, leading as soon as possible to the emergence
through negotiations of a responsible Palestinian state alongside
Israel. Central to this concept is the conviction that progress
along these tracks must be made in parallel; it is clear that there can be
no real security without a restoration of political hope, just as there
can be no enduring political progress without security.
Let me be very clear: Palestinians have legitimate national
aspirations; but there can be absolutely no justification for
suicide bombings or any other form of terror. I repeat, Palestinian
authorities must do everything possible to confront the terrorists whose acts
are causing grave harm to Palestinian interests and hopes for a better
future. For us, there is no middle ground on fighting terror.
Let me turn finally to the broader questions facing the region, and
American policy. As crucial as fighting violent extremism and
achieving.


Socio Economic Challenges in the Arab World.

Corruption growing in the Arab World

Arab-Israeli peace are to the future of the region, they are by no
means the only challenges before the societies of the Middle East.
Economically and socially, it is obvious to anyone with eyes to see
that the region faces enormous dilemmas. The truth is that economic
and social inequality in many Middle East countries has grown in recent
decades, rather than diminish. Political, economic and social
systems are often intertwined, and they appear closed to outsiders. For
those who are not already a part of the system, advancement seems hopeless.
Corruption is becoming a more and more corrosive force.


I do not mean to dwell on depressing statistics, but the facts are
sobering, and unavoidable. Per capita incomes throughout the Middle
East are stagnant or dropping, while the size of the labor force
Keeps growing. 45% of the population of the Arab world is now under the
Age of 14, and the population of the region as a whole could double in
25 years. Meanwhile, the Middle East share of world GDP, trade and
foreign investment continues to shrink. Throughout the region, there is a
lack of transparency, weak capital markets, barriers to trade, and a
workforce lacking modern skills. On top of all this, the region
faces the lowest per capita water availability in the world.

The Middle East cannot be healthy socially or politically so long as
its economies are in crisis. It seems to me that the United States
has a powerful interest in doing all that we can to help those who want
to help themselves in the region, who take difficult decisions to open
up their economies and expand opportunities for all their citizens.
While we will not offer a single model for change, we will be strong
advocates for enhancing private sector involvement, diversifying
economies and narrowing the gap between haves and have nots. Young
people should emerge from educational systems with appropriate
skills for the workforce, not only the skills that educational systems are
now best equipped to teach. Globalization should be viewed not as a
threat, but rather as opening a whole new world of possibilities for the
region s next generation.

Politically, the truth is that many political systems in the region
Do not function effectively as mechanisms for citizens to express and
Work out their discontents. Political structures all too often serve to
insulate the regime and governing elite from change, rather than
lead it. The voices of publics are all too often ignored, until they
raise them to a shout. Information can no longer be controlled and
manipulated, and satellite television and the revolution in
information technology will become ever more profound forces in the years ahead.
While we as Americans need to be mindful of the limits of our
Influence and the imperfections of our own system, we will work with those who
seek to deepen respect for the rule of law, and the rights and
sanctity of the individual. Every society can find ways to broaden political
participation and respect for basic freedom consistent with its own
political culture and traditions.

None of this will happen overnight. But I am convinced that
Societies which anticipate and get out ahead of inevitable pressures for
Greater economic and political openness will prosper; those that do not will
fall farther and farther behind. That s the simple reality of life
in the 21st century. It is, as I said, very much in our long-term
interest, and it is very much a reflection of our values, to support
those who want to move toward greater openness. That is why the
President has asked Secretary Powell to outline shortly a new
American initiative to use all the tools and forms of assistance currently at
our disposal, as well as some innovative new programs, to support
regional efforts to restructure economies, strengthen educational
systems and build vibrant civil societies.

Mr. Chairman, thank you again for the opportunity to appear before
You this afternoon. I value greatly the frequent conversations I have
With you and the other members of the committee. We may not always agree,
but I always learn from you, appreciate your insights and am
grateful for the chance to explain Administration policy. I have absolutely
no doubt that the challenges before us in the Middle East will require
continued close cooperation and consultation in the weeks and months
ahead.

Pakistan: Pakistani Military Action against Suspected Al Qaida Forces

The US State Department has praised Pakistani governments anti Al Qauida attacks.
"We extend our deep appreciation to the Government of Pakistani for
taking action against suspected al Qaida forces in the remote tribal
areas of Pakistan bordering Afghanistan but deeply regret the deaths of
those soldiers killed in the line of duty. Our sympathies go out to
their families,' said a US official announcement on June 26, 2002..

"Since September 11, Pakistan has time and again shown itself to be a
stalwart partner in the coalition against terrorism. That several of
its soldiers have made the ultimate sacrifice once again proves its
commitment to our common struggle against terror," it said.

US State Department press release.

Nigeria : 1,098 victims of Women trafficking deported in three years

LAGOS, 26 June (IRIN) - Two hundred victims of human trafficking were deported to Nigeria last week, bringing to 1,098 the number sent back from Europe and North America in the past three years, figures released on Wednesday by the Nigerian immigration authorities showed. More than 98 percent or 1,081 were women who had been sold to prostitution rings in the different countries. Only 17 of the victims were male.

