Indonesia’s open poll after 44 years
JAKARTA, June 7 — Indonesia held its first open election in 44 years today without major incident as the troubled nation took its first step toward democracy amid staggering social and economic problems.

Kosovo talks deadlocked
KUMANOVO, Macedonia, June 7 — Hopes of an imminent ceasefire in the Kosovo conflict crumbled today as talks between NATO and Yugoslav military commanders broke off and NATO said its bombing would intensify.

Pak ex-CJ foresees ‘bloody revolution’
ISLAMABAD, June 7 — Former Chief Justice Sajjad Ali Shah, whose differences with Nawaz Sharif nearly led to the fall of the government one-and-a-half year ago, has expressed fear that Pakistan might face a bloody revolution as the present rulers had “closed” all avenues of constitutional change.

Sodomy trial of Anwar opens
KUALA LUMPUR, June 7 — The sodomy trial of ousted Deputy Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim got off to a rough start today when the prosecution changed, for a second time, the year of the alleged sexual offences.

Queen’s ‘black blood’
LONDON, June 7 — Britain’s Queen Elizabeth II has black and mixed-raced royal ancestors who have never been publicly acknowledged, according to the Sunday Times.

Indonesia’s open poll after 44 years

JAKARTA, June 7 (DPA) — Indonesia held its first open election in 44 years today without major incident as the troubled nation took its first step toward democracy amid staggering social and economic problems.

Vote-counting began after the polling stations closed at 2 p.m, and more than 400,000 local election monitors backed by 600 foreign observers were watching the counting process.

More than 110 million people were expected to vote in the first multi-party poll since 1955, but officials said they were not aware of the actual turnout.

Partial preliminary results were expected to be released tonight, with more complete results to be declared tomorrow or on Wednesday, though official results would not be announced till July.

The ruling Golkar Party, the political tool of the former President Suharto, and opposition leader Megawati Sukarnoputri’s Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle are the main contenders.

The election will be followed by the choosing of the country’s next President in November, who will order the formation of a new Government.

Golkar’s General Chairman, Akbar Tanjung said his party was ready to accept defeat, but predicted a victory with at least 40 per cent of the vote, the Antara News Agency reported.

Ms Megawati declined to speak to reporters after she cast her vote today morning, amilat fears the opposition will denounce the election results if the ruling party wins.

Predictions of widespread violence, especially in the troubled provinces of East Timor, Aceh and Irian Jaya, never materialised, and voting proceeded peacefully.

However, there were reports that several polling stations in Aceh, were empty today after calls for a boycott by separatist rebels.

Angry residents outside Jakarta set fire to a polling station after officials refused to let them vote, Antara reported. The suspects reportedly did not have the required voter registration cards.

A senior official from the European Union observation team said the situation was surprisingly normal.

Jakarta,where riots had taken place May ‘98 and that led to Suharto’s downfall, the streets were mostly empty, shopping centres, restaurants and businesses were closed while voting at polling stations went smoothly, local officials and residents said.

Voters at one polling station in East Jakarta said there were no fears during this election like those in years past, even though the outcome was known in advance.

“It’s the first time today, after several elections in 32 years, I’ve voted for a party other than Golkar,’’ said Mr Juliantoro.

The outcome of today’s vote could determine whether Indonesia, moves toward democracy and economic reform or disintegrates amid political, ethnic and religious violence.

Election officials and foreign observers, including former US President, Jimmy Carter, had predicted the vote would be credible and urged all parties to accept the results with dignity.

There are 462 seats open in the 500-member Parliament, or people’s representative council. The other 38 will be appointed by the armed forces.

Parliament makes up the bulk of the 700-member People’s Consultative assembly (MPR), which is scheduled to convene in November to chose a President and a Vice-President.

Golkar could seal the Presidency by forming a coalition with smaller, Muslim-based parties that are expected to win some seats in Parliament.

Ms Megawati and her opposition allies, Amien Rais, 55, and Muslim leader Abdurrahman Wahid, 59, have formed a loose alliance to try to block any Golkar candidate from becoming President.

