My indictment unfair: Thackeray

MUMBAI, Aug 7 (PTI) — Shiv Sena chief Bal Thackeray today described as "unfair" his indictment by the Srikrishna Commission, which probed the 1992-93 communal strife here, saying "I was not even summoned by the commission to explain my position".

The Sena supremo claimed while speaking to reporters at his bungalow Matoshri in North-West Mumbai that the commission, which probed the 1992-93 Mumbai riots in the aftermath of Babri mosque’s demolition, had no proof to substantiate the charge that he had organised attacks against Muslims "like a veteran general".

The so-called inflammatory editorials in the Saamna, the Shiv Sena mouthpiece, were based on facts and "the need of the hour then", Mr Thackeray said. "I may not write such editorials in the same language now as the situation is different," he added.

Criticising the commission’s report, which was tabled in the state legislature yesterday, Mr Thackeray said former Maharashtra Chief Minister Sudhakarrao Naik and the then Defence Minister Sharad Pawar, summoned by the commission, had been let off lightly "with just a pinch".

Mr Thackeray claimed Maharashtra Chief Minister Manohar Joshi had taken a "responsible" decision by rejecting the findings of the commission. "I am not going to appeal against the commission’s report as it is irrelevant," he said.

"Ask Naik and Pawar," he quipped when asked as to who were responsible for the riots. The Maharashtra government has decided to set a high-level committee headed by the Director General of Police to examine cases of alleged "delinquency" of police personnel during the 1992-93 communal riots.

The Srikrishna Commission indicted former city police Commissioner R.D. Tyagi and 30 other officers for "excessive use of force and actively participating in riots, communal incidents or incidents of looting, arson and so on", and strongly recommended strict action against them.

Mr Tyagi, who joined the Shiv Sena in the run up to the mid-term Lok Sabha polls, was the joint commissioner of police at the time of riots and was found guilty by the commission "of excessive and unnecessary firing resulting in the death of nine Muslims in the Suleman Bakery incident".

Among other police officers indicted are Assistant Police Inspector (API) Deshmukh and Police Inspector (PI) Lahane of the special operation squad of Dongri police station, Senior Inspector (SI) Vasant More and API Sahebrao Jadhav of Colaba police station.

The Maharashtra government’s action taken report (ATR) has accused Muslims for starting the riots and rejected the findings of the Srikrishna Commission as "biased and anti-Hindu."
In a point by point rebuttal of the commission’s findings, the ATR said "a large number of stabbings of Hindus, ghastly murders of Mathadi workers and blood curdling incident of Radhabai Chawl where a Hindu family was burnt alive were carried out by aggressive Muslim leadership in a pre-planned manner and led to spontaneous reaction by Hindus."

The ATR said a mob of Muslims had gathered at Minara Masjid in Pydhonie just before midnight of December 6, 1992, about 10 to 12 hours after the Babri mosque was demolished in Ayodhya.

"Thus, gathering of a mob around midnight cannot be said to be a spontaneous reaction of the Muslims... On the contrary, the mob seems to have come prepared for the protest after 10 to 12 hours," the ATR said, adding that "damaging the municipal van and pelting stones on the police (by the mob) are not signs of peaceful protests" as stated by the commission in its report.

Challenging the commission’s finding that Muslims were being attacked and their properties damaged from December 12, 1992 to January 15, 1993, the ATR said by the commission’s own acknowledgement, there were a large number of stabbing incidents and all these were mostly in Muslim areas such as Dongri, Pydhonie and Nagpada.

The ATR said "it is thus clear that the Muslims carried out the riots in pre-meditated well-planned and organised manner. "The target of riots was especially the police, which is the visible symbol of government’s authority... attacks on the police are nothing but attack on the government, which cannot be dismissed as an ordinary matter.

The "government, therefore, cannot agree with the conclusion of the commission blaming the Hindus for inciting the Muslims and starting the second phase of the riots," the ATR said.

The ATR said there was a substantial population of Muslims in cities such as Delhi, Chennai, Bangalore and Calcutta and the government wanted to highlight the largescale and prolonged rioting occurred only in Mumbai. This phenomenon needed to be clearly understood.

It said Mumbai is the economic and commercial capital of the country and hence inimical forces were at work, both inside and outside the country, which had planned to destroy the economic base of the country by fomenting trouble.
"This line of reasoning is amply borne out by the subsequent events of March 1993 serial blasts," the ATR said, adding that "the government feels that the commission did not fully understand the implications of these factors."

"The government is of opinion that the large number of stabbings of Hindus, ghastly murders of Mathadi workers and blood curdling and horrifying incident of Radhabai Chawl were carried out by aggressive Muslim leadership in a pre-planned manner and led to a spontaneous reaction of Hindus."

