Lanka firm on poll despite reverses
COLOMBO, Nov 11 — The Sri Lankan Government has said it would go ahead with the Presidential poll despite heavy military losses in the ongoing offensive against LTTE and accused the Opposition United National Party (UNP) of conspiring with the Tamil rebels to derail the election.

Clinton flays India’s N-doctrine
WASHINGTON, Nov 11 — In his gloomiest yet report to Congress on non-proliferation efforts in India and Pakistan and Indo-Pak relations, President Clinton has criticised New Delhi’s draft nuclear doctrine as indicative of its intention to make nuclear weapons an integral part of national defence.

‘No talks’ with Chechen warlords
MOSCOW, Nov 11 — Russian commander-in-charge of operations in Chechnya, Gen Victor Kazantsev, has said that the current offensive against the rebels would “not be terminated until the Caucasian state is liberated,” Voice of Russia reported.

Over 2100 bodies exhumed in Kosovo
UNITED NATIONS, Nov 11 — In an initial report on war crimes in Kosovo, international investigators say they have unearthed 2,108 bodies, most of them ethnic Albanian victims of Serbia’s campaign of ethnic cleansing.

Bin Laden’s offer rejected
MOSCOW, Nov 11 — Saudi dissident and bombing suspect Osama bin Laden’s bid to arbitrate between warring Afghan parties has been rejected by Gen Ahmed Shah Masood, leader of the North Afghan anti-Taliban forces, Voice of Russia has revealed.

Investigator on Iraq quits
UNITED NATIONS, Nov 11 — A UN special investigator whose reports of human rights abuses in Iraq prompted Iraqi leaders to ban him from the country has resigned, UN sources said.

Sharif accused of hijacking

KARACHI, Nov 11 (Reuters) — Ousted Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif has been accused of hijacking and kidnapping charges which carry the death penalty, the police said today.

The complaint by a top-ranking military officer was made against Mr Sharif and five others in connection with the attempted diversion of a plane carrying Gen Pervez Musharraf, who hours later overthrew Mr Sharif in a bloodless coup on October 12.

Mr Sharif and several cabinet ministers and other high-ranking officials have been in detention since the coup.

The Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) flight carrying General Musharraf and 200 civilians back from Sri Lanka was denied landing rights at Karachi airport on October 12, shortly after Mr Sharif had announced that General Musharraf had been fired.

The plane was forced to circle the airport and ran dangerously low on fuel before troops loyal to General Musharraf seized control of the country and the airport.

General Musharraf in a speech last month saying why he had dismissed Mr Sharif, said the lives of the passengers had been put at risk because of the refusal to allow the plane to land.

General Musharraf has said he wants to steer Pakistan out of a “dark age” after what he called the despotic rule of Mr Sharif, who is been held under what the military calls “protective custody”.

The general, who has set up a civilian Cabinet, has vowed to clean up Pakistan’s chaotic political scene and revive the heavily indebted nation’s economy, which lurched from crisis to crisis under Mr Sharif’s 31-month rule.

A police spokesman at Karachi airport police station said today that he did not know when formal charges would be laid, but the complaint was the first step in that process in Pakistan.

Lieut-Col Atiquzzaman Kiani, of the military’s regional headquarters in Karachi, filed the complaint.

The airport police official said the other accused included former PIA chairman Shahid Khakan Abbasi, Mr Sharif’s former adviser Ghous Ali Shah, former Sindh police chief Rana Maqbool and Mr Aminullah Chaudhry, former Director-General of the Civil Aviation Authority.

During the past military regime of Gen Zia-ul-Haq, deposed Prime Minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto was hanged on a disputed conviction of conspiring to commit a political murder.

ISLAMABAD: Supporters of ousted Pakistan Prime minister Nawaz Sharif on Thursday expressed fears that he might not get a fair trial, if he was formally charged with hijacking and kidnapping.

The police said a formal complaint had been filed against Mr Sharif for his role in the diverting of a civilian plane carrying Gen Musharraf just hours before the general overthrew Mr Sharif in a bloodless coup on October 12.

“There is increasing apprehension that it will be a mock trial and he will not be given a proper chance to defend himself”, said Mr Raja Zafarul Haq, Religious Affairs Minister in the ousted government.

