 |
| Saturday,
November 10, 2001, Chandigarh, India   
|
PM hopes USA would pressure Pak No anti-terror drive to curb rights, China told
India’s protest against beating
up of staffer
US backing a liability for Afghan oppn chiefs |
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
No threat to Musharraf,
says US envoy Russian equipment for N-plant
|
|
PM hopes USA would pressure Pak Washington, November 9 In a wide-ranging interview to The Washington Post to coincide with his US trip, Mr Vajpayee bluntly stated that the war against terrorism would have to be fought on a global scale against terrorist groups everywhere. “We also hope that in the context of our collective campaign against terrorism, the USA will succeed in persuading Pakistan to stop sponsoring terrorism against India,” he said. In an obvious reference to Pakistan, he said the “Safe haven offered by some countries with shelter, resources, training camps and arms have helped terrorist groups to build up a worldwide web of terror networks, with its hub in our western neighbourhood”. He said: “There is a strong, almost seamless, link between the terrorist groups operating against India and the USA. Therefore, if the aims of the war are to be achieved in full, the entire network will have to be destroyed”. Responding to written questions submitted to him by Washington Post editors, Mr Vajpayee spoke about India’s approach on the current global campaign against terrorism, developments in Afghanistan and Pakistan as also the Kashmir imbroglio. The Prime Minister welcomed the US decision to proscribe Pakistan-based militant outfits Jaish-e-Mohammad, Harkat-ul-Mujahideen (HuM) and Lashkar-e-Toiba, saying this would have a “salutary effect” on other terrorist organisations targeting India. He said the killing in Kabul of terrorists belonging to HuM in US bombings recently came as no surprise since New Delhi had known for long that such groups created by Pakistan’s intelligence agencies for terrorism in India, also had close links with the Taliban. Asked about Bush administrations’s recent pronouncements on Kashmir that it is central to Indo-Pak relations, Vajpayee said the USA was aware of New Delhi’s position on J and K. “If there is a central issue in Indo-Pak relationship, concerning J and K, it is the cross-border terrorism, which we have to counter,” he observed. To a question, he categorically ruled out any third party involvement on the Kashmir issue. “The Simla Agreement and the Lahore Declaration are bilateral agreements that have been freely entered into by India and Pakistan. These are the cornerstones of our bilateral relations, and commit both countries to address all outstanding issues peacefully, through direct bilateral dialogue”. “When two people can speak the same language, why should either side suddenly seek an interpreter”, he said. Mr Vajpayee made it clear that “there can be no place whatsoever for any third party involvement, in any aspect of our bilateral relations”. On America’s plea for restraint to avoid escalating tension over Kashmir, he said India has always exercised restraint in the “most difficult situations, just as we have taken every initiative for dialogue with Pakistan”. Stating that India had conveyed to the USA that it has no intention of complicating the ongoing global campaign against terrorism and the operations in Afghanistan, he stressed. “We do, however, have a legitimate right to take whatever action we can in our country to thwart and respond to terrorism”. He said Pakistan has not ended its sponsorship of cross-border terrorism in India. “Pakistan must realise that it cannot support the campaign against international terrorism on one hand while sponsoring terrorist groups on the other”. About a new set-up in Afghanistan, he said it would be a “grave mistake” to include any element of the Taliban in a future Afghanistan government. “The international community cannot afford to live with an Afghanistan that continues to export terrorism and violent idealogies to the rest of the world.” As an important ethnic group, Pashtoons would “naturally” have to find adequate representation in such a dispensation. However, the nature and structure of this new government would have to be decided by the Afghan people themselves, he said. Speaking at Blair House, the official Presidential guest house, the Indian Prime Minister also voiced concern about the progress of the US-led war in Afghanistan, saying it appeared that the USA was not prepared for this kind of war and that ground forces would now be needed to achieve success. “The campaign cannot be described as fully satisfactory. It appears the Taliban are well entrenched, so ground forces will have to be engaged,” he told the Post correspondent. “It appears America was not prepared for this kind of war. Now things are being put in order.” Asked about his perception on the stability of the Musharraf Government, Vajpayee said in response to the written questions “Pakistan must realise that the sponsorship of groups practising terrorism and propagating extremist ideologies eventually posed a threat to Pakistan on long-term stability.”
PTI |
|
No anti-terror drive to curb rights, China told Beijing, November 9 At meetings with President Jiang Zemin and Chinese officials, Robinson said she raised particular concern about Beijing’s campaign against ethnic Uighur Islamic separatists in its northwestern region of Xinjiang. There had been a “significant increase” in complaints of extra-judicial killings, torture and ill-treatment of Uighurs since the September 11 attacks on the USA, she told a news conference. “The volume of complaints and the seriousness of them has gone up in recent months and I find that very worrying,” she said. She quoted Vice-Premier Qian Qichen as telling her Beijing made a clear distinction between China’s 10 million-strong Muslim population and about 1,000 militants he said had been trained by Osama bin Laden or his Al-Qaida network. Uighur militants have been blamed for sporadic attacks in China, including bus bombs in the Xinjiang capital, Urumqi, in 1997 that killed nine people. China has stepped up a national “strike hard” campaign against crime, including separatism and terrorism, in its far west since September 11. Robinson said she urged Chinese officials to set a date for a a long-awaited visit by the U.N. Special Rapporteur on Torture. China has said it is willing to negotiate the terms of a visit, but has not made direct contact with the current special rapporteur, British professor Nigel Rodley, who steps down on November 22. “That is why I have been insisting very hard that the new rapporteur must get a firm date early on and I am given to understand that will be the case,” she said. “If it’s not the case, I’ll be around to say so.” Robinson said she had a long discussion with Jiang about a cabinet “white paper” on Tibet published on Thursday which trumpeted economic progress in the Himalayan region. “I again reiterated the importance of the cultural and spiritual development,” she said. “I would have to say I don’t believe that our viewpoints coincided.” China’s crackdown on Falungong, which it says is an evil cult plotting to overthrow the government, had led to widespread violations of freedoms of speech and association, She added. Chinese state media gave her visit scant coverage, focusing on an agreement she signed on Thursday on the second phase of a project to improve education about human rights among police, judges, lawyers and prison administrators.
