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Thursday,
June 19, 2003, Chandigarh, India  
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Shots
fired at Iraqi troops, 2 dead
Protests
on eve of Powell’s visit Vajpayee
assured SARS-free visit Pak not
aiding infiltration, says Pervez Pakistanis
eager for better ties |
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Shots fired at Iraqi troops, 2 dead
Baghdad, June 18 An Iraqi policeman said a number of US military vehicles and a helicopter had arrived at the scene to remove the bodies. While the attackers fled the photographer was detained by the forces, who held his press pass and confiscated his camera. The attack occurred in Dura, on the southern fringes of the Iraqi capital, near the city’s main oil-fired power plant. If confirmed by the US military, it will bring to 52 the number of US troops killed since the declaration of the war on Iraq. Out of this, 16 were killed in attacks and the rest in accidents. Meanwhile, a soldier of the USA fired into a crowd of Iraqi protesters outside the headquarters of the allied administration in Baghdad today, killing two persons. The shooting occurred when a military convoy of the USA passed through a crowd led by close to 2,000 former Iraqi soldiers protesting against the new administration’s decision to sack them. “America is the enemy of Allah,” the crowd chanted in the fierce midday heat. Military officials of the USA said the soldier had fired in self-defence after the convoy had been pelted with rocks. “Both men who were evacuated died of their wounds,” Lieutenant Colonel Richard Douglas of the USA said. The complex is the former palace of Saddam Hussein. A drive by administrator Paul Bremer of the USA launched last month to destroy the legacy of Saddam’s Baathist rule has so far, laid off up to 4,00,000 Iraqis who worked in the now-disbanded armed forces, security services and information and defence ministries, with no prospect of reintegration. “We were in a peaceful demonstration asking the USA to give us our salaries,” Abdul-Rahim Hassan, a former Iraqi soldier, told Reuters, “When suddenly they started shooting at us.” Capt Scott Nauman of the US Army, whose men were guarding the compound, told the CNN that these Iraqis had been throwing rocks for nearly an hour before the shooting, but no one had been hurt until the convoy had arrived. “The protesters swarmed the convoy, shaking the vehicles, breaking out windows and throwing rocks at extremely close range to the personnel in the convoy, who felt threatened and fired directly into the crowd.” Before the shooting, the demonstrators had beaten passing United Nations and television vehicles with shoes and assaulted a Reuters television crew and other reporters outside. Critics say that the sweeping policy of sacking the soldiers fails to distinguish between the men who enforced Saddam’s orders, the many who joined the party out of expediency and some who genuinely believed in its Arab nationalist ideology. The policy has created a large pool of armed and resentful unemployed who may turn into resistance fighters.
— AFP, Reuters |
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Protests
on eve of Powell’s visit
Dhaka, June 18 “Mr Bush, Mr Blair and Mr Powell are war criminals!” shouted nearly 100 members from the Communist Party of Bangladesh during their hour-long, peaceful demonstration. The police, meanwhile, stopped about 400 Leftist student protesters from marching towards the Bangladesh Foreign Ministry building in downtown Dhaka. Several other Leftist and Islamic parties are planning similar protests against tomorrow’s visit, when Mr Powell will discuss with Bangladeshi leaders bilateral relations and the US efforts to rebuild Iraq and establish peace in the Middle East. Communist Party’s leader Mujahidul Islam Selim, accused the USA of killing innocent persons in Iraq during the war. “There is blood on the hands of Mr Powell. We can’t welcome him,” Mr Selim told the Communist Demonstration.
— AP |
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Vajpayee assured SARS-free visit Beijing, June 18 “Visiting Beijing is safe now as we have effectively controlled the outbreak of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) in the city,” the General Director of the Beijing SARS treatment command centre of the Beijing Health Bureau, Han Demin, told PTI in an interview. Vajpayee, who will be visiting China from June 22 to 27, would be one of the first world leaders to visit the country in the aftermath of the SARS epidemic outbreak that has killed 799 persons world-wide.