Kosovo talks deadlocked

KUMANOVO, Macedonia, June 7 (Reuters) — Hopes of an imminent ceasefire in the Kosovo conflict crumbled today as talks between NATO and Yugoslav military commanders broke off and NATO said its bombing would intensify.

However, Germany said the military talks in Macedonia on the withdrawal of Yugoslav forces from Kosovo had not collapsed but just been “suspended”.

“The talks have not been broken off, merely interrupted,” Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder’s top foreign policy adviser Michael Steiner said. He told German television he expected the talks to resume.

NATO’s Lieut-Gen Mike Jackson accused his Yugoslav counterparts of reneging on the peace deal for Kosovo announced with fanfare last Thursday after agreement between Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic, E.U.Envoy Finnish President Martt Ahtisaari and Russian Envoy Viktor Chernomyrdin.

“The Yugoslav delegation presented a proposal that would not guarantee the safe return of the refugees or the full withdrawal of Yugoslav forces and indeed was inconsistent with the text produced by President of Finland Ahtisaari and Mr Chernomyrdin, the Russian special Balkans Envoy,” General Jackson read from a statement early today.

“NATO has no alternative but to continue and intensify the air campaign until such time as the Yugoslav side is prepared to implement the agreement fully and without ambiguity,” he said outside the military tent at NATO’s Macedonian base where the talks had been held.

LONDON (AFP): The British Treasury has refused to fork out extra cash requested by the Defence Ministry to meet the cost of the military campaign for Kosovo, the Independent reported on Monday.

The paper said Defence Secretary George Robertson had asked the Chancellor of the Exchequer Gordon Brown to take the money from his “reserve kitty” of some £ 1.2 billion.

However, the Chancellor had refused the request telling the Defence Ministry to assume a “significant part” of the expenditure.

“If the armed services are not there to fight a war, what are they there for? it is misleading to suggest that all the costs incurred are extra,” a Treasury official quoted by the paper said.

The Independent said the Treasury was all the more reticent because it had previously advised in vain the Defence Ministry to set aside its own reserve fund out of its annual budget of some £ 22.3 billion.

The paper said up to now, with respect to the cost of the air campaign, the government of Prime Minister Tony Blair — a leading hawk in the war over Kosovo — had only spoken of £ 40 million in humanitarian assistance and £ 37 million for military operations.

Militants won’t vacate Kargil

ISLAMABAD, June 7 (PTI) — Pakistan-based militant outfits have said they would not withdraw from the Kargil and Dras sectors in Jammu and Kashmir and slammed the Nawaz Sharif government for releasing Indian Pilot K.Nachiketa.

“We are not going to withdraw even an inch from Kargil and Dras at the request of the United States of America or Pakistan,” Hafiz Muhammas Sayeed, chief of the Lashkar-e-Toiba, one of the front-ranking organisation engaged in fighting Indian troops in the Kargil-Dras sector, said.

In a letter to Sharif, Sayeed said Islamabad was “unnecessarily” insisting on holding foreign minister level talks with New Delhi and alleged that Pakistan succumbed to the pressure from the United States of America for the peace initiative and Nachiketa’s release.

Sayeed, whose Lashkar has been regularly sending reinforcements from their centres all over Pakistan since the Indian Army began an offensive to flush out Pak-backed infiltrators, vowed “Mujahideen” would not withdraw from and would continue their “Jehad” (holy war) till they liberate Kashmir.

He also warned the Pakistan government of attempting to spoil the success of “Mujahideens” on the pretext of peace with India.

The UJC confirmed that most of the training camps for the militants are based in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK) and claimed that the Kashmiris had the right to use them as they are part of “overall Kashmir.”

Salahuddin, who in Islamabad is monitoring the situation across the Line of Control, also dismissed Indian offer of safe passage to militants saying, “we do not need safe passage from the battle field.

“Mujahideen have occupied strategic positions overlooking occupation forces. We are in dominant positions and no Indian convoy could move in the area”.