The highest figure recorded for deportees from one country was 331 for Italy, followed by 302 sent back from Spain. The rest were from Germany, South Africa, Saudi Arabia, Switzerland and the United States. A senior official of the Nigerian Immigration Services said despite efforts to check the illegal traffic, the criminal rings had devised very sophisticated methods of continuing what apparently was a very lucrative trade for them.

"We have set up a special squad devoted to tracking down the operators of the rings in order stop the flow of their victims across our borders," the official told IRIN.

The News Agency of Nigeria on Monday reported Mike Mku, Special Adviser to President Olusegun Obasanjo on Human Trafficking and Child Labour, as saying that 90 percent of foreign prostitutes in Italy were from Nigeria. He said the situation, which was the result of a combination of "poverty and greed", was of serious concern to the Nigerian authorities.

According to Mku, efforts to combat the trafficking of women from Nigeria were being hampered by the absence of an enabling law. A bill prescribing more stringent punishments was currently being pushed through parliament, he said.

"For now, when we arrest we just try to get some relevant part of the penal code to prosecute offenders, but the punishment is not always commensurate with the crime and this encourages them to continue," he was quoted as saying.

International Christian religious group prepares for regional mission

ABIDJAN, 26 June (IRIN) - A nine-member delegation of the Church World Service (CWS) is set to visit West Africa in July in response to a call for help from churches in the region, CWS said in a news release.

The delegation, to be led by CWS Executive Director John McCullough, hopes to meet the presidents of The Gambia, Guinea Liberia and Sierra Leone, the oecumenical and inter-faith councils in the four countries, and the US ambassador to each between 2 and 18 July, the release said.

"The councils of churches along with an inter-religious group in the Mano River Union countries of Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone pressed their countries' presidents to meet together twice in the past 18 months to address the urgent issues facing their countries," Rev McCullough said. "Now they are asking us to meet with their presidents to strengthen the churches' work for peace and human rights. We're watching Liberia with both anxiety at the worsening security situation and hope that a much anticipated peace conference can take place in [the Liberian capital] Monrovia in July," he added.

He said the July visit and a subsequent programme-planning one were steps toward defining future CWS support for oecumenical partners in West Africa and generating better understanding of the West Africa region among North American Christians.

"Following our visit we will work our membership to be supportive of the need for peace and reconciliation in the Mano River Union countries, and in particular the work of the United Nations and the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS)," he said.

"We would especially like to draw to their attention the plight of women and children, including child soldiers, HIV/AIDS, and internally displaced persons and refugees," he said.

The organisation wrote in March to US Secretary of State Colin Powell and UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan to inform them of the West Africa visit and to seek their support. It also met with US State Department staff on 4 April to discuss the upcoming trip, the release said.

The CWS delegation expects to spend 2-6 July in Guinea, 6-9 July in the Gambia, 9-14 July in Sierra Leone and 14-18 July in Liberia. It will be hosted by the council of churches in the respective countries, the release said.The CWS, an international humanitarian agency founded in 1946, brings together 36 Protestant, Orthodox and Anglican denominations and some 50 million Christians in the United States.It aims to strengthen partner churches' work for peace, human rights, reconciliation, reconstruction and sustainable development, the release added.--keralamonitor.com

Focus on farm evictions in Zimbabwe.

[This report does not necessarily reflect the views of the United Nations]

HARARE, 26 June (IRIN) - This is the first time since 1958 that farmer Graham Douse has not been able to produce enough food to feed the people who work on his land, or to sell at the market."Me and my family have been producing food for many, many years. But this year we have not been able to even feed our workers as I have been shut down," said Douse as he walked through a paprika crop, almost ripe for picking.

Douse has been served a Section 8 notice which means he must vacate his farm by 8 August. If he harvests his crop he could be jailed for up to two years, pay a US $363 fine, or both under a controversial land law passed by the government last month.

While Douse is making plans to leave the country, some six million people - half of Zimbabwe's population - will be in need of food aid by the end of the year as a result of drought, and the government's fast-track land reform programme.

Even for those with money, there is simply not enough food in the supermarkets. Salt is just the latest commodity to join the long and still growing list of scarce goods.

The government's reforms are ostensibly aimed at correcting the colonial legacy of skewed land ownership. It has given black settlers from overcrowded communal areas access to the vast fertile estates owned by roughly 4,500 white commercial farmers. Some 50 percent of those farmers have been served with Section 8 notices.

The fast-track programme has been condemned on several levels. On more practical grounds, analysts argue the inadequate preparation by the government for resettlement means that the new small-scale black farmers lack the experience and support to maintain previous standards of production.

But the government and its supporters disagree.

