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Tuesday,
August
28,
2001, Chandigarh, India  
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PFLP chief dies in Israeli missile
strike US spy plane shot down, claims Iraq
Lifting curbs on India an example for
Pak |
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Lanka rejects US unity
bid
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5 rebels killed in
Aceh Talks on biological arms end in
failure Curbs on 2 Oppn leaders lifted Disgraced judge’s
jail term suspended
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PFLP chief dies in Israeli missile
strike
Ramallah (West Bank), August 27 Abu Ali Mustafa was the most high-profile militant to be killed under a policy of tracking and killing Palestinians accused of attacks on Israelis since a Palestinian uprising erupted 11 months ago. Palestinian officials charged that Israel was “inviting hell to break loose”. Palestinians say Israel has assassinated more than 60 militants in a policy that has drawn widespread international condemnation. The PFLP official said Mustafa was killed when at least two missiles struck his fourth-storey office in Ramallah, not far from Palestinian President Yasser Arafat’s headquarters. Palestinian witnesses said helicopters hovered overhead before firing two missiles through the window of Mustafa’s office. “He was in his office when the missile hit,” the official said. Mustafa replaced George Habash as the leader of the PFLP last year. He had been the deputy leader of the group which drew world attention to the Palestinian struggle through plane hijackings in the late 1960s and 1970s. The group is part of a “rejectionist front” that has vowed to wreck the Palestine Liberation Organisation’s peace deals with Israel that began with the 1993 Oslo accords. Formerly based in Damascus, Mustafa moved to the West Bank in 1999 in a move to end years of estrangement with Arafat. Israel labels its track-and-kill policy as self-defence, aimed at preventing deadly Palestinian attacks against Israelis. Palestinian Cabinet Minister Saeb Erekat called Mustafa a prominent Palestinian political leader and said the Israeli government was guilty of “state terrorism”. The Israeli army said it attacked the PFLP headquarters because the group was “responsible for dozens of attacks against Israelis, including a car bomb attack” in Jerusalem last week. “Since the start of the violent events, the PFLP chief was behind numerous car-bomb attacks which due to a miracle did not kill anyone,’’ the army said in a statement, listing at least eight bombings by the group since the Palestinian revolt began. In damascus, the PFLP condemned the killing and vowed revenge. Maher al-Taher, politburo member and spokesman, told newsmen: “The blood of Abu Ali Mustafa is very precious — we will respond to this crime in a bigger way. Israel will pay a heavy price for its crime”. The PFLP has been one of the leading Palestinian factions involved in the uprising against Israeli occupation which erupted after peace negotiations deadlocked. At least 538 Palestinians, 154 Israelis and 14 Israeli Arabs have been killed in 11 months of fighting.
Reuters
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US spy plane shot down, claims Iraq Baghdad, August 27 In Washington, a Pentagon duty officer said he had heard “nothing at all” about such a report. Iraq repeatedly alleges it has either hit or brought down British and US planes, but each claim has been totally denied by Washington or London. “Iraqi anti-aircraft fire in the region of Basra today brought down an US spy plane flying out of Kuwait,” a military spokesman told the news agency. The report did not say what type of aircraft had been hit but added that it carried “high-tech intelligence-gathering equipment that the USA used in its aggression against Yugoslavia.” “It was operating in southern Iraq to gather information on our strategic sites and our anti-aircraft defences,” the spokesman said. Iraq announced on August 17 that it would beef up anti-aircraft defences in a bid to wipe out US and British warplanes patroling “no-fly” zones in the north and south of the country. Later the same day Baghdad reported it may have hit an “enemy” warplane in northern Iraq. WASHINGTON: The USA may have lost a link with a slow-moving, unmanned reconnaissance plane over southern Iraq, a US defence source said. “I believe that we have lost a link with one of our unmanned, reconnaissance planes,” said the defence source, who asked not to be identified. The USA has said all of its manned aircraft have been accounted for in Iraq. The US reconnaissance plane is believed to be a Predator, a slow-moving plane which has spy cameras on board. It measures about 27 feet in length.
