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| Monday, April 16, 2001, Chandigarh, India   
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Over 350 quit NTV
protesting takeover Pak selling weapons to save economy China’s secrecy baffles Americans Dostum to form anti-Taliban front |
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Tanker carrying Iraqi oil sinks Suicide pill for old favoured Racism stains Cincinnatti
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Over 350 quit NTV protesting takeover Moscow, April 15 A team of journalists, headed by the former NTV Director-General Yevgeny Kiselyov, were preparing news broadcasts for the private station TNT, which operates only by satellite, the Interfax news agency reported. The state-controlled Gazprom had early yesterday taken over the broadcasting centre of NTV, a national television channel, in northern Moscow, ending a two-week stand-off with journalists. The takeover was non-violent, with Gazprom guards replacing those of the former NTV management and refusing admission to workers. A new team of NTV broadcasters went on the air at 6.00 GMT. “The KGB, is once again in power and is now discipling the independent media,” said Duma deputy and human rights campaigner Sergei Kovalyov yesterday. Mr Kiselyov was quoted as saying he felt “capable of building a new NTV channel”. Rebel journalists had refused to recognise the management team. They had made it clear they believe the Kremlin is behind the NTV takeover. The controversy has brought some public support for the journalists, with thousands taking to the streets in Moscow and St Petersburg, but there was no popular mass movement. The director of Russia’s state-run television channel RTR and co-founder of NTV, Oleg Dobrodeyev, announced his resignation in protest against the development around NTV. Mr Grigory Yavlinsky, leader of the reform party Yabloko, criticised the takeover as a “violent change of ownership” and said he would bring the case before the Council of Europe in Strasbourg. DPA Amelia Gentleman of the Guardian adds: Dissident staff members fled to the headquarters of a smaller television station, also owned by the exiled media magnate who founded NTV, where they swiftly set up a newsroom and continued defiant broadcasts. Two rival versions of NTV news were aired on two different channels throughout the day, as both halves of the splintered editorial team struggled to continue their work. A large team of private security guards, hired by Gazprom, swarmed the Ostankino television complex at 3 am, catching rebellious staff off guard at a time when the NTV studios were almost deserted. The team was under instruction to refuse entry to those journalists who had fought hardest against the takeover. Shortly before dawn, the station’s new Editor-in-Chief arrived with the American businessman Boris Jordan, who was named director of the station in a controversial boardroom coup 12 days ago. The ousted Station Director, Mr Kiselyov, was not there to fight for his job; he had left the country briefly for urgent meetings with the beleaguered founder of the station, Mr Vladimir Gusinsky, at the villa in southern Spain where he is under house arrest fighting extradition proceedings on fraud charges, which he denies. The moment when control effectively passed from the old guard to the new regime was witnessed on live television shortly after 8am when one of the protesting newscasters, Andrei Norkin, was cut off in mid-sentence as he tried to explain what was happening inside the studios. The screen cut to coloured intermission stripes. Norkin later continued to broadcast his version of the news from the relatively primitive TNT television studios, under an NTV protest logo. The events marked an emotional climax to a fight for control over NTV that has lasted for a year, ever since the offices of the Media-Most company that created the station were raided by masked police and Mr Gusinsky was imprisoned in a Moscow jail last spring. NTV journalists have insisted that they are the victims of Kremlin oppression, artfully wielded using the tool of Gazprom, the gas monopoly which is 38 per cent owned by the government. They have argued that their critical reporting of the problems besetting President Vladimir Putin’s government — the prolonged war in Chechnya, the Kursk nuclear submarine catastrophe, the heating disasters which left hundreds of thousands of Russians battling the cold this winter — has prompted the government to act to stamp out their dissenting voice. |
