TASEK PAUH blogspot

Labels: Indonesia, Luar Negeri, Suharto

Jakarta, Jan 15 - Ten years ago, Amien Rais led thousands of demonstrators chanting "Hang Suharto!" to the halls of parliament, where they demanded the resignation of a man widely regarded as one of the most brutal and corrupt leaders of the 20th century.

Today, with the former dictator on his deathbed, Rais has a different message: forgive. But not everyone agrees, with protesters taking to the streets to demand the 86-year-old face justice.

Suharto is accused of overseeing a purge of more than half a million leftist opponents soon after seizing power in a 1965 coup, and killing or imprisoning hundreds of thousands more in the decades that followed - crimes for which no one has ever been tried.

He and his family also allegedly amassed billions of dollars in state funds, but defense attorneys have argued successfully for years that a series of strokes have left him unfit to stand trial.

"Maybe it is best if he dies, unforgiven by some, forgiven by others," said Goenawan Mohamad, 68, the founder and editor of Tempo magazine, which was forced to close twice during Suharto's regime because of its criticism of the government.

"But the debate should continue," he said at an outdoor cafe where former dissidents used to meet secretly. "It won't stop, it shouldn't."

Nearly 100 former political prisoners and relatives of those who died under Suharto rallied Tuesday in the city of Solo - not far from the mausoleum where the ex-dictator will be buried alongside his late wife. Some carried signs that said "Try Suharto before he dies!"

At the very least, they said, he should be tried in absentia.

"I was wrongly accused of being a communist," said 80-year-old Wiryo, who said he was rounded up during Suharto's 1965 takeover and thrown in jail, where he spent the next eight years.

Labels: Indonesia, Luar Negeri, Suharto

Agencies, Dec 15 - Ayman al-Zawahri, al-Qaeda's second-in-command, has purportedly condemned Arab leaders who attended the recent US-sponsored Middle East conference in the US city of Annapolis.

In an audiotape posted on the internet, a voice said to be that of al-Zawahri labelled the talks a "betrayal" to Palestinians.

Al-Zawahri said: "The Annapolis meeting was held to turn Palestine into a Jewish state."

"The tsar of Washington, the crusader, brought together 16 Arab countries and their paralysed league [as well as] Amr Moussa, the secretary-general, to sit at a table with the Israelis."

He also denounced the government of Hosni Mubarak, the president of Egypt, saying he had turned the country into a "base to supply the crusader war on Muslims and Islam."

The message was the 15th tape or video released by al-Zawahri this year, following an audiotape released in November in which he criticised Muammar Gaddafi, the Libyan leader, and announced that fighters in Libya were joining ranks with al-Qaeda.

However, the latest 20-minute statement has not been independently verified.

Labels: Luar Negeri, Palestin, Zawahri

From AlJazeera - by Marwan Bishara, Al Jazeera's senior political analyst

"Dishonest", "misleading", "lying" and "spinning" are just some of the measured adjectives used in the mainstream US media to characterise George Bush, the president, and Stephen Hadley, his national security adviser, after they embraced the damning National Intelligence Estimate (NIE) summary report on Iran as proof of the effectiveness and success of the administration's Tehran policy.

The NIE judges "with high confidence that in the fall of 2003, Tehran halted its nuclear weapons programme", and that "Tehran's decision to halt its nuclear weapons programme suggests it is less determined to develop nuclear weapons than we have been judging since 2005".

It further said that "...Tehran's decisions are guided by a cost-benefit approach rather than a rush to a weapon irrespective of the political, economic and military costs". And that "this NIE does not assume that Iran intends to acquire nuclear weapons".

The White House seems to have known of much of this and more for some time, but chose to escalate the war rhetoric against Tehran.

Depending on which version of the story one believes, the White House knew about the "discovery" any time between last spring and summer.

Even when new intelligence compelled the National Intelligence Board (NIB) to make a 180-degree change in its estimate, rendering the Iranian threat anything but imminent, administration officials continued to speak of the threat of Iran's nuclear weapons programme until hours before its publication.

The White House sent its third carrier into the Gulf transforming its "crisis management" mode with Iran into direct "confrontation management" and sealing the war scenario against Tehran when the decision comes down.

President Bush also warned during a news conference on October 17 that an Iranian nuclear bomb could lead to "world war three" and asked Congress to pass the highest defence budget in the history of the country, mostly under the guise of an imminent Iranian threat that he knew did not exist.

Déjà vu

In a repeat of the dreadful and misleading escalation against Iraq prior to its 2003 invasion, the Bush administration escalated the war rhetoric against Tehran even though it knew with high confidence that it had no programme, no capability and, with moderate confidence, no intention of developing a nuclear weapons programme.

