 |
Saturday,
December
22, 2001, Chandigarh, India  
|
UN nod to peacekeepers in Kabul
People’s power forces President out
|
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
C’wealth body threat to suspend Zimbabwe
Killers of Indian Sikh lose appeal Lankan PM to arrive today ‘Monsoon Wedding’ named for Globe
|
|
UN nod to peacekeepers in Kabul United Nations, December 21 The force, which diplomats said, will comprise several thousand from Britain, France and several other NATO states, will begin deployment on Saturday with the initial deployment of British troops. The force has been authorised under chapter seven of the UN Charter which allows it to use force if necessary. The initial authorisation is for six months, which was pressed by Russia. The Council could extend the mandate beyond that date but that would require another resolution. The unanimous approval for the force came two day before an advance guard of some 250 British marines is due to land in Kabul. The peacekeepers will work in close cooperation and coordination with the interim government even though it is slowly becoming clear that Afghans are against any large-scale foreign presence. The resolution does not mention the number but Britain says that the ultimate strength is likely to be between 3,000 and 5,000. Reports from Afghanistan quote interim Defense Minister Mohammed Fatim as saying that the presence would be symbolic and only 1000 troops would be involved in peacekeeping even though the strength might rise to 3,000. US Ambassador John Negroponte said the resolution is significant as it signals the international community’s support to the new government but emphasised the need for a clear understanding so that the new force does not interfere with its fight against terrorism and Al-Qaida. Britain had from the very beginning pressed for understanding with the USA and in a letter to the Secretary-General on Wednesday had clearly said that Washington would have the final say if the security situation deteriorated. MOSCOW: Afghan field commanders have strongly criticised the arrival of the UN mandated multinational peacekeeping forces in the country and seem set to oppose them. As the first contingent of 53 British military personnel landed in Kabul, the field commanders expressed their open anguish over their arrival. In a report by the Russian television channel, NTV, broadcasted from Kabul, several field commanders of the Northern Alliance strongly criticised the presence of international forces that were being “imposed” on them. The interim government seems to have reluctantly agreed to the deployment of international peacekeepers under outside pressure. While the international forces want to carry weapons and maintain security in major towns including Kabul, the interim government said maintaining security would be its responsibility. Defence Minister Mohammed Fahim said, “ensuring security of Afghans would be the responsibility of my administration”, bringing the imminent wrangle between the interim government and the peacekeeping force to the fore. Fahim has made it clear that the peacekeeping forces will have no authority to disarm Afghans nor can they interfere in the internal affairs of his country.
IANS, PTI |
|
US focus shifts to other havens Washington, December 21 Unlike Afghanistan, confirmed terrorist havens such as Yemen, Sudan, Somalia and the Philippines do not have clear military targets. US officials will rely increasingly on insiders within those countries to target terrorist groups. “I would like to create a world that is inhospitable for terrorists and for nations that harbour them,” Secretary of Defence Donald Rumsfeld said. According to ABC-NEWS, US officials plan to send a small number of forces into Yemen, Sudan, Somalia and the Philippines to train potential infiltrators who could help authorities locate and raid terrorist organisations hiding in their countries. The next phase of the war is already under way in some of these countries. CIA officers have visited Somalia thrice in the past three weeks. The sources also said unmanned drones and other surveillance aircraft are being offered and already being used in some countries.
IANS |
|
Review of video reveals more Washington, December 21 ABC and CNN yesterday reported that, according to translators they hired, bin Laden made references to several of the 19 hijackers who carried out the attacks on September 11. According to the government transcript of the tape, bin Laden mentioned only ringleader Mohamed Atta. CNN said its independent translation of the video showed bin Laden named nine hijackers and both networks said the Saudi-born militant mentioned the al Hazmi brothers. “So these young men, may God accept their action, Nawaf al Hazmi, Salem al Hazmi,’’ ABC’s translation quoted bin Laden as saying.
