AND now for some light entertainment __ while many in Brussels are wringing their hands in pain at Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi’s takeover of the European Union’s rotating presidency, some of us are looking forward to a little bit of badly-needed comic relief after months of serious work.

True, Mr Berlusconi’s recent crude description of a critical German Euro-deputy as a Nazi concentration camp commandant has marred his debut as head of the 15-nation bloc. The unwarranted name-calling has also caused outrage in Berlin where Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder took the unusual step of summoning the Italian ambassador on July 2 to voice his “outrage” at Berlusconi’s remarks.

European parliamentarians, including German Socialist Martin Schulz who earned Berlusconi’s ire by repeatedly criticizing his policies, have lambasted the Italian leader for breaching parliamentary etiquette. But true to form, Berlusconi has refused to apologize for his remarks which he claims were made as an “ironic joke”.

Berlusconi has a reputation for committing diplomatic blunders. Newspapers across the EU have described the Italian premier as unfit to lead Europe, underlining a variety of Berlusconi’s unpleasant and unethical moves to corrupt the Italian judicial system. There is no denying that the Italian leader owns too many bimbo-obsessed TV stations and too many newspapers. Clearly, this is not good for Italy and it is not good for Europe.

One can foresee endless problems ahead. With Berlusconi in charge, expect EU foreign policy to become a tad more whimsical for instance. After all, this is the man who believes Western civilization is “superior” to Islam __ hardly the kind of talk which will endear him to millions of Muslims, many of whom had probably never heard of Berlusconi until he made the outlandish claim.

The mercurial Italian leader’’s decision during a recent Middle East tour to boycott Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat __ who the EU continues to view as an important person despite American and Israeli pressure __ definitely puts paid to Europe’s hopes of playing honest broker in the volatile region.

The never-ending discussion on the EU’s future boundaries has been given a new elan by Berlusconi’s decision to offer membership to Russia and Israel, without prior consultation with any sane official in either his own government or in Brussels.

And EU policymakers will almost certainly have problems holding their heads up high and lecturing unsavoury foreign leaders on good governance, media freedom and “social values” if a member of their own elite group is busy influence-peddling and breaking all the rules.

But while EU moralizing over other countries’ sins may have to come to a temporary stop, look at what Europe gets in return: a wheeling-dealing, wise-cracking, perma-tan president who is equally at home singing Christmas ballads and love songs as he is shmoozing with the likes of George W. Bush and Vladimir Putin.

Forget self-doubt and indecision, Berlusconi’s Europe will be a fearless, enterprising creature, not afraid to take daring initiatives. Like sending soldiers to Libya to make sure no hapless African asylum seekers make it to EU shores. Or investing billions of dollars in trans-border European infrastructure to get the sluggish economies into higher gear.

After months spent covering Europe’s disarray over Iraq, the new EU security doctrine and the pros and cons of the EU draft constitution, many reporters in Brussels are looking forward to having a nice giggle.

There will also be some real hard news to report on. Like the ongoing feud between Berlusconi and arch-rival Romano Prodi, also the current president of the European Commission.

Prodi has so far maintained a dignified silence despite Berlusconi’s many gaffes. But the commission chief’s patience may begin to wear thin over the difficult months ahead.

Still the Italian presidency’s priorities for the next six months seem reasonable enough. Rome says it will give top attention to getting agreement on a new EU constitution, preparing the bloc for 2004 enlargement. Building better relations with the US, Russia and Israel will be important as will moves to curb immigration and asylum.

And while most of his prim and proper counterparts may think the Italian leader should tone down his act as captain of Good Ship Europe, news from the other side of the Atlantic is more upbeat. Having sided wholeheartedly with the US over the Iraq war, Berlusconi is seen as a loyal and trustworthy ally in Washington.

The question is: with America on his side, does Berlusconi really need Europe?

UNITED NATIONS: The United Nations has earmarked nearly 60 per cent of its just-approved peacekeeping budget for a continent in perpetual political and military turmoil — Africa.

Of the $2.17 billion which the world body plans to spend on peacekeeping in the new financial year beginning July 1, more than $1.3 billion has been set aside for five peacekeeping operations in Africa.

