Monday, August 3, 1998
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W O R L D | Monday, August 3, 1998 |
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US plan to try |
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Leghari warns Sharif |
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US plan to try Saddam WASHINGTON, Aug 2 (Reuters) — The Clinton administration has prepared a detailed, 27-page plan to rebuild Iraq’s political opposition and prepare a case for possible war crime indictment of Iraqi leaders, the Washington Post reported today. The newspaper said the plan called for spending $ 5 million, which Congress had already made available to train opposition groups in organising and recruitment techniques and to fund a centre for exile activities in London. The funds would also be used to translate and index millions of captured Iraqi documents for possible use as evidence in war crimes prosecution, according to the report. The newspaper said senior officials had hinted that a parallel and covert effort to subvert the regime of Saddam Hussein in Baghdad was under development. While they did not expect their plan to result in an early end to Saddam’s regime, they wanted to support and unify the Iraqi opposition to enable an orderly transition to democracy, should Saddam’s regime fall unexpectedly. A US State Department official held talks with rival Kurdish leaders in northern Iraq last month in an effort to strengthen a fledgling peace process between their factions in northern Iraq. An additional $ 5 million has been used to establish an anti-Saddam “radio free Iraq,” run by Radio Free Europe or Radio Liberty situated in Prague. To help implement the programme, the administration has invited the leaders of rival Kurdish factions in northern Iraq — Masud Barzani of the Kurdish Democratic Party and Lalal Talabani of the Popular Union of Kurdistan — to visit Washington late this year. Both have been feuding with each other. In a 1996 conflict that led to the destruction of the CIA-backed opposition movement inside Iraq, Barzani allied with Saddam Hussein and Talabani with Iran. The USA is allegedly prepared to work with them so long as they are prepared to oppose Saddam Hussein. Other reports said that the USA is also trying to organise Shias in southern Iraq despite their links to Iran. Shias are protected by a no-fly zone by the USA and its allies in the south and the Kurds in the north, and now two staff members of the House International Relations Committee headed by Republican Congressman Benjamin Gilman have urged the creation of a “no-drive zone” in northern Iraq keeping out the Iraqi Government and base the anti-Saddam radio there instead of in Iraq. Shias are in a majority in Iraq but power is in the hands of Sunnis. The Kurds want their own independent state consisting of areas in Turkey, Iraq and Iran and possibly in Syria as well. The Clinton administration
has a list of 73 Iraqi Opposition groups with which it
intends to work. A Republican staff member, who analysed
the administration plan called it “fatally
flawed” because some of them have been penetrated by
Saddam Hussein while some others consist of one person
each and several on the administration list as opposition
groups are not based in Iraq. |
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Chandrika ready for mediation in
talks COLOMBO, Aug 2 (PTI) — In a significant announcement, Sri Lankan President Chandrika Kumaratunga has expressed willingness to accept a third party facilitator to negotiate with the LTTE and said the rebel chief Prabhakaran was fast losing support among his cadres even as ‘dozens’ of guerrillas began surrendering to the army. She said she was ready to talk to the LTTE tomorrow, provided the rebel organisation agreed to give up the demand for a separate ‘eelam’ (state). She said she was willing to accept the third party facilitation in this regard. The Sri Lankan leader expressed satisfaction over the just-concluded SAARC summit here. Mrs Kumaratunga, who is also the new SAARC Chairperson, ruled out any mediatory role for the seven-nation group to resolve bilateral differences between member-states. When asked whether SAARC would take up the role of a mediator and facilitator to resolve political differences between member-states, she said, “I think in the years to come that will happen because all associations will begin with regional cooperation and finally end up in political understanding, mutual trust and confidence.” Mrs Kumaratunga said SAARC was at present confined to building regional cooperation but added that in future it could attempt to build “political understanding, mutual trust and confidence.” “But the timing should be decided by all leaders... Until then I do not think artificial pushing will help... until the basic frictions are ameliorated.” While admitting that her constitutional reforms package containing devolution proposals for minority Tamils got stuck in Parliament due to reluctance of the opposition UNP to provide a two-third majority, she said her government had finally found ‘devious means’ to get the constitutional backing without violating the law. “So now we have to
