Thursday 15 December was an historic day for Iraq: the day on which parliamentary elections were held in the country. Press comments vary greatly in their assessment of the situation in the country. Klaus-Dieter Frankenberger, writing in the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (15/12), recalled the figures recently announced by US President Bush on the death toll in Iraq and commented: “It’s a depressing balance sheet. Equally depressing for many Iraqis and foreigners is the reality of life in the country characterised by cold-blooded assassination, the kidnapping of hostages, the madness of the Jihad, division and fundamentalism. And yet it does not seem to have eradicated people’s faith in the future, especially where the new majority of Shiites and Kurds now has the chance to speak out: in a recent survey, many Iraqis said they thought that the situation was improving. Given the impressions abroad, according to which Iraq is sliding into chaos, these optimistic expectations of the majority are surprising. 2006 could probably become the year in which the future of Iraq will be decided and in which it will be possible to judge the foreign intervention on a more secure footing. The political institutions will have to be confirmed by a new government to maintain the country compact; then the security forces, which cannot be entirely relied on today, will have to assume ever greater responsibility and demonstrate their capabilities in standing up to the militias. The more the country succeeds in reinforcing the new political order and combining it with the improvement of the security situation and economic normalization, the more a large part of the foreign troops will be able to pull out. The history of Iraq is not a source of democratic optimism. In spite of that it would be a mistake to give way to fatalism and to the prophets of doom. Iraqi political life is not at an end: on the contrary, it’s probably only now beginning. The project for a secular, more or less democratic order is not over. Its failure would be in the interest neither of the Iraqi people (or most of them), nor of the West, Europe and Germany”. “New Orleans, forgotten a hundred days after”: that’s the title of the report that the Spanish daily El Paìs dedicates to the aftermath of hurricane Katrina in the USA (11/12). “Three months after Katrina writes the paper’s correspondent Yolanda Monge – 60% of the inhabitants are still homeless and electricity has not yet been completely restored”. “Corpses are still being found reports the article -. The latest two were recovered last Tuesday and a further 30 in November”. “The inefficiency and slowness in the identification and burial of the victims is another cause for anger” on the part of the population, writes the Spanish correspondent. She also describes life in the township of Baker, amid “a sea of caravans with thousands of evacuees”. “Thousands of rooftops of the houses of New Orleans are now blue after having been covered with waterproof sheets of plastic of this colour in the bid to arrest the damage. But these families she concludes are the luckiest. They at least have electric light and a roof over their heads, even if it blue and reminiscent of the Third World”. “ Car bombs in Beirut, Damascus on the firing line” is the headline in La Croix (13/12) on the new terror attack that has shocked the Lebanese capital, with the killing of the Christian MP and publisher Gebrane Tuèni. In her editorial, Dominique Quinio says: “ Syria, once again, is one of the prime suspects, even though she has denied any involvement, and turned the finger of accusation against those who want her influence in Lebanon and throughout the Middle East to diminish“. “ The assassination of Tuenì continues Quinio can only reinforce the determination of all those the UNO, Europe, the USA who want to help Lebanon to rid itself of foreign interferences and disarm the militias on its own territory”. “The quiet death of a condemned man” is the headline in The Guardian (14/12) in its front-page report on the execution of Stanley ‘Tookie’ Williams, who was accused of four homicides that took place almost thirty years ago and who had always protested his innocence. “ The moment writes Dan Glaister when it comes is gentle and dignified” even though the journalist underlined the reasons that led the Governor of California Schwarzenegger to refuse a reprieve: “ Since he has never apologized or made amends for these crimes, Williams cannot be considered a changed man’, argued the governor”. ———————————————————————————————————– Sir Europa (English) N.ro assoluto : 1438 N.ro relativo : 87 Data pubblicazione : 16/12/05