The leading presidential candidates followed suit.

Rudy Giuliani claimed: "As we all know, Iran is seeking nuclear weapons and they're threatening to use them."

Likewise, Senator John McCain insisted: "There's no doubt that [Iran is] moving forward with the acquisition of a nuclear weapon."

And Hillary Clinton, before giving the president another vote of confidence to go to war, insisted that "Iran is seeking nuclear weapons, and the Iranian Revolutionary Guard is in the forefront of that, as they are in the sponsorship of terrorism."

To the surprise of many Western observers, it turns out that the policies of the Iranian and Iraqi leaders were based on realistic "cost and benefit" grounds, not the irrational behaviour Washington accused them of as dangerous and unpredictable crazies.

On the other hand, the Bush administration's war policies towards Iraq and Iran have proven to be hardly cost and benefit driven even when calculating the oil and strategic interests.

Worse, the Bush administration lost all credibility when it went on to intimidate its allies and foes alike to punish Iran. It also attacked the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and Mohamed ElBaradai, its director, for being soft on Iran, knowing all too well that they have been right all along.

Condoleezza Rice, the US secretary of sate, told ElBaradei that his body was not "in the business of diplomacy".

ElBaradei, to his credit, has long believed Iran possessed no nuclear weapons programme and made a deal under which it would answer long-standing questions about its nuclear activities.

Cover up

According to Senator Jay Rockefeller, chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, Bush knew about the new information regarding Iran's nuclear programme, because he and his deputy on the committee were also informed, albeit in a more general manner, by the intelligence community.

Gary Sick, a US-based Iran expert, estimates that the president might have known some nine months ago, when according to him the Iranian deputy defence minister defected to the West.

On November 14, Mike McConnell, NIE director, told the Woodrow Wilson International Centre for Scholars that he was not going to make his report public. Which begs the question, why has the White House allowed the publication of this embarrassing report?

Two possible scenarios have surfaced since the publication:

First, Robert Gates, the US defence secretary, insisted on it. The Pentagon finances most of the programmes and departments that contribute to the NIE database.

Unlike the 2005 pro-war Rumsfeld, Gates does not want another Middle Eastern war as he told Congress recently, especially in light of the debacle in Iraq.

Second, it seems that congressional leaders who oppose Bush's Iran policy insisted that it be publicised after hearing or reading some of its preliminary conclusions.

In an election year, any such news is good news for the Democrats.

By default or by design?

Some believe that the Bush administration, famous for its political discipline, is none the less using the NIE in a clever, even if desperate, attempt to climb down from the hysterical "Carthage must be destroyed" line.

After all, how many times can you mention world war three without eventually having to start it?

Now that it is out, the new estimate could neutralise the neo-conservative fringe, and let the administration out of a rhetorical corner.

The White House announcement of the president's Middle East trip at the beginning of next year, following the attendance this week by Mahmoud Ahmedinejad, the Iranian president, at the Gulf co-operation summit, underlines the desire to relax tensions in the region following Annapolis and the relative "improvements" of the Iraq situation.

Today and in light of the NIE findings, some observers believe the central issue for the US and Iran is no longer the nuclear question but rather the future of Iraq.

The US understands that it "needs Iran for the endgame in Iraq", while for Iran, the recent developments in Iraq encourage it to make a deal with Washington before the latter strikes a deal with its adversaries.

Three scenarios

Now that the new estimate is out, something has got to give.

First, international and domestic pressure will build up against a pre-emptive strike and, my guess, at least two permanent members will stand against another UN Security Council resolution punishing Iran, despite its civilian programme that contradicts past resolutions.

Second, the NIE publication might pave the way to bilateral negotiations between the US and Iran without stiff preconditions in order to relax the tensions in the Gulf with the participation of Iran's Arab neighbours, as well as its European allies.

Now that the nuclear roadblock is out of the way, Washington will find it ever more necessary and ever more enticing to talk to Iran about a "helpful" and perhaps beneficial role for itself and Iraq in the Gulf.

Either way, the White House will certainly face more questions and inquiries regarding the discrepancies of timings and policies; as more insiders come clean on US policy towards Iran. Americans would want to know what Bush and Co knew, when did they know it and what have they done or not done about it?

As so many commentators have said the morning after Bush and Hadley embraced the NIE report, the central question begging for an answer revolves around how corrupt politics have lead to dangerous policies.

Labels: Iran, Islam Hadhari, Luar Negeri, U.S.