But non-governmental organizations (NGOs) involved in promoting African causes are sceptical over the short-term and long-term efficacy of peacekeeping missions in the troubled continent.

“UN peacekeeping operations have always had mixed results,” Bill Fletcher of the TransAfrica Forum told IPS.

He singled out the current UN Mission in the Democratic Republic of Congo (MONUC) — created in November 1999 — as an example of an African peacekeeping mission which has failed to show tangible results.

“The troops originally deployed (about 4,500) were too few in number and had such a limited mandate that they could do very little,” he said.

“What will be necessary is the combination of a sufficiently large ground force, the proper mandate in order to fight back if attacked, and cooperation with national reconciliation efforts,” Fletcher said.

Last month, the UN Security Council decided to send a second 1,400-strong, multi-national rapid deployment force — led by France — to restore order in the Congo, a country facing an ethnic conflict of genocidal proportions.

But the new force, which will have at least 1,000 French troops, has a limited three-month mandate that ends in September.

David Malone, a former Canadian ambassador and currently president of the International Peace Academy in New York, questions why industrial nations refused to participate meaningfully in MONUC, which consisted mostly of troops from developing nations.

“Nobody believes that a three-month deployment (of the new rapid deployment force) will do more than induce the killers to wait out this faint-hearted Western effort before the slaughter resumes,” he added.

Of the five peacekeeping missions costing $1.3 billion during 2003/2004, four are in sub-Saharan Africa: the UN Mission in Sierra Leone (UNAMSIL); the UN Mission in Ethiopia and Eritrea (UNMEE); the UN Mission in Cote d’Ivoire (MINUCI); and MONUC. A fifth peacekeeping mission in North Africa (MINURSO) is based in Western Sahara.

The UN mission in Congo accounts for the largest share of the total peacekeeping budget amounting to about $608.2 million followed by Sierra Leone costing about $543.4 million.

Responding to the spreading crisis in Liberia, UN Secretary- General Kofi Annan last week urged the Security Council to deploy a new multi-national force in a country threatened with civil war.

Annan has implicitly called on the United States to lead the proposed new peacekeeping force in Liberia. But US President George W. Bush, who has asked Liberian President Charles Taylor to step down, has refused to make any commitments.

Liberia, whose capital Monrovia is named after former US President James Monroe, is a country with longstanding historical relations with the United States.

Annan said: “What is important is we need a country with capacity, a military capacity, that can deploy a robust force” in Liberia.

“Many are expecting the United States to lead that (peacekeeping) operation in Liberia. Several countries, members of the United Nations, have also appealed for that. The Liberian population is also asking for that,” he added.

The situation in Liberia is so grave that a delegation of ambassadors from the UN Security Council, currently on a peace mission in West Africa, cancelled its visit to Monrovia at the eleventh th hour. The proposal for a peacekeeping mission in Liberia is expected to be discussed by the Security Council when the delegation returns to New York next week.

Expressing disappointment, Annan told reporters in Geneva on Tuesday: “I would have preferred an urgent reaction (from the Security Council)”.

In a report to the Security Council early this year, Annan listed a string of “peacekeeping successes” in 2002, including the establishment of provisional self-governing institutions in Kosovo; delimitation of the Ethiopian-Eritrean border; the birth of independent East Timor; elections in Sierra Leone; progress towards a settlement in the Democratic Republic of Congo; and the work of the UN mission in Angola and the assistance mission in Afghanistan.

But Daniel Volman of the Africa Security Project said that in the past, UN peacekeeping operations have had “a very mixed track record, with a number of disastrous failures — Rwanda, Democratic Republic of Congo, Angola and Somalia — with a few noteworthy successes, such as Mozambique.”

“Limited effectiveness of past operations has generally been due to the failure of the permanent five members of the Security Council (the United States, Britain, France, China and Russia) to provide adequate funding or manpower, as well as the limited mandates issued to UN peacekeeping forces,” Volman told IPS.

But he admitted that the UN mission in Ethiopia/Eritrea has generally been a success — “at least as far as preventing further warfare and making it possible for a settlement to the border dispute to be achieved”.

