Target Centermass

Day: November 24, 2004

  • Gadhafi Claims Reward Too Small for Giving up WMD Pursuit

    After cringing at the headline and thinking, “Great, Libya’s at it again,” I found myself somewhat surprised by the content of Gadhafi’s complaint.

    Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi says the international community should have offered Tripoli a better payback for renouncing its efforts to acquire weapons of mass destruction.

    Mr. Gaddhafi told France’s Le Figaro newspaper that he was “a bit disappointed” that Libya was not better rewarded for what he described as Tripoli’s contribution to international peace. In clearer terms, that translates as Libya’s decision last year to scrap its efforts to acquire weapons of mass destruction.

    That decision has led to the end of years-long United Nations sanctions against Libya, and helped improve diplomatic ties between the North African country and a number of Western nations. That includes relations with France whose president, Jacques Chirac, arrived in Tripoli Wednesday afternoon. Mr. Chirac’s visit to Libya is the first by a French head of state in more than half a century.

    British, German and Italian leaders have also visited Libya in recent months.

    But Mr. Gadhafi told Le Figaro that in exchange for scrapping its weapons program, Libya should at least receive guarantees from the international community to protect its national security, and help in transforming its weapons material for peaceful, civilian use. The Libyan leader specifically faulted Japan, Europe and the United States.

    Since Libya was not rewarded, Mr. Gadhafi warned, other countries like North Korea and Iran would not be inclined to follow Libya’s example and dismantle their own weapons programs. He said he had already had talks to this effect with officials from the two countries.

    Yes, I feel Gadhafi’s move should be rewarded more than it has been, though perhaps not to the extent Gadhafi actually wishes. I certainly concur with assurances of national security, at least in terms of outward threats, and assistance in “civilizing” Libya’s weapons material seems reasonable.

    I would hesitate towards rushing to any other immediate rewards, and that hesitancy is driven by two factors. First, there should not be so much of an immediate reward so as to actually induce other nations to get the idea that starting and dropping WMD programs is the way to a fast buck. Second, Gadhafi still has much he can do to better the lives of Libyans, including granting them a greater voice in their own governance. Further rewards should be held in reserve for such steps.

    One reward I would most assuredly and whole-heartedly back would be for the English-speaking world to reach a consensus on the spelling of dear ol’ Moammar’s name. The above article spells it Gadhafi. This article has it as Kadhafi. Actually, here’s a site with thirty-freaking-two variations. This needs to be resolved. Perhaps this is something the United Nations could actually manage.

  • Ukraine on the Brink

    Amid threats of strikes, promises of disruption, cries of fraud, and even a bizarre allegation of candidate poisoning (hattip OTB), Ukraine is pushing itself towards the brink of anarchy in reaction to the results of their presidential run-off election.

    Opposition leaders called Wednesday for a nationwide strike to shut down factories, schools and transportation after officials declared Ukraine’s pro-Kremlin prime minister the winner of a presidential runoff election that many countries denounced as rigged.

    The call by reformist candidate Viktor Yushchenko and his allies for an “all-Ukrainian political strike” risked provoking a crackdown by outgoing President Leonid Kuchma’s government, which has said the opposition’s actions in the aftermath of Sunday’s bitterly disputed runoff were, in effect, preparations for a coup d’etat.

    A strike could also further divide the country: Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych drew his support from the pro-Russian, heavily industrialized eastern half of the country, while Yushchenko’s strength was in the west, a traditional center of Ukrainian nationalism.

    To prevent the crisis from widening, Yanukovych said negotiations with Yushchenko’s team would begin Thursday, the Interfax news agency reported, citing Ukrainian television. The opposition has said, however, that it would talk only about a handover of power to Yushchenko.

    The Central Election Commission’s decision to declare Yanukovych the winner “puts Ukraine on the verge of civil conflict,” Yushchenko told hundreds of thousands of his cheering supporters who massed for a fourth straight night in central Kiev’s Independence Square.

    After the speeches, many demonstrators headed to the presidential administration building, the site of a tense standoff with riot police Tuesday night. The police presence was heavy again, with about 40 buses disgorging well over 1,000 officers with helmets and shields who stood in phalanxes up to eight deep outside the building.

    The election was denounced as fraudulent by Western observers, who cited ballot stuffing, voter intimidation and other irregularities.

    ….

    The commission said Yanukovych got 49.46 percent of the vote and Yushchenko 46.61 percent.

    “With this decision, they want to put us on our knees,” the Western-leaning Yushchenko told the crowd, which responded with chants of “Shame! Shame!” and “We will not give up.”

    Socialist Party leader Oleksandr Moroz said the opposition was “organizing citizens, stopping lessons at schools and universities, stopping work at enterprises, stopping transport … and, thus, we’ll force the authorities to think about what they are doing,”

    Yuliya Tymoshenko, Yushchenko’s key ally, said his followers would “surround all government buildings, block railways, airports and highways.”

    “We have a strict intention to seize power in our hands at these sites,” she said, vowing a “consistent struggle that will lead to the destruction of this regime.”

    She also said that the opposition would go to Ukraine’s Supreme Court on Thursday to protest the alleged election fraud, and urged supporters to remain on the square and not let down their guard.

    ….

    Kuchma, the outgoing president, said Yushchenko supporters were trying to carry out “a coup d’etat.” He called “on all political forces to negotiate immediately” and on the international community to “refrain from interference in Ukraine’s affairs.”

    Kuchma called the election “an examination of the maturity and democracy of all the Ukrainian people.”

    “We will pass this exam,” he said.

    The election commission announcement came after a flurry of statements on the possibility of negotiations to find a compromise, which Kuchma had proposed earlier.

    Mykola Tomenko, a lawmaker and Yushchenko ally, told Yushchenko supporters earlier Wednesday that the opposition would negotiate “only about the peaceful handing over of power to Yushchenko by Kuchma.”

    Yushchenko claimed victory Tuesday over Yanukovych in the presidential run-off and, in a sign he would not back off, took a symbolic oath of office.

    The election has led to an increasingly tense tug-of-war between the West and Moscow, which considers Ukraine part of its sphere of influence and a buffer between Russia and eastward-expanding NATO.

    Russian President Vladimir Putin has already congratulated Yanukovych on his victory, and the Kremlin-controlled Russian parliament denounced the Ukrainian opposition for its “illegal actions.”

    ….

    Lech Walesa, the founder of Poland’s Solidarity movement, will travel to Ukraine to act as a mediator in the standoff over the disputed presidential elections there, his son told The Associated Press.

    In addition, the Netherlands planned to send a special envoy, Niek Biegman, to Ukraine as part of its role as current holder of the European Union’s rotating presidency.

    Opposition supporters have taken over blocks of Kiev’s main street, setting up a giant tent camp. Yanukovych supporters also became increasingly visible in Kiev, setting up hundreds of tents of their own on a nearby wooded slope. But many of their camps had been dismantled by Wednesday night.

    I’m not familiar enough with the situation to comment, other than I think many of us are going to become much more knowledgeable very soon. It should be noted that both the U.S. and Canada have rejected the results.

    Do go read the article on the alleged poisoning of Yushchenko. The before-and-after pictures are simply astounding.