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Monday,
June 10, 2002, Chandigarh, India  
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UK Muslims funding ultras
in Musharraf to visit UAE, Saudi Arabia Afghan Hindus, Sikhs see hope
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Traces of nerve gas at US base
Sharon against time-frame for peace talks Deadlock in Lanka peace
process New law not to benefit
Indians 400 massacred in Congo, say RCD rebels Toure sworn in Mali President 5 hurt in blast in Jakarta
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UK Muslims funding ultras in Kashmir: report London, June 9 Undercover reporters visiting mosques in the UK have discovered clerics openly proclaiming how money was being sent to the “freedom fighters in Kashmir”, The Sunday Telegraph reported today. The report quotes a “sympathiser” boasting that it is “easy” to send money to terrorists and that it was his “duty” to support the “fighting brothers”. The Sunday Telegraph investigation confirms that India’s claims are accurate and it continues to be possible to send funds from abroad for terrorism. The investigation also justifies the report that India had given to Britain, identifying bank accounts being operated by militant groups like Jaish-e-Mohammad and Lashkar-e-Toiba to illegally raise up to five million pounds every year. The Indian report is being investigated by the Special Branch after it was given to Foreign Secretary Jack Straw during his latest visit to India. The paper said an undercover reporter approached the Kashmir International Relief Fund, a charity in east London, and a volunteer told him it would be easy to send money to terrorists. Mahmood Hussain, who gave the address of a Pakistani organisation in Rawalpindi and advice on how funds could be transferred, was quoted saying: “We have a duty to help our brothers who are fighting for a struggle.” “Once you can make a contact in Pakistan there should be no problem as from there you can transfer the funds,” he said. The report also claims that funds have been raised for “Kashmiri freedom fighters” at the famous Regent’s Park mosque in London. But it is not clear which organisation receives the transferred funds. Imam Abu Hamza said if funds were raised for terrorism, he would support the fund-raising activities. “These people are defending their Islamic brothers,” the cleric emphasised.
UNI |
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Indian Muslims in UK oppose Advani’s visit London, June 9 In a petition submitted to Home Secretary David Blunkett and Foreign Secretary Jack Straw, the council’s Chairman Munaf Zeena said there was “compelling evidence” to suggest that Mr Advani had links with the hardline Hindu organisation RSS, which he claimed was involved in the recent communal riots in Gujarat. “We submit Mr Advani holds racially divisive and anti-secular views, more potently towards Muslims and Christian minorities in India,” the petition said. “Mr Advani could incite inter-religious hatred and his entry could pose a significant threat to community relations and public order” here, it said. The Home Minister is scheduled to pay a three-day visit here from June 17.
PTI |
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Musharraf to visit UAE, Saudi Arabia Abu Dhabi, June 9 General Musharraf would hold talks with Emirati President Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan al-Nahyan, whose country had expressed its readiness to play the role of mediator between Islamabad and New Delhi, WAM said. General Musharraf would travel on to the Red Sea city of Jeddah on Tuesday to meet Saudi Crown Prince Abdullah bin Abdul Aziz, a spokesman at the Pakistani embassy in Riyadh told AFP. The spokesman said General Musharraf would leave Saudi Arabia on Wednesday, coinciding with US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld’s expected arrival in Islamabad ahead of a visit to New Delhi as part of efforts to ensure a diplomatic solution to the crisis between the two nations. Foreign ministers from the six-nation Gulf Cooperation Council that includes the UAE and Saudi Arabia, on Saturday urged India and Pakistan to show self-restraint and give diplomacy a chance to resolve the crisis. “That would open the way to a political action aimed at preserving the security and stability of the region,” said Omani minister of state for foreign affairs, Yussef bin Alawi. “The GCC’s contacts with India and Pakistan are continuing ... to avert a military confrontation,” said Mr Alawi, whose country holds the annual chair of the group of Gulf Arab oil monarchies, home to hundreds of thousands of expatriate workers from both India and Pakistan.