The mission in Sierra Leone, he said, has also been largely successful, although this has depended upon the leading role of British troops operating under their own mandate.

“The situation in the Congo remains unclear, but I see little prospect for a real settlement of the various conflicts going on in that country unless the Security Council takes more decisive action,” he added.

“But the longstanding peacekeeping mission in Western Sahara (created in April 1991) is, unfortunately, a perfect example of how little the United Nations can achieve, beyond maintaining the ceasefire — unless members of the Security Council are willing to take strong action,” Volman said.

The new UN budget will finance 14 active peacekeeping missions based in Kosovo, Indo-Pakistan border, Cyprus, Georgia, Syrian- Israeli border, Lebanon, East Timor, Golan Heights, Iraqi-Kuwait border, Cote d’Ivoire, Western Sahara, Sierra Leone, Democratic Republic of Congo and the Ethiopian-Eritrean border.

As of the end May, there were 34,941 military and civilian personnel from 89 countries serving in these UN missions.

The peacekeeping budget has remained in the red primarily because the United States owes more than $500 million in past dues.

Still the UN peacekeeping budget of $2.17 billion is described as “measly” compared with the staggering $350 billion US military budget for this year.

The Pentagon has estimated that US military spending for 2004 will be in the region of about $390 billion, rising to a projected $400 billion in 2005.—Dawn/The InterPress News Service.

IN a statement datelined Rawalakot (Azad Kashmir) reported in sections of the press last week, Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee Chairman General Muhammad Aziz Khan was reported as blaming America for ‘conspiring’ against Islam because it was perceived as posing a threat.

He also stated that the resolution of the Kashmir dispute would not necessarily mean that India and Pakistan would be inter- mixing like ‘milk and sugar.’ The ‘core’ issue is the ‘mistrust’ underlying the relations of the two countries, he was reported to have added. It would be a mistake, he said, to believe that India would “let us live in peace after a resolution of the Kashmir issue.”

President General Musharraf’s supreme status as head of the state and army chief notwithstanding, General Aziz stays on top of the military (inter-service) warrant of precedence as chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

Before his elevation to full general and appointment as JCSC, General Aziz commanded IV Corps in Lahore. Earlier, he held the vital post of chief of the general staff, the senior-most principal staff officer at the GHQ.

Through the Kargil episode (February-May 1999), he was General Pervez Musharraf’s principal operational planner and adviser. He has all along been Gen Musharraf’s right-hand man. On the fateful day of October 12, 1999, he was still chief of the general staff and held the fort for his chief together with the DG ISI, Lt Gen Mahmud Ahmad. Aziz and Mahmud in Rawalpindi and Commander V Corps Lt Gen Muzaffar Usmani and one of his divisional commanders Maj-Gen Iftikhar in Karachi ensured the safe landing of Gen Musharraf’s airliner and paved the way for his assumption of absolute state power as chief executive.

Apart from the almost blunt tone of language used in respect of America, the timing of Gen Aziz Khan’s statement, synchronizing as it did with the Bush-Musharraf summit at Camp David (June 24), could be seen as purely coincidental. But despite a certain (and not uncommon) element of misreporting and inaccurate understanding of context, any statement made at such a level of the military hierarchy cannot go unnoticed.

Here is a rehash of some of the salient points emerging from General Aziz’s statement as reported in various newspapers:

1. The religious and social values of India are such that even if the Kashmir dispute is resolved, it would not be possible for Muslims to own and adopt them. “Let’s therefore ensure against the danger of our new generation being misguided by any illusions (of a commonality of culture/values) with India.”

2. If a superpower like the US has any (perceived) threat to face, it’s (only) from Islam and, because of that, it’s hatching conspiracies against Islam.

3. At the outset of the 21st century, the world is faced with various splits and divisions and is falling a prey to these. Sweeping changes are taking place in the wake of the current flux and the re-drawing of the world map.

4. Pakistan is so placed that it would be hard to deny or exaggerate its geo-political importance, and because of its unique importance, several non-Muslim countries have become its enemies.

