by Farouk Choukri
BAGHDAD, Jan 13 (AFP)
Iraq on Wednesday spelled out its terms for an Arab summit and offered a dialogue after
Washington stepped up its
attacks on Iraqi air defences and Paris weighed in with diplomatic proposals.
Iraqi President Saddam Hussein insisted that Arab states condemn last month�s US-led air
strikes and the Arabs who
supported them but raised the prospect of a �balanced dialogue� amid efforts to convene
an Arab summit.
�Arab leaders must adopt a clear stand condemning the US and British aggression and all
those who granted facilities
and material or political support,� Iraq�s top leadership said after a meeting chaired
by Saddam late Tuesday.
�We must consider that any aggression against an Arab country targets the whole (Arab)
world,� it said.
The Iraqi president called for a �balanced dialogue based on goodwill ... to allow us to
reach solutions, without ignoring
the opinion of other parties.�
He criticized �plots or manoeuvres in dark corridors,� in an apparent reference to the
series of meetings held by certain
Arab states � in Iraq�s absence � to try to draw up a joint stand.
Baghdad has rejected a Saudi initiative which aims to ease the humanitarian impact of
sweeping UN sanctions that have
been in force against Iraq since its 1990 invasion of Kuwait.
Saddam called last week for Arabs to revolt against leaders who failed to condemn the
Desert Fox air war, while Iraq has
condemned Saudi Arabia and Kuwait for allowing their territory and airspace to be used for
the attacks.
That call and Iraq�s subsequent threat to withdraw recognition of its UN-mandated border
with Kuwait have soured the
atmosphere ahead of an Arab summit � which would be the first such meeting since 1996.
Seventeen of the Arab League�s 22 members have so far agreed to take part in a January
24 foreign ministers� meeting
in Cairo to discuss a Yemeni request for a summit on Iraq in the aftermath of Desert Fox.
Iraq has yet to confirm its participation.
The last time Iraq attended an Arab summit was in August 1990, a few days after its tanks
rolled into Kuwait. The 1991
Gulf War ended a seven-month occupation of the emirate but also divided Arab ranks.
An influential Baghdad newspaper charged Wednesday that the Arab consultations since
Desert Fox were aimed at
�making the summit a failure,� and warned that Washington would also sabotage any effort
to back Iraq.
�Any meeting which does not decide on a lifting of sanctions against Iraq and does not
condemn the cowardly
aggression will not express the will of the Arab world,� said Babel, run by Saddam�s
eldest son, Uday.
The official press, as in previous days this week, ignored the latest US missile attacks
in a �no-fly� zone.
In Washington, the Pentagon said a US plane fired at a radar site in northern Iraq on
Tuesday for the second time in as
many days, amid multiple Iraqi violations in the no-fly zones over both northern and
southern Iraq.
Iraqi planes have violated the no-fly zones more than 50 times since Desert Fox, the US
military said.
On the diplomatic front, France on Tuesday presented its fellow UN Security Council
permanent members with proposals
to lift a UN oil embargo and install a new arms monitoring system in Iraq.
French ambassador Alain Dejammet met with the UN envoys of Britain, China, Russia and the
United States to explain
the ideas �in a very general way,� a western diplomat said.
by Kazuhiro Shimamura
TOKYO, Jan 14 (AFP)
Japanese Trade Minister Kaoru Yosano insisted Thursday Tokyo would not regulate steel
exports to the United States
despite US warnings of sanctions.
Washington is furious with Japanese steelmakers who it believes are dumping low-priced
steel on the US market and
threatening domestic producers.
But Yosano, head of the Ministry of International Trade and Industry (MITI), insisted
Japanese manufacturers were
responding to strong demand and refused to curb exports.
�The MITI and its minister will never make that commitment,� Yosano told a news
conference.
Increased exports were due to �strong steel demand from the United States, together with
a lack of sufficient supply.
�We did not have the intention of raising exports,� he said.
Yosano met in Washington with US Trade Representative Charlene Barshefsky earlier this
month to discuss the
problem.
US President Bill Clinton said on the same day Japanese steelmakers could face punitive
sanctions if they failed to take
quick action to reduce exports.
