1650 dead, 3900 injured in Taiwan quake
TAIPEI, Sept 21 — Rescue workers dug furiously for survivors tonight after Taiwan's worst earthquake on record left more than 1,650 persons dead and 2,650 others buried in the debris of collapsed buildings around the island.


USA warns against coup bid in Pak
NEW YORK, Sept 21 — The USA, concerned about political ferment in Pakistan, has warned political and military actors there it would ‘strongly oppose’ any attempt to overthrow the government, US officials have said.

Accord to make KLA civilian force
PRISTINA, Sept 21 — The Kosovo Liberation Army and the NATO-led KFOR peacekeeping force have signed an agreement turning the ex-rebel group into a purely civilian body, KFOR said.

Lift all sanctions, N. Korea tells USA
TOKYO, Sept 21 — North Korea today welcomed a landmark US decision to ease sanctions against it, but urged Washington to go even further to improve ties.

Laden ‘poses bigger threat’
WASHINGTON, Sept 21 — Saudi-born millionaire Osama bin Laden, who has declared a “holy war” against the USA, India and Israel, now poses an even bigger threat than some terrorist states, the US Congressional Research Service has said.

1650 dead, 3900 injured in Taiwan quake

TAIPEI, Sept 21 (Reuters DPA) — Rescue workers dug furiously for survivors tonight after Taiwan's worst earthquake on record left more than 1,650 persons dead and 2,650 others buried in the debris of collapsed buildings around the island.

The government said more than 3,900 persons were injured, swamping medical services and prompting appeals for doctors and nurses to report to hospitals and clinics to help.

Apartment and office buildings toppled and some 30,000 houses were damaged or destroyed in Taipei and in the mountainous region south of the capital.

The tremor struck at 1:47 a.m. local time 11.57 p.m. IST on Monday, with the epicentre near Nantou, about 150 km southwest of Taipei.

As the night fell, more buildings collapsed in aftershocks as rescuers dug with shovels and their bare hands for survivors.

In Taipei rescuers freed 108 persons from the rubble of the toppled Songshan Hotel, while more than 50 remained trapped as darkness fell, Taiwan radio said.

A state of emergency was declared and the armed forces were brought in to help rescue efforts. Japan, the USA and political rival China pledged assistance following the quake, which measured between 7.6 and 8.1 on the Richter scale.

Putting aside political differences, Chinese President Jiang Zemin extended condolences to the victims of the quake and his government offered humanitarian assistance.

"Taiwan compatriots are our compatriots and their sufferings are the concerns of the Chinese people," said Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Zhang Qiyue, quoting earlier remarks by Jiang, who also heads the ruling Communist Party and the military.

"We are ready to provide all assistance to mitigate the losses caused by this earthquake in the Taiwan region," she told a regular news briefing.

Though the disaster hit before dawn, the true extent of the carnage became apparent only after sunrise. Buildings and bridges had collapsed, smoke from fires hung in the air and ambulance sirens wailed through the debris-strewn streets.

Dazed and panicked residents huddled in parks, many crying and too scared to return to their homes, as rescuers worked with cranes and earth-moving equipment to reach survivors.

"I don’t think the Taiwan people have done anything to deserve this," said Lee Ping, a 39-year-old Taipei accountant. "Why did God punish us in the this way?"

The worst hit were the central cities near the epicentre, Nantou, Taichung and Zhangua, 150 km southwest of Taipei, where apartment blocks had collapsed or toppled onto their sides.

In the capital, a city of 2.5 million persons, fire-fighters battled blazes throughout the day. Construction cranes and fire ladders were used to rescue people trapped in the ruins of buildings.

"I am so frightened," said Liu Yi-Hua, 29-year-old Taipei English teacher, shocked and too scared to return to her Taipei apartment building. "I feel so helpless."

Another resident, Liu Chung-Ching, a 70-year-old retired teacher, recounted feeling the quake as he sat in his 17th floor apartment, watching bookshelves topple and the glass door of a cabinet shatter.

Liu said he wanted to take his wife, a stroke victim, out of the building but realised he could not use the lift. "So I waited in the flat, held her hand and waited to die," he said. "It was the scariest day of my life."

Seismologists in the USA and Hong Kong recorded a strength of 7.6 while a centre in Europe measured 8.1. A Tsunami, or tidal wave, warning was initially issued for Taiwan, Japan and the Philippines but later withdrawn.