5. All the defeats and setbacks that the Islamic world/countries have suffered have been due to disunity and splits in Muslim ranks besides the presence of and the tolerance shown to hypocrites within. It was because of the machinations of these elements that most of ‘our’ (pro-Islamic/Jihadi) movements came to naught. We would, therefore, have to tackle and put an end to such elements to be able to engage and face up to the mightiest of the world powers.

He said: ‘We must do all that in order to stand up to the challenges of the 21st century.’

As a part of the ongoing India-Pakistan process, a delegation of Indian parliamentarians happened to be enjoying traditional Pakistani hospitality in Karachi even on the day the statement appeared. Many expressions of friendship and good–neighbourliness were exchanged during the delegation’s visit.

And the president happened to be on a tour abroad for crucial talks with the US president about bilateral, regional and global affairs.

So, what’s this all about? We appear to be cosying up to America on the one hand, and denouncing America for ‘conspiracies’ against Islam (Pakistan) on the other.

We seem ready to further the peace process with India and yet stress the incompatibilities between us and them.

We call Kashmir the ‘core’ issue and seek a peaceful resolution on the one hand, and stress mutual and abiding mistrust as the real and fundamental issue on the other.

Rawalakot, Camp David and the visit of the Indian parliamentary delegation — there is a bundle of contradictions here, as in so much else that we say and do, that needs to be sorted out. — The writer is a retired brigadier of the Pakistan army.

HAROON Rind, a talented, friendly and in many ways a guiding figure of Pakistan Television who was responsible for such great serials as Deewarien, Jungle, Andhi and Chhoti Si Duniya and many more in both Sindhi and Urdu, is dead.

Growing up as a boy in the small river bank town of Kotri in the years immediately preceding independence, Haroon had his early schooling there. He then moved to Hyderabad and later Karachi for further education. He joined PTV as a producer in 1973 when not many people knew what a teleplay was.

Giants like Shakeel, Qurban Gilani, Qaisar Naqvi, Ghazala Rafiq, Zarina Baloch and Mehboob Alam were already in the field, and a host of new aspirants were waiting in the wings. Newcomer Rind not only had to work with people more experienced in the medium than him, but become a moving force for new ideas and scout for fresh talent. It was in such circumstances that he produced Dungi Manjh Darya, based on the life and miseries of the fishermen of the Indus river. It was an immediate hit and went on to win an award at the Berlin International Festival. Then came Raani Ji Kahani, a serial in Sindhi by Abdul Qadir Junejo, which also proved a great success and its popularity led it to be translated into Urdu to become Deewarein, a story that reflected feudal life and aimed at breaking the social taboos of a rigid and orthodox society.

Rind’s next venture was Chhoti Si Dunya, written by Abdul Qadir Junejo, a play about the simplicity of rural life and the rural people’s approach to various issues. He also produced Shahid Kazmi’s Andhi, exposing those amongst us who use every fair and unfair means to achieve our worldly objectives at the cost their own happiness and of those close to them.

Jungle of Noorul Huda Shah was a huge story and difficult to manage, but Rind accepted the challenge and did it in an impressive way.

Similarly, Aasman Tak Deewar, authored by Noorul Huda Shah, was again a play dealing with complex social issues and issues rooted in our political system.

Rind also did a number of one-episode plays that earned him two PTV awards.

Television is a multi-sensory medium which requires as much imagination as technical skill, and Haroon Rind was gifted with a rich imagination. His last production was Chanbeli Wal, and he was working on a new serial with a Sindh background at the time of his death.

Rind worked with such artists as Shafi Mohammad Shah, Farid Nawaz Baloch, Manzoor Murad, Yousuf Ali, Noor Mohammad Lashari, Mehmood Siddiqui, Usman Pirzada, Tahira Wasti, Sakina Sammo, Kausar Naqvi, Mansoor Baloch, Beena, Nawab Mahdi, Tajwar Shahana, Mumtaz Kanwal and many others. He had a knack of finding the right actor to fill in a particular slot.

He had been unwell for some time, but had bravely continued to work. Finally, on Wednesday, his will and vigour deserted him.