Saturday, August 8, 1998
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W O R L D | Saturday, August 8, 1998 |
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Nawaz Sharif placates USA |
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 Former White House intern Monica Lewinsky arrives at the federal courthouse in Washington, on Thursday. Lewinsky is expected to make her first appearance before the grand jury that's looking into allegations of a sexual relationship between herself and President Clinton. AP/PTI Lewinsky comes clean before jury Admits to having sex with Clinton WASHINGTON, Aug 7 — Just hours after Monica Lewinsky’s secret testimony ended, US Media reported that she confessed to prosecutors in the White House intern scandal that she had an affair with President Bill Clinton. |
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3 lakh along Yangtze
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Nawaz Sharif placates USA THE change of guard in Islamabad’s Foreign Office has not come as a surprise to diplomatic observers in New Delhi. The shifting of Mr Gohar Ayub Khan from the post of Foreign Minister had been expected way back in April. However the May 11 Pokhran blasts gave an extended lease to him on the job. Son of the former Pakistani dictator, Field Marshal Ayub Khan, Mr Gohar Ayub is a hawk in the Pakistani establishment. He has close liaison with both the Pakistan army and the international cloak-and-dagger outfit, ISI. It was not Mr Gohar Ayub’s hawkishness towards India but his attitude towards Afghanistan which made him stand out like a sore thumb in the Nawaz Sharif government which has been trying to placate the US establishment over a period of time. With substantial investments by American multinationals in Central Asia, peace in Afghanistan has become a priority item on Washington’s agenda. It would like the laying of the gas pipeline from Central Asia passing through Afghanistan to Peshawar and beyond to be completed peacefully. At the last round of talks arranged by the Americans between the conflicting groups in Afghanistan held in Peshawar earlier this year, the Pakistani army and the ISI were not keen to let down the Mujahideen, who control the southern areas of Afghanistan. Mr Gohar Ayub’s attitude during these talks had irked the US envoy, Mr Richardson. Mr Richardson’s efforts to bring together the four ethnic groups in Afghanistan — the Hazaras, the Tajiks, the Uzbeks (who control the northern areas) and the Mujahideen (mostly Pushto-speaking Pathans) — had come to nought due to the attitude of the hawks in the Pakistani establishment. Since then heat had been turned on by the Americans. Pakistan responded in the interregnum by not fielding Mr Gohar Ayub in the talks with the Americans in the post-Pokhran and post-Chagai phase. Just as India relied on the diplomatic skills of Deputy Chairman of Planning Commission, Mr Jaswant Singh, in the talks at Washington and thereafter, Pakistan was represented by former Foreign Minister, Sahibzada Yakub Khan. The new Foreign Minister, Mr Sartaj Aziz, who steps into Mr Gohar Ayub’s shoes, is a former civil servant who spent most of his career in Islamabad serving in the Planning Commission between 1961 and 1971. Starting his international career as the Director of Commodities and Trade Division of the Food and Agriculture Organisation in 1971, Mr Sartaj Aziz served in important UN assignments relating to the economy and food management. He started his political career in 1984 and served as Food and Finance Ministers in previous governments. The induction of an economist at the Foreign Office may indicate that Mr Nawaz Sharif is recognising the growing importance of economic relations in diplomacy and the intertwining of the economic relations and foreign policy. Observers here attribute the ire of Americans as the major cause for Mr Gohar Ayub’s shifting while displaying cautious optimism about the future of Indo-Pak talks. Being a hawk, Mr Gohar Ayub had been averse to any progress being made in the bilateral plain. During the recent SAARC summit in Colombo when Mr Nawaz Sharif addressed the press after meeting Mr Atal Behari Vajpayee, the smirk on Mr Gohar Ayub’s face was all too visible when Mr Sharif harped on Kashmir as the “core issue”. During the bilateral talks between the two Prime Ministers on July 29, eyewitnesses say that when Mr Sharif agreed to have a one-to-one meeting with Mr Vajpayee, minus the aides, Mr Gohar Ayub turned red in the face. The very gesture of Mr Sharif agreeing to meet Mr Vajpayee minus Mr Gohar Ayub was noted by the Indian delegation as a “forward movement”. The negative attitude adopted by Mr Sharif at the press conference following the bilateral talks had taken the Indian side by surprise. Some attribute the renewed belligerency to Mr Gohar Ayub’s intervention in the period between the talks and the press conference. Observers here, however,
are not reading too much into the change of guard in
Islamabad. The next round of Indo-Pak talks are due on
the sidelines of the NAM summit at Durban between
September 1 and 3. Again, towards the end of the month,
on September 23 and 24, there is a likelihood of Mr
Vajpayee and Mr Sharif meeting in New York when they go
there to address the UN General Assembly. It remains to
be seen if the Pakistan Foreign Secretary, Mr Shamshad
Hussain, will have a different brief when he meets Mr K.