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Pak selling weapons to save economy FACED with bankruptcy, Pakistan is taking a hard look at its military-industrial complex and has launched a massive campaign to promote export of weaponry and munitions even to the extent of offering to sell to Malaysia two of the latest air-independent propulsion (AIP) submarines of the Agosta class its own navy has yet to receive from France. At a different level, the just-concluded agreement with Turkey on military cooperation has all the hallmarks of the defunct Central Treaty Organisation (CENTO) through which Pakistan was able to acquire state-of-the-art military technology and spare parts for its western-supplied weaponry. There has never been any problem in servicing the weaponry Pakistan receives from China. This dual connection will ensure that the Pakistani military machine, if nothing else in the whole of that “failed state”, will remain in a high state of readiness to back up the jehad that is now state policy as well. The Saudi military relationship was highlighted during the joint naval operation “Seaspark” deliberately organised to coincide with the multinational naval congregation off Mumbai to which Pakistan was not invited. Emphasising the need for separating the Kashmir problem from our trade relations with India, Aseff Ahmad Ali, former Foreign Minister, in an article in the weekly Friday Times, observes: “The time has come for this government to start coming out of its shell. The sooner this is realised the easier it will be to pull the country out of its crisis. The bunker mentality will do great harm to Pakistan. “Exports and revenues are off target. Forex reserves are about $ 1 billion, a mere one month’s import bill. Despite the Hubco settlement, the Karachi stock market needs heavy government buying to keep it afloat. Property values have plummeted. Many factories have shut down, unable to bear the burden of high interest rates, taxes, and soaring fuel and electricity costs. If post-nuclear-test Pakistan survived the G-8 economic sanctions largely because the informal economy remained intact, the fact is that the dollar-rupee parity held its ground despite the forex freeze by the Nawaz government because the informal economy and IMF re-scheduling gave it some relief. “But political instability and economic blunders have taken their toll. The only positive feature has been the good performance of the agricultural sector. Fifteen months down the line, the military government is bogged down in short-term economic palliatives. “Then there is the burden of debt. Unless Pakistan can negotiate debt-forgiveness or a 30-year debt moratorium its economy will remain stagnant. But to negotiate an economic deal with the donors Pakistan will need to make adjustments in its so-called “national security” agenda. Keeping the essential elements of defence and foreign policy intact, Pakistan must reconsider such re-adjustments that are now necessary for its economic revival.” Pakistan is on the verge of reaching a preliminary agreement for the supply of three Agosta 90B submarines to Malaysia, a deal that could earn it over $500 million for the country’s cash-strapped defence industry,” reports the Nation. “We expect to sign a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Malaysia in the very near future,” a senior Pakistan Navy officer told the daily at the International Defence Exhibition 2001 in Abu Dhabi. “The reduction in debt and defence expenditure is a desirable objective, as given the constrained fiscal situation the economy can hardly afford to foot this huge bill. On the average, 55 per cent of the total budget expenditure goes to debt servicing, 24 per cent to defence and the balance goes to the running of the civil government, leaving no room for development, writes Nadeem Malik in the News. “The World Bank report estimates Pakistan’s military personnel strength at 0.61 million in 1997, with military expenditure of 5.7 per cent of the GNP. The armed forces personnel represent 1.3 per cent of the productive labour force, and annual military imports account for 5.2 per cent of the total imports. In comparison, Indian spending on defence is more than the total budgetary outlay of Pakistan. However, as a percentage of the GDP it constitutes only 2.8 due to the large size of the economy. “Though, in case of Pakistan, there is a need for taking into account the factors that influence the threat perceptions of vulnerability and risk, there is a real need to look at the opinion of right-sizing in the Army to free more resources for upgradation of the military hardware and for research and development purposes”. “The government gives the highest priority to self-reliance and indigenisation of defence production” Chief Executive General Pervez Musharraf said, reports the News from Kamra. He vowed to increase Pakistan’s defence budget in the light of India’s constant increase in its budget, reports the Nation quoting Online from Attock”.
