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| Tuesday, February 15, 2000, Chandigarh, India  
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Wiranto
suspended, TNI backs decision Rich
nations must help poor: WTO chief
Kumaratunga
presents Budget |
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| Anwar
case Witnesses ‘were paid’ KUALA LUMPUR, Feb 14 — A ruling party member testified at the sodomy trial of Anwar Ibrahim today that the prosecution’s two key witnesses had been “paid off” to fabricate sex lies against the former Deputy Prime Minister. ‘Wet wedding’ for 30 on
Valentine’s Day Russia
takes control of Vedeno region Japan
restricts lewd ads
|
Wiranto suspended, TNI backs decision JAKARTA, Feb 14 (Reuters) — Indonesia’s former military Chief Gen Wiranto today said he accepted President Abdurrahman Wahid’s decision to suspend him from the Cabinet. “He took a decision and it is his right and whatever the decision we have to accept it,’’ Gen Wiranto told a news conference. Gen Wiranto was talking shortly after attending the swearing-in ceremony of Mr Surjadi Soedirdga, his replacement as Coordinating Minister for Political and Security Affairs. He showed no apparent emotion as Mr Surjadi took the oath. Mr Wahid’s move to suspend Gen Wiranto came hours after he said the General could keep his post. It follows a two-week power struggle between the two men after an official Indonesian inquiry said Gen Wiranto was implicated in the East Timor violence. Gen Wiranto, who was armed forces chief at the time of the bloodshed last September, said he had needed time to speak to the President, who was abroad when the inquiry report was issued. “When the President was abroad the President asked me to resign but I needed time to give the President a clear explanation about my case,’’ he said. “I explained about my position, including about the human rights violations in East Timor, and he took a decision,’’ he stated. Earlier, Indonesian military chief Admiral Widodo Adi Sutjipto said the military backed President Abdurrahman Wahid’s decision to suspend Gen Wiranto from the Cabinet. “All the TNI (Indonesian military) are loyal and are going to safeguard that decision so it can be implemented,’’ Admiral Widodo told reporters. Meanwhile, Indonesia’s former President Suharto failed to show up today at an inquiry into high-level corruption because he was too ill to testify, his lawyers said. The Attorney-General’s office has named the 78-year-old former dictator as a suspect in connection with allegations that he misused millions of dollars amassed by seven charitable foundations controlled by his family during his 32 years in power. Suharto, who like many Indonesians uses only one name, has repeatedly denied any wrongdoing. The investigation is regarded as crucial to the new government’s campaign to replace endemic corruption with democracy and the rule of law, along with economic reform based on greater foreign investment. State prosecutors contend they have uncovered new evidence that Suharto abused power by granting his children control over the lucrative trade in products such as cloves and fruits. “We have explained that based on the doctors’ suggestions, Suharto could not come as requested,” said one of Suharto’s lawyers as he left the Attorney-General’s office. The lawyers insist that
Suharto’s two recent strokes had slurred his speech,
making it impossible for him to answer questions. |
Rich nations must help poor: WTO chief BANGKOK, Feb 14 (AP, Reuters) — World Trade Organisation (WTO) chief Mike Moore has suggested that the big powers should agree to open their markets wide to goods from the poorest if they wanted to win backing for a new round of global trade talks. Speaking to ministers from the 48 least-developed countries (LDCs) at the UN Conference on Trade and Development Mr Moore said he was engaged in a major effort to get action to help them. “If some people want a new round, let’s have something of substance now as a down-payment,” the former New Zealand Prime Minister declared. The LDCs, mostly in Africa and Asia, are pushing for duty and quota-free access for all their products to richer parts of the world, especially the USA and the 15-member European Union, to help them out of growing poverty. In a report issued in Bangkok, UNCTAD said the 48, who account for 13 per cent of the world’s population, had become increasingly marginalised during the 1990s, losing 40 per cent of the already tiny share of global exports they had in 1980. The past decade, UNCTAD Secretary-General Rubens Ricupero said in the report, had been for LDCs one of “increasing marginalisation, inequality, poverty and social exclusion”. “The violence and
social tensions which afflict several LDCs are caused, in
part at least, by increasing deprivation and in
equality,” the UNCTAD chief asserted. |
Kumaratunga presents Budget COLOMBO, Feb 14 (PTI) — Sri Lankan President Chandrika Kumaratunga today made a surprise visit to Parliament and presented the 2000 Budget. According to the parliamentary programme, Junior Finance Minister G.L. Peiris was due to unveil the annual Budget. Making an unexpected entry into the highly-guarded Parliament in the outskirts of the Capital, Ms Kumaratunga, who also holds the Finance portfolio, said this was the first time a President had ever attended the House. She took the seat of her ailing mother and Prime Minister Sirimavo Bandaranaike and presented the Budget which went on for several hours. Her sudden appearance in Parliament took both the ruling and Opposition United National Party (UNP) members by surprise. The UNP members protested against her security guards entering the Parliament building overriding the parliamentary security personnel.