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Lifting curbs on India an example for Pak New York, August 27 By lifting sanctions against India, the USA would be “setting an example for Pakistan, a reference to India’s relatively good behaviour, on selling nuclear-related materials to other countries,” the chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Mr Joseph R. Biden, said. Another administration official was quoted by The New York Times as saying: “Pakistan has a poorer record.” The Bush administration is moving on a broad front to strengthen relations with India, a nation it views as a neglected and potentially important strategic ally and trading partner in Asia, the daily said. The Congress will be asked to lift the sanctions when it returns next month after the summer recess. Mr Biden, who favours the move, had sent a letter to President George w. bush last week expressing his support and indicating that these sanctions could be removed in time for a possible meeting between Mr Bush and Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee in New York next month. Mr Bush is also planning a visit to India early next year. The daily, quoting administration officials, said the USA had to face the fact that India was a nuclear power and that the genie could not be put back in the bottle. Mr Biden said he was not prepared to support the request by some other Senators to lift sanctions against Pakistan. Some US officials, however, believe Pakistan, a strong ally of the USA in the 1980s, should not be relegated to the dust heap. Officials have also acknowledged that Washington does not want to alienate Pakistan for fear of encouraging Islamic extremists there or giving them reason to strengthen ties with the Taliban regime in Afghanistan.
PTI |
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Lanka rejects US unity
bid Colombo, August 27 Sri Lanka Foreign Minister Lakshman Kadirgamar said the ruling People’s Alliance (PA) coalition was already in contact with the main opposition United National Party (UNP) “before any message was delivered by a foreign diplomatic representative.” “The PA will continue to engage the UNP and other recognised political parties in discussions relating to the future of the country independent of representations and messages which any foreign government may make or carry,” said Kadirgamar in a statement. The communique did not specify any particular country but was clearly a reference to US envoy Ashley Wills. Wills said last week that he “was asked by one political party to deliver a message to another. After reflecting on the request and on consulting Washington, he agreed to do so.” Wills issued a statement expressing his country’s concern over “political uncertainty and its possible impact on the prospects of peace and economic growth in the country.” Kadirgamar’s reaction came after Leader of the Opposition Ranil Wickremesinghe said his talks with the US Ambassador was no different from those he had had with the Indian and British envoys and others. “He has not carried a message from us to anyone,” said Wickremesinghe. The beleaguered Kumaratunga government has come increasingly under fire for proroguing Parliament last month just as the joint opposition, commanding 115 seats in the 225-member House, got a no-faith move ready to topple the government.
IANS |
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16 LTTE
men shot Colombo, August 27 |
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NATO trooper on arms collection mission killed Skopje, August 27 The NATO alliance, charged with collecting the weapons of ethnic Albanian guerrillas, said angry youths apparently threw a lump of concrete that killed the 20-year-old serviceman as he drove towards the capital, Skopje, on Sunday night. The death, hours before the formal launch of the mission, was the first to hit the British-led NATO taskforce of 4,500 troops. The mission went ahead, undeterred by widespread Macedonian hostility. NATO officials insisted the overnight attack would not derail their latest effort to prevent ethnic war in the Balkans. “You either give up or crack on. And we’re cracking on,” one Western diplomat said. “If it was that easy to stop us, we wouldn’t have come here in the first place.” In the region around Kumanovo, where NATO has set up its first of a series of weapons collection points, an NLA commander who goes by the name Shpati said: “We have started disarming. We’re going to do as we promised and hand over a third of our weapons by Friday”. “Now it’s up to the Macedonians to keep their side of the bargain when Parliament meets,” he said. Parliament meets on Friday. Meanwhile, eight Macedonians, two of them soldiers, have been released by their ethnic Albanian rebel captors, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) here said. The rebel National Liberation