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| Monday, June 11, 2001, Chandigarh, India    |
India, B’desh border talks
fro Case of Punjab leader’s son aborted Bhutto to visit India before Indo-Pak
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McVeigh slated to die today
Israeli tank fire kills 3 Palestinians |
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Idol ‘sweated’ before massacre
NEWS ANALYSIS Taliban launch offensive Nine die in copter crash
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India, B’desh border talks from June 12 Dhaka, June 10 The meeting of the joint working groups of India and Bangladesh will discuss ways and means to sort out three border disputes-complete the demarcation of 6.5 km of boundary, exchange enclaves and land in adverse possession of two sides. The meeting of the officials is aimed at preparing ground for the resolution of border disputes in line with the agreement signed in Delhi on May 16, 1974 by the two former Prime Ministers of India and Bangladesh the late Mrs Indira Gandhi and Sheikh Mujibur Rahman which is popularly known as Indira-Mujib agreement. The proposal for the meeting came up following the border skirmishes in Raumary in northwest Bangladesh on April 18 which resulted in the unfortunate death of 16 BSF and three BDR personnel. The meeting is being held after 55 days of the border flare up between the two normally friendly border security forces. The 12-member Bangladesh delegation led by Janebul Haque, Joint Secretary, Bangladesh Ministry of Home Affairs, will include officials from the Ministries of Foreign Affairs, Law, Land Revenue and Water Resources. The team will finalise the terms of reference of and modus operandi of the two working groups set up after the Foreign Secretary-level meeting in the December last in Delhi. Bangladesh Foreign Secretary Syed Moazzem Ali told TNS that the first joint working group set up by the two countries would deal with the 6.5 km land boundaries. The areas are — 3 km in Lathitila in Moulavibazar in the northeast (opposite Meghalaya of India), 1.5 km at Daikhal in northeast and at Muhurir char in Feni (opposite Belonia of Tripura) of Bangladesh. He expressed satisfaction that the demarcation of 121 km disputed boundary could be completed in the last two years. The length of border between India and Bangladesh is more than 4000 km. He further said that the second working group would deal with the exchange of enclaves and adverse possession of lands. The two working groups would have to complete their two-point agenda within one year since their first meeting in the light of the Indira-Mujib agreement of 1974. A final decision would be taken at the Foreign Secretary-level meeting which is yet to be scheduled. Foreign Secretaries of the two countries have taken charge recently. Despite clear provisions in the 1974 agreement the disputes lingered for 26 years because of political reasons, viewed here by political analysts. There are 111 Indian enclaves within Bangladesh and 51 Bangladesh enclaves are within India. Bangladesh occupy 3000 acres of Indian land when India occupies 3500 acres of Bangladesh land. |
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Case of Punjab leader’s son aborted Sydney, June 10 A 19-year-old New Zealand Hindu woman had accused her husband, the 22-year-old son of a “prominent” Punjab politician, of raping her thrice on her wedding last night July. The jury was discharged as the court’s efforts to locate the witnesses reportedly failed on Thursday and the judge had no option but to abort the trial of a case that has shocked both Indians and New Zealanders alike. The case, widely known as the “wedding night rape” case, has also attracted substantial media coverage. The former bride of the politician’s son is also facing charges of false accusations of sexual violation in a separate case. The marriage was arranged after the girl’s New Zealand-based parents placed an advertisement in an Indian newspaper. Their 19-year-old chose the accused from photographs selected by her parents. Auckland-based newspaper New Zealand Herald has quoted prosecutor Aaron Perkins as saying that the husband is from a “traditional Indian background” while the England-born bride is said to have “experienced the freedoms of life in New Zealand and Britain.” She agreed to the marriage to honour her parents’ wishes. The girl claimed to have told her husband on the wedding night that she was not yet ready to consummate the marriage. The marriage came to an end after just nine days with the wife laying three charges of rape on the wedding night and continuing to persist with “unlawful sexual connection” for the remaining nine days of marriage. Pushpa Wood, an expert in Hindu culture, has told the jury that according to Hindu beliefs, a marriage should be consummated on the wedding night. The former wife of the Indian man, who had come to New Zealand to get married to her, was reportedly hostile to him and repeatedly referred to him in a derogatory manner in the Court. She accused her former husband during cross-examination by defense counsel of marrying her just to become a New Zealand permanent resident. She also accused him of threatening her family during a family conference of getting their property destroyed, as his father was a prominent personality in India. She agreed that her family had written to the New Zealand immigration authorities to get her former husband’s visa revoked. The solicitor, defending the man, alleged there were “financial” reasons behind this case as the father of his client was expected to send capital from Punjab to set-up a business in New Zealand for the newly-weds. The former wife also supported this theory by saying that the man’s family was supposed to establish a business in New Zealand. The girl and her family, it was alleged, decided to break the marriage as the money did not come and the bride concocted allegations of rape and unlawful sexual relations to abort the marriage. The defense counsel also reportedly accused the girl’s family of having asked for New Zealand $20,000 to be paid to drop the charges.
