Mystery surrounds disappearance of Iran nuke...

The Japan Times PUBDATE: 10/9/2009 PAGE: 6 C M Y K OUTPUT TIME: 19:24:40

10/9/199 / / PT JTE/PG 6/ED 1

Uganda independence day

6 THE JAPAN TIMES FRIDAY, OCTOBER 9, 2009 (3)

world

Mystery surrounds disappearance of Iran nuke scientistTehran claims ‘defector’ gave U.S.intelligence on new nuclear plantTehranAP

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The disappearance of an Ira-nian nuclear scientist on a pil-grimage to Saudi Arabia inJune is raising questionsabout whether he defected andgave the West information onIran’s nuclear program.

Iran’s foreign ministerWednesday accused the U.S. ofinvolvement in the disappear-ance of Shahram Amiri, who

reportedly worked at a univer-sity linked to the elite Revolu-tionary Guard military corps.

In a sign of the sensitivitiessurrounding Amiri, Iranian of-ficials have not even p u b l i c l yidentified Amiri as a nuclearscientist, referring to him onlyas an Iranian citizen. A m i r i ’ swife has said he was research-ing medical uses of nucleartechnology at a university andwas not involved in the broadernuclear program.

Iran’s foreign minister tookthe unusual step of complainingto the head of the United Na-tions last week about the disap-pearance, at the same timeraising the case of a former de-fense minister who vanished inTurkey in 2007, also believed bymany to have defected.

Amiri vanished severalmonths before the Septemberrevelation of a uranium en-richment facility near the cityof Qom, which the UnitedStates and its allies accuseIran of building secretly. Thetiming has led experts to ques-tion whether Amiri may havegiven the West information on

it or other parts of Iran’s nu-clear program.

The discovery of that facili-ty was a coup for Western in-telligence. Iran denied tryingto hide the site, insisting it wasnot yet required to declare it tothe U.N. nuclear watchdog.Still, it was put on the defen-sive as it entered landmarknuclear negotiations with theU.S. and other world powerslast week, talks that havesomewhat eased tensions be-tween the two sides.

U.S. officials have said mul-tiple streams of intelligence —particularly spy satellites —were used to reveal the Qom

site and its function, but theyhave not said whether thesources included Iranians onthe ground. The U.S. and its al-lies accuse Iran of secretlyseeking to develop nuclearweapons, a claim Iran denies,saying its program is intendedonly to produce electricity.

Little is known about Amiri,and his fate remains a mys-tery after more than fourmonths. Iran has asked SaudiArabia for information on hiswhereabouts but has receivedno reply, Foreign Ministryspokesman Hasan Qashqavisaid earlier this week. Amiri’srelatives have demonstrated

several times outside the Sau-di Embassy in Tehran de-manding information.

The Iranians ‘‘may be con-cerned that the Americanswere involved in luring himaway,’’ said Meir Javedanfar,an Iranian-born analyst basedfor the Middle East think tankMeepas. He raised the possibili-ty Amiri was willingly offeringinformation to the West, de-spite Iranian claims he was ar-rested in Saudi Arabia.

‘‘There’s the possibility hewas taken away in a limousinerather than being shoved inthe back of a car, meaningthat he could have been a

walk-in,’’ said Javedanfar,who is based in Israel.

Amiri worked as a re-searcher at Tehran’s MalekAshtar University, accordingto Iran’s state-run channelPress TV. The university hasbeen cited by the U.N. in thepast as a nuclear research siteand is widely thought to be runby the Revolutionary Guard.

Amiri traveled to Saudi Ara-bia on May 31 for Omra, an Is-lamic pilgrimage to Mecca, hiswife told the news agency ISNA.The last she heard from him wason June 3, when he called herfrom the holy city of Medina.

Foreign Minister Manou-

chehr Mottaki raised the levelof interest Wednesday, sayingthat Amiri had been arrestedand accused the U.S. of play-ing a role.

‘‘We’ve obtained documentsabout U.S. involvement overShahram Amiri’s disappear-ance,’’ Mottaki said.

‘‘We hold Saudi Arabia re-sponsible for Shahram Amiri’ssituation and consider the U.S.to be involved in his arrest,’’ hesaid. ‘‘We regard the Saudi gov-ernment as responsible for Ami-ri’s condition and according tosome documents available forus, we consider that the U.S. isresponsible for his detention.’’