At 5:56 a.m. local time an aftershock measuring 6.4 hit near the central mountain resort of Alishan. There were more than 800 aftershocks on Tuesday. Officials warned that more severe aftershocks could strike for the next two weeks and urged people not to panic.

More than 6.4 million households were without electricity, and many without water or the telephone lines. Most businesses, banks, schools and the stock exchange stayed closed. Three mass transit lines in Taipei were shut down.

Damage was worst in Nantou county, a mountainous, sparsely populated area in central Taiwan, and Chiayi county near Taipei. There was also extensive damage in the affluent Hsin Chuang suburb of Taipei and Yuanli township in central Changhua county.

President Lee Teng-Hui called for calm and premier Vincent Shao established an emergency task force to coordinate disaster relief.

The Broadcasting Corporation of China called on the public to donate cash, clothing and drinking water, as well as cooling containers to preserve the bodies pulled from the rubble.

Taiwan lies on the Pacific "rim of fire", which links the Aleutian Islands, Japan, the Philippines, New Zealand, Chile and the USA. Two-thirds of the world’s earthquakes strike this area.

The worst quake to hit Taiwan killed 3,185 persons in 1935, and left 9,215 injured when the city of Taihoku was completely destroyed, according to China’s Xinhua news agency.

A magnitude 7.3 quake struck off the island’s east coast in 1963, killing 18 persons. In 1951, a magnitude 7.3 quake struck Taidong in southeastern Taiwan, killing 353.

Puli, the epicentre of today’s killer quake, was struck by four severe tremors between August 1919 and February 1920.

Taiwan is hit by about 3,000 earthquakes per year, but most strike well off the east coast and rarely cause severe damage.

USA warns against coup bid in Pak

NEW YORK, Sept 21 (Reuters) — The USA, concerned about political ferment in Pakistan, has warned political and military actors there it would ‘strongly oppose’ any attempt to overthrow the government, US officials have said.

“We hope there will be no return to the days of interrupted democracy in Pakistan,” one senior official told Reuters in an interview yesterday.

“We would strongly oppose any attempt to change the government through extraconstitutional means,” the official added.

The Clinton Administration, acting discreetly through diplomatic channels, has also reminded Islamabad that peaceful demonstrations and free speech should be permitted in a democratic system.

“It is a strong message for both sides. The government should allow legitimate expression and freedom of the Press,” the senior official added.

Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif has been under attack at home for his decision to withdraw Pakistani-backed militants from Kargil in the disputed region of Kashmir.

Pakistan’s economy remains in dire shape and there is increasing unhappiness with some measures used to stifle political opposition, including detentions.

Opposition forces two weeks ago called a two-day strike in protest the government’s heavy-handed response in arresting what witnesses said were more than 1,000 persons ahead of an Opposition-backed rally.

Although there is no sign of any imminent coup against Sharif, US officials say the Pakistani Press and talk in elite circle is full of dissatisfaction with the Prime Minister.

“There is enough speculation out there, both publicly and in the corridors” that the Administration felt it necessary to issue its warnings, a US official said.

From the US perspective, one of the more troubling commentaries came from Imran Khan, one of Pakistan’s former cricket luminaries now involved in politics.

Imran Khan told the Washington Post last week that “all the opposition in Pakistan has combined on a one-point agenda to get rid of him (Sharif).”

US congress about the stability of Pakistan’s government are not just theoretical. No elected Pakistan leader has completed his full term. Sharif, who took office in February, 1997, is about half-way through his term.

India to examine Pak request

UNITED NATIONS, Sept 21 (PTI) — India said today it would examine any request by Pakistan for Foreign-Minister-level talks between the two countries on the fringes of the ongoing UN General Assembly session here but made it clear that it had to be “productive and meaningful.”

Both External Affairs Minister Jaswant Singh and his Pakistani counterpart, Mr Sartaj Aziz, are in New York heading their respective delegations to the 54th session of the UN General Assembly.

Neither India nor Pakistan has so far made any request to the other side for a meeting, a senior Indian official told reporters here.

Asked what would be India’s response if Pakistan requests for such a meeting, the official said: “We will examine it.” However, he said, if it took place, it had to be “productive and meaningful.”

Meanwhile, India and Britain have expressed concern over rising international and narco-terrorism, especially emanating from Taliban-controlled areas of Afghanistan. Mr Jaswant Singh and British Foreign Secretary Robin Cook, who held wide-ranging talks here yesterday discussed the entire gamut of the problem and means and ways to combat the menace.