“So far he has not been provided with the rights that are universally or internationally agreed provided to any person charged with such serious offences,” said Mr Haq, a senior member of Mr Sharif’s Pakistan Muslim League (PML).

Mr Haq told Reuters Television the military had not allowed Mr Sharif to meet his lawyers, friends or family since the coup. The military says Mr Sharif is being held under what it calls protective custody.

Musharraf wouldn't land in India

ISLAMABAD, Nov 11 (UNI) — When the Pakistan International Airlines plane carrying Gen Pervez Musharraf home from Colombo was denied permission to land by the Karachi control tower, India was definitely not on the dismissed Army Chief’s list of favoured destinations.

This can happen only over my dead body, the Chief of Army Staff (COAS) told the pilot when he was informed that the plane had just about enough fuel to reach India. (The Ahmedabad airport across the Rann of Kutch, was the closest from the port city of Karachi with facilities to handle jet passenger aircraft).

General Musharraf said the pilot told me: Sir, we have one hour’s fuel left and with this kind of fuel we can go to India or Muscat. And, he said, we had been ordered to fly at 15,000 to 20,000 feet. And then he said he was in the process of diving. We are actually now left with 45 minutes fuel and we can only go to India.

I told him over my dead body. We are not going to India, the Chief Executive told the Associated Press of Pakistan, recounting the events that unfolded in the dramatic hour after his dismissal as COAS.

General Musharraf said he was sure Karachi Airport was getting instructions from Islamabad, at the highest level. The directions reeked of "callousness."

I took about three, four minutes (to react). Actually, we were just relaxing coming back from Sri Lanka when my private secretary Brigadier Nadim said the pilot was inviting me to the cockpit for something urgent.

When I went to the pilot, he said that we were not being allowed to land. And the worst was that they were telling us you can’t land anywhere in Pakistan, you get out of Pakistan.

So, I said, what is the situation? Where do we go.?

I said that tell the situation to the ATC (Air Traffic Control). So, we told him we were not going to India. They spent five minutes discussing. They were in contact with somebody and I am pretty sure now that they were getting instructions from Islamabad at the highest level. So, after five to 10 minutes, he comes back and says we cannot land here and get out of Pakistan.

By this time, the pilot said that now we do not even have the fuel to go to India. We have got, maybe, 35 minutes to land. So, I said, OK. Hell with everything, land at Karachi.

The pilot, however, said that landing lights on the runway must have been switched off. There must be something across the runway which would not allow us to land. In fact, it would be a total disaster. I had to accept but I said: Paint this picture immediately to the ATC. Because, we can’t go anywhere. We don’t have the fuel to go anywhere. Where do we go.?

The ATC came on and again there was a long silence because I believe they were again on the telephone communicating with somebody or the other.

They came back on the air and said: You have been permitted to divert to Nawabshah and land there. So, I said: Let’s go. We have the fuel, we can reach Nawabshah. We diverted to Nawabshah. And somewhere in between we crossed Hyderabad. I saw Hyderabad down there.

General Musharraf said that was when the GOC, General Iftikhar, came on the air and said he wanted the aircraft to return immediately to Karachi. Everything is alright, he told us.

CHOGM to endorse Pak’s suspension

NEW DELHI, Nov 11 (PTI) — The Commonwealth Summit at Durban will take a final decision on suspension of Pakistan from the international forum as Islamabad has not set any time-frame for restoration of democracy in the country, Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee said tonight.

"Yes, a final decision on Pakistan’s membership in the Commonwealth will be taken at the summit," Mr Vajpayee told reporters before leaving for Durban.

Pakistan had not indicated any time-frame for restoration of democracy and the Commonwealth had already taken a stand on that, he said.

"If no time-frame is fixed, the membership will have to be suspended," he said, adding "India is for restoration of democracy in Pakistan."

DURBAN (UNI, PTI): The summit, which will be inaugurated by Queen Elizabeth, is also likely to adopt a coordinated action plan to fight the menace of terrorism, which poses a serious threat to the world peace.

The election of a new Secretary-General is also high on the agenda of the last summit of this millennium.

The summit is also being attended by the heads of government of over 40 countries. Sri Lankan President Chandrika Kumaratunga has decided not to attend the summit in view of the massive offensive launched by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE).

Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina Wajed, British Prime Minister Tony Blair and leaders of a number of African nations would attend the historical summit.

Commonwealth Secretary-General Emeka Anyaoku today ruled out a "fresh range of sanctions’’ against Pakistan, but maintained political developments in that country would be constantly monitored for deciding on future course of action.

Addressing a press conference here on the eve of the CHOGM, the Secretary-General said the Commonwealth ministerial action group (CMAG) has recommended to the leaders to hold "further discussion with the military ruler to help Islamabad to return to democracy in the speedier possible rate.’’

However, he admitted that some non-governmental organisations (NGOs) were demanding tough sanctions against Pakistan following military coup.

He said the Commonwealth had yet to determine the time frame for the Pakistan military regime for installation of the democratic government.

This gave enough indication that the suspension of Pakistan would not be revoked at present preventing General Musharraf from attending the summit.

In fact, there is no official from Pakistan attending any meeting of the Commonwealth here.

Meanwhile, unprecedented security arrangements have been made for the four-day CHOGM with Durban wrapped in a "ring of steel’’ to protect leaders and representatives of 54 nations.

The leaders, who have started converging here for the summit, will be guarded by over 2500 security personnel. Several streets have been closed for traffic and pedestrians.

In London, Britain endorsed India’s stand that Pakistan should remain suspended from the Commonwealth as a sequel to the military takeover in Islamabad.

"Pakistan will remain suspended as per the recommendation of the eight-member Commonwealth ministerial action group and also as per the Harare Declaration of 1991," Mr Alastair Campbell, British Prime Minister Tony Blair’s Chief Press Secretary told newsmen last evening.

He also ruled out the question of Kashmir figuring at CHOGM in Durban, South Africa, beginning tomorrow.

Lanka firm on poll despite reverses

COLOMBO, Nov 11 (PTI) — The Sri Lankan Government has said it would go ahead with the Presidential poll despite heavy military losses in the ongoing offensive against LTTE and accused the Opposition United National Party (UNP) of conspiring with the Tamil rebels to derail the election.

“On no account will the election (slated for December 21) be postponed from its scheduled date,” Media Minister Mangala Samaraweera told Parliament yesterday.

According to media reports, he alleged that the previous week’s concerted counter attack by the LTTE on army positions in the north took place after a UNP “emissary” met rebel leaders in the northern Vanni jungles.

Intervening in the debate on the extension of emergency to areas effected by ethnic insurgency, Mr Samaraweera claimed the rebel attacks followed the visit of the editor of Sinhalese magazine ‘Irida Perumuna’ to the north on UNP directive to seek LTTE’s help to destabilise the poll.

Calling for a full-scale investigation into the visit of the journalist, Saman Wagaarachchi, to Vanni, the minister alleged that UNP leader Ranil Wickramasinghe was trying to become the President of the country with LTTE’s assistance.

Mr Wickramasinghe told the Foreign Correspondents’ Association here yesterday that he was confident of victory in the election and said he would initiate a dialogue with LTTE to end ethnic bloodshed in the country.

He held Kumaratunga’s aggressive military policy to crush LTTE responsible for serious military reversals. He attributed the army’s defeat at the hands of the rebels due to battle fatigue suffered by the troops.

He claimed the army has lost over 1,000 soldiers and had pulled over 20,000 troops out of their well-entrenched defence positions due to battle fatigue.

Meanwhile, President Chandrika Kumaratunga, seeking re-election, has agreed to a live TV debate with her arch-rival, Mr Ranil Wickramasinghe, provided he announces his proposals to end the ethnic conflict.

In the latest of her series of open letters to the UNP leader, Ms Kumaratunga said she “unequivocally” accepts Mr Wickramasinghe’s invitation for a debate with him on any major issue facing the country.

Mr Wickramasinghe had told foreign correspondents here yesterday that by insisting on knowing his policies early, she was running away from the debate.

“She can still criticise me and question me for not having a proper policy. Why is she running scared,” he asked.

VAVUNIYA (Reuters): Thous-ands of civilians were preparing to leave Sri Lanka’s northern government-held frontier town of Vavuniya after Tamil Tiger rebels warned of fresh attacks, witnesses said today.

They said the LTTE, in a clandestine radio broadcast, had announced plans to attack the northern towns of Vavuniya and Jaffna and north-western Mannar.