— PTI |
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Pak not aiding infiltration, says Pervez Islamabad, June 18 In an interview to BBC Asia Today programme, General Musharraf, now on a visit to the UK, said there was no official patronage to militant outfits in Pakistan. Insisting that there was absolutely no infiltration taking place at the moment, he, however said there was nobody in the world who could guarantee to stop it completely. “What one can do is (to see that) there is no government patronage. What one can additionally do is to put army on alert and also send messages all around to sympathisers not to undertake any kind of movement across the LoC and we will take strict action,” he said. Welcoming Indian Deputy Prime Minister L.K. Advani’s statement that compromises have to be made by both India and Pakistan to resolve the Kashmir issue, he said if New Delhi took one step, Islamabad was willing to take two to normalise relations. General Musharraf said he was “very glad that he (Advani) said that he is prepared to make compromises. If India takes one step we are ready to two steps towards peace.” Hinting that there was a possibility that India and Pakistan could hold talks at a high level during this year, General Musharraf said, “I think there will be talks. Pakistan leadership certainly wants it. But it depends on the other side, whether they want to extend the the other hand also.”
— PTI |
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Pakistanis
eager for better ties Hassan Abdal/Lahore, June 18 They all admit that there has been a significant progress on this front, and, ‘Insha Allah’ (God willing), the hand of friendship extended by both India and Pakistan will lower tension and foster an atmosphere of mutual trust and understanding. Jalil-ur-Rehman, Special Correspondent of The News (International), published from Lahore, thinks the initiative was long overdue. He does not see much in the recent controversial remarks by Deputy Prime Minister L.K. Advani and Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf. “You have to ignore such rhetoric before such a major dialogue”, says Rehman. “Believe me, peoples in both countries want peace and prosperity and the Pakistani people know India has gone too far in terms of development and they too want to benefit from their experience”, concludes Rehman. “It is a fine gesture on the part of India and Pakistan to start the bus service from next month,” says Syed Faraz Abbas, Deputy Administrator, Shrines, and a member of the Evacuee Trust Property Board. Both India and Pakistan are key nations in Asia and if they mend fences, they can play a very constructive role in the sub-continent. They must realise that jointly both India and Pakistan are a force to reckon with in Asia and they must seize this opportunity and hammer out a solution for lasting peace. A recent visit to India by Pakistani MPs and now a reciprocal visit by Indian MPs is an effort towards settlement. Mr Sain Das, a teacher from Sialkot, says both India and Pakistan should “throw open” their borders. What he meant to say was that there should be more and free access to people in the two countries. With cordial relations minorities in Pakistan will enjoy a better
status. They will feel safe. Sardar Sham Singh, co-chairman of the Pakistan Sikh Gurdwara Committee, is an angry old man. He uses both India and Pakistan as cannon fodder in his monologue. The rich and the influential in both India and Pakistan enjoy all patronage while the poor on each side are denied the basic rights, Sham Singh thunders as Pak officials scurry for cover. Then, he aims his verbal attack at the Indian authorities. “Why cannot they allow jathas easy access to Pakistan? While in the past a Jatha of 2000/3000 was allowed, now they are allowing a motley batch of 150. ‘Dekho, hun ki karde han? (Let us see what they do now?), so saying, he ‘limps’ away to chastise another group. Mr Harbhajan Singh from Peshawar heaves a sigh of relief at the latest developments. A small trader from an area infamous for its lawlessness, Harbhajan Singh shows no signs of fear and anxiety. I hope they (means India and Pakistan) allow more easy access to their borders. In sharp contrast to India we are quite backward. In that sense we should take Indian help and improve our infrastructure though, he hastens to add, Pakistan too has made progress, but the progress is slow. Normalisation will give a big boost to trade. Nawaz Butt, owner of National College of Computer Education, Lahore, says he is eagerly awaiting the fruitful outcome of the talks. ‘I want to visit my birth place — Jalandhar’, says Nawaz. I have many Sikh friends and I love their frank and free attitude. |
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