China is spreading its wings in the Middle East and Africa, leaving India, the other emerging economy from Asia, far behind.
There have been several interesting developments in the recent past that suggest that an energy hungry Middle Kingdom is striving consistently to be the dominant trader in the oil rich Gulf. In June this year, Cnooc Ltd., China’s third-largest oil company, signed a 25-year agreement with Qatar Petroleum to search for gas offshore in its first exploration venture in the Middle East.
The agreement includes drilling three wells in five years. Qatar also plans to discuss providing additional liquefied-natural gas to the Chinese company. Qatar, which has the world’s third-largest natural gas reserves, is also the world’s largest producer of liquefied natural gas, or LNG. It plans to nearly double its LNG production to 77 million tons annually by next year. Cnooc plans to invest $100 million to implement the exploration agreement. China will import the first consignment of LNG in October, and it will need 40 million to 60 million tons of LNG a year by 2020.
Geographically, India is the closest importer of LNG from Qatar. It has been importing LNG from the emirate for a much longer period and currently imports 7.5 million tonnes of the fuel annually. It plans to increase this by around five million tonnes annually. But then, India was not among serious competitors for gas exploration bids in Qatar.
This is just one of the examples of the Chinese presence in the region and that of India’s absence. Iraq will more than double crude oil supplies to China next year to over 300,000 barrels per day. Chinese imports from Iraq have already increased nearly three fold in 2009. This saw average daily imports of Iraqi crude to China rise at about 144,000 bpd, according to Chinese customs data.
What’s interesting is that China is still not incurring any cost in re-building Iraq. Still, it has managed to be the leading player in the state’s oil business. A partnership of British Petroleum (BP) and the China National Petroleum Corporation, or C.N.P.C., won the first contract awarded by the country after the overthrow of Saddam Hussein. The project, worth more than 15 billion U.S. dollars, is a milestone in Iraq's efforts to renew its struggling oil sector. According to the 20-year contract, BP holds a 38 per cent stake in the venture, while CNPC has a 37 per cent share. Iraq's State Oil Marketing Organisation controls the rest.
In another sign of China’s interest in Iraqi oil, Sinopec, China’s refining giant agreed to pay $7.22 billion to buy Addax Petroleum, a Swiss-Canadian company with operations in the Kurdistan region of Iraq and in West Africa.
The strong and growing presence of China in Africa tells an even more intriguing story. The Chinese now have a presence across the Dark continent. The country's presence in the form of construction companies, financial and humanitarian aid providers spreads from Angola and Ethiopia to Sierra Leone and Zimbabwe.
And the strategy that the Chinese companies have employed in Africa needs a detailed discussion. The Chinese have built stadiums in Africa at places they were not required. They have built a luxury hotel in Sierra Leone. They have prevented security council resolutions against Sudan and abstained from even the resolution that asked the International Court of Justice to investigate the Darfur violations. And Zimbabwe is all but owned by China. Angola, the newest member of OPEC and the country that has highest amount of upstream investments planned for the next five years among all OPEC members was offered a $ 2 bn soft loan by China to develop an oil block.
The efforts of India, which has similar concerns as China to ensure a regular flow of hydrocarbons do not compare. India has had presence in Sudan. It is now trying for a presence in Ghana. State owned Oil and Natural Gas Corp. Ltd (ONGC) and GAIL (India) Ltd are in talks with Ghana National Petroleum Corp. (GNPC) for acquiring stakes in hydrocarbon blocks in the African country.
These steps fizzle out in front of the massive Chinese strategy. Indians are not playing as hard as their Chinese counterparts to gain a greater access in Africa and may in few years time find it difficult to deal with simultaneous rise in oil prices and demand.
Tuesday, December 22, 2009
Saturday, October 24, 2009
Accounting games may wreak havoc in January
As the Gulf economies sit down to take a stock of how have they tackled the impact of the global financial crisis, they find themselves basked under the stares of a suspecting media.
Though companies in the region have gradually come to accept the importance of maintaining transparency and gaining trust in the markets; large-scale lacunas remain. With ‘green-shoots’ of growth already out from the developed world, the Middle-East and more so the Gulf countries are yet ascertain as to how deep and muddy waters has the financial crisis thrown them into.
Come January 2010, some new set of skeletons may tumble out. Though the region is expected to record an all-round recovery along with the world, and rising oil prices are expected to provide it a strong support; large and cocky real estate companies in the region may relegate to a deeper suffering.
The buzz in the market is that large real estate companies have tried to use all possible loopholes in accounting principles to their advantage. While the figures suggesting the decay of companies like Lehman Brothers that triggered the crisis were at least correct in the West, here even the statistics remain blurred. The end result: a second wave of financial disarray may let loose in the region the next year exactly when the onset of a global recovery is predicted.
Up for debate are the balance sheets of several companies that declared their results in January 2009. The GCC countries do not have set accounting standards and follow a mix of accounting principles from all over the world. Audits made mandatory by the regulators overseeing listed companies in financial markets allegedly turn a blind eye to the high level financial games that several of these companies with 'bright' finance professionals play.
“The problem is that this kind of gain is really not sustainable. Property gains don’t go on forever (they have already declined substantially at places like Dubai), and the developers may soon feel the pain of a price fall as all revaluation losses also have to be booked in the income statement,” says Binod Shankar a Dubai based Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA).
What’s interesting is that such accounting tactics may force an additional expenditure for these companies. “There is always the danger that shareholders see the higher profits (mainly due to revaluation gains), think that all the profits are realised and hence ask for more dividend. None of the revaluation gain is in cash and the company may end up paying dividend out of capital,” Shankar adds.
