CR IP TI ON BS SU
WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 25, 2012
Turkey slams genocide bill as racist, vows sanctions
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RABIA ALAWAL 2, 1433 AH
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NO: 15339
150 FILS
7Corruption, 27 royal 40 rows16in 40 PAGES
focus as candidates spar
Khateeb warns disputes may damage Kuwait
Max 18º Min 01º High Tide 00:07 & 14:58 Low Tide 07:05 & 18:57
By B Izzak conspiracy theories
Polluted air and contaminated water
By Badrya Darwish
badrya_d@kuwaittimes.net
I
t was interesting to read an article about former MPs Shuaib Al-Muwaizri and Ali Al-Deqbasi who are against corruption in the country. The two gentlemen speaking during a campaign rally said many interesting things. One of the things which was scandalous concerns our drinking water. They claim that they have proof that Kuwait’s tap water contains high amounts of bromide, a chemical that enhances the chances of getting cancer. Muwaizri went on to distribute documents which he says were issued by the Health Ministry about the content of the water in Kuwait. According to him, the report said that the water contains the hazardous chemical bromide. Well, I thank the gentleman for his courage but in all honesty, I have a question to ask him: If he knew this and had proof, why did he have to wait so long to alarm the public? Why didn’t he yell, which is typical of MPs, under the Abdullah Salem dome where everybody would have heard him - journalists, the Cabinet, news agencies, cameramen and even the chai (tea) makers! But now. Both former MPs waited till election time. To the nation this is an important issue. Millions of thanks because he made us all aware. There were big rumours before that our water is contaminated. Aren’t we a lucky nation? A similar report came from an international NGO ranking Kuwait number 10 on the pollution scale. Now we have polluted air and contaminated water. Great! To top this, we have a corrupt parliament. No need, by the way, for an NGO to come in and do a report about that. OK. The water contamination is bad news for the nation but it is good news for those companies who import and sell water, no names to be mentioned here so that I don’t get in trouble with our advertising department who will accuse me for giving free publicity. I am sure that after the report of the honorable gentlemen, the sales of bottled water will increase. Maybe some people will start bathing with bottled water. These will be the people who can afford it. No wonder that some time ago I went to cover a story in a military establishment that the water in the bathroom came from bottled water. I am sure all of you sophisticated enough readers can guess which establishment could afford to use bottled water in their bathrooms. These people knew much earlier than us that our water is contaminated. You can use bottled water if you can afford it. What can you do if you have polluted air? God have mercy on us!
NEW YORK: Activists from Avaaz wearing giant masks of Bashar Al-Assad and Vladimir Putin dump dozens of bloodied body bags outside the UN Security Council building yesterday. — AFP
Gulf pulls monitors Syria slams League ‘plotters’ BEIRUT: Gulf Arab states withdrew their observers from Syria yesterday after it rejected an Arab League peace plan stipulating that President Bashar Al-Assad surrender power, and the group’s chief called for UN help in ending Syria’s bloody upheaval. Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Al-Moualem accused the League of plotting to
engineer foreign intervention in the crisis, in which thousands of civilians and members of security forces have been killed in a 10-month-old uprising against Assad. “Definitely the solution in Syria is not the solution suggested by the Arab League, which we have rejected. Continued on Page 13
KUWAIT: Candidates yesterday raised the intensity of the election campaign by raising the ceiling of demands, accusations and promises for the electorate as well. Opposition candidates launched a major onslaught on the previous government and what they called corruption forces, charging that hundreds of millions of dinars have been stolen by corrupt elements in a variety of ways. Candidates also urged the Al-Sabah ruling family to stop fighting within its ranks in a bid to help resolve the state’s chronic political deadlock. The candidates however insisted that the continuity of the Al-Sabahs, in power since Kuwait’s establishment over 250 years ago, as rulers was essential for the state. Veteran liberal opposition figure Ahmad Al-Khateeb, who has participated in a large number of election rallies this year, sent an alarming message that ongoing domestic conflicts could lead the country into catastrophe. Speaking at the election campaign of former MP Hassan Jowhar, the veteran politician said that Kuwait is experiencing a very difficult period because “we are in the middle of the (regional and domestic) conflicts” and these could result in the destruction of Kuwait”. Khateeb stressed that all sections of the society, Sunnis and Shiites, bedouins and urbanites, will be harmed by any flare-up of conflicts in the country, and called for national unity to overcome the ordeal. He said that he considers the current elections as the most crucial and dangerous for the future of the country, adding that some people are not realizing this fact. He called on the Kuwaiti voters to elect the best and those who are capable of preserving national unity and the interests of the country. On his part, Jowhar called on Prime Minister Sheikh Jaber Al-Mubarak Al-Sabah to learn the lessons from the mistakes committed by the previous government as the Kuwaiti people want a nationalist and true government Continued on Page 13
