• Scrap ‘secret deal’ with IMF

Taliban shift terrorist bases
LONDON, Aug 30 — Taliban has either abandoned or shifted a large number of ISI-run terrorist bases in Afghanistan, fearing fresh US missile attacks, western intelligence sources today said.

Oppn walks out over Bill of Islamisation
ISLAMABAD, Aug 30 — The Nawaz Sharif government today bulldozed the Islamisation Bill through a parliamentary standing committee despite walkouts by the opposition and minority community members even as the premier asserted that the move would help convert Pakistan into a "welfare and peaceful state."

Benazir’s counsel arrested
ISLAMABAD, Aug 30 — Former Pakistani Premier Benazir Bhutto’s counsel has been arrested for alleged “terrorism” as the opposition leader complained to the human rights organisation that the detention had left her with no counsel to argue her case at the next hearing.

Australian poll on Oct 3
SYDNEY, Aug 30 — Australian Prime Minister John Howard today announced federal elections on October 3 on the plank of economic management of the country.

Talks to decide lifting of sanctions: USA

WASHINGTON, Aug 30 (UNI) — The USA has linked the lifting of its nuclear-related economic sanctions against India to the progress in the ongoing high-level talks between the two countries on security and non-proliferation issues.

Replying to questions that followed his speech at the Indian American Forum for political education here yesterday, Assistant Secretary of State for South Asian Affairs Karl Inderfurth promised the withdrawal of sanctions as soon as possible, insisting that the process was dependent on the outcome of the talks between Deputy Secretary of State Strobe Talbott and Prime Minister A.B. Vajpayee’s special envoy Jaswant Singh.

He declined to say anything on the progress in the fourth round of the talks which took place here on August 24. “We are quite anxious to keep the substance of this diplomatic process quiet and confidential, and have, to a large degree. The stakes are very important, the rewards of success will be high,” he observed.

“In this regard, I can also say that the essence of what we are trying to do can be summed up in one word — reconciliation. We are trying to reconcile the vital national interests of the USA and the interests of the entire world, in nuclear non-proliferation with the vital national interests of India and Pakistan, respectively,” he said.

“We have not asked either country to do anything it feels is contrary to its self-interests. We are working with both governments to identify as clearly as possible what each believes are its core interests. We are looking for common ground to build on areas of agreement, and find some ways to manage differences where we do not agree”.

“I can say that we are making progress in defining principles that will underpin our relationships in the post-test environment, in laying out our non-proliferation and other objectives, and in discussing the steps and activities that we believe will be necessary to get us there,” he said.

“The President was and remains very interested in travelling to the region, but will do so when circumstances permit his visit to look to the kind of relations we hope will characterise the 21st century. We and the Indian Government agree that the President’s visit should take place in a positive environment and we will work towards ensuring this outcome,” he added.

Yeltsin, rivals strike deal

MOSCOW, Aug 30 (PTI) — In a dramatic development, Russian President Boris Yeltsin and his Communist rivals today struck a deal that would strip some of his sweeping powers and put the Cabinet under the control of Parliament as a compromise formula for the confirmation of interim premier Viktor Chernomyrdin by Parliament.

However, Mr Yeltsin will retain control over appointments of key ministers — foreign defence and interior — as well as the head of the federal security service, Duma Speaker Gennady Seleznyov told reporters today.

The deal was initiated by the leaders of the parliamentary parties, Deputy Speaker of the Upper House Vladimir Platonov, Mr Viktor Chernomyrdin and chief of presidential administration Valentin Yumashev.

The accord, which comes amid an unprecedented economic crisis, also paves the way for the swift adoption of an economic anti-crisis strategy.

Mr Yeltsin has hitherto enjoyed nearly a tsar-like authority under the 1993 Constitution that was tailor-made for the President.

The power-sharing deal is likely to be signed shortly by Mr Yeltsin, currently "working with documents" at his country residence near Moscow.

