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Sunday,
August 12, 2001, Chandigarh, India   |
JVP may bail out Chandrika Islamabad, August 11 A new administrative set-up is taking over this week in Pakistan, replacing the district administrative system introduced by the British in the sub-continent wherein the power structure under the Commissioners and Deputy Commissioners is all set to be demolished. Arafat’s drive to get back HQ |
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Mugabe’s go-ahead on ‘land grab’
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Diplomats fail to get visas Banja Luka (Bosnia), August 11 NATO-led peacekeepers today arrested a Bosnian Serb army Colonel who commanded a brigade in wartime eastern Bosnia when thousands of Muslim men and boys were massacred near Srebrenica.
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JVP
may bail out Chandrika Colombo, August 11 A Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) delegation led by its general secretary Tilvin Silva presented a set of proposals to Kumaratunga and Prime Minister Ratnasiri Wickremanayake at a two-hour meeting yesterday, the party said in a statement. The two sides agreed to hold further talks, after they seemed headed for an agreement on most of the proposals put forward by the party. The President agreed in principle with most of them, party MP and propaganda secretary Wimal Weerawansa said. The JVP, which has 10 MPs, has said it is ready to offer conditional support to the minority People’s Alliance regime for a specified period, if its core demands are accepted. It wants cancellation of a referendum, now fixed for October 18, on whether Sri Lanka needs a new constitution. It also wants Parliament, prorogued by Kumaratunga till September 7, to be convened again and independent commissions appointed to help strengthen institutions like the election commission, judiciary, police and media. Ms Kumaratunga has made it obvious that she prefers doing business with the JVP rather than the United National Party, as she considers the former consistent and the latter faction-ridden and a rival. Meanwhile in the ongoing violence, Sri Lankan Air Force jets bombed and destroyed a Tamil rebel base as eight persons were killed in clashes elsewhere, the defence ministry said. Israeli-built jets attacked a base of the LTTE at Soranpattu yesterday, the ministry said in a statement. “The air force jets effectively bombed the LTTE base and completely destroyed the food stores and the huts that provided accommodation to their cadres,” it said. It said security forces had shot dead five LTTE rebels in the northern Vanni region yesterday while a woman belonging to the Tigers committed suicide as she was being arrested in the same area. The Tigers, meanwhile, shot dead two civilians in the eastern district of Polonnaruwa, the ministry added.
PTI, AFP |
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Musharraf’s new set-up in districts Islamabad, August 11 The power is going to be transferred on August 14 to District Nazims and Naib-Nazims in 89 districts and their tehsils, elections for which have just been completed. Ordinances to give effect to the new system are being issued by different provincial governments. President Musharraf hopes to have firmer control of the
administration following the introduction of the development plan. Nazims, Naib-Nazims and councillors elected at the union council level in the four provinces of Pakistan are taking their oath of office first, along with Nazims elected at the district level. Last to take office will be the town Nazims and Naib-Nazims. The process will be completed by August 14. Gen Musharraf had hoped to eliminate political parties and set up a firm base for himself at the base level through the elections to local bodies held between December 31, 2000 to August 8 this year. In the first phase, direct elections were held to union councils between December last year and July 2. Indirect elections were held for Nazims and Naib-Nazims of district and tehsil councils between August 3 and 8, the electoral college being the 1,19,000 directly elected Nazims, Naib -Nazims and councillors. The results of the elections have been a setback to the Musharraf regime in that it has not been able to eliminate the hold of the political parties. The Pakistan People’s Party has held on to its traditional strongholds in interior Sindh and improved its position in many regions of the North-Western Frontier Province and southern Punjab. The Jamaat-e-Islami has regained its stature as a mainstream politico-religious party because of the MQM’s boycott of elections. The political party favoured by the Musharraf regime — the Pakistan Muslim League (QA) — has put up a good show only in Punjab. In effect it has been a vote of no-confidence against the Musharraf administration, except in Punjab. This has happened despite the fact that the army authorities have been closely monitoring the elections which have been held on a non-party basis. Even the JEI chief, Qazi Husain Ahmed, called upon General Musharraf and the military leadership to take note of the “ blatant interference” by army officers in Lahore’s Nazim elections. Senior vice-president of the PML (QA) Ejaz-ul-Haq, alleged massive horse-trading during the elections, while the PML(N) said the government had resorted to strong-arm tactics to make the elected Nazims and Naib-Nazims change party loyalties. As election results unfolded, the Musharraf Government also diluted the original concept of devolution of political power-decentralization of administrative authority, de-concentration of management functions, diffusion of power-authority nexus and distribution of resources to the district level. General Musharraf realised that the diffusion of power-authority nexus had not worked as those who won the top slots in the elections were the same old feudal classes, business houses and established political families who had been in power under the old system. According to a report in the Dawn (August 6), under the new draft ordinance, the provincial chief executives have been given the power to suspend the Zila Nazim, if they are satisfied that a grave emergency exists or is likely to occur which necessitates his immediate removal. The Zila Nazim can also be removed by the Provincial Assembly by a simple majority. According to another report in the Dawn (August 9), the corps commanders at their recent meeting expressed reservations over the draft ordinance, and sought a monitoring and supervisory role for themselves. Their apprehensions, according to sources, were based on the success of party-affiliated candidates and old faces in the elections. It has now been decided that army monitoring teams will be re-christened as “district support teams” to act as watchdogs in the new local bodies system and clearance and advice will have to be taken for development projects from the respective corps commanders. According to the report, officials maintained that “government had decided to associate armymen with the running of local governments because it was serious about making the new system a success.” The new system, which will come into force on the Independence Day (August 14), will dilute the authority of the centuries-old Commissioners and Deputy Commissioners, and will replace them with Nazims and Naib-Nazims, who will be closely monitored by the military authorities. On that day, General Musharraf is also expected to unfold his plan to usher in “real” democracy on the foundations established through these local elections.
