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Wednesday,
February 13, 2002, Chandigarh, India  
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Pak may
move world court against India "WTC
hijackers' trainer" let off on bail War-crimes
trial of Milosevic begins USA slams
Israel on air strikes
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USA
fighting ‘fog of confusion’
Taiwan
rocked Chaudhry
‘entitled’ to place in govt
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Pak may move world court against India
Islamabad, February 12 Quoting an official, The News today said the Law, Water and Power ministries were studying “Indian violations of the Indus Basin Treaty” to prepare a case for moving the ICJ after President Pervez Musharraf’s approval. General Musharraf is at present on a state visit to the USA. Pakistan alleges that India had been repeatedly threatening to annul the treaty and had restarted work on the hydro-electric Baghliar project on the river. The official said that though a Pakistani delegation wanted to visit the neighbouring country in connection with the Indus Commission meeting, Delhi had refused it in a letter stating that the visit was not possible for the time being due to prevailing tension on the Indo-Pak border. The official said Pakistan’s agriculture would receive a serious setback if India went ahead with the work on the Baghliar project on the river which flowed into the country from Jammu. The official said in January this year, water discharge into the Chenab was abruptly reduced from 5,700 cusecs to 3,900 cusecs. Later, the water inflow was reduced constantly below the average level. He said Pakistan’s Commissioner of Indus Water, the authority created to ensure smooth implementation of the treaty, took up the matter with his Indian counterpart recently and raised objections to the project’s design. The official said Pakistan would continue its efforts to impress upon India to stop work on the Baghliar project. But if Delhi refused to wind up the project, Islamabad would approach the ICJ as the World Bank had concluded the treaty through negotiations with the two countries in the 1960s. The daily quoted the official as saying that Islamabad had refused to buy the Indian argument that the Baghliar site was not suitable for a non-gate reservoir. He said Pakistan felt that India might be diverting water to some canals near Akhnor in Kashmir in violation of the treaty, and storing the water in the Salal Dam in Jammu.
UNI |
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Pak national parade cancelled Islamabad, February 12 A military statement said the Pakistan Day parade in Islamabad, scheduled for March 23, the country’s largest annual show of military power, would not be held. “This decision has been taken in
view of the armed forces’ deployment in their forward locations,” it said.
Reuters |
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"WTC hijackers' trainer" let off on bail
London, February 12 Lotfi Raissi was ordered by the high-security Belmarsh court in London to post £ 10,000 ($14,280) bail and live at a set address. He must also surrender his passport and would not be able apply for any visa. Magistrate Timothy Workman said last month the US authorities, who were seeking his extradition, must either bring terror charges against Raissi soon or proceed with a relatively minor aviation offence, the only offence he was formally charged with. Workman told the court today that the US Government’s arguments that Raissi had terrorist links were no longer credible. “The links can no longer be substantiated with other terrorist organisations,” he said, handing down his ruling. Raissi, who has been held since September, is scheduled to appear again on March 28 in connection with the charges, which relate to false statements he is accused of making when applying for a pilot’s licence. Outside the court, his jubilant French wife Sonia told reporters: “Justice has been done today. It took a long time, but at least now justice has been done. The FBI should say sorry,” she told reporters. Twenty of Raissi’s family and friends, crammed into the special court’s public gallery, burst into clapping and cheering when the decision was read out. Raissi’s defence lawyer criticised the USA for what he said was an attempt to change the basis on which it tried to link Raissi in three ways to Osama bin Laden. “The position of the US Government is that they don’t know and don’t care about Mr Raissi,” he told the court. “The three main links have not only altered over time but have no foundation.”
Reuters |
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War-crimes trial of Milosevic begins
The Hague, February 12 A defiant Milosevic showed no emotion as he entered the courtroom at the UN’s international war crimes tribunal to answer a staggering array of charges that could put him behind bars for the rest of his life. Europe’s biggest war crimes trial since Hitler’s Nazis took the stand in Nuremberg began after years of painstaking international investigation. UN war crimes prosecutor Carla Del Ponte alleged in her opening statement today that Milosevic was “responsible for the worst crimes known to human kind” as she began laying out the case that he orchestrated crimes against humanity and genocide in the 1990s wars of Bosnia, Croatia and Kosovo. Milosevic, defending himself before a court he does not recognise, will have the chance to answer the accusations when he delivers his own opening statement, not expected before tomorrow. The former Serb strongman has denounced the charges as “monstrous” and called Del Ponte a “retarded child.” The trial, hailed by its supporters as a landmark in international justice and denounced by detractors as a political charade, will have repercussions for leaders around the world and could forever change how war is conducted. Prosecutors at the trial showed video footage in their opening presentation today of the Serb strongman making an appearance in Kosovo in 1987. The footage, one of several film excerpts screened on the opening day, showed Milosevic answering complaints from Serbs in the province of Kosovo about their treatment at the hands of the majority Albanian population by whipping up ethnic hatred. “You will not be beaten again!,” Milosevic told them in the now infamous battle cry. Prosecutor Geoffrey Nice said the incident in April 1987 “gave the accused a taste of power”, but in the courtroom the 60-year-old Milosevic showed little emotion. Milosevic is charged with crimes against humanity in Croatia in 1991-92, genocide in the 1992-95 Bosnian war and crimes against humanity in Kosovo in 1999. Prosecutors said before the trial’s start they would make broad opening statements addressing all three conflicts, but in months to come plan to introduce evidence relating only to Kosovo. The prosecution says it will call some 300 witnesses to atrocities in the Balkan wars, in a trial expected to last at least two years. Milosevic refuses to recognise the international criminal for the former Yugoslavia and has refused to appoint formal counsel, but will address the court himself.
