Friday, August 13, 1999
spotlighttoday's calendar
....... |
W O R L D | Friday, August 13, 1999 |
|
| weather spotlight today's calendar |
....... |
||
|
India, Pak violated ’91 pact:
USA WASHINGTON, Aug 12 — In its efforts to help contain escalating post-Kargil tensions, the Clinton administration has advised India and Pakistan to honour their 1991 agreement which sets out guidelines for flights near their border. Cambodia breaking law by delaying trial: UN PHNOM PENH, Aug 12 — Cambodia is violating international law in delaying the trial of the captured Khmer Rouge guerrilla leader for up to three years, the UN human rights office warned today. |
 |
 GEORGETOWN: Guyana's new President, Mr Bharrat Jagdeo, (centre left) and First Lady Varshnie Jagdeo (centre right) pose with Prime Minister Sam Hinds and his wife Yvonne after Mr Jagdeo was sworn into office on Wednesday in Georgetown, Guyana. Mr Jagdeo, a 35-year-old economist, extended an olive branch to a defiant political Opposition that refuses to recognise him. He replaced US-born Janet Jagan, who resigned because of a heart problem. — AP/PTI |
|
Anti-Jew
white racist surrenders Israel
hastened arms sales to India Primakov
to head anti-Kremlin bloc |
||||||||
 |
|||||||||
India, Pak violated ’91 pact: USA WASHINGTON, Aug 12 (UNI) — In its efforts to help contain escalating post Kargil tensions, the Clinton administration has advised India and Pakistan to honour their 1991 agreement which sets out specific guidelines and procedures for military flights near their common border. The State Department, apparently concerned over two days of aerial clashes between Indian and Pakistani forces, drew the attention to the agreement they signed in April 1991 designed to avoid such incidents. It forbids any military aircraft to fly nearer, than 10 km of the India-Pakistan border without advance notification to the other country. On Tuesday, an Indian fighter jet shot down a Pakistani naval reconnaissance plane, killing 16 persons. The following day, Pakistan fired a missile at an Indian helicopter. Both sides disagree about where each aircraft was located at the time of attack. “We are deeply concerned that India and Pakistan are firing on each other’s aircraft along the international boundary,’’ State Depart-ment spokesman James Rubin said. The U.S.A. found fault with both India and Pakistan. Asked if both sides had violated the pact, Mr Rubin replied: clearly, both sides have done that. Mr Rubin noted that the agreement also stipulated that “in the event a violation occurs, a prompt alert is to be sent through diplomatic channels to the headquarters of the other country’s air force.’’ “We urgently call on both sides to re-institute this agreement in order to avoid further loss of life and further escalation and heightening of tensions,’’ Mr Rubin said. When asked if the United States of America might act as mediator for two countries, Mr Rubin said that U.S. policy was to mediate only at the request of both parties which had not happened. The United States of America had, however, expressed concern over the developments to Indian and Pakistani officials through normal diplomatic channels, he added. He, however, said, “we also act in our national interest. When the Kargil situation threatened to escalate to dangerous proportions, the President (Clinton) did meet with Prime Minister (Nawaz) Sharif and was instrumental in developing and urging an approach that led to the resolution of the problem.’’ “So while we may not necessarily come down in each case on a factual question as a so-called referee, we do believe we have a role to play,’’ the State Department spokesman asserted. Mr Rubin said, “it is hard to be optimistic at this stage’’ about the resumption of the bilateral dialogue. “If anything, today’s (Wednesday’s) events are an indication that we are going in the wrong direction. Both sides continue to blame the other.’’ “We regret the loss of life of 16 Pakistani crewmen (aboard the downed aircraft) and call upon both countries to act in a responsible way to prevent future tragedy and reduce tension,’’ he added. In reply to another question, Mr Rubin said he was not aware of any U.S. envoy going out to the region in the wake of the escalation in tension caused by the shoot-down of the plane. He, however, said that
Assistant Secretary of State for South Asian Affairs Karl
Inderfurth had briefed the Secretary of State Madeleine
Albright “extensively on the situation.’’
