CONDI OFFERS DIPLOMATS CONCERT INSTEAD OF SOLUTIONS

by Baradan Kuppusamy

(IPS) KUALA LUMPUR -- The sole discordance to United States top diplomat Condoleezza Rice's virtuoso piano performance for Asia's foreign ministers, on Thursday night, was the chorus of "Get Out Rice" and "Stop the Genocide in Lebanon" chanted by demonstrators outside the hall.

Inside, a cool and collected Rice, in a flowing red batik dress, played Brahms, entertaining foreign ministers from the ten-nation Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), that includes Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia, Thailand, Burma, Vietnam Laos, Cambodia, the Philippines and Brunei.

The demonstrations continued Friday with groups of protestors demonstrating outside the convention center and setting fire to U.S. flags and effigies of Rice and President George W. Bush, as the ASEAN meet slid into the security-oriented Asean Regional Forum (ARF).

Besides ASEAN members, the ARF groups Australia, Bangladesh, Canada, China, East Timor, the European Union, India, Japan, Mongolia, New Zealand, North Korea, Papua New Guinea, Pakistan, Russia, South Korea, and the United States.

Traditionally, ASEAN leaders and delegates let their hair down and celebrate the end of a packed week of annual multi-lateral talks, but this time the mood was sombre with Malaysians angered and gloomy over Lebanon. In resonance, Rice stuck to brooding pieces from Brahms.

Last year, Rice annoyed the ASEAN leaders by skipping the ARF altogether but this time she seemed determined to make it, despite a tight schedule over the Israel-Lebanon crisis.

The U.S. has made it clear that a settlement to end the crisis will be made between Israel and Lebanon, and not the Hezbollah "state within a state." Critics say the crisis will never be solved without direct talks between the U.S., Syria and Iran.

Given such a backdrop, Malaysian Prime Minister Abdullah Badawi -- who is both chairman of the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC) and head of ASEAN for the current year -- finds himself caught between a rock and hard place.

Widespread Muslim anger is forcing Badawi to take a tough stand. In a private meeting with Rice, Badawi demanded that the U.S. take steps to enforce an immediate ceasefire in Lebanon and press a return to diplomacy. "This is the view of all Malaysians, the Islamic nations and the Non-Aligned Movement," Badawi told Rice. Malaysia has no diplomatic relations with Israel.

"Badawi also told Rice that the U.S. has the strongest influence on Israel, and it can play a role to stop Israel from carrying out military attacks on Lebanon and Palestine," revealed Syed Abdul Hamid Albar, Malaysia's foreign minister.

"We are not blaming anyone for the crisis, but international laws must be respected and the killing of innocent people and the destruction of property must be stopped," he said. "Badawi also told Rice that if a ceasefire failed the situation would worsen and create anger."

Badawi also called for the United Nations to step in and mediate an immediate ceasefire and negotiate a long-term solution. "Yes, we want to see a ceasefire urgently in this region. Let's create the conditions this time that will make this an end of violence," Rice told reporters later.

Yet, many Muslims in Malaysia believe that he is not doing enough to help end the crisis. "Badawi is appeasing the U.S. by allowing Condoleezza Rice to visit and address the ASEAN meet -- it is a form of legitimizing the bombing," said Tian Chua, a top leader in the National Peoples Party of opposition icon Anwar Ibrahim.

The U.S. maintains there is no chance of an immediate ceasefire, so the world should target a lasting deal which addresses what it sees as the root cause of the fighting -- Hezbollah's arsenal support from Tehran and Damascus.

"Washington is clearly delaying a ceasefire to allow its ally Israel to destroy the Hezbollah militarily," said S. Arulchelvam, one of the organizers of the anti-U.S. demonstrations. "They are allowing Israel to bomb Lebanon to pieces," he told IPS. "This is most distressing, it is unacceptable."

Aliran, an influential social reform movement, said in a statement that the "raw aggression" by Israel and the U.S. is unforgivable.

"We call upon Malaysians, irrespective of ethnicity, religious preferences and political affiliations to come together to protest the presence in our midst of the very symbol of such injustice and inhumanity, Condoleezza Rice," Aliran said.

"Condoleezza Rice's presence here does not help to promote world peace and especially the regional security in the Middle East, in fact her hard line and hawkish foreign policy has consistently promoted confrontation in many parts of the world," said the Anti-War Coalition in a statement.

"ASEAN and the international community cannot tolerate the unilateral aggression of Israel and the U.S. and must now act quickly to prevent the conflict in the Middle East from escalating into a full blown war that threatens regional security and international peace," the coalition stated.

Malaysia is under pressure from Iran and Pakistan, leading Muslim nations in the 57-member OIC, to call for an emergency meeting to condemn Israel and finds ways to end the bombing of Lebanon.

About 20 Muslim countries have expressed their readiness to attend an OIC meeting being arranged by OIC secretary-general Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu.

Iran wants an extraordinary session "at the highest level" to put an end to the atrocities of the Zionist regime. "The savage and broad attacks of the Zionist regime on Lebanon and Palestine still continue."

"Scores of innocent and defenseless people are martyred and wounded and political, economic and social infrastructures of Lebanon and Palestine are destroyed every day," said Iranian foreign minister Manouchehr Mottaki in a letter to Ihsanoglu, urging an emergency summit. Mottaki happens to be present in Kuala Lumpur.

Foreign minister Albar said an executive council meeting of the OIC was being considered. "It is impossible to get all 57 OIC member countries to attend an emergency meeting at short notice," he said. "We are hoping that the executive committee plus a few other countries could convene in a Ômini summit' as soon as possible."

"It is not just the OIC that is frustrated but the whole international community was frustrated because they can't get a ceasefire going because of the veto," he added.