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| Thursday, January 11, 2001, Chandigarh, India   
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Jakarta, rebels extend Aceh truce Labour Secy nominee withdraws
Uncertainty clouds Ross mission |
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Jakarta, rebels extend Aceh truce GENEVA, Jan 10 (Reuters, AFP) — Indonesia and rebels in Aceh province have agreed to a one-month ceasefire that extends a truce set to expire next week in the rebels’ armed struggle for independence, a group hosting peace talks said today. During three-day of talks in Geneva, representatives of Indonesia and the Free Aceh Movement (GAM) struck a provisional agreement to lay down arms temporarily, according to a statement issued on behalf of the two parties by the Swiss-based Centre for Humanitarian Dialogue. Both sides agreed “to establish a one-month moratorium on violence, starting January 15, 2001, during which they will work to substantially revise the security arrangements of the humanitarian pause in order to make them much more effective”, the statement said. “Both parties intend to meet in February 2001 to discuss and agree upon these new security arrangements as well as the process for continued political dialogue,” it added. A six-month-old truce was set to expire next Monday. Elaborating on the deal, Indonesian Defence Minister Mohammad Mahfud said the Aceh rebels had agreed to stop using arms and adopt political means instead to win independence. “The provisional understanding stipulates that GAM would change their means of struggle from taking up arms to democratic means,” he added. “The two sides agree that GAM will work through the democratic political process taking into account human rights, legal and humanitarian principles”, he added. But GAM officials in Aceh contacted by phone said they had no knowledge of the reported agreement. The main GAM negotiator, Abdullah Zaini, speaking in Switzerland by telephone yesterday declined to comment on the talks, taking place amid a strict media blackout. JAKARTA: The deal would be a significant boost for embattled President Abdurrahman Wahid, who has struggled to ease separatist tension and communal violence in the world’s largest archipelago since taking power 15 months ago. GAM has long refused to drop demands for independence in Aceh, a resource-rich province on the tip of Sumatra island, and the current ceasefire has done little to stem fighting. The rebel movement, whose ageing leader lives in exile in Sweden, insists Aceh has never legally been part of Indonesia. GAM spokesman Amni Marzuki, speaking from the provincial capital Banda Aceh, 1,700 km northwest of Jakarta, did not directly deny Mahfud’s comments, but said the Indonesian military would need to take part in any disarmament. “This is only version. It is impossible for us to strip ourselves from arms because since 1976 an armed force has been a part of GAM,” Marzuki told Reuters. “But laying down arms together with the (military) might be a possibility. If they do not take offensive action against GAM headquarters or property, we will also not be offensive.” Analysts blame the military’s ruthless tactics during the 1990s for boosting sympathy for GAM and for spurring demands in the staunchly Islamic province to break from the Jakarta rule. There is also widespread disillusionment at Jakarta’s plundering of natural resources in Aceh, believed to be home to thousands of armed GAM rebels. No foreign country has acknowledged Aceh’s unilateral 1976 declaration of independence or offered public support to the separatists. The government, and the military in particular, is still smarting from the loss of East Timor and many fear that if another province were to go Indonesia might disintegrate. |
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Labour Secy nominee withdraws WASHINGTON, Jan 10 (PTI) — US President-elect George W. Bush’s choice for Labour Secretary, Ms Linda Chavez, has withdrawn her nomination after conceding that she had sheltered an illegal Guatemalan immigrant in her house. Ms Chavez said she arrived at the decision as she had become a “distraction.” “I believe that I would have made a great Secretary of Labour...I have decided that I have become a distraction, and, therefore, I have asked President Bush to withdraw my name as Secretary of Labour,” 53-year-old Ms Chavez, who announced the decision yesterday, said. She, however, insisted that she was not aware in the beginning that Marta Mercado, the woman from Guatemala, was here illegally and that she simply helped a woman in distress. Stating that she had kept the woman in her home in early 1990s on a friend’s request, Ms Chavez said “if that woman showed up at my door, if I was asked by a friend to do that again, I would do it without hesitation.” Reacting to withdrawal of nomination, Mr Bush said “Linda is a good person with a great deal of compassion for people from all walks of life. “Her upbringing and her life’s work prepared her well for the issues facing the Labour Department. I am disappointed that Ms Chavez will not become our nation’s next Secretary of Labour,” he said in a statement. |
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Uncertainty clouds Ross mission JERUSALEM, Jan 10 (Reuters) — U.S. President Bill Clinton’s last-gasp peace drive faltered today as confusion reigned over the fate of a mission by a US envoy. Israel and the USA said veteran troubleshooter Dennis Ross had delayed his mission until tomorrow and a senior Palestinian official source said Clinton had agreed to cancel the trip altogether. A senior Israeli official active in Prime Minister Ehud Barak’s peace efforts said he had met Palestinian President Yasser Arafat meanwhile in the hope of easing violence that has raged for nearly 15 weeks. In a sign of confusion 10 days before Clinton leaves office, the Palestinian source said: “Arafat got a call from Clinton last night and both agreed to continue consultations and that Ross’s trip was cancelled.” But White House spokesman P.J. Crowley said, “No such decision was made during the phone call”. He and Israeli officials said so far as they knew, Ross’s mission was still on — albeit a day late for scheduling reasons. The visit could be Clinton’s last bid for a peace breakthrough before he leaves office on January 20, and Barak’s last hope for a boost for his re-election bid in a February 6 nationwide vote. Clinton’s prospects looked dire, given a lack of compromise on some of the toughest issues of 52 years of conflict. Clinton outlined his plan for an agreement in a speech in New York this week, including Israeli withdrawal from most of the West Bank and Gaza and a Palestinian renunciation of the right of millions of refugees to return to their old homes in Israel. Underscoring the difficulties, four Palestinians were shot in the legs by Israeli soldiers and Jewish settlers, said witnesses in the West Bank town of Silet al-Thaher, near Jenin. They said many were treated for teargas inhalation. At least 306 Palestinians, 13 Israeli Arabs and 43 other Israelis have been killed in bloodshed that followed a failed U.S.-led bid to forge a final peace at Camp David in July. Meanwhile, on the West Bank, confrontations continued.
