Hypocrisy :Turkey "Remembers the Victims" of others.. only..[ 1433 ]

Turkey Steps In to Fill Void in Former Yugoslavia

By MARC CHAMPION

Agence France-Presse/Getty Images

Workers at the Srebrenica genocide memorial cemetery prepare Friday for a ceremonial mass burial of the remains of more than 775 victims of the 1995 massacre.

ISTANBUL—The leaders of Turkey, Serbia and other Balkan nations gathered this weekend to commemorate the 15th anniversary of the Srebrenica massacre in Bosnia-Herzegovina, in an event seen by Turkish officials as a crowning moment in its campaign of regional diplomacy.
Tens of thousands of people turned out on Sunday to remember the execution of some 8,000 Muslim men and boys by Bosnian Serb military, in what an international court has since ruled to have been an act of genocide. Families buried another 775 of the dead, as the grim task of collecting and identifying the skeletons of those buried and reburied in mass graves continues.

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan's presence at the funeral highlights how Ankara has stepped into a void in Bosnia left by the failure of a years-long U.S.-European Union effort to secure a new constitutional settlement aimed at ensuring stability in a still fractious nation made up of Bosnian Muslims, Serbs and Croats, diplomats say.

Remembering the Victims

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Tragedy at Srebrenica

A look back

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Tom Stoddart/Getty Images

A Bosnian Muslim family sought refuge from the fighting in Tuzla in July 1995.

"We put everything the U.S. and the European Union could get together, and yet we could not succeed," said a senior Western diplomat in Sarajevo, speaking of the so-called Butmir process to change the constitution, named after the North Atlantic Treaty Organization military base where it was launched.

The reason: Without Russia working to persuade leaders of Bosnia's Serbian entity and Turkey pressing Bosnian Muslim leaders, a deal was "out of our reach," the diplomat said.

As the process ground to a halt last year, Ankara stepped in with a parallel effort aimed at getting the leaders of Serbia, Bosnia and Croatia talking, said Süha Umar, Turkey's ambassador to Belgrade. "We had to intervene," he said.

Serbian President Boris Tadic Sunday's ceremony, drawing some applause and some calls of "Where is Mladic?" the Associated Press reported. Gen. Ratko Mladic was the Bosnian Serb commander in charge of the Srebrenica operation. He has been indicted by the International Criminal Tribunal for former Yugoslavia in The Hague, but remains at large. Mr. Tadic pledged to "do everything" to apprehend alleged war criminals in Serbia.

In March, Belgrade, for the first time, made a formal condemnation of the Srebrenica killings, a move Western diplomats say was mediated by Turkey and aimed at smoothing Serbia's path to the EU. Serbia has arrested and handed over numerous alleged war criminals, including former Serbain
President Slobodan Milosevic, who died while on trial, and former Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic, currently on trial in The Hague. The government of Republika Srpska, Bosnia's ethnic Serb entity, sent a low level delegation Saturday.

Western capitals have largely welcomed Turkey's growing involvement in the Balkans—unlike in the Middle East, where Turkey's vote against U.S.-led U.N. sanctions on Iran and its increasingly hostile relationship with Israel have triggered worries in Washington over the direction of a core regional ally.
Turkish diplomats cite their efforts at mediation among the countries of former Yugoslavia as an example of how Turkey's activist foreign policy makes it a more valuable ally to the West.
Over the past 18 months, Turkey has built a strong relationship with Serbia's pro-Western government under Mr. Tadic and organized a series of three-way meetings with ex-Yugoslav neighbors.

Ankara also played a key role in securing NATO's April decision to grant Bosnia a formal road map toward joining the alliance, despite deep reservations in Germany, the Netherlands and the U.S. about the moral hazard of offering Bosnia a route to membership when it hadn't fulfilled all conditions.
Within Serbia, Turkey's foreign minister last year successfully mediated a dispute that had led to violence between two political factions in the Orthodox Christian nation's majority Muslim Sandzak region, according to Western diplomats familiar with the matter. Two prominent Sandzak politicians supported rival Muslim clerics who in turn answered to rival muftis in Sarajevo and Belgrade.

Turkey offered highway construction, an airport conversion and industrial projects in Sandzak. On Sunday, Mr. Erdogan was scheduled to open a Turkish cultural center there.
Turkey was Bosnia's fourth-largest investor in 2009, according to the country's Foreign Investment Promotion Agency. Turkish Airlines says it is in talks to buy Serbia's main airline, JAT, having bought a 49% stake in Air Bosnia in 2008.
Around 70% of students at the new Turkish-built International University of Sarajevo are Turkish nationals, many of them young women escaping the head-scarf ban on Turkish campuses.