Interestingly, none of this is illegal; the International Financial Reporting Standard (IFRS) explicitly allows this accounting treatment as per International Accounting Standard IAS 40. However, the problem is that none of the revaluation gain is realised.
Fair value i.e. the current market price of an asset that the IFRS insists is the authentic price to be recorded on balance sheets, income statements and cash flow statements. It is the price that a buyer is willing to pay to the seller under the prevalent market conditions. In the Middle East, fair value has become a joke. As explained above, even as the real estate prices have declined by as much as half their previous value at many of the places in the Arabian Gulf, companies have gone ahead and raised the prices of assets (on the account sheets) under their command by percentages that were prevalent during the time of the global economic boom. A good portion of the inventory has been shown as ‘available for sale’ -- an accounting loophole that allows companies to not record inventories and keep them off the balance sheets. A good amount of asset has also been securitized to escape scrutiny.
“There is another scary fact. A few companies went on to show those buildings that were still being built as a part of there assets the last year. This strengthened their balance sheet then. However, this year when those buildings have actually been completed they cannot show them as a part of their asset. It will be double whammy for them (the real estate companies) as many projects have been abandoned and no new assets are coming up this year,” a Dubai based analyst said.
The largest real estate companies, the ones who have particularly been noticed fiddling with their balance sheets cannot even be questioned in an open forum for the fact that they enjoy a tacit government backing.
Though companies in the region have gradually come to accept the importance of maintaining transparency and gaining trust in the markets; large-scale lacunas remain. With ‘green-shoots’ of growth already out from the developed world, the Middle-East and more so the Gulf countries are yet ascertain as to how deep and muddy waters has the financial crisis thrown them into.
Come January 2010, some new set of skeletons may tumble out. Though the region is expected to record an all-round recovery along with the world, and rising oil prices are expected to provide it a strong support; large and cocky real estate companies in the region may relegate to a deeper suffering.
The buzz in the market is that large real estate companies have tried to use all possible loopholes in accounting principles to their advantage. While the figures suggesting the decay of companies like Lehman Brothers that triggered the crisis were at least correct in the West, here even the statistics remain blurred. The end result: a second wave of financial disarray may let loose in the region the next year exactly when the onset of a global recovery is predicted.
Up for debate are the balance sheets of several companies that declared their results in January 2009. The GCC countries do not have set accounting standards and follow a mix of accounting principles from all over the world. Audits made mandatory by the regulators overseeing listed companies in financial markets allegedly turn a blind eye to the high level financial games that several of these companies with 'bright' finance professionals play.
“The problem is that this kind of gain is really not sustainable. Property gains don’t go on forever (they have already declined substantially at places like Dubai), and the developers may soon feel the pain of a price fall as all revaluation losses also have to be booked in the income statement,” says Binod Shankar a Dubai based Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA).
What’s interesting is that such accounting tactics may force an additional expenditure for these companies. “There is always the danger that shareholders see the higher profits (mainly due to revaluation gains), think that all the profits are realised and hence ask for more dividend. None of the revaluation gain is in cash and the company may end up paying dividend out of capital,” Shankar adds.
Interestingly, none of this is illegal; the International Financial Reporting Standard (IFRS) explicitly allows this accounting treatment as per International Accounting Standard IAS 40. However, the problem is that none of the revaluation gain is realised.
Fair value i.e. the current market price of an asset that the IFRS insists is the authentic price to be recorded on balance sheets, income statements and cash flow statements. It is the price that a buyer is willing to pay to the seller under the prevalent market conditions. In the Middle East, fair value has become a joke. As explained above, even as the real estate prices have declined by as much as half their previous value at many of the places in the Arabian Gulf, companies have gone ahead and raised the prices of assets (on the account sheets) under their command by percentages that were prevalent during the time of the global economic boom. A good portion of the inventory has been shown as ‘available for sale’ -- an accounting loophole that allows companies to not record inventories and keep them off the balance sheets. A good amount of asset has also been securitized to escape scrutiny.
“There is another scary fact. A few companies went on to show those buildings that were still being built as a part of there assets the last year. This strengthened their balance sheet then. However, this year when those buildings have actually been completed they cannot show them as a part of their asset. It will be double whammy for them (the real estate companies) as many projects have been abandoned and no new assets are coming up this year,” a Dubai based analyst said.
The largest real estate companies, the ones who have particularly been noticed fiddling with their balance sheets cannot even be questioned in an open forum for the fact that they enjoy a tacit government backing.
Saturday, October 3, 2009
Iraq needs to sell its oil
While it’s Iran that’s known for raising its voice for higher oil prices, it is the neighbouring Iraq that’s in desperate need for it.
A suffering Iraq needs oil to average above $ 70 a barrel to build up a dependable coffer unlike other countries with major oil reserves (Saudi Arabia could manage at $ 30 a barrel). And since Iraq National Oil Company is in doldrums, the war ravaged country desperately needs foreign companies explore and produce more oil to manage its growing population and extricate itself from war induced misery.
But then emulating a story common in most of the developing democratic nations with high amount of natural reserves, most of the oil reserves in the country are disputed and extraction is a pain. Furthermore, the country’s elected government remains defiant to Iraqi economy's needs and continues to nurse an ego of a prominent oil producer even though its daily produce remains a pittance.
Iraq offered two series of contracts to attract oil majors that have the potential to extract and sell oil. While the first round of bidding was an absolute failure, the other’s results are yet to emerge.