"There is ample capacity to continue farming in all commodities except where there is a need for high capital, like greenhouses. We acknowledge we will have problems in say flower production, but not in general commodities like tobacco, paprika, maize, groundnuts, sunflower, fish, livestock and dairy," said Lovegot Tendengu, executive director of the Farmers Development Trust which trains new small-scale farmers.

"We have the capacity, skill, knowledge and we have trebled our training to empower the new farmers. We are all geared up to enhance productivity both in terms of quality and quantity. We are working much harder because we have a point to prove that we can be as productive as anybody," Tendengu told IRIN. "Our main challenge though will be support from the banks."

A Cabinet Action Committee on Land met in Harare on Monday to discuss, among other issues, the role of the banks in ensuring the viability of the resettlement programme. "The support that white commercial farmers got from the banks should also be extended to the new farmers," Zimbabwe radio quoted Lands and Agriculture Minister Joseph Made as saying after the meeting.But according to Margaret Steel, whose family have been farming for the past 50 years but have now been forced to stop, "if this situation continues, I don't see how anyone will be able to feed their families ... It does not matter how high an income they have, there simply won't be any food in the shops."

There are already fears of a bread shortage. Production of winter wheat currently being planted is forecast to fall sharply as it is almost exclusively grown on the large-scale commercial farms.According to figures from the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) and World Food Programme (WFP), between now and June/August, 5.3 million Zimbabweans will require food assistance. That figure is set to rise to just over six million from the end of this year until the new main harvest in March 2003.

Even before this year's crop failure, 75 percent of the population were classified as poor, with 42 percent deemed very poor. Most of these worked in the agricultural sector, which provides more than half of the country's employment. The Commercial Farmers Union has estimated that about 300,000 farm workers will lose their jobs as a result of the reforms, which would have knock-on effects for about 1.5 million family members and dependents.

Zimbabwe is the world's second largest tobacco producer and it is the only commodity that retains some sparkle in an otherwise depressed economy. Tobacco's contribution to Zimbabwe's gross domestic product (GDP) reportedly now exceeds 30 percent, bringing in about 54 percent of foreign currency earnings this year."Unfortunately the enfranchisement politics sweeping through agriculture have eventually and finally caught up with tobacco and everyone wants in," a senior tobacco industry official told IRIN.

"We are sitting on a very delicate situation wherein if we make the wrong decisions, we can lose a whole livelihood on the altar of empowerment, by letting slip a captive international market that is excited by the quality of our tobacco flavours," said the official who declined to be named. "This is simple business reality that has nothing to do with the politics of the story."Eighty percent of tobacco farmers face eviction orders, and "the future is uncertain at the moment," said Kobus Joubert, president of the Zimbabwe Tobacco Association (ZTA). The impact of a decline in tobacco would also be felt by downstream industries.

"The danger is that if we have a sudden transition, it may all go wrong. I don't see these resettled farmers producing the flavoured tobacco in a year. It takes time. A long time," Joubert said.

He added: "The easiest way to lose money is to grow tobacco. If you lose it, you are gone. It's not a racial thing but you just need the experience. It's the only economic activity we have to save us or start to get us out of this economic mess. But there are too many agendas. Too many people running agendas which are detrimental to tobacco."

Small-scale producers say they can grow tobacco just as well as the established commercial farmers. But purchases of chemicals and seeds are reportedly two-thirds down on last year. "This gives an indication of what we will produce next year. We can't afford to lose production by that much," warned Joubert. "What will next year hold? I don't know. What's happening on the farms makes it hard for forward planning." keralamonitor.com

University of Tehran to promote human rights studies

Tuesday, 26 June 2002: A new initiative in Iran by UNDP and the Faculty of Law and Political Sciences at the University of Tehran will promote research and education on human rights issues."With help from UNDP, we are building up knowledge on international human rights mechanisms, and this can only have a positive impact on the promotion and protection of human rights in Iran," said Nasrin Mosaffa, national director of the project and a member of the faculty.

Haoliang Xu, UNDP Deputy Resident Representative, said the project will enhance the understanding of human rights, as set out by international agreements and Islamic law, and also help to highlight these issues and bring them into public discourse. The project is the second initiative in a three-year partnership between UNDP and the faculty.

The first project carried out workshops to promote wider awareness of various aspects of human rights, such as women's and children's rights. It also helped the faculty establish Masters and doctoral degree programmes in human rights. The courses will be held at the newly established Centre for Human Rights Studies, which will also serve as a national think-tank on human rights issues.

The second initiative will strengthen the centre's capacity as the focal point for national discussions on human rights. It will facilitate networking between the faculty and other universities, including Mofid University in Qom and Shahid Beheshti University in Tehran. It will also promote involvement in the centre's activities by civil society organizations and human rights watch bodies, such as the Organization for Defending Victims of Violence and the Islamic Human Rights Commission. The project will continue to promote human rights through seminars and workshops and also help establish a web site for the centre. The UNDP Thematic Trust Fund for Democratic Governance is funding the project.

For further information, please contact Zenab Bagha, UNDP Iran, or Trygve Olfarnes, UNDP Communications Office.