Not everybody accepts the growing Turkish role in a region that was under Ottoman rule for five centuries. Milorad Dodik, leader of Bosnia's Serbian entity, Republika Srpska, has said Ankara arrives with too much historical baggage and is pushing exclusively for the interests of Bosnia's Muslims, a charge Turkish diplomats deny. A spokesman for Mr. Dodik wasn't available for comment Friday.
Some Serbian newspapers have attacked Mr. Tadic for going along with Turkish mediation, saying he is abandoning Bosnia's ethnic Serbs. Spokesmen for Mr. Tadic didn't respond to requests to comment.

And not everything has gone to plan. A May visit to Belgrade by Bosnian Muslim President Haris Silajdzic, negotiated with Turkish mediation, was postponed when he said he wanted to visit a Bosnian Croat convicted in a Serbian court as a war criminal. Belgrade refused.

And while NATO gave Bosnia a Membership Action Plan, it won't become operational until elusive conditions, such as agreeing on the status of military real estate, are fulfilled.
Still, says Kurt Bassuener, a former strategic analyst for the Office of the High Representative,

Bosnia's powerful international governor: "If you compare the solo Turkish diplomatic efforts to everyone else's in the past six months, they are the only people who got anything done at all."

Write to Marc Champion at marc.champion@wsj.com

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We noted the Turkish concern about the victims of Bosnia, however we cannot forget the massacre's  and the genocide of Armenians, Greeks of Pontus,  Arabs, Kurds, Cypriots etc etc . Hypocrisy must have some...limits.-

Japan Elections...[ 1432 ]

LDP regains footing in election but prospects of regaining power unclear

(Mainichi Japan) July 12, 2010The largest opposition Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) managed to put the brakes on its sinking popularity with a solid performance in the House of Councillors election, but the party's prospects of regaining control of the government remain uncertain.
Since the LDP is certain to achieve its goal of preventing the two-party ruling coalition from securing a majority in the upper chamber of the Diet, LDP President Sadakazu Tanigaki said he will stay on as party leader following the July 11 poll.

LDP President Sadakazu Tanigaki expresses joy in the party headquarters at its outstanding performance in the July 11 House of Councillors race. (Mainichi)

However, the LDP's outstanding performance was aided largely by voters' criticism of Prime Minister Naoto Kan's inconsistent remarks on a consumption tax hike. A failure by the party to show clear prospects for winning the unified local elections next year and the next House of Representatives election is likely to spark calls for the party leadership to step down.
"I feel we've made outstanding performances in constituencies, and I'm sure we can achieve our goal (of blocking the ruling coalition from retaining a majority)," LDP Secretary-General Tadamori Oshima said at the party headquarters as he was examining the results of vote counting.
Since the approval rating for the ruling Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) surged again after Kan replaced Yukio Hatoyama as party leader and prime minister, younger LDP legislators had discussed the possibility of launching a campaign to force Tanigaki to resign after the upper house race.
On July 6, LDP legislators who have no factional affiliation, including Policy Research Council Vice Chairman Yasutoshi Nishimura, gathered at a meeting room in the party headquarters to analyze the party's chance of winning the election.
One of them, former Vice Minister of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism Takuya Hirai, urged the party leadership to raise its goal in the upper house race. "The question is whether we'll win the largest number of contested seats," he was quoted as saying.
Another pointed out that it is difficult for the LDP to work out a strategy for winning the unified local elections under the leadership of President Tanigaki and Secretary-General Oshima.
However, calls for replacing the leadership are waning now. This is partly because the party has lost the public's support in the past as a result of frequent changes in its leadership. The party's leader has changed every year since 2006, when former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe took office. Tanigaki is now optimistic about staying in his post at least until his term expires in September 2012.
In a TBS television program on July 11, Tanigaki urged Kan to dissolve the lower house at an early date for a snap general election.
However, since the LDP has been preoccupied with its campaign for the July 11 election, it has not selected candidates in about one-third of the 300 single-seat constituencies of the lower house. Furthermore, a recent Mainichi survey shows the approval rating for the LDP remains low, at less than 20 percent.
Under such circumstances, it remains uncertain whether the LDP can take advantage of its outstanding showing in the upper house election to regain control of the government.
Another question is how long the LDP can endure as an opposition party. After slipping from power in 1993, it regained control of the government only a year later by teaming up with the Social Democratic Party and the now defunct New Party Sakigake. However, the situation is completely different now, as the LDP has only 116 seats in the 480-seat lower house.
Sources close to the LDP say the party may move to form an alliance with some influential coalition leaders, such as former DPJ Secretary-General Ichiro Ozawa and People's New Party leader Shizuka Kamei.
Even though Tanigaki has ruled out the possibility of forming a grand coalition with the DPJ, a split may develop within the LDP depending on the party leadership's handling of the situation. (By Takuji Nakata, Political News Department)