External Affairs Minister Jaswant Singh’s meeting with US Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, scheduled for Friday, has been postponed to Monday.

UN must curb rights abusers: Annan

UNITED NATIONS, Sept 21 (Reuters) — UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan said the UN Security Council could not sit back and do nothing when gross human rights violations occurred, even if this meant military action.

Opening the last UN General Assembly debate in the 20th century yesterday, Annan told Presidents and Prime Ministers that “massive and systematic violations of human rights — wherever they may take place — should not be allowed to stand”.

He said the danger was that others, such as NATO, in its bombing of Serbia over Kosovo earlier this year, would take international law into its own hands if the Security Council did not enforce its decisions. And without at least the threat of enforcement, no one would take the directives by the council seriously in future.

“If states bent on criminal behaviour know that frontiers are not an absolute defence. If they know that the Security Council will take action to halt crimes against humanity, then they will not embark on such a course of action in expectation of sovereign impunity”, he declared.

Mr Annan’s theme was picked up by French Prime Minister Lionel Jospin but disputed by Algerian President Abdelaziz Bouteflika, speaking for the Organisation of African Unity.

Mr Bouteflika challenged the trend towards intervention in internal conflicts in the name of human rights, saying it often ignored the economic and social roots of such crises.

“When does aid stop and interference begin?” Mr Bouteflika asked. “Is interference valid only for weak states or for all states without distinction”?

The council recently authorised an Australian-led multinational force to calm violence in East Timor, where the credibility of the UN was at stake after it organised an August 30 referendum. Indonesia bowed to international pressure and invited foreign troops.

But Mr Annan, recalling UN inaction during the 1994 massacres in Rwanda, said intervention and attention was selective and criteria were needed to chart its future.

“The choice,” he said, “must not be between Security Council unity and inaction in the face of genocide — as in the case of Rwanda, on one hand, and council division, with regional action, as in the case of Kosovo on the other.’’

But the French Prime Minister said: “we must defend the principle of intervention by the international community, under UN auspices, to bring relief to the victims”.

British Foreign Minister Robin Cook said while intervention must always be the last resort, “we have a shared responsibility to act also when confronted with genocide, mass displacement of people or major breaches of international humanitarian law”.

“To know that such atrocities are being committed and not to act against them is to make us complicit in them. And to be passive in the face of such events is to make it more likely they will be repeated,’’ Mr Cook said.

Namibia’s President, Sam Nujoma, however, said the main problem was the Security Council itself and the veto power held by the USA, Britain, France, Russia and China. In some instances, he said, divisions within the council had ‘’prolonged conflicts and human suffering’’ rendering the 15-nation body ineffective.

MNF takes control of Dili

DILI (East Timor), Sept 21 (AP, AFP) — Tanks, trucks and armoured personnel carriers rumbled off warships, past demoralised Indonesian soldiers watching multinational force (MNF) peacekeepers take control of East Timor today as jubilant citizens cheered the peacekeepers and mocked the Indonesian troops.

Australian soldiers took over warehouses pillaged by militia gangs and their army backers, who looted their way through Dili after the August 30 UN-sponsored referendum. The landslide vote in favour of independence sparked a campaign of terror by pro-Indonesian forces.

The three-week rampage appeared to peter out yesterday in Dili with the arrival of the first international peacekeepers. Their landing at Dili airport effectively marked the end of 24 years of iron-fisted Indonesian rule.

In Jakarta, President B.J. Habibie urged lawmakers today to accept East Timorese independence as a means of restoring the country’s international image.

Members of Indonesia’s highest legislative body must still approve the independence vote in a session expected by November. Opponents have said the presence of peacekeepers violates national sovereignty.

Hundreds of refugees streamed out of the hills where they had sought refuge and returned to the capital to watch the UN-mandated force take control of the city.

At the airport, the airlift continued through the night. The operation’s commanders said they expected to have some 2,800 troops on the ground by the end of the day.

Multinational troops stepped up the pressure on remaining gang members in and around Dili. Soldiers manning a roadblock near Dili airport halted a taxi with six men and discovered several weapons. The men were handcuffed and led away for questioning.