According to NTV, this provides for launching the process of amending the President-centric Constitution within a month, moratorium till Duma elections in December, 1999 on dismissal of the Cabinet, no-confidence motions and seeking a trust vote respectively, by the President, Duma and the Prime Minister.

However, it is not sure when Duma would vote confirming the appointment of Mr Chernomyrdin. Earlier it was to vote on Monday when the seven day constitutional deadline expires.

"So far, no decision has been taken to postpone Monday’s vote, but it would depend on the outcome of Chernomyrdin’s meeting with the Communist faction at 9 a.m. on Monday," Mr Seleznyov said.

One of the Communist allies, leader of the agrarian faction in Duma, Mr Nikolai Kharitonov said the Left alliance wanted to see the changes Mr Chernomyrdin had undergone since he was dismissed in March 1998.

"We want to ascertain that today we have to approve the appointment of different Chernomyrdin," Mr Kharitonov stressed.

Communist-Speaker Seleznyov said that like any compromise the political deal with the Kremlin is based on "give-and-take" when both the sides had to give concessions and could not get what they wanted.

Scrap ‘secret deal’ with IMF

MOSCOW, Aug 30 (PTI) — Even before the ink had dried on the compromise deal initialled by the leaders of two chambers of the Russian Parliament with acting Premier Viktor Chernomyrdin and Kremlin administration chief Yumashev, Communist Party chief Gennady Zyuganov demanded revocation of the secret memorandum signed by the Kiriyenko Cabinet with the IMF.

Mr Zyuganov insisted that this obligation of the new Cabinet should be an integral part of the compromise package, reported Ekho Moskvy Radio.

Last month the IMF had agreed to provide a multi-billion dollar bailout for the ailing Russian economy in exchange for fulfilling certain conditions, kept secret from the Russian public.

One of the radical deputies of the Lower House, Mr Andrei Makarov, said he had a copy of the IMF letter to the dismissed Kiriyenko Cabinet demanding collection of taxes through means depriving tax-payers of legal and judicial protection.

Under the threat of IMF sanctions, the government introduced a system under which tax is levied and wages are transferred on paper and not actually received by the tax-payers. As a result, hundreds of thousand Russian workers, not receiving wages for months, face punishment for tax-dodging, Mr Makarov said.

Mr Makarov alleged the Central Bank of Russia intentionally led to the devaluation of the rouble to destroy the Russian banks and clear the ground for the arrival of western banks as demanded by the IMF in the memorandum signed by former special debt negotiator Anatoly Chubais.

The Russian Presidential envoy in the Duma, Mr Alexander Kotenkov, also expressed doubt that today’s deal was a final one.

“It is early to say something about the fate of this document. Today the President will study it and take some decision. I cannot say what would be his decision”, he told reporters.

WASHINGTON (PTI): The International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the USA have warned Russia of “disaster” if it rolls back its reforms and made it clear that they would give aid only if it (Russia) carried out the agreed reforms.

IMF managing director Michel Camdessus told a press conference here yesterday that he gave a warning to Prime Minister Viktor Chernomyrdin at their meeting in Crimea on Wednesday that there would be no financial aid to Russia if it did not stick to reforms.

Camdessus said the lending agency could approve a payment to Russia next month from the $ 22.6 billion international package for the Communist country only if the new government moved swiftly on market reforms.

“This international support,” he said, “will wait for clarity of the orientation of the government and strength of support in Parliament for measures, particularly on the revenue side.”

PARIS: French President Jacques Chirac and Britain’s Tony Blair have agreed that Russia had to push ahead with key economic reforms, Chirac’s office said after a telephone conversation between the two leaders.

Blair said on Saturday that he would telephone leaders of the seven leading industrialised nations over the weekend to discuss the political and financial crisis in Russia. The British Prime Minister spoke to Chirac for about 15 minutes.

Chirac’s spokeswoman Catherine Colonna said. France was in contact with Germany and the current President of the European Union, Austria, over the situation in Russia.

