Rome, April 11
American victims of sexual abuse by priests said on Sunday that the Vatican was “rubbing salt into our wounds’’ by honouring Cardinal Bernard Law, who was designated to celebrate a special Mass of mourning for Pope John Paul II on Monday.

Leaders of a US victims’ group flew from Chicago to Rome on Sunday to protest the high-profile role given to Law, who was forced to resign as Archbishop of Boston in December 2002 after court records showed he had knowingly transferred sexual abusers from parish to parish without informing civil authorities or the public.

“It feels like Cardinal Law is exploiting the Pope’s death for his own self-aggrandizing rehabilitation,” said David Clohessy, executive director of the 5,000-member Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests. “It is just rubbing salt into our wounds and the wounds of caring Catholics.’’

Members of the victims’ group plan to hand out leaflets explaining why Law is a controversial figure in the United States. Clohessy said they would not interrupt the Mass.

Cardinals from around the world are meeting daily in the run-up to electing a successor to John Paul.

The vote will take place under strict secrecy in a conclave in the Sistine Chapel that is scheduled to begin April 18. Although 117 cardinals under the age of 80 are eligible to vote, two are ill, bringing the expected number of electors to 115.

On Saturday, the cardinals decided at the behest of Joseph Ratzinger of Germany, the dean of the College of Cardinals, to stop talking to the media nine days before the conclave.

With the cardinals muzzled, the public relations field has been left to the sex abuse victims, who are outraged that Law is celebrating the high-profile Mass and giving one of nine eulogies that traditionally take place between the Pope’s funeral and the conclave. Law is the only American named to give a eulogy.

In the view of some Vatican officials the scandal was exaggerated.

Cardinal Oscar Rodriguez Maradiaga of Honduras, who is widely mentioned as a candidate for pope, said in 2002 that the US media’s treatment of the issue amounted to persecution of the church and reminded him “of the times of Diocletian and Nero and more recently, Stalin and Hitler.’’

Cardinal Camillo Ruini, the late Pope’s deputy as Bishop of Rome, spoke at a Sunday memorial Mass for John Paul and tried to reduce speculation about who would be elected.

“Let’s not be uselessly and all too humanly curious to know who he is ahead of time,’’ Ruini said at St Peter’s Basilica.

Vatican watchers have consistently mentioned Ruini, 74, as a candidate to succeed John Paul.

—By arrangement with the Los Angeles Times-Washington Post

Islamabad, April 11
Pakistan today hoped the World Bank would soon appoint a neutral expert for settlement of the Baglihar dam issue.

‘’The process is more or less complete on Pakistan’s request for appointment of the neutral expert,’’ Foreign Ministry spokesman Jalil Abbas Jilani told at a press briefing here this afternoon.

Mr Jilani had on last Monday linked resumption of bilateral talks on the Baglihar hydropower project with an immediate halt to the ongoing construction of the dam by India.

‘’We can go for bilateral track provided work on the project is stopped and discussions held under the Indus Water Treaty of 1960,’’ he told reporters in Islamabad.

On January 18 this year, Pakistan had approached the World Bank after collapse of the last round of talks between the water officials in New Delhi on January 5-6 for the appointment of a neutral expert for the settlement of the dispute on Baglihar, which Pakistani officials claim is being constructed by India on Neelam River in the Jammu and Kashmir region in violation of the treaty.

Promising early appointment of a neutral expert, the World Bank President James W. Wolfensohn had told reporters in Islamabad last February that the bank is not a guarantor to the substances of the treaty but its decision will be binding on the two parties.

The spokesman denied reports that the bank had referred the case back to Pakistan with a suggestion that the issue be resolved bilaterally.

‘’There is nothing of the sort, the bank is taking necessary action and the process is almost complete,’’ he said, hoping the bank will soon appoint the expert.

Meanwhile, Pakistan today welcomed External Affairs Minister K. Natwar Singh’s statement expressing India’s willingness to discuss all options for the solution to Kashmir issue.

‘’We welcome Foreign Minister Natwar Singh’s statement, which is in line with the understanding reached between Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and President General Pervez Musharraf in New York last September,’’ Foreign office spokesman Jalil Abbas Jilani said at a press briefing here this afternoon.

External Affairs Minister K. Natwar Singh has said India was open to all options that Pakistan will offer, except redrawing of map and having a second partition while talking to the BBC World.

Regarding President Musharraf’s visit to India on April 16-18, Mr Jilani said the agenda is still being worked out. However, he said Kashmir issue would come up for discussion during the visit. — UNI

Lahore, April 10
The Punjab government is reported to have told the provincial leadership of the PPP that rallies to welcome Asif Zardari on April 16 will not be allowed.

President of the PPP, Punjab, Qasim Zia said on Sunday that he had received a phone call from a police official telling him that the government would not allow any rally to receive Mr Zardari.

However, Mr Zia said, his party was busy organizing a ‘peaceful reception’ for Mr Zardari.

“Let me make it clear that anybody who will try to create hurdles will be responsible for any consequences.”

The PPP leader said the party had planned a reception for Mr Zardari, who would be taken to the shrine of Hazrat Data Ganj Bakhsh (RA) in a convoy.

“It is a political process. It is our right and nobody can stop us from doing it.”

However, a Punjab government official claimed that no decision to ban rallies had so far been announced officially.

“I myself was in a meeting today presided over by Chief Minister Pervaiz Elahi. There was no such decision,” he claimed. But a senior Punjab police official confirmed the decision, saying the PPP leadership had been informed about it.

Meanwhile, party sources said here on Sunday that the party had formulated a new plan about Asif Ali Zardari’s reception on April 16, adds the PPI.

In case Punjab did not allow workers to enter the city on that day or disagreed with the party to adopt route already declared, then alternative steps would be taken, sources added.

Islamabad, April 11
Pakistan will send a special envoy to Iraq to coordinate efforts for the release of an embassy staffer, whose kidnap appeared to be for ransom, a senior official said here today.

It was decided at a special meeting chaired by Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz to send a special envoy to Baghdad to get abducted staffer Malik Muhamad Javed released, Pakistan Foreign Office spokesman Jalil Abbas Jilani told mediapersons.

Mr Javed, who went missing after he went to pray at a local mosque in Western Baghdad on Saturday, was safe and sound and was in constant touch with the Charge de Affairs of the embassy, Mr Jilani said.

“The group which claimed to have abducted him is an unknown group. Nobody was aware of its existence. We have not heard of this group. The Iraqi authorities have not heard either. Our best judgement is that it is most probably a case of abduction for ransom,” he said, but refused to elaborate. — PTI