Tuesday, July 6, 1999
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W O R L D | Tuesday, July 6, 1999 |
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"Fall of Tiger Hill
behind Sharif’s SOS" Hostile reception awaits Sharif |
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Indian diplomat beaten
up, kidnapped in Pak Russia offers unique radar to
India NATO, Russia resolve row over
Kosovo Chinese F-7 jets for Pak in August Pak suspends foreign TV news
channels Pak army’s handiwork Deal cheers Pak markets 4 MiG 29s for B’desh Text of joint statement |
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"Fall of Tiger Hill behind Sharif’s SOS" WASHINGTON, July 5 (PTI) — Storming of the Tiger Hill by Indian troops and certain defeat on other locations occupied by Pakistan-backed intruders of the Indian side of the Line of Control (LoC) led to Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif’s "SOS" to US President Clinton, media here have speculated. "The prospect of further military setbacks may have been behind "Sharif’s decision," the Washington Post said today. "As Indian troops seized a strategic Kashmiri mountain peak (Tiger Hill) from Pakistani forces. US officials said they received assurances Pakistan would withdraw forces from Kashmir," it said. A major factor, the newspaper said, behind Mr Sharif’s decision could be his fears about political survival after ending the misadventure in Kargil unless Pakistan was prepared to escalate militarily and ruin its already fragile economy. "The move (Sharif’s acceptance of the Clinton demand that Pakistani forces pull back to its side of the LoC) is sure to draw criticism in Pakistan, particularly among Islamic fundamentalist and military groups, which have warned that they would attempt to bring Mr Sharif down if he withdraws from Kargil," the Post said. "The meeting with Clinton," the Post noted, "was arranged at Sharif’s request, US officials said. In what some saw as an attempt by the Pakistani leader to gain political cover for the decision to pull out." That "political cover" was the administration’s public, but not private, silence over the false claim by the Pakistani government that its forces were not involved in the move into the Indian side of the LoC, the paper said. At a media briefing at the White House yesterday, two senior administration officials who sought to remain anonymous emphasised that they did not want to analyse whether Pakistani forces were on the Indian side of the LoC but that Mr Sharif had pledged that he would withdraw them, and they wanted him to do so quickly after he goes home. The Post said Pakistan decided to seize the hills commanding the lifeline into Ladakh and the Siachen glacier from India as a means to force the USA to concede the Pakistani demand for a settlement of the Kashmir issue on its terms based on the Security Council resolutions. In that observers said,
Mr Sharif miserably failed. All he got was a "face
saver", with the President saying that "he
would take a personal interest in encouraging an
expeditious resumption and intensification" of
bilateral efforts to improve Indo-Pakistan relations. |
Hostile reception awaits Sharif ISLAMABAD, July 5 (PTI) — A possible hostile reception awaits Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif on his return from Washington with the Opposition and hardliners today accusing him of a “sellout on the Kargil issue” during his talks with US President Bill Clinton. The Opposition and the religious parties, backing the “Mujahideen” (Islamic warriors) fighting the Indian troops in Kargil, slammed Mr Sharif for reportedly agreeing to withdraw the infiltrators from Indian soil. Mr Sharif, who rushed to Washington on Saturday, has reportedly agreed during his meeting with Mr Clinton to take “concrete steps” to restore the sanctity of the Line of Control (LoC). Qazi Hussain Ahmed, chief of the largest religious party Jammat-e-Islami, in a statement said: “The Pakistan Government has no legal or moral justification to talk about the retreat of the Mujahideen from Kargil because they have captured the area after numerous sacrifices.” The statement by Qazi Hussain, who is currently in the USA was released by the party here. However, its acting chief, Syed Munawwar Hussain, issued a stronger statement warning Mr Sharif not to return home if he had struck some kind of deal with Mr Clinton over the withdrawal. “If Mr Sharif agrees to a sellout during his talks with US President Bill Clinton, he better not come back. His US visit in the dead of night adds to our fears that he is planning to lose on the negotiating table the battle that the Mujahideen have won in the Kargil heights.” “We are going to put up the strongest possible resistance if the Prime Minister agrees to any such proposal (for withdrawal) on Kashmir. We shall not let the blood of the martyrs go waste,” Mr Hussain said. Pakistan’s “weak stance”, he said, would further aggravate the situation. “The Prime Minister should ask Washington to influence the Indian leadership to respect the world body’s resolutions on Kashmir and allow people to exercise their right to self-determination.” Rejecting any
“piecemeal treatment” of the Kashmir problem,
Mr Hussain said the government had no justification to
talk about the retreat of the Mujahideen from Kargil
heights which they had “captured after numerous
sacrifices.” |
Indian diplomat beaten up, kidnapped in Pak ISLAMABAD, July 5 (PTI) — Pakistani intelligence operatives today abducted a staff member of the Indian High Commission here after severely assaulting him along with a security guard of the mission. Mr Yograj Vij was beaten up along with the guard, Mr T.R. Nair, on his doorstep by more than 12 armed intelligence operatives before being abducted, High Commission sources said. Mr Vij's wife, who desperately tried to stave off the attackers, was also manhandled by the intelligence operative and pushed away before he was bundled into a waiting car and taken away. The High Commission has lodged an FIR with the police station concerned and a protest has been lodged with the Pakistan Foreign Office on the incident, the sources said. This is the second
incident of its kind within a week. Last Tuesday Mr N.R.