“The town is almost deserted with only soldiers and policemen patrolling. In the few shops that are open, people were packing their goods into vehicles to move out,’’ photographer Anuruddha Lokuhapuarachchi said on the telephone.

Following the rebel threat, some 7,000 civilians boarded a train that left Vavuniya late yesterday and shop owners cleared their shops, said residents contacted on the telephone.

“Nobody knows what to do. Whoever can are leaving Vavuniya town to areas they feel are safe from possible artillery shells fired by the LTTE,’’ said a resident who did not wish to be identified.

The Tigers, fighting for a homeland for minority Tamils, recently launched a major offensive against government troops in the north. Scores have been killed in intense fighting.

Deputy Defence Minister Anuruddha Ratwatte discounted the rebel threat yesterday and said troops were taking pre-emptive steps and could handle any confrontation in Vavuniya.

Clinton flays India’s N-doctrine

WASHINGTON, Nov 11 (PTI) — In his gloomiest yet report to Congress on non-proliferation efforts in India and Pakistan and Indo-Pak relations, President Clinton has criticised New Delhi’s draft nuclear doctrine as indicative of its intention to make nuclear weapons an integral part of national defence.

Mr Clinton, in a new report to Congress, noted that the Kargil conflict had complicated efforts to continue the Indo-Pak dialogue. He also took note of General Musharraf’s coup in Pakistan and the recently held elections in India as other complicating factors.

The report said the USA had “no indication that India and Pakistan played helpful roles” in Geneva on the issue of fissile material cut-off.

Mr Clinton also observed fresh problems in persuading India and Pakistan to sign the CTBT, but expressed determination to continue US non-proliferation efforts in concert with the P-5. (Five permanent members of the Security Council — the USA, China, Russia, Britain and France) and the G-8.

One more complication he listed was Pakistan’s position that it would not sign the CTBT unless the sanctions were lifted first.

Mr Clinton reported “little progress” on non-proliferation with either India or Pakistan as a result of either “international pressure” or “high-level US dialogue” with them — apparently a reference to the Jaswant Singh-Talbott and Shamshad Ahmed-Talbott talks.

Mr Clinton said in May, 1998, India and Pakistan each conducted a series of nuclear tests. World reaction included nearly universal condemnation across a broad range of international fora and multilateral support for a broad range of sanctions, including new restrictions on lending by international financial institutions unrelated to basic human needs and on aid from the G-8 and other countries.

“The Kargil conflict complicated efforts to continue this bilateral dialogue, although both sides have expressed interest in resuming the discussions at some future point. We will continue discussions with both governments at the senior and expert levels, and our diplomatic efforts in concert with the P-5, the G-8 and the international fora.

“Efforts may be further complicated by India’s release in August, 1999, of a draft of its nuclear doctrine, which, although its timing may have been politically motivated, suggests that India intends to make nuclear weapons an integral part of the national defence,” it said.

‘No talks’ with Chechen warlords

MOSCOW, Nov 11 (UNI) — Russian commander-in-charge of operations in Chechnya, Gen Victor Kazantsev, has said that the current offensive against the rebels would “not be terminated until the Caucasian state is liberated,” Voice of Russia reported.

“The Kremlin will not hold talks with the Chechen warlords, Shamil Basayev and Colonel Khattab, whose hands are stained with blood of hundreds of innocent Russians, General Kazanstev was quoted by the radio as saying yesterday.

Meanwhile, Ria Novosti quoted Premier Vladimir Putin addressing the families of martyrs as saying that “we have to fight against a well-organised and well-equipped gang of international terrorists. These are not stray criminals but are terrorists trained abroad and financed by some foreign well-wishers”.

On Russian operations, Mr Putin said: “Our response to the rebels’ threat is adequate”.

A Novosti report stated that Chechen separatists were leaving their bases in the plains and retreating to the mountainous regions. On the upper reaches, they were reportedly setting up winter camps and also destroying all road links in order to stop the advancing columns of Kremlin troops towards their hideouts.

The rebels are also wooing Azerbaijan and Georgia for weaponry and manpower. In return, they promise active support to Georgia against the separatist Abkhazians and to Azerbaijan in their struggle to liberate Nagorno-Karabakh, an enclave of Armenia in Azerbaijan, Novosti said.