Most Indonesians support the enactment of Sharia bylaws - even though they acknowledge that ordinances already in place in several districts have failed to improve social welfare, a new survey has found.

"People's welfare remains the same as it was before the sharia bylaws were enforced," said the survey.

The survey's findings were discussed in a workshop in Cisarua, Bogor, West Java, on Thursday.

Some regions have enacted sharia bylaws despite warnings that the legislation deprives women and non-Muslims of their civil rights.

In cooperation with Konrad Adenauer Stiftung, the research was conducted by the Centre for the Study of Religion and Culture (CSRC) under Jakarta's State Islamic University in six Indonesian districts.

The districts are Bireun in Aceh, Tasikmalaya and Indramayu in West Java, Bulukumba in South Sulawesi, Bima in West Nusa Tenggara, and Tangerang in Banten province. Each had implemented sharia-inspired ordinances between August 2006 and October 2007.

A total 44.5 percent of Muslims surveyed said the bylaws did not improve the economy of regional populations, as it had been intended to. The study involved 1,000 respondents including 200 non-Muslims.

"In Bireun, the tourist sector has been drastically declining after the local authorities enforced caning punishments for adultery and alcoholism," CSRC researcher Syukran Kamil said.

Some 27.7 percent of the Bireun respondents said their economy had worsened, but 26.4 percent said their welfare had improved thanks to the Sharia bylaws.

Labels: Indonesia, Islam Liberal, Luar Negeri

Sydney, Nov 24 (Agencies) - Australian Prime Minister John Howard conceded defeat at national elections on Saturday as the Labor opposition swept to power ending 11 years of conservative rule.

Howard was struggling to save his own seat as Australians voted for generational change, backing the younger Labor leader Kevin Rudd. "This is a great democracy and I want to wish Mr Rudd well," Howard told supporters.

Howard is a staunch supporter of the war in Iraq, while Rudd has promised to withdraw combat troops from Iraq.

Labels: Australia, Luar Negeri

Labels: Afghanistan, Australia, Luar Negeri

Al-Jazeera, Nov 19 - Up to 10,000 people are feared to have died in Bangladesh's worst cyclone in more than a decade. "Based on our experience ... and reports from the scene I would guess the death toll may be as high as 10,000," Mohammad Abdur Rob, the chairman of the Bangladeshi Red Crescent Society, said.

Relief workers are working on Monday to get aid to millions of people left homeless by cyclone Sidr which struck on Thursday. The storm's 250kph winds wrecked tens of thousands of homes across the south and centre of the country, creating a six-metre high tidal wave that flooded the regions.

"The death toll has already reached 3,000 confirmed dead," Mohammad Rob said.

Death toll rising

Heather Blackwell from Oxfam told Al Jazeera: "The numbers of the death toll is rising and there has been a sharp increase in the last 24 hours.

"There are a lot of areas we still haven't reached."

Owen Fey, an Al Jazeera correspondent reporting from the remote southern village of Harimpala in Bangladesh, said, "as soon we arrived here the scenes of devestation were everywhere.

"Their entire rice crop for the year has been destroyed.

"We could hear the sounds of women wailing as we walked in. Men described scenes of the cyclone itself, how the water levels rose to their throats, washing children away."

In southern Bangladesh, the bloated corpses of people and animals dotted the landscape, raising fears of disease, while untold numbers of survivors were short of food and water.

Many of the deaths were caused by the tidal wave and by flying debris and falling trees that crushed flimsy bamboo and tin homes, the best that many people in the country can afford.

Abdul Zabbar, a teacher in Barguna district, 200km south of the capital Dhaka, said survivors might not be able to hold out for long.

"There is no food and drinking water. Bodies are still floating in the rivers and paddy fields," he said, adding the rice harvest, representing four months of food, had been washed away.

Sattar Gazi, another farmer, said: "I lost six of my family members in the cyclone. I am afraid that the remaining three of us will die of hunger."

Race against time

Relief workers were racing to get aid to stricken areas five days after the storm hit.

Soliders have been drafted in to help the relief operation but many roads have been blocked or washed away by the tidal wave that broke across the coast along with cyclone Sidr.

"In the remote areas it is slow-going," said Douglas Casson Coutts of the World Food Programme.

"They are almost chopping trees as they go along."

The massive rescue effort has attracted help from around the world, but relief items, including tents, rice and water, were slow to reach many survivors.

more here

Labels: Bangladesh, Luar Negeri

DHAKA, Nov 18 (AP) - The death toll from a cyclone that devastated Bangladesh has surpassed 2,200, officials said Sunday, while rescuers struggled through blocked paths to reach hundreds of thousands of survivors awaiting aid in wrecked homes and flooded fields.