76 dead in Cuban plane crash

QUITO (Ecuador), Aug 30 (AP) — A Cuban plane carrying 90 persons burst into flames yesterday during take-off and slammed into a soccer field, killing at least 76 persons, civil aviation authorities said.

The jetliner barely missed a busy street in a middle-income residential area at the end of the runway, which lies at 9,300 feet in the Andes mountains.

Witnesses said the Russian-made Tupolev-154 aircraft, owned by Cubana de Aviaction, clipped the top of a car mechanic's shop beyond the end of the runway and plowed into a soccer field. The nose and front part of the plane disintegrated in the crash.

Red Cross workers in red uniforms dug through the wreckage for survivors while fire fighters sprayed jets of water on the smoking ruins to prevent further explosions.

Ecuadorian television stations reported that at least five survivors were pulled from the wreckage, but that could not be confirmed.

Officials gave no cause for the crash. Nor did they specify if the toll included persons killed on the ground. One woman said three of her children, who were playing near the crash site, were missing.

Four persons died when the plane struck the auto mechanic's shop, a local radio station reported.

The flight was headed to Guayaquil, on the Ecuadorian coast, and then on to Havana.

At least 19 foreigners, including Cubans, Chileans, Italians, Spaniards, one Argentine and one Jamaican, were killed, said Gen Osvaldo Domiwguez, Director of the Civil Aviation Office, as he left the morgue.

Red Cross official Galo Leord said the plane had just started taking off when apparently at least one motor failed and the airliner crashed several 100 yards beyond the end of the runway at Quito's Mariscal Sucre International Airport.

Dominguez said there were 76 passengers and 14 crew members on board.

There must be many dead, but there are also survivors. I pulled one person out alive," said Civil Defence volunteer Hugo Albuja.

Channel 10 Television interviewed Cuban survivor Hernan Boada, 27, who had burnt hair and a fractured ankle.

Before we heard the roar of the crash, we felt the plane rise a bit and burst in flames. There were three explosions," Boada said. "I saw other people wrapped in flames jump from the plane."

"I was in seat number 21, a window seat at wing-level. The doors would not open, so I jumped through a hole in the plane amid the flames from a height of about two yards (metres)," he said.

Boada said that people nearby, in a soccer field, helped me get away from the plane fearing explosions.

Ecuadorian president Jamil Mahuad went to the crash site and told reporters he was asking investigators to complete studies as soon as possible for building an airport outside the capital.

PM’s intervention sought on Netaji issue

BONN, Aug 30 (PTI) — Several prominent non-resident Indian organisations and individuals in Germany have urged the Prime Minister to request the United Kingdom, Russia and Japan to disclose material contained in confidential files which can throw light on the mysterious disappearance of Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose in 1945.

The government has the “moral responsibility” to bring out the truth regarding the mystery surrounding Netaji with the completion of his birth centenary and India’s golden jubilee of freedom, over 200 NRI bodies and individuals, including Indo-German associations and Netaji’s relatives, said in a letter to Mr Atal Behari Vajpayee.

“That more than 50 years have elapsed since Bose’s disappearance is no reason for not pursuing the truth.” The letter said, “conditions have never been so opportune for getting at the truth in the light of new evidence that have been found.”

Some of the crucial official documents which might throw some light on the issue have just been released by the governments of the UK and Russia, it noted.

“The weight of existing evidence which seriously challenge the air crash story is compelling,” the letter said.

The spokesman of the group which wrote the letter, Mr Surya Kumar Bose, said members of the late leader’s family had strongly objected to the “acceptance” by India of the “ashes” of Netaji and also any move to bring them back to the country unless proved to be so.

Before any such move, all new evidence regarding Netaji’s disappearance must be “seriously” looked into, he said.

Members of the family had already drawn the attention of the government that unless it was unquestionably proved that the ashes, which were not at the Renkoji Temple in Tokyo, were that of Netaji, it would be “improper” to bring them back, he said.

Mr Bose said a demand had already been made to Mr Vajpayee when he was the Leader of the Opposition to help in setting up a national committee to probe the question of Netaji’s disappearance.