Reuters |
||||
|
People’s power forces President out Buenos Aires, December 21 The resignation must be approved by the Congress before taking effect, officials said. Lawmakers were expected to accept De la Rua’s decision to step down, two years earlier than the end of his term. The President signed the resignation yesterday afternoon, said an official, who is close to De la Rua. The official spoke in a telephone interview on condition of anonymity. Local reports said that De la Rua’s last-minute efforts to cobble together a “national unity” government, together with the major Opposition party, were encountering resistance. Meanwhile, hundreds of protesters demanding the ouster of Argentina’s beleaguered President clashed with the riot police in the capital as escalating unrest nationwide threatened to unravel the fraying government. The death toll from two days of violence climbed to 20. The riot police, firing rubber bullets and volley after volley of tear gas, tried to push back a fast-growing crowd in front of the government House as anger boiled over as a result of a punishing recession marked by double-digit
joblessness, hunger and rising poverty. Fourteen persons have died since yesterday. Officials made more than 2,000 arrests nationwide, 350 of them in the capital. One man was dragged by his hair, others carried kicking and shouting to police vans. Moving to shore up his teetering coalition, President Fernando De la Rua went on national television and invited the Opposition Peronist Party to join him in a government of “national unity”. Earlier, Domingo Cavallo, the powerful Economy Minister, handed in his resignation and major political leaders were reportedly negotiating behind-the-scenes to reorder the government. The Argentina’s Opposition-controlled Congress called a legislative Assembly for today to study who will succeed Fernando De la Rua, a senator said.
AP, Reuters |
|
Hamas to suspend attacks against Israel Gaza, December 21 Ismail Abu Shanab, a senior Hamas leader in the Gaza Strip, said the cessation of attacks was a Hamas initiative “taking into account the current circumstances and the international pressure on the Palestinian Authority, the Hamas and on the Palestinian people”. Palestinian President Yasser Arafat has come under increasing international pressure to crack down on Palestinian militants, including the Hamas, which have carried out several attacks, including suicide bombings, against Israel, killing scores of people and wounding hundreds. Meanwhile, the Palestinian Islamic Jihad group vowed to continue carrying out suicide attacks inside Israel despite a declaration by Hamas that it was stopping such attacks. “Our position is to continue. We have no other choice. We are not willing to compromise,” Abu Imad Al-Rifai, Jihad’s representative in Lebanon, told newmen. “Our confrontation with the enemy is not limited to a geographical area,” Rifai said in reply to a question whether Jihad, a fundamentalist group that has carried out suicide attacks in Israeli cities, would keep attacking targets inside the Jewish state. UNITED NATIONS: Five days after the USA vetoed a Palestinian-backed Security Council resolution calling for monitoring Israeli actions, Palestinian supporters put their case to the larger General Assembly and won overwhelming approval. The Assembly vote yesterday has no binding authority but carries the weight of international opinion. The resolution, vetoed by the USA on Saturday, passed yesterday in the 189-nation Assembly by a vote of 124-6, with 2 abstentions. The measure condemned “acts of terror” against Israelis and Palestinians, demanded an end to nearly 15 months of West Asia violence and asked for a “monitoring mechanism” to bring in observers, which Israel opposes. It also envisaged a central role for Mr Yasser Arafat in the West Asia peace process. The Assembly also passed a second resolution, demanding that Israel as an “occupying power,” immediately refrain from such acts as “willful killing,” torture, and extensive destruction of property. That vote was 133-4, with 16 abstentions. In a veiled attack on the USA, the Palestinian UN observer, Nasser Al-Kidwa, said the 15-member Security Council “is being used by some only when it suits them.” The USA voted against both resolutions yesterday. Meeting in an emergency session after the USA vetoed the Arab sponsored resolution in the 15-member council, the 189-member Assembly adopted the resolution that emphasising that Mr Arafat and his administration remained the “indispensable and legitimate” party for peace. The resolution also called for “preserving fully” the Palestinian authority and said Israel was an obstacle to peace. The USA, Israel, the Marshall Islands, Nauru and Tuvalu, voted against the resolution that US Ambassador John Negroponte said did not address the “terrible dynamics” of the region. JERUSALEM: Israel will ban Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat from visiting Christ’s birthplace Bethlehem in the West Bank this Christmas unless he first arrests the killers of Israeli Tourism Minister Rehavam Zeevi, Israeli radio reported on Friday. “Yasser Arafat has not yet presented a request to go to Bethlehem, but if he did it would be turned down so long as he has not had the two killers of the minister arrested,” said an official who asked to remain anonymous. GAZA CITY: A Palestinian civilian was killed in an exchange of gunfire between security services and Hamas militants in the north of the Gaza Strip, a Palestinian hospital source told AFP. The clash erupted on Thursday night after Hamas supporters tried to storm a police station in the Jabaliya refugee area, north of Gaza City, where five Hamas militants were brought after being arrested.