AFP, Reuters |
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USA slams Israel on air strikes
Washington, February 12 Pronouncing itself “deeply troubled” by the recent spate of violence that included the
Gaza city strikes and the first-ever palestinian use of homemade rockets against
Israeli territory, Washington also moved to downplay a rift with Europe
over West Asian peacemaking. State Department spokesman Richard Boucher welcomed the contents of Mr Arafat’s letter that was delivered through the US Consul-General in Jerusalem to Secretary of State Colin Powell, but cautioned that the Palestinian leader still had to act to rein in anti-Israel attacks. While praising Mr Arafat’s letter, Mr Boucher hit out at
Israel with unusually blunt criticism as the us-made Israeli aircraft carried out a second day of heavy strikes in
Gaza city, calling them “counterproductive.” BEIRUT: Palestinian President Yasser Arafat accused Israel on Tuesday of trying to destroy his ties with Washington by orchestrating a shipment of arms that Israel says Palestinians sought to use against it. In an interview with Lebanon’s
An-Nahar daily published on Tuesday, Arafat offered no evidence to back his charge about the shipment which Israel charges the Palestinian leadership organised with help from Iran and Lebanese Hizbollah guerrillas. “The indications and evidence are that there was an Israeli hand in the ship incident, which targeted us, Iran and
Hizbollah,” he said. “These are all baseless accusations aimed at turning the USA against us, and against Iran and
Hizbollah,” he said. Both Iran and Hizbollah have denied any links to the ship, which Israel seized in the Red Sea last month with 50 tonnes of weapons it says were headed for Palestinian-ruled territory in violation of interim peace deals. The incident has boosted pressure on Arafat to crack down on militants and strained his ties with Washington, which demands that Arafat explain the shipment of weapons. The USA is traditionally the main broker in Middle East peacemaking. JERUSALEM: Israeli troops raided a West Bank town early today, killing a Palestinian gunman in an exchange of fire and destroying a house before withdrawing five hours later. Israeli media, meanwhile, reported that the military was preparing for a large-scale ground assault on Palestinian territory in the event of renewed firing of Qassam-2 rockets into Israel by the Islamic militant group
Hamas. Israeli Defence Minister Binyamin Ben-Eliezer said Palestinian militants raised the stakes in the West Asia conflict by firing the new, longer-range rockets into Israel. In Tuesday’s raid, an Israeli infantry unit went into the Palestinian-controlled northern outskirts of Hebron and arrested a wanted gunman from Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat’s Fatah movement, the Israeli military said. The Hebron-area raid followed air strikes on Gaza City on Sunday and Monday in retaliation to the firing of a pair of Qassam-2 rockets into southern Israel.
AFP, Reuters, AP |
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USA fighting ‘fog of confusion’
Washington, February 12 Pentagon officials, responding to reports that US forces have targeted wrong people in mopping up Al-Qaeda and Taliban remnants, said yesterday the truth was hard to establish in Afghanistan. “To say that... conditions in Afghanistan are confusing is an understatement, you know,’’ said spokeswoman Victoria Clarke, who addressed a briefing with Rear Adm. John Stufflebeem. Stufflebeem added: “It’s a shadow war. These are shadowy people who don’t want to be found.’’ But the officials said they were confident the latest attack about which questions had been raised, a missile fired at a group of Al-Qaeda suspects by a remote controlled drone, had been on target. The Washington Post yesterday quoted residents of the area as saying three innocent peasants had been killed in the missile strike a week ago, not Al-Qaeda leaders as US officials reported at the time. Mr Clarke and Admiral Stufflebeem said an investigation into another US attack three weeks ago on Afghans believed, possibly mistakenly, to be Al-Qaeda or Taliban was being expanded to look at charges that some detainees had been beaten while in US custody. At the White House, spokesman Ari Fleischer suggested President George W. Bush wanted quick action against his “axis of evil’’ nations — Iran, Iraq and North Korea. Iraqi President Saddam Hussein hit back at Washington. “The American behavior and conduct imply clear tyranny and evil hostility against people,’’ Iraqi television quoted him as saying at a
meeting. Reuters |
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Taiwan rocked Beijing, February 12 The quake was centered in the southeast of Haulien. The quake struck an area between 23.77° north latitude and 121.66° east longitude. The quake depth reached 25 km.
PTI |
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Chaudhry
‘entitled’ to place in govt Suva, February 12 The full five-member Bench of the Court of Appeal began its hearings amid high security and concern that its decision, due on Friday, could lead to further instability in the Pacific nation. Next Monday the High Court will begin its scheduled hearing of a treason trial against coup plotter George Speight and 12 others. The general election saw Prime Minister Laisenia Qarase’s Soqosoqo Duavata ni Lewenivanua take 31 of the 71 seats in Parliament. The FLP took 27 while Speight’s Conservative Alliance Matani Vanua initially won six, including Speight. An Australian Queen’s counsel, Gavin Griffiths, told the court Mr Chaudhry was entitled to a place in the Cabinet under the Constitution, and under another declaration seeking to proclaim Fiji a multiracial society.
AFP |
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London,
February 12
The
Hague, February 12
In video