Israeli troops imposed a curfew on downtown Hebron, confining some 30,000 Palestinians to their homes around the clock after shots
were fired a Jewish settlers’ compound in the area. Israeli Cabinet Minister Amnon-Lipkin Shahak, the former army chief who met Arafat overnight, voiced hopes of a “significant drop in violence” and predicted that security officials from both sides would meet in the coming days. Palestinian officials said the two men had discussed political and security issues. But Lipkin-Shahak told Israel Radio: “The discussion yesterday from my standpoint was not a political discussion.” The White House said Clinton had spoken to Barak earlier in the week and wanted to follow up with Arafat on meetings that CIA Director George Tenet had with Palestinian and Israeli officials this week. Israeli Foreign Minister Shlomo Ben-Ami has been meanwhile asked to meet U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright. The State Department said they could meet in Paris this week. All three sides have lowered expectations that an Israeli-Palestinian peace deal can be forged before Clinton leaves office. Fighting an uphill re-election battle, Barak spoke of the possibility that Ross could achieve understandings ending in a “presidential statement” from Clinton before he steps down. Opinion polls show Israel’s right-wing Likud party leader Ariel Sharon trouncing Barak in the nationwide vote, which was prompted by Barak’s resignation in December after failed peace moves. “I believe that Dennis Ross will try to achieve certain understandings about a statement, a presidential statement that President Clinton may have to release by the end of his term,” Barak said. |
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Top NATO, Yugoslav officials meet BRUSSELS, JAN 10 (DPA) — NATO and Yugoslavia resumed their dialogue today for the first time since the Bosnian and Kosovo conflicts, with NATO secretary-general lord Robertson hosting Yugoslav foreign minister Goran Svilanovic in Brussels. Mr Robertson spoke of “an important and historic day’’, reiterating the NATO assertion that its action against Yugoslavia in the 1999 air campaign was never directed against the Serbian people, only against its leadership around now-deposed president Slobodan Milosevic. Belgrade’s return to democracy was now “a key element for long-term security in the Balkans,’’ he said. Mr Svilanovic, stressing that “we are no longer a hostile army’’, called for the led-led for peacekeeping force in Kosovo to be withdrawn from the security zone between southern Serbia and Kosovo, scene of clashes in past weeks between Serbs and ethnic Albanians. NATO'S use of depleted-uranium munitions in Kosovo was also discussed, with Mr Roberston assuring Belgrade that it had “nothing to hide’’ and would provide all information available on the areas where the 31,000 “tankbuster’’ rounds were fired during the air campaign. Mr Svilanovic stressed that Belgrade intended cooperating with the War crimes tribunal in the Hague, whose chairwoman Carla del Ponte is expected in Belgrade shortly as part of efforts to bring Milosevic and other Belgrade leaders to international justice. Mr Robertson said it was still too early to adopt
Yugoslavia into NATO's partnership for peace programme under which it cooperates with former east bloc nations. This remained the long-term aim, but many conditions still had to be fulfilled, he said. |
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Pinochet appears for tests SANTIAGO, Jan 10 (Reuters) — Gen Augusto Pinochet arrived at the Military Hospital today to begin psychological exams to see if he is mentally fit to stand trial for alleged human rights abuses during his 1973-1990 dictatorship in Chile. Pinochet’s gray Mercedes Benz pulled up at the hospital shortly after 7 a.m. (10 am GMT), and the general slowly walked inside amid tight security. As ordered by Judge Juan Guzman, who wants to try him for human rights violations, the examination is scheduled to start later and, if necessary, will run through Saturday. Pinochet (82) failed to show up on Sunday and on Monday for originally scheduled psychological tests that Guzman ordered. Pinochet, however, had a change of heart after Army Commander-in-Chief Ricardo Izurieta told him that if he did not undergo the exams, the army would withdraw its support for him, legal sources said. The army has not said why it supposedly wants him examined. As is the case with people older than 70 facing trial in Chile, Pinochet has the right to a psychological examination, which gives him the opportunity to escape trial if he is declared insane or demented. Judge Guzman told local television he rescheduled the exams to give the retired