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Saturday,
June 22, 2002, Chandigarh, India  
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UN
discussion shelved Solution
only if Pak relents: Blair India
must reciprocate Pak gesture: European Union |
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$ 5 m
relief to 3 US Sikhs B’desh President
steps down
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Germany offers to host Indo-Pak conference
Islamabad, June 21 Visiting German Deputy Minister for Foreign Affairs, Juergen Chrobog, said his country was willing to host the Indo-Pakistan conference like the one in Bonn which resulted in an agreement among the Afghan warring factions to form an interim government. But, it was up to India and Pakistan to come to the negotiating table, he told reporters here last night. He said both India and Pakistan made good progress in de-escalating tensions with the help of USA. Mr Chrobog, who earlier visited India, said New Delhi made it clear that it would not accept any international mediation and it would not permit any international observers to oversee the state elections proposed to be held in Jammu and Kashmir. “We welcome the international observers to monitor elections in Germany and most other countries also do,” he said. However “Germany would continue to encourage both Pakistan and India to resolve their disputes through dialogue,” Mr Chrobog said after meeting Pakistan’s newly appointed Minister of State for Foreign Affairs, Inamul Haq. Mr Chrobog expressed satisfaction over the recent measures taken by the Indian Government to ease the situation and said it was “good beginning.” He said the exchange of diplomats at the High Commissioner’s level could provide a good beginning towards confidence-building between the two countries. “We cannot expect miracles happening overnight,” he said and referred to the restoration of weekly telephone contact between the Directors-General of Military Operations of the two countries. Mr Chrobog, who also met Pakistani Interior Minister Moinuddin Haider, said Germany wanted to invest in Pakistan but there were some security concerns. But, he said, President Pervez Musharraf’s government was doing a lot to bring the situation under control. He also said he was pleased with the steps being taken by the Musharraf government for the restoration of democracy in Pakistan.
PTI |
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UN discussion shelved
United Nations, June 21 Indian diplomats later said the postponement of the discussion, a low-key and unpublicised event, meant it was cancelled. Earlier, Mr Vijay K. Nambiar, new chief representative to the United Nations, had said India would not allow any multilateral effort in solving Indo-Pakistan problems. The discussion was to be organised by Mexico, a member of the 15-member Security Council, though the council members had agreed earlier that the Kashmir dispute should be resolved bilaterally. According to sources, organising discussion was one of the ways a member of the powerful council focused on an issue without putting it on the council’s official agenda. The meeting was scheduled to take place in a private UN meeting room rather than the regular council chambers and would have had no official stamp. Confirming the original schedule of the discussion, Ms Yolanda Castro, a spokeswoman for the Permanent Mission of Mexico, explained that council members sometimes hold informal discussions on various issues. “It was meant to be a private, off-the-record affair,” she told a UNI correspondent.
UNI |
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Solution only if Pak relents: Blair
London, June 21 “We have worked extremely hard to bring the two sides together and the only basis on which we are going to resolve the issue. I have no doubt at all, is on the basis of Pakistan ceasing completely and absolutely its support for terrorism in Kashmir, or indeed exported from Kashmir”, Mr Blair said told newsmen yesterday. “And the Indian Government recognising that if that is the case it is sensible to offer dialogue on all the issues so that we can resolve what are pressing and difficult questions through that bilateral dialogue between the two sides”, he said. “Now that is what we have been aiming to do and I think (Foreign Secretary, Jack Straw, if I may say so, made a very successful and very timely visit to India and Pakistan to achieve it and I think the arms sales issue is a bit of a canard really,” Mr Blair said.
PTI |
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India must reciprocate Pak gesture:
Seville, Spain, June 21 A statement to be issued by the EU summit in Seville also urged India and Pakistan to urgently ensure effective monitoring on the Line of Control in Kashmir to stop cross-frontier infiltration of militants from Pakistan. The draft declaration said EU governments welcomed recent Pakistani steps to “begin clamping down on cross-border terrorism and the de-escalatory measures announced by India in response”. However EU leaders warned that the situation remained “precarious and that the consequences of a break-out of war could be devastating for the region and beyond.’’ Pakistan must take “further concrete actions” to stop infiltration across the Line of Control, prevent terrorist groups from operating from territory under its control and close down training camps, the EU said. India and Pakistan must also “urgently establish an effective monitoring in a form acceptable to both in order to stop infiltration,” the 15-nation group insisted. The EU leaders urged India “to be ready to respond with further de-escalatory steps as Pakistan shows that it is acting to fulfil its commitments.” Both countries must also seek out confidence-building measures to defuse the immediate crisis and start working towards a “lasting solution through dialogue of the differences between them”, the bloc said. The minister also called on the USA to play a bigger role in mediating between the two nuclear-armed countries. Diplomats said EU security chief Javier Solana would probably be going to both countries shortly to work for a further easing of tension. The leaders also focused on illegal immigration. The summit’s host, Spanish Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar, was hoping to win an agreement on better coordination of immigration and asylum policy.
DPA, AFP |
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Blasts ahead of summit Marbella, Spain, June 21 A first bomb attack in the resort town of Fuengirola injured four tourists and two Spaniards followed a few hours later by a second blast in Marbella, 27 km away. No one was injured in the second attack, but vehicles were damaged. The militants had issued a statement, calling on the European leaders to put pressure on Spain and France to grant autonomy to the Basques.
AFP |
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$ 5 m relief to 3 US Sikhs
Seattle, June 21 The Bains brothers - Gagandeep, Harinder Paul and Gurinder - own Flying B, a small chain of gas stations in the Okanogan area of Eastern Washington. In June, 1999, after the Olympic Pipe Line gasoline pipeline ruptured in Bellingham, killing three persons, Arco needed another way to transport gasoline from its Cherry Point refinery in Ferndale to its tank farm in Seattle. The company began hiring tanker trucks to do the job, and Flying B decided to get into the transport business. The brothers bought one truck in July, 1999, and three more later. But, they said, an Arco employee harassed them and their other East Indian drivers repeatedly - calling them “rag heads,” “diaper heads” and “camel jockeys” because of their heritage. Two of the three brothers wear turbans and beards in accordance with their religion. They were forced to use slower pumps, wait in longer lines and stand in the rain when other drivers were given shelter, they said in court documents. Eventually, Arco stopped using their company as a contractor, and they sued under federal civil rights law. On Tuesday, a U.S. District Court jury awarded Flying B $ 5 million. “It’s a matter of principle,” Harinder Bains said yesterday. “Our voice was heard and I feel much more relieved. Everybody should be treated by their deeds, not by the way they look.”
AP |
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B’desh President steps down Dhaka, June 21 The ruling party legislators at their two-day meeting requested the President to step down. However, a high drama followed the decision. Sensing the impending development, President Chowdury left the President House, Bangabhaban, last evening which led to rumours that he had vacated the office. However, honouring the request of the party he returned to the President House at 9-30 pm last evening on the condition that he would resign after receiving the decision of the parliamentary party. He avoided the media waiting at the gate but his son, a ruling party legislator, announced his decision. He send the resignation letter to Speaker Jamiruddin Sirkar. |
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