He said that the Indian Army needed safe passage as “Indians are desperate because the Mujahideen have blocked their only supply route from Srinagar to Siachin Glacier”.

Salahuddin described as a “futile exercise” the Sharif government’s offer to send Foreign Minister Sartaj Aziz to New Delhi for peace talks.

Pakistan has launched a concerted effort to “prove” that the demarcation of the Line of Control (LoC) in the Kargil and Dras sectors is not clear and hence justify the infiltration of a large number of militants which has led to the ongoing military operations by India.

Barely days after Pakistan’s Foreign Minister Sartaj Aziz claimed that the LoC was not clearly demarcated and that it had to be seen whether the infiltrators were on the Indian or Pakistani side, the army has also said it “does not really exist” on the ground.

“The line is drawn on the map. There is no demarcation on the ground, no wire or posts or signs for the LoC and that is why India violates it time and again,” the chief of the Inter-Services Public Relations, Brig Rashied Qureshi claimed during a Press briefing at Army Headquarters yesterday.

The Pakistani contention that there is no fencing on the LoC is being forwarded after 28 years of its finalisation in an apparent bid to justify the infiltration of the Pakistan-backed militants who are currently engaged in fighting against the Indian Army.

It was after the 1971 Indo-Pak war that the LoC was demarcated and during these years the question of demarcation never arose.

The only problem the two sides had was in the Siachen area where the LoC had not been demarcated.

Brigadier Qureshi argued India should agree to a third party conducting a survey and clearly demarcate the LoC, and said: “Pakistan and India could have asked the United Nations or any other neutral party to conduct a survey to settle this issue. I fail to understand why the Indians don’t agree to it.”

The issue was first raised by Foreign Minister Aziz who questioned India’s assertion that it only wanted to drive out the infiltrators from its territory, saying there was no clear-cut demarcation of the LoC in the Kargil and Dras sectors.

The Pakistani side, meanwhile, after the rejection of its offer of holding Foreign Minister-level talks today by India, has once again started appealing to the international community to pressurise New Delhi for holding the dialogue.

Pak ex-CJ foresees ‘bloody revolution’

ISLAMABAD, June 7 (PTI) — Former Chief Justice Sajjad Ali Shah, whose differences with Nawaz Sharif nearly led to the fall of the government one-and-a-half year ago, has expressed fear that Pakistan might face a bloody revolution as the present rulers had “closed” all avenues of constitutional change.

Justice Shah, who was removed unceremoniously from his post in December 1997 after the storming of the Supreme Court by Sharif’s supporters during the hearing of a case against the Premier, said in an interview in Karachi yesterday, “the rulers have manipulated the Constitution in an effort to remain in power for good”.

“The rulers have plugged the avenues for constitutional changes. Now the people will look for changes outside the Constitution, and these are often bloody,” he said.

Justice Shah, who created history by summoning Mr Sharif to his court twice in connection with a contempt of court case against him a month before his removal, said, “Mr Nawaz Sharif has become the most powerful ruler in Pakistan’s history, but has failed to improve law and order and the economy is in a shambles.”

Sodomy trial of Anwar opens

KUALA LUMPUR, June 7 (AP) — The sodomy trial of ousted Deputy Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim got off to a rough start today when the prosecution changed, for a second time, the year of the alleged sexual offences.

The prosecution originally said Anwar committed “carnal intercourse” against his former family driver, Azizan Abu Bakar, in May 1994. The state then amended the time frame to May 1992.

Today, the prosecution asked high court Judge Ariffin Jaka to amend and broaden the time frame for the alleged acts of sodomy, now claiming they took place between January and March of 1993. Anwar’s defence team was surprised and immediately asked for a mistrial.

“These amendments by the prosecution are unwarranted and unfair toward the accused. They are still looking for a date,” said lead defence attorney, Raja Aziz Addruse, adding, “The date is too general”.

The defence had already submitted to the court documents that provided Anwar with an alibi in May 1992. It said the venue for the alleged sexual acts, the Tivoli Villa Apartments, had not yet been built.

