W O R L D

Indians ‘bastards’, Indira ‘old witch’!
Washington, June 29
In the months leading to the India-Pakistan war of December 1971, former US Secretary of State Henry Kissinger called Indians “devious” and “bastards” even as he advised President Richard Nixon to do a balancing act between India and Pakistan.

India seeks UNSC seat for developing countries
New York, June 29
India today demanded a permanent seat for developing countries as a group in the UN Security Council, saying such a step could “effectively help realise the political and economic agenda of the developing world.”

Mukhtaran Mai free to move: Musharraf
Islamabad, June 29
With the Mukhtaran Mai gang rape case drawing worldwide attention, Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf, who had banned the victim from travelling abroad, said she was now free to go wherever she wanted.

Mural painting found at Bamiyan
Bamiyan (Afghanistan), June 29
A Japanese research team has discovered part of a mural painting in the ruins of the colossal stone Buddha statues in Bamiyan, central Afghanistan, that were destroyed by the country's former Taliban rulers.

A recent photograph of the sun, viewed through a telescope at the Vatican Observatory in Castelgandolfo, south of Rome. In the sleepy lakeside village of Castelgandolfo, the Vatican is helping to train tomorrow's astronomers, regardless of their religious beliefs. For the past 20 years, the Vatican Observatory, one of the world's oldest astronomical institutes, has selected young, promising scholars for courses at the papal summer palace. — Reuters

A sand carver at work during the Sand Sculptures Festival in Blankenberge in northern Belgium on Wednesday. A team of 50 carvers from around the world spent five weeks building a giant sculpture to mark Belgium's 175th anniversary. Twentyfour tonnes of sand were needed to complete the sculpture. — Reuters

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Indians ‘bastards’, Indira ‘old witch’!

Washington, June 29
In the months leading to the India-Pakistan war of December 1971, former US Secretary of State Henry Kissinger called Indians “devious” and “bastards” even as he advised President Richard Nixon to do a balancing act between India and Pakistan.

He also sarcastically suggested that the Indians could do with a “mass famine” to prevent them from going to war with Pakistan.

In an exchange between the two that took place on the morning of May 26, 1971, Kissinger — who was then presidential assistant for National Security Affairs — is quoted as telling Nixon that he should reply to the letter he had received from then the Prime Minister, Indira Gandhi, in which she had warned that New Delhi may have to resort to military action if the international community failed to restrain Islamabad from its crackdown in East Pakistan that had resulted in a flood of refugees into India.

The exchange is part of the Foreign Relations of the United States, 1969-1976, Volume E-7, Documents on South Asia, 1969-1972, released by the State Department yesterday.

Here is the transcript from the released document:

Kissinger: Indira Gandhi has written you a letter.

Nixon: I know about Kissinger: Well, no. We should answer it. Let me say one other thing.

Nixon: [unclear]

Kissinger: Well you can tell her - you can use it to bring pressure on her not to take military action. Also, I talked to the Pakistan Ambassador. He said that (then Pakistani president) Yahya (Khan) might appreciate a letter, which would give him an excuse to answer all the things by saying, listing all the things he’s doing because he can’t get any publicity here.

Nixon: No.

Kissinger: And conversely, Indira Gandhi, I checked with the Indian Ambassador, they’re getting so devious now.

Nixon: She wants.

Kissinger: She would like to be able to say that one result of her letter was-

Nixon: Yeah.

Kissinger: -that you’ve written to Yahya. So everybody’s happy. The Pakistanis.

Nixon: But we don’t say anything against Yahya?

Kissinger: No, no. You just say you hope the refugees will soon be able to go back to East Pakistan. He will then reply to you that’s exactly what he wants. I’ve got it all arranged.

Nixon: Good. Go ahead.

Kissinger: - Embassy. Then you can take credit. You can tell the Indians to pipe down.

Nixon: Yeah.

Kissinger: And we’ll keep Yahya happy.

Nixon: The Indians need, what they need really is a. Kissinger: They’re such bastards.

Nixon: A mass famine. But they aren’t going to get that. We’re going to feed them a new kind of wheat. But if they’re not going to have a famine the last thing they need is another war. Let the goddamn Indians fight a war [unclear].

Kissinger: They are the most aggressive goddamn people around there.

Nixon: The Indians?

Kissinger: Yeah.

Nixon: Sure.

President Nixon also referred privately to then Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi as an “old witch” according to transcripts of Oval Office tapes and newly declassified documents.

Nixon and Kissinger met in the Oval Office on the morning of November 5, 1971, to discuss Nixon’s conversation with Gandhi the day before. “We really slobbered over the old witch,” Nixon told Kissinger, according to a transcript of their conversation.

Nixon’s remark came as the two men speculated about Gandhi’s motives during the White House meeting and discussed India’s intentions in the looming conflict with Pakistan.

