Maoists kill four cops

Clinton's authority extended

WASHINGTON, June 16 (PTI) — U.S. House of Representatives has extended President Bill Clinton’s authority by another year to waive sanctions on India and Pakistan imposed after their tit-for-tat nuclear tests last year.

However, influential U.S. Congressman Gary Ackerman said he would work with his colleagues in the House International Relations Committee to enact a permanent waiver authority.

"Although I welcome the step taken by the House (a waiver for another year through the Security Assistance Act of 1999), I firmly believe that a permanent waiver authority for the President is the more appropriate course for Congress to take," Co-Chairman of the Congressional Caucus on India and Indian Americans said yesterday after the waiver announcement.

He said sanctions were too blunt a weapon to be used by the USA against "a sister democracy such as India".

"Sanctions are not good for India. And they are not good for the USA either. Sanctions are bad for expanding trade and investment with both countries. Additionally, it is politically unrealistic to expect that friendly relations can bloom between the two democracies when the atmosphere is fouled with the threat of sanctions," he said.

Mr Ackerman strongly opposed the Brownback amendment passed by the Senate seeking repeal of the Pressler amendment barring military and other aid to Pakistan "especially now when it is engaged in unacceptable behaviour in Kashmir, waging a proxy war against India".

Mr Ackerman also called on the administration to order a speedy review of the entities list — the list of Indian Government’s agencies and private sector institutions barred from buying U.S. goods on suspicion that they are involved in nuclear and missile programmes.

"I urge the administration to remove all those firms and research laboratories that are not directly linked to India’s nuclear and missile programmes from the list. Similarly, I urge that all unnecessary restrictions placed on Indian scientists by the administration in the wake of the nuclear tests be revoked," he said.

With the two Houses of Congress approaching the sanctions issue differently, a conference committee will meet to reconcile the differences.

Under the American system, for any such legislation to pass, the versions in the two Houses have to be identical.

UNI: The waiver, given to the President last year for one year ends on September 30 next and the new measure extends it to September 30, 2000. It relates mostly to the non-military sanctions.

Meanwhile, the Senate last week approved an amendment which envisages suspension of all sanctions against the two countries for five years along with the controversial Pakistan-specific Pressler amendment. Its author was Republican Senator Sam Brownback.

Congressman Gilman, who is Chairman of the powerful House International Relations Committee, announced in the House that he intended to bring a new amendment, on the lines of the one sponsored by Senator Brownback.

Democratic Congressman Frank Pallone, by and large, agreed with Mr Gilman and promised full support to the anti-sanction measure.

Indications are that the measure will have no difficulty in securing the House clearance in view of the general opposition to the sanctions which, according to most lawmakers, have failed to advance the cause of non-proliferation.

Besides, they have adversely affected U.S. business interest, allowing unnecessary advantage to their rivals from other countries.

The only controversial provision in the Brownback amendment appears to be the repeal of the Pressler amendment, which is likely to be opposed by some Congressmen, including Mr Ackerman and Mr Pallone (both Democrats).

Meanwhile, Mr Ackerman has presented a comprehensive plan for lifting nuclear-related sanctions against India but insisted on retaining the 1985 Pakistan-specific Pressler amendment which a Senate amendment seeks to remove.

USA allows grace days for KLA

WASHINGTON, June 16 (Reuters) — The USA has said NATO would give the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) some days of grace before it starts "demilitarising" the guerrillas.

Even then NATO will not necessarily disarm all members of the KLA, the rebel group which has been fighting the Serbian forces for the independence of the province, a US spokesman said yesterday.

In the meantime, NATO forces will disarm only those KLA members who provoke withdrawing Serbian forces and refuse to obey instructions to back off, said Brigadier-General John Craddock, Commander of Task Force Falcon, the US contingent.

NATO expects to reach an agreement with the KLA soon on how the guerrilla army will "demilitarise", Craddock added.

"The first task is to get the Serb troops out. Then we will begin working on the other goals that NATO has is to demilitarise the KLA," he told reporters in a conference cell from Skopje.

