Military

DATE=10/19/01

TYPE=WORLD OPINION ROUNDUP

TITLE=AFGHANISTAN/POWELL'S TRIP

NUMBER=6-12510

BYLINE=ANDREW GUTHRIE

DATELINE=Washington

INTERNET=YES

EDITOR=Assignments

TELEPHONE=619-3335

CONTENT=

INTRO: The allied campaign against international terrorism, continues to draw extensive editorial comment in the foreign press.

This week, Secretary of State Powell's trip to the region, coupled with a Qatari television interview with the American National Security Condoleezza Rice drew special attention. We get a sampling now as V-O-A's ___________ is here to bring us this week's World Opinion Roundup.

TEXT: Secretary of State Colin Powell's trip to India and Pakistan to discuss Afghanistan coincided with renewed tensions between those nations over Kashmir. The press feared the focus of the trip would be shifted, with Asian Age commenting:

Voice: It is very clear that [Secretary] Powell, in ...consultations with the Indian leaders, will insist on early dialogue to prevent any outbreak of violence... And he will probably do it with a little more etiquette and finesse than ...President George W. Bush... [Secretary ] Powell has realized that admonishments and stern warning might work with some countries, but not with India... At the same time...it is important for Delhi to sit down with Pakistan and jointly bring down the level of tension...

TEXT: The Hindu, in Tamil Nadu, frets that:

VOICE: The spiraling tensions in India's extended neighborhood are undeniably the direct consequence of Washington's ongoing war in Afghanistan. Moreover, official Pakistan was among the first to make common cause with the United Sates over what is ... turning into an unpredictable and messy adventure... [causing] considerable discomfort within the Islamic bloc...

TEXT: The Times of India, from Bombay, adds:

VOICE: The shelling of Pakistani army positions by Indian troops on the eve of Colin Powell's sub-continental tour is just the kind of provocation New Delhi could have done without...

TEXT: In Pakistan, the second largest Urdu Language daily Nawa-e-Waqt commented:

VOICE: Although it is not anything new, the U-S secretary of state has advised that the Kashmir dispute should be resolved in keeping with the aspirations of the Kashmiris through dialogue. The advice is a good omen and the U-S assurance of assistance for the [dispute's] resolution ... is encouraging.

TEXT: The daily newspaper, Pakistan, focused on potential economic assistance, and although the visit did not bring an end to Pakistan's outstanding debt to the U-S, the paper writes:" It can be hoped that some way to end Pakistan's economic problems will be found...

Meanwhile in Bangladesh, the English-language Independent from Dhaka commented:

VOICE: In the military preparedness and diplomatic offensive, the United States and members of the coalition made it clear that their action is not against the Muslims or Islam, but against terrorism. This is a new kind of conflict in which the most powerful state ... is striking against an impoverished country with the aim of capturing an individual.

TEXT: However in the Bangla-language Ajker Kagoj, was pessimistic about the outcome:

VOICE: The war is not likely to resolve Afghanistan's political crisis. The replacement of a fundamentalist group by another will not bring any democratic solution.

TEXT: Turning to the Al Jazeera television interview with U-S National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice, one columnist in Egypt's influential Al Ahram from Cairo write:

VOICE: I wish Ms. ... Rice had not spoken at all. In her first test ... of public relations, she appeared like the Israeli National Security Advisor. ... She found an opportunity to defy all national, regional and international wishes opposed to expansion of the war against terror beyond Afghan elements. She threatened Iraq and warned Syria.

TEXT: A somewhat more supportive comment from Kuwait's Al-Qabas in Kuwait City.

VOICE: America is a great power ... and it has the right to punish the aggressor. The United States was clear. It has asked Afghanistan to hand over [Mr.] bin Laden, but they refused. Now the [Afghan] people alone are facing the American retaliation. [Mr.]

Bin Laden should have surrendered to prove that he is not guilty...

TEXT: However in Saudi Arabia, Jeddah-based Al-Bilad had this assessment of one comment from Ms. Rice, that "There is no good terrorism or bad terrorism."

VIOLENCE: If Washington's former and current leadership insists on calling the Palestinian resistance terrorism, why does it insist on calling the Israeli terrorism 'violence?' Why did the United States support bringing Slobodan Milosevic to international justice for war crimes and disregard [Israeli Prime Minister Aerial] Sharon's previous and current similar crimes? ... We believe ...the American administration realizes this contradiction in defining terrorism and gets angry at those who are trying to define it consistently.

TEXT: Dismissing Ms. Rice's support of an official Palestinian state, Tunisia's French-language Quotidian from Tunis says:

VOICE: There is ...serious concern that the new official British-American discourse about the Palestinian issue might be just a circumstantial concession aimed at throwing dust in the eyes in order ... to rally the Arab countries behind the United States in its war against terrorism.

TEXT: Briefly to Europe, where Britain's Daily Telegraph from London muses over the latest news from Afghanistan:

VOICE: By now ... [Mr.] bin Laden must be fully preoccupied with his own survival... It was always a central part of his terrorist creed that America was too decadent to fight him. The events of the past ten days can have left him in no doubt that he was wrong on that score [Editors: slang for "subject"]

TEXT: With one eye on the calendar and another on the thermometer, The Guardian writes:

VOICE: The war in Afghanistan is now entering a potentially definitive four-week period delimited, militarily and politically, by the advance of winter and the beginning of Ramadan on November 17th. If the allies fail to achieve a decisive breakthrough by then...they face a protracted war of attrition in deteriorating conditions, an increasingly uncontrollable internal conflict and a falling away of Muslim government support...

TEXT: On that note from the Guardian in London, we conclude this sampling of global editorial comment on the U-S-led campaign against international terrorism.

NEB/ANG/FC