As regards the military success in Chechnya, Russian media claims that over 40 per cent of Chechen land is under Russian control.

Troops have reached the outskirts of some of the strategic areas including Gudermes and Grozny. Besides, there is no slackening of air strikes on rebel fortifications.

Over 2100 bodies exhumed in Kosovo

UNITED NATIONS, Nov 11 (Reuters) — In an initial report on war crimes in Kosovo, international investigators say they have unearthed 2,108 bodies, most of them ethnic Albanian victims of Serbia’s campaign of ethnic cleansing.

Chief U.N. War Crimes Prosecutor Carla Del Ponte, briefing the Security Council yesterday on five months of digging at 195 grave sites across Kosovo, said she wanted to complete collecting evidence from 334 other common graves by next year.

However, she cautioned that the bodies exhumed did not necessarily reflect the number of actual victims “because we have discovered evidence of tampering with graves”.

Nevertheless, the figures indicated that the number of dead would be below the more than 10,000 people NATO estimated were killed before its troops occupied the Serbian province in June following 78 days of bombing.

The 195 grave sites examined by forensic teams, about a third of 529 common graves, were reported to contain 4,256 bodies, Ms Del Ponte said. The teams exhumed only 2,108 bodies.

The prosecutor said her office had received reports from the media, families and government sources that 11,334 people were buried in the 529 grave sites. But she was uncertain whether these figures could be verified.

“There are a significant number of sites where the precise number of bodies could be counted”, she said. “At these places steps were taken to hide the evidence”.

Ms Del Ponte, a Swiss citizen, assumed her post in mid-September as Chief Prosecutor for the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, created by the U.N. Security Council. She replaced Louise Arbour of Canada.

Bin Laden’s offer rejected

MOSCOW, Nov 11 (UNI) — Saudi dissident and bombing suspect Osama bin Laden’s bid to arbitrate between warring Afghan parties has been rejected by Gen Ahmed Shah Masood, leader of the North Afghan anti-Taliban forces, Voice of Russia has revealed.

Quoting Gen Masood, the Russian radio said yesterday that Bin Laden’s proposal to bring the internecine war to an end was a “mere deception.’’

Bin Laden, now reportedly in Kabul, asked the Taliban movement and their bitter foes in the northern region on Monday to enter into a peace pact and assist the Chechen rebels with adequate men and arms, the radio said.

Investigator on Iraq quits

UNITED NATIONS, Nov 11 (AP) — A UN special investigator whose reports of human rights abuses in Iraq prompted Iraqi leaders to ban him from the country has resigned, UN sources said.

Mr Max van der Stoel, the special investigator on Iraq for the UN commission on human rights, left his post last Friday, the sources said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

Since 1991, the former Dutch Foreign Minister has documented executions, kidnappings and repression of rights by Saddam Hussein’s government. Last week, he reported to the General Assembly that the human rights situation in Iraq was worsening and the repression of civil and political rights continued unabated.

Cash machine
LONDON: Shoppers mobbed a cash dispensing machine in the eastern English city of Cambridge when it began spewing out $ 20 notes instead of tens. The police was called in to guard the machine after it had dispensed the wrong notes for about five hours to lucky customers. — Reuters

Sex case
GOLDEN (Colorado): An 11-year-old Swiss-American boy charged with sexually abusing his five-year-old sister was free to return home on Wednesday after a cout here dismissed the case. The court upheld a defence motion that the boy, who was arrested in August, did not receive as speedy a trial as mandated under Colorado state law. — AFP

Costly shave
BEIRUT: A Lebanese worker asked for a shave but ended up with his wealth severely trimmed. Mr Sami sure, a construction worker in the port city of tyre who makes about $ 13 a day, did not have 1,000 Lebanese pounds to pay for a shave. So, he offered the barber half a lottery ticket, An-Nahar newspaper said on Wednesday — Reuters

Black box found
TZARARACUA (Mexico): Investigators have found the black box flight recorders of a dc-9 jetliner that crashed on a Tijuana-Mexico City flight, killing 18 persons. Scores of federal aviation investigators picked through chunks of metal, scraps of clothing and paper scattered across an avocad orchard near this town, 7 km southwest of the airport from which the Taesa plane had taken off. — AP