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Thursday,
March 28, 2002, Chandigarh, India  
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Riyadh wants E. Jerusalem as Palestinian capital
Lanka accepts LTTE terms for peace talks
US-led forces blast NA hideouts
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UK rejects police
claim on Afroz plan
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Riyadh wants E. Jerusalem as Palestinian capital
Beirut, March 27 Prince Abdullah asked the summit to put forward a "clear and unanimous" initiative addressed to the U.N. Security Council. He said it should be based on "normal relations and security for Israel in exchange for full withdrawal from all occupied territories, recognition of an independent Palestinian state with al-Quds al-Sharif (East Jerusalem) as its capital and the return of (Palestinian) refugees". Prince Abdullah, detailing a plan he floated last month, asked the summit to let him address the Israeli people with a message that "the use of violence for more than 50 years has only resulted in more violence and destruction and that they are as far from security and peace as they have ever been". Earlier the Arab League summit opened to discuss a Saudi peace plan with Jordanian Prime Minister Ali Abul-Ragheb blaming Israel for the conflict. Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak and Jordan’s King Abdullah have stayed away from the much-touted summit intended to discuss the Saudi proposal. Arafat said he would not attend the summit and stay with his people in Ramallah following Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon’s refusal to allow the Palestinian leader to attend the summit saying the time was “not ripe yet”. The Palestinian delegation to the Arab summit walked out today in protest at what a Palestinian official called the blocking of a speech by Yasser Arafat that was to have been beamed to Arab leaders by satellite. "We spent hours negotiating with the Lebanese to allow Arafat’s speech to be aired," the official said. "Every Arab leader intervened on our behalf, but they (the Lebanese) gave silly excuses." U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan called on Arab nations today to unite behind the Saudi peace plan and told them to come to terms "once and for all" with Israel’s right to exist in peace and security. Addressing the Arab summit, the Secretary-General said Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat and Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon had a duty to lead their "peoples back from the brink" or history would judge them harshly. He said Saudi Arabian Crown Prince Abdullah’s vision of Israel withdrawing from Palestinian territories in exchange for full diplomatic recognition from Arab states was compelling. He said Israel must immediately stop targeted assassinations against Palestinians and the use of heavy weaponry in densely populated areas. But he said suicide attacks against Israeli civilians should be denounced by all Arab leaders, who must come to terms "once and for all, in public and in private, with the right of Israel to exist," he said. Reuters,
PTI
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Lanka accepts LTTE terms for peace talks Colombo, March 27 “The time is now opportune for negotiations. We want to rapidly commence these talks,” the government spokesman, Constitutional Affairs Minister
G.L. Peiris told reporters. “We expect talks to begin in the first week of May.” The government also said it was ready to meet conditions set by the rebels who insist that legal recognition for their organisation and a full implementation of a Norwegian truce deal must precede negotiations. The initial discussions would be “talks about talks” to set the agenda for full negotiations to end nearly two decades of ethnic bloodletting, he said. The discussions could end a conflict that has claimed more than 64,000 lives. Four previous peace bids have collapsed in bloodbaths with each side blaming the other for scuttling the talks. Mr Peiris said the talks would be held in an Asian country. Thailand has emerged as the favourite venue among the Sri Lankan media. A statement from President Chandrika
Kumaratunga, who says she supports the peace process but has been critical of the government’s methods, applauded the developments. “The President welcomes the announcement by the government...that direct negotiations with the LTTE would commence in early May, aimed at arriving at a
negotiated settlement,” the statement said. Mr Peiris said the government was “willing to look into and address any concerns (the rebels) might have before talks begin.” The rebels said there were delays in implementing some of these clauses but did not say which. LTTE leader V. Prabhakaran and chief negotiator Anton Balasingham conveyed their willingness to begin talks to a Norwegian delegation that held discussions with them in the northern Vanni region yesterday. The TamilNet website quoted Dr Balasingham last night as saying the LTTE wanted three pre-requisites to be fulfilled for the beginning of talks: full implementation of the present ceasefire agreement between the parties, lifting of ban on the LTTE and return of normalcy in the north and east. Reuters,
PTI
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US-led forces blast NA
hideouts Islamabad, March 27 The attacks occurred at Khwaja Bahauddin and Hazaar Bagh areas, reports here said. The reports quoting correspondents inside Afghanistan, said Qazi Kabir, a commander of Ahmad Shah Masood’s Jumbash-i-Milli party, had refused to surrender heavy artillery, arms and ammunition to the allied forces despite repeated reminders by the Kabul government. The interim regime, on a UN directive, launched a massive drive to disarm Afghan warlords to avert any possible infighting among rival groups. The administration had asked the warlords and different groups to surrender tanks, armoured personnel carriers (APCs), anti-aircraft guns and other heavy weapons. The allied forces, after a green signal from the Hamid Karzai administration, blasted the ammunition depots and hideouts where the APCs, tanks and other weapons had been amassed, says a report in the Pushtu-language daily Wahdat. The report said thick black plumes of smoke were seen rising into the air above both sites and the bombing shook the ground. It said the forces of Kabir Khan fought back with artillery mortars and heavy machine guns, but the fire soon subsided, as his men could not sustain the heavy bombardment. It said the operation was intentionally not reported to the media, as the USA still needed the support of the Northern Alliance troops to flush out the remnant Taliban and Al Qaida fighters. Opposition from Northern Alliance forces would create problems for them. “Dozens of Apache attack helicopters with 30 mm guns and missiles pounded the targets in the two areas. Low-flying ground attack planes were also used during the offensive,” said the paper. An AC-130 gunship, a four-engine turboprop aircraft with withering machine gun and 105 mm cannon fire, was also used during the offensive which lasted for a couple of hours.
IANS |
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Suicide bomber ‘involved’ in church attack Islamabad, March 27 Earlier, the police released a sketch of a clean shaven young man with curly hair they suspect of carrying out the March 17 attack which left five persons dead, including the wife and daughter of an American diplomat. Interior Minister Moinuddin Haider said in an interview that he believed “very strongly” the attacker had blown himself up, possibly in a suicide attack. The fifth body found was badly mutilated and has not been identified. “He had on his body explosives as well as grenades,” Haider said. “We are not sure whether he was a suicide bomber or whether somebody had trapped him, without his knowing it.” No one has claimed responsibility for the attack, but suspicion is directed at hardline Islamic groups opposed to Pakistan’s support for the US-led war on terror. Reuters
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UK rejects police
claim on Afroz plan London, March 27 “The Commissioner of Police of Mumbai had visited the UK in connection with an ongoing inquiry. The police had cooperated fully with the Indian authorities and will
continue to provide assistance to the Indian authorities where appropriate,” a spokeswoman for Scotland Yard told IANS. The spokeswoman pointedly refused to mention any direct British interest in the case, even though the Mumbai police claims that the Parliament building in London was the target for the suspect, Mohammad Afroz. According to official sources, Scotland Yard had not found enough Independent evidence to back the claims made by the Mumbai police.
IANS |
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First ovary transplant
Beijing, March 27
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