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Thursday,
May 22, 2003, Chandigarh, India  
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India offers Pak help to stop terrorism India-Thailand bid to check terrorism LTTE for interim administration Four Afghan soldiers shot
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India offers Pak help to stop terrorism London, May 21 It has also said it would move “step by step” on a five-point agenda that has emerged from the telephonic talks between the two Prime Ministers to normalise relations. “It will be very good if Pakistan stopped cross-border terrorism. If it is done with the involvement of any state agencies, it should stop. “If it is going on despite them, then they (Pakistan Government) can cooperate with us in putting them (acts of terrorism) down. Both India and Pakistan are committed to fight terrorism,” External Affairs Minister Yashwant Sinha told reporters here last evening. Indicating that India was not in a hurry to resume dialogue with Pakistan, Mr Sinha, who held talks with British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw yesterday, said there would first be “talks about talks.” Asked whether any summit-level talks was on cards, he said, “Summit will be the last stage of bilateral engagement. We should prepare the ground for the summit. Reach as many agreements as possible before the summit takes place.” Two of the five items on the agenda, appointment of High Commissioners and opening up of mutual airspace were suggested by Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, while the other three, opening up of road and air links and reviving sports links — were mooted by Pakistani Prime Minister Mir Zafarullah Khan Jamali. India has already appointed a New High Commissioner to Pakistan, he said, adding “We have not received any suggestion from Pakistan yet with respect to their new High Commissioner in Delhi.” “We will open the air space” also, said the External Affairs Minister, asserting that New Delhi wanted to move step by step and in course of time “we will be able to attend to all the five items.” He said at some point of time the question of dialogue would also come up. “Even dialogue will have to be step by step. The first meeting will be for talks about the talks.” Asked whether there was any reduction in cross-border terrorism, Mr Sinha said: “We are keeping a close watch on the ground situation. But the whole concept of decline (in terrorism) is self-defeating. It has to be ended.” To a question whether the Agra summit failed because of lack of ground work, Mr Sinha said: “It failed because of Gen Pervez Musharraf’s insistence to discuss only Jammu and Kashmir to the exclusion of all other issues.”
PTI |
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India-Thailand bid to check terrorism Bangkok, May 21 The first ever meeting of the joint working group on security decided on setting up of a consultative mechanism to address the issue of terrorism through sharing of experiences, meetings and seminars, an official present at the two-day meeting told PTI. The meeting focused on exchange of intelligence, military cooperation, narcotics, terrorism and arms smuggling, money laundering, illegal migratory flows and international economic and cyber crime. “The meeting was basically a framework meeting to promote mutual exchange of information and identifying the agencies from the two countries which would be in touch with each other for sharing experiences and intelligence,” the official said. The 15-member Indian side was led by R.M. Abhayankar, Secretary in the Ministry of External Affairs while the Thai side was led by Gen Winai Pratiyakul, head of the Thai National Security Agency.
PTI |
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LTTE for interim administration
Colombo, May 21 The LTTE’s chief negotiator and political advisor Anton Balasingham intimated this demand in a letter to the Deputy Foreign Minister Vidar Helgesen. “A positive and constructive response from the Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe setting out his ideas and proposals in ‘clear and concrete terms will certainly help our leadership to take a crucial decision on the resumption of peace talks and participation at the Donor Conference in Japan,” Mr Balasingham said. Originally the idea of an interim administrative structure for the north-east was mooted by the LTTE months before the December 2001 general election and the UNP leadership had endorsed the proposal and the Prime Minister had openly campaigned in support of an interim administrative structure with the active participation of the LTTE. Mr Balasingham, in a four-page letter, said the issue of interim administration was taken up for discussion at the inaugural session of the peace talks in Sattahip, Thailand, but was set aside by the government’s chief negotiator Prof G.L. Pieris, explaining the legal and constitutional constraints involved in the formation of such an administrative body outside the parameters of the Sri Lanka constitution. “To avoid political controversy in the early stages of the talks the negotiating parties decided to replace the idea of an administrative structure with the establishment of a joint task force for humanitarian and reconstruction activities for the north-east.”
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Four Afghan soldiers shot Kabul, May 21 There were no apparent US casualties, and reports about who fired first varied. The shootings occurred as the Afghan forces were taking weapons off a truck parked nearby, said Kabul Police chief Basir Salangi. “It was a misunderstanding between the American guards at the embassy and our soldiers who were unloading weapons,” Salangi said. Salangi said three Afghan soldiers were killed and two wounded. Hospital officials said another soldier died shortly after being brought in.
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3 Moroccans planned suicide attack Jeddah, May 21 |
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