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Tuesday,
September 25, 2001, Chandigarh, India  
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Kazakh
support for US action
Bush
weighing support of rogue states Osama got
Pak medical aid USA should pull out from Gulf: Omar
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Arabia may snap ties with Kabul Israeli
shot in West Bank 7 die in
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Kazakh support for US
action Astana, September 24 “Kazakhstan is ready to support an action against terrorism with all the means it has at its disposal,” President Nursultan Nazarbayev told a news conference in the capital, Astana, after denouncing the September 11 attacks on New York and Washington. Asked whether support would include use of aerodromes, military bases and airspace, Nazarbayev said firmly: “These means include everything you have just enumerated”. “We have so far received no concrete requests for such help but if they come Kazakhstan will consider them positively,” he said, adding that he was consulting with other Central Asian leaders on how to fight “terror”. The region could be a vital staging area for any strike against Afghanistan, which the USA says is harbouring its prime suspect for the attacks, Saudi-born billionaire Osama bin Laden. The southern border of vast Kazakhstan, a mostly Muslim nation which is currently hosting a visit by Pope John Paul, is just 300 km from Afghanistan. Nazarbayev said Central Asia’s leaders had long warned the West of the dangers of “international terrorism”, but had been ignored, with the disastrous consequences wrought on the World Trade Center and Pentagon. “Such indulgence of terrorism, demonstrated for many years, finally led to this tragedy,” he said, stressing Kazakhstan’s determination to underline its warnings with action. “Not participating actively when there is talk about a real fight would be dishonest, and Kazhakhstan will not behave this way,” Nazarbayev said, while adding that actual Kazakh military participation in any strike on Afghanistan was unlikely. In Uzbekistan, which borders Afghanistan, an official at the capital’s civilian airport said two US C-130 cargo planes delivering intelligence gathering equipment had stopped over there on Friday. The government has not confirmed the report. Uzbekistan and neighbouring Kyrgyzstan have had to repel summer incursions by heavily armed guerrilla bands over the last few years. They justify heavy-handed treatment of political opposition as necessary to prevent a surge in “terrorism”. Neither state has committed concrete help to any US strike and have mirrored the cautious response to the crisis by Russia, which has a strong influence on the Central Asian states. Russian President Vladimir Putin has said he supports Washington’s declaration of war on “international terrorism” but has insisted any response be in line with international law and UN conventions. Arun Mohanty adds: The intent to form such a front came through when preparations reached the final stage at Bocharov Ruchei, the presidential health resort in the Black Sea town of Sochi, where Russian President Vladimir Putin has been for the past several days. “The unprecedented Sochi meeting signals a concern that Russia is weighing the pros and cons of opening the second front against the Taliban amid diplomatic talks about the absence of US requests to Moscow for any military or other assistance,” Andrei Ryabov from Moscow’s Carnegie Centre told IANS. The extraordinary September 22 meeting at Sochi was attended by senior political leaders of Russia. Among those present were —Russian Security Council Secretary Vladimir Rushailo, Defence Minister Sergei Ivanov, Home Minister Boris Grizlov, Emergency Minister Sergei Shoigu, Federal Security Service Chief Nikolai Patrushev, prosecutor-general Vladimir Ustinov, Federal Communication and Information Agency (FAPSI) director-general Vladimir Matyukhin, Director of Border Forces Konstantin Totski, Foreign Intelligence Service head Sergei Lebedev, first Deputy Foreign Minister Vyachislav Trubnikov and first Deputy Chief of Staff Yuri Baluyevski. “A related development that hints at a second front are the talks held by Northern Alliance leaders with Russia’s top military brass headed by Chief of the General Staff Anatoly Kvashnin at Tajik capital Dushanbe,” Ryabov said. Northern Alliance’s new commander-in-chief, General Mohamad Fahim, and the Burhanuddin Rabbani government’s ‘Foreign Minister’ Abdulla Abdulla are holding secret and sensitive talks at Dushanbe with top Russian defence officials. “The very fact that these talks are being held in Dushanbe in the backdrop of the Taliban threat that any such meeting on Tajik territory would be treated as a declaration of war indicates preparations are on for opening a second front against Taliban,” Ryabov added. “Russia may not use its forces deployed in Tajikstan as the situation near the Afghan border is not precarious, but Moscow may provide substantial military aid coupled with Tajik army joining the fight against Taliban.” Russia also may go for using collective CIS forces in the operation against Taliban. In the meantime, reports of fierce fighting between Northern Alliance forces and Taliban army are pouring in from Afghanistan with the latter suffering heavy losses.