I know that he has been in touch directly with the
relevant Ambassadors here. |
Cambodia breaking law by delaying trial: UN PHNOM PENH, Aug 12 (DPA) — Cambodia is violating international law in delaying the trial of the captured Khmer Rouge guerrilla leader for up to three years, the United Nations human rights office warned today. The U.N. statement was the latest twist in halting efforts to bring leaders of the Khmer Rouge to justice nearly 25 years after their reign of terror began here. In a letter read today in the National Assembly, U.N. Director (Rights), Rosemary McCreery, wrote that a law approved yesterday to delay the trial of captured Khmer Rouge leader Ta Mok goes against international conventions. The international covenant on civil and political rights calls for trials to be held without undue delay. Principles of criminal law also allow new laws to be applied retroactively only when they benefit the accused, Ms McCreery wrote. The legislation approved this week allows defendants charged with genocide or crimes against humanity to be held for up to three years before trial instead of the six months normally allowed under Cambodian law. It was designed to avoid putting captured Khmer Rouge military chief Ta Mok on trial this month as the six-month rule requires. Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen says he wants to charge the one-legged military chief, and possibly other leaders of the movement’s brutal 1970s regime, with genocide and try them by a special tribunal. But Ms McCreery pointed out in her letter that genocide and crimes against humanity are not now recognised under Cambodian law. The Parliament’s head, Prince Norodom Ranariddh, said today that he would consider the U.N.’s view and write back this week. A team of U.N. experts
is to arrive on August 25 to begin discussions on a
proposed joint international-Cambodian tribunal to try
Khmer Rouge leaders for crimes of their 1975-79 regime. |
Window on Pakistan Karachi is coming to the boil again. The much-publicised calm is a deceptive development. There are clear signs of a fresh and frightening socio-political convulsion in the commercial capital of Pakistan. The cause: the way the Nawaz Sharif government is planning to meet an emerging formidable threat to its survival following the coming together of the Muttahida Quami Movement (MQM) of the migrants from India and the Pakistan People’s Party of Ms Benazir Bhutto, though their remarriage remains yet to be formalised. Major newspapers have carried extensive reports and analyses delineating the ruling party’s strategy vis-a-vis the evolving scenario. The strategy,which reflects the crude nature of politics in Pakistan, involves severe “punishment” for the MQM leadership for aligning with the PPP, the only organisation capable of dislodging the Pakistan Muslim League (PML) government. There are plans for mass-scale arrests of MQM activists and physical elimination of over 200 of them on charges of murder and spreading terrorism. According to The Friday Times, these people were already in jail some time ago but got themselves released on parole when the MQM and the PML were partners in a coalition government in Sindh. Their parole period expired in October last year, but the government allowed them to live as free citizens, despite the MQM’s withdrawal from the PML-led Sindh ministry leading to the imposition of Governor’s rule on October 30, 1998. The fall of the ministry was the result of Mr Sharif’s accusation that the MQM was behind the killing of a prominent social reformer and Chancellor, Hamdard University, Hakim Saeed. A report by Salman Hussain carried in The Friday Times says: “The MQM workers facing these cases (pertaining to murder and terrorism) have sent secret letters to their colleagues apprehending execution between August and September.” They are unhappy with their leadership because of its “soft approach” towards the Nawaz Sharif government — meaning the politics of protests. Obviously, these MQM hardliners would not have been satisfied with the agitation the party organised for three days beginning with July 17. It seems they want nothing less than the paralysation of the government with a view to preventing it from going ahead with its anti-MQM programme. Surprisingly, MQM supremo Altaf Hussain is unwilling to oblige the hardliners and hence a threat to the organisation’s unity. Whether there is a head-on collision between the Sindh Governor’s administration and the MQM activists or there is an intense infighting within the Muhajir movement, the life in the province’s capital, Karachi, cannot remain unaffected. The News of Karachi, a daily publication of the Jang group, warns in its editorial of August 7: “Although there is some speculation about the nature and extent of the MQM rift, it is clear that the hardliners within its ranks are getting restless. The MQM rebels have made it plain that faith in democracy becomes meaningless when their voice is not heard. This is the crux of the problem — the voice of the majority is being blatantly ignored in Sindh.” Here the reference is to the unending rule of Governor Syed Ghous Ali Shah, though the assembly is yet to be dissolved. Nawa-i-Waqt advises the government to tread cautiously towards handling the Karachi imbroglio. In its August 9 editorial the paper said: “Besides differentiating between terrorists and political activists, it will have to be ensured that the developments within the MQM do not affect the life of the common citizen, and no ethnic or linguistic group is targeted.” The paper believes, and rightly so, that “Karachi is not just an administrative problem; it is also an economic and political problem.” A political analyst, Syed Talat Husain, writes in The Nation of Lahore that “at the heart of the Karachi trouble lies the issue of integration of the estranged sections of the Sindh population into the mainstream of national life. This admission should serve as the basis for the right kind of policies aimed at tackling the issue on a long-term basis. This regrettably is not happening.” Like the previous governments the Nawaz Sharif regime too seems to be least interested in hammering out a lasting solution to the ethnic crisis having socio-political and economic dimensions. Or may be the Kashmir syndrome has disabled it to get at the root of the endemic crisis. —Syed