�If these imports do not soon return to their pre-crisis levels my administration is
ready to initiate forceful action under
section 201 and our anti-dumping laws,� Clinton said.
The US steel industry has placed heavy pressure on the administration to take action to
curb what it calls a flood of
cheap steel that has been �dumped� on the US market � notably from Japan, Brazil and
Russia as the three countries
struggle to emerge from economic crisis.
A report released by the White House said cheap steel imports to the United States shot up
30 percent last year,
imperiling the US domestic industry.
Japan�s steel industry has repeatedly rejected the allegations.
The Japan Iron and Steel Federation said American users would suffer if the exports were
restricted in a move which it
described as �protectionist.�
by M.R. Narayan Swamy
NEW DELHI, Jan 14 (AFP)
Six years after they tore down an ancient Islamic shrine, Hindu zealots have returned to
the centre-stage of Indian
politics with a hate campaign against the Christian minority.
Hindu groups allied to the coalition government have mounted a fierce revivalist drive
which many critics see as an
attempt to strengthen sectarianism in a multi-religious country.
Militant Hindu organisations have also been blamed for inciting and carrying out a
campaign of violence against
Christians after accusing the church of attempting to convert poor Hindus and animistic
tribals.
The campaign bears a striking parallel with an anti-Moslem crusade which Hindu zealots
unleashed in the mid-1980s and
which led to the destruction of a 16th-century mosque in Ayodhya city in December 1992.
The destruction triggered Hindu-Moslem violence across India in which about 2,000 people
died, polarised the two
communities and helped the now-ruling Hindu nationalists to dramatically increase their
influence in the country.
Few Indians had imagined that the row over a disused and crumbling mosque would cause so
much bloodshed.
Although the Christian minority in India is far smaller than its Moslem counterpart, the
current violence has escalated in a
similar manner to the situation a decade ago.
Random attacks on isolated Christian hamlets early last year grew into the destruction of
half-a-dozen churches in the
western state of Gujarat over the Christmas period.
�Yes, I do see a parallel between the (anti-Moslem drive) and the anti-Christian
campaign,� New Delhi�s archbishop Alan
de Lastic said this week.
�The government was inactive then, it is inactive now (in stopping the violence) against
minorities.�
The Christian community, which makes up just 2.5 percent of India�s overwhelmingly Hindu
975 million population, has
reported more than 100 attacks by Hindu fanatics since the start of 1998.
Most of the violence has occurred in remote tribal and poverty-stricken villages in
Gujarat state, ruled by Prime Minister
Atal Behari Vajpayee�s Hindu nationalist party.
The violence escalated sharply around Christmas, sparking nationwide condemnation and a
propaganda war between
Hindu groups and the opposition which warned of the danger to the country�s fragile
secular fabric.
At the centre of the campaign is India�s most powerful Hindu umbrella group, the
Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh (RSS,
or National Volunteer Corps), which stages uniformed parades and wants a theocratic state.
It was formed in 1925.
The organisation has many influential affiliates ranging from religious groups to trade
unions.
Prime Minister Vajpayee and several of his colleagues in his Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP,
Indian People�s Party) are
also RSS members.
The revivalist resurgence has been far-reaching, from moves to �Hinduise� the school
curriculum to a campaign to
disrupt a planned tour of India by the Pakistan cricket team later this month.
The anti-Christian movement, and its coverage in the national media, has taken the
spotlight off the continuing infighting
within the coalition government and the BJP�s dismal performance in November state
elections.
The attacks on Christians has also helped the Hindu nationalists to mount an offensive on
opposition leader Sonia
Gandhi, an Italian-born Roman Catholic.
Gandhi has been accused of pandering to Christian sentiments and undermining Hindus �
allegations which mirror
those hurled against non-Hindu nationalist politicians during the anti-Moslem campaign.
�The anti-Christian campaign ... has without doubt a strong political underpinning,�
said The Hindu newspaper, adding
that hardline Hindus were �trying to assert themselves� to subvert secularism.
But a media commentator warned the violence would not benefit the BJP.
�The unprovoked attacks on Christian institutions and clergy ... might lose it the
support of the middle class,� said Sumir
Lal.