DPA, AP, PTI, AFP |
|
|
C’wealth body threat to suspend Zimbabwe
London, December 21 The group which met here last evening under the chairmanship of Lieut-Gen Mompati Merafhe, Foreign Minister of Botswana, “reaffirmed its support for the restoration of democracy in keeping with the Pakistan Government’s roadmap.” The Commonwealth ministers warned Zimbabwe that it faced suspension from the 54-nation group next month unless it stopped a wave of violent farm occupations and halted media and political intimidation. The eight-strong group, the group’s democracy watchdog, ended two years of hand-wringing by formally putting Zimbabwe on their agenda for action — the first step to possible suspension. “The situation in Zimbabwe constitutes a serious and persistent violation of the Commonwealth fundamental political values and the rule of law,” it said in a statement. British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw said it would be “open to CMAG to suspend Zimbabwe from councils of the Commonwealth”, which is made up mainly of former British colonies, at its next meeting on January 30. Canadian Foreign Minister John Manley also said suspension would be “on the table”. President Robert Mugabe, Zimbabwe’s ruler since independence from Britain 21 years ago, seeks re-election in March. Mugabe, who faces growing international pressure over the violent takeover of white-owned farms, says the redistribution of farmland to landless blacks is a vital step towards redressing colonial-era injustices. But the USA and the European Union both edged closer this month to imposing sanctions against his government unless he implements a September pledge to halt violence and hold free and fair elections. They also called on Mugabe to allow international monitors into the country to oversee preparations for the vote. The meeting also reviewed developments in Fiji Islands since its last meeting in September, expressed satisfaction at the holding of the elections and decided that “Fiji’s suspension from the Councils of the Commonwealth should be lifted.” It noted that a case to determine the constitutionality of the formation of Prime Minister Qarase’s government is currently before the Fiji courts and concluded that pending a ruling on the case,
Fiji should remain on the CMAG agenda so that the CMAG and the Secretary-General could continue to monitor the situation.
PTI, Reuters |
|
WINDOW ON PAKISTAN An average Pakistani is an extremely worried person on many counts. Economic hardships, rising unemployment, galloping crime and increased ethnic tensions were already there. In addition, two harrowing problems have made his nightmare unbearable. Pakistan’s Taliban policy has not only miserably failed, but it has a regime in Afghanistan, much more inimical and with a large Pakhtoon population in the north-west, overflowing refugee camps mostly of Pakhtoons, the military regime, corrupt to the core, is losing control. And now, those terrorists who attacked the Indian Parliament on December 13 have raised the real fear of a full-scale Indo-Pak war. The only people happy are the jehadis and their mentors, both inside and outside the country. This rogue act has muddied the waters. With remnants of the Taliban escaping from the war in the neighbourhood to Pakistan, the scene is indeed horrendous. These boys, trained in the hate schools and only apt at wielding the gun, are no longer puppets to dance to the tunes of their masters and are bound to create a good deal of trouble. The scene indeed is gory. But most Pakistani newspapers are unable to deny very convincingly that Pakistan is deeply involved in backing the terrorists in Kashmir. Well, that struggle is for freedom. Many like Dawn, Nation and Frontier Post would like India to believe. One noticeable change is that most newspapers have followed the government line and condemned the attack. “Give us the proof,” most said. They also asked why India is not agreeing to a joint investigation as if in a similar situation, Pakistan would have allowed a third country to be part of an internal probe. Which is the third party in the USA investigating the September 11 attack. Still, many like Najam Sethi of the Friday Times strongly believe that the Musharraf regime has taken some concrete steps to put an end to jehadis and other Islamic fundamentalists. “Gen Pervez Musharraf has shunted out or sidelined many ISI hawks recently. Thanks to him, fundamentalist parties are on the retreat. He has put their leaders in prison. Indeed the greatest threat to the personal security to Musharraf