Chechnya: The New Nightmare
"More
French slurry," the headline over an editorial in the Times of London
Wednesday, neatly linked the scandal over what France feeds its cattle with
another mess that has forced the resignation of French Finance Minister
Dominique Strauss-Kahn. The departure of Strauss-Kahn amid corruption and
forgery allegations led the front pages of both French and German newspapers
and was described by Die
Welt as a "disaster" for the Socialist-led government of Prime Minister
Lionel Jospin.
Many
other papers agreed. The Times editorial said, "[T]he French political
firmament ... has abruptly darkened with sinister portents." Jospin "owes his
popularity in large part to his image as M Propre , a decent man who
marks a break with the permeating sleaze of the long Mitterrand years," it
said. "But the scandal in which M Strauss-Kahn is embroiled, the allegedly
illegal use of MNEF, a student health insurance fund, to channel illicit funds
to Socialist Party coffers, involves a host of M Jospin's close collaborators.
... France could be in for a period of weakened, indecisive government . "
Le Figaro of
Paris agreed that Jospin would be weakened, but in an editorial congratulated
both Strauss-Kahn on his "panache" in resigning so quickly, and the French
people on their desire "that Latin societies behave more and more like
Anglo-Saxon ones in demanding responsibility and probity from their
leaders."
The
Financial Times said
in an editorial that with the departure of the euro-zone's most influential
finance minister, it isn't clear who will provide leadership for the European
currency bloc. In an op-ed piece, the FT said that "abroad he was the
most important symbol of the Jospin government's credibility and its
willingness to modernise the state by reducing the overbearing role of the
public sector." But the International Herald Tribune reported, with apparent
surprise, that the euro, which Strauss-Kahn helped bring into being in January,
has hardly moved on the foreign exchange markets. "Perhaps as a reflection of
France's relatively smaller economic role, Mr. Strauss-Kahn's exit appeared to
create little concern and have much less impact internationally than the
resignation in March for political reasons of his German Social Democratic
counterpart, Oskar Lafontaine."
The
British newspapers led mainly on what the Times described as an
"astonishing climbdown" by the British government in its Mad Cow trade war with
France. Despite a European Commission finding that British beef is as safe as
any in Europe and that France, which has been accused of putting human
excrement in its cattle feed, should lift its unilateral ban on it, the papers
reported that Britain yielded to French demands for further safety checks. The
Independent
of London, however, fronted a gruesome eyewitness report from Ingushetia, a tiny republic bordering
Chechnya, where some 193,000 Chechen refugees are believed to have fled.
Describing the terrible injuries inflicted on some of them by Russia's "massive
and indiscriminate artillery and air bombardment of towns and villages" in
Chechnya, its correspondent, Patrick Cockburn, wrote that one third of the
Chechen population, numbering about 1 million people, is now in flight. "What
is happening is a tragedy equal to anything witnessed in Kosovo or East Timor
earlier in the year," he claimed.
In an
editorial, the Independent called the near-silence of Western
politicians on the matter shameful. "In Oslo yesterday, President Clinton
'expressed concern,' diplo-speak for doing as little as possible," it said.
"This do-nothing policy is lethal. Here, unlike the situation in Kosovo,
military intervention is neither necessary nor practicable. Tough diplomacy and
economic threats are, however, essential if the lunacy is to be reversed."
In a
bitter editorial Wednesday, the Moscow Times compared Russia's behavior in Chechnya with
NATO's in Kosovo, in which each argued vainly to the other that there could be
no military solution. "Now Kosovo is de facto partitioned, Albanians won't let
Russian KFOR forces take up their positions, Slobodan Milosevic is as mighty as
ever, and the Kosovo Liberation Army has yet to disarm; while Russia is weeding
out terrorism in Chechnya by herding refugees under carpet bombing," it said.
"And wherever one looks, there is the illusion of victory. President Bill
Clinton and [Russian] Prime Minister Vladimir Putin play the role of the
world's grave statesmen, and their governments sacrifice civilians to the
greater good. But the horrors are not exorcised, only deferred to future
administrations."
After
the controversy surrounding his visits to Britain and France, Chinese President
Jiang Zemin had a very easy week in Saudi Arabia, where the leading Saudi paper
Asharq al-Awsat even congratulated China on its resistance to political
reform. Its editor, Abderrahman al-Rashed, wrote Tuesday in his daily column
that "fortunately for the Chinese--and for the rest of us--China did not go the
way of the former Soviet Union when the Berlin Wall collapsed ten years ago. It
did not take a sudden lurch to the right, as the Russians did to their peril."
Asharq al-Awsat was euphoric about China as a potential market for its
oil and as "an investors' paradise" of which Saudi Arabia wanted a part. The
paper also talked up the "spiritual" side of the Saudi-Chinese relationship:
"Over 50 million Chinese follow the Muslim faith, and the number of Chinese
pilgrims to Saudi holy sites is set to increase, thus helping to further common
understanding between the two nations."
Australia's most famous
ex-citizen, Rupert Murdoch, came out firmly for a republic in an interview
Wednesday with his newspaper, the Australian . He said Australia would
suffer a "loss of self-respect" if it decided to retain the monarchy in
Saturday's referendum. "The British monarchy has become irrelevant to this
generation of Australians," he said. "It's not just a question of the monarchy,
it's a question of whether Australia has any self-confidence." Murdoch, who is
now an American citizen, criticized Australian Prime Minister John Howard for
opposing a republic and said Howard was generally too "timid" in his reforms.
"I know a lot of Australia is conservative and has resisted change, but the
radical policies that Thatcher and Reagan brought in are now bearing fruit," he
said. "Those two countries [Britain and the United States] are leading the
world in gains in productivity and a higher living standard."
