Monday, November 23, 1998
today's calendar
....... |
W O R L D | Monday, November 23, 1998 |
|
| weather n
spotlight today's calendar |
....... |
||
|
 JAKARTA : Egged on by cheers from the crowd a man continues to strike three bodies of Ambonese men beaten and stabbed to death by an angry Muslim mob in Jakarta on Sunday. AP/PTI 6 die as
riots break out in Indonesia |
 |
UN inspectors pay surprise visits BAGHDAD, Nov 22 — United Nations weapons inspectors paid their first surprise visits to suspected arms production sites since they returned to Iraq earlier in the week, the official Iraqi News Agency has said.
MQM
senator vows revenge |
|
Taslima
granted bail PoK
Sikh with RDX held Condoms
for armymen |
||||||
|
|||||||
6 die as riots break out in Indonesia JAKARTA, Nov 22 (AFP, AP) — Six people were killed and a Christian church and gambling hall set alight when a Muslim-Christian gangfight erupted in a commercial district of north Jakarta today, witnesses said. Truckloads of troops accompanied by fire tenders and ambulances rushed to the scene, but by late afternoon three more churches had been attacked. A Red Cross spokesman at the site of Gaja Mada Avenue said five Christians from the island of Ambon had been killed in the fight and three more people had been admitted to a state hospital with stab wounds. Another 15 people had been treated at the site for minor injuries, the spokesman said. Only hours after calm was restored, another Christian, also believed to be from Ambon, was caught by a group of Muslims who later pushed him into a watching crowd of hundreds, yelling “do whatever you want to him”. The mobs — some armed with sickles, bamboo sticks and swords — started to hack him. He died at the hands of the angry mob as he tried to flee, one arm almost severed, an AFP photographer said. Residents said the row had erupted when Muslims in a nearby mosque demanded that a gambling hall, where some of the Christians from Ambon worked, be closed down during overnight slim services. The hall did not put up shutters which led to the attack. Earlier, hundreds of Muslims rioters after, setting a church and gambling hall afire, hurled rocks at soldiers who fired warning shots and tear gas. At first, mobs blocked fire tenders from reaching the burning church and a police helicopter hovered above thousands of people who milled about in the streets. Soldiers with helmets, sticks and shields eventually pushed them away. Shops were shut in the area, less than a kilometre from the state palace of President B.J. Habibie. Last week, as many as 16 people were killed in clashes between anti-government students and police and soldiers during a government assembly on political reforms, that fighting triggered mob riots in several parts of Jakarta. Residents said they burned the church and gambling hall in retaliation after a group of Ambonese attacked a mosque early this morning. “Islam is the power in this area,” one man said. Ninety per cent of Indonesians are Muslim. Mobs threw rocks at an open-backed military truck carrying 20 Ambonese that raced away and boys poked sticks at the occupants through the vehicles protective wire netting. “Kill them,” the rioters screamed. Flames shot 100 feet into the air and smoke billowed from the gutted Christian church of Ketapang, which is located behind a shopping centre. SEOUL (ANI): US President Bill Clinton has urged Indonesia to adhere to its commitment to holding democratic elections next year and avoid reliance on military power. At a joint press conference with South Korean President Kim Dae-jung here, Mr Clinton said an elected government was best suited to lead a country through tough times. “I think the
important thing is that the USA hopes very much that
there will be no backsliding as we come up into the
election season in Indonesia, and that every effort will
be made to minimise any harm to people who are exercising
their voices to make their political views heard.”