The consequence of the Iraqi stand has been a disaster. In the first round of awarding contracts that got over in June, British Petroleum and China’s National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC) were the only two companies that accepted all the conditions laid down by the Iraqi oil ministry and were awarded the contract of Rumaila oil field. The others just opted out of hundreds of oil and gas projects on platter. The fate of those projects remains in a limbo unless something miraculous happens in the second round.
In a bid to lower upfront payments in its second oil bidding round, hoping to recapture the interest of international energy companies that shunned the country's first attempt, the Iraqi oil ministry has now ameliorated the conditions for bidding for oil and gas fields. However, senior officials from International Oil Companies (IOCs) say that even the second offering comes laced with uncomfortable terms.
Baghdad now wants $ 1.2 bn in non-recoverable signature bonuses for the fields, replacing an unpopular first round demand for $ 2.6 bn in soft loans. Iraq's oil minister Hussain Al Sahristani recently said that he is confident of attracting more companies to Iraq as a result of the new terms.
If all goes well, Iraq could secure billion dollars deal before the parliamentary elections scheduled at the end of January the next year. The bidding contest is scheduled for early December. Contracts are due to be signed in two weeks after that and then have to be ratified by the cabinet.
Baghdad plans to boost the country's crude production capacity to 4.5 million barrels per day in the next three years from 2.4 million bpd now. Though a founding member of OPEC, the country is not restricted by OPEC production limitations.
The need for the country to be selling its oil are quite pressing. Even though Iraq would record a GDP growth of 7 percent in 2009, its budget and current account balance will swing deep into deficits of 10 percent and 17 percent of GDP in 2009, Turker Hamzaoglu an analyst with Bank of America Merrill Lynch says. Considering that oil is the only prominent produce from a country and whatever industries it had have been lost to years US induced turmoil, the country needs to sell its oil.
Iraq’s GDP in 2008 stood $ 103. 9 bn, an improvement over the previous years but a pittance as compared to several countries its size. This country with the third largest oil reserve in the world needs to gather more confidence and approach the energy buyers with logical terms. And it needs to do that soon.
A suffering Iraq needs oil to average above $ 70 a barrel to build up a dependable coffer unlike other countries with major oil reserves (Saudi Arabia could manage at $ 30 a barrel). And since Iraq National Oil Company is in doldrums, the war ravaged country desperately needs foreign companies explore and produce more oil to manage its growing population and extricate itself from war induced misery.
But then emulating a story common in most of the developing democratic nations with high amount of natural reserves, most of the oil reserves in the country are disputed and extraction is a pain. Furthermore, the country’s elected government remains defiant to Iraqi economy's needs and continues to nurse an ego of a prominent oil producer even though its daily produce remains a pittance.
Iraq offered two series of contracts to attract oil majors that have the potential to extract and sell oil. While the first round of bidding was an absolute failure, the other’s results are yet to emerge.
The consequence of the Iraqi stand has been a disaster. In the first round of awarding contracts that got over in June, British Petroleum and China’s National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC) were the only two companies that accepted all the conditions laid down by the Iraqi oil ministry and were awarded the contract of Rumaila oil field. The others just opted out of hundreds of oil and gas projects on platter. The fate of those projects remains in a limbo unless something miraculous happens in the second round.
In a bid to lower upfront payments in its second oil bidding round, hoping to recapture the interest of international energy companies that shunned the country's first attempt, the Iraqi oil ministry has now ameliorated the conditions for bidding for oil and gas fields. However, senior officials from International Oil Companies (IOCs) say that even the second offering comes laced with uncomfortable terms.
Baghdad now wants $ 1.2 bn in non-recoverable signature bonuses for the fields, replacing an unpopular first round demand for $ 2.6 bn in soft loans. Iraq's oil minister Hussain Al Sahristani recently said that he is confident of attracting more companies to Iraq as a result of the new terms.
If all goes well, Iraq could secure billion dollars deal before the parliamentary elections scheduled at the end of January the next year. The bidding contest is scheduled for early December. Contracts are due to be signed in two weeks after that and then have to be ratified by the cabinet.
Baghdad plans to boost the country's crude production capacity to 4.5 million barrels per day in the next three years from 2.4 million bpd now. Though a founding member of OPEC, the country is not restricted by OPEC production limitations.
The need for the country to be selling its oil are quite pressing. Even though Iraq would record a GDP growth of 7 percent in 2009, its budget and current account balance will swing deep into deficits of 10 percent and 17 percent of GDP in 2009, Turker Hamzaoglu an analyst with Bank of America Merrill Lynch says. Considering that oil is the only prominent produce from a country and whatever industries it had have been lost to years US induced turmoil, the country needs to sell its oil.
Iraq’s GDP in 2008 stood $ 103. 9 bn, an improvement over the previous years but a pittance as compared to several countries its size. This country with the third largest oil reserve in the world needs to gather more confidence and approach the energy buyers with logical terms. And it needs to do that soon.
Wednesday, September 23, 2009
Saudi bombing incident to usher a more bothersome airport frisking
Saudi bombing incident to usher a more bothersome airport frisking
Shashank Shekhar
If removing your shoes and the belt at security checkpoints bothered you, wait till the frisks become more intimate.
The attempt to murder Prince Mohamed bin Nayef in Saudi Arabia has left several questions unanswered besides opening a pandora box of security concerns. The incident showed that human bombs can evade airport frisking repeatedly and reach the most secured of establishments thus raising security questions which will sooner or later result into a tighter security at the airports especially in the Middle East.