Click here for the original Japanese story

The World Cup in Spain..[ 1432 ]

The World's Soccer Cup goes to Spain

Viva Espagna

Blasts in Uganda rise killed at least to 64..[ 1431 ]

Twin blasts in Uganda capital Kampala kill at least 64

  This post Updates the post # 1429   

The blasts went off as people were watching the World Cup final

BBC.,Page last updated at 04:34 GMT, Monday, 12 July 2010 05:34 UK

At least 64 people, including an American, have been killed in twin blasts in the Ugandan capital Kampala.

Another 65 people were injured by the blasts, which police said went off at a rugby club and a restaurant as football fans watched the World Cup final.

"These bombs were definitely targeting World Cup crowds," Inspector General of Police Kale Kayihura said.

Somali militants have in the past threatened to attack Kampala; Ugandan troops are deployed in Mogadishu.

About 5,000 African Union troops from Uganda and Burundi are based in Mogadishu to protect the fragile interim government.

The Amisom force is engaged in frequent firefights with Islamist insurgents which control much of southern and central Somalia.

Obama 'deeply saddened'

Insp General Kayihura said he believed Somalia's militant group al-Shabab could be behind Sunday evening's attack. If true, it would be the first time the group has carried out attacks outside Somalia.

In Mogadishu, an al-Shabab commander said he was "happy" with the attacks in Uganda.

But Sheik Yusuf Sheik Issa refused to confirm or deny that al-Shabab was responsible.

SHOCK IN UGANDA

Continue reading the main story

Joshua Mmali,
BBC News, Kampala

People are nervous and scared. They are running home and telling their relatives, and telling them to stay indoors.

In the rugby club, where the biggest crowd had gathered, the explosion occurred right in the middle of the crowd. People who were seated in the outer parts of the crowd were not affected as much as those seated in the middle.

The police are saying they tried to put in place as much security as they could, but it seems clear that the police had no clue about how the bombs got in those places.

Nobody expected this to happen in a World Cup final. One would have thought that whoever did this would have waited for another time. It is just a time when people are making merry and very excited about the World Cup final, then this happens. It is quite shocking.

He told AP news agency: "Uganda is one of our enemies. Whatever makes them cry, makes us happy. May Allah's anger be upon those who are against us."

Insp General Kayihura, speaking at the scene of one blast, said: "The information we have indicates the people who have attacked the Ethiopian Village were probably targeting expatriates."

US President Barack Obama said the explosions were "deplorable and cowardly".

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said the US would work with the Ugandan government "to bring the perpetrators of this crime to justice".

The US embassy in Kampala has confirmed that one American was among the dead.

"The nationalities of all the fatalities will be released later," said police spokeswoman Judith Nabakooba.

'Screaming and running'

At least three Americans, members of a Church group from Pennsylvania, were wounded at the Ethiopian restaurant.

One, Kris Sledge, 18, said from his hospital bed: "I remember blacking out, hearing people screaming and running."

Mr Sledge, of Selinsgrove, Pennsylvania, who had a bandaged leg and burns on his face, told AP: "I love the place here, but I'm wondering why this happened and who did this. At this point we're just glad to be alive."

At the scenes of the two blasts chairs were overturned, and blood and pieces of flesh lay on the floor.

Japan Elections..[ 1430 ]

Japan elections a setback to new prime minister

Exit polls indicate a poor showing by the Democratic Party, which could further weaken Naoto Kan's hold on power. Kan, in office since June, is seen as a political flip-flopper, like his predecessor.

Sadakazu Tanigaki, who heads the rival Liberal Democratic Party, told reporters that the ballot results suggest that voters had given up on the Democrats. Tanigaki is shown placing a red rosette on the name of his party's candidate during ballot counting at the party headquarters in Tokyo. (Shizuo Kambayashi, Associated Press / July 11, 2010)