China not appeased by NATO apologies
BEIJING, June 15 — Apologies to China from NATO leaders for the bombing of its embassy in Belgrade in May have not gone far enough, a Beijing official said today.

World’s oldest man in Malaysia?
KUALA LUMPUR, June 15 — A Malaysian man who claims to be 141 years old is bidding for recognition as the world’s oldest living person, officials said today.

Kargil invasion planned in 1985

ISLAMABAD, June 15 (UNI) — The Pakistani Army had planned the invasion of the Kargil-Dras region 14 years ago to cut off India’s road connection to Siachen.

The brain behind this strategy was the then Brigadier Azizuddin who was given charge of a Pakistani brigade in occupied Kashmir in 1985, the year when India and Pakistan were holding talks on a no-war pact (proposed by Pakistan) and a treaty of peace and friendship (proposed by India).

Karachi’s Urdu-language weekly “Takbeer” has disclosed in its latest issue that the shrewd brigadier, conceived the invasion plan after intensive tour and study of the topography of occupied Kashmir. But before its fruition he was called back to Rawalpindi, the Army’s headquarters.

In 1994 he was promoted and sent back to Pakistan occupied Kashmir as head of Northern Command. It was this time that he finalised his intrusion plan. In 1998, when Major General Azizuddin, became Chief of General Staff, officers in the Northern Command thought that now was the ripe time to implement the plan.

“Takbeer”, considered close to the Army, thus makes it very clear that this plan was already under implementation when Indian Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee visited Lahore in February this year.

However, the magazine does not say that Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif was taken into confidence about this plan. Similarly, there is no indication if the then Prime Minister, Mrs Benazir Bhutto was aware of it or not.

Takbeer’s story makes it clear that as during General Zia’s time the army continues to work its own defence and external policies despite the restoration of democracy and that it is the main patron of Islamic terrorists in the country.

Torture ‘violates’ Geneva accord

WASHINGTON, June 15 (PTI) — Torture and mutilation of six Indian soldiers in Pakistani custody before they were killed amounts to a violation of the Geneva accord and should be “dealt with accordingly,” the Chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen Hugh Shelton, has said.

The General was replying to a question at a weekend press conference on reports that an ante-mortem report that bodies of the soldiers returned by the Pakistani Army showed they were tortured, their eyes gouged out and noses, ears and other parts cut off before being killed.

“If the condition (of the soldiers) is as you have described it, and if it were, in fact, done by the other side, then, of course, it is a violation of the Geneva convention, and it should be dealt with accordingly,” he said.

On the fighting in Kargil, Defence Secretary William Cohen said that the USA was concerned about the developments there and was encouraging both sides to reduce tension.

“Yes, of course, we are concerned about what’s taking place between India and Pakistan. We are encouraging both countries to try to reduce tensions now that both have demonstrated that they intend to pursue their nuclear development against, certainly, our strong advice and efforts to persuade them not to do so.

“That raises the level of danger to a much higher degree. So, the answer is we’re concerned about it. We watch it. We will try to use our best efforts to encourage them to stand down as such, from intensifying and increasing these tensions.”

I was wrong on Kashmir: Benazir
By A. Balu

FORMER Pakistan Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto has admitted that while in office she had wrongly believed that holding India-Pakistan relations hostage to the single issue of Kashmir would highlight the cause of the Kashmiri people.

That policy, she wrote in a US daily Miami Herald on Sunday (June 13), did not advance the cause of peace in South Asia. “One of my principal regrets is that my policies actually fed the tensions,” she said.

But Benazir Bhutto’s belated realisation of her government’s folly on Kashmir does not necessarily mean that she is advising Pakistan to forget or give up its pet phobia. Instead, she has come out with a new solution on the model of the Middle East peace process as a continuation of the Camp David peace accords. That solution, it is pertinent to point out, would be a non-starter so far as India is concerned. The snag in her drawing a parallel to the Middle East is that Israel committed aggression on Egypt, Jordan and Syria and occupied part of their territories.

Ms Bhutto has conceded that the Indian stand that Kashmir need not come in the way of normalisation of relations between New Delhi and Islamabad was correct. “For fifty years, we in Pakistan thought that Kashmir had to be resolved before any normalisation could occur between the two great powers on the subcontinent,” she said adding “that approach may have been self-defeating.”

