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| Tuesday, September 26, 2000, Chandigarh, India   
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Both sides claim win in Yugoslav poll Voting may go into second round BELGRADE, Sept 25 — European powers piled pressure on Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic today to accept defeat in yesterday’s presidential election, but a member of Milosevic’s ruling coalition insisted: “We’ve won.” Milosevic celebrates
before polling ends! Over 100 rebels die in Jolo Fujimori’s spy chief flees to Panama Air embargo on Iraq falling apart? |
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AIDS hits many S. African soldiers DURBAN, Sept 25 — A large number of soldiers in South Africa’s defence forces are HIV positive, with at least two soldiers dying each day from AIDS, sources have said. Lanka PM
‘unleashing violence’ Envoy stopped from meeting Suu Russian doctors
treating Saddam
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Both sides claim win in Yugoslav poll BELGRADE, Sept 25 (Reuters, DPA, AFP) — European powers piled pressure on Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic today to accept defeat in yesterday’s presidential election, but a member of Milosevic’s ruling coalition insisted: “We’ve won”. Serbia’s main Opposition bloc said that, with results from half the polling stations counted, 55 per cent of the vote had gone to Opposition candidate Vojislav Kostunica, with 34 per cent for Milosevic. This would mean that Kostunica would win the election in the first round. If neither candidate gains more than 50 per cent in the first round, a run-off is planned for October 8. “This is a people’s victory,” Kostunica declared. But a spokesman for the Yugoslav Left, part of the ruling coalition, said the coalition had won. Asked for a comment, Ivan Markovic said: “What can I say? we’ve won.” Milosevic’s supporters had earlier said his electoral victory was assured, but Yugoslavs expressed hope that change was in the air after 13 years of his iron-fisted rule. “DOS (Democratic Opposition of Serbia) and Kostunica have won. The only question now is if the authorities will recognise that,” said a woman psychologist, in her early 40s. But Mr Milosevic’s ruling socialists projected victory for the Yugoslav President. Nikola Sainovic, a key socialist leader, said Mr Milosevic had 44 per cent of the vote against 41 per cent for Kostunica with 940,000 votes counted, state television reported. Official results are not expected until this evening. The Opposition has charged the government of massive vote fraud. Concerns over ballot fraud were heightened when the Serb police evicted the Opposition’s representative from the Election Commission office late yesterday — shortly before postal votes from military troops and prisoners were to be counted. “It is clear that any claim by Mr Milosevic that he is the winner would be a fraud,” the European Union said in Paris. In Vienna, the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe said claims of victory from pro-Milosevic forces “are not credible” and that yesterday’s were “far from democratic”. The European Union, German Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer, OSCE and British Foreign Secretary Robin Cook were among those saying Milosevic must concede loss. “It looks as though Kostunica has already come out the winner in the first round of voting,” Mr Fischer said. The Opposition had won not only the presidency but also Parliament. That would be a heavy blow to Milosevic and his Socialist Party, which has steered the country through turbulent times that saw Yugoslavia torn apart by war and reduced to just two republics — Serbia and Montenegro. Even Montenegro, now run by a pro-Western Government, said Milosevic had lost and it was time for him to go. And Milosevic’s one-time top General, Momcilo Perisic, now an opponent, called for an Opposition victory rally in Belgrade tonight. He urged the army and the police to show restraint “and protect the people’s will”. The chorus of calls for Milosevic to accept defeat after a 13-year grip on power seemed clearly orchestrated to forestall the massive vote
rigging that Western powers warned to expect if Milosevic felt his rule was threatened. Milosevic’s socialist party coalition partner, the Yugoslav Left (JUL) of Milosevic’s wife, Mirjana Markovic, said data from 1,984 polling stations showed Milosevic leading with 56.3 p.c. of the vote against 31.4 p.c. for Kostunica. The USA said the elections — for President and Parliament — had been badly flawed and warned Milosevic that his response was being watched. LONDON: A huge
NATO armada is gathering in the Mediterranean to send a strong message to Mr Milosevic, according to a newspaper report here on Monday. The biggest
NATO armada since the Kosovo war, including 15 ships from Britain, is aimed at dissuading Mr Milosevic from using force to maintain power, The Independent reported. |
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Milosevic celebrates
before polling ends! AFTER a turnout in yesterday’s elections that may be as high as 60 per cent in Serbia and 75 per cent in the rest of Yugoslavia, President Milosevic responded to the threat by staging a victory concert at the main square of the capital. It began an hour before the polls closed,
