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Wednesday,
January 9, 2002, Chandigarh, India  
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China may
refrain from backing Pak India
still pursuing N-plan: CIA
Al-Qaida
man commits suicide |
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3 Taliban
ministers surrender How
USA defines terrorism Bible
smuggler faces death
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China may refrain from backing Pak Beijing, January 8 The remarks by Foreign Ministry spokesman Sun Yuxi came after Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf said Islamabad would unveil details of a crackdown on Islamic militants within days. India, which blames Pakistan-based Kashmiri groups for a bloody attack on its Parliament in December, has demanded Islamabad crack down on Islamic militants and ruled out immediate peace talks. The nuclear rivals are facing off in the biggest military buildup along their border in 15 years. Mr Sun said China acknowledged Pakistan’s efforts “to cooperate with the international community in fighting terrorism”, and hoped India would take steps of its own towards peace. “In order to ease tensions between India and Pakistan, we hope the Indian side can take some initiative and solve problems as soon as possible through dialogue and negotiations, to avoid further tensions in South Asia,” Mr Sun told a news conference. But when asked about a statement by a Musharraf spokesman last week that China would support Pakistan “in all eventualities”, he appeared to draw a line. “The friendly, cooperative relations between China and Pakistan are aimed at promoting bilateral ties and not against a third country,” he said. China’s support for Pakistan was “set forth with the aim of safeguarding peace and stability in the region”, he added. President Musharraf visited China in December in a visit that hailed their “all-weather friendship” and 50 years of Sino-Pakistani ties. He made a second visit to Beijing last week on his way to a South Asia summit in Nepal. But analysts say China, concerned with domestic instability in Pakistan and its ties to radical Islamic groups, has been taking a more balanced approach towards the subcontinent. Beijing has been driven by a desire for stability on its vast border regions and lured by the prospect of better economic and trade ties with India, they say. Prime Minister Zhu is due to visit India next week during a January 11-18 trip that will also take him to Bangladesh. Beijing has repeatedly issued calls for restraint and carefully insisted the nuclear rivals work out the row diplomatically. Zhu’s visit would be made “in the spirit of” that position, he said. The Chinese Premier would do his best “to persuade both sides to achieve peace through dialogue and negotiations,” he said.
Reuters |
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India still pursuing N-plan: CIA Washington, January 8 The CIA, in the report to the US Congress on the Acquisition of Technology Relating to Weapons of Mass Destruction
(WMD) and advanced conventional munitions, said the acquisition of foreign equipment would benefit New Delhi in its efforts to develop and produce more sophisticated nuclear weapons. India continued during the reporting period — July 1 through December 31, 2000 — to obtain foreign assistance for its civilian nuclear power programme, primarily from Russia. India, CIA said, continues to rely on foreign assistance for key missile technologies, where it still lacks engineering or production expertise. Entities of Russia and Western Europe remained the primary conduits of missile-related and dual-use technology transfers during the latter half of 2000. The CIA also said India continued an across-the-board modernisation of its armed forces through Advanced Convention Weapon acquisitions, mostly from Russia, although many of its key programmes had been plagued by delays. The agency said during the reporting period, New Delhi concluded a $ 3 billion contract with Russia to produce under licence 140 Su-30 multirole fighters and continued negotiations with Moscow for 310 T-90s main battle tanks, A-50 Airborne Early Warning and Control
(AWACS) aircraft, Tu-22M Backfire maritime strike bombers, and an aircraft carrier. India, it said, continued to explore options for leasing or purchasing several AWACS systems from other entities. India also signed a contract with France for 10 additional Mirage 2000H multirole fighters and was considering offers for jet trainer aircraft from France and the UK.
PTI |
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WFP operations extended to Herat Geneva, January 8 A spokeswoman for the World Food Programme (WFP) said the agency had started providing enough food to feed 340,000 people for a month in the city, which is near the border with Iran. It was the first time the WFP had mounted a sustained operation in the city since before the September 11 attacks, which triggered US bombing in Afghanistan. The agency said it was also delivering 90 tonnes of food a day to the nearby Maslakh refugee camp to feed 324,000 people forced to flee their homes by the fighting. “With security better around Herat, we have been able to launch a second major operation in a big city after the earlier one in (the capital) Kabul,” WFP spokeswoman Christiane Berthiaume told a news briefing. But she said the agency was still unable to reach hundreds of thousands of other people, notably in and around the southern city of Kandahar, who were desperately short of food, because it was too dangerous. “There are at least 400,000 people around Kandahar but there are also other areas where we cannot go,” she said, pointing to south of Mazar-e-Sharif in the north and Jalalabad in the east. Kandahar, the former stronghold of the vanquished Taliban, was the last major city to fall when it was taken in early December by US-backed Northern Alliance forces, but the United Nations has still not declared the area safe for aid operations. The UN agency says it has enough food stockpiled in Afghanistan to feed the six million people — a little under a quarter of the total population — who it says need help. “We have the food, the staff and the trucks but the problem is the security,” Mr Berthiaume added.