The kingdom has been quiet on Abdullah al Asiri the Saudi bomber who “gave himself up”, and even the best known analysts on Middle East have not been able to sketch out the exact details of the incident.
Whatever information the world has about the incident has come from the Saudi press agencies. And several questions still remain unanswered. Theodore Karasik, the Director (Research) at Institute for Near East and Gulf Military Analysis (INEGMA) enumerated them down on being asked.
“How could Abdullah penetrate though so many layers of security? Was the device really hidden inside his body? Is Al Qaeda adopting drug smuggling techniques to deliver a bomb? How was it triggered?” Karasik asked almost in a breadth.
The second question among the ones enumerated is perhaps the most important considering that if the bomb could evade security checks because it was brought in inserted in a human body (as banned drugs are still sneeked in), it would make the entire security check procedure prevalent across the world a joke. “This incident may make travel even more miserable for people who were critical of being asked to remove their shoes during security checks,” Karasik said.
The incident was a brutal reminder of a similar incident in 1975 when King Faisal was killed by his own cousin during such a gathering.
Prince Nayef had been spearheading the efforts to win back Saudis who had strayed into extremist organisations particularly Al Qaeda. Nayef ensured individual attention to each of the returnee and had been recognised the world over for his job. Karasik says that this precisely was the reason for the Prince emerging as the target of the top Al Qaeda leadership. “They wanted to show that his programme for rehabilitation is a failure,” Karasik said. That the attacker had been flown in from Yemen also showed the deep roots that Al Qaeda has been able to establish in the war torn country.
The attack came after two important incidents. A fortnight earlier, on August 19, the Saudi authorities announced the arrest of 44 suspected militants with Al Qaeda ties following a year-long operation that also uncovered dozens of machine-guns and electronic circuits that could be used to trigger explosions.
In what was the country’s first trial for terrorists, in July a Saudi Court a Saudi court sentenced one militant to death and 329 to prison. Among other punishments, it also imposed fines and travel bans. Human rights groups have condemned the way the suspects were held for long periods without any serious charges leveled against them.
Shashank Shekhar
If removing your shoes and the belt at security checkpoints bothered you, wait till the frisks become more intimate.
The attempt to murder Prince Mohamed bin Nayef in Saudi Arabia has left several questions unanswered besides opening a pandora box of security concerns. The incident showed that human bombs can evade airport frisking repeatedly and reach the most secured of establishments thus raising security questions which will sooner or later result into a tighter security at the airports especially in the Middle East.
The kingdom has been quiet on Abdullah al Asiri the Saudi bomber who “gave himself up”, and even the best known analysts on Middle East have not been able to sketch out the exact details of the incident.
Whatever information the world has about the incident has come from the Saudi press agencies. And several questions still remain unanswered. Theodore Karasik, the Director (Research) at Institute for Near East and Gulf Military Analysis (INEGMA) enumerated them down on being asked.
“How could Abdullah penetrate though so many layers of security? Was the device really hidden inside his body? Is Al Qaeda adopting drug smuggling techniques to deliver a bomb? How was it triggered?” Karasik asked almost in a breadth.
The second question among the ones enumerated is perhaps the most important considering that if the bomb could evade security checks because it was brought in inserted in a human body (as banned drugs are still sneeked in), it would make the entire security check procedure prevalent across the world a joke. “This incident may make travel even more miserable for people who were critical of being asked to remove their shoes during security checks,” Karasik said.
The incident was a brutal reminder of a similar incident in 1975 when King Faisal was killed by his own cousin during such a gathering.
Prince Nayef had been spearheading the efforts to win back Saudis who had strayed into extremist organisations particularly Al Qaeda. Nayef ensured individual attention to each of the returnee and had been recognised the world over for his job. Karasik says that this precisely was the reason for the Prince emerging as the target of the top Al Qaeda leadership. “They wanted to show that his programme for rehabilitation is a failure,” Karasik said. That the attacker had been flown in from Yemen also showed the deep roots that Al Qaeda has been able to establish in the war torn country.
The attack came after two important incidents. A fortnight earlier, on August 19, the Saudi authorities announced the arrest of 44 suspected militants with Al Qaeda ties following a year-long operation that also uncovered dozens of machine-guns and electronic circuits that could be used to trigger explosions.
In what was the country’s first trial for terrorists, in July a Saudi Court a Saudi court sentenced one militant to death and 329 to prison. Among other punishments, it also imposed fines and travel bans. Human rights groups have condemned the way the suspects were held for long periods without any serious charges leveled against them.
Saturday, September 12, 2009
Middle East web-journalists battle oppression
Middle East web journalists battle oppression
Shashank Shekhar
Blogging has been termed the future of journalism in the western world. But it’s in the Middle East that it has become popular and as several incidents point out -- dangerous.
An attraction to online journalism comes primarily from the fact that it allows free flow of write-ups sans the much detestable directives, censorship and editing that the journalists from mainstream local media have to succumb to.
The internet has also enhanced the strength of the otherwise rudderless social groups in the region as the success of a strike called by Facebook bloggers in Egypt the last year showed.
The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), in its recent report said that five Middle Eastern and North African countries are among the world's worst online oppressors. It accused the governments of Egypt, Iran, Syria, Saudi Arabia and Tunisia of intimidating and imprisoning journalists and bloggers.
Toppers of the infamous list came from deep within Asia. Military Junta ruled Burma was called the worst oppressor in the world for its severe restrictions on the use of internet. CPJ accused Communist China of having the most elaborate online censorship policies.