As serbs withdraw and NATO moves in, KLA guerrillas have come out into the open, appearing on the streets armed and in uniform and in some places setting up checkpoints on the roads.

An AFP report from Washington says US President Bill Clinton and his security team were set to fan out over Europe to patch up an alarming peacekeeping dispute with Russia as tensions over Kosovo flared.

Yesterday US Secretary of State Madeleine Albright and Defence Secretary William Cohen meet with their Russian counterparts in Helsinki to discuss the stand-off.

LONDON DPA: The British Government will halt further flights from refugee camps after accepting an intake of 4,000 Kosovo refugees, Home Secretary Jack Straw said.

Mr Straw said the 4,000 refugees and another 10,000 ethnic Albanians who came to Britain prior to the outbreak of the war would be allowed to remain in Britain for another 12 months.

He said however that the government hoped that most of the refugees who came to the country on flights organised in cooperation with the United Nations High Commissioner of Refugees (UNHCR) would return home.

The minister said asylum proceedings for the remaining 10,000 Kosovo Albanians would be "temporarily suspended".

Mbeki has tough job on hand

JOHANNESBURG, June 16 (PTI) — Enigmatic and unflappable Thabo Mbeki, who was sworn in as post-apartheid South Africa’s second President today, enters office to succeed the larger-than-life image of elder statesman Nelson Mandela.

Mr Mbeki, Mr Mandela’s chosen heir apparent in preference to the charismatic Cyril Ramphosa, will also have to come to grips with the challenge of crippling poverty and widespread unemployment that is fast threatening the fragile peace between the country’s majority Blacks and the Whites.

The 56-year old Mbeki, who has consolidated himself in the country’s administration placing his trusted aides in all important positions during his last five years as Vice-President, has his task cut out but is little known among the masses unlike the hugely popular Mandela.

The smooth succession to the top post of the continent’s most influential country marks a remarkable passage for the suave Communist-turned liberal who started off as a member of the African National Congress’ armed wing but now dreams of an African renaissance.

Polite and knowledgeable, Mbeki led the ANC, which he has headed since December 1997 to victory at the hustings on the plank of a strong government to tackle poverty, unemployment and crime to woo back disillusioned voters.

Pipe-smoking Mbeki, who is fond of quoting from English poets, was born into a family of intellectuals on June 18, 1947. His father was the redoubtable Communist and philosopher Govan, who was a founding member of the ANC’s military wing, Umkhonto we Sizwe.

Mr Mbeki was sent abroad for studies which included a stint at Sussex University in Britain and in the Soviet Union where he picked up valuable military education that stood him in good stead in his later years in the ANC, then fighting for freedom from white-minority rule and overthrow of apartheid.

But it was in the latter part of the ANC’s exile that he really came into his own. The ambitious and hard-working Mbeki caught the eye of late ANC President Oliver Tambo who groomed him as his right-hand man.

During the late 1980s as white Afrikaners engaged with the ANC in Dakar, Lusaka, and Harare, it was voice of the Mr Mbeki, the Afrikaners learnt to trust.

Back home, of course, he could not be quoted in the media. He had no constituency among the ghettos of the majority. When he returned home in 1990 after 28 years in exile, he was unknown, except to a few colleagues. But he quickly and efficiently built a power base to become a force to reckon with. With the ailing Tambo dying shortly after the assassination in 1993 of Chris Hani, the ANC’s military legend, he became the number two in the party.

Mr Ramaphosa had far more internal support than Mr Mbeki, having been an outstanding leader during the late 1980s. But Mr Mandela chose Mr Mbeki over him. After all, Mr Mbeki had been trained by his best friend, Oliver Tambo and was more experienced on the international stage.

Mr Ramaphosa quit politics, and Mr Mbeki stepped gracefully into the number two position for which he had been working.

Analysts believe that Mr Mbeki will not brook any nonsense during his period in office and will concentrate more on securing in equality for the blacks than worry about the concerns of the white minority who are loath to give up their apartheid-era privileges.