The government deployed military helicopters, naval ships and thousands of troops to join international agencies and local officials in the rescue mission following Tropical Cyclone Sidr. The U.S. and other countries also offered assistance.

At least 2,206 people have died since the storm struck Bangladesh on Thursday, said Selina Shahid of the Ministry of Food and Disaster Management. The toll could rise still higher as more information comes in from battered regions.

Disaster Management Secretary Aiyub Bhuiyan met Sunday with representatives from the United Nations and international aid groups to discuss the massive relief effort. more here

Labels: Bangladesh, Luar Negeri

President Bush Wishes Muslims eid Mubarak

Labels: Bush, Islam Hadhari, Luar Negeri

Around 1,600 Web sites hosted by server-provider Proinet and 3,800 sites hosted by another company have been targeted, Proinet spokesman Kjetil Jensen said. Jensen said the hackers, operating on a Turkish network, removed all files on the Web sites and in some cases replaced them with messages.

According to Swedish news agency TT, the Web site of a children's cartoon called Bamse was replaced by a message saying Islam's holy Prophet had been insulted. The incidents have been reported to the police. Stefan Grinneby, head of the Swedish communication watchdog's Internet incident center Sitic, said attacks against Swedish Web sites from Turkey have increased in the past three weeks.

Some contained messages alluding to the drawing of the Prophet Mohammed as a reason for the attack. “You would need a very large police investigation to establish the connection to the prophet drawings, but considering the increase in recent weeks it is a fair assumption to make,” he said. Swedish newspaper Nerikes Allehanda published a drawing by artist Lars Vilks in an Aug. 19 editorial depicting Mohammed’s head on a dog’s body. It triggered protests from Swedish Muslim groups and formal complaints from Muslim countries, including Pakistan and Iran. An insurgent leader in Iraq, Abu Omar al-Baghdadi, put a $100,000 bounty on Vilks’ head. Similar caricatures of the Prophet, first published in 2005 by a Danish newspaper and reprinted in other European newspapers, triggered street protests in Muslims countries.

Labels: Islamophobia, Luar Negeri, Turkey

Islam Hadhari sebagai contoh?

Erdoğan rejects ‘Malaysia’ charges, moderate Islam

see also Malaysia or Egypt?

Today's Zaman - Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has responded to claims that ongoing efforts to rewrite the Turkish Constitution would undermine secularism and turn Turkey into an Islamic country like Malaysia, saying such arguments are aimed at weakening his Justice and Development Party (AK Party) after his landslide election victory on July 22.

"In the past, they used to say Turkey will become an Iran. Once they understood that this would not work, they began to look for other ways to undermine the AK Party. And now they say Turkey will become a Malaysia," Erdoğan said, after receiving a question at a conference at the Council on Foreign Relations, a New York-based think tank, on Thursday. He then turned to Richard Holbrooke, who was also addressing the panel, and said laughingly that Holbrooke "had a role in this." Smiling, Holbrooke said he was sorry for his role and added that Turkey is neither an Iran nor a Malaysia.

In remarks following Turkey's July 22 elections, Holbrooke cited Turkey and Malaysia as two examples of "moderate Islam" that the US and Europe wanted to see nourished in the Islamic world. The remarks sparked a heated debate in Turkey over whether the AK Party's resounding victory and the new constitution efforts would put Turkey on an Islamic path akin to that of Malaysia. The debates reached a peak when Şerif Mardin, a respected sociologist, said he could not say for sure that Turkey would not turn into another Malaysia.

Erdoğan said the "moderate Islam" thesis that fed the concerns over Turkey turning into a Malaysia was not credible, repeating his long-held argument that "there is no moderate or immoderate Islam; Islam is Islam."

The prime minister, who is in New York to attend the UN General Assembly, also met with his Malaysian counterpart, Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, for 15 minutes. There was no statement from the prime ministers after the meeting, but Badawi, faced with insistent questions from Turkish reporters on whether Turkey would become another Malaysia, was puzzled. In response to questions, he explained his country's economic success and remarked that Malaysia was a modern country when he was questioned on women's rights and the headscarf.

Efforts to rewrite the Constitution are being met with skepticism in Turkey, where critics of the government say some of the proposed changes, such the one that would lift the headscarf ban in universities, are meant to undermine the country's secular system.

Erdoğan said Islam prohibits the imposition of beliefs and whether people practice their beliefs or not. "Those who exercise their beliefs cannot and should not intervene in the way those who do not practice live, and vice versa," Erdoğan said.