Worldwide Muslim population hits 1.57 billion: reportNew YorkAP

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The global Muslim populationstands at 1.57 billion, meaningthat nearly one in four peoplein the world practice Islam,according to a report Wednes-day billed as the most compre-hensive of its kind.

The Pew Forum on Religionand Public Life report providesa precise number for a popula-tion whose size has long hasbeen subject to guesswork, withestimates ranging anywherefrom 1 billion to 1.8 billion.

The project, three years inthe making, also presents a por-trait of the Muslim world thatmight surprise some. For in-stance, Germany has moreMuslims than Lebanon, Chinahas more Muslims than Syria,Russia has more Muslims than

Jordan and Libya combined,and Ethiopia has nearly asmany Muslims as Afghanistan.

‘‘This whole idea that Mus-lims are Arabs and Arabs areMuslims is really just obliter-ated by this report,’’ said Ama-ney Jamal, an assistant pro-fessor of politics at PrincetonUniversity who reviewed anadvance copy.

Pew officials call the reportthe most thorough on the sizeand distribution of adherentsof the world’s second-largestreligion behind Christianity,which has an estimated 2.1 bil-lion to 2.2 billion followers.

The arduous task of deter-mining the Muslim popula-tions in 232 countries and terri-tories involved analyzing cen-sus reports, demographicstudies and general popula-tion surveys, the report says.

In cases where the data was afew years old, researchersprojected 2009 numbers.

The report also sought topinpoint the world’s Sunni-Shi-ite breakdown, but difficultiesarose because so few coun-tries track sectarian affilia-tion, said Brian Grim, the pro-ject’s senior researcher.

As a result, the Shiite num-bers are not as precise; the re-port estimates that Shiitesrepresent between 10 and 13percent of the Muslim popula-tion, in line with or slightlylower than other studies. Asmuch as 80 percent of theworld’s Shiite population livesin four countries: Iran, Paki-stan, India and Iraq.

The report provides furtherevidence that while the heartof Islam might beat in the Mid-dle East, its greatest numbers

lie in Asia: More than 60 per-cent of the world’s Muslimslive in Asia.

About 20 percent live in theMiddle East and North Africa,15 percent live in sub-SaharanAfrica, 2.4 percent are in Europeand 0.3 percent are in the Ameri-cas. While the Middle East andNorth Africa have fewer Mus-lims overall than Asia, the re-gion easily claims the most Mus-lim-majority countries.

While those populationtrends are well established, thelarge numbers of Muslims wholive as minorities in countriesaren’t as scrutinized. The re-port identified about 317 millionMuslims — or one-fifth of theworld’s Muslim population —living in countries where Islamis not the majority religion.

About three-quarters of Mus-lims living as minorities are

concentrated in five countries:India (161 million), Ethiopia (28million), China (22 million),Russia (16 million) and Tanza-nia (13 million).

In several of these countries— from India to Nigeria andChina to France — divisionsfeaturing a volatile mix of reli-gion, class and politics havecontributed to tension andbloodshed among groups.

The immense size of major-ity-Hindu India is underscoredby the fact that it boasts thethird-largest Muslim popula-tion of any nation — yet Mus-lims account for just 13 per-cent of India’s population.

‘‘Most people think of theMuslim world being Muslimsliving mostly in Muslim-ma-jority countries,’’ Grim said.‘‘But with India . . . that sort ofturns that on its head a bit.’’

Natural wonders: The national parks of Uganda UGANDA EMBASSY

Investing in ‘The Pearl of Africa’Wasswa BiriggwaAMBASSADOR OF THE REPUBLIC

OF UGANDA

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Today, Ugandans and ourfriends around the world cele-brate the 47th anniversarysince the country gained inde-pendence Oct. 9, 1962.I take this op-portunity to ex-tend our pro-found apprecia-tion to thepeople of Japanfor the histori-cally friendlyrelations andclose partnership between ourtwo countries, which hasgrown even stronger duringthe year.

On this joyous occasion, Iam honored to convey thewarm greetings and good willof His Excellency Yoweri Ka-guta Museveni, president ofthe Republic of Uganda, toTheir Imperial Majesties Em-peror Akihito and EmpressMichiko, Prime Minister Yu-kio Hatoyama, and to the peo-ple and government of Japan.Bilateral cooperation

Uganda views relationswith Japan as a key pillar of itsforeign policy. As we cele-brate this occasion, I am gladto note that a lot has takenplace during the past year inthe area of economic coopera-tion as well as developmentcooperation in sectors includ-ing infrastructure, invest-ment promotion and technicalcooperation.