Raghunath in Durban and possibly, in New York. |
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Japan offers to host Indo-Pak talks ISLAMABAD, Aug 7 (Reuter) — Japan has offered to host talks between India and Pakistan on Kashmir but said it was not in a position to mediate between the two nations on the issue, according to a Japanese diplomat. “Japan is ready to host the talks between the two countries in Tokyo as we want to encourage both India and Pakistan to negotiate on outstanding issues, including Kashmir, at a diplomatic level,” Japanese charge d’affaires in Islamabad Hiroyasu Kobayashi told newsmen yesterday. However, he said Japan was not in the position to mediate between Pakistan and India. Terming Kashmir as a “flash point” between India and Pakistan, Mr Kobayashi urged both countries to settle the issue through negotiations. “Tokyo is much worried on the war-like situation at the Line of Control and the tension there could result in a nuclear conflict in South Asia,” he said. He said Japanese Prime Minister Keizo Obuchi would soon be writing separately to Prime Ministers Nawaz Sharif and Atal Behari Vajpayee. Meanwhile, describing nuclear tests by India and Pakistan as “intolerable”, Japanese new Prime Minister Keizo Obuchi today asked the two countries to accept CTBT and NPT immediately and unconditionally. Mr Obuchi’s remarks
came during his first address to Parliament today. |
India for draft on N-arms ban GENEVA, Aug 7 (PTI) — India has proposed a draft convention on the prohibition of the use of nuclear weapons even as it declared that New Delhi does not intend to use these weapons to commit aggression or for mounting threats against any country. “We believe that such a convention could contribute to the lowering of the nuclear threat and to the climate for negotiations leading to nuclear disarmament, as was achieved with the other two weapons of mass destruction,” India’s Permanent Representative Savitri Kunadi told the plenary session of the UN Conference on Disarmament here yesterday. New Delhi’s stand on no-first use of nuclear weapons against nuclear states and non-use of nuclear weapons against non-nuclear states was formally conveyed to the conference constituting a major step towards evolution of India’s nuclear policy. Ms Kunadi said the
extension of negative security assurances must be seen as
“part and parcel” of India’s commitment to
achieve complete disarmament. |
Lewinsky comes clean before jury WASHINGTON, Aug 7 (AFP) — Just hours after Monica Lewinsky’s secret testimony ended, US Media reported that she confessed to prosecutors in the White House intern scandal that she had an affair with President Bill Clinton. Flatly contradicting President Clinton’s denials under oath and in public, she told a grand jury that they had a sexual relationship, but that he did not ask her to lie about it under oath, The Washington Post reported today. But the ex-White House intern, 25, told investigators that she and President Clinton developed "cover stories" to conceal the 18-month affair, The Post said, citing "a legal source." The New York Times reported today that in her six-and-a-half-hour testimony, Lewinsky gave details of "several sexual encounters" with President Clinton in a small private study down a short hallway from the Oval Office. She also told the panel that she and the President discussed ways to hide their affair, The New York Times said, citing "a lawyer familiar with her account." Earlier, CNN television — citing two unnamed sources — reported that Lewinsky had told the jury that she had "a sexual relationship of a certain kind" with President Clinton. The CNN sources told the network that Lewinsky testified about having more than a dozen sexual encounters with President Clinton but he did not ask her to lie. "She told her story. There’s nothing different from what she’s been saying for the past six months," CNN quoted the source as saying. Meanwhile, CBS television said that she told prosecutors that she and the President had talked about concealing evidence that could be used against him. The network also said
special prosecutor Kenneth Starr may have heard all he
needs from the former White House intern, although
sources said he reserved the right to call her back. |
3 lakh along Yangtze evacuated BEIJING, Aug 7 (AP) — China was evacuating more than 300,000 people today from land along the raging Yangtze river that could be sacrificed to flooding in a desperate bid to safeguard areas downstream. With the Yangtze at record levels and threatening to rise further, officials were preparing to divert floodwaters along a section of the 6,300-km long river described as the most dangerous. A decision whether to deliberately flood towns and villages in the Yangtze’s Jingjiang section in central Hubei province would require the approval of the state council or Cabinet. The worst moment of the year’s flood control efforts is probably coming — the newspaper China Daily quoted unidentified Yangtze river officials as saying. The crisis was precipitated by a surge of floodwaters headed down river toward the Jingjiang Dikes today. Officials fear the flood tide — the river’s fourth this year — could cause sodden levees weakened by weeks of rain and floods to collapse. The last time the Yangtze was this high was in 1954, during floods that forced officials to divert water three times. More than 30,000 people died in flooding that year. So far this year, more than 2,000 people have died in summer floods that began in June. The death toll continues to rise as reports are received from flooded areas. More than 500,000 people live in the area south of Shashi in Hubei province that could be flooded, and more than 300,000 were already being moved out, said an official at Hubei’s anti-flood office. The remainder live on high ground and are safe, said the official, who refused to give his name. The Jingjiang section is facing the worst flood challenge in its history,’’ the newspaper quoted Ge Shouxi, a Yangtze river chief engineer, as saying. Main Yangtze dikes have