Mr Clinton who is in South Korea as part of a five-day
visit to Asia, said. |
UN inspectors pay surprise visits BAGHDAD, Nov 22 (DPA) — United Nations weapons inspectors paid their first surprise visits to suspected arms production sites since they returned to Iraq earlier in the week, the official Iraqi News Agency (INA) has said. The agency quoted Major-General Husam Muhammad Amin, the Director-General of the National Monitoring Directorate, as saying that UN inspectors visited one facility to look at its monthly output records. Another team of chemical specialists visited another site to check the labels on production machines, he said. “The nuclear group, which comprised four teams, toured a number of buildings to inspect the machinery and see the ongoing activity inside the workshops,’’ Mr Amin told the news agency. “The teams took environmental samples, three leaves and dust samples. The biological group inspected all labels on the machinery, which were found to be in good condition,’’ he said. Other inspectors, he said, “visited a number of sites to do maintenance work on the camera inspection system and to replace some broken equipment.’’ Mr Amin also said that a U-2 aerial surveillance plane had violated Iraqi air space yesterday in several areas. He said Iraq had provided all necessary support to the UN inspection teams. The teams on biological, chemical and missile warheads are from the United Nations Special Commission (UNSCOM) and the nuclear teams are from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). In the meantime, Iraqi Deputy Prime Minister Tareq Aziz today accused UN chief arms inspector Richard Butler of creating a fake crisis and “undermining and confusing’’ preparations for a review of UN sanctions. “This kind of behaviour serves the general policy of the US Government”, Mr Aziz said when asked if Mr Butler’s insistence on receiving arms documents could trigger a fresh crisis. Mr Aziz accused the, chairman of the UN Special Commission (UNSCOM) on disarmament, of “undermining and confusing preparations for a comprehensive review’’ of sanctions expected to start next month. “This is the crisis. He’s either creating a superficial pretext to justify American aggression or he is trying to confuse and undermine the comprehensive review”, Mr Aziz said. “We cannot provide documents that do not exist, and it is quite provocative if you want to dig into the whole archives of Iraq which might take decades to investigate”, the Deputy Prime Minister said. “We are going to explain our position to the Security Council”. Mr Butler had on Friday rejected Iraqi arguments for withholding key documents that could help UN experts account for Baghdad’s weapons of mass destruction programmes. Mr Butler also stressed that under UN, resolutions, Iraq had the obligation to “make available to the commission any document which in its view is relevant to its mandate”. UNITED NATIONS: The UN Security Council is to meet tomorrow to discuss Iraq’s reluctance to hand over documents related to Iraqi weapons of mass destruction. Diplomats are anxious to
avoid signs of a public split among the five permanent
members — Britain, China, France, Russia and the USA
— and will be unanimous in urging Baghdad to
cooperate fully, a Western diplomat said. |
MQM senator vows revenge ISLAMABAD, Nov 22 (PTI) — Pakistan’s Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) has accused the Nawaz Sharif Government of trying to crush the largest representative party of migrated Muslims from India and vowed to take revenge for atrocities against its leaders. The threat came after two MQM legislators, including a 60-year-old member of the Sindh Assembly, were arrested in a late night raid on Friday and the party alleged that they might be tortured to death by the police. Rejecting the government’s move to establish military courts in Karachi to try cases of “specific nature”, MQM Senator Aftab Sheikh warned of revenge, if the “ongoing atrocities against the Mohajirs were not stopped”. Mr Sheikh, who along with other MQM leaders addressed a press conference at the party headquarters in Karachi yesterday, also alleged that “Mr Nawaz Sharif was dreaming of capturing Karachi by crushing its representative party, the MQM, at all costs”. The MQM, which represents the Mohajirs mainly settled in Karachi, is the second largest party in Sindh after Mrs Benazir Bhutto’s Pakistan People’s Party. He said the invoking of Article 245 of the Constitution to call in the Army to help the civilian authority had clearly indicated the “designs” of the Sharif Government. He alleged that during the raid the police ransacked the MQM’s party office and beat up leaders and other workers, including women. “It is the most condemnable act of Pakistan’s democratic history as an MP was severely beaten up by the police,” he said. Meanwhile, Karachi Deputy Inspector-General of Police Farooq Amin Qureshi said Mr Bukhari had been arrested following a confessional statement of the alleged killer of the brother of a former Chief Minister of the Sindh province. KARACHI (ANI): A habeas corpus petition has been filed in the Sindh High Court challenging the arrest and detention of two MQM (Muttahida Qaumi Movement) members of the provincial Assembly and three others on Saturday morning. The two MPAs were Mr Shoaib Bukhari, Mr Wakil Ahmed Jamali, besides Mr Mohammad Maqsood, Mr Nadeem Ahmed and Mr Abdul Samad, who were lodged at the Azizabad police station. Counsel for the detainees submitted that the arrests were made in the early hours of the day and that the legislators and others were not given any reason for their arrest. According to the petition, the MQM was not informed about the place where the legislators and others were detained and under what law. The petition for Mr Bukhari was filed by his mother, while Mr Wakil Jamali filed the petition on behalf of her husband and other two detainees, Mr Mohammad Maqsood and Mr Nadeem Ahmed. The petition said the MQM
leaders were arrested to eliminate the party under a
conspiracy and the raid was conducted at the MPA Hostel
in Azizabad with ulterior motives against the party,
which has mass support. The petitioners have sought to
declare the arrest illegal and without lawful authority.
