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Thursday,
June 12, 2003, Chandigarh, India  
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UK offers to facilitate Indo-Pak talks Musharraf’s election valid: court
Retired General to head US Army US soldier killed in Baghdad Perricos to succeed
Hans Blix |
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Orders to arrest
Sharif’s brother ‘Brother’ of Bin Laden jailed
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UK offers to facilitate Indo-Pak talks London, June 11 Talking to visiting Indian journalists on invitation from the British Government here, Junior Foreign Office Minister Mike O’Brien said Kashmir was a bilateral issue which must be addressed by the two countries themselves. The neighbours must appreciate each others’ concerns and specifically those of the Kashmiris, he said. Welcoming the recent peace initiatives, he said India and Pakistan, being sensible nations, instead of viewing their relations solely in terms of differences of opinion over Kashmir, must look beyond the many similarities existing between them. The UK does not have any West Asia-like ‘road map’ for the resolution of the Kashmir issue, but is ready to offer all possible assistance on its part , the minister said. He refused to draw parallels between Kashmir and Northern Ireland saying the two had entirely different issues and similarities existed only in ground realities where a solution to the violence had to be found without compromising with terrorists in any way. Mr O’Brien said General Musharraf was well aware of the need to curb terrorist activities along the Line of Control in Jammu and Kashmir and that he had had discussions with the USA, UK and other countries in this regard. Denying charges of double standards shown by the West in dealing with terrorism, he said Britain had been consistently expressing its apprehensions over the operations of the Al Qaeda network and the Pakistani ISI. He also denied that General Musharraf, despite acceding to power undemocratically, was being patronised by the West because he suited them. The British Prime Minister Tony Blair, who met Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee in St Petersburg last month had also validated India’s stance on cross-border terrorism. And so the timing of General Musharraf’s visit to Britain, scheduled at the end of this month, soon after Mr Advani’s, visit has given rise to speculations that Mr Blair might raise India’s concerns with the Pakistani President once again. However, the Foreign Office Minister has warned not to read too much into the itinerary of the two leaders.
UNI |
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Musharraf’s election valid: court Islamabad, June 11 Ruling that the election of Musharraf through a referendum last year was valid, a Division Bench of the Lahore High Court has held that it saw nothing wrong with the General holding the post of Chief of Army simultaneously. The Opposition has shut down the parliament for over six months demanding Musharraf to quit as Chief of Army as a compromise to accept his presidency and his constitutional amendments with modifications. “We have not noted anything in the Constitution which would debar the president from remaining in uniform nor is his holding the two office simultaneously creating any hindrance to the smooth functioning of the government or any other institution,” the Bench said yesterday while elaborating on its short order issued recently. The court, in response to a petition filed by the Lawyers Forum further ruled that “none of the constitutional provisions is affected if the president remains in the uniform. Therefore, decision by the president that he would take off the uniform on a date of his own choice does not impinge upon any constitutional provision”.
PTI |
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Retired General to head US Army Washington, June 11 Schoomaker will succeed Gen Eric K Shinseki, who is stepping down after a four-year term. Defence sources said it was the first time in recent memory that a Defence Secretary bypassed the roster of active-duty generals in selecting a chief of the military’s largest service. “Some within the army is likely to interpret the appointment as a slap at the quality of their officer corps”, he said. Schoomaker, 57, retired at four-star rank in 2000 after serving three years as commander of US Special Operations Command. An armor official by early training, he held a variety of top positions in special operations, including Commander of the 1st Special Forces Operational Detachment, the secretive Delta Force, whose main mission is counter-terrorism.
PTI |
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US soldier killed in Baghdad Washington, June 11 “One paratrooper from the 82nd Airborne Division’s 2nd Brigade Combat Team was killed and a second injured today afternoon in a rocket-propelled grenade attack while operating a weapons collection point in southwest Baghdad,’’ the military’s Central Command said in a press note from the region. “The soldiers were evacuated to a field medical facility for treatment and one soldier later died of his injuries. The injured soldier is listed in critical condition,’’ it said. The command said the soldiers were manning the weapons collection point when a van with four passengers stopped in a nearby alleyway approximately 250 yards from their location. “Two attackers exited the van, and each fired a rocket-propelled grenade at the squad. One RPG struck a vehicle and the other landed short of the soldiers’ location. Eyewitnesses at the scene of the attack said the attackers fled down the alleyway,’’ the press note said. US forces increased patrols and searches in the area in an effort to find the attackers, the command added. Meanwhile, Saddam Hussein’s two daughters, grandchildren and an ex-wife have been refused asylum in the United Kingdom, a senior British Minister has said.
Agencies |
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Perricos
to succeed Hans Blix United Nations, June 11 Dimitri Perricos, who has been Blix’s deputy for three years at the UN Monitoring, Inspection and Verification Commission, will replace Blix, who is retiring after more than three years at the helm of the agency, according to Fred Eckhard, Annan’s spokesman. Perricos is a technical expert with ample inspection experience who actually led the search on the ground in Iraq for Saddam Hussein’s chemical and biological weapons and nuclear weapons programmes. Blix, an international lawyer and veteran Swedish diplomat, focused on the diplomatic side with the UN Security Council. “No one could be more experienced and effective than he is,” Blix said, noting that Perricos inspected nuclear programmes in Iraq, North Korea and South Africa when that country abandoned its nuclear weapons programme. Hans Blix in an interview to The Guardian, London, has assailed his critics in Washington and Baghdad. Asked if Iraq still harboured weapons of mass destruction, he said he “remains agnostic.” “It’s true the Iraqis misbehaved and had no credibility but that doesn’t necessarily mean that they were in the wrong. It could have been bad brinkmanship,” Blix said.
AP, Reuters |
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N. Korea pulls out of Asean meet Phnom Penh, June 11 “We have just received information that the North Korean Foreign Minister will not attend the upcoming ASEAN Regional Forum,” a Cambodian Foreign Ministry official told AFP. The official said no reason was given for the withdrawal from the meeting to be held in Phnom Penh between June 16 and 20. But the official, who declined to be named, said the decision was made after the Cambodian Foreign Ministry, the chair of this year’s ARF meeting, issued a draft statement for the meet that included a discussion on the Korean peninsula. “Our aim was that we hoped they would accept that point mentioned. But they decided not to come,” he said.
AFP |
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Orders to arrest
Sharif’s brother Lahore, June 11 The orders were issued by an anti-terrorism court in Lahore yesterday against Shahbaz Sharif, the younger brother of former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, said Aftab Bajwa, a lawyer involved in the case. Shahbaz Sharif is living in exile and not allowed to return to Pakistan, making a court appearance impossible. He is charged with ordering the police to kill five men who were gunned down in 1998. Orders were also given to arrest two police officials for failing to appear in court. At the time of the killings, Shahbaz Sharif was the chief minister of Punjab province. His brother, Nawaz Sharif, was Prime Minister of Pakistan at the time.
AP |
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‘Brother’ of Bin Laden jailed Hong Kong, June 11 The blackmailer sent a letter signed “Bin Laden” to a businessman in Panjin, Liaoning province, demanding $ 2,400 in cash, according to the Hong Kong edition of the China Daily. The letter said: “My brother masterminded the 9/11 tragedy in the USA. Think about it, and don’t call the police.” The man was arrested when he arrived to pick up the money and told officers he pretended to be Bin Laden’s brother because “it enhanced the effect”, according to the newspaper.
DPA |
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