Tehran repeats Hormuz threat
TEHRAN: Iranian politicians said yesterday they expected the European Union to backtrack on its oil embargo and repeated a threat to close the vital Strait of Hormuz shipping lane if the West succeeds in preventing Tehran from exporting crude. A day after the EU slapped a ban on Iranian oil, Iran’s tone appeared defiant, even sceptical, with Tehran insisting that, with the EU faced with its own economic crisis, it needs Iran’s oil more than Iran needs its business. The ban is expected to take full effect within six months. “The West’s ineffective sanctions against the Islamic state are not a threat to us. They are opportunities and have already brought lots of benefits to the country,” Intelligence Minister Heydar Moslehi told the official IRNA news agency. Speaking in London, Saudi Arabia’s ambassador to Britain Prince Mohammad Bin Nawaf said the region was witnessing “a very difficult and a very tense situation”. “We are seeing every day an escalation in the rhetoric and this definitely does not help in stabilising the area,” he told a briefing. “I think the next couple of weeks will be ver y critical for the whole region. Hopefully, Iran will adhere to the proposals presented to them.” He said Iran’s threats to block the strait of Hormuz would have grave Continued on Page 13
activists scupper Rushdie address JAIPUR, India: Asia’s largest literature festival cancelled a video-link speech by Salman Rushdie minutes before it was scheduled to begin yesterday, amid death threats to the organisers and fears of violent riots at the event by Muslim groups. The question of whether the controversial British-Indian author should participate dogged the festival even before it began last week, as its organisers tried desperately to juggle religious sensitivities with freedom of speech in the world’s largest democracy. “There are a large number of people averse to this video link inside this property. They have threatened violence,” Ram Pratap Singh, owner of the hotel at which the festival was held, told the large crowd that had assembled to listen to the author. “This is necessary to avoid harm to all of you.” Rushdie, whose 1988 novel “The Satanic Verses” is banned in India, last week cancelled plans to travel to the north-western city of Jaipur to address the festival in person after reported assassination threats against him.
JAIPUR, India: Members from different Muslim organizations offer prayers at Diggi palace, the venue of the Jaipur Literature Festival yesterday. — AP Watched by an expectant crowd that “The police commissioner told us there spilled well outside the main stage area would be violence in the venue and a and hundreds of police officers, the riot outside where thousands were event’s organisers announced the can- gathering if we continued,” festival cellation of Rushdie’s video-link appear- director and noted author William Continued on Page 13 ance to a mix of boos and applause.
in the
news US warns over Bahrain travel
DUBAI: The United States has warned Americans travelling to Bahrain of potential unrest in the kingdom as the anniversary of a failed prodemocracy uprising approaches. The travel alert does not specifically mention the anniversary of the uprising on Feb 14 last year when protesters, mainly from Bahrain’s majority Shiite population, took to the streets of Manama to demand political rights. The US State Department said the Bahrain government had recently refused entry to some US citizens at Manama airport and that US embassy employees were being relocated within the country because of violent demonstrations. It also noted what it called “isolated examples” of antiUS sentiment such as flag burning during protests and warned that foreigners could become targets. “The Department of State strongly urges US citizens to avoid all demonstrations, as even peaceful ones can quickly become unruly, and a foreigner could become a target of harassment or worse,” the alert, which runs to April 19, said. It warned of spontaneous and sometimes violent anti-government demonstra- MAAMEER, Bahrain: Bahraini anti-government protesters, one carrying a nationtions by protesters throwing rocks and petrol bombs, lighting trash al flag, clash with riot police firing tear gas yesterday in this eastern village as cans and blocking highways. clashes erupted in villages nationwide. — AP
Nine arrested in Saudi Shiite area RIYADH: Saudi Arabia said yesterday it has arrested nine people in Qatif, a centre of its Shiite minority, and accused them of involvement in the shooting of three members of the security forces. “Security forces raided one of the hideouts in Qatif on Monday evening where nine people of Saudi nationality who were behind these events were concealed and arrested them all,” the interior ministry said. The three security men had been shot and injured by “unknown persons” when patrolling Qatif on Jan 14 and Jan 18, the ministry said in a statement carried by the state news agency SPA. Earlier in January a young Shiite protester was shot dead by security forces during clashes, activists had said, following the deaths of four Shiite protesters in November. The conservative Sunni Muslim kingdom and world’s top oil exporter said on Jan 15 that a member of its security forces had been shot and wounded while on patrol in Qatif, where Shiite activists and the Saudi authorities have repeatedly clashed in recent months. Saudi Shiite activists say there are frequent demonstrations in Qatif and that security forces have established a heavy presence in recent months, reinforced with checkpoints and armed patrols.