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| Sunday,
October 15, 2000, Chandigarh, India   
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W. Asia peace talks set to resume
Suu Kyi’s party ‘not legal’ 1 killed,100 hurt
in Bangladesh clashes Pak Information
Minister quits |
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W. Asia peace talks set to resume WASHINGTON, Oct 14 (UNI) — After two weeks of bloody clashes, the stage is set for a possible resumption of dialogue between Israeli and Palestinian leadership in the Egyptian resort of Sharm-el-Sheikh on Monday. Apart from President Yasser Arafat and Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak, moderate Arab leaders Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak and King Abdullah of Jordan are likely to attend the summit meeting. The summit could be the outcome of successful talks between UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan and Mr Arafat at Gaza two days ago. Indications here point towards US President Clinton attending the summit as well, provided both the Israeli and Palestinian leadership agree on the agenda for the meet. However, before a final decision on the trip, he would like to ensure Mr Arafat’s and Mr Barak’s aggreement on the agenda. With presidential elections round the corner, Mr Clinton is under considerable pressure on the domestic front to pull off a West Asia summit meeting to shore up the prospects of the Democratic Party candidate Al Gore. First Lady Hillary Clinton who is contesting for the Senate from New York was booed by a large crowd who took exception to the Pentagon’s decision of not backing Israel in the ongoing clashes, in particular its stance of abstaining from voting in the United Nations on this issue. A White House spokesperson told newspersons that the Administration was working closely with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak on whether a summit meeting amid unabated violence could be useful and productive. President Clinton who has been having telephonic talks with almost all the moderate Arab leaders since the conflict broke out today also spoke to King Mohammed of Moracco. The spokesperson further stated that both sides should renounce violence and recognise that differences could be resolved at the negotiating table and not in the streets. The proposed dialogue should be on clear lines to defuse tensions and reduce conflict. Meanwhile, the US Administration has closed down as many as 37 embassies, mostly of West Asian countries, for the weekend following the bombing of a US naval ship in Aden port on Thursday. Significantly, the list includes Pakistan. Sources here say that the suspicion of US intelligence agencies that Afghanistan-based terrorist Osama bin Laden’s group could have been involved in the bombing, could have contributed to the decision. UNITED NATIONS:
The 189-member United Nations General Assembly is expected to meet early next week in an emergency session to discuss the situation in West Asia. Rebuffed by the Security Council which declined to convene an immediate meeting, the Arabs turned to the assembly where they can expect a majority of members to support them. The Arab League sent a letter to the Assembly President Harri Holkeri, seeking an emergency meeting. The demand was supported by the 114-member non-aligned group comprising mostly developing nations. The assembly decisions, unlike those of the council, are non-binding and the only thing they can do is to put moral pressure. But the council decisions are binding, could be enforced and have a force of international law. However, in the absence of any action by the council, the Arabs settled for the second best. CAIRO (Reuters): US President Bill Clinton is expected to attend an Israeli-Palestinian peace summit in Egypt on Monday hosted by Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, state television said on Saturday. |
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Partners’ conditional support to Chandrika COLOMBO, Oct 14 (PTI) — Two Sri Lankan Muslim Parties, which extended crucial support to the People’s Alliance to form government yesterday, today set a deadline of 100 days for President Chandrika Kumaratunga to bring in a new Constitution and open talks with Tamil rebels failing which they would withdraw the support. Joint leader of the Sri Lanka Muslim Congress (SLMC) and the National United Alliance (NUA) Rauff Hakeem said here that they had extended support to the PA after receiving assurance from Ms Chandrika that she would bring in a new Constitution, incorporating the devolution of powers to Tamil-dominated north and east and set up three independent commissions to conduct elections, administer police and civil services. He told a press conference that his party understood the constraints faced by the PA in bringing in a new Constitution as it failed to achieve two-thirds majority. However, it could still be brought about by converting Parliament into a Constituent Assembly and approving the Constitution with a simple majority, Mr Hakeem said, adding such a process was
politically sound and legally feasible. Mr Hakeem said the two parties would withdraw the crucial support to Ms Chandrika’s government if she failed to bring in the new Constitution and open talks with LTTE rebels within 100 days. The Muslim leader alleged that the ruling party had indulged in “large-scale” violence in several areas during the October 10 parliamentary polls which had affected the credibility of the new government. “It is time to clean up the system and we are determined to do it,” he said. UNI: The People’s Alliance of Ms Chandrika Kumaratunga, which had only 107 seats was able to form a government with the extended support of the National Unity Alliance (NUA) of late Mr A.M.H. Ashraff, who was killed in a helicopter crash and Mr Douglas Devananda’s Eelam People’s Revolutionary Front (EPDP). The PA was six seats short of the 113 figure required to form a government in the 225-member
Parliament. With the support of the NUA and the EPDP with four seats each, the PA overcame the hurdle and formed the government for the second time. The United National Party (UNP) which came second with 89 seats could not think of forming a
government. For the UNP the support of the Janatha Vimukthi Peramun (JVP) is crucial which has emerged as a third force bagging 10 seats, and other Tamil parties like the TULF and the TELO and all Ceylong Tamil Congress which together has 9 seats. AFP: Meanwhile security was tightened here today as Sri Lanka prepared for a state funeral for the country’s matriarch, Sirimavo Bandaranaike, the world’s first woman Prime Minister. The police said a main highway to the central town of Kandy would be closed in several places to allow mourners to gather at the burial site at Horagolla, 36 km northeast of Colombo. They added mourners would have to undergo body searches for explosives. Ms Bandaranaike, who in August was forced to step down as Prime Minister, is to be buried with full national honours. Ms Bandaranaike, (84), specified in her will that she wanted a simple burial within the shortest possible time. She also wanted to be buried next to her husband, Solomon West Ridgeway Dias Bandaranaike, an Oxford University educated Sinhalese, shot dead by a Buddhist monk in September 1959. |