The defence demanded that the prosecution supply specific dates. They also demanded that if the trial goes forward it be adjourned at least 10 days for them to find other witnesses that will provide Anwar with an alibi for the new dates.

Anwar, dressed in a white shirt and black pants, appeared thin but relaxed. He commented about the amended date, but it wasn’t immediately clear if a gag order by another Judge forbids Anwar’s comments from being published.

Queen’s ‘black blood’

LONDON, June 7 (DPA) — Britain’s Queen Elizabeth II has black and mixed-raced royal ancestors who have never been publicly acknowledged, according to the Sunday Times.

The paper said an American genealogist has established that Queen Charlotte, the wife of George III, directly descended from the illegitimate son of an African mistress in the Portuguese royal house.

Charlotte, then a 17-year-old German Princess, arrived in England in September, 1761, and won public affection for her loyalty and devotion to the King even during his descent into madness.

She bore him 15 children during a long and mainly happy marriage, but did not have the face of a classic European beauty.

‘Sweet problems’
TEHERAN: For the first time since the Islamic Revolution in 1979, Iran’s Ministry of Culture has classified a feature film produced in the country as X-rated, the Teheran daily newspaper Entekhab reported on Sunday. The film, “Maseeb Shirin” (sweet problems) deals with the sexual problems of young people — who are not allowed to date — and suggests temporary marriage, a controversial old custom, as a solution. Public regulations make it difficult to have relationships before marriage. Dating in public is legally forbidden and can lead to arrest, cash fines or even lashing. — DPA

Miss World
TEL AVIV: Israeli beauty queen Lior Abargil broke down as she told a closed-door court session on Sunday how she was raped only weeks before being crowned Miss World. Abargil accuses Shlomo Nour, 43, of attacking her at knife point during a roadside stop in Italy in October. But at yesterday’s court hearing, Nour again pleaded his innocence on charges of kidnapping, rape and sodomy, and accused Abargil of lying, judicial sources said. — AFP

Farewell to arms
ALGIERS: One of Algeria’s terrorist organisations, the Army of Islamic Salvation (AIS), announced Sunday that it was abandoning its armed struggle for good, but the most bloodthirsty of the Islamist factions appeared set to continue its attacks. The AIS, which declared a truce in October 1997, said it would conduct no more armed operations and would place its members “under the authority of the state”, according to a letter to Algerian President Abdel-Aziz Bouteflika from AIS leader Madani Mezrag, as reported by the Algerian news agency APS. — DPA

Racy T-shirts
AMMAN: Authorities have confiscated dozens of T-shirts with lewd messages in English from markets in this conservative Muslim nation, a newspaper reported. Among the milder messages on the T-shirts were “I am ready for sexual offers” and buy me, “according to the daily, Al-Aswaq. The T-shirts were seized because of dirty and improper English words that incite vice,” the daily said on Sunday. — AP

Death for abduction
TEHRAN: An Iranian man has been sentenced to death for abducting and mistreating at least 25 children, some as young as four, a newspaper reported. The 34-year-old, identified as Abbas, told the court he “liked mistreating children ever since he was a child himself,” the Ettela’at newspaper said on Sunday. In one case, the man confessed to throwing an eight-year-old child off a cliff. — AFP

Panorama India
TORONTO: A stimulating array of music, performing arts, literature, films, fashion, youth programmes, handicraft and yoga will be part of a four-day festival in Canada to mark India’s Independence Day celebrations in August. “Panorama India: Towards the New Millennium”, will be organised by the Indian consulate — PTI

`Death of a Salesman’
NEW YORK: “Death of a Salesman” enjoyed a successful run at the 53rd annual Tony Awards, reaping five top honours at the ceremony that celebrates the Best of Broadway. The Arthur Miller classic captured honours for the best revival of a play, best leading actor, best director and best featured actress, while Miller (83) won a special Tony for Lifetime Achievement yesterday. — Reuters