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| Tuesday,
August 7, 2001, Chandigarh, India   
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China
‘shipping missile components’ to Pak Another
German firm suspect IRA arms
offer may break impasse India
making software for aerial surveillance Condemned
Pak editor ‘was framed’ |
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Taliban
arrest aid workers Carter
offers to restart Korea talks Manila
reaches peace deal with rebels ‘Call
off’ referendum Nepal
Maoists ‘free’ 31 cops
Balkans deal on
police reforms
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China ‘shipping missile components’ to Pak Washington, August 6 US spy agencies have detected a state-run Chinese company delivering a dozen shipments of missile components to Pakistan in violation of Beijing’s recent pledge not to support nuclear programmes of Pakistan and other nations, a Washington Times report said. It said the US satellite detected the latest shipment as it arrived by truck at the mountainous Sino-Pakistani border on May 1. It was one of the 12 missile component transfers sent by ship and truck detected by US intelligence agencies since the beginning of the year. The missile shipments, said the paper, are for Shaheen-I, with an estimated range of 465 miles, and development of Shaheen-II, which US intelligence agencies say will have a range of up to 1,240 miles. The “problem” about the continued Chinese arms shipments “is serious” and could lead to “imposition of economic sanctions required under US proliferation laws, the daily quoted unnamed US officials as saying. “We are looking into that now,” an official said. The Chinese shipments violate Beijing’s pledge in November not to assist foreign missile programmes that can be used to deliver nuclear warheads. China also promised to publish a comprehensive list of export controls. China has violated missile technology control regime (MTCR) by shipping such missile components to Pakistan. US intelligence agencies have detected the shipments to Pakistan, since the beginning of the year. The shipments violate China’s pledge last November not to assist foreign missile programs that can be used to deliver nuclear warheads. The missile transfers could result in the imposition of sanctions required under US proliferation laws. “The problem is serious,’’ a senior us official said of the continued arms shipment by China. The official said the US Government has sent several formal protest notes to Beijing seeking an explanation and calling for a complete halt to weapon transfers. China was also asked to meet several specific conditions before the recent visit of US Secretary of State Colin Powell to China. However, “they have not met the conditions,” he said. China also has failed to draw up an export-control regime that could prevent state-run companies such as China Mational Machinery and Equipment Import and Export Corporation (CMEC) from selling missile parts. The officials said China, for its part, was demanding that the Bush administration relax export controls on US satellites being launched on Chinese rockets in exchange for curbing its arms transfers. The two sides are expected to meet on the issue shortly, the official said, adding Beijing is likely to try to explain away its arms sales. Another official said that the Chinese rejected an US appeal to restart a dialogue on weapons proliferation. President George W. Bush is scheduled to make his first visit to China as President in November to attend the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation meeting. The intelligence on China’s missile transfers supports charges made last month by Republican Senator Jesse Helms, high-ranking republican on the Senate Foreign Relations committee, on two decades of “broken promises” by Beijing not to sell nuclear, chemical and biological weapons items and missiles to unstable regions or rogue states.
PTI, UNI |
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Another
German firm suspect Dortmund (Germany), August 6 A spokesman for the prosecutor’s office in the western city of Dortmund confirmed a report in today’s edition of German news weekly Der Spiegel that it had started an investigation into three executives of the company, Montanhydraulik, in July on suspicion of contravening export legislation. He said the German embassy in New Delhi had received an anonymous tip in December, 1999, that the firm had sold hydraulic cylinders in 1997 which were not authorised for use in missiles. Montanhydraulik confirmed today it had supplied the cylinders in 1997 but said these had been intended for civilian use only in bridge-building equipment. It said it had applied for and received approval for the shipments from the German Economy Ministry and the appropriate export authorities, and added it had a formal notice from its Indian client that the cylinders could not be installed in any case because of a technical adjustment in its equipment.
AFP |
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IRA arms offer may break impasse Belfast, August 6 The body overseeing guerrilla disarmament in Northern Ireland said in a statement: “Based on our discussions with the IRA representative we believe this proposal initiates a process that will put IRA arms completely and verifiably beyond use.” The International Commission on Decommissioning, headed by Canadian General, John de Chastelain, said the proposal was put forward in a recent meeting, but he gave no further details. Britain’s Northern Ireland secretary, John Reid, told reporters: “I believe it provides the basis and the potential for rapidly resolving the arms issue.” The issue of guerrilla disarmament has brought peace efforts in the troubled, British-ruled province close to collapse, with pro-British, Protestant politicians refusing to continue a power-sharing government with Republican Roman Catholics unless the IRA begins to surrender its weapons. The coalition was set up under terms of the 1998 Good Friday peace accord, which curtailed more than three decades of sectarian violence between Protestants supporting continued British rule and Catholics seeking union with Ireland. The commission statement may not satisfy some in the Protestant Ulster Unionist Party (UUP), who demand an immediate handover of IRA weapons to allow their leader, David Trimble, to return as head of the semi-autonomous government. Gerry Adams, president of the IRA’s political ally, Sinn Fein, urged Britain and unionist parties to “grasp the new opportunity that this unprecedented statement from the IICD (commission) creates”. “Once again the IRA has demonstrated its commitment to the search for a lasting peace. The other parties need to match that commitment and should respond positively and constructively,” Adams said.
