WITH RARE DOUBLE U.N. VETO ON SYRIA, RUSSIA AND CHINA TRY TO SHIELD FRIEND

[Russia enjoys military and commercial deals with Syria worth billions of dollars annually, plus its alliance and only reliable Arab friend give it an entree into the Arab-Israeli peace negotiations. In addition, Moscow maintains perks left over from its superpower days, for instance, a naval base at Tartus, Syria, that accommodates visits by warships like Peter the Great, a nuclear-powered missile cruiser, during its Mediterranean jaunts.]

 

By Neil Macfarquhar

Paulo Filgueiras/United Nations, via European Press 
photo Agency

China vetoed a Security Council resolution on Tuesday

against Syria's oppression of protesters.           

                        

UNITED NATIONS — By vetoing a Security Council resolution condemning Syria for its oppression of antigovernment forces, Russia andChina effectively tossed a life preserver to President Bashar al-Assad, seemingly unwilling to see a pivotal ally and once stalwart member of the socialist bloc sink beneath the waves of the Arab Spring.

A double veto at the United Nations is rare, in this case driven by similar if not exactly parallel concerns in Moscow and Beijing about losing influence in the Arab world as one authoritarian government after another built on the now-faded Soviet model collapses.

“They are gambling that Assad can hold on now; it seems to be an expression of confidence that he can cling to power,” said Fiona Hill, a Russia expert at the Brookings Institution.

Russia enjoys military and commercial deals with Syria worth billions of dollars annually, plus its alliance and only reliable Arab friend give it an entree into the Arab-Israeli peace negotiations. In addition, Moscow maintains perks left over from its superpower days, for instance, a naval base at Tartus, Syria, that accommodates visits by warships like Peter the Great, a nuclear-powered missile cruiser, during its Mediterranean jaunts.

China worries that the reverberations from falling Arab despots will inspire civil disobedience at home.

But beyond those concerns, and a stated interest in averting violent change in Syria, China and Russia are also increasingly allied in shutting down what they see as Western efforts to use sanctions and other economic measures to put the United Nations seal of approval on Western-friendly regime change.

There is a sense in both capitals that the West in general, and the United States in particular, is feeding the protest movements in the Arab world to further its own interests, experts said. Both the Chinese and the Russians are determined to reassert their long opposition to anything that smacks of domestic meddling by outside powers.

In that effort they have been joined by emerging powers like Brazil, India and South Africa, which have formed their own alliance and as current members of the Security Council all abstained from the Syria vote late Tuesday. Lebanon, where Syria holds sway, also abstained.

The resolution itself was toothless, demanding that the violence in Syria stop. The draft underwent repeated dilutions, which dropped all but the most vague reference to sanctions as a future possibility. But even that drew objections, in part because the cloud of Libya cast a long shadow over the Syria deliberations. The Russians and the Chinese said they felt bamboozled after a resolution they thought was meant to protect Libyan civilians became what they condemned as a license to wage war on the government of Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi. They are determined to avoid that in the Middle East and anywhere else.

Western diplomats said the consequences of the Libyan resolution were clearly laid out before the March vote.

Vitaly Churkin, the Russian ambassador, told the Security Council on Tuesday night in his speech explaining the veto, “The demand for a rapid cease-fire turned into a full-fledged civil war.” He said that NATO bombed targets like television stations and oil facilities that were not a military threat to civilians.

Mr. Churkin said the veto was prompted by political differences over the use of force endorsed by the Council, rather than Syria’s long ties to the Soviet Union and any economic or arms sales losses. Indeed, Mr. Churkin seemed to go out of his way after the vote to distance Russia from the bloodshed fomented by the Syrian government while noting that unlike others, Moscow does not “cast aside old allies in a single breath.”

But there is a long history of close military and commercial ties. Hafez al-Assad, the current president’s father, was educated in Moscow and relied on the Soviet Union for weapons during the many Arab-Israeli wars. He died in 2000. Reports by Russian news outlets put current arms contracts at $4 billion. Beyond jet fighters and tanks, Russia has varied interests in Syria, like oil and gas and cement. Russia is ranked as the country’s fifth-largest trading partner, experts said.

“The departure of Assad would cause serious problems for us,” Aleksandr Sharavin, director of the Institute for Political and Military Analysis in Moscow, told the Prime-Tass news agency, noting that not just weapons sales but also maintenance contracts bring in large sums.

The Russian foreign minister issued a statement on Wednesday echoing the Syrian government line, condemning what it called extremists among the population for engaging in “open terror” through violent attacks.