wrong-footing the plans of his main challenger, Belgrade lawyer Vojislav Kostunica, to hold a rally in the same square. The danger of violent clashes grew, as both sides in Yugoslavia’s hotly contested election accused each other of fraud and even of planning a coup. As supporters gathered in Belgrade city centre, state television announced an “overwhelming lead’’ for Mr Milosevic in voting in the Serb-populated villages of northern Kosovo. The claim was dismissed by the opposition as “pure manipulation’’. Hundreds of thousands voted in Serbia, its small sister republic of Montenegro, and even UN-administered Kosovo after President Milosevic called the polls several months early. Mr Kostunica, the candidate of the 18-party alliance known as Democratic Opposition of Serbia, stated, “It should be shown that the authorities in a democracy are changeable.’’ He accused the government of trying to confuse voters and justify any future moves to preserve power at all cost. State television, which is controlled by President Milosevic, had set up in front of the National Museum in preparation for a live broadcast when the President’s victory would be announced to the nation. Serbia was informed of Milosevic’s victory even before the votes had been counted. “The political landscape has now been cleaned,’’ said the President. In southern Serbia, where voting fraud was most feared, 370 polling stations had no Opposition representative on the board, said an Opposition spokesman. Meanwhile, several hundred Yugoslav troops and military police guarded polling booths in Montenegro yesterday (Sunday) in a move denounced by Milo Djukanovic, the republic’s pro-Western President, as blatant intimidation by the President, Slobodan Milosevic. “You can judge for yourself to what extent we can talk of free and fair elections if the army is present at polling stations,” he told reporters in Podgorica. The Montenegrin government was officially boycotting the polls and people were voting on premises ranging from private homes, butchers’ shops and a nuclear bomb shelter in a municipality controlled by the main pro-Belgrade party. Fraud by Mr Milosevic’s officials was expected to be widespread in Montenegro because of the boycott. The republic has an electorate of 440,000 and pro-Belgrade supporters would not normally get more than a third of these, to judge from previous elections. — The Guardian, London. |
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Over 100 rebels die in Jolo JOLO (Philippines), Sept 25 (Reuters) — More than 100 Muslim rebels have been killed in a Philippine military assault on guerrillas holding hostages on a remote southern Island, the officer commanding the operation said today. But 10 days after launching the attack, troops were still looking for the 17 hostages and there was no sign that the military action would end soon. Brig-general Narciso Abaya told reporters that the operations on Jolo Island, 960 km south of Manila, were difficult and being hampered by bad weather, rough terrain and local support for the Abu Sayyaf rebels. “They never engage us,” he said. “It’s like a boxing match where your opponent keeps running. No knockdowns.” Jolo’s Chief Medical Officer said she had heard of scores of civilian casualties in the bombardment of rebel bases but was unable to go to the battle zone due to a military blockade. MANILA (AFP): Philippine authorities have detained a Hong Kong-flagged fishing boat and its crew of five off southern Jolo Island, where a rescue operation for hostages held by Muslim extremists is in progress, the military said on Monday. The “Tong Ho 5” ran into the naval blockade off the northeast coast of Jolo last Wednesday and was detained for illegal entry, military spokesmen said here. The vessel was impounded at a navy outpost in the Jolo town of Luuk while the Immigration Bureau took custody of the crewmen, identified as nationals of Hong Kong and Taiwan. It was not immediately clear what the boat was doing off Jolo. |
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Fujimori’s spy chief flees to Panama LIMA, Sept 25 (AP) — Peru’s ousted spy chief flew to Panama yesterday triggering opposition demands that President Alberto Fujimori’s government explain how the former top aide eluded a bribery scandal at home. Though Mr Fujimori faced opposition anger, the escape of Vladimir Montesinos could resolve for him the potentially dangerous question of what to do with his former aide, who many feared could rally his powerful military allies to his side if prosecuted. Speaking at an annual ceremony honouring the armed forces, Mr Fujimori said nothing about Montesinos’ exit from the country. He instead praised the intelligence services and military, where Montesinos allies hold many top posts. Montesinos, at the centre of a bribery scandal that is cutting short Mr Fujimori’s decade-old presidency, arrived in Panama around dawn yesterday, the Panamanian Government confirmed. “The gentleman is in Panama,” Vice-Foreign Minister Harmodio Arias said. Panama had originally refused an asylum request for Montesinos that it said came from Mr Fujimori’s Prime Minister. But the office of President Mireya Moscoso said Latin American leaders and the Organisation of American States had asked her to rethink the matter. “They asked us to reconsider, considering the significance that Montesinos’ leaving Peru would have for facilitating the democratic process and peace in that South American country,” her office said. Peru’s shady spy chief, who sparked a national crisis and prompted the country’s seemingly entrenched President to announce new elections in which he would not run, has led a life that reads like a spy
novel. |
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Air embargo on Iraq falling apart? BAGHDAD, Sept 25 (AFP) — The flow of international flights to Iraq has sounded the deathknell for the crippling 10-year-old sanctions imposed on the country, officials here have said, urging Arab states to follow suit and resume air links. “We are expecting the arrival of more planes carrying delegations from friendly countries to hasten the end of the this