Reuters |
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India making software
for aerial surveillance London, August 6 The software will be mounted on three A-50 AWACS (airborne warning and control systems) to be built for the Indian Air Force by the Russian company,
Beriev. The surveillance aircraft would mark a new development with the aircraft built in Russia and state-of-the-art communications systems from Israeli Aircraft Industries and Indian software. An agreement to develop the aircraft was reached at Le Bourget in France, according to reports from the Paris Air Show there. The aircraft will be the Ilyushin-76 TD transport aircraft with a PS-90A engine, reports said. India has been working to induct aerial surveillance aircraft for some time. The Indian Air Force tested an aircraft, A-50 Eh, with Russian radar and communications systems in Chandigarh last year. The aircraft was rejected because it did not meet requirements, particularly in communications and surveillance software. A new aircraft, named the A-50
Ehl, is being fitted by Beriev with surveillance software developed by Indian programmers and communications systems by Israeli Aircraft Industries. A team of Indian software experts has been chosen to work closely with the Russian company and Israeli Aircraft Industries for the project, the source said. The three aircraft are due to be delivered to India in 2005.
IANS |
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Condemned Pak editor ‘was framed’ Washington, August 6 In a letter smuggled out of his cell, Mr Afridi, who wrote critical reports in the ‘Frontier Post’ said he was tortured and insisted that his recent conviction was politically motivated. “I spent a good 17 days in the ANF custody. They gave me electric shock, physical and mental torture,” he wrote. “I know the ANF bosses are angry and annoyed with me because I published a few big stories with 100 per cent proof of corruption against them,” Mr Afridi is quoted as saying. Five months before Mr Afridi’s arrest, the Washington Times noted that the Frontier Post ran a report headlined “In cahoots with smugglers, ANF bosses give narco trade a new boost”, which claimed that the force was making money from drug trafficking. The Washington Times pointed out in its report from Lahore that the Frontier Post also accused the then Prime Minister, Mr Nawaz Sharif, of massive corruption, “a claim now widely acknowledged as accurate” as Mr Sharif is now in exile in Saudi Arabia after being convicted. Even after the fall of Mr Sharif’s government, says the Washington Times, journalists in Pakistan question the impression that the military has loosened state’s grip on the press. Reporters say they remain under pressure to curb their criticism of the regime and censor their own work. “There is a fear around us,” one senior Pakistani journalist told The Times. “You have to be so careful about what you write and the way you write it. Being objective is very difficult. There is indirect and direct bribery. Journalists are given favours, special permissions for writing certain stories. Sometimes it is as blatant as money changing hands.” There are frequent examples of the pressure on reporters, particularly in the widely read Urdu language press, the paper said, pointing out that Mr Masood Malik, the chief reporter of the Nawa-i-Waqt, was demoted by his paper last month after he asked President Musharraf an awkward question at a news conference after the Agra summit. “Malik,” the paper noted, “asked Pakistan’s self-appointed President whether a politician might have fared better in representing the country at the
negotiations.” “You must be joking,” a clearly irritated General Musharraf replied.
PTI |
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World War II ghosts
still haunt Japan Hiroshima, August 6 After attending a ceremony to remember the horrors of Hiroshima which so far has claimed more than 200,000 lives, Mr Koizumi told reporters that he had not yet decided whether to visit the Yasukuni shrine on August 15 — the 56th anniversary of Japan’s surrender to the US-led allied forces. The Shinto shrine in Tokyo is dedicated to those who died in a century of conflicts, including more than 1,000 former Japanese political leaders and soldiers convicted as war criminals by the allies. Mr Koizumi has repeatedly said he wanted to pay his respects to those who died and whose sacrifice laid the foundations of Japan’s modern-day prosperity. He told a press conference that he had been gathering conflicting opinions. “Japan needs to send a message that it will not repeat the past folly. In this sense, Prime Minister Koizumi has seen only one dimension of the matter. I hope he will give it careful thought,” said Yoshihiro Katayama, Governor of the western Japanese prefecture of Tottori. China as well as North and South Korea have strongly denounced Mr Koizumi’s plans, saying it would amount to a justification of Japan’s military past. At the Hiroshima ceremony, Mayor Tadatoshi Akiba renewed an appeal for a nuclear-free world.