find devious means of getting round strict constitutional
provisions without being illegal or undemocratic. We have
found these methods. But then when you have to do that
kind of thing it requires people several times and
several elections. We have to do so many other legal
things, which take little time and we have to do it for
the best movement.” |
Myanmar renews attack on Suu Kyi YANGON, Aug 2 (Reuters) — Khin Nyunt, a powerful member of Myanmar’s ruling junta, has delivered a strong attack on opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi, accusing her of colluding with foreign embassies to incite unrest, state-run newspapers said today. The newspapers quoted Khin Nyunt, secretary of the ruling State Peace and Development Council (SPDC), as telling a teachers’ seminar yesterday that Suu Kyi’s recent car sit-in protest was a well orchestrated opposition attempt to destabilise the political situation in Myanmar. “The so-called NLD (National League for Democracy) leader, who is always criticising and opposing the government, attempted to go to some places in the delta and midland to incite riot and cause unrest ...” Khin Nyunt said. Suu Kyi is reportedly recuperating from dehydration after the six-day protest in suburban Yangon that she was forced to end on Wednesday. The Nobel Peace Laureate was stopped at a bridge near a village on July 24 and prevented from going to the western township of Pathein to meet supporters. She was told to return to Yangon, but she refused and began a sit-in protest instead. Security personnel had forcibly removed Suu Kyi from her car on July 29 and taken back to her home. Khin Nyunt dismissed the
NLD’s charge that Suu Kyi had been abducted and that
this was a criminal act. |
Leghari warns Sharif ISLAMABAD, Aug 2 (UNI) — Former President Farooq Ahmed Leghari has warned Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif to stop ruling Pakistan from Lahore (capital of Punjab) or the country would go the Afghanistan way. At a public meeting in Sawabi, he said the whole country was being ruled by a trinity of the father and his two sons. The reference was to Mr Sharif's father known as "Abba Mian" and brother Shahbaz Sharif who rules Punjab as the Chief Minister. "Abba Mian" is said to be the most powerful extra-constitutional authority in Pakistan today. Mr Leghari's position as the President of the country is taken by a person who is said to be the nominee of "Abba Mian". "Mr Sharif is sacrificing everything on Lahore. This federation will prove disastrous for Pakistan, where Afghanistan-like situation will arise," said Mr Leghari, who heads a political party of his own called "Millat Party". He said Mr Sharif had established Lahore's dominance all over Pakistan. "But this would not do. I have come out in the field to fight corruption and looting in the country." Mr Farooq's remarks about the dominance of Lahore have come at a time when Opposition forces in Sindh, Baluchistan and North-West Frontier Province (NWFP) are expressing their rejection of the census results held early this year and the Prime Minister's unilateral announcement to go ahead with the construction of the controversial Kalabagh Dam. The census results and the Kalabagh Dam announcement have aggravated anti-Punjab sentiments in smaller provinces. The census was carried out by the Army, but, its results were announced by Finance Minister Sartaj Aziz. In Sindh, the Pakistan People's Party has demanded that the results should be declared by the army itself. Sindh, Baluchistan and
North-West Frontier Province say their population has
been shown less than what it really is because the
government does not want to increase their representation
in the National Assembly and their share in the divisible
pool. But on the other hand, Punjab's population is shown
almost as static to keep its present representation in
the National Assembly and share in the divisible pool. |
20 die in S. Korea flash floods SEOUL, Aug 2 (AFP) — The South Korean military battled today to find survivors of flashfloods which killed 20 persons and left 71 missing, officials said. Flashfloods swept away some 60 campers and vacationers on and around Mount Chiri in the south of the country on Friday and early Saturday, the Central Disaster Agency (CDA) said. “So far, 20 bodies have been retrieved, but the death toll may swell as dozens of others remained unaccounted for,” a CDA official said. Thousands of soldiers, the police and government officials were on alert in southern provinces as weathermen warned of more heavy rains. There was about 220
millimetres (8.7 inches) of rainfall, the CDA said. It
has estimated the cost of damage at $ 25.5 million. |
Accounts of Nazi thefts missing GERMAN Jews have demanded an official investigation into the disappearance of documents detailing how much gold the Nazis stole from Holocaust victims. A joint report by the Bundesbank and the state archive in Koblenz revealed that crucial files may have been destroyed during the seventies, making it impossible to determine exactly how much the Nazis stole and from whom. Michel Friedman, a member of the board of the Central Council of Jews in Germany, described the Koblenz archive as “a Bermuda Triangle” and insisted that the official who made the decision about the files should be traced. Among the missing documents are the so-called “Melmer files”, named after Bruno Melmer, an SS officer who kept a register of gold stolen from concentration camp inmates. Holocaust victims entering the death camps were forced to hand over jewellery and other valuables. In some cases, gold fillings were removed from their teeth. Mr Friedman rejected the