Blasts outside US embassies, 50 die

NAIROBI, Aug 7 (AP) — Suspected bombs exploded outside the US embassies in the Kenyan and Tanzanian capitals today, apparently killing 50 persons, witnesses said.

The US Ambassador to Kenya was among hundreds injured, a local TV report said.It was definitely a bomb, "said a US embassy official in Nairobi, who refused to identify himself, you can see a huge crater behind the building, and a bomb went off at the embassy in Tanzania at the same time," he said.

The Nairobi explosion at 10.35 a.m. toppled the seven-storey Ufundi Cooperative building toward the embassy, where at least three persons were killed, witnesses said.

Two crowded buses and many vehicles were wrecked, witnesses said. The blast started many fires that sent a plume of black smoke into the sky, where police helicopters were patrolling, glass from shattered windows littered many downtown streets.

Ambulances and police rushed to the chaotic scene, while rescuers searched the rubble for survivors.Reports from the scene said there had been a total of three bombs, two of which were discovered and defused.The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) said the blast was heard at least eight km from the centre of the capital.

A thick cloud of black smoke was spreading over the centre of town as ambulances and police rushed to the scene.

In Dar-es-Salaam, Tanzania, a suspected car bomb exploded in the US embassy parking lot at the same time, witnesses said. At least nine persons were killed and 16 injured, they said.

Nearly two-thirds of the embassy was destroyed, witnesses said, cranes were hurried to the site to tear apart wreckage in the search for survivors. Official confirmation was not immediately available.

The US Ambassador to Kenya, Prudence Bushnell, was cut on the lip and was carried on a stretcher out of the cooperative bank, where she had just given a news conference, the Kenya Television Network reported.
US embassy officials confirmed she was slightly injured.

UNITED NATIONS: The United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan has expressed shock over the terrorist attacks on American embassies in Nairobi and Dar-es Salaam.

"I was quite shocked by that because this is the kind of terrorist attacks that do not see that part of world," Mr Annan told in a statement issued here.
He said it was too premature to ascertain what was the motive behind such a dastardly act.

NAIROBI, Aug 7 (AP) — Powerful bombs exploded minutes apart outside the US Embassies in Kenya and Tanzania today, killing more than 67 persons. More than 1,100 others were injured, officials said.According to PTI report, 90 persons died in the twin blasts.

Six Americans were believed to be among the dead, and the US Ambassador to Kenya was injured, the State Department said. More than 60 were killed and 1,100 wounded in Nairobi, Red Cross and ambulance officials said. At least seven were killed and 72 hurt in Tanzania, officials said.
"We fear the worst by the time the rubble is cleared. We expect to find more dead," said Red Cross spokeswoman Nina Galbe.

In Washington, US President Bill Clinton condemned the acts of terrorist violence as "abhorrent" and "inhumane." We will use all the means at our disposal to bring those responsible to justice no matter what or how long it takes, he said.

A State Department official confirmed bombs caused the explosions."It was definitely a bomb," said a US Embassy official in Nairobi, who refused to identify himself. "You can see a huge crater behind the building, and a bomb went off at the Embassy in Tanzania at the same time."

In Nairobi, the blast at 1305 hrs (IST) toppled the four-storey Ufundi cooperative building toward the Embassy, which was badly damaged. Cooperative bank house, with government and private offices, also was damaged.

"There was a huge blast and everything was flying. It was all confusion," said one witness, Mr Pastor Wachira. Another witness, Julius Koiyet, told the Associated Press that he saw three men throw a tin container about 30 cm long toward the Embassy, but it bounced onto an adjacent building where it exploded.

The blast shattered windows as far as a 10 blocks away. Several people aboard two passing buses were killed by shrapnel, witnesses said. Bloodied clothing and papers littered the streets. People trapped beneath the debris cried for help as crowds crawled over a mountain of twisted and broken concrete and metal looking for victims.

The USA rushed medical supplies and investigators to Africa after the twin bomb attacks killed.

"We are treating this as a terrorist attack," US National Security Adviser P.J. Crowley said. "We know there are Americans dead. We are in the process of identifying them" and notifying next-of-kin.

US. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright was rushing back to Washington from Italy where she was to have attended the weekend wedding of her spokesman, James P. Rubin, a State Department official said.

At Pentagon, spokeswoman Col. Nancy Burt said the air force has requested that a C-141 transport leave Ramstein air base in Germany for Nairobi. It will take an air force surgical team, medical supplies and a small security detail to aid in the recovery from the blast.

An Air Force C-9 medical transport will be sent separately to Tanzania, she said