AFP |
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Taliban arrest aid workers Kabul, August 6 Eight international and 16 local staff working for Shelter Now International (SNI) were arrested by the Taliban in Kabul accusing them of trying to convert Muslims to Christianity, a crime punishable by death. “All of the SNA (Shelter Now Afghanistan) local and foreign personnel are safe. No harm has reached them,” Mohammad Salim Haqqani, the Taliban’s deputy religious minister, told Reuters. “The leadership of the Emirate will decide about their fate,” he said, without elaborating. “The Afghan staff are kept in a separate cell from the international ones,” he added. The official Taliban news agency Bakhtar said yesterday that the authorities had found Bibles in a house of the agency’s Afghan staff. Of the eight foreigners arrested, two were men, described by newspapers in neighbouring Pakistan as a German and an Australian. Details about the six foreign women and 16 Afghan staff were not immediately available. Taliban radio said on Sunday that the agency’s foreign staffers were arrested while trying to convert members of an Afghan Muslim family by showing them material about Christianity through a computer.
Reuters |
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Carter offers to restart Korea talks Seoul, August 6 “If I was ever asked to act as a mediator, I would be delighted to do so,” Mr Carter told a news conference in the South Korean capital, but added that the prospects for that were slight. The two Koreas have been technically still at war since their 1950-53 conflict ended in a truce, not a peace treaty. Mr Carter’s visit has rekindled local media speculation that there may be a role for him to play in restarting talks with Pyongyang that have stalled since the Bush administration took power with a more cautious approach to the North. South Korea hopes Mr Kim Jong-Il will visit this year in a follow-up to last year’s summit. Seoul yesterday welcomed a joint statement by Mr Kim Jong-Il and Russian President Vladimir Putin after Moscow summit on Saturday. Russia said it backed Korean reunification but would not interfere in the process.
Reuters |
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Manila reaches peace deal with rebels Kuala Lumpur, August 6 The agreement was reached as the two parties resumed talks here and comes ahead of Philippines President Gloria Arroyo’s three-day visit to Malaysia from tomorrow. Malaysian Foreign Minister Syed Hamid Albar will witness the “initialising” of a peace accord between the two parties tomorrow, the Foreign Ministry said in a statement. The ceremony marks an intent to forge peace and a formal agreement is expected to be signed when Arroyo is here. Speaking before the Foreign Ministry’s announcement, MILF chief negotiator Murad Ebrahim, who heads a 25-member delegation, told AFP all major issues had already been resolved and the party was optimistic of reaching a deal. “Major issues have been solved and only minor issues are left to be discussed. I think there is more likely a good chance of both sides agreeing to the issues,” he said.
AFP |
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‘Call off’ referendum Colombo, August 6 The central committee of the Tamil United Liberation Front (TULF) met here yesterday and demanded the revocation of the President’s July 10 proclamation, proroguing Parliament till September 7 and announcing the referendum on the question whether Sri Lanka needed a new constitution. If the referendum was not called off, the TULF said, it would campaign for a negative vote “because of the uncertainty that prevails in regard to both the content of the proposed new constitution and the procedure to be adopted for its formulation”. A TULF statement on the central committee’s decisions said the party wanted the Norwegian initiative to broker direct talks between the government and the LTTE should be pursued forthwith. The rebels were also asked to cooperate in the effort so that negotiations could begin early.
PTI |
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Nepal Maoists ‘free’ 31 cops Kathmandu, August 6 It said the rebels captured 10 of the 31 policemen in April while the rest were police recruits seized last month. “The Maoists released the policemen to help the atmosphere for talks with the government,” the Nepali language daily, Nepal
Samacharpatra, said. Home (interior) Ministry officials said they had no information about the release and were checking the report. New Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba and Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist) chief Prachanda have announced a truce and vowed to hold peace talks to end the five-year rebellion. The government has freed 25 jailed Maoists in the hope of starting peace talks for which no dates have been agreed. The Maoist group launched a violent campaign in early 1996 to end the constitutional monarchy and set up a Communist republic in Nepal.
Reuters |
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Israeli tanks shell 3 posts Jerusalem, August 6 Israeli tanks fired at the three posts near the Palestinian town of Qalqilya in the northwest of West Bank. A woman settler was killed and four others were wounded, two seriously, when their car came under fire 10 km from Qalqilya yesterday. The death brought to 691 since the start of the “intifada” on September 28, including 543 Palestinians and 129 Israelis. Beirut: Meanwhile, Israeli aviation violated Lebanese airspace today and broke the sound barrier over Beirut and the northern city of Tripoli.
AFP |
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Balkans
deal on police reforms Ohrid (Macedonia), August 5 Diplomats said talks to finalise an overall peace accord ending six months of clashes and averting a new Balkan war will continue tomorrow. Solana confirmed reports from Macedonian sources that a deal had been reached, after eight days of difficult talks mediated by international envoys, aimed at averting a civil war in this Balkan country.
AFP |
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