The former Pakistani Prime Minister got the inspiration for her new approach to the Kashmir issue from a recent meeting she had with the former Israeli Foreign Minister, Mr Shimon Peres, at the University of California at Berkeley. She said in her article that she realised that the process of reconciliation now going on in the Middle East particularly between Egypt and Israel, and Jordan and Israel-might provide a model for conflict resolution between India and Pakistan.

The Camp David peace accords, she noted, postponed the hardest, most delicate negotiations on the most sensitive issues until the very end of the process, and they did not try to tackle seemingly intractable issues at the beginning. In developing peace between Israel and Jordan, genuine confidence was built with deliberate, incremental advances, and they quickly triggered extraordinary and rapid progress.

The highlights of Ms Bhutto’s plan for resolving the Kashmir issue are: The two sections of Kashmir should have open and porous borders. Both sections would be demilitarised and patrolled by either an international peace-keeping force or a joint India-Pakistan peacekeeping force. Both legislative councils would continue to meet separately and on occasion jointly. The people on both sides of divided Kashmir could meet and interact freely and informally. None of these steps would prejudice or prejudge the position of both countries on the disputed areas.

Simultaneously, the borders between Pakistan and its South Asian neighbours, including India, would be opened for unrestricted trade, cultural cooperation and exchange. Tariffs and quotas between the nations would be eliminated. Educational and technological exchanges on the secondary and university levels would be initiated on a broad scale. Discussions would commence on the creation of a South Asian Free Market Zone, which would expand unrestricted and untaxed trade to include India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Bhutan and Maldives — a free market zone modelled after the European Community and the North American Free Trade Agreement.

Only after all these confidence-building mechanisms were in place, and only after a significant set period of time (Camp David called for a five-year transition), would the parties commence discussions on a formal and final resolution of the Kashmir problem, based on the wishes of its people (euphemism for plebiscite) and the security concerns of both India and Pakistan.

“It would be our hope,” Ms Bhutto said, “that, as with Jordan and Israel, after a period of open borders and open trade there would follow a period of open hearts and open minds.”

The former Pakistan Prime Minister concluded: “Kosovo warns us that the world should try to put out a potentially dangerous fire before it explodes. We cannot afford to allow a South Asian Armageddon to take place. India and Pakistan, like Jordan and Israel, must discover that they have more in common than in divergence, and that mutual trust and cooperation will avoid war and build a peace that makes both parties more secure and prosperous. The clock is ticking. The time to act is now.”

UNC-North Korea talks fail

SEOUL, June 15 (AFP) — The United Nations Command (UNC) and North Korea failed today to agree to ease inter-Korean tensions following a Yellow Sea gunbattle between the two Koreas, the UNC said.

“Although the North Korean People’s Army showed its continued support in principle for the Korean armistice agreement, the two sides were unable to reach an agreement on the issue of reducing tensions in the West (Yellow) Sea,” the UNC said in a statement.

The UNC said that “measures” aimed at reducing the tension between the two sides had been proposed to the three North Korean generals at the talks in the truce village of Panmunjom.

These included a call for both sides to “withdraw their naval forces to their respective sides” of the northern limit line (NLL), which the UN — but not North Korea — recognises as the international boundary between the two Koreas.

The UNC also expressed concern that “continued naval intrusions could escalate tension in the region” and called for North Korea to recognise the NLL, established by the UNC in 1953.

The two sides had met to discuss ways to ease the fast-mounting tension between North Korea and South Korea amid an eight-day stand-off between gunboats from both sides in a disputed area in the Yellow Sea.

“The primary objective of the meeting was to seek a resolution to the situation off Korea’s West Coast and reduce tension in that Area,” Col Carl Kropf of the UNC said.

China not appeased by NATO apologies

BEIJING, June 15 (DPA) — Apologies to China from NATO leaders for the bombing of its embassy in Belgrade in May have not gone far enough, a Beijing official said today.

“NATO should make a public and official apology”, Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhang Quie said.

She declined to comment when asked about apologies received so far for the bombing, which killed three Chinese journalists, after what NATO claims was a mistaken hit by a missile during air strikes on a Belgrade.