He assured that the secularism as defined in the current constitution would be protected in the new constitution. However, the prime minister also said politicians should not be attacked because their wives want to wear a headscarf in line with their beliefs. Erdoğan's wife, Emine, wears a headscarf, as does the wife of President Abdullah Gül, Hayrünnisa. Mrs. Gül has been absent from most official ceremonies to avoid run-ins with military commanders, who see themselves as guardians of the secular republic and avoid receptions hosted by Gül and his wife.

Labels: Luar Negeri, Turkey

"The label of terrorist is suitable for the military and security forces of the United States," Ministry spokesman Mohammad Ali Hosseini (picture left) told reporters in his weekly brief.

The motion comes after a US Senate resolution on Wednesday which called for Iran's Revolutionary Guard to be labelled a terrorist organization.

Hosseini said the resolution was an “unprecedented act” and giving any indication to this issue is “a threat and danger to global peace and security,” which would “weaken international bodies.”

Labels: Iran, Luar Negeri

Kavkaz Center, Sep 24 - Disputes over the hijab, traditional Moslem headgear, continue to torment Kyrgyz schools. They inevitably become outright heated with the onset of every school year. This time, however, the ban to wear the hijab at schools will apparently become official (principals ascribe it to the new school charters).

Ferghana.Ru correspondent visited several schools in the southern regions of Kyrgyzstan only to discover that not even teachers there had the charter yet. They say they are still waiting to receive the new charters from the education departments of local administrations.

The Nookat district of the Osh region is not an exception. Every school there has a score of girls who wear the hijab. Teachers want them bareheaded in class and threaten with expulsion for disobedience. more on KC..

Labels: Islamophobia, kyrgyztan, Luar Negeri, sekularisma

Kudus Yolu - Abdul Ghaffar Aziz of the Islamic Group in Pakistan declared that the group approves that all politicians and citizens in exile can return back to Pakistan becaue it is their homeland and no one can deny them the right to return home. Although the Supreme Court issued a ruling allowing Nawaz Sharif to return to Pakistan , it is actually outlandish to deport him again out of Pakistan .

Aziz added in a statement to Ikhwanweb: "That Binazir Bhutto returns to Pakistan is acceptable but this does not mean dropping corruption charges against her just because she sealed a deal with Pervez Musharraf to return to homeland. In one implicated in a crime must stand trial before Pakistani courts so that every one takes his rights and so that all the world knows the limits of the Bhutto-Mosharraf deal".

Regarding Bhutto"s statement that she doesn"t plan to deal with Islamists, Abd Al-Ghaffar said " Bhutto"s attitude towards Islamists is well known for years. She tries to woo the US administration adopts the US views and issues statements that she sees as appealing to the US administration. Her attitudes towards Kashmir issue and the US bombardment to tribal regions is clear from the beginning. She wants to prove that she bolder, more sincere, more efficient, and more obedient to US orders in its fight to what Washington calls "terrorists" and any religious one. They are eventually unsuccessful attempts because the U.S. can not succeed in what security forces failed to realize."

Regarding the presidential elections, Abd Al-Ghaffar declared that the election commission issued a ruling on Monday canceling a provision banning that state employees from running for elections, a scheme from Mosharraf to enable him to pursue his reelection bid. However, the judiciary is expected to reject this amendment. Such weak attempts to amend the constitution will be useless to him and his aides.

Aziz added: "There are opposition parties that agreed on rejected reelecting Mosharraf, threatening with submitting a mass resignation to parliament and leave local governments in two Pakistani provinces. It is well known that election takes place here through the Central Council, the Senate and four provincial councils which elect the president. If two councils resigned, there will be no election. If Misharraf insisted on pursuing his bid, we would take to streets to show the public opinion"s rejection to dictatorship. Also, opposition parties threaten with not participating in any general elections if he is reelected. His only option is to resign from both posts and we know that this will not be easily realized. " Quds Way - (Kudus Yolu) published on Sept 22.

Latest - Pakistan crackdown intensifies - alJazeera

Labels: Luar Negeri, Musharraf, Pakistan

Erdoğan: Criticism unjust, fears unfounded

Today's Zaman, Sep 20 - Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan rejected criticism yesterday of ongoing efforts to write a new constitution and said concerns that Turkey's women might see their freedoms coming under Islamic pressure were groundless.

The prime minister, speaking at a press conference in the capital, also signaled a draft constitution would include phrases removing the ban on wearing the headscarf in universities. "We are talking about freedoms here," Erdoğan said, when he was asked to state his opinion on whether the ban should be lifted. "The headscarf is not a symbol for a political party." He also complained, however, that the entire efforts to rewrite the constitution are being reduced to the headscarf issue.

