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Thursday,
December 19, 2002, Chandigarh, India  
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Saffron nationalism in India ‘ideal’ for Russia Rabin murder planned for months: assassin
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Sikhs raise $ 9 lakh for poll
UK delegation to visit Jalandhar Pak handed over 400 ultras to USA: Rocca Woman beaten up, hair shorn for adultery ‘Quiet American’ opens in Vietnam
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Russia regrets US move on NMD Moscow, December 18 The Russian Foreign Ministry said Moscow, which long opposed the scheme before reluctantly accepting that it would be implemented, had noted “with regret’’ US President George W. Bush’s order to make some interceptor rockets operational from 2004. A statement said this meant the plan had “moved into a new destabilising phase’’. It said Russia wanted cooperation in developing missile defences to be part of the “fundamentally new relationship of strategic partnership’’ developed since the September 2001 hijacked airliner attacks on US targets. “It is important for a prominent place in this programme to be given over to joint action in cooperation in anti-missile defences,’’ the statement said. “Moscow expects that the USA will give priority to implementation of this programme of strategic partnership, agreed at the highest level, and will involve its friends and prtners in it rather than in a destabilising race of strategic defensive arms, including those in space.’’ Russia initially fiercely resisted Bush’s decision to abandon the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile treaty in order to proceed with the missile shield. Officials dismissed the US premise that the shield was necessary to guard against missile strikes by “rogue states’’ like Iran, Iraq and North Korea. But Moscow softened its opposition as it became apparent that Bush would walk out of the treaty despite doubts about the system from Russia and even Washington’s West European allies. Many US academics said the proposed missile system, which suffered its third failure in eight tests last week, was unworkable and a waste of money. The Defence Department had spent $ 8 billion per year in the past two years and a senior official yesterday said it would spend more than $ 17.5 billion in the two years to come. Russian officials had since suggested that their own firms could play a role in developing the system.
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Saffron nationalism in India ‘ideal’ for Russia Moscow, December 18 “Aggravation of the situation in Kashmir and strengthening of the Vajpayee-led right-nationalist regime sooner or later would have resulted in further cementing of the Moscow-Delhi axis,” leader of Russia’s “Eurasian” movement Alexander Dugin has said, commenting on the outcome of President Vladimir Putin’s recent visit to India. “In the strategic standoff with Islamic radicalism, of which Pakistan and Jammu and Kashmir are one of the centres, Russia and India are facing the same problems,” Dugin wrote in an article published by the leading daily “Izvestia”. Dugin, who is also Russian State Duma (Lower House of Parliament) Chairman’s Adviser on geopolitical and security issues, said from the geopolitical point of view, Project “Great India” would be an ideal solution of the regional configuration for Russia. “The ‘Great India’ could become an ideal factor for containing Russia’s regional rivals, China and Pakistan, and Moscow could provide instruments, including defence technologies to make this project a reality,’’ Dugin said. “We do not know for sure whether such delicate issues were discussed at the latest Indo-Russian summit talks, but this could be sensed from the news wires covering the summit,” Dugin wrote, adding that Putin’s India visit was not a formal affair, but a “geopolitical gesture”.
PTI |
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Rabin murder planned for months: assassin Jerusalem, December 18 Amir, who assassinated Rabin at a Tel Aviv peace rally in 1995, was testifying on behalf of a shadowy undercover agent on trial on charges that he failed to prevent Rabin’s murder. A smiling Amir told the court he planne the assassination for many months and told several people about earlier failed attempts to kill the Prime Minister, radio stations reported. But he told the crowded courtroom that he had never mentioned to Avishai Raviv — an extremist Jewish friend who was working for the Shin Bet security service — that he intended to kill Rabin, Army radio reported. “I never told Raviv that I wanted to kill Rabin. I said it must be done. I said it must be done. I said someone must do it...but I never said I would do it,’’ Army radio quoted Amir as saying in the court. Amir, who shot Rabin in the back after a peace rally, said at the time of his arrest that he killed the Prime Minister to prevent peacemaking with the Palestinians. Instead of using the words “kill’’ or “murder’’, Amir referred to the Rabin assassination in court as “an act of preventive intervention’’, Army radio said. Raviv is on trial on charges that he failed to prevent Rabin’s assassination by not reporting to his Shin Bet superiors alleged comments by Amir indicating his intent to kill the Prime Minister. Israel’s Parliament passed a law last year to prevent Amir from ever being released from prison.