Following the incident, the US President, Mr Bill Clinton, and the German Chancellor, Mr Gerhard Schroeder, both speaking on behalf of NATO, as well as the British Prime Minister, Mr Tony Blair, made apologies to Qian Qichen, who is responsible for Beijing’s foreign policy.

The US-Under Secretary for Political Affairs, Mr Thomas Pickering, is expected in Beijing tomorrow to inform the Chinese side about the outcome of an investigation into the attack.

Ms Zhang said Beijing had not yet seen the results. “We are looking forward to listen to the report”, she said and added “afterwards we make a judgement”.

She repeated China’s call for those responsible for the attack to be punished and said China reserved the right to take further steps.

US diplomats said Mr Pickering would meet other high-ranking Chinese officials as well as Foreign Minister Tang Jiaxuan, but it was questionable whether Mr Pickering’s explanation would be seen as acceptable, given the barrage of criticism from the Chinese media unleashed by the bombing.

World’s oldest man in Malaysia?

KUALA LUMPUR, June 15 (DPA) A Malaysian man who claims to be 141 years old is bidding for recognition as the world’s oldest living person, officials said today.

Omar Abas, who said he was born on September 26, 1857, near the Port City of Malacca, has 101 grandchildren with his wife, who is 100.

Danny Ooi, Director of The Malaysian Book of Records, said he was waiting to hear back from The Guiness Book of World Records in Britain as to what is the age of the current oldest person in the world before sending Mr Omar’s documents for authentication.

Women rights
DHAKA: When it comes to property, both majority Muslims and minority Hindus in Bangladesh discriminate against women. Under the Muslim law of inheritance, a daughter is eligible to only half the share of property given to a son while Hinduism does not specify her share. Women’s rights groups have been demanding equal rights to property, and also a uniform family code. — IPS

US to try Libya
WASHINGTON: The US Supreme Court has allowed Libya to be sued in a federal court in New York city by the families of some of the victims killed in the bombing of Pan Am flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland. The nation’s highest court rejected on Monday without any comment or dissent an appeal by Libya arguing that the lawsuit should be dismissed on the grounds that US courts lack jurisdiction over the case. — Reuters

3 teenagers held
SACRAMENTO (California): Three teenagers were arrested on charges of planning to bomb their junior high school near Sacramento and kill the school principal and several students. The three, arrested on Monday, are scheduled to appear in court on Tuesday, officials said. Most of the 600 students at Don Julio Junior High School stayed away from classes on Monday. This is the last week of the school year. — DPA

Gambling Suhartos
SYDNEY: Family and friends of former Indonesian President Suharto were among the biggest gamblers at a casino that used to operate on Australia’s Christmas Island, an Australian newspaper has claimed. The casino, a 45-minute flight from Jakarta, closed late last year. It was owned by Indonesian businessman Robby Sumampouw. General Wiranto, Mr Suharto’s former adjutant and now armed forces chief and defence minister, was also a regular visitor, the paper alleged. — DPA

Australian visa
SYDNEY: Ten more countries were identified by Australia on Tuesday as potential sources of illegal immigrants in a further tightening of entry rules by the federal government. Those added to the list are Albania, Bosnia, Bulgaria, Ecuador, El Salvador, Ethiopia, Laos, Lithuania, the Russian Federation and Nepal. People from the countries highlighted will automatically face greater difficulty getting a visa than those from “safe” countries such as Japan and the United States. — AFP

Life after cancer
FRANKFURT: The prospects of a cure for children suffering from cancer in Germany have taken a marked turn for the better. According to the cancer relief organisation Deutsche Krebshilfe approximately 70 per cent of child cancer victims survive. This success rate include young leukaemia patients, leukaemia being one of the most frequent cancers from which children suffer. Twenty years ago nearly every child diagnosed as suffering from leukaemia went on to die of it. — DPA

Agent gets 64-year term
COLOMBO: A foreign employment agent in Sri Lanka who swindled money from people by promising them jobs in West Asia and Cyprus was jailed for 64 years, reports said on Tuesday. Fizal Hamza, 48, was given the sentence on Monday when he was found guilty of cheating 32 people after collecting from them a total of some US $ 30,000, The Island newspaper reported. A spokesman for the foreign employment office said that the harsh sentence was handed out as the government is fighting a difficult battle to eliminate unscrupulous job agents. — DPA