Earlier in the day, Erdoğan said in remarks published by the Financial Times that the right to higher education cannot be restricted because of what a student wears. "There is no such problem in Western societies, but there is a problem in Turkey and I believe it is the first duty of those in politics to solve this problem," he was quoted as saying.

Erdoğan's Justice and Development Party (AK Party) has formed a group of legislators and scholars to write a new constitution that will replace the current one, written during military rule following a coup in 1980. The scholars' draft, which contains alternative proposals to lift the headscarf ban, was reviewed by AK Party officials last weekend, but there was no clarity after the meeting if the AK Party favored keeping the proposals, with reports saying that the final decision was left to Erdoğan.

Members of the opposition have accused the government of trying to put an Islamic stamp on the constitution and erode the secular traditions of the predominantly Muslim nation. At a press conference earlier yesterday, university rectors said the ban cannot be removed and called for a halt to efforts to rewrite the constitution.

Erdoğan responded to rectors, saying they had no right to decide whether the process of rewriting the constitution should continue or be halted. “They should mind their own business,” he said.

Asked to comment on arguments that women not wearing a headscarf would feel under pressure to wear the headscarf if the official ban is lifted, Erdoğan said: “The women should not worry at all. We have been in power for five years. What happened? Was there anything wrong during that period?”

Şerif Mardin, a respected sociologist, said in remarks in a weekend interview that have widely been quoted in the Turkish press since then that the headscarf ban should definitely be lifted, but added that he cannot tell women not to worry about their future.

Erdoğan asserted that the new constitution would extend freedoms. “We are working with a pro-freedom approach. We don’t want Turkey to lose any more time or generations due to fears,” he said. “Criticism on method is unjust and fears on substance [of the constitutional reform] are unfounded.”

The current constitution has often been criticized as being too restrictive and several nongovernmental organizations are known to have prepared alternatives. Erdoğan said the current constitution has already lost its uniformity due to previous amendments that have altered one-third of its text.

Responding to criticism from the staunchly secular opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) and others that the reform efforts were not transparent and participatory, Erdoğan said there was no finalized draft opened to debate yet and emphasized that Turkey was only at the beginning stage of a lengthy process of writing a new constitution.

Accordingly, when the draft is finalized, it will be discussed with all political parties and sent to universities, media institutions and nongovernmental organizations for maximum public debate ahead of the text’s presentation to Parliament. It will also be posted on the Internet for public access, he said.

“We are drafting a constitution for Turkey, not for the AK Party,” Erdoğan said, emphasizing that there is a lot of time to debate the new constitution. “There are efforts to kill the work in the initial stage.”

Labels: Luar Negeri, Turkey

Question: Your party, the AKP (Justice and Development), is preparing a new Turkish constitution. Your critics in some circles suspect that you are trying to use this as an opportunity to change Turkey's secular regime.

Recep Tayyip Erdogan: It is strange. Before we formed a government five years ago, all political parties agreed that we needed to create a new, civilian constitution. Our current constitution, as well as the one that preceded it, has no civilian foundations ...

Question: ... it originated under the direction of the military after a putsch ...

Erdogan: We want a constitution that is going to protect a state that is a democratic, secular and social state of law. First it is about individual freedoms. We are putting forward a proposal, a draft, that we will discuss with all parties in parliament, the NGOs and the universities. We will debate it in the widest sense possible before we put it forward to a vote. That is our responsibility -- after all, the constitution is going to point Turkey in a certain direction.

Question: Talking about freedoms, the headscarf ban has been underlined as the most critical issue when it comes to constitutional changes, and there is widespread understanding that that issue is going to be presented for your consideration as prime minister. What is your take on that?

Erdogan: Freedom of religion and conscience is a part of democracy that cannot be neglected. The same applies to the right to obtain an education. I believe that anyone who calls himself a democrat thinks that a person cannot be denied a university education simply because that person wears a headscarf. There is no such problem in Western societies, so why is there one in Turkey? I believe it is the first duty of those in politics to solve this problem.

Question: The draft just presented by a commission of legal experts appointed by you says very clearly that: "Nobody can be refused a higher education on the grounds of their clothing and appearance."

Erdogan: What we have now is just a draft and no decisions have been made about what will be written in the constitution in the end. You also have to understand that it wouldn't be novel in any way in Turkey to go to university with a headscarf. Earlier it used to be possible -- but then, regrettably, the ban started.

