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Painful memories of
D-Day at Normandy
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UN report indicts coalition forces on prisoners’
abuse USA, UK update resolution on Iraq
Pak willing to cut nuclear arms if India follows |
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Bangla bandh
hits life
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Painful memories of D-Day at Normandy La Cambe, (France) June 5 “At the time, I thought there was some sense to all this. I still believed that after the war,” said 72-year-old Ingeborg Baer. “Today I know they died for nothing.” She was paying tribute to her uncle, whose death after that of another relative left her grandmother heart-broken. Baer was among a group of Germans who travelled to northwestern France for the 60th anniversary of the D-Day landings tomorrow, in which tens of thousands of Allied troops invaded Nazi-occupied France on June 6, 1944. This year for the first time a German leader will stand side-by-side with other world leaders to pay tribute to those who took part in the Normandy campaign which led to the liberation of Europe from the forces of Adolf Hitler. Here in the biggest German military cemetery under towering old trees lie 21,300 German soldiers who died in the Allied campaign. Hundreds of bouquets show that they have not been forgotten. Some graves bear individual names, other simply mark that they are the last resting place of “Five German soldiers.” Meanwhile, President Vladimir Putin today paid tributes to the heroism of Allied soldiers who took part in the Normandy landings, becoming the first Russian leader to acknowledge the decisiveness of D-Day in ending a war that cost millions of Soviet lives. Up until now, historians from the former Soviet Union had downplayed the significance of the D-Day invasions in June, 1944, emphasising the battles of Stalingrad and Kursk on the eastern front as the events that destroyed the Nazis. But in an open letter addressed to “dear friends” and published in the Ouest France newspaper today, Mr Putin formally recognised the importance of the landings in helping the Western and Soviet allies to victory in 1945. “On these days of the sixtieth anniversary of the landings of Allied troops in Normandy, I express, on behalf of the entire Russian people, my sincere recognition for your historic achievement,” said Mr Putin. The former KGB agent is due in northern France this weekend at ceremonies marking the anniversary of the landings, providing a potent symbol of the end of the ‘Cold War’ that broke out between Western powers and their former Soviet ally after 1945.
— AFP |
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UN report indicts coalition forces on prisoners’ abuse Geneva, June 5 The report by the UN’s acting High Commissioner for Human Rights, Mr Bertrand Ramcharan, said coalition forces in Iraq and the Iraqi interim government must urgently take steps to strengthen protection of human rights in the country. “It is crucial that protection arrangements be strengthened as a matter of the utmost urgency. This concerns oversight of the military forces and the building up of the protection institutions of the new Iraq,” the report said. It recommended 14 steps, including the immediate appointment of an international ombudsman or commissioner overseeing human rights in Iraq and regular inspections of all detention centres. But the UN mission which compiled the report in recent weeks also underlined that there was no intention on the part of coalition governments — which include the USA and Britain — to violate the rights of “ordinary Iraqis”. “From the point of view of human rights, there have been gains during the period since Coalition Forces took control of the country,” it said. Those included greater freedoms for Iraqis, an internal debate on the country’s future government and institutions and more participation of women in public life. The human rights report credited the US-led coalition with ending years of violations by Saddam Hussein’s regime. “The fall of Saddam Hussein removed a government that preyed on the Iraqi people and committed shocking, systematic and criminal violations of human rights,” the report said. “After the occupation of Iraq by coalition forces there have, sadly, been some violations of human rights, committed by some coalition soldiers,” it said. Iraq’s interim government, set to take over sovereignty next month from the Coalition Provisional Authority currently running the country, must ensure Iraqis do not face abuses in the future, it said. “The serious violations of human rights and humanitarian law that have taken place must not be allowed to
recur. Preventive and protection systems must be put in place.” The 53-nation U.N. Human Rights Commission scrutinised Iraq for years when Saddam was in power, but the issue has been dropped since his ouster.
— AFP |
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USA, UK update resolution on Iraq United Nations, June 5 The new draft came a day after Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari gave strong backing for the measure but called for some changes, saying Iraq also wanted the council to approve the resolution soon. The latest version, spells out that the mandate of US-led troops who will remain in Iraq after the handover would expire at the end of 2005, when a new constitutionally elected government is due to take office. Several council members had insisted on fixing a date, even though Mr Zebari stressed that Iraq would need the presence of those forces for “some time to come” to stave off chaos and civil war. The draft also indicates that the interim government, which was unveiled on Tuesday and will take over from the US occupation on June 30, would have the sovereign power to ask those forces to leave the country. — AFP |
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Pak willing to cut nuclear arms if India follows Islamabad, June 5 ‘’We don’t have any worldwide military ambitions. We maintain a force for deterrence ... If there is a discussion or a deliberation with India on mutual reduction, we have been saying let’s make South Asia a nuclear-free zone,’’ the Daily Times today quoted him saying in an interview on Al-Arabiya channel last night. “If mutually there is an agreement of reduction of nuclear assets, Pakistan would be willing.” The President Musharraf said, India’s proposal to hold discussions between India, Pakistan and China to fashion out a common nuclear doctrine would require further examination. Saying talks with senior Indian leaders were in progress, President Musharraf maintained that they believed in talks and wanted to resolve the Kashmir issue through dialogue. He praised the role of the Indian Prime Minister, Dr Manmohan Singh and the Congress President, Ms Sonia Gandhi, terming their attitude ‘most cooperative.’ Ruling out Israel being a threat to Pakistan, he however said Indian-Israeli military cooperation was a “matter of concern,” to them.
— UNI |
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Bangla bandh
hits life Dhaka, June 5 Business establishments and schools were closed in Dhaka and highways deserted as the shutdown also disrupted factories and ports in the southern commercial city of Chittagong. The strike, which was enforced today followed overnight street violence in Dhaka in which nine persons were killed and 20 others critically wounded.
— DPA |
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