Iran was listed as the Middle East's worst suppressor of freedom of expression. Omidreza Mirsayafi, an Iranian blogger, was cited by the CPJ report as having died in prison under mysterious circumstances.
What’s impressive is the pace at which online journalists are beginning to stand against subjugation. According to an earlier study by the CPJ, 45 per cent of all imprisoned media workers world wide are bloggers, web-based reporters, or online editors. Numerically, of the 125 journalists currently imprisoned around the world, some 56 are web-based journalists and writers. CPJ says 2009 marks the first time the number of jailed online writers surpasses the number of detained print journalists.
Though deplorable, the arrests highlight one important fact -- that online journalists, with no direct links to state controlled and state scared media houses are being taken seriously. Web journalism has particularly spread its roots in Arab countries that are not oil and gas rich. Bloggers in countries like Egypt, Syria, and Tunisia are increasingly becoming assertive in exposing human rights issues like police brutality, torture, and sexual harassment. This has made the autocratic regional governments undertake increasingly aggressive means to curb their growth.
Punishments handed out to bloggers have been severe. In 2007, Kareem Amer was given a four-year sentence for 'insulting' Egypt's president. Thirty-two-year-old Saudi national Fouad al Farhan was arrested in December 2007 and his computers seized for criticising the pace of reforms in the kingdom. He was held in solitary confinement at Dahban prison in Jeddah until his release in late April 2008.
In Syria, blogger Tariq Baissi was sentenced to three years in prison under ridiculous charges of "weakening the national feeling and the national ethos". Biassi had posted a six word long comment in a web forum in which he criticised the Syrian security services. Numerous other cyber dissidents remain behind bars in Syria.
In Tunis, Nazira Rijba, a Tunisian writer and activist, was in late 2008 charged over an article she wrote in support of the Tunisian news website Kalima. The website has been subject to censorship by the Tunisian authorities.
Nevertheless, bloggers in the Middle East are making their voices heard. In Egypt, they took an active part in organising protests against the government and in launching an anti-corruption campaigns in Libya.
They have exposed the grim realities of everyday life in war-torn Iraq. In the Gulf, female bloggers are increasingly going online calling for change in a display of growing gender equality. Arab bloggers continue to break cultural and religious taboos. They now discuss the social and political malaise plaguing the Arab world. The most important change that the internet has been able to inculcate is perhaps the spirit of inquisitiveness. Blogging has allowed people to ask questions on a range of issues from sex, religion and technology to the particularly stingy questions on government reforms.
Shashank Shekhar
Blogging has been termed the future of journalism in the western world. But it’s in the Middle East that it has become popular and as several incidents point out -- dangerous.
An attraction to online journalism comes primarily from the fact that it allows free flow of write-ups sans the much detestable directives, censorship and editing that the journalists from mainstream local media have to succumb to.
The internet has also enhanced the strength of the otherwise rudderless social groups in the region as the success of a strike called by Facebook bloggers in Egypt the last year showed.
The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), in its recent report said that five Middle Eastern and North African countries are among the world's worst online oppressors. It accused the governments of Egypt, Iran, Syria, Saudi Arabia and Tunisia of intimidating and imprisoning journalists and bloggers.
Toppers of the infamous list came from deep within Asia. Military Junta ruled Burma was called the worst oppressor in the world for its severe restrictions on the use of internet. CPJ accused Communist China of having the most elaborate online censorship policies.
Iran was listed as the Middle East's worst suppressor of freedom of expression. Omidreza Mirsayafi, an Iranian blogger, was cited by the CPJ report as having died in prison under mysterious circumstances.
What’s impressive is the pace at which online journalists are beginning to stand against subjugation. According to an earlier study by the CPJ, 45 per cent of all imprisoned media workers world wide are bloggers, web-based reporters, or online editors. Numerically, of the 125 journalists currently imprisoned around the world, some 56 are web-based journalists and writers. CPJ says 2009 marks the first time the number of jailed online writers surpasses the number of detained print journalists.
Though deplorable, the arrests highlight one important fact -- that online journalists, with no direct links to state controlled and state scared media houses are being taken seriously. Web journalism has particularly spread its roots in Arab countries that are not oil and gas rich. Bloggers in countries like Egypt, Syria, and Tunisia are increasingly becoming assertive in exposing human rights issues like police brutality, torture, and sexual harassment. This has made the autocratic regional governments undertake increasingly aggressive means to curb their growth.
Punishments handed out to bloggers have been severe. In 2007, Kareem Amer was given a four-year sentence for 'insulting' Egypt's president. Thirty-two-year-old Saudi national Fouad al Farhan was arrested in December 2007 and his computers seized for criticising the pace of reforms in the kingdom. He was held in solitary confinement at Dahban prison in Jeddah until his release in late April 2008.
In Syria, blogger Tariq Baissi was sentenced to three years in prison under ridiculous charges of "weakening the national feeling and the national ethos". Biassi had posted a six word long comment in a web forum in which he criticised the Syrian security services. Numerous other cyber dissidents remain behind bars in Syria.
In Tunis, Nazira Rijba, a Tunisian writer and activist, was in late 2008 charged over an article she wrote in support of the Tunisian news website Kalima. The website has been subject to censorship by the Tunisian authorities.
Nevertheless, bloggers in the Middle East are making their voices heard. In Egypt, they took an active part in organising protests against the government and in launching an anti-corruption campaigns in Libya.