The letter urged Mr Vajpayee to ensure that all relevant documents in the custody of the government relating to the disappearance of Netaji were publicly disclosed and cited various evidence which raised doubts about the “aircrash story”.

It wanted Mr Vajpayee to take note of the reported “refusal of the Solicitor General’s office to place Government of India records on the subject before the High Court of Calcutta in 1993”.

“It is indeed a matter of national shame that half a century has been allowed to pass since Netaji’s death was announced by the Japanese in an aircrash at Taihoku on August 18, 1945, and that the mystery of his ‘death’ has remained unresolved till today”, the letter said.

Taliban shift terrorist bases

LONDON, Aug 30 (PTI) — Taliban has either abandoned or shifted a large number of ISI-run terrorist bases in Afghanistan, fearing fresh US missile attacks, western intelligence sources today said.

On secret orders of the Pakistan Army high command, highly trained terrorists have been told to go underground, the sources said, citing their reports corroborated by Afghan dissident groups.

They said a large number of freshly groomed terrorists belonging to militant outfits like the Harkat-ul-Ansar and Lashkar-i-Toiba had also fled the camps following the US missile attacks.

Western military sources estimate that in the past decade and a half, the Pakistan ISI through these terrorists camps had churned out more than 300,000 Islamic private armies.

The sources said over 90,000 of these Islamic terrorists had been killed in operations in Afghanistan, Jammu and Kashmir, Bosnia, Egypt and Algeria and also within Pakistan.

Western experts said of the remaining cadres, which were being built upon at the rate of 250 terrorists per camp per year, more than an estimated 60,000 were propping up the Taliban regime with the active backing of elements of Pakistan Army.

Nearly 40,000 formed the nucleus of the Arab-dominated international Islamic brigade. The rest are specifically earmarked by the Pakistan Army for operations in Kashmir, where it feels that local militancy had failed and betrayed them.

Western military sources quoted in the latest issue of the Janes Defence Journal said at a recent Pakistan Joint Chief of Staff Committee meeting in Islamabad, senior military officers had expressed grave fears of fresh American Cruise strikes against terrorist camps being imminent and asking the civilian government headed by Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif to intervene.

"The Pakistani Generals because of two decades of fraternal ties with Pentagon and American intelligence agencies had never anticipated that Americans would launch such lightning strikes against the camps run by them and that too without informing or consulting them,’’ western media reports here said to explain the paranoia gripping the Pakistan Army general headquarters, after the Cruise strikes.

Reports said in deference to army pressure, Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif had asked his Foreign Secretary Shamshad Ahmed to take up the issue in his meeting with US Deputy Secretary of State Strobe Talbott in London last week.

Oppn walks out over Bill of Islamisation

ISLAMABAD, Aug 30 (PTI) — The Nawaz Sharif government today bulldozed the Islamisation Bill through a parliamentary standing committee despite walkouts by the opposition and minority community members even as the premier asserted that the move would help convert Pakistan into a "welfare and peaceful state."

The Constitutional Amendment Bill, through which Mr Sharif wants to introduce the Islamisation process, was rushed through the standing committee of the national assembly on law and parliamentary affairs on Saturday despite strong opposition from the Pakistan People’s Party and Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) and members from the Christian community.

The Opposition charged the government of not giving it sufficient time to study the crucial amendment and discuss it at its party-level meeting as the PPP representative in the committee, Syed Naveed Qamar, said they were given only 12 hours notice for the committee’s meeting.

Along with the PPP, the MQM representatives also walked out of the meeting alleging that the Bill was aimed at making Mr Sharif more powerful rather than reforming society.

Mr Peter John Sahotra, representing the minority Christian community, also opposed the Bill, saying that he could not recommend the passage of the Bill in the assembly without consulting bishops and walked out of the meeting.