“Assad simply has a better chance to resist than the opposition does to win,” Aleksandr Shumilin, director of the Center for the Analysis of Middle East Conflicts, told the BBC Russian service. Moscow, he said, “is betting on Assad. As soon as it seems that the opposition has become comparable to him in strength and there appears a possibility they will win, Russia will change its behavior.”

In many ways, Russian’s foreign policy machinery exists in a black box. But in the background, the looming shadow of Vladimir V. Putin’s returning to the presidency next year has to enter the calculus. “Everyone is reorienting toward the relatively more competitive attitude he had toward rolling back Western influence,” said Matthew Rojansky of the Carnegie Endowment.

As for the Chinese, it is exceedingly rare for them to exercise a veto. They would not have done it without Russia’s leading the way, Security Council diplomats said, and indeed the Chinese delegation told other diplomats that it was under pressure from Moscow not to abstain.

But the move coincides with numerous goals, experts said, including protecting commercial interests, avoiding any domestic contagion from the Arab Spring and choosing the status quo over an unpredictable future. “Their operative approach is ‘Just Say No,’ to stand in the way for fear they will lose what influence or control they have,” said Jonathan D. Pollack of Brookings.

Often when a great power exercises a veto to protect a client state, like the United States so often does for Israel, the issue disappears. But the Syria issue is likely to return, mainly because the country remains volatile and important neighbors like Turkey and the Arab League states want the issue addressed.

“We can all understand the push back against Western domination of the sanctions approach,” said George Lopez, a sanctions expert at the University of Notre Dame. “But sanctions at their best — sharp, targeted at the elites giving orders for the killing of civilians — can be effective.”

Michael Schwirtz contributed reporting from Moscow.

@ The New York Times

INDIA ANNOUNCES $35 TABLET COMPUTER FOR RURALPOOR

[The computer, called Aakash, or "sky" in Hindi, is the latest in a series of "world's cheapest" innovations in India that include a 100,000 rupee ($2,040) compact Nano car, a 750 rupee ($15) water purifier and $2,000 open-heart surgery.]  

   

ASSOCIATED PRESS

NEW DELHI (AP) — India introduced a cheap tablet computer Wednesday, saying it would deliver modern technology to the countryside to help lift villagers out of poverty.

The computer, called Aakash, or "sky" in Hindi, is the latest in a series of "world's cheapest" innovations in India that include a 100,000 rupee ($2,040) compact Nano car, a 750 rupee ($15) water purifier and $2,000 open-heart surgery.

Developer Datawind is selling the tablets to the government for about $45 each, and subsidies will reduce that to $35 for students and teachers. In comparison, the cheapest Apple iPad tablet costs $499, while the recently announced Kindle Fire will sell for $199.

Datawind says it can make about 100,000 units a month at the moment, not nearly enough to meet India's hope of getting its 220 million children online.

Human Resources Development Minister Kapil Sibal called the announcement a message to all children of the world.

"This is not just for us. This is for all of you who are disempowered," he said. "This is for all those who live on the fringes of society."

Despite a burgeoning tech industry and decades of robust economic growth, there are still hundreds of thousands of Indians with no electricity, let alone access to computers and information that could help farmers improve yields, business startups reach clients, or students qualify for university.

The launch — attended by hundreds of students, some selected to help train others across the country in the tablet's use — followed five years of efforts to design a $10 computer that could bridge the country's vast digital divide.

"People laughed, people called us lunatics," ministry official N.K. Sinha said. "They said we are taking the nation for a ride."

Although the $10 goal wasn't achieved, the Aakash has a color screen and provides word processing, Web browsing and video conferencing. The Android 2.2-based device has two USB ports and 256 megabytes of RAM. Despite hopes for a solar-powered version — important for India's energy-starved hinterlands — no such option is currently available.

Both Sibal and Datawind CEO Suneet Singh Tuli called for competition to improve the product and drive prices down further.

"The intent is to start a price war. Let it start," Tuli said, inviting others to do the job better and break technological ground — while still making a commercially viable product.

As for the $10 goal, "let's dream and go in that direction. Let's start with that target and see what happens," he said.

The students Wednesday were well-briefed on the goal of providing tablets for the poor, although most in attendance already had access to computers at home or in their schools.

"A person learns quite fast when they have a computer at home," said Shashank Kumar, 21, a computer engineering student from Jodhpur, Bihar, who was one of five people selected in his northern state to travel to villages and demonstrate the device. "In just a few years people can even become hackers."

India, after raising literacy to about 78 percent from 12 percent when British rule ended, is now focusing on higher education with a 2020 goal of 30 percent enrollment. Today, only 7 percent of Indians graduate from high school.

"To every child in India I carry this message. Aim for the sky and beyond. There is nothing holding you back," Sibal said before distributing about 650 of the tablets to the students.


@ The Himalayan Times