Reuters, IANS |
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Bush weighing support of rogue states Washington, September 24 The Washington Post newspaper said Mr Bush had asked for authority to ease strict limits on military assistance imposed on countries accused by Washington of supporting terrorism, or flouting nuclear proliferation rules or of being non-democratic. “The waiver would cover those nations currently ineligible for US military aid because of their sponsorship of terrorism, such as Syria and Iran, or because of their nuclear and offensive weapons programmes or lack of commitment to democracy, which would include Pakistan and China,” the newspaper said. Stating that the move could benefit nations surrounding Afghanistan, the newspaper did not, however, mention when the President asked Congress to consider the step. The USA is expected to focus its military reprisals on Afghanistan, where the man Washington blames for the worst-ever terrorist attacks here, Osama bin Laden, is believed to be hiding. Washington is extremely anxious to win global support for its military, financial and diplomatic battle against
Osama bin Laden and other suspected terrorists and to avoid alienating Muslim nations in the wake of the September 11 attacks. The proposed new plan would also allow the President to lift restrictions on military cooperation imposed by Congress over human rights concerns, the newspaper said, raising concern among legislators and human rights watchdog groups. Democratic Senator Patrick Leahy, who is chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee as well as the Appropriations Foreign Operations Sub-Committee, said legislators wanted “to be convinced that what was being proposed was “sound, measured and necessary and not merely impulsive.” Meanwhile, apprehending a possible setback to the efforts in building a worldwide anti-terrorist coalition, the USA was holding off hawks pushing for a strike on Iraq to accompany an imminent attack on Afghanistan. Secretary of State Colin Powell has pointed out that a full-blown military strike against Iraq would result in civilian casualties, enrage the Arab world without probably unseating Saddam Hussein, Newsweek reported in its current issue. Earlier, at a recent meeting of the Pentagon’s Defence Policy Board, hardliners including former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger and former House Speaker Newt Gingrich arrived at a consensus to launch an attack on Iraq soon after a first strike against Afghanistan. Mr Gringrich was of the view that when the USA lost more than 6,000 people. “There has to be reaction so that the world clearly knows that things have changed.” Hardliners pressing for a strike against Iraq fear that US credibility will suffer if the country gets bogged down in Afghanistan. They also believe that Iraq’s weapons of mass destruction could be used against America next week. The report quoted one participant at the Pentagon meeting as having acknowledged that it would be very tough to get Osama bin Laden in the rocky and mountainous terrain of Afghanistan and justifying the need for doing something that counts.
AFP, UNI |
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Osama got Pak medical aid Jane’s, the prestigious defence journal, has warned that should Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf fall as a result of offering over military support to the USA in its campaign against the Taliban, the consequences — both for the US-led alliance and the entire region — could be potentially catastrophic. An article in the latest issue of intelligence Digest says there are many reasons why the present crisis will prove deeply troubling for Pakistan’s self-appointed President. According to the journal, one of the more difficult issues which the General may have to explain is the close links between two Islamic militant groups involved in the Kashmir region and the world’s most wanted terrorist, Osama bil Laden. Two groups in question, Harkat-ul-Mujahideen and Lashkar-e-Toiba, were specifically singled out in the US State Department’s report on the patterns of global terrorism for 2000. Although the Pakistani Government had repeatedly that it had any involvement with these to groups, credible intelligence community sources point to close ties
between senior members of Pakistan’s military and security services and both organisations. Other awkward questions will focus on allegations that Pakistan has hosted training groups for militant
Islamic groups and provided them with financial assistance — charges which Pakistan officials have repeatedly denied — and that Pakistan has been used as the regular transit route via which Bin Laden’s Al-Qaeda group has travelled. In particular, there are serious allegations that Pakistan’s ISI has active links with both the Taliban’s intelligence service and Laden himself. Jane’s Defence Weekly, goes on to quote local intelligence services to point out that the Pakistani authorities have provided medical facilities for the ailing Bin Laden, including renal dialysis, at a military hospital in Peshawar. None of this will be unfamiliar to US intelligence operatives who have been compiling extensive reports on these alleged activities. However, it is becoming increasingly clear that the Taliban and Al-Qaeda would have found it difficult to have continued functioning — including the latter group’s terrorist activities —without substantial support and aid from