They have exposed the grim realities of everyday life in war-torn Iraq. In the Gulf, female bloggers are increasingly going online calling for change in a display of growing gender equality. Arab bloggers continue to break cultural and religious taboos. They now discuss the social and political malaise plaguing the Arab world. The most important change that the internet has been able to inculcate is perhaps the spirit of inquisitiveness. Blogging has allowed people to ask questions on a range of issues from sex, religion and technology to the particularly stingy questions on government reforms.
A pronounced criminal Al Bashir looks set to evade justice
A pronounced criminal Al Bashir looks set to evade justuce
Shashank Shekhar
It’s hard to analyse whether any punishment will be enough for the heinous crimes that Sudan’s president Omar Al Bashir has been a party to. But then, the International Criminal Court (ICC) verdict delivered months ago has at least, made the stand of a rational legal system clear. Al Bashir is now a criminal unacceptable on much of the soil outside Sudan. The trouble is that as months pass by, the opinion that had once built up against him is getting gradually diluted.
Amidst the numerous calls for replacing Al Bashir, one very important fact is being missed. That hypothetically, if Al Bashir indeed does get arrested on one of his trips abroad, the ethnic tribes who have suffered so far, will be tortured even more. And then, his likely replacement, the former Vice President Hassan Al Turabi who is accused of having once invited Osama bin Laden to Sudan, may turn the beautiful country into a terrorist’s paradise.
In what sets a precedent for future attempts to bring powerful oppressors to justice, prosecutors did not mince words when they spoke about Al Bashir’s horrendous crimes. Prosecutor Luis Moreno Ocampo told reporters at that Sudan’s president had stooped to the lowest levels of humanity while perpetrating ethnic cleansing. Forced starvation and soul-destroying gang rapes are a part of Al Bashir’s horrendous strategy in Darfur's genocide Ocampo said.
Al Bashir’s policies of hate are admonished by Muslims within the Arab world. In a debate organised in Doha by journalist Tim Sebastian on whether the Arab world was doing enough to contain the Darfur crisis, the lone Sudanese participant, Sirajuddin Hamid Yousuf, the director of crisis management department at the Sudanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs was cornered off and almost asked to shut-up by a predominantly Arab crowd. Even Ahmed Ibrahim Diraige the former governor of Darfur had strongly castigated the Sudanese government. Nadim Hasbani a Lebanese Muslim and an Africa specialist at International Crisis Group who turned emotional in describing the magnitude of the events in Darfur, emerged the hero of an hour long session which was later broadcasted on the BBC.
Curious as it may seem, none of the Arab states have denounced Al Bashir. Equally intricate has been the role of countries like Egypt and Saudi Arabia in fermenting the crisis. Janjaweed the government backed militia needs funds to operate. Accusations have been leveled in the past that funds from the oil rich nations has flowed to the Janjaweed coffers.
Moreno Ocampo filed 10 charges against Al Bashir related to a campaign of rapes and murders that allegedly has claimed 300,000 lives and driven 2.5 million people from their homes. Those who have survived the vicious campaign are in danger from Janjaweed and the Sudanese Army personnel. Three ethnic groups of Sudan -- Fur, Masalit and Zaghawa-- have lost all their belonging due to vicious campaign and are surviving on handouts from the government.
A three-judge panel was expected to take two to three months to decide whether to issue an arrest warrant.
Sudan denounced the indictment as a political stunt, saying it would ignore any arrest order and was considering a military response to the verdict. While it was not announced against whom will such a response be directed, going by the Sudan’s history, it’s apparent that UN forces and foreign aid agencies will be at the receiving end.
In fact, a Sudanese parliamentarian has already said that his government could no longer guarantee the safety of U.N. staff in the troubled region. All the more, it ordered Doctors Without Borders a Noble Prize winning group out of its frontiers. Oxfam and Mercy Corps are the other two groups that have been recently expelled.
Al Bashir, who has ruled Sudan for 19 years, appears invulnerable in his capital, though an international warrant would leave him open to arrest outside Sudan, restricting his travel and putting him in a category of Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe, who faces a U.N. travel ban.
Al Bashir came to power through a coup in 1989. Since then he has introduced elements of Sharia law which are opposed by the mainly Christian and animist rebels in the south.
His career has been marked as much by the civil war with the forces of rebel leader John Garang, as by his power struggle with Hassan Al Turabi, an erstwhile ally.
While Al Bashir faces admonition the world over, there are two issues that reflect a conflicting view of his persona. One: He has opposed Al Qaeda in Sudan and two he has been able to bring economic growth in his country. Opposition to Al Qaeda, in fact, put him at loggerheads with Al Turabi. Therefore, it remains difficult for the international community to make out whether Bashir’s removal from the post (which may never happen!) will improve or worsen things for Sudan.
Shashank Shekhar
It’s hard to analyse whether any punishment will be enough for the heinous crimes that Sudan’s president Omar Al Bashir has been a party to. But then, the International Criminal Court (ICC) verdict delivered months ago has at least, made the stand of a rational legal system clear. Al Bashir is now a criminal unacceptable on much of the soil outside Sudan. The trouble is that as months pass by, the opinion that had once built up against him is getting gradually diluted.
Amidst the numerous calls for replacing Al Bashir, one very important fact is being missed. That hypothetically, if Al Bashir indeed does get arrested on one of his trips abroad, the ethnic tribes who have suffered so far, will be tortured even more. And then, his likely replacement, the former Vice President Hassan Al Turabi who is accused of having once invited Osama bin Laden to Sudan, may turn the beautiful country into a terrorist’s paradise.