“They are starting a war there.” Kissinger also told his boss that he had bested Gandhi in their meeting. “... we got what we wanted too,” Kissinger said. “She will not be able to go home and say that the United States didn’t give her a warm reception and therefore in despair she’s got to go to war.” Other documents chart U.S. contacts with China, as facilitated by Pakistan, and U.S. concern that India was developing nuclear technology. The archive covers U.S. policy in South Asia in 1971 and 1972. — IANS, AP

India seeks UNSC seat for developing countries

New York, June 29
India today demanded a permanent seat for developing countries as a group in the UN Security Council, saying such a step could “effectively help realise the political and economic agenda of the developing world.”

“As in the case of international trade, financial and monetary organisations, so also in the currently strongest body of the United Nations, it is only the permanent membership of developing countries as a group in solidarity, which can contribute effectively to realising the political and economic goals of these nations,” Minister of State for External Affairs E Ahamed said at a high-level dialogue at the UN General Assembly on finance for development.

The permanent membership of the developing countries in the strongest body of the UN would help increase policy space and participation for all and the change in the co-relation of forces would strengthen the General Assembly and the Economic and Social Council. Such a change could help in re-establishing the pivotal role of the UN in which the world body would set the agenda and other institutions would follow.

Welcoming the debt write-off package for highly indebted poor countries of Africa, Mr Ahamed strongly pleaded with western countries to provide these nations “better trade terms, greater access to markets and investment inflows” to help them overcome fiscal strains.

He said the debt payments and worsening terms of trade could neutralise all efficiency gains from good governance and sound macro economic managements and reduce resources available for education and public health. “That is why it is important that debt write off have to be accompanied by better terms of trade and market access.” — UNI

Mukhtaran Mai free to move: Musharraf

Islamabad, June 29
With the Mukhtaran Mai gang rape case drawing worldwide attention, Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf, who had banned the victim from travelling abroad, said she was now free to go wherever she wanted.

“Let me make it absolutely clear that Mukhtaran Mai is free to go wherever she pleases, meet whomever she wants and say whatever she pleases. I have full faith in her and in her patriotism,” Musharraf, said in a message on his website.

Mai was allegedly ordered to be raped in 2002 by a council of elders for her brother’s alleged affair with a woman from a higher caste family. The Supreme Court yesterday ordered that 13 men who allegedly raped the 33-year-old Mai be re-arrested.

Musharraf said he took the decision to stop her from going to the US in the national interest. “... because I truly believed that the invitation would have tarnished Pakistan’s international image rather than help improve the lot of women folk in Pakistan or elsewhere in the world,” he said. — PTI

Mural painting found at Bamiyan

Bamiyan (Afghanistan), June 29
A Japanese research team has discovered part of a mural painting in the ruins of the colossal stone Buddha statues in Bamiyan, central Afghanistan, that were destroyed by the country's former Taliban rulers.

The mural was found in a small cave carved into a cliff on the eastern side of the statues, according to team leader Kazuya Yamauchi, chief researcher of the National Research Institute for Cultural Properties of Tokyo.

The painting, made on the dome-shaped roof of the cave measuring 2.5 metres across, appears to be of the torso of Buddha, Yamauchi said.

The cave is likely to have fallen in on itself, and as a result the overall shape of the painting is obscured by the rocks that have accumulated inside.

Dye characteristics date the mural to the sixth or seventh century, the golden age of Buddhist culture at Bamiyan, according to Maeda, professor emeritus of Asian history. — KYODO

‘Diana was forced to prove Harry’s paternity’

London, June 29
Prince Harry, second son of Princess Diana, was made to undergo a DNA test to disprove rumours that James Hewitt, an Army officer with whom she had an affair, was his father, a media report claimed today.

In a fresh blow to the scandle-ridden British Royal family, British tabloid ‘The Sun’ reported that Princess Diana was given the order by senior Royals after she confessed on TV to having an affair with Hewitt.

The DNA test confirmed that Prince Charles is Harry’s father.

In her new book ‘Diana: The Last Word’, the Princess’ long-time friend Simone Simmons said she was shown a letter demanding the blood test.

Forty-nine-year-old Simone said Diana was upset over the whispers about parentage of his younger son, who had red hair like Hewitt, and for making his son undergo the test.

But she said “At least having the test put paid to all the rumours.”

According to the report, Prince Philip hit the roof when he heard rumours that Hewitt was “the father” of Prince Harry. But the young Prince, aged 11 at the time, was never told the reason for the test. His brother William was also tested, with the same result.

“Energy healer” Simone said Diana showed her a typed letter demanding the tests. It arrived following her Panorama admission about former Army officer Hewitt to Martin Bashir in November 1995. She would not confirm that Prince Philip was the author of the letter.

Simone, who shared hours of heart-to-heart conversations with Diana and was entrusted with her letters, recalled that whispers about Prince Harry’s parentage were circulating nationwide at that time. — PTI