Benazir’s counsel arrested

ISLAMABAD, Aug 30 (PTI) — Former Pakistani Premier Benazir Bhutto’s counsel has been arrested for alleged “terrorism” as the opposition leader complained to the human rights organisation that the detention had left her with no counsel to argue her case at the next hearing.

Babar Awan, Benazir’s counsel in various alleged corruption cases, was arrested yesterday morning by a heavy contingent of police who intercepted his vehicle when he was on way to the court in Rawalpindi, media reports said.

Awan was arrested under the Anti-Terrorist Act following a complaint lodged against him by the editor of an Urdu language, Iftikhar Adil, alleging that Awan along with his accomplices, who were armed with Kalashnikovs, had threatened to kill him, his friend and driver and snatched Rs 18,000 from him on Friday night.

“Babar held three of US by Kalashnikov and snatched a briefcase containing some documents and Rs 18,000 in cash”, the complainant alleged and said that Babar also threatened to kidnap him if the case against him was not withdrawn.

The arrest evoked immediate reaction from workers of Benazir’s Pakistan People’s Party and lawyer community who demonstrated in front of the Deputy Commissioner’s office and demanded the release of the arrested lawyer.

An open secret stands exposed
from Aziz Haniffa

WASHINGTON, Aug 30 — For nearly a decade India has been complaining to the USA about Pakistan’s complicity in fomenting insurgency in Kashmir and Islamabad’s training, arming and funding of groups such as the Harkat-ul-Ansar that perpetrated terrorism in the valley.

Indian intelligence agencies and diplomats provided Washington with reams of evidence regarding such involvement by Islamabad and the USA had access to such information from the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and its other intelligence agencies too, but successive administrations chose to ignore it.

With several of the casualties from the US missile attack on terrorist training centres in Afghanistan last week being found to be Pakistanis, an open secret that Islamabad has long denied has now been exposed — its covert support of groups like the Harkat-ul-Ansar that carry out terrorist operations in Kashmir.

In fact, despite its inaction, the State Department’s own terrorism report more than once alluded to the Islamabad — Harkat-ul-Ansar link and the latter’s association with Saudi-born terrorist financier Osama bin Laden.

It noted how Laden called on Muslims to “retaliate against the US prosecutor in the Mir Aimal Kasi trial for disparaging comments he made about Pakistanis and praised the Harkat-ul-Ansar in the wake of its formal designation as a foreign terrorist organisation by the United States.”

The State Department report also stated that the Harkat-ul-Ansar was “responsible for the still unresolved July, 1995, kidnapping of Westerners in Kashmir; one of the six, a US citizen, managed to escape, but a Norwegian hostage was killed in August, 1995.”

However, despite the Harkat-Pakistan link, the Clinton administration evidently was not fazed and dismissed New Delhi’s contention that a double standard existed in America’s fight against terrorism and India’s intent — only expressed — to do so.

The Harkat-ul-Ansar, according to intelligence estimates, has several thousand armed supporters located in Pakistan Occupied Kashmir (POK) and in southern Kashmir and the Doda region. It is composed mostly of Pakistanis and Kashmiris, but also includes some Afghans and Arab veterans of the Afghan war.

The Harkat-ul-Ansar uses light and heavy machine guns, assault, rifles, mortars, explosives and rockets. According to the State Department’s terrorism report, the group collects donations from sympathisers “in Saudi Arabia and other Gulf and Islamic states and from Pakistanis and Kashmiris.”

However, despite such damning evidence the State Department remained reluctant to list Pakistan as a sponsor of international terrorism — even though it came close to doing so a couple of times — because of warnings by Pakistani prime ministers, first Benazir Bhutto and then Nawaz Sharif, that such action would unravel the country’s fledgling democracy and drive it into the hands of the virulently anti-American extremists.

In fact, the report released in April this year even acknowledged Islamabad’s connection with the Harkat-ul-Ansar. It said, “There continue to be credible reports of official Pakistani support for Kashmiri militant groups that engage in terrorism, such as the Harkat-ul-Ansar.