The petition is likely to be heard on Monday. |
UN chief asked to end executions UNITED NATIONS, Nov 22 (IPS) — Opponents of the death penalty have sent a petition to UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan, calling for a global moratorium of executions. The petition, organised by the non-governmental organisation “Hands Off Cain”, contained the names of more than 100,000 persons — including such prominent figures as Nobel Peace Prize winners Archbishop Desmond Tutu, the Dalai Lama, Oscar Arias and Rigoberta Menchu. Sergio D’Elia, Hands Off Cain’s Secretary, said that while the petition already had more than 100,000 signatures, the organisation would present the entire list of signatures before the UN General Assembly begins its 1999 session next September. Similarly, Jean-Paul
Akayesu, a former Mayor of the Rwandan town of Taba who
was convicted by a UN Tribunal on War Crimes of genocide
in the country’s 1994 massacres, received a maximum
sentence of life imprisonment, which he is currently
appealing. Neither the UN tribunals for Rwanda nor the
former Yugoslavia allow capital punishment. |
Di’s car ‘was forced into tunnel’ LONDON, Nov 22 (AFP) — The official probe into the Paris crash that killed Diana, Princess of Wales, will produce evidence that it was caused by a pursuing paparazzi motorcyclist who blocked an exit road before the tunnel where the collision occurred, it was reported today. The report has concluded that the presence of motorbike, on the right-hand lane along side Diana’s car, could have forced the driver Henri Paul to go at high speed down the Alma tunnel, The Sunday Telegraph reported. It quoted a lawyer in the case as saying that if this scenario was correct “manslaughter charges could be upheld against certain photographers” who had been pursuing Diana in a high-speed chase on the night of August 30, 1997. Nine photographers and a despatch rider are facing charges of involuntary manslaughter and of having failed to assist persons in danger. Citing extracts from the 100-page report, the newspaper said this theory was supported by several witnesses who said they saw at least one motorcycle close to the Mercedes as it approached the tunnel. Once in the tunnel, Paul lost control of the vehicle and struck one of the tunnel’s pillars, killing himself, Diana and her companion, Dodi Fayed. Bodyguard Trevor Rees-Jones survived but was seriously injured. The report by French
investigating magistrate Herve Stephan concludes Paul had
wanted to leave the riverside expressway and branch off
to the right — a more direct route to Dodi’s
apartment at L’Etoile, the report said. |
Condoms for armymen KAMPALA, Nov 22 (DPA) — The Ugandan army has ordered 1 million condoms as part of efforts to control the spread of AIDS in the military, newspapers reported on yesterday quoting army officers. Uganda, with a population of 21 million, has close to 2 million people carrying the virus that causes AIDS. President Yoweri Museveni is spearheading an aggressive AIDS control programme. At a ceremony on Friday at
the defence ministry headquarters in Bombo, 40 km north
of Kampala, a firm donated 100,000 condoms to the army. |
Taslima granted bail DHAKA, Nov 22 (Reuters) — Bangladesh’s high court today granted bail to controversial feminist writer Taslima Nasreen who had been hiding for years following death threats from Islamic radicals for alleged blasphemy. Judge Kazi Ebadul Huq ordered the bail after Nasreen, who returned home in September from four years’ of self-imposed exile, appeared in the court unannounced. Nasreen arrived at the high court with her face covered with a white scarf and relatives accompanying her scuffled with two members of the media present at the court. A Dhaka magistrate earlier issued a warrant of arrest against Nasreen on a complaint that she had outraged Islamic sentiments by “blasphemous” remarks in her books, which she denied. Nasreen fled Bangladesh in August, 1994, after Islamic radicals demanded her death. She lived in Sweden,
Germany, the USA and other European countries before
returning to Dhaka in September and has since remained in
hiding. |
PoK Sikh with RDX held KATHMANDU, Nov 22 (ANI) — A Sikh from the Pak-occupied Kashmir was arrested here for allegedly smuggling highly sophisticated explosives. Nepal police said Lakhbir Singh was arrested early on Friday while he was about to flee to Birgunj, near the Indian border. He had confessed to having brought in the explosives, 19 kg RDX and timing devices, and alleged that another Sikh residing in Pakistan was the brain behind the operation. It was alleged the explosives were destined for a third country. He was charged with being
involved in the trade and transport of dangerous
explosives, which carries a maximum penalty of 10
years’ imprisonment. |
| H |
|
||
| ‘Train to Pakistan’
screened LONDON: After almost three decades since it created waves in literary circles, Khushwant Singh’s famous novel “Train to Pakistan” came alive on the wide screen here on Saturday night, vividly portraying the human tragedy befalling the subcontinent, when India was partitioned in 1947. Produced and directed by non-resident Indian Pamela Rooks, the film, after many a hiccup, including a runway battle with Indian censors, was premiered at London’s famous Bloomsbury Theatre. Rooks was herself a victim of the human tragedy that overtook a whole generation in undivided Punjab. — PTI UN air embargo Tortoises stolen Fat Santas sought Osama bin Laden Alan Paton’s
widow Nuke race Option for Clinton Meteorologist dead |
 |
 |
| Nation
| Punjab | Haryana | Himachal Pradesh | Jammu & Kashmir | | Chandigarh | Editorial | Business | Sport | | Mailbag | Spotlight | 50 years of Independence | Weather | | Search | Subscribe | Archive | Suggestion | Home | E-mail | |