comes from these groups. Their supporters would love to drive a wedge between the Pakistani government and India/America so that the Musharraf regime is weakened and falls apart. They have tried to scare him into reneging on his alliance with America. They are hoping to provoke India into jumping the gun and destabilising his government”, Sethi observed. Others too have joined this argument. Air Marshal Ayaz Ahmed Khan, writing in Nation, took a very different argument. Here was a retired officer supporting the jehadi lobby in an indirect manner, of course. “Genuinely saddened by the suicide attack on Indian Parliament, President Pervez Musharraf immediately condoled the loss of lives with the Indian Prime Minister. This needless terror reverberated throughout Pakistan, and every Pakistani is worried about the backlash on Pakistan and Kashmir freedom struggle. It is clear that India will use this incident to enforce capitulation on the freedom fighters, not realising the desperation of victimised Kashmiri masses”. He continued this babble. But there are more realistic thinkers than these retired air marshals. Noted columnist A.B.S. Jafri saw the Pakistan’s Taliban policy in tatters. “After the fall of Kandhar, Pakistan’s own Taliban problem has gravely aggravated. Estimates of course vary but there is no denying that we end up with millions of Afghan refugees who have only arms, if nothing else, in their utter destitution. We would be deceiving ourselves if we think this mass of idle refugees in their desperate state is something we can live with in peace and security,” he wrote. It would not be out of place to quote Jafri in a little more detail. Here is what he writes. “This chapter of our national experience has already inflicted deep wounds all over our existence, including our national psyche. It is simply frightening to calculate the price we have already paid for the Taliban misadventure. Even more scary to visualise is the cost we are going to pay in the near future. Then, what in the long run? Thousands of Pakistanis living and working in the United States are under arrest. Many more may be under close watch. These include students in universities all over the USA. We ought to have the courage to admit that Pakistanis in the US will remain under dark shadows of mistrust and suspicion for quite some time to come, hoping nothing goes further wrong.” |
|
Killers of Indian Sikh lose appeal Vancouver, December 21 Nirmal Singh’s murder outside the Guru Nanak Sikh temple in 1998 created shock waves in the community when it was realised that hate crimes by skinheads were on the rise. But the loss of the appeal by the lawyers of Radoslaw Synderek and Lee Nikkel, has heartened many Indo-Canadians about justice being served. The killers had received sentences of 12 and 15 years which their lawyers had said was too harsh. Justices of the British Columbia Court of Appeal said the sentences should be upheld because the crime was racially motivated. As it was a group crime, judges further said it was not possible to separate roles of the group members in the sentencing. The incarcerated men have been claiming that they did not know it was an Indo-Canadian man they were attacking. But on January 4, 1998 when this group surrounded the old Sikh in the temple precincts, they would have known he was Asian. They beat him, kicked him and dragged him around the grounds and one even put his own boot over the man’s mouth to stop him from screaming. The assault was entirely unprovoked. These kinds of hate crimes are relatively rare in Canada as compared to the USA.
UNI |
|
Lankan PM to arrive today Colombo, December 21 Mr Wickremesinghe, who took office just two weeks ago, is set to arrive in New Delhi late tomorrow and is scheduled to meet Mr Atal Behari Vajpayee on November 24 for discussions, his office said. Mr Wickremesinghe has promised a speedy settlement to the dragging ethnic conflict and spurring up of the flagging economy. Mr Vajpayee is known to be a personal friend of Mr Wickremesinghe and the two were known to have maintained closed relations while they were in and out of power.
IANS |
|
‘Monsoon Wedding’ named for Globe New York, December 21 The Indian entry will compete with “Amelie,” (France), “Behind the Sun,” (Brazil), “No Man’s Land,” (Bosnia), and “Y Tu Mama Tambien ” (And Your Mother Too - Mexico). The awards will be presented on January 20 next year. “Monsoon Wedding” had won the top honours at this year’s Venice Film Festival.
PTI |
 |
| 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 | |
(