arbitrary air embargo imposed by the us administration,” Mr Salem al-Gubaissi, head of the Iraqi parliamentary committee for Arab and international relations, said yesterday. The arrival on Saturday of another Russian plane in Baghdad just a day after that of a French one confirmed “the position of our friends defying the embargo, which has no legal basis,” Mr Qubaissi said. The Russian plane, the third to land at Saddam International Airport since it reopened on August 17, was carrying five tonnes of medical supplies and a 100-member delegation of Russian oil officials, mps and a football team. The flight came just a day after a French plane landed at the airport in defiance of the us hardline on the decade-old un sanctions against Iraq. Iraqi former Ambassador to France, Mr Abdel Razzak al-Hasmie, described the arrival of the planes in Baghdad as “a rejection of the
arbitrary interpretations of the international resolutions”. “Iraq’s political and oil importance makes it difficult to be totally cut off,” said Mr Hashemi, who heads the Association for Friendship, Peace and Solidarity, an Iraqi
NGO. France has joined Russia and China in a divided un security Council, arguing that the sanctions should be ended. Britain and the USA insist the terms of un resolutions mean an air embargo is in force against Iraq. But France, Russia and China argue that non-commercial passenger flights to Baghdad are not covered by the ban. The flow of planes spurred Gulf newspapers on Sunday to urge Arab countries to resume air links with Iraq. “The air embargo has fallen completely by the wayside, subject to interpretations according to one’s interests,” the Qatari paper Al-Watan said. “Why are Arab countries standing there with arms folded in stead of taking a positive initiative ... while the way is open before them?” asked the paper, dubbing the air embargo “fictitious”. |
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AIDS hits many S. African soldiers DURBAN, Sept 25 (PTI) — A large number of soldiers in South Africa’s defence forces are HIV positive, with at least two soldiers dying each day from AIDS, sources have said. A significant percentage of soldiers is HIV positive, the sources in the national defence force disclosed. But, the force had no official record of the number of deaths from AIDS-related diseases or of HIV positive soldiers, they said, adding that often the Health Department was furnished with false death certificates. When a soldier died from an AIDS-related ailment, the related illness was logged as the cause of death rather than the AIDS virus, they said. The revelation came after Defence Minister Mosiuoa Lekota had denied that 60 per cent of the force was HIV positive. He said a survey, which indicated this, was “a thumb suck”. A spokesperson for the South African Military Health Services, Capt Niko Allie, declined to confirm or deny the high percentage of HIV and AIDS in the defence force. The Salut, defence force’s official news magazine, said the major problem was that soldiers refused to use condoms. Meanwhile, government’s communication services said it would begin a massive programme to rectify the negative image caused by President Thabo Mbeki’s ambivalent stance on AIDS. Mr Mbeki had persistently refused that HIV causes AIDS. Over three million persons are HIV positive and every day 10-15 persons die of AIDS in the country. |
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Lanka PM
‘unleashing violence’ COLOMBIA, Sept 25 (AFP) — Sri Lanka President Chandrika Kumaratunga was today accused by her estranged brother of unleashing violence and destroying opposition election material in their home constituency. Ms Kumaratunga’s brother, Mr Anura Bandaranaike, a leading figure in the main opposition United National Party (UNP), said his office in Attanagalle town was smashed up early today. “It was done by members of the President’s security division,” Mr Bandaranaike said here. “The attack was carried out after the area was declared a high security zone by the President’s security division,” he said. He said the attack came on the eve of the 41st anniversary tomorrow of the death of their father, former Prime Minister Solomon Bandaranaike, who was assassinated here in 1959. |
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Envoy stopped from meeting Suu YANGON, Sept 25 (AP) — Britain’s Ambassador to Myanmar was prevented today from seeing Aung San Suu Kyi who is under apparent house arrest again after her latest defiance of Myanmar’s junta, the British Embassy said. Meanwhile, a government newspaper has warned Suu Kyi’s opposition National League for Democracy (NLD) that it owes its survival to the military authorities, who, it claimed, are protecting the
NLD from the wrath of the people. The NLD has received similar veiled threats in the past from the government, and the latest one appeared to justify the new round of restrictions on Suu Kyi and the eight top party leaders, all of whom have been held incommunicado since Friday. The crackdown demonstrates the resolve of the government to silence the
NLD despite the vehement Western criticism it is facing and the brickbats it can receive in upcoming international meetings. “There are many people who are losing patience and are itching to strike on a group loitering around stations, jetties and road corners. Knowing the situation, authorities have to take preventive measures to protect the
NLD snakes,” said an article in the language daily Kyemon today. |
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Russian doctors
treating Saddam DUBAI, Sept 25 (AFP) — The planes that landed in Baghdad over the weekend in defiance of the US hardline on the decade-old UN sanctions against Iraq were carrying doctors to treat Saddam Hussein for worsening cancer, a paper said today. The doctors were part of the French and Russian delegations that arrived in Iraq over the weekend by plane, the London-based Al-Hayat said. The Arabic-language paper, citing sources close to the presidential palace, added that “signs of a deterioration in the health of the Iraqi President have multiplied recently.” |
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