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Afghan Hindus, Sikhs see hope Kabul, June 9 The minority groups, persecuted during the six years of the ultra-orthodox Islamic regime, will be represented by four delegates at the tribal gathering which is to select a new leadership for Afghanistan. Community leaders said their presence at the assembly was a reassertion of the rights of the nation’s only non-Muslim minorities and that they expected the gathering to alleviate the suffering of the country’s 30,000 Sikhs and Hindus. “We take it as the return of our luck. In almost a decade, for the first time our rights have been determined and we have to defend our rights,” said Awtar Singh, a delegate to the Loya Jirga from the eastern province of Paktia. “We want somebody who would treat all Afghans, irrespective of their religious and ethnic backgrounds, as his own equal children,” said Awtar Singh, who is in charge of the main Sikh temple in Kabul. Sikhs and Hindus, united in adversity, were close in Afghanistan. In the predominantly Muslim nation, they shared the same temples as well as many religious ceremonies. He said the four representatives were appointed to it among the 1,551 Loya Jirga delegates from 22 communities in 11 different provinces across the country. Balbir Singh (52), the temple’s priest, lamented the social injustices to Hindus and Sikhs since the fall of the communist regime in 1992 but said he was optimistic about their future. “We are from Afghanistan, having to share its every joy and grief. Loya Jirga is very important for us because we have suffered under the Taliban, we had our temples destroyed,” said Balbir. The priest called upon the Loya Jirga delegates, who will meet from June 10 to June 16, not to discriminate against the minorities.
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Traces of nerve gas at US base Bagram, June 9 So far, no US soldiers have reported any symptoms of exposure, US Colonel Roger King said. The contamination at the Khanabad air base, near the city of Karshi, was thought to be from chemical weapons stored there by the former Soviet Union, King said. Uzbekistan became independent in 1991. US forces moved into the base in October and over the winter it was a main hub for the US-led campaign in neighbouring Afghanistan. At one point up to 5,000 troops were stationed there, though King said the number now is less than 1,000. A chemical weapons team using “sniffer” devices found traces of nerve gas vapour on Friday at a bunker on the edge of camp, far from any soldiers. But the next day, similar vapours were detected in a hardened hangar in which a headquarters had been set up, Maj Gary Tallman said. AP |
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Sharon against time-frame for peace talks
Jerusalem, June 9 Two of the soldiers were said to be in serious condition after the attack near the Yitzhar settlement south of the city of Nablus. A previous toll given by Israeli army radio had spoken of two Palestinians killed and six Israelis wounded. The Israeli army launched a manhunt using helicopters for the remaining attackers, said the radio. Earlier an attack claimed by the military wing of the radical Palestinian group Hamas left at least three Israelis dead and five injured yesterday in the West Bank settlement of Karmei Tzur north of Hebron. The Israeli military said one Palestinian gunman was shot dead and that another escaped. Four Palestinians were also killed in two abortive attacks on the Gaza Strip, sources on both sides said. Israel, meanwhile, today welcomed US President George W. Bush’s statement that it was too early to announce a timetable for the creation of a Palestinian state. “I think the position of the USA on the question of a timetable is excellent given the bad experiences of the past,” said Avi Pazner, a spokesman for Prime Minister Ariel Sharon. He said Sharon’s predecessor Ehud Barak “found it impossible to respect the deadlines he had set for reaching accords” leading the way to Palestinian statehood. Mr Bush said yesterday after talks with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak that he was not ready to commit to a specific timetable for creating a Palestinian state. “We’re not ready to lay down a specific calendar except for the fact we need to get started quickly, soon, so that we can seize the moment,” he said at a joint press conference with Mubarak at the Camp David retreat near Washington. On the eve of a summit in Washington with the US president, Sharon rejected a rigid timetable for the talks. Meanwhile a report from Gaza said Yasser Arafat, under international and internal pressure to reform his Palestinian Authority, is to name his new cabinet within 48 hours with fewer ministries and a new Interior Minister. Palestinian Cabinet Minister Nabil Shaath confirmed remarks published in newspapers today. Shaath said the number of ministerial portfolios would be trimmed from 32 and Arafat would name Major General Abdel-Razzek al-Yehiyeh as Interior Minister. New Finance, Higher Education, Industry and Trade Ministers would also be appointed.