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China’s secrecy baffles Americans Beijing, April 15 Even after the end of the 11-day standoff and the release of 24 Americans, the answer is still not clear. “It’s one of the questions that we’re stumbling about a bit trying to clarify,” said Mr Jonathan Pollack, a China specialist at US Naval War College. The confusion itself is a kind of victory for the Chinese Communist system, which sees secrecy and intrigue as part of its armour. American officials spent a lot of time trying to figure out the Chinese decision-making process, senior US diplomats say. Their only certainty was that the outcome was a high-level consensus. That fits the personal style of President Jiang Zemin. And it shows how much China has changed since the autocratic days of revolutionary leader Mao Tse-Tung. Meanwhile, China has rejected as “irresponsible comments” the US account of the mid-air collision between an American spy plane and a Chinese fighter jet, and said it might jeopardise the fate of the meeting between the two sides from April 18 to resolve the diplomatic stand-off. “The collision incident is a serious one, for which the US side is fully responsible,” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Zhang Qiyue said yesterday, restating the Chinese stand ahead of Wednesday’s closed door meeting here. “In this incident, the Chinese side is the victim while it was the US side that caused the collision,” Zhang said, rejecting US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld’s statement on Friday in which he blamed the Chinese pilot for the mid-air collision. Mr Rumsfeld said the American surveillance plane was flying straight and level until it was struck by a Chinese fighter jet that was “manoeuvring aggressively” in the skies above the South China Sea. However, Zhang rejected the US version and said: “The US side has attempted to exculpate itself by using lame arguments and standing facts on their heads”. WASHINGTON: Most Americans oppose taking steps that would further strain Sino-US relations now that the crew of the US Spy plane is free, and they strongly support President George W. Bush’s handling of the standoff, an opinion poll said. The Newsweek magazine survey of 1,000 adults showed little support for blocking Chinese entry to the World Trade Organisation or opposing China’s bid to host the 2008 Summer Olympics — two moves that had been discussed before China released the 24 crew members of the plane on Thursday.
Agencies |
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Dostum to form anti-Taliban front Kabul, April 15 Mohammad Habeel said Dostum was expected to meet top anti-Taliban military commander Ahmad Shah Masood in his Panjsher Valley stronghold during the day to hammer out details of their military strategy. “General Dostum will meet Amer Sahib (Masood) in Panjsher today. The meeting will focus mainly on the opening of the new front,” Habeel told reporters by satellite telephone from Panjsher, some 90 km northeast of Kabul. Dostum, an ex-Communist general who once ruled most of the north, was forced to flee by Taliban forces in 1998. The ethnic Uzbek general last week returned from exile, surfacing in the northeastern province of Badakhshan, the political heartland of the opposition groups. He says he has a large number of sympathisers and followers in northern regions bordering Central Asia and wants the Taliban to include opposition groups in its government. Habeel said Masood, who returned on Friday from his first ever European trip, is strengthening his defences against an imminent major Taliban assault. “We have precise reports that the Taliban are preparing for a big attack. They have received recruits from outside,” he said referring to Pakistan, the main Taliban backer.
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Tanker carrying
Iraqi oil sinks Dubai, April 15 The fuel carrier Zainab sank 16.5 nautical miles off the coast of Jebel Ali early yesterday afternoon, according to a statement from the Federal Environmental Agency, adding that efforts to contain the spill began immediately. The statement gave no details about the vessel or its crew. It also did not say where the tanker had come from, or where it was going.
