W O R L D

Chandrika Govt in minority
Colombo, June 16
The Chandrika Kumaratunga government in Sri Lanka was reduced to a minority in Parliament with the Marxist Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna, a major partner in the ruling UPFA, quitting over the decision to enter into a post-tsunami aid deal with the LTTE.

Five-man Pak team to hold water
talks in Delhi
Islamabad, June 16
A five-member team will leave for New Delhi next week for talks on the Wullar Barrage dispute between the two countries, it is learnt.

Activists from the Anti-Privatisation Alliance, an alliance of various trade union bodies and political workers, hold a placard to protest against the government’s decision to privatise Pakistan Telecommunication Limited (PTCL) during a rally in Karachi on Thursday. — Reuters

School siege ends, 1 child dead
Siem Reap (Cambodia), June 16
A Canadian child and two gunmen were killed today as Cambodian troops and police stormed a school in the resort town of Siem Reap to end a six-hour siege near the Angkor Wat temples, the police said.

Iraqi judge assassinated
Baghdad, June 16
An Iraqi judge and a former regime member were assassinated today, as 13 persons were wounded in car bombs in Kirkuk and Baghdad, security sources said.

2 Sunni activists killed
Islamabad, June 16
Violent mobs, protesting the late night killing of two activists of a Sunni group, took to the streets and torched vehicles, leading to police firing in Pakistan's port city of Karachi today.

Chandrika Govt in minority 
Post-tsunami aid deal with the LTTE

Colombo, June 16
The Chandrika Kumaratunga government in Sri Lanka was reduced to a minority in Parliament with the Marxist Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP), a major partner in the ruling UPFA, quitting over the decision to enter into a post-tsunami aid deal with the LTTE.

“Our deadline to the President for the withdrawal of her decision of setting up a joint mechanism with the LTTE expired last night.

We now announce our withdrawal from the United People’s Freedom Alliance (UPFA) government. We leave the government with a sense of deep regret for having not fully completed our work,” JVP leader, Somawansa Amarasinghe told a news conference here today.

The UPFA coalition came to power following April, 2003, snap general elections defeating the then United National Front (UNF) government on an anti-peace platform. The JVP had four Cabinet ministers and four deputy ministers over the past one year. The JVP, which alone secured 39 seats under the UPFA during April, 2003, snap general election, will now function as an independent opposition party in and out of Parliament.

“We have resigned all our Cabinet portfolios and from now onwards we will function as an independent Opposition party in parliament and local councils,” Mr Amarasinghe said, adding that the JVP was now looking forward to form an alliance with other political parties, who “love the country and its security and sovereignty.”

The government does not seem to be in immediate danger with the main Opposition United National Party (UNP) with 68 seats and the third majority Tamil National Alliance (TNA) with 22 seats, already assuring that they would not get any political advantage out of the situation.

But it is not immediately known whether the UNP’s support to this minority government would last long to run its daily business for a prolonged period, especially in the backdrop of its bitter experience with President Kumaratunga who dissolved the Parliament and called for snap polls when the UNP was commanding a necessary majority in the 225-seat Parliament in April, 2003, four years in advance.

Commenting further on their stiff protest against any deal with the Tigers, Mr Amarasinghe said that their protest so far with regard to the proposed joint mechanism with the LTTE have fallen on deaf years.

He, however, said this was not going to be the first and the last coalition government between the Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) and the JVP.

“We look forward to hear from the other said (SLFP) before moving into next course of action,” he said. — UNI

Five-man Pak team to hold water talks in Delhi
Akhlaque
By arrangement with The Dawn

Islamabad, June 16
A five-member team will leave for New Delhi next week for talks on the Wullar Barrage dispute between the two countries, it is learnt.

The two-day talks are scheduled for June 24 and 25. The Secretary Water and Power, Mr Ashfaq Mehmood, will head the delegation comprising Indus Waters Commissioner Jamaat Ali Shah, Director-General (South Asia Division) at Foreign Ministry Jalil Abbas Jilani and officials of the Pakistan Indus Waters Commission.