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Arafat’s drive to get back HQ Jerusalem, August 11 Palestinian chief negotiator Saeb Erekat today said Palestinian President Yassar Arafat had sent messages on the issue to US President George W. Bush, Russian President Vladimir Putin as well as the leaders of China, Belgium and South Africa. In the messages Mr Arafat criticised yesterday’s occupation of Orient House as a serious violation of the peace treaties the Palestinians have signed with Israel, Mr Erekat said on Palestinian radio. BERLIN: German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder said Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon still backed the Mitchell Plan as the best way to end the violence after the two leaders spoke today. In what Schroeder’s office described as a detailed telephone conversation, the Chancellor said everything should be done to stop any further escalation of violence. “People’s suffering must end. The Chancellor assured that Germany, together with its partners in the European Union, was emphatically working for an end to the violence and a return to the negotiating table,’’ the statement said. Schroeder and Sharon agreed that the blueprint for a return to negotiations drawn up by former US Senator George Mitchell was the most suitable way to proceed, the statement said. Gaza Palestinian hospital officials said today that two Palestinians shot and wounded by Israeli troops a day earlier during stone-throwing clashes near the Karni commercial crossing with Israel died of their wounds. The sources identified one of the men as Maher Afana (27) and said he had died of a chest wound. NEW YORK: The USA is concerned that Israel’s use of sophisticated American-made fighter planes and other weapons in strikes may raise anti-US sentiments amongst Palestinians and anger Washington’s allies in the region. It also undermines the US role as mediator, a media report quoted analysts as saying. US officials have refused to condemn Israel’s use of American weapons in the attacks but both the State Department and the CIA recently voiced their objections, Newsweek quoting a senior Israeli defence official said. Sources in Washington privately confirm it, it said. The US-made Apache helicopters hovered miles from the Nablus office of the Palestinian militant group Hamas, firing laser-guided missiles that flew through its window and showered shrapnel inside.
DPA, Reuters, PTI |
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Mugabe’s go-ahead on ‘land grab’ Harare, August 11 At a rally to commemorate Zimbabwe’s national war heroes, Mr Mugabe accused the West of pushing for sanctions against him in a bid to protect the interest of whites, whom he says own the bulk of Zimbabwe’s prime land as a result of colonialism. “When the British...brutalised and traumatised us (during colonialisation), the so-called democratic world would not lift a finger or even raise an eyebrow for we were dubbed...a race of no rights,” a visibly angry Mr Mugabe told thousands of supporters. “And now you have this talk of sanctions...just what is our crime? Our crime is that we are black and in America the blacks are a condemned race,” he said. The US Senate last week approved the Zimbabwe Democracy and Economic Recovery Act, threatening targeted sanctions unless Zimbabwe ends attacks on the opposition and protects the media and the judiciary. On Thursday, Zimbabwe’s Financial Gazette quoted government sources as saying that Harare would consider declaring a state of emergency if sanctions were imposed. The veterans and their supporters say that the farm occupations are a show of support for Mr Mugabe’s drive to seize 8.3 million hectare of the 12 million hectares he says are in the hands of 4,500 whites for redistribution to blacks. The government says that white farmers are responsible for the latest surge of violence, which led to the arrest on Monday of over 20 landowners in Chinhoyi, 120 km north-west of Harare. A Zimbabwe court yesterday denied bail to the farmers, who were charged with inciting public violence after clashes with pro-Mugabe supporters occupying their properties.
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35 ‘honour killings’ in Sindh Tandojam (Pakistan), August 11 All 35 killings were reported last month, according to the NGO Sindh Development Foundation, Online news agency reported. These deaths took place at Mirpur Khas, Sukkur, Hyderabad and Larkana. The report says the victims of “honour killings” are from all age groups but most of them are schoolgoing girls and boys. “In Jacobabad district , a father who was unwilling to kill his daughter was slaughtered,” an NGO official said. “Honour killings” are widespread in Pakistan but acute in rural Sindh. The tradition of honour killings often sees men and women being made victims to resolve other disputes, be it tussles over property or family feuds. Girls who have not yet reached puberty, married women with children, even grandmothers are killed on charges of having illicit sexual relationships. Women fall victim to the custom more often than men. According to data collected by Shirkat Gah, a women’s welfare organisation, 328 persons, 261 women and 67 men, were killed in 2000 against 254 such cases in 1999.
IANS |
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Diplomats fail to get visas Islamabad, August 11 “The cellular phones of all important persons, including the Taliban Ambassador have been switched off and the embassy phones are not responding”, one of the western diplomats waiting for permission to travel to Afghanistan said. “Their unavailability leads us to presume that they want to keep us waiting and guessing,” said the diplomat, but added that all those still desiring to visit Kabul to see the imprisoned SNI workers had not lost hope and were looking forward to getting travel permission at some stage. A special UN aircraft was still on stand by to take the diplomats to Kabul. A flight yesterday had to be cancelled for the absence of travel permission to them.
DPA |
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Colonel
held for genocide Banja Luka (Bosnia), August 11 The UN War Crimes Tribunal in The Hague said Col Vidoje Blagojevic had been charged with two counts of genocide, five counts of crimes against humanity and one of violating the laws and customs of war.
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