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Suicide pill for old favoured Amsterdam, April 15 “I am not against it, as long as it can be carefully enough regulated so that it only concerns very old people who have had enough of living,” Ms Els Borst told daily NRC Handelsblad yesterday. A suicide pill should only be permitted, however, if the persons administered it themselves and there was a test to ensure they really were tired of life and desperate to die, she said. Ms Borst’s comments came just days after the Netherlands became the first country to legalise euthanasia. The law lays down strict rules that the patient must be facing interminable, unbearable suffering, that a doctor must consult another physician, and that a committee must review the case. Ms Borst insisted that allowing suicide pills for the aged and world-weary was not euthanasia. “Being tired of life has nothing to do with the euthanasia law, with medicine and doctors. You may be releasing someone from their suffering, but it is a suffering that has no link with illness or handicap,” she said in the interview. She cited the example of two 95-year-old persons she had known. “They were bored stiff but, alas, not bored to death — because that was indeed what they wanted most of all.” One of them had no family to speak of, Ms Borst said. “If she had said ‘I’ve got a pill here and I’m going to take it’, I would certainly have been at peace with that.” The main opposition Christian Democrats (CDA) party was swift to express dismay at Ms Borst’s remarks. “It’s only a couple of days since the euthanasia law was voted in, and already the minister wants to go a step further,” the Dutch news agency ANP quoted Mr Jaap de Hoop Scheffer, CDA parliamentary party leader, as saying. Reuters |
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Racism stains Cincinnatti Cincinnatti, April 15 The only movement is that of the State Troopers’ grey patrol cars
and white armoured vans full of helmeted riot police, more Blade Runner than a busy metropolis on the shores of the wide Ohio. The streets had emptied on Friday night as an 8pm curfew fell across the last golden sunlight. In the ghetto, a church rally by the leader of the National Association for the Advancement of Coloured People (NAACP) had ended abruptly to the anger of his audience. `It wasn’t enough time,’ said one Dead Hawkins,`We’re going away
mad.' NAACP president Kweisi Mfume had clasped hands with the still dazed mother of the boy whose shooting by a police officer had provoked the scenes of only 18 hours earlier — another, more tumultuous, first for Cincinnati since 1967: fury and shooting, burning and looting which —
after two nights of the usual tragic wreckage within the ghetto confines - had broken onto the white man’s turf. This time, the cops were charging for real and the crowd was shooting back — an officer slightly wounded. This time, SWAT teams were throwing up barricades and their snipers leaping over the rooftops. Every American riot tells a story, and on the surface it is the same: an incident undams years of tension between angry and poor black youths and a white police force stained by racism — whether in Cincinnati or its big cousins, Detroit and Chicago in the North, Los Angeles or Miami in the South. Cincinnati’s ghetto is unique — indeed `ghetto’ is hardly the right term in an urban area that is 43 per cent black. The community was founded by German immigrants and is one of America’s nineteenth-century urban wonders: buildings of a design made more famous in San Francisco, only of brick, adorned by iron thickets of fire escape ladders. It was here that Timothy Thomas was raised and drove his 1978 Chevy
around. Eleven times since March 2000 he had been stopped by police and cited for12 offences, mostly driving without carrying his licence or not wearing a seatbelt. The core of the row that rages not only here but across the US is that Timothy was victim of what is politely called `racial profiling’ -that is, he was picked on because he was black. Eighteen black men and boys have been shot dead by the police in Over-the-Rhine since the start of last year — a concentration of police violence that outstrips any other US city. The Rev Fred Shuttlesworth, who marched with Martin Luther King from Birmingham to Selma in the great hike of the 1960s, remains a minister in Cincinnati, of the Greater New Light Baptist church. He is now 79 but has been on the streets all week, sleepless. `Race relations haven’t changed very much since those days,’ he ponders now. `If anything, things are worse if everybody thinks they have changed yet,
in reality, those changes are not every blood-vein deep — then the system never really changed.’ His home town of Cincinnati, he says, `has had time to change, but
the whites have blocked progress and the police is more a prosecutor than a protector. The anger is justified but the violence is not. However, people will rebel if they don’t see themselves progress. The riots happening now are the result of Cincinnati not responding to change.’ Although the mayor Charlie Luken is no Rudy Giuliani and admits to `a serious race relations problem’, there are few northern cities in which blacks are so proportionately unrepresented in the police or
government. While unemployment is minimal among whites at 2 per cent, it tops 20 percent in Over-the-Rhine; in schools there is almost total
segregation. Current census figures show Greater Cincinnati to be the eighth most segregated metropolitan region in the U.S. The city lost nearly 45,000 whites, leaving an urban area that is 43 per cent black with middle-class blacks also fleeing the slums around the city centre.
The Guardian, London
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