The last round of talks on Wullar Barrage, held in Islamabad in July 2004, remained inconclusive as both sides stuck to their respective positions.

The dispute relates to India’s intention to construct the Wullar Barrage on Jhelum river in Kashmir, some 30 km north of Srinagar.

India had begun building the barrage in 1984, but stopped work three years later after Islamabad opposed the move. Although the work at the site is halted, India has not abandoned the project.

Since 1988 Pakistan and India have had 10 rounds of talks on the Wullar Barrage, also referred to as Tulbul navigation project.

India says the barrage is aimed at facilitating navigation between Baramullah and Wullar in Jammu and Kashmir.

However, Pakistan maintains that the project violates its rights as a lower riparian country granted by the 1960 bilateral water-sharing Indus Waters Treaty.

Pakistan also argues that in view of several improved communication links, serving as better alternatives to river navigation, the barrage need not be constructed.

School siege ends, 1 child dead

Siem Reap (Cambodia), June 16
A Canadian child and two gunmen were killed today as Cambodian troops and police stormed a school in the resort town of Siem Reap to end a six-hour siege near the Angkor Wat temples, the police said.

Witnesses said volleys of gunfire erupted at the school compound shortly before about 24 policemen rushed out of the gates clutching children in their arms, in a confused ending to the drama.

Six masked gunmen had stormed into the Siem Reap International School at around 7.30 am and taken a teacher and 29 pupils hostage, many of them children of expatriate hotel workers.

Italy’s Ambassador to Thailand, Ignazio Di Palma, told Sky Italia TV by telephone that a 3-year-old Italian boy was rescued by his father as military forces moved in.

“They attacked this van in which these kidnappers were with the children and the father of this child told us he jumped in during the confusion and managed to get his son out,” he said.

Somehow, during the melee, the Canadian child was killed. “We have been informed by the Cambodian Ministry of the Interior that a Canadian is dead,” a Canadian Embassy official said.

A resident, who said she had seen a number of children being held, said the hostages were American, Irish, British, Australian, Singaporean, Canadian, Korean, Japanese, Taiwanese, Swiss, Indonesian, Indian, Italian and Filipino.

The gunmen had demanded around $ 30,000 and a 12-seater van to make their escape.

Siem Reap Governor Sim Son said four of the hostage-takers had been arrested. — Reuters 

Iraqi judge assassinated

Baghdad, June 16
An Iraqi judge and a former regime member were assassinated today, as 13 persons were wounded in car bombs in Kirkuk and Baghdad, security sources said.

Judge Salem Mahmud Haj Ali was gunned down in Iraq’s third largest city Mosul along with his driver.

South of Baghdad, two gunmen dressed as policemen killed Karim Kazimi, a former senior member of Saddam Hussein’s Baath party, in Hindiyah, near the Shiite shrine city of Karbala, said a spokesman for the local provincial authority. “He had gone to a neighbouring country after the fall and had just returned,” said Ghalib al-Daami.

“He is accused of helping identify those who took part in the uprising,” he said, referring to the Shiite revolt which erupted in the wake of Iraq’s defeat in the 1991 War.

In other violence, eight Iraqis, including four soldiers, were wounded when a suicide car bomber blew himself up in the path of an army convoy near the entrance of the Northern Oil Company in Kirkuk. — AFP

2 Sunni activists killed

Islamabad, June 16
Violent mobs, protesting the late night killing of two activists of a Sunni group, took to the streets and torched vehicles, leading to police firing in Pakistan's port city of Karachi today.

Unidentified gunmen, riding a motor cycle, shot dead two activists of the 'Sunni Tehrik' and injured another on M.A. Jinnah Road.

Protesters torched two buses and a coach and there were reports of firing in some parts. Shopkeepers were forced to put shutters in some areas. — PTI