Doraiswamy, another staff member of the mission, was
kidnapped from outside his house and assaulted. He was
released after more than three hours of torture. |
Russia offers unique radar to India MOSCOW, July 5 (PTI) — Russia has offered to India a unique mortar and artillery tracking radar, Zoopark-1, which is capable of pinpointing enemy firing position for their subsequent suppression, defence sources here said today. Produced at the Vektor plant of Yekaterinbug, Zoopark-1, needs to track an enemy mortar or a shell for just eight seconds to project its full trajectory from the firing position to the place it is going to land, along with pinpointing and thereby suppression of enemy firing positions within a range of 20 km, the sources said. The radar, mounted on tracked armoured vehicles could have saved lives of many Indian officers and jawans involved in Operation Vijay in Kargil had they been utilised in the battle zone in the Kashmir mountains. Russia had for the first time displayed the Zoopark-1 artillery radar at the "Ural Expoarms-99" at Nizhny Tagil last week, organised jointly by arms export agency "Rosvoorouzhene", the state corporation and the administration of the Sevrdlovsk region. The country recently lifted the veil of secrecy from this unique radar and allowed its export to "friend nations", the sources said. India is also taking a
keen interest in "Zoopark-2" artillery radar
which has a range of 40 km and is in advanced stages of
development, military sources said. |
NATO, Russia resolve row over Kosovo MOSCOW, July 5 (Reuters) — The Russian Defence Ministry today said Moscow had resolved differences with NATO and obtained the alliance’s permission to send peacekeepers to Kosovo. "Theoretically, (the troops) can leave at any moment," a ministry spokesman said by telephone but added that he had no information about when the order would be given to begin the air lift. Earlier, a DPA report said that a delegation of NATO officials met Russian military officers to iron out fresh problems in the deployment of Russia’s 3,600 Kosovo peacekeeping troops. A number of "open technical questions" in the operation were to be discussed, sources at the Russian Defence Ministry told the Itar-Tass news agency, but did not give details. Yesterday, the deployment of 120 soldiers and equipment from Russia to the Slatina airport near Pristina was halted after Hungary, Romania and Bulgaria refused to open air corridor for Russian planes, allegedly at the request of the USA. Russian Defence Ministry Igor Sergeyev gave President Boris Yeltsin a verbal assurance all problems in the deployment would be resolved during the day’s talks, the Russian Interfax news agency quoted Prime Minister Sergei Stepashin as saying. Mr Sergeyev told
Interfax that he expected the outcome of the talks to be
"favourable" for Russia. He said he would also
discuss the matter with German Defence Minister Rudof
Scharping by telephone. |
Chinese F-7 jets for Pak in August ISLAMABAD, July 5 (UNI) — The supply of the F-7 Chinese fighter planes to the Pakistani Air Force is likely to begin from next month, a report said here today. The report adds that
Pakistan’s concern in acquiring the Chinese made
fighter aircraft F-7 was to neutralise the Indian
numerical superiority of fighter planes and break even on
that count. |
Pak suspends foreign TV news channels ISLAMABAD, July 5 (DPA) — Foreign television news channels were suspended in Pakistan today in a move, some observers blamed on the government wanting to stop the flow of information on the Kargil conflict. The semi-independent Shalimar Television Network (STN) stopped broadcasting Cable News Network (CNN) programmes, official sources said, because the network’s re-broadcasting contract with the US news channel had expired. STN also cut down on re-broadcasting of BBC and Deutsche Welle (DW) television, saying that from now only pre-recorded BBC programmes would be aired. Media sources here said the stoppage was dictated by the government, apparently to stop foreign news coverage of the Pakistan-India conflict reaching Pakistani homes. The network had been airing CNN for about four hours per day and BBC and DW two hours each. Pakistan’s
state-controlled PTV was banned by the Indian Government
in May at the start of the conflict. |