In what sets a precedent for future attempts to bring powerful oppressors to justice, prosecutors did not mince words when they spoke about Al Bashir’s horrendous crimes. Prosecutor Luis Moreno Ocampo told reporters at that Sudan’s president had stooped to the lowest levels of humanity while perpetrating ethnic cleansing. Forced starvation and soul-destroying gang rapes are a part of Al Bashir’s horrendous strategy in Darfur's genocide Ocampo said.
Al Bashir’s policies of hate are admonished by Muslims within the Arab world. In a debate organised in Doha by journalist Tim Sebastian on whether the Arab world was doing enough to contain the Darfur crisis, the lone Sudanese participant, Sirajuddin Hamid Yousuf, the director of crisis management department at the Sudanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs was cornered off and almost asked to shut-up by a predominantly Arab crowd. Even Ahmed Ibrahim Diraige the former governor of Darfur had strongly castigated the Sudanese government. Nadim Hasbani a Lebanese Muslim and an Africa specialist at International Crisis Group who turned emotional in describing the magnitude of the events in Darfur, emerged the hero of an hour long session which was later broadcasted on the BBC.
Curious as it may seem, none of the Arab states have denounced Al Bashir. Equally intricate has been the role of countries like Egypt and Saudi Arabia in fermenting the crisis. Janjaweed the government backed militia needs funds to operate. Accusations have been leveled in the past that funds from the oil rich nations has flowed to the Janjaweed coffers.
Moreno Ocampo filed 10 charges against Al Bashir related to a campaign of rapes and murders that allegedly has claimed 300,000 lives and driven 2.5 million people from their homes. Those who have survived the vicious campaign are in danger from Janjaweed and the Sudanese Army personnel. Three ethnic groups of Sudan -- Fur, Masalit and Zaghawa-- have lost all their belonging due to vicious campaign and are surviving on handouts from the government.
A three-judge panel was expected to take two to three months to decide whether to issue an arrest warrant.
Sudan denounced the indictment as a political stunt, saying it would ignore any arrest order and was considering a military response to the verdict. While it was not announced against whom will such a response be directed, going by the Sudan’s history, it’s apparent that UN forces and foreign aid agencies will be at the receiving end.
In fact, a Sudanese parliamentarian has already said that his government could no longer guarantee the safety of U.N. staff in the troubled region. All the more, it ordered Doctors Without Borders a Noble Prize winning group out of its frontiers. Oxfam and Mercy Corps are the other two groups that have been recently expelled.
Al Bashir, who has ruled Sudan for 19 years, appears invulnerable in his capital, though an international warrant would leave him open to arrest outside Sudan, restricting his travel and putting him in a category of Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe, who faces a U.N. travel ban.
Al Bashir came to power through a coup in 1989. Since then he has introduced elements of Sharia law which are opposed by the mainly Christian and animist rebels in the south.
His career has been marked as much by the civil war with the forces of rebel leader John Garang, as by his power struggle with Hassan Al Turabi, an erstwhile ally.
While Al Bashir faces admonition the world over, there are two issues that reflect a conflicting view of his persona. One: He has opposed Al Qaeda in Sudan and two he has been able to bring economic growth in his country. Opposition to Al Qaeda, in fact, put him at loggerheads with Al Turabi. Therefore, it remains difficult for the international community to make out whether Bashir’s removal from the post (which may never happen!) will improve or worsen things for Sudan.
Menard’s exit from DCMF raises questions on Doha’s ‘Free press’ stand
Menard’s exit from DCMF raises questions on Doha’s ‘Free press’ stand
Shashank Shekhar
It’s not often that a media institution in the Arab world, particularly the Gulf takes a stand against the government of the soil it operates on. Not even Al Jazeera, the fancy symbol of the Middle East’s ‘free the press’ revolution.
So when the Director of Doha Centre for Media Freedom (DCMF) Robert Menard spoke against the Qatar government it came as a surprise. The DCMF, after all, was established and funded by the Qatar government.
The result of Menard’s statement, that came summarily, was not surprising. Out of frustration, Menard left the Centre along with his mostly French team. The Centre aspired to help journalists with serious threat to their lives. In its year long operation it rescued journalists from Iran and Sudan. It funded an independent news agency for Somali journalists, provided bulletproof jackets in Somalia, Iraq and Pakistan, opened a press centre in Gaza and supplied newsprint to newspapers in Guinea-Bissau. The centre was established on the initiative of Sheikha Mozah bint Nasser al Missned, the wife of the Emir of Qatar. In line with the Gulf’s tendency of hiring the most suitable, Menard, the founder of Paris based Reporters Without Borders was appointed its first Director.
Much in line with how staunchly independent media organisations operate, the DCMF began expressing its views freely. It spoke when a delay in official formalities led to a delay in rescuing an Afghan journalist whose life was under threat. When the news of the journalist being killed came, Menard lost his mercurial journalistic temper. He cried foul and sent out releases criticizing Qatari authorities responsible for the delay.
A few months later, the DCMF said that it was shocked that the Sudanese President Omar Al Bashir was allowed to take part in the Arab League meeting in Doha (held in March this year).
There is a warrant of arrest pending against Al Bashir from the International Criminal Court. Al Bashir, a former military official is accused of being legally responsible for murdering, raping and torturing civilians in Darfur, driving them from their homes and pillaging their property.
"Although Qatar has not ratified the International Criminal Court's Statute, and despite its vital role in mediation between Darfur and the Sudanese government, welcoming President Al Bashir to the Arab League summit is a blow to international justice", the Doha Centre said in a communique. The release was perhaps the first ever document issued from the within Qatar that was critical of the Qatari government.