Nooruzzaman |
UN envoy takes up Timor issue JAKARTA, Aug 12 (ANI) — The future administrative set-up of East Timor will engage the attention of Indonesian, United Nations and Portuguese officials after the August 30 independence ballot. With this end in view, a meeting was held late yesterday at the Indonesian Foreign Ministry, attended by the U. N Special Envoy for East Timor, Mr Jamshed Marker, and senior Indonesian and Portuguese officials. Violence has plagued East Timor in the run-up to the August 30 referendum during which the East Timorese will opt for greater autonomy or total independence after almost 23 years of Indonesian rule. Fears also abound that the ballot may be disrupted by the loyalist militias, who can raise objections to the outcome of what is expected to be foregone result. Resistance fighters have also gone record to say that they will not accept the vote for special autonomy within Indonesia. Mean-while Indonesian troop presence on the eastern island of Ambon was reinforced in the wake of reports of more communal violence breaking out in the area. Ambon city was relatively quiet on Thursday as business establishments remained closed after almost a fortnight of clashes between Muslims and Christians, in which 17 people have died. The violence has also led to the torching of several houses at the city centre and it was also stated that armed mobs were moving around blocking the roads from the airport to the city centre. Informed sources here
said that two army battalions have been sent to shore-up
the existing security in Ambon. |
Anti-Jew white racist surrenders LAS VEGAS, Aug 12 (AP) — The white supremacist wanted for shooting five persons at a Los Angeles Jewish community centre fled to Las Vegas in taxis, walked into an FBI office and confessed, saying he wanted his act to be “a wake-up call to America to kill Jews,” authorities said. Buford O’Neal Furrow Jr. (37) was charged yesterday by federal prosecutors for the slaying of a postal worker shot on Tuesday near the community centre after Los Angeles police. Furrow said little during a court appearance and waived extradition to Los Angeles, said his attorney, Art Allen. After the hearing he was put on a helicopter bound for Los Angeles. When the judge asked if he understood the charges, Furrow responded: “yes, I do,” Allen said. Reporters were barred from the hearing. As he was led out of the federal courthouse, a man shouted at Furrow: “you are a coward! you are a coward!” Furrow smiled, then was hustled into a car. Furrow has ties with hate groups in the northwest and had tried to commit himself to a psychiatric hospital last year. “He certainly had
the wherewithal to create a greater tragedy than the one
we had,” Los Angeles police chief Bernard Parks
said. |
Israel hastened arms sales to India JERUSALEM, Aug 12 (DPA) — Israel agreed to speed up shipments of arms and military supplies to India during the recent crisis in Kashmir, the Israeli Ha ‘aretz daily reported today. The paper said the Indian Government, which had placed the orders before the Kashmir crisis developed, asked Israel to accelerate the arms orders, a request to which Israel agreed. The USA, which for years
supported India’s neighbour Pakistan, has recently
begun improving ties with New Delhi and removed
restrictions on arms sales to India. |
Primakov to head anti-Kremlin bloc MOSCOW, Aug 12 (PTI) — Russia’s popular politician and ex-Premier Yevgeny Primakov has agreed to lead the anti-Kremlin bloc “Fatherland-all Russia” during the parliamentary polls, Ekho Moskvy radio said today. “Primakov is expected to shortly make a formal announcement,” the radio added quoting a founder member of the bloc, St Petersburg Governor Vladimir Yakovlev. The anti-Kremlin bloc
was set up by influential Moscow Mayor Yuri Luzhkov and
Tatarstan president Mintemir Shaimiyev along with
powerful regional leaders, Ekho Moskvy said. |
| H |
|
||
| Top dating agency expelled LONDON: Britain’s biggest dating agency was expelled from the industry’s trade association on Wednesday after a flood of complaints from unhappy clients. Club Sirius, which proudly boasts over 10,000 “single, well-educated and articulate” members, claims an overwhelming success rate introducing people looking for love. But the Association of British Introduction Agencies (ABIA ) said it was terminating Club Sirius membership of the body following “an unprecedented volume of complaints for one agency.” — AFP Wiretapping Bill Homage to
Hitchcock Reagan’s
health 21 smugglers
shot Saddam’s
son |
 |
 |
| Nation
| Punjab | Haryana | Himachal Pradesh | Jammu & Kashmir | | Chandigarh | Editorial | Business | Sport | | Mailbag | Spotlight | 50 years of Independence | Weather | | Search | Subscribe | Archive | Suggestion | Home | E-mail | |