IANS |
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Bhutto to visit India before Indo-Pak summit Islamabad, June 10 “Ms Bhutto will continue her efforts to go to New Delhi much before Musharraf’s proposed summit,” sources in Bhutto’s Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) said today. “Efforts are on to work out an invitation as well as dates for Ms Bhutto’s proposed visit to New Delhi at the earliest,” they said. “Despite the sentence, there is no change in her plans to visit India,” Ms Bhutto’s media adviser Faratullah Babar said here today. “If anything else, the sentence has redoubled her will to fight against the subversion of democracy,” he said. Earlier Ms Bhutto was expected to visit New Delhi as a part of a Commonwealth Parliamentary delegation on a special invitation from Rajiv Gandhi Foundation. It could, however, not be materialised, sources said. Ms Bhutto, who won a major reprieve in April this year after the Supreme Court here struck down a five-year sentence against her and her husband Asif Ali Zardari in a corruption case, suffered a setback again yesterday when she was slapped with a three-year sentence for non-appearance in the court to respond to charges relating another case.
PTI |
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McVeigh slated to die today New York, June 10 Around 1,400 journalists, radio and TV crew would witness from close quarters McVeigh (33) dying by lethal injection tomorrow morning (5.30 a.m. IST). The execution, first by the USA federal government since 1963, promises to be the most widely-covered execution in history. The Indiana city administration is gearing up for the D-day. The police plans to shepherd demonstrators to two parks, one for pro-death penalty and other for anti-death penalty. A large number of tents have come up to house the demostrators who are converging in the city. Thirty persons — among them survivors of the Oklahoma bombing, victims’ kin, government witnesses and McVeigh’s invitees — have been arranged to watch the grim ritual from across a glass panel. Far away in Oklahoma city, some 300 survivors and relatives of victims would watch McVeigh take his last breath through a closed-circuit television. Meanwhile, the government is opposing a petition by lawyers in an unrelated case to allow videotaping of McVeigh’s execution so that they can prove it is a cruel and unusual punishment which is banned under the constitution. Their client too faces death sentence. An appeals court yesterday turned down a lower court ruling allowing the videotaping. An appeal has now been filed in the Supreme Court, though Attorney-General John Ashcroft has promised to do everything to oppose the videotaping of the execution. McVeigh’s lawyers, after meeting him for half an hour yesterday, said he was doing well and wanted the execution to take place. He is expected to call his family later to say goodbye. The prison officials have disallowed on-tape interview with McVeigh, saying he does not want to be photographed before execution. Under the rules, McVeigh will be stripped and searched, then dressed in a shirt and khaki pants and slipon shoes and led to execution chamber. A team will then strap him to a padded gurney. Under the procedure, an injection of sodium pentothal is first administered, rendering the person unconscious, followed by pancuronium bromide which paralyses the lungs, heart and diaphragm. Finally, potassium chloride is injected which causes cardiac arrest and stops the heart.
PTI |
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Finally feels sorry Buffalo (New York), June 10 “I am sorry these people had to lose their lives,” McVeigh wrote in a series of recent letters to be quoted in The Buffalo News today, the day before his execution. “But that’s the nature of the beast. It’s understood going in what the human toll will be.” In the letters to his hometown paper, McVeigh reiterated that what he did was necessary to defend the personal freedom of all Americans and exact revenge for the disastrous government raids at Ruby Ridge, Idaho, and Waco, Texas. Mcveigh, who grew up in nearby Pendleton, New York, wrote to the News that he might have chosen another tactic for expressing his hatred of the government. He said he sometimes wished he had carried out a series of assassinations against police and government officials instead. In the letters, McVeigh insisted he had no fear of his execution. An agnostic, he said he would “improvise, adapt and overcome” if it turns out that there is an afterlife.
AP, DPA |
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Israeli tank fire kills 3 Palestinians Gaza, June 10 The officials in the Gaza Strip said Selmiva al-Malalha, Hekmat al-Malalha, and Nasra al-Malalha were killed in the incident late last night and that at least three persons had been wounded, two of them seriously. The Israeli army said tanks fired three shells and soldiers returned the fire with light weapons after three military posts near the Netzarim Jewish settlement came under Palestinian fire. “Israeli forces who were in the area identified two armed figures in an open area near Netzarim and fired at them... The forces returned fire only at the sources of the fire,” the army said in a statement on the incident. The Israeli army and witnesses reported a number of violent incidents in the volatile Gaza Strip yesterday, including seven mortar bombs fired by Palestinians at Israeli targets in Gaza, slightly wounding a Thai worker. The violence threatened to destabilise international diplomatic efforts under way in the region to bolster a fragile Israeli-Palestinian ceasefire.