held firm, but some secondary levees have already
collapsed, inundating swathes of farmland. Some were
deliberately abandoned to take the pressure off major
levees, said Mr Zhao. Other secondary dikes could also be
abandoned if main Yangzte dikes are endangered, he said. |
Mountbatten’s killer released DUBLIN, Aug 7 (AP) — The man who murdered Lord Louis Mountbatten, the much-loved great-uncle of Prince Charles and the only member of the royal family to be killed during the 30-year North Ireland conflict, has been freed under the controversial early release provisions of the region’s peace settlement. Thomas McMahon was serving a life sentence for the murder of Lord Mountbatten and four others who died when the Irish Republican Army blew up his private boat in Mullaghmore, West Ireland, in August 1979. He was released from prison last night under the terms of the Good Friday peace agreement. Jeffrey Donaldson, a
member of Parliament for the Protestant Ulster Unionist
Party, condemned the decision to free McMahon. “Once
again the release of this notorious killer is another
indication of the premature manner in which both the
Irish and the British governments are approaching the
release of terrorist prisoners,” Mr Donaldson said. |
UN calls for truce in Afghanistan UNITED NATIONS, Aug 7 (PTI) — The UN Security Council has called for “urgent and unconditional ceasefire” and an immediate end to outside intervention following a fresh escalation fighting in Afghanistan. Stressing the need for a solution acceptable to all ethnic, religious and political groups in Afghanistan, the the Security Council last night called on all Afghan parties to return to the negotiating table “without delay and preconditions” and to cooperate in creating a broad-based and fully representative government. Such a government, the council said, should protect the rights of all Afghans and observe the country’s international obligations. In a consensus presidential statement, the council saw a threat to regional and international security from the fighting in Afghanistan. Simultaneously, it called on other nations to intensify their efforts under the aegis of the United Nations to bring the warring parties to the negotiating table. It strongly criticised the Taliban for their human rights violations and “continuing discrimination” against women. Asking all states to refrain from interference in the internal affairs of Afghanistan, including involvement of foreign military personnel, the council called for an end to arms supply to all parties to the conflict. It also demanded resolute measures by all states to prohibit their military personnel from planning and participating in combat operations in Afghanistan. Though the Security Council did not name any country, it is known that Pakistan is training, arming and financing the Taliban and even Pakistani soldiers had been seen fighting with those of the Taliban. It called on all parties,
particularly the Taliban, to cooperate fully with the
international humanitarian organisations and to take
steps to assure the safety and freedom of movement of
their personnel. |
Graphic war epic shocks audiences IT’S had rave reviews, it’s projected to take $ 300 million at the box office and there is already talk of an Oscar sweep. Steven Spielberg’s Saving Private Ryan, a film that seeks to overturn Hollywood’s gung-ho tradition of war movies and force audiences to experience the ugliness and brutality of conflict, is America’s hit of the summer season. The first 30 minutes re-enact the storming of Omaha Beach during the D-Day landings. Men are disembowelled, limbs severed and the beach washes red with such realism that war veterans disturbed by watching the film have their own hotline to call for trauma counselling. “Everything you see might be over the top in graphic honesty,” Spielberg said last week of his film that follows eight soldiers (led by Tom Hanks) on a mission to pluck a young soldier (Matt Damon) from battle to spare his mother further heartbreak after losing three of her four children in the space of a week. “But I still pull back from what I was told really happened,” he added. The story is fictional, but it closely parallels what happened to the late Sergeant Frederick ‘Fritz’ Niland, of the 101st Airborne, who was recalled from France in 1944 after his three brothers were reported missing, presumed dead. As Stephen Ambrose, the US historian and consultant on the film, tells it in his 1992 book, Band of Brothers, Niland’s mother got all three telegrams from the War Department on the same day, prompting the army to send a chaplain, Father Francis Sampson, to get Friz Niland out of the action. Military policy was to first send a “missing in action: announcement, then the announcement of death, so the messenger made several deliveries between May and July of 1944. The first telegram told Augusta that Sergeant Edward Niland, 31, an Air Force radio operator and gunner, was missing. The second said Lieutenant. Preston Niland, 29, was killed in action on June 7, and the third said Sergeant Robert Niland, 25, had been missing, presumed dead, since D-Day,” said her grandson. Once the army became aware of Augusta Niland’s terrible loss, a rescue mission was launched to bring Fritz home. Unlike Spielberg’s film, it was an army chaplain and not a squad of soldiers, who went in search of the surviving Niland brother. The film makes much of the apparent foolishness of sending many men in to battle to save one, but of course that never happened; Fritz Niland was brought home by a chaplain. As for the
mother of the Niland boys, she bore her sorrow with
pride. ‘My mother told me that my grandmother was
resigned to the loss,’ Preston Niland said.
“She told her once, ‘If it wasn’t my boys,
it would have been someone else’s’.” —
The Guardian, London |
| Global monitor Hindu ritual disallowed Naked barmaids Politician
poisoned Pak bus accident |
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