Some of the major factors that shielded Pakistan from being listed as a sponsor of international terrorism were a kind of sentimental nostalgia that prevailed in US administration circles that such action would be a kind of a betrayal of an old friend who had stood with Washington and gone out on a limb to support its war against the Soviet Union in Afghanistan.

Consequently, while the evidence provided by India continued to gather dust, Pakistan was at best warned only privately and by demarches to cease supporting these groups and exacerbating the insurgency in Kashmir, but no action was taken. — IANS

Australian poll on Oct 3

SYDNEY, Aug 30 (PTI) — Australian Prime Minister John Howard today announced federal elections on October 3 on the plank of economic management of the country.

“The main issue will be whether the coalition or the Labour Party (ALP) at the time of economic uncertainty, even turmoil in some parts of the world should be placed at the helm of economic management in Australia”, he said, announcing the poll at Parliament House in Canberra.

“The main issue in this election campaign would be that of economic competence”, the coalition leader said after visiting Governor-General Sir William Deane.

“The circumstances of the world economy reinforce the absolute need that the economic foundation of Australia be as strong as possible”, said Howard, whose government will be taking to the electorate a radically changed tax proposal which includes imposition of goods and services tax (GST).

Analysts believe that Howard’s attempt to tap political opportunity amid the prevailing global economic uncertainty could go in his favour as traditionally Australians have stuck with the government of the day in times of turmoil.

Opposition Labour Leader Kim Beazley said the ALP would wear the underdog title in the federal elections, and conceded he had the most difficult task ever faced by a Labour leader this century — to win 27 seats in the election.

Arab League may mediate
CAIRO: The Arab League is trying to mediate between Libya and the USA and Britain over arrangements for the Lockerbie suspects to stand trial, League Secretary-General Esmat Abdel-Meguid said on Saturday. He approached the US and British embassies in Cairo, where the 22-member league was based, and UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan, with a view to obtaining answers to Libya’s questions on the UN Security Council plan for a trial. The Security Council voted unanimously on Thursday to suspend sanctions against Libya once it handed over the suspects. — AP

Bangladesh appeal
UNITED NATIONS: Secretary-General Kofi Annan has urged the international community to provide generous support for an appeal for assistance by flood-stricken Bangladesh. “The Secretary-General is deeply distressed over the widespread devastation caused by flooding in Bangladesh, where one-third of the country now lies under water,” a statement issued through a UN spokesman said on Saturday. He called upon the international community to respond quickly and generously to the appeal. — Reuters

8 killed in Pak
KARACHI: At least eight persons, including two activists of an ethnic party, were killed in a day of violence in Pakistan on Saturday, police and hospital sources said. Armed men attacked activists of the Mohajir Qaumi Movement identified as the Haqiqi Faction (MQM-H) in eastern Korangi district, killing two persons on the spot. The incident triggered violence in other parts of the strife-torn city and six more persons were shot to death. — DPA

Peace rally
CAPE TOWN: Thousands of people have joined a peace rally at the Waterfront tourist area near the Planet Hollywood restaurant which was ripped apart by a pipe bomb earlier in the week, killing one and injuring 27 others. Addressing the rally on Saturday, Justice Minister Dullah Omar condemned acts of terrorism and violence sweeping western Cape province. The rally was called by Masor Theresa Solomon to unite the people in their fight against crime. — AFP

Sudan for OAU summit
OUAGADOUGOU: Sudan’s Deputy President George Kongor Arop Akol has called for a summit of the Organisation of African Unity (OAU) to condemn US missile strikes on a Khartoum chemical factory. He wanted the President of Burkina Faso, Mr Blaise Compaore, to convene the summit. “This aggression isn’t just about Sudan, tomorrow it could hit other countries as well,” he warned. — AFP

Rights fellowship
PORTLAND: A Pakistani journalist, whose reports on bonded labour earned him a jail sentence, has been granted a human rights fellowship to work at Colby College for a semester. But a Pakistani judge will rule on Monday if Zafaryab Ahmed can leave his native country, college officials said. — AP