GERMANY

GERMANY
Sueddeutsche Zeitung, Munich, Oct. 28: Russian President Vladimir Putin faced a terrible task, and he had no other option to deal with it than an attempt to liberate the hostages by force. It also remains a fact that the Kremlin chief reacted calmly in an extreme situation. He learned from mistakes. Immediately after the storming of the theater he publicly asked the dead hostages' relatives for "forgiveness" and visited survivors in their hospital beds.
All this, however, should not block our view of the background.
The Moscow hostage-taking is and remains a direct consequence of the Chechen war for which Putin is partly responsible. The killing and marauding of Russian troops in the Caucasus provides no moral justification for the attack in the Russian capital, which was sheer terror. But what has been going on in Chechyna for the past eight years explains the biography of the hostage-takers.
Violence leaves an impression. It has made countless men and women in Chechyna into anti-Russian rebels -- and some of them into terrorists.
Iron fist
That's why it is fatal to lump all of them in with the Sept. 11 Al-Qaida terrorists. The hostage-taking likely will confirm the opinion of most Russians and many international politicians that only a war against terrorism is being fought in the Caucasus. Putin's tough answer will be misunderstood to mean that terror can only be defeated with an iron fist -- and the actions of Chechen hostage-taker Movsar Barayev will serve as an argument for Russia continuing not to look for a political peace in the Caucasus.
The raid on the Moscow theater won't be the last attack by the Chechens.
EGYPT
Egyptian Gazette, Cairo, Oct. 29: Long a symbol of Palestinian struggle for nationhood, Yasser Arafat is famed for his uncanny power to survive misfortunes. Although his current woes are unprecedentedly massive and multilateral, he continues to project the image of an unfazed leader.
Branding him as Israel's "Enemy Number One," Prime Minister Ariel Sharon dismissed him as irrelevant. Sharon's campaign to demonize Arafat to the outside world has made headway - at least in the U.S.
Apparently swayed by Sharon's propaganda's blitz, President George W. Bush departed from the way (past American policy) to demand that Palestinians replace Arafat with a "different leadership not compromised by terrorism." His special envoy to the Middle East, William Burns, last week gave the cold shoulder to Arafat while marketing "a roadmap" (to peace) drafted by an international committee and endorsed by Washington.
Israeli siege
Burns' scheme demands, among other things, that the Palestinians launch sweeping reforms. Months ago, Arafat himself pledged to pursue an overhaul of the Palestinian institutions. His new government is one such move. Whether the new government will be able to function under a ruthless Israeli siege is doubtful.
The big irony is that to bless any Palestinian reform, Washington will accept nothing less than Arafat's political disappearance.
SWEDEN
Dagens Nyheter, Stockholm, Oct. 30: The sanctions instrument, the only real alternative to the use of force as the U.N. charter knows it, has fallen into disrepute. The sanctions have been in force for more than ten years and have, despite all relaxations and concessions, not resulted in anything but sufferings for the civilian population. Saddam Hussein is sitting just as firmly in the saddle as before.
Central issue
Almost without interference, he has been able to continue threatening, challenging and harassing and, which is the central issue, developing weapons of mass destruction. Therefore, the work that is in progress to render the sanctions weapon more effective is very important. The world needs a nonmilitary weapon that can force stubborn countries to observance without innocent civilian being affected. A forcefully formulated resolution is needed. Saddam Hussein must be disarmed and this is a task which the Security Council must be able to manage.
ITALY
Corriere della Sera, Milan, Oct. 30: Newly elected Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva has inherited some notable economic achievements from his predecessor, Fernando Henrique Cardoso, although Brazil's foreign debt has reached US $233 billion.
What kind of fate fetters this Latin-American Colossus? After all, it doesn't lack energy resources nor raw materials for industry and agriculture. The problems faced by its many governments can be blamed on multiple factors, from historic traditions to social customs to geographical and climactic conditions.
The country has also experienced incessant population growth.
PoBut the Brazilian experience is just one of many symbolizing an absence in the Third World of responsible policies aimed at curbing population growth and safeguarding the dignity of life.
Population growth
Those who deny the gravity of this problem argue that population growth diminishes with economic progress and an improvement in standards of living.
However, at the U.N. World Summit on Sustainable Development in Johannesburg in September the demographic issue was ignored by almost everyone. Both pro- and anti- globalization proponents considered it "politically incorrect," to discuss the topic.
But this essential problem persists as is testified by the many Brazilian children abandoned to live in the streets.