I would like to express ourappreciation to the people andgovernment of Japan for thestrong commitment to our bi-lateral cooperation over thepast year. During the year, Ja-pan has extended cooperationon several vital projects inUganda, including the RuralElectrification Project, roadinfrastructure, River Nilebridge and Ayago Dam feasi-bility evaluation, and thenorthern Uganda rehabilita-tion project. Uganda greatlyappreciates Japan’s develop-ment partnership in other vi-tal areas, including health, ed-ucation and sustainable irri-gation, among others.

I wish to extend warm ap-preciation to JICA PresidentSadako Ogata and her entireteam for their unflagging

commitment and partnershiptoward Uganda, and indeedAfrica as a whole.

Thanks to JICA’s supportthrough the highly successfulNERICA (New Rice for Afri-ca) project, Uganda is a re-gional center for rice produc-tion and is set to double outputof 14 million tons over the nextdecade. JICA cooperation isfurther instrumental in estab-lishing the East and CentralAfrican rice production re-search facility near Kampala.Japan also contributes to ca-pacity building by offeringover 100 tertiary and post-graduate scholarships toUgandans in key disciplines.

By early 2009, JICA had de-ployed 18 experts in Ugandaworking on vital developmentprojects in public financialmanagement, education andvocational training, health,capacity development and ag-riculture, among others. Inaddition, Uganda is hosting upto 127 Japan Overseas Cooper-ation Volunteers (JOCV), thelargest number of JOCV vol-unteers serving in a singlecountry globally.

I wish to especially salutethe many JICA/JOCV volun-teers and experts who haveworked and are working inUganda for the commitmentand zeal they exhibit everyday. Living and working withUgandans all across the coun-try, they impart greatly need-ed skills that transform thecommunities they work in.Equally significantly, theygenerate interest in Japanabout Uganda and Africa as awhole. They truly representthe very best attributes of theJapanese people.U.N. Security Council

In January 2009, Ugandatook its seat on the U.N. Secu-rity Council as the AfricanUnion (AU) representative forthe period 2009-2010, joiningJapan, which is Asia’s repre-sentative on the UNSC duringthe same period.

Due to the strong bilateralrelations between Uganda andJapan, as well as the inextri-cably close cooperation be-tween Japan and Africa, ourtwo countries continue to co-operate closely in the SecurityCouncil on issues promotingpeace and security, as well astackling global challenges, in-

cluding climate change andeconomic/financial issues.

Uganda remains commit-ted to its close partnershipwith Japan in meeting theseand other common challengeswithin the framework of theSecurity Council, and othermultilateral organizations.Oil exploration, development

I wish to particularly high-light the discovery a few yearsago of large commercially vi-able oil deposits in Uganda,which has opened up a highlylucrative investment opportu-nity. As announced by Heri-tage Oil Corp. and Tullow OilCo., deposits discovered andfields under development inUganda hold several ‘‘billionsof barrels of oil in place.’’

The company added thatthe oil discovery in Ugandawas unquestionably the larg-est onshore discovery made insub-Saharan Africa in at least20 years, possibly ever. IndeedTullow announced that it is di-verting investment resourcesaway from the U.K. North Seato accelerate development ofoil fields in Uganda as explo-ration has yielded sufficientreserves to warrant an export-led development, with com-mercial production scheduledto commence within twoyears. I invite the Japaneseprivate sector to invest inUganda’s oil and related in-

dustries at this early stage atfavorable terms.Investment destination

Uganda enjoys a unique lo-cation at the heart of sub-Sa-haran Africa within the EastAfrican region, giving i t acommanding base for region-al trade and investment.

The rapid transformationand modernization of Ugan-da’s economy over the pasttwo decades has resulted in astrong showing of investorconfidence in Uganda’s invest-ment environment. This ob-jective confidence is based onthe predictable macroeco-nomic stability in Uganda,with the liberalized economymaintaining single-digit infla-tion during the past decadeand stable annual economicgrowth averaging 6 percentper annum.

Uganda offers highly com-petitive investment incentivesand complete freedom to hold100 percent foreign ownershipof investments while free in-flow/outflow of capital is alsoguaranteed. Investing inUganda offers market accessto preferential trade zones, in-cluding the Common Marketfor Eastern and Southern Afri-can states (COMESA), a re-gion with a market of over 300million people in 20 countries;and the East African Commu-nity (EAC), with a population

of over 150 million people. Inaddition, investing in Ugandagrants duty- and quota-freeaccess into the U.S. (AGOA)and EU (EBA) markets, andAsia, including Japan.