Army (NLA) handed over two civilians and two soldiers to the ICRC near the northern village of Lipkovo yesterday, ICRC press attache Amanda Williamson said. She said they were later reunited with their families in Kumanovo. Late yesterday, the NLA freed four more Macedonians, all civilians, near the village of Radusa. Three of the group were kidnapped in June and the fourth in July. Meanwhile, NATO said it would collect 3,300 weapons from the ethnic Albanian guerrillas under a peace plan despite government concern that the alliance had dangerously underestimated the rebel arsenal. “There is no formal agreement on these figures,’’ said Major-Gen Gunnar Lange, commander of 4,500 NATO troops assigned to disarm the rebels voluntarily, referring to tension over the scope of the mission, yesterday. Reuters, AFP |
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5 rebels killed in Aceh Jakarta, August 27 The military raid was launched at dawn yesterday against separatist rebels’ base camp in North Aceh district. Four rifles and ammunition belonging to the Free Aceh Movement (GAM) was seized. Colonel Firdaus, spokesman for the Aceh military command, said five rebels were killed during a shootout between government forces and armed rebels. He said many separatist rebels escaped into the residential areas. Security forces did not chase them out of fear that civilians would get caught in the ensuing crossfire, he said. The official Antara news agency quoted GAM’s spokesman as confirming the raid but claimed only four persons were killed. He claimed that about 30 government troops were either wounded or killed in the armed clash, the latest in a series of clashes between government forces and separatist rebels in the troubled province. Meanwhile, the bodies of 12 villagers were found in Indonesia’s Aceh province in the latest bloodshed in a long-running separatist war, officials said today. The discovery came as newly elected President Megawati Sukarnoputri plans to visit the region soon to try to defuse the conflict that has left more than 1,000 dead this year and thousands more over the past decade. The rebel Free Aceh Movement and the security forces blamed each other for the latest killings. The police said the bodies were found at three separate locations yesterday. The victims had all been shot. DPA, AFP |
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Talks on biological arms end in failure Geneva, August 27 The ad hoc group, created in 1995 to draw up a protocol to reinforce the biological weapons convention, has ended its efforts, for now, without regrets or glory. Washington’s rejection of the draft protocol, announced on July 25 when the group was just beginning its final sessions, sealed the fate of the text that had been painstakingly debated by negotiators from 60 countries. The opposition of the USA, home to nearly half of the world’s biotech industry, was the coup de grace for the document presented by Hungary’s Tibor Toth, chairman of the ad hoc group. The US representative to the talks, Mr Donald Mahley, stated that Mr Toth’s protocol was incapable of achieving the mandate set forth for the ad hoc group — to set up an international system to enforce a 30-year-old ban on the use of biological weapons in war. Washington charged that the text added nothing new to US verification capabilities and could cause problems for its biological weapons defence programme. In the end, in a no-win negotiating environment, Mr Toth closed the deliberations last week without the approval of the report that includes a description of the negotiations that have been under way since 1995.
IPS |
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Curbs on 2 Oppn leaders lifted Yangon, August 27 Like Nobel peace Prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi, the two men have been restricted to their residence since September. The restrictions were lifted late yesterday, official and NLD sources said. The move appears to be a goodwill gesture by the authorities, coming a day ahead of a visit to the Myanmar capital by United Nations envoy Razali Ismail. Mr Razali will be making his fifth visit to the country today in an effort to speed up reconciliation talks between the military unjta and the Opposition which started last October. The envoy will meet the military regime's number one, General Than Shwe, and his number two, Khin Nyunt.
AFP |
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Disgraced judge’s
jail term suspended Tokyo, August 27 The Tokyo district court handed down a two-year jail term suspended for five years to the judge, Yasuhiro Muraki, a court spokesman said. He also gave 10,000 yen to a 16-year-old to fondle her, it said. All appointments were arranged through a telephone dating service.
AFP |
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Ramallah (West Bank), August 27