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Deadlock in Lanka peace process Colombo, June 9 The LTTE leadership argues that the governments refusal to establish political offices in the islands and the safety sea passage between the Wanni and the east are clear violations of the truce agreement. However, the Nordic monitors are in consultation with both parties to break the existing ‘’deadlock’’ for facilitating talks in Thailand, local reports said today. In this regard a high ranking Nordic monitoring team, locally known as the Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission (SLMM), led by SLMM chief Major-Gen Trond Furuhovde, met the Jaffna military commander Major-Gen Sarath Fonseka and LTTE political wing leader S P Thamilselvan on Friday and yesterday. The Sri Lanka Navy is opposed to both demands of the LTTE on the ground that the Jaffna islands are “high security areas’’ and cannot be opened to the LTTE to operate political offices. It also argues that it has the right to “intercept’’ any illegal transportation in the sea. Sea Tiger leader Soosai and other high ranking LTTE political wing members also participated in yesterday’s talks with Thamilselvan. Reports from Jaffna said non-governmental organisations (NGOs) are organising a series of mass scale “agitational campaigns’’ starting from June 12 to urge the government to implement the truce agreement in full without any delay. Meanwhile, the local Sunday Times here today reported that the government was expected to ask the Norwegian brokers of the peace process to ‘’limit’’ their role to that of “facilitator or moderator,’’ and not play the role of “mediator’’ in the proposed talks with the rebels.
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New law not to benefit Indians Dubai, June 9 “The status of housewives of expatriate workers is that they are not eligible to seek gainful employment in the country,’’ said Osama Al Absi of the Ministry’s Employment Department, the Gulf Daily News reported today. There were no stipulations for housewives under the new rules on job transfers of expatriates and the limitations on employing them stays, he explained. However, he said some could be given renewable work permits for certain professions such as teaching in local community schools or nursing. The Cabinet approved a decision last week that would allow expatriate workers to change employers provided they gave their employers a written notice agreed upon in the employment contract. They would be able to swap jobs without a release letter from their original employers and without leaving the country. Meanwhile, Indian students in Gulf countries have been assured admission in higher education institutes run by the Sree Narayana Dharma Paripalana Yogam (SNDP) and Sree Narayana Trust (SNT). SNDP and SNT general secretary Vellappally Natesan, who received the Gurusmriti Award instituted by the Bahrain-based Gurudeva Cultural Association (GCA) yesterday, said 17 arts and science colleges, four colleges of education, one polytechnic and three industrial training centers would be opened for NRI students.
UNI |
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400 massacred in Congo, say RCD rebels Kigali, June 9 In a statement handed to AFP in Kigali last night, the Rwanda-backed RCD said it “denounces large-scale massacres of civilian populations around Bunia perpetrated by the
RCD-ML (RCD-Liberation Movement) of Mbusa Nyamwisi allied with the forces of the Kinshasa government.” The
RCD-ML, a little rebel group backed by Uganda and a rival to the mainstream
RCD, controls the far northeast of the DRC near the borders with Sudan and Uganda where there is recurrent tribal violence, especially between the Hema and Lendu tribes. The
RCD-ML is a signatory of the power-sharing agreement signed in April in Sun City, South Africa, between the Kinshasa government and Jean-Pierre Bemba’s Uganda-backed Congo Liberation Movement. “The
Kinshasa/RCD-ML/ Ugan-dan army coalition, de facto authority in this part of the country, is responsible for an unprecedented escalation of violence aimed at the civilian population of Ituri which rejects application of the Sun City Accord,” the RCD said.
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Toure sworn in Mali President Bamako, June 9 In a speech yesterday, following the swearing-in ceremony, Mr Toure said he would “build a country that excludes no one, work in the interests of the people and work toward African unity.” Mr Toure, a former paratrooper commander, won 64 per cent of a May 12 run off vote last month, defeating governing coalition candidate Soumaila Cisse, who received 36 per cent.
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5 hurt in blast in Jakarta Jakarta, June 9 “The bomb exploded in front of the Eksotis discotheque in Mangga Besar (area in central Jakarta) at around 1:30 am (local time). It destroyed a small roadside noodle stall,” police spokesman Anton Bahrul Alam told AFP. He said the “rudimentary home-made bomb” injured five persons, including the stall operator.
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