Reuters |
|
India’s protest against beating up of staffer
Islamabad, November 9 Mr Devendra Kumar Gupta, who was dragged out of a taxi and taken away by suspected Pakistani intelligence officials, was released after three hours of interrogation, High Commission officials said today. Mr Gupta, expelled from Pakistan on November 7 and was asked to leave the country within seven days. A note verbally lodged by the Indian High Commission to the Director General in charge of the South Asia desk of the Pakistan Foreign Office at midnight last night said that Mr Gupta was forcibly abducted by the Pakistani intelligence operatives while he was returning along with his wife from shopping.
PTI |
|
|
US backing a liability for Afghan oppn chiefs Quetta, Pakistan, November 9 The last thing Afghan opposition leaders want is the reputation for being US stooges as stray bombs kill civilians in the strikes on the Taliban and their guest Osama bin Laden, prime suspect in the September 11 attacks. The 46-year-old Karzai, leader of the Popalzai tribe, has been in Afghanistan for weeks to try to persuade tribal chieftains to back the establishment of a broad-based government that would include all of Afghanistan’s diverse ethnic groups and have former King Zahir Shah as its figurehead. Karzai said he had never left Afghanistan and that he received no U.S. support in a battle with the Taliban last week — contradicting statements by U.S. Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld. With the U.S.-led bombing campaign and civilian casualties fuelling mounting anti-American sentiment not just within Afghanistan but also in Pakistani tribal areas, overt U.S. support for Karzai risks undermining his mission. Nawab Mohammad Aslam Raisani, chief of the Brahui tribe of Baluchistan, said no Afghan would tolerate open intervention in their country’s affairs by a foreign power. “If he (Karzai) is backed by America, it will be very difficult for him to win over the people,” Raisani told newsmen. The same applied to Zahir Shah, who many now viewed as a U.S. pawn, he said. “If he had kept himself impartial, he might have been acceptable to all the parties,” Raisani said. Statements from U.S. officials have left Karzai’s family increasingly frustrated. Last week they dismissed as propaganda Taliban claims Karzai had been helped by U.S. forces. “We are kind of being squeezed between the Americans saying one thing and the Taliban saying something else,” Ahmad Karzai, Karzai’s younger brother, said this week. The dilemma for Washington is that most of the Taliban’s enemies in Afghanistan and Pakistan are far from being friends of the USA. Karzai’s mission is going well, says his family, which is in contact with him twice a day by satellite telephone. Roaming around Taliban spiritual leader Mullah Mohammad Omar’s birthplace of Oruzgan province, he has won several local military commanders to his side, the family says. That would appear to be backed up by the fact that the Taliban have not yet caught him. While Afghan experts say Karzai is not one of the more powerful Afghan personalities, his mission has gained added importance to the U.S.-led alliance following the capture and execution last month by the Taliban of former mujahideen commander Abdul
Haq. Reuters |
|
No threat to Musharraf,
says US envoy Washington, November 9 “Quite frankly, I think he is in a stronger position with his people and in his country than he was even before September 11,” said Ms Chamberlin yesterday when asked in an interview on CNN whether General Musharraf’s control on power was strong. Ms Chamberlin said people in Pakistan understood that the changes General Musharraf had brought about were in their country’s interest. “His military is professional and loyal. They support him and they support his current policies. They support the change in his policy vis-a-vis Afghanistan and they support very much his movement towards joining the coalition against terror,” she asserted. The Ambassador said General Musharraf was getting stronger with each one of his decisions on the elimination of potential opposition in the military.
UNI |
|
Russian equipment for N-plant Moscow, November 9 Atomstroyexport head Viktor Kozlov added that “a Russian reactor will be delivered to the Kudankulum nuclear power plant in three years,” to be followed by a second one later, the Interfax news agency quoted him as saying yesterday. “A total of around 300 Russian companies will manufacture equipment” for Kudankulum, located in Tamil Nadu, he went on. Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee and Russian President Vladimir Putin set up a framework agreement paving the way for Russia’s construction of the nuclear power plant in a $ 2.6-billion deal during the former’s visit to Moscow earlier this week. The construction was agreed13 years ago but abandoned following the Soviet Union’s collapse in 1991. The final contract was likely to be signed by the end of the year, Russian Deputy Prime Minister Ilya Klebanov said after the Vajpayee-Putin talks.
AFP |
|
MTV awards
for Lopez, Williams Frankfurt, November 9 Hispano-American singer Lopez and Williams of Britain won best female and male singer awards, respectively while Limp Bizkit won three prizes. British group Gorillaz and singer Craig David took two each. Several past winners including Madonna, Mariah Carey, Janet Jackson, REM and U2, left empty handed this time. MTV said 7 million viewers took part by internet or telephone in choosing the winners.
AFP |
 |
| Punjab | Haryana | Jammu & Kashmir | Himachal Pradesh | Regional Briefs | Nation | Editorial | | Business | Sport | World | Mailbag | In Spotlight | Chandigarh Tribune | Ludhiana Tribune 50 years of Independence | Tercentenary Celebrations | | 121 Years of Trust | Calendar | Weather | Archive | Subscribe | Suggestion | E-mail | |
(
