"At Wijk aan Zee 2002 Alexander Morozevich is to replace Kasparov, who is unable to participate. Kasparov cannot fly for 7-10 days since he became ill with a virus late last week. This additional bad news comes after a few top players, including V.Anand, V.Kramnik, A. Shirov and Topalov, declined to play at Wijk Ann Zee 2002, and another scandal when Fide scheduled dates for the final match between Ponamarev and Ivanchuk for a Fide WC title on the same dates as Wijk Ann Zee 2002."
It seems obvious what is going on here. Last year, FIDE Commerce asked several major chess tournaments to agree to become part of a series of FIDE Grand Prix type events. Wijk Ann Zee along with Linares and all the other major tournaments declined to join. With that, FIDE Commerce and Tarasov said, "We will destroy you. This is War", and declared that if Wijk Ann Zee refused to join FIDE Commerce, then FIDE would stop all the top players from competing at Wijk Ann Zee.
This is obviously what is happening now. Wijk Ann Zee has traditionally been the strongest annual tournament in the world. FIDE is using its power over the top players to stop them from competing.
Sam Sloan