Question: You claim you want to strengthen secular and democratic laws. Does that also apply to freedom of opinion, which is especially important to Europe? Brussels is still waiting for you to change the disputed Paragraph 301, which is again and again used to prosecute authors, journalists and academics in court.

Erdogan: We will be able to overcome all this. We are going to finish this in 2008.

Question: Do you feel there are false perceptions in the West of your party when it comes to Islamic references?

Erdogan: It makes me sad when the AKP is described in articles as a religiously based party. People should take a look at our political program and our set of codes and listen to what we are saying. It is rude and unfair against any party that is saying it is not religiously centered as an Islamic Party, and so is trying to pinpoint it in a certain area just by looking at our family lives. Do people who try to be religiously observant in their private lives not have the right to be active in politics? In the West, that is quite accepted, and it is also perceived as something good. There, one can speak openly about being a Christian Democrat. Of course, we have never accepted the name "Muslim Democrats" because that would be exploiting religion. Because our religion is free of errors, but in our political party we may commit mistakes or wrongdoings. That's why we say we are conservative.

Question: There are still reservations about your party in your own country. Take, for example, the attitude of the military towards the new president, Abdullah Gül.

Erdogan: Our relationship with the Turkish people is very good. The only other time in Turkish history that a governing party improved its results in an election (as we succeeded in doing this July) was in 1954. That shows how much belief the people have in us. We are the only party in parliament that has representatives from 80 out of 81 cities.

Question: Does the military recognize that?

Erdogan: I'm not the right person to whom this question should be asked. The army has a role that is clearly written in the constitution and they are acting on that. But the military is not the policy-maker -- that's the job of the Turkish people. And the people have made the decision.

Question: The conflict with your neighbor, Iran, over Tehran's nuclear program is far from having been resolved. Now France's foreign minister is warning of the possibility of war. Are you alarmed?

Erdogan: It would be entirely wrong to start any kind of military operation against Iran if nothing has been proven. The bill for this we know from Iraq. Before we always said people needed to view things differently. And now you see that tens of thousands have died and so much art and so many cities have been destroyed.

Question: So do you trust the Iranian leaders?

Erdogan: So long as the contrary has not been proven, we have to trust them. I, too, am opposed to weapons of mass destruction. But it is unacceptable to say that other countries may possess weapons of mass destruction but not Iran. When I speak with the Iranian leadership, they stress again and again that they only want to use nuclear energy for humanitarian needs. We are also considering nuclear energy and we are in talks with German, French, Canadian and American firms. We need new energies. But if we take more concrete steps, will they label us in the same way?

Question: The United States has criticized your current negotiations with Iran over gas supplies as untimely.

Erdogan: It is not as if our relations with Iran only began recently. We receive natural gas from Iran that is crucial to our economy. Iran is our second biggest supplier on this. Why should I sever (ties with Iran) if nothing really strange or serious has happened? The aim of Turkish foreign policy is to make friends, not enemies.

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan answered the questions of SPIEGEL correspondent Annette Grossbongardt in the context of an interview given to SPIEGEL, the New York Times and the Financial Times.

Labels: Luar Negeri, Turkey

Labels: France, Iran, Luar Negeri, U.S.

AlJazeera, Sept 01 - The capture of 23 South Korean Christian aid workers by the Taliban in Afghanistan marked the start of a nightmarish period of waiting for their families back in Seoul.

Now that the crisis has blown over with the release of 19 hostages - two had been freed earlier and two had been killed by their captors - the families have heaved a collective sigh of relief.

In a series of exclusive interviews with Al Jazeera, the relatives have narrated how they lived through the ordeal, anxiously waiting for news of their loved ones and described how they dealt with the killings of two of the hostages.

Kwak Ok-kang told of the moment she discovered one of her daughters, Liu Jung-Hwa, had been captured.

She said she had been driving in her car when she heard the news.

"I called my youngest daughter to check the name list, and she said, 'Yes: she's being named and appears on the list,'

"I felt my blood upside down and the colour of the sky seemed to change into yellow.

"It was a true shock and I was terrified."

Noble mission

The 23 South Koreans were all members of the Saemmul Presbyterian Church in Seoul, who had travelled to Afghanistan to undertake a 10-day aid mission in the war-torn country.

Seong In-sook told how her husband, You Kyong-sik, fed up with the drudge of his daily life in Seoul, had joined the group hoping to "make a difference" in the world.

"My husband was an engineer at a computer company for 30 years, and he left his job three years ago because he wanted to change his life."

She said he had "realised that life is very important ... that is the reason he was planning to go to Afghanistan, to find some way of helping".

A photograph, taken before the group left, showed You and the others all smiling.