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Idol ‘sweated’ before massacre Kathmandu, June 10 The Nepali language daily Kantipur said perspiration was observed on the stone image of Bimeswore Mahadev, another name for Lord Shiva, at Dolakha district, 90 km northeast of here, just over four months ago. In accordance with previous tradition, the perspiration was wiped off on a cotton swab and a full report was sent to the palace. The monarch in Nepal not only has political but also religious responsibilities for Nepalese Hindus and Buddhists. In the past, the palace had despatched priests to perform atonement ceremonies. But this year there was a delay in doing this. According to legend, the statue has “sweated” many a time but actual accounts began to be kept from 1935. Since then, 12 such incidents have occurred. After one incident in 1984, King Birendra himself went to the temple to do penance. The phenomenon occurred again just before a devastating earthquake hit the country, killing almost 1,000 persons in the late 1980s. It happened again in 1989 just ahead of the Indian economic blockade and the 1990 pro-democracy movement in which almost 75 persons were officially stated to have been killed.
DPA |
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NEWS ANALYSIS DEFENCE and Foreign Minister Jaswant Singh’s recent visit to Russia and his talks with Russian Deputy Prime Minister Ilya Klebanov and Defence Minister Sergei Ivanov have given a new impetus and new directions to our co-operation and joint work in the field of arms production and military requirements. It may be recalled that out two countries had clinched a $ 10 billion accord in 1998 under a framework of arms purchase and defence co-operation. Later, this accord was extended in 2000 to 2010. Next to China, India is the biggest buyer of Russian arms and military hardware and since the mid of 1990’s, India is believed to be buying $ 400 million to $ 800 million worth of arms every year, which according to experts could be more than one billion a year in the coming nest 10 years. But a fundamental change is taking place in this field of co-operation. The buyer and seller relationship is changing in joint development and joint production of arms, including India’s possibility of partnership in the production of the fifth generation of Sukhoi fighter jets which are considered to be capable of competing with the US joint Strike Fighters. The development of the highly sophisticated fifth generation of Sukhoi jet fighter requires an estimated investment of $ 2 billion and Russia, being short of funds, is prepared to accept foreign investment and partnership. India and China are the two possible partners. India appears to have better chances not only because Russia has so far declared strategic partnership with India alone, but also because the Russians have much less trust in China. Many Russians fear that their weapons and arms might be used against them by China in future. No such fears exist in the case of India. According to some reports, India is also interested in providing funds for some nuclear submarine projects so that it could procure them later. Thus, we find that the military and strategic co-operation between our two countries is opening new horizons. It is a long-term investment which will strengthen India’s defence basis in future. Before leaving Moscow for London on June 6, Mr Jaswant Singh and Russian Deputy Prime Minister Ilya Klebanov signed a defence trade protocol, which envisages the development of a missile shield for India. This highly complex and big project will cost India $ 500 million and should be capable of intercepting both aircraft and ballistic missiles. India needs such a national shield to face attack threats from Pakistan and China. According to this shield, ballistic missiles will be intercepted at a range of 40 km and fighter aircraft at a range of up to 200 km. India has also agreed to procure Admiral Gorshkov aircraft carrier with MiG-29K fighters at an estimated cost of $ 1 billion. This will strengthen India’s naval defence capacity. Moscow Indians told their woe-tales to Mr Jaswant Singh. In a largely attended meeting with the Moscow Indian community in the Indian Embassy premises, a number of Indians, especially business men, informed the Foreign and Defence Minister that they were facing a lot of difficulties at the airports with custom officials and passport authorities and a sense of insecurity in their movements in the Russian capital. Fascist skinheads and some other anti-colour racists harass them and the local authorities, and militiamen do not help them. Some times, they refuse to register even reports against them. Ambassador S.K. Lambah said the Indian Embassy was already taking up this matter with the authorities concerned. Mr Jaswant Singh was requested to bring this matter to the notice of his counterpart, Mr Igor Ivanov. Mr Singh assured to do so. It needs to be added that the common Russians are quite friendly towards Indians, but some hooligans, miscreants and fascist elements create unpleasant atmosphere and situations. It is desirable that the Indian authorities also control the illegal immigration to Russia, which becomes a cause of irritation and embarrassment for genuine citizens with proper documents also. |
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Taliban launch offensive Islamabad, June 10 Afghan Islamic Press said the islamic movement had launched a major assault on the opposition to regain the town of Yakawlang, which the Taliban lost to the rival forces of Hezb-i-Wahdat group on June 5. It quoted a taliban spokesman as saying there was an intense fighting about 15 km east of Yakawlang and the Taliban forces were slowly advancing. There was no immediate comment from the opposition led by military commander Ahmed Shah Masood.
Reuters |
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Nine die in copter crash Teheran, June 10 It said the helicopter crashed in Kohkiloyeh Boyerahmad province. Among those killed were a nomadic woman and her son, two officials from the village of Ardal, as well as a Revolutionary Guards Corps Commander. It was not clear why the two
nomads were on board. AP |
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