Violence may delay vote in East Timor

DILI, June 16 (DPA) — Violence and intimidation by pro-Jakarta militias remain widespread in the troubled territory of East Timor and could result in a delay to the referendum on self-determination, a senior UN Official said today.

"It is clear there is not as of now a violence-free or intimidation-free environment in East Timor,’’ said David Wimhurst, spokesman for the United Nations Assistance Mission to East Timor (UNAMET).

"Generally speaking, the security situation outside Dili is characterised by groups of militia harassing and intimidating the local population," he said.

He said village men tended to flee into the hills when militia arrived, leaving behind vulnerable groups of women and children who were subjected to violent intimidation.

Mr Wimhurst said UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan would make an assessment of the security situation based on a confidential cable sent by UNAMET chief Ian Martin, compiled by the mission’s security and political personnel.

He said, while the armed pro-independence group Falintil had given assurances of safety to UN Personnel, no such guarantees had been received from any of the pro-Jakarta militia groups.

Barak to go ahead with settlement plans

JERUSALEM, June 16 (DPA) — Israeli Prime Minister-elect Ehud Barak has promised a potential coalition partner that he will not cancel plans to include the Israeli West Bank settlement of Ma’ale Adumim in the Jerusalem administrative area, the Israeli Ha’aretz daily reported today.

Mr Barak also promised to continue with controversial plans to build a Jewish settlement, Har Homa, in East Jerusalem.

He made these promises to representatives of the National Religious Party (NRP) whom he is trying to entice into a governing coalition.

The Israeli newspaper said, however, that Mr Barak made no promises on construction of a Jewish settlement at Ras el Amud, also in East Jerusalem.

The commitments would not be included in the coalition guidelines, but took the form of an oral promise to the NRP, Ha’aretz said.

Outgoing Israeli Defence Minister Moshe Arens recently gave the order to combine Ma’ale Adumim with Jerusalem. Palestinians have demanded that Barak rescind this order when he formally takes charge of the office.

Maoists kill four cops

KATHMANDU, June 16 (Reuters) — Suspected members of an extreme Communist group killed four police officers at a police post in West Nepal and four villagers in other attacks, media reports said today.

Six security officers were also wounded in the gunbattle at the police post in Laha village, the reports said. No one claimed responsibility for the attack.

Bovine tippler
NEWTON ABBOT (England): Did you hear the one about the cow that walked into the bar and drank a pint and a half of strong ale? There’s no punchline. That’s exactly what happened in this southwestern English town last week. The thirsty brown-and-white cow in question wandered away from the town’s cattle market and onto the grounds of the nearby Porter Black’s pub. The wayward bovine clopped through the outdoor beer garden, into the pub and bellied up to the bar, announcing its presence with a startling moo. Pub manager Tom Donoghue, not knowing what else to do, drew some Wadsworth 6X ale in a slop bucket and offered it up. “It sucked it up like a suckling calf. It drank about a pint and a half,” Mr Donoghue said. — AP

N. Korea missile
TOKYO: Japan has detected moves indicating North Korea is preparing to launch a ballistic missile, a Japanese economic daily reported on Wednesday. The Nihon Keizai Shimbun quoted Japanese Government sources as saying on Tuesday North Korea may launch the Taepodong missile, which has a range of more than 1,500 km, as early as July or August. Japan detected the recent moves in cooperation with the USA using US intelligence satellites. — DPA

“Ease arms export”
WASHINGTON: The Pentagon has urged the US Government to ease arms expor-regulations, Defence News has reported. According to the weekly, the new draft policy, to be formally issued in the next few weeks, recommends a review of US munitions control list “to identify items and technologies that should no longer be controlled either because they represent low-risk transactions, or because of their widespread availability, are no longer controllable.” — PTI

Emergency in Solomon
AUCKLAND: A state of emergency has been proclaimed in the Solomon Islands to give the police extra powers “to deal with criminal elements” involved in worsening civil unrest, Minister of State Alfred Sesako said here on Wednesday. The Pacific country faces crisis on its main island of Guadalcanal, where indigenous people are trying to drive out residents from the nearby rival island of Malaita, the most populated island. — AFP