General “a second chance.” The Judge, who is leading an investigation into more than 200 cases of Pinochet-era human rights abuses, plans to interrogate Pinochet on Monday about his possible involvement in human rights abuses in the weeks after his 1973 coup that ousted elected socialist President Salvador Allende. More than 3,000 people died or disappeared and are presumed dead because of political violence under Pinochet’s rule. Pinochet was detained in Britain in October 1998 at the request of a Spanish judge who wanted to try him on charges of torture. He spent 503 days under house arrest before being allowed to return home after the British legal system ruled he was too old and sick to be put on trial. |
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Hindus flay TV coverage of Kumbh LONDON, Jan 10 — British Hindus have slammed a London television channel’s reportage of the Mahakumbh as distorted and inappropriate. Protests are expected to snowball at the daily coverage, which has so far included extended shots of naked ascetics performing acts of penance on the banks of the Ganga at Allahabad. The National Council of Hindu Temples (NCHT), which represents 600,000 Hindus and more than 140 temples in Britain, has been reacting in particular to last weekend’s one-hour documentary of the mela and the live, daily eight-minute updates that will continue to be broadcast until the end of the month. A spokesman for the NCHT told this reporter that a protest was being sent to Channel 4. He explained that the letter would highlight extended documentary footage of “sadhus” smoking ganja and the focus on bizarre practices such as an ascetic pulling a car by a string attached to his private parts, not representative of the principles and tenets of mainstream Hinduism. “It’s like depicting Christianity through the Inquisition,” the NCHT spokesman declared. “That’s not Christianity and what they’re showing is not Hinduism.” “When I saw the documentary, it seemed as though Hinduism was all about smoking ganja. For 70 per cent of the time they’re talking to sadhus who are smoking ganja and doing nothing else. They’re smoking chillum, a code name for ganja, and the one person from England, who calls himself a Krishna devotee, says he is looking forward to going to the Kumbh for a chillum.” The spokesman added that the NCHT had received many telephone calls of protest from devotees who said the practices shown on the documentary were very unbalanced. “The point I will be making in my letter is that the so-called bizarre practices in Hinduism, for example genital mutilation, ‘tantric’ (esoteric meditative practices), ganja smoking and black magic practices have very little connection with the principles and tenets of mainstream Hinduism. So are some of the comments made by the sadhus that the scriptures say ganja is ‘prasad’ (offering).” “Otherwise the person who sees the footage would ask ‘is this what Hinduism is all about?’ What kind of idea will he get about Hinduism? It looked so weird.” A spokeswoman for Channel 4 said the Kumbh footage broadcast so far was not representative of the overall coverage that would continue until the end of January. “What has been seen is a small part of what we are broadcasting,” she said. “All that people have seen is 58 minutes out of an entire month’s programming. It’s difficult to represent the Kumbh in that period of time.
— IANS |
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TV shows Laden
at son’s wedding DUBAI, Jan 10 (Reuters) — Saudi dissident Osama bin Laden has celebrated the wedding in Afghanistan of his son to the daughter of one of his aides, according to Qatar’s Al-Jazeera television which today broadcast footage of the ceremony. The footage, which Al-Jazeera said was exclusive to it, showed Laden sitting on a carpeted floor in a tent surrounded by his son, Mohammad, and other men. Al-Jazeera said the Muslim ceremony — during which Laden often smiled and shook hands with the other unidentified men-took place yesterday in the southern Afghan town of Kandahar. Laden, a wealthy Saudi dissident believed to be living in Afghanistan, has been accused by the USA of masterminding 1998 attacks on two US Embassies in Africa. A senior Yemeni security official said yesterday that a suspect arrested recently had confessed that Laden was linked to the apparent suicide bombing in last October of the destroyer USS Cole at Aden port that killed 17 US Sailors. |
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WASHINGTON, Jan 10
— US President-elect George W. Bush’s choice for Labour Secretary, Ms Linda Chavez, has withdrawn her nomination after conceding that she had sheltered an illegal Guatemalan immigrant in her house.