Pak army’s handiwork NEW YORK, July 5 (PTI) — The Pakistan army, angry over Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif’s attempt to bring it under civilian authority, may have engineered the incursion into Kargil to derail the peace process with India and show Islamabad who is the boss, media reports here suggest. There might also have been concern that India in recent years had successfully put down insurgency, they said. Analysing the reasons for the incursion, The New York Times quoted experts as saying the likeliest explanation was that the push for Kargil came from the military which had ruled the nation for most of its history and Mr Sharif went along “enthusiastically or not”, believing Pakistan could plausibly deny author ship. The motives for the military, the report said, was many. Some of its leaders, disgruntled with the e peace effort, might have seen it as a way to derail it. Others might have been disturbed by Mr Sharif’s efforts to establish civilian authority over the military and sought to reassert control. After a public dispute,
Mr Sharif had replaced the Chief of the Army Staff, Gen
Jahangir Karamat, with Gen Parvez Musharraf last October
and had also involved the Army in civilian tasks like
collecting electricity bills and running courts. |
Deal cheers Pak markets KARACHI, July 5 (Reuters) —Pakistani markets today surged after Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif agreed with the USA that guerrilla forces fighting Indian troops in northern Kashmir will be withdrawn. But brokers and analysts said fears of the domestic political instability, stoked by angry political and military opposition to the deal, can weigh on the markets. ‘“The chances of a war seem to be diminishing but there will be fear of a domestic fallout that may cap gains,’’ said Mr Abid Naqvi, Head of Research at Stock Brokers Taurus Securities. The Karachi Stock
Exchange’s 100-share index soared 34.89 points or
3.16 per cent to 1,139.71 by lunch break today, and the
rupee opened in the kerb market at Rs 53.90 to a dollar,
against Saturday’s close of Rs 54. |
Russians booze and smoke in crisis MOSCOW, July 5 (Reuters) — When crisis hits Russia, as it does with monotonous regularity, Russians have a ready response: pick up the vodka bottle and light a cigarette. And the country’s alcohol and tobacco producers have been enjoying a windfall since the rouble was devalued last August, dragging Russia into a merry-go-round of banking, economic and political crises. “People aren’t drinking and smoking less because of the crisis. They’re doing so more, they’ve lost their money in the banks,” said Dmitry Makhanko, head of Vinexpo, organiser of the Drinks and Tobacco ’99 Trade Fair held in Moscow recently. “But people are trying to buy our own produce because it’s become cheaper than imports,” he told Reuters. Prices are extremely low by international standards. Vodka is easy to find for 1 for a 50 cl bottle, while cigarettes start at around 0.25 for a packet of 20. The aim of the trade fair, well supported by Russian companies and by producers from the former Soviet republics of Moldova, Armenia and Belarus, was simple, Mr Makhanko said. “It’s to help our own Russian producers, producers from the fatherland, to find their place on the market.” He said the financial crisis had effectively made it impossible for many Russian companies to afford advertising, but this was offset by the fact that heavily-promoted western brands were becoming too expensive for average Russian consumers. Tatyana Kuznetsova of the Kristall-Lefortovo Trading House, a distribution company dealing in produce from Moscow’s famous Kristall Vodka Distillery, agreed that the crisis had given a boost to the company’s output. “People stopped drinking imported drinks and turned to the local produce,” she said, at a stand displaying a range of liqueurs flavoured with coffee and lemon, chocolate and nuts and other improbable combinations, as well as the classic Kristall Vodka. Vodka is the mainstay of Russia’s drink trade. Data from the State Statistics Committee show that Russians drank 7.32 litres of pure alcohol per head in 1998, not particularly high by international standards, but this ignores illicit moonshine. By comparison, the industry publication, World Drink Trends, cited by Alcoweb, a European Commission-funded body, shows that Portugal tops the global list of drinkers, with 11.3 litres per head. Officially, Russia does not even make it to the top 20. But what makes Russia unusual is the volume of strong drinks consumed. The State Statistics Committee showed that of all alcohol drunk in Russia last year, a whopping 80.9 per cent was swallowed in the form of vodka and other spirits. Wine accounted for a trifling 6.9 per cent of the total, and even beer made up just 8.9 per cent of all alcohol drunk. World Health Organisation data from 1997 showed that around two thirds of Russian men and one third of Russian women smoke, putting the country on a similar level to China, Vietnam and South Korea among the world’s heaviest smokers. Tobacco producers from Russia, and from other CIS