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Anwar case KUALA LUMPUR, Feb 14 (AP) — A ruling party member testified at the sodomy trial of Anwar Ibrahim today that the prosecution’s two key witnesses had been “paid off” to fabricate sex lies against the former Deputy Prime Minister. Raja Kamarudin Raja Abdul Wahid, who first took the stand on Friday, is the first defense witness to corroborate Anwar’s repeated claims that a political conspiracy to ruin him was behind the corruption and sex charges levelled against him. Kamarudin told the court that Aziz Shamsuddin, Mr Mahathir’s political secretary in 1998, had summoned him to the Prime Minister’s office to orchestrate the political assassination of Anwar. Kamarudin said Aziz told him that he had paid Ummi Hafilda Ali and Azizan Abu Bakar to fabricate the sodomy allegations against him. He did not say how much money had changed hands, but that Ummi was badly in need of cash. Ummi, an advertising executive, wrote a letter to Mahathir in 1998, alleging that Anwar committed adultery with the wife of her brother, Anwar’s secretary at the time. Much of the prosecution
case hinges on her testimony and credibility since she
also encouraged Azizan Abu Bakar, a former driver in
Anwar’s household, to write a declaration that Anwar
repeatedly sodomised him. |
‘Wet wedding’ for 30 on Valentine’s Day BANGKOK, Feb 14 (DPA) — Thirty couples from around the world on Monday took the plunge, literally, in an underwater wedding ceremony off the coast of Thailand to mark Valentine’s Day. Organisers of the ‘wet wedding’ confirmed that it went off without a hiccup, although some of the couples were a little breathless. Couples from the USA, Europe, China, Japan, India, Korea and South-East Asia participated in the Valentine event which included a traditional Thai style wedding on land. Then, they donned scuba gear and plunged into the crystal-clear Andaman sea off the coast of Trang, 650 km south of Bangkok, to sign their vows and seal them with an underwater kiss. The ceremony, airplane fare and hotel accommodation were provided free to the participants by several Thai sponsors. KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysian lovers continued to say it with flowers on Valentine’s Day, as florists reported strong demand for roses despite a price jump about 30 times higher than normal to 15 ringit ($ 4) per stalk, reports said. Although there were grumblings from customers about the ridiculously high price of roses, most customers paid up. Many said they regarded this year’s Valentine’s Day as extra-special since it was the first of the new millennium. KUWAIT (Reuters): A Kuwaiti member of Parliament has called on authorities to crack down on events and shops which he said violated Muslim morals by celebrating Valentine’s Day. Mr Waleed Al-Tabtabaie
said in a statement published in local newspapers that
Valentine’s Day “is a dangerous way of
importing Western vision of the relationship between man
and woman...which encourages sexual intercourse outside
of wedlock.” |
Russia takes control of Vedeno region MOSCOW, Feb 14 (DPA) — The Russian Air Force today continued the aerial assault on Islamic rebel positions in the south of Chechnya, the news agency Interfax reported. About 20 rebel entrenchments were knocked out in more than 100 bombing raids over 24 hours, according to the federal Caucasus forces headquarters in Mozdok, North Ossetia. Raids were concentrated
around the Argun and Vedeno gorges and covered the
advance of ground troops into mountain areas defended by
some 7,000 Chechen rebels and foreign mercenaries. |
Japan restricts lewd ads TOKYO, Feb 14 (Reuters) — “Perversion days in an s/m club’’ — This and far more sexually explicit headlines have long been a mainstay of ads in mainstream Japanese newspapers for weekly magazines popular with middle-aged men. Even harder to miss are posters for the same magazines hanging from ceilings inside Tokyo commuter trains. “College girl rape video — we have it”, screeched one. But now newspapers and train companies are restricting and even banning the ads — a major sign of change in Japan, formerly blind to sexism and sexually offensive behaviour. The Yomiuri Shimbun, Japan’s biggest-selling daily, sparked a furore on January 4 when it said it would no longer carry ads for two weekly magazines because they were sexually offensive. Train companies, which carry the ads on posters hanging from the ceiling of carriages, urged the magazines to exercise restraint, a spokeswoman for the main Tokyo subway company said. A month ago, Osaka Governor “knock” Yokoyama was forced to quit in connection with a criminal sexual harassment suit filed by a college student who accused him of groping her in the back of a campaign van. He was later indicted. In October, Vice Defence
Minister Shingo Nishimura resigned after a magazine
interview in which he compared nuclear deterrence to laws
against rape. “If there was no punishment for rape,
all men would be rapists,’’ he was quoted as
saying. |
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