But, while travelling through Afghanistan's Ghazni province, they were taken hostage by Taliban fighters.

Afghanistan’s government made it clear it would not agree to Taliban demands to free prisoners in exchange for the hostages.

Each time a deadline set by the Taliban passed without these demands being met, the families feared the worst. But, though negotiations broke down on several occasions, the deadlines seemed to pass without any consequences.

Lee Seong-hyun was married only for seven months when his wife decided to go to Afghanistan.

He said he felt "helpless" and in "pain" knowing his wife was being held captive.

"Without her sleeping, waking and eating [life] is not only meaningless but painful," he said.

Traumatic times

In South Korea, protesters demanded the release of the hostages and called for their government to intervene. Some of the protesters gathered outside a mosque in Seoul and there were fears of a backlash against South Korea's Muslim community.

Then the Taliban killed one of the hostages.

"All the family members burst into tears and even screamed with deep sorrow," Lee Hyun-ja told Al Jazeera.

The bullet-riddled body of Bae Hyung-kyu, a Christian pastor and the group's leader, was left close to the road where the group had been kidnapped.

A Taliban spokesman announced it was "because the government did not listen to our demands".

One of the hostages was allowed to call the media. It was Jung-wa, Kwak Ok-kang's daughter.

She said the group was scared. "Sometimes they threaten us," she said in the phone call. "They are going to kill us one by one."

After another deadline passed, the Taliban killed Shim Seong-min, another male hostage.

For Nam Song-soon, whose 36-year-old daughter Ji-young was among the hostages, the news was almost too much to bear.

"The hardest thing was when I saw the news on the TV that Shin-Song-Min was killed," she said.

"I saw his body was covered by a blanket, and I could see part of his feet and that was terrifying – a very terrible thing for me to watch.

Really I could hardly watch the TV because I was so shocked."

Renewed hope

The South Korean group was made up of seven men and sixteen women and there was speculation that the Taliban might be coming under criticism on a local level for holding female hostages.

On August 11, the Taliban announced they would release two hostages, but it took a further two days for Kim Kyung-ja and Kim Jee-na to be set free.

Another hostage, Lee Ji-young, who spoke some of the local Afghan dialect and had been working as a translator for the group, had been offered the chance to be one of the two released.

She chose to stay behind so that her friends would be released instead.

The Taliban allowed her to write a letter to her parents, saying she was "healthy and well fed".

The letter finished: "Please look after yourselves".

"I'm really proud of my daughter," Nam Song-soon, Lee's mother, said.

The release of Kim Kyung-ja and Kim Jee-na offered renewed hope to the families that the situation might be resolved.

South Korea had sent a delegation to Afghanistan for direct talks with the Taliban, but the discussions continually broke down over the issue of the prisoner release.

Then on August 29, the Taliban began to release the others, after South Korean authorities reiterated their plans to withdraw their troops and agreed to clamp-down on missionary groups travelling from their country to Afghanistan.

Both sides have denied rumours that a ransom was paid to secure the release of the remaining hostages, but for those back in Seoul that hardly mattered.

A deal had been reached and the agonising wait for the families was finally over. alJazeera

Labels: Afghanistan, Kristianasasi, Luar Negeri

South Koreans Apologize for Hostage Ordeal in Afghanistan

VOA, August 31 - Two of 19 South Koreans released by Taleban kidnappers in Afghanistan have apologized to the South Korean people and government for the ordeal.

At a news conference in Kabul Friday, one of the hostages, Yu Kyeong-sik, described losing sleep over the agony they caused to the country.

Yu described their July 19 abduction, saying the group of 23 church volunteers was on a chartered bus in southern Afghanistan when their driver picked up two locals. He said about 20 minutes later, the men began shooting and stopped the bus.

Yu said the Taleban split the hostages into groups. He said his own group changed locations 12 times throughout the six weeks of captivity, moved by motorbike or on foot.

The Taleban began releasing the 19 hostages on Wednesday, after striking a deal with South Korean negotiators. Two male hostages were executed last month and, then, two female hostages were released during talks with the Taleban.

Officials say the South Koreans are now on their way to Dubai.

As part of the deal to free the hostages, South Korea agreed to withdraw 200 of its non-combat troops from Afghanistan by year's end - which it had already planned to do - and to suspend missionary work in the country.

Some reports say South Korea paid a substantial ransom to the Taleban, but both sides deny any money was exchanged.

The deal has been criticized by some Afghan officials who say it will only encourage more abductions. VOA. Some information for this report was provided by AFP, AP and Reuters.

Labels: Afghanistan, Kristianasasi, Luar Negeri