republics which were affected by the knock-on effect of the rouble crisis, were enjoying a boom similar to that enjoyed by distillers. “People aren’t smoking less, they’re smoking cheaper,” said Dumitru Albu, promotions manager of Tutun-CTC from Moldova. His company sells 7.5 billion cigarettes per year, of which 60 per cent are sold in Moldova and 40 per cent abroad. Russia is an important market, he said, without giving further details. Andres-Leonardo Bogdan of Surte Sa, representing several exporters from Argentina, said sales of unfermented Argentine grape juice, which is turned into the ubiquitous “Soviet champagne” in Russia, were holding up well. “In the first few months after the crisis there were problems. But big firms sat tight and waited, and the market is now stabilising”, he added. Such is the lure of Russia for drink and tobacco firms despite the crisis that new players are still entering the market. There is, of course, a health implication to Russia’s orgy of smoking and drinking. The World Health Organisation says tobacco causes 280,000 deaths a year in Russia, or 32 per cent of all male deaths and five per cent of all female deaths. Drinking creates its own hazards. In the first half of June alone, 61 persons drowned in rivers and ponds in and around Moscow while swimming to escape the searing heat wave convulsing the city. Many were drunk, a city official said. Russia’s population
is in decline, with the State Statistics Committee
showing that the 8.8 births per thousand in 1998 were
heavily outnumbered by the 13.7 deaths per thousand. The
population fell by 635,200 in the first 11 months of
1998. |
4 MiG 29s for B’desh DHAKA, July 5 (Reuters) — Four of eight MiG-29 fighter planes bought by Bangladesh from Russia, last month, will arrive in December, the air force chief said. “The second lot of four MiGs, is expected to arrive in Dhaka by February next year,” Bangladesh Air Vice-Marshal Jamaluddin Ahmed told Dhaka’s daily Star in an interview today. He strongly defended the decision to buy the aircraft, which had sparked a political storm at home and some criticism from abroad. “It’s a long pending requirement of the BAF to augment its depleting number of aircraft,” he said. In a deal, described as “unnecessary and too expensive” by the Opposition, Bangladesh agreed on June 28 to pay Russia $ 115 million for the aircraft as well as training, transportation and technical services. The Finance Minister, Mr
S.A.M.S. Kibria, who proposed a 17 per cent increase in
the defence budget for the fiscal year ending June 2000,
said Bangladesh needs to modernise its armed forces even
though it was facing no external threat. |
Text of joint statement WASHINGTON, July 5 (AFP) —The following is the full text of a joint statement issued on Sunday by the Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, and the US President, Mr Bill Clinton, after nearly three hours of talks here. “President Clinton and Prime Minister Sharif share the view that the current fighting in the Kargil region of Kashmir is dangerous and contains the seeds of a wider conflict. They also agreed that it was vital for the peace of South Asia that the Line of Control in Kashmir be respected by both parties, in accordance with the 1972 Simla Accord. It was agreed between the President and the Prime Minister that concrete steps would be taken for the restoration of the Line of Control in accordance with the Simla Agreement. The President urged an immediate cessation of the hostilities once these steps were taken. The Prime Minister and the President agreed that the bilateral dialogue began in Lahore in February provides the best forum for resolving all issues dividing India and Pakistan, including Kashmir. The President said he would take a personal interest in encouraging an expeditious resumption and intensification of those bilateral efforts, once the sanctity of the Line of Control had been fully restored. The President reaffirmed
his intent to pay an early visit to South Asia. |
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| Queen to have her pay frozen LONDON: Britain’s Queen Elizabeth will have her pay frozen because an over adjustment for inflation means she has been paid about $ 20 million too much over the last decade, The Independent said on Sunday. Quoting unnamed sources at the treasury, the paper said government payments to the Queen, her husband Prince Philip and the Queen Mother had amounted to £ 8.9 million a year since 1991 under a 10-year agreement that expires at the end of the next year. — Reuters Dinosaurs Unexpected gift Singapore kids Aviator’s
bones Gunman kills 2 Six arrested Economic growth |
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