Reuters |
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Al-Qaida man commits suicide Kandahar, January 8 The Arab, of unknown nationality, believed to be a member of the
Al-Qaida network, committed suicide in the wee hours after trying to flee the hospital and finding himself surrounded by guards, the official Afizullah, said. The bloodied and mutilated body of the man, whose name was thought to be Mohammad Rasool, was left lying on the lawn outside Mirwais hospital. The Arabs, many of whom are believed to be from Yemen, arrived at the hospital in November after being wounded in a US air raid on the airport serving this southeastern city. At that time, Kandahar was still the religious and political stronghold of the fundamentalist Taliban regime which sheltered suspected terror mastermind Osama bin Laden and his
Al-Qaida network. Before the Taliban fled Kandahar on December 7, the wounded Arabs were reportedly handed food and weapons so they could fend off capture. Of the 12 fighters admitted in November, four escaped in December and another was arrested by forces of the governor of Kandahar province Gul Agha. Islamabad: Afghan tribesmen have refused to hunt down and surrender a 12-year-old boy suspected of killing an American soldier in the Khost area in eastern Afghanistan, the newspaper Jang reported today. US and Afghan officials who visited the Mata Cheena area were told that first the facts should be established, the newspaper reported from the Pakistani border town of Miranshah. Sergeant 1st Class Nathan Ross Chapman, 31, became the first US military casualty in Afghanistan when he was shot and killed while he was taking a photograph of a grave in the area last Friday, according to the newspaper. A CIA agent accompanying him was wounded.
AFP, DPA |
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3 Taliban ministers surrender Kabul, January 8 Several senior members of the Taliban had surrendered, including three ministers in the old government, the spokesman Khalid Pashtoon added. Khalid Pashtoon said three ministers in the regime forced from power in November by the US-led military campaign, had surrendered to the authorities in Kandahar. “Among those who surrendered were former Minister of Defence Mullah Ubai Dullah, Minister of Justice Mullah Turabi and Minister of Mines and Industry, Mullah Saadudin,” Khalid Pashtoon said. “Probably Mullah Omar is still in the north of Helmand province around Bagran,” Khalid Pashtoon, the spokesman for Kandahar Governor, Gul Agha, told Reuters by telephone. “Bagran is a very big, mountainous area. It is difficult to find him quickly. Thousands of our forces are looking for him, he can’t escape from us,” he said.
Reuters |
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How USA defines terrorism Washington, January 8 “We all know that killing innocent people for political ends is terrorism. That is what we are opposed to,” State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said refining the definition yesterday. The Bush administration had signalled the change by including the Jaish e-Mohammed and the Lashkar e-Toiba in the list of Foreign Terrorist Organisations and giving the same treatment to some Palestinian organisations. Mr Bush himself made it clear yesterday that there are no loopholes in his definition by asking Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf “to make a clear statement to the world that he intends to crackdown on terror.” And then he added a statement with an “if”: “And I believe if he does that and continues to do what he is doing, it will provide relief, pressure relief, on a situation that is still serious”.
PTI |
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Bible smuggler faces death Hong Kong, January 8 The case has already brought a protest from US President George W. Bush. Lai Kwong-Keung, 38, who was arrested in May for trying to deliver Bibles to an underground Christian congregation inside China, is expected to stand trial as early as Saturday, the South China Morning Post reported. President Bush said yesterday that he was “deeply concerned” about the Hong Kong businessman’s arrest and had raised the issue with the Chinese Foreign Ministry through diplomatic channels. Lai was arrested with two mainland Chinese men allegedly carrying 16,280 Bibles, paid for by worshippers in the USA, into Fuqing city last year. Lai is also accused of smuggling another 16,800 Bibles to Fuqing from Hong Kong a month earlier. The three are members of an underground religious movement called the “shouters” because they shout their devotion to Jesus. The movement claims to have 5,00,000 followers in China.
DPA |
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