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LA Times flayed over cartoon LOS ANGELES, Oct 14 (Reuters) —Jewish groups accused the Los Angeles Times yesterday of running an anti-Semitic editorial page cartoon when it printed a drawing showing two figures — one an orthodox Jew — praying before a wall with the word “hate” etched into the stones. Jewish groups said the wall in the cartoon captioned “worshipping their god” was the western or Wailing Wall in Jerusalem, the last extant piece of the Temple of Solomon and one of the images most associated with the Jewish religion. “They have taken the image of the holiest site in Judaism and desecrated it. They would not have taken the icon of a crucified Jesus and written the word ‘hate’ across it,’’ said Elan Steinberg, the executive director of the World Jewish Congress. Other groups condemning the cartoon as anti-Semitic include the Simon Wiesenthal Centre and the Anti-Defamation League. The Los Angeles Times strongly denied the charges but said it had received more than 1,000 e-mails from readers protesting against the cartoon by Pulitzer prize winner Michael Ramirez, which was drawn as comment on the latest round of violence between Palestinians and Israelis — a flare-up that has brought fears of war. The cartoonist said he was simply drawing a wall of hate with two figures before it — one a prostrate Palestinian and the other a Jew in traditional bent prayer stance. “There seems to be a misperception by some that my cartoon depicts the Western Wall and that I have blamed the Israelis solely for the hatred and violence in West Asia. Actually, the metaphor depicts both Israelis and Palestinians worshipping ‘hate,’ he said in a statement on the lA Times website. He added, “Jews do not kneel and bow at the Western Wall nor do they wear a kaffiyeh and because of the religious significance the Western Wall has to Jews but not Muslims, common sense would dictate that a Palestinian would never bow to it. That alone would indicate that it is not the Western Wall. Since I am the creator of the editorial cartoon, I can tell you that it is not. It is simply an unspecified “wall of hate.” The artist’s explanation did not please the
WJC'S Steinberg, who said that anyone looking at the drawing would say it was clearly modelled after the Wailing Wall. Janet Clayton, editor of the paper’s editorial page, said “Obviously, we don’t believe that the drawing was Anti-Semitic. We would not have published it if we did.” |
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Suu Kyi’s party ‘not legal’ YANGON, Oct 14 (Reuters) — the Myanmar Government said yesterday that the pro-democracy Opposition led by Nobel Peace laureate Aung San Suu Kyi was not a legal party, fuelling concerns that the regime might be planning a decisive crackdown to silence its opponents. Landlords have also served Ms Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy (NLD) with an eviction notice to vacate its headquarters here sparking fears about the future of the party despite a visit this week by UN special envoy Razali Ismail. “The situation is extremely bleak,” one diplomat said. “The
NLD'S leaders have been silenced, a lot of key persons have been arrested and they may lose their headquarters. There is really nothing to be positive about at the moment,” he added. Diplomats said the government might had calculated that the long-term gains were worth the short-term international outrage. A commentary in The New Light of Myanmar and Myanma Alin newspapers, regarded as official mouthpieces of the regime, derided Ms Suu Kyi as a “democracy stunt actress” and the
NLD as a “hut of democracy”. “However much the democracy stunt actress and the international colonialist group are shouting at the top of their voice that theirs is a legal party, the hut of democracy can no longer stand as a legal political party,” the newspapers said. In a commentary, the newspapers said the
NLD, which won elections by a landslide in 1990 but has never been allowed to govern, was being controlled by the US and British “colonialists”. |
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1 killed,100
hurt in Bangladesh clashes DHAKA, Oct 14 (PTI)— One person was killed and at least 100 others were injured in clashes over relief distribution and over a move to cut an embankment to drain out water in Bangladesh’s flood-hit Chaudanga and Sathkhira districts, respectively, officials and media reports said today. A 70-year-old man, said to be the chief of a local mosque committee, died at Loknathpur village of western district of Chaudanga following clashes between two rival groups clashing over the distribution of rice among the flood-hit victims at a relief camp yesterday, a report quoting the police said. The victim, who tried to prevent the clash, received serious injuries on his head. He later succumbed to his injuries at a Chaudanga hospital. Ten persons were injured in the clash. In a separate incident, at least 70 persons were injured in a clash at Goalpota area of south-western Sathkhira district yesterday over plans to cut an embankment. The injured included six policemen, who sustained wounds when they rushed to the scene of the violence. They were attacked by the clashing groups with stones and home-made bombs. |
Pak Information
Minister quits ISLAMABAD, Oct 14 (PTI) —Pakistan’s Information Minister Javed Jabbar, who was being attacked for his alleged mishandling of the publicity of Gen Pervez Musharraf during his recent visit to the USA, resigned today, citing “personal reasons”. “I have tendered the resignation and will not accept any other ministry,” said Mr Jabbar, who was also the adviser to General Musharraf on national affairs. Reports suggested that the military ruler himself had asked the minister to resign. Pakistani media had said the “wrong policies of the General Musharraf regime had virtually given a walkover to Indian Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee during the visit to New York last month. It was alleged that Mr Jabbar had failed to establish good relations between the press and the military government. Religious parties were also critical of his role and described him as the “representative” of non-governmental organisations (NGOS). |
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