suggestion that archivists may have destroyed the files
20 years ago because they were unaware of their
significance, and criticised the relaxed official
approach to their disappearance. Research in US archives
has revealed that the Nazis kept a careful record of
their plunder. The 26 missing folders from the Melmer
files could have formed the basis of claims from
Holocaust victims for restitution. Allied authorities
confiscated the files from the Reichsbank after Second
World War but gave them to the German central bank in
1948. The report insists there is no evidence that the
files were destroyed because they were “documents of
an uncomfortable memory”. — The
Guardian, London |
When ‘Dr Death’ saved Mandela’s life JOHANNESBURG, Aug 2 (PTI) An Apartheid era chemical warfare expert has claimed he saved President Nelson Mandela’s life in the mid-80s from a group of African National Congress (ANC) activists who wanted to assassinate their leader, fearing that he would be too sympathetic to the Whites. Dr Wouter Basson, also known as “Dr Death”, told the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) Friday that he had personally been instructed by the White-majority government to draw up a plan to protect Mr Mandela, who was then in jail, from all possible threats. “I do not have a copy of the plan .... It should still be in the military archives,” said Dr Basson, the last of the Apartheid agents to give evidence before the TRC. He initially tried to evade deposition but was forced to testify after being threatened with prosecution. He said he had drawn up two plans to protect Mr Mandela. One plan — in theory — was aimed to kill Mr Mandela and other to protect him at all costs. “I then took the two plans and integrated them into one plan. The fact that Mr Mandela is alive today can be ascribed to the fact that the political leaders of the time gave instructions that he was to be protected,” he added. The TRC wound up in Cape Town on Friday night after completing its task of gathering evidence on Apartheid era crimes. According to the plot, germs produced by Dr Basson, project leader of the Apartheid government’s Chemical and Biological Weapons (CBW) programme, were to be injected or fed to Mr Mandela so that his mental faculties would be in a relatively weak position after he was released. Mr Mandela’s medication would have been laced with a poison, such as the heavy metal thallium, while he was still in jail, Dr Basson said. Questioned as to whether or not the plan to harm Mr Mandela was to inject him with TB bacteria, Dr Basson said, “It’s not a yes or no question”. Mr Mandela was treated for TB when in jail. TRC’s Haniff Vally
was questioning Dr Basson about the state security
council’s plot to release Mr Mandela “in a
relatively weak physical condition so that he cannot act
as leader for long”. |
Clinton for summit with Obuchi TOKYO, Aug 2 (AP) — US President Bill Clinton called on Japan’s new Prime Minister Keizo Obuchi and proposed a summit meeting in late September, a Foreign Ministry official said.Mr Clinton told Mr Obuchi yesterday that he hoped to talk about economic conditions in Japan and other Asian countries at the meeting, according to a ministry official who spoke on condition of anonymity. Mr Clinton proposed the
summit be held on September 21 when he would be in New
York for a United Nations meeting.During the 12-minute
phone conversation between Tokyo and New York, where Mr
Clinton was visiting, Mr Obuchi said Japan’s
economic recovery was the primary task of his Cabinet,
according to the official. |
Canadian women to get $ 2 m in back wages TORONTO, Aug 2 (PTI) — Thousands of Canadian women have hailed a historic verdict of the Canadian Human Rights Tribunal directing the federal government to pay more than $ 2 million in back wages to nearly two lakh women civil servants following complaints that female employees earned less than their male counterparts in comparable jobs. “This is a landmark decision and it is a historic victory for working women in Canada,” said Ms Daryl Bean, president of the Public Service Alliance (PSA) of Canada, which has fought the case for 14 years.The tribunal on Friday upheld a complaint by the PSA that the federal government was discriminating against civil servants in six wage categories dominated by women. The ruling would affect
nearly 200,000 current and former federal civil servants,
including secretaries, clerks, data processors, hospital
workers, librarians and educational assistants, in lowest
paid categories in civil services in Canada. |
| Global monitor Lightning kills 8 elephants Newspaper banned Army-rebel clashes Rap replaces
reggae Twins share heart Dam bursts Cloned calves die Mandela apologises 65 face death term |
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