East Timor’s independence leader, Jose Alexandre “Xanana” Gusmao, said in Darwin, Australia, that he would return to his homeland soon. In his first comments since the multinational force moved in, Gusmao thanked international leaders for intervening to stop the bloodshed.

Meanwhile, the first warship of a UN-authorised force for East Timor arrived here today, witnesses said.

The Royal Australian Navy ship Jervis Bay berthed at 6:48 am (2248 GMT yesterday) in Dili harbour to the cheers of more than 1,000 refugees who had made the port their home in recent weeks.

GENEVA: The UN Human Rights Commission in Geneva is to hold an extraordinary session on Thursday to examine killings and atrocities carried out in East Timor, a UN spokesman said.

Rampaging pro-Jakarta militias are believed to have massacred thousands of Timorese following a vote in the territory soundly backing independence from Indonesia.

Accord to make KLA civilian force

PRISTINA, Sept 21 (AFP, Reuters) — The Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) and the NATO-led KFOR peacekeeping force have signed an agreement turning the ex-rebel group into a purely civilian body, KFOR said.

Western officials, who were present at the talks between the two sides late last night, said the pact ended a row between the KLA and KFOR over the formalities of a local civilian security force to be created.

The disagreement had forced the KFOR to extend the negotiations past a Sunday midnight deadline.

Meanwhile, the former military chief of the KLA, Agim Ceku, was named last night the supreme commander of the UN-approved civilian Kosovo Protection Force, which has succeeded the ex-rebel group, UN administrator for Kosovo, Bernard Kouchner, said.

Bernard Kouchner, the French head of Kosovo’s international administration, said the talks had been difficult.

The KLA, whose strength has been estimated at between 10,000 and 20,000, began an armed campaign against Serb rule in Kosovo last year after the province’s ethnic Albanian majority had suffered years of repression at the hands of Belgrade.

The Serbs’ brutal response to the offensive prompted NATO’s bombing of Yugoslavia earlier this year which drove all Serb forces from Kosovo in June and established a de facto international protectorate in the province.

Midnight on Sunday was the original deadline for the KLA, UCK in Albania, to have completed demilitarising and NATO said more than 10,000 weapons had been handed in.

But the NATO-led KFOR peacekeeping force decided to allow the KLA to exist as a legal force for an extra 48 hours while the deal was hammered out on its successor.

Lift all sanctions, N. Korea tells USA

TOKYO, Sept 21 (Reuters) — North Korea today welcomed a landmark US decision to ease sanctions against it, but urged Washington to go even further to improve ties.

“It is a good development, though it is not comprehensive and came belatedly,” the official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said.

“The USA should show good faith by lifting the remaining sanctions against the DPRK (North Korea) so as to make it a comprehensive and substantial measure,” it said.

Washington eased long-standing economic sanctions against North Korea last Friday, freeing trade in most consumer goods, commercial transport of cargo and passengers, and fund transfers between individuals in North Korea and the USA.

US officials said the action was a first step toward more normal relations with the Stalinist state, a top US security concern for more than four decades after the 1950-53 Korean war ended in an armed truce.

But other strict sanctions based on the US designation of North Korea as a “terrorist state” and on its exports of missile technology will remain in place.

Pyongyang today urged Washington to lift those remaining sanctions as well as withdraw its forces from South Korea and sign a peace treaty with it in order to improve relations.

The USA, which has 35,000 troops stationed on the territory of its ally South Korea, has rejected such demands from the north, saying a peace treaty should be first signed between the two Koreas.

Laden ‘poses bigger threat’

WASHINGTON, Sept 21 (PTI) — Saudi-born millionaire Osama bin Laden, who has declared a “holy war” against the USA, India and Israel, now poses an even bigger threat than some terrorist states, the US Congressional Research Service has said.

“The major state sponsors are, to some extent, becoming eclipsed by the radical Islamic terrorist network of exiled Saudi dissident Osama bin Laden”, says the CRS report by specialist Kenneth Katzman.

Bin Laden’s goals were “to oust pro-US regimes in the Middle East and gain removal of US troops from the region”, it says, while pointing out that Bin Laden was “independently financed.” His own personal wealth is estimated at $ 300 million and he has received large donations, particularly from individuals in the Gulf states.

“The administration and the Congress,” CRS notes, “have tended to rely more on economic and political pressure against state sponsors in an effort to make them more cautious. In 1998 and 1999, the administration has, to some degree, attempted to reward gestures by state sponsors to distance themselves from international terrorism.”