Investment security isguaranteed under the consti-tution and the InvestmentCode 1991, and Uganda is a sig-natory to major internationalinvestment-related institu-tions, including the Multilater-al Investment GuaranteeAgency (MIGA), OverseasPrivate Investment Corp.(OPIC) and the Convention onthe Recognition and Enforce-ment of Foreign ArbitralAward (CREFAA), inter alia.

The Uganda InvestmentAuthority (UIA) functions as aone-stop center for investorslooking to set up business inUganda. It facilitates and ex-pedites all investment issues,including licensing, projectsupport services, industrialland acquisition, special pass-es for investors, and also as-sists investors in seeking joint-venture partners and funding.

Currently, Japanese invest-ment in Uganda includes Phe-nix Logistics (U) Ltd. in thetextile sector. Indeed, jeansmade from Ugandan organiccotton are sold in Japan by LeeStore under the ‘‘Born in Ugan-da Organic Cotton’’ brand. Iam pleased to note that thebrand has proven popular withthe Japanese people due to the

high quality of its jeans madefrom natural, organic cottonand we look forward to in-creased growth of the brand inJapan over the coming year.

Several other Japanesecompanies are in advancedstages of investing in oil andrelated industries, mining andenergy, agro-processing, tour-ism, including hotel construc-tion, ICT and other sectors.Japanese investors wishing toinvest in Uganda have accessto a $5.2 million credit line es-tablished through the JapanBank for International Coop-eration (JBIC).

Uganda greatly appreci-ates the support of the Japa-nese government in imple-menting TICAD IV measuresby setting up easily availablecredit and strengtheningtrade insurance. Followingthe fruitful visit of a joint pri-vate-public investment dele-gation to Uganda in Septem-ber 2008, Japanese private-sector interest in the many in-vestment opportunities therecontinues to rise. I am pleasedto invite Japanese businesspeople to contact the embassyor the UIA for detailed andspecific information to informtheir investment consider-ations.

Ugandan exports to Japaninclude frozen fish, sesame, co-balt/alloys, coffee, cocoa, vanil-la and other spices, cotton,fruits and raw materials. I wish

to invite Japanese importers totake advantage of the cost ben-efits of importing Ugandancommodities in light of the safeand well-established transpor-tation links between Ugandaand international markets, in-cluding Japan.‘The Pearl of Africa’

Japanese tourists visitingUganda continue to increaseby over 110 percent annually.Uganda’s reputation as a safeand unique tourist destinationis increasingly known in Ja-pan. Japanese tourists travelto Uganda eager to see the ma-jestic mountain gorillas intheir natural Bwindi mountainforest habitat as well as Ugan-da’s 1,200 bird species thatmake it the richest country forbirds in Africa. Other attrac-tions include game viewing ofdiverse animals, includinglions, elephants, leopards, gi-raffes, cheetahs and buffaloesin five national parks. For aspectacular mountaineeringexperience, the snow-coveredRwenzori Mountains (‘‘Moun-tains of the Moon’’) tower to5,119 meters and have beendesignated a UNESCO WorldHeritage site. The BujagaliFalls, at the source of the Riv-er Nile in Jinja, is world fa-

mous for thrilling white-waterrafting and kayaking, as wellas bird-watching in its scenicforested islands.

In June 2009, Uganda hostedthe fifth Africa-Asia BusinessForum (AABF V), organizedwith the support of Japan un-der the TICAD framework.The occasion brought togethertour agencies from six Asianand 29 African countries topromote tourism.

I wish to invite and welcomethe Japanese people to visitUganda, and enjoy the uniquewarmth and hospitality thatmoved Sir Winston Churchillto call Uganda ‘‘The Pearl ofAfrica.’’

In 2010, Africa looks for-ward to receiving Japanesetraveling to the FIFA WorldCup and we urge you to takethe opportunity to see as muchof the continent as possible.

On this occasion, it is a plea-sure to extend my heartfeltcongratulations to the entireUgandan community in Ja-pan, and offer my prayers foryour continued good healthand success in the comingyear.

I wish you a happy 47thUganda Independence Daycelebration.

Religious congregation: Sunni Muslims cover a train after attending a religious ceremony inMultan, Pakistan, in November 2008. AP