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Sikhs raise $ 9 lakh for poll New York, December 18 Judge Julia Spain increased the bond from $ 100,000 earlier this month after the leaders of the gurdwara in Fremont asked that the court-ordered elections be delayed by at least a year while an appeal was being heard, The Argus reported. The bond is collateral to ensure the leaders don’t spend gurdwara money or assets during the appeal process, The Argus said. The civil case was spurred after six other Sikh worshippers claimed to have won positions on the gurdwara’s leadership body, the Supreme Council, after a chaotic March election that required police supervision. The election was not legitimate, the courts found, and Judge Spain ordered a new one. The five current leaders had said the large amount of money would be difficult to secure. Two of them are retired, two are truck drivers and one is an insurance broker, according to the report. But Gurdial Singh, one of the five leaders, said the money came from supporters who want the religious practices of the gurdwara protected from court interference, the news report added. “I don’t think any error has been committed with regard to administration (of the gurdwara),” The Argus quoted him as saying. “We followed the rules, but the court says that we should be elected and not selected.” “We should select our people according to religious traditions, not according to the corporations code,” said supporter and gurdwara member Jessie Singh, referring to the law used by the courts as a basis for a new election. Meanwhile, the attorney for the other side says only a legitimate election will solve the fighting that has plagued the gurdwara for at least six years. One of the biggest concerns is compiling a membership list, which is nearly complete.
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UK delegation to visit Jalandhar London, December 18 “The September 11, 2000, attack on the twin towers in New York changed our view on terrorism and international issues and terrorism from across the LoC is only qualitatively different from terrorism on twin towers,” Stephon Pound, Treasurer of the Labour Friends of India (LFIN) said. Pound, who will be leading a seven-member delegation of LFIN to India from January 4 coinciding with the visit of Patricia Hewitt, British Minister for Trade and Industry, said Britain today had a much better understanding of the terrorists’ onslaught faced by India.
PTI |
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Pak handed over 400 ultras to USA: Rocca Islamabad, December 18 Ms Rocca dealing with South Asia in the State Department, presented Pakistan Interior Minister Syed Faisal Saleh Hayat more than 8,000 pieces of radio and communications equipment worth $ 4.5 million as part of a $ 73 million programme to enhance Pakistan’s border security. Ms Rocca who was on a two-day visit to Pakistan, met President Gen Pervez Musharraf and the newly elected Prime Minister Mir Zafarullah Jamali to discuss with them Pak-US relations, the regional security situation and the US desire to play a role in bringing peace and security to South Asia. ‘’Rocca and President Musharraf discussed matters of bilateral interest,’’ English daily The News quoted an official as saying. She said Musharraf had assured the USA that Pakistan was not helping North Korea in its nuclear programme.
UNI |
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Woman beaten up, hair shorn for adultery Multan, December 18 Two of the men who carried out the punishment against the woman were also arrested, police official Riaz Ahmed told the Associated Press. The woman, Mumtaz Mai (45), was beaten up and had her hair shorn off on Monday on the orders of a traditional village council at Chaddar Bhanda, 450 km south of Islamabad. Mai’s lover was also forced to marry off his infant daughter to her infant son to compensate Mai’s family for her lost honour. The council was convened by Mai’s husband Mohammed Hussein to punish her for the affair with Ghulam Mustafa. After the verdict several men, including Mai’s brother beat her and cut off her hair. The brother and the council leader who issued the sentence were both arrested on charges of public humiliation, Mr Ahmed said.
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‘Quiet American’ opens in Vietnam Hanoi, December 17 Greene’s novel was acclaimed as a portent of American involvement in Indo-China and is set in Saigon in 1952 at the height of the fight for independence from the French colonial rule. The film tells the story of a tumultuous love triangle involving a cynical foreign correspondent, played by Michael Caine, and an idealistic young American played by Brendan Fraser. The film is very faithful to Greene’s book, which is sold in photocopied editions by kids on the streets of Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City, and depicts the period when France was losing its conflict in Vietnam and American engagement was growing by the day.
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