"We cannot approve of the ICC Prosecutor's intervention over crimes committed by Israel in Gaza and complain about it when a friendly country is involved. By doing so, the Arab countries are themselves applying the double standards they have complained about so often in Palestine," the release that surprised journalists (it was not used in the local newspapers) in Qatar said.
The Centre opposed vehemently when one of its officials was detained at the Doha airport and cried foul whenever authorities in Doha delayed the very task it was created for – helping provide a safe exit to journalists under threat from their regime.
Ultimately, on June 23, Menard and his team left Doha. "The Centre has been suffocated. We no longer have either the freedom or the resources to do our work," Menard said in a statement that was issued from Paris by the Centre’s former Chief of Communications Sara Kianpour. That the statement was released from Paris affirms that even Menard was apprehensive whether he would face problems leaving Qatar incase he spoke against the government from within its frontiers.
Surprising as it may seem, he blamed Sheikh Hamad bin Thamer Al Thani, the President of the Board of Al Jazeera for blocking flow of funds to his organization. Apparently, the Qatar government routed its funds to DCMF through Al Jazeera, its symbol for promoting free press. The angst-ridden missive that Menard had sent to all the journalists who had in the past come in contact with the centre spoke volumes on double standards that prevail in a country that has fared well on several other counts like education and distribution of wealth to its citizens.
“Some Qatari officials never wanted an independent Centre, free to speak out without concern for politics or diplomacy, free to criticise even Qatar. How can we have any credibility if we keep quiet about problems in the country that is our host?” Menard asked questions that he knew will never be answered.
“I was willing to make any necessary compromises as long as the foundations of our work – assistance grants, statements of opinion - were safeguarded. But that is no longer the case.”
Shashank Shekhar
It’s not often that a media institution in the Arab world, particularly the Gulf takes a stand against the government of the soil it operates on. Not even Al Jazeera, the fancy symbol of the Middle East’s ‘free the press’ revolution.
So when the Director of Doha Centre for Media Freedom (DCMF) Robert Menard spoke against the Qatar government it came as a surprise. The DCMF, after all, was established and funded by the Qatar government.
The result of Menard’s statement, that came summarily, was not surprising. Out of frustration, Menard left the Centre along with his mostly French team. The Centre aspired to help journalists with serious threat to their lives. In its year long operation it rescued journalists from Iran and Sudan. It funded an independent news agency for Somali journalists, provided bulletproof jackets in Somalia, Iraq and Pakistan, opened a press centre in Gaza and supplied newsprint to newspapers in Guinea-Bissau. The centre was established on the initiative of Sheikha Mozah bint Nasser al Missned, the wife of the Emir of Qatar. In line with the Gulf’s tendency of hiring the most suitable, Menard, the founder of Paris based Reporters Without Borders was appointed its first Director.
Much in line with how staunchly independent media organisations operate, the DCMF began expressing its views freely. It spoke when a delay in official formalities led to a delay in rescuing an Afghan journalist whose life was under threat. When the news of the journalist being killed came, Menard lost his mercurial journalistic temper. He cried foul and sent out releases criticizing Qatari authorities responsible for the delay.
A few months later, the DCMF said that it was shocked that the Sudanese President Omar Al Bashir was allowed to take part in the Arab League meeting in Doha (held in March this year).
There is a warrant of arrest pending against Al Bashir from the International Criminal Court. Al Bashir, a former military official is accused of being legally responsible for murdering, raping and torturing civilians in Darfur, driving them from their homes and pillaging their property.
"Although Qatar has not ratified the International Criminal Court's Statute, and despite its vital role in mediation between Darfur and the Sudanese government, welcoming President Al Bashir to the Arab League summit is a blow to international justice", the Doha Centre said in a communique. The release was perhaps the first ever document issued from the within Qatar that was critical of the Qatari government.
"We cannot approve of the ICC Prosecutor's intervention over crimes committed by Israel in Gaza and complain about it when a friendly country is involved. By doing so, the Arab countries are themselves applying the double standards they have complained about so often in Palestine," the release that surprised journalists (it was not used in the local newspapers) in Qatar said.
The Centre opposed vehemently when one of its officials was detained at the Doha airport and cried foul whenever authorities in Doha delayed the very task it was created for – helping provide a safe exit to journalists under threat from their regime.
Ultimately, on June 23, Menard and his team left Doha. "The Centre has been suffocated. We no longer have either the freedom or the resources to do our work," Menard said in a statement that was issued from Paris by the Centre’s former Chief of Communications Sara Kianpour. That the statement was released from Paris affirms that even Menard was apprehensive whether he would face problems leaving Qatar incase he spoke against the government from within its frontiers.
Surprising as it may seem, he blamed Sheikh Hamad bin Thamer Al Thani, the President of the Board of Al Jazeera for blocking flow of funds to his organization. Apparently, the Qatar government routed its funds to DCMF through Al Jazeera, its symbol for promoting free press. The angst-ridden missive that Menard had sent to all the journalists who had in the past come in contact with the centre spoke volumes on double standards that prevail in a country that has fared well on several other counts like education and distribution of wealth to its citizens.
“Some Qatari officials never wanted an independent Centre, free to speak out without concern for politics or diplomacy, free to criticise even Qatar. How can we have any credibility if we keep quiet about problems in the country that is our host?” Menard asked questions that he knew will never be answered.
“I was willing to make any necessary compromises as long as the foundations of our work – assistance grants, statements of opinion - were safeguarded. But that is no longer the case.”
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