Islamabad. This would, logically, place Pakistan in the category of ‘states which support terrorism’, according to the US Government’s definition. President Bush’s pointed warnings to Bin Laden backers will have put Musharraf on the spot. The journal adds: “The key question is not whether Pakistan will support the US anti-Taliban coalition, but only how far the General will dare to go in his desperate efforts to make amends for past activities that have been very well documented by US intelligence. Above all, Musharraf will realise that having come to power in 1999 by means of a military coup, he will have to rely on the continued support of Pakistan’s army and security services — both of which have close links with the principal US targets.” “Musharraf is extremely vulnerable, if the army, or at least a significant element of it turns against him, if he were to be ousted during an anti-Western, pro-Taliban uprising organised by an alliance between Kashmiri militants, then the prospect of a full-scale regional conflagration might become very real,” it adds. |
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USA should pull out from Gulf: Omar
Islamabad, September 24 “The USA should not harbour any misunderstanding. It cannot come out of the current crisis if it kills me or Osama,” he said in a statement, referring to indicted terrorist mastermind Osama bin Laden. “If the USA wants to end terrorism, it should withdraw its forces from the Gulf and end its partiality on the Palestine issue.” The reclusive Taliban leader’s comments reflected the stated mission of Saudi millionaire Bin Laden — to drive US forces out of the Islamic holy lands. Omar said current US preparations for war in retaliation for Bin Laden’s alleged role in the September 11 suicide hijackings in New York and Washington were an attempt to overthrow the Taliban regime and take Islam “hostage”. “It should free Islam which it has made its hostage and stop interference in the affairs of Islam,” he said. “The present situation in Afghanistan is a good example of US attempts to take Islam hostage. “The USA wants to end the Islamic system in Afghanistan, create lawlessness and establish a pro-American government.” The Taliban yesterday said Bin Laden, who has been living in Afghanistan under Taliban protection since 1996, had disappeared before officials could present him with a religious edict asking him to leave the country voluntarily.
AFP, UNI |
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S. Arabia may snap ties with Kabul Islamabad, September 24 The Saudi Foreign Minister said his country — one of the only two that recognise the Taliban today — had downgraded its relationship with the Taliban even before the US terror strikes. The United Arab Emirates broke off diplomatic ties with the Taliban on Saturday, leaving Saudi Arabia and Pakistan as the only two countries to recognise the Taliban. The USA wants Saudi Arabia to cut all ties with the Taliban. “Saudis are 100 per cent with America,” a Saudi diplomat told CNN. Meanwhile, Saudi families are beginning to leave Pakistan. Saudi Airlines has flown back 570 Saudi nationals, mostly women and children, from Pakistan as a precautionary measure amid mounting tension in the region. King Fahd Bin Abdul Aziz has ordered the country’s airlines to evacuate Saudi citizens residing in Karachi and Islamabad ahead of possible US strikes. The Saudi ambassador in Pakistan said the situation in Pakistan remained stable, and nationals had been moved out only as a precautionary measure to guarantee their safety. He said “no Saudi citizens remain now in Pakistan except the diplomats, students and their families.” There are about 700 Saudi students in the country, most of whom are pursuing higher education. Members of the Saudi diplomatic corps, other officials and their families number about 300.
IANS |
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Israeli
shot in West Bank Jerusalam, September 24 Salit Sheetrit, 28, was killed in her car as she and her husband drove through the Jordan valley, the Israeli police said, after one of the quietest days in almost a year of violence. Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon cancelled talks planned yesterday between his Foreign Minister Shimon Peres and Palestinian President Yasser Arafat on turning a shaky ceasefire into a lasting truce. New pressure overnight from the USA, which fears the violence could upset its efforts to bring Arab states into its anti-terror coalition, had fuelled hopes that the talks would start today. But the shooting dampened those hopes. A militant Islamist group, the Jerusalem Brigades of Islamic Jehad in Palestine, claimed responsibility for the attack in a statement issued in Lebanon.
Reuters |
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7 die in Lanka mine blast Colombo, September 24 The civilians were on their way to the military airport to board a flight to Colombo when they hit the mine, ministry spokesman Sanath Karunaratne said. Meanwhile, Sri Lanka’s moderate Tamil parties today boycotted a crucial debate on constitutional reforms and urged the Marxist-backed government to open peace talks with Tamil Nadu rebels. Three Tamil political parties walked out of a debate on a constitutional amendment to establish independent commissions to run the police, the public service, the judiciary and the elections office.
AFP |
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Astana, September 24
