Troops storm Yemen hideout
SAN'A (Yemen), Dec 30 — Three tourists — two Britons and an American — were killed yesterday when Yemeni troops clashed with their kidnappers, a Yemeni security official said.

Clinton’s trial set for Jan 11?
WASHINGTON, Dec 30 — Senate Majority leader Trent Lott, and 13 of his fellow Republican Congressmen planning to prosecute an impeachment trial of President Clinton in the Senate clashed yesterday over whether to call any witnesses, says The New York Times.

Iraq “defying no-fly zones”
BAGHDAD, Dec 30 — Despite a confrontation this week with Western warplanes, Iraq remains defiant.

• Missiles fired on "no-fly" zone in Iraq

MQM to boycott military courts
ISLAMABAD, Dec 30 — The Muttahida Qaumi Movement has announced a boycott of military courts functioning in the strife-torn port city of Karachi.

UK modifies offer on Hawks
LONDON, Dec 30 — British Aerospace has offered full joint production of its top-selling Hawk-100 advanced jet trainer at Hindustan Aeronautics Limited as part of its deal for the sale of 60 Hawks to the Indian Air Force.

3 hostages killed
Troops storm Yemen hideout

SAN'A (Yemen), Dec 30 (AP) — Three tourists — two Britons and an American — were killed yesterday when Yemeni troops clashed with their kidnappers, a Yemeni security official said.

The two British men and one American woman died as the troops stormed the kidnappers’ hideout in an attempt to rescue the three hostages and 13 others, the official said, speaking on customary condition of anonymity.

He said the remaining hostages — 10 Britons, two Australians and an American — were freed. Two British men and an Australian man suffered injuries in the clashes, the security official said.

Earlier yesterday Yemeni officials began negotiations with the Islamic militants for the release of the tourists. Some 200 Yemeni security forces encircled the area where they were being held.

Governor Ahmad Ali Mohsen of Abyan province, where the kidnapping took place, led the talks with leaders of the Al-Fadl tribe, to which the kidnappers belonged, an official at the Governor’s office said.

Mr Mohsen was accompanied by Islamic figures who were influential with the kidnappers, the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

The kidnapping occurred on Monday near the southern town of Mawdiyah, about 200 km south of the Yemen capital San’a.

The Australian Embassy in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, which handles Yemen, said a diplomat was sent to San’a today to try to secure the release of the hostages.

Brian Whitaker of the Guardian adds from London:

According to Yemeni security sources, the kidnappers had claimed the hostages were murdered by the kidnappers before the troops moved in.

“I think that when the security forces got to the place, the kidnappers started to kill some of the hostages,” the spokesman said. “When the security forces intervened, there were clashes and some of the other hostages were released. Four kidnappers were arrested.”

The British Foreign Secretary, Robin Cook, said last night that three Britons and an Australian were killed. In light of the incident, “British nationals should not attempt to travel to Yemen unless their business is essential, and any British visitors still there should leave”.

An official at the British embassy in the capital, Sana’a, said: “Our priority is to help the hostages now they have been released”. She was unable to give information about their condition.

Seven of the uninjured hostages were last night at a hotel in Aden. David Pearce, deputy head of mission in Sana’a, said: “They are in a state of severe shock. They are uninjured but very tired, very stunned and in need of a good meal, a good rest and someone to talk to. They have been through an awful experience”.

The 12 Britons, including six women, were among 16 holidaymakers seized when the kidnappers, armed with kalashnikovs and bazookas, held up their five-vehicle convoy on the road from Habban to Aden on Monday. Shots were fired at the scene but no one was hurt and the lead vehicle escaped to raise the alarm.

The hostages were taken to a hideout at al-Wadea’a, 250 miles south of the capital, where more than 200 government troops later surrounded them. Initially there were high hopes that the kidnapping would end peacefully — as has always happened. Soon afterwards, however, Yemeni security sources began to hint that this was not the usual tribal kidnap, with demands for roads, electricity, schools and basic local facilities. They suggested that the kidnappers were Islamic extremists seeking the release of their leader, Salih Haidara al-Atwi, who was arrested with another man two weeks ago in a crackdown on Islamic vigilantes.

Little information has emerged about how the tragedy happened. In the north-eastern province of Marib, where four German tourists are being held, a similar siege has gone on for three weeks, with reports of some firing and numerous arrests, but no harm to the hostages.

It is unclear who fired first in yesterday’s shootout. The official Yemeni version is that the kidnappers killed some of hostages, prompting the troops to begin their rescue. The Yemeni Government also maintains that these were not the usual tribal bandits who treat their captives well; they were “politically motivated”, probably linked to Islamic militants.

Conventional tribal kidnappings are fairly rare in southern Yemen, and Islamic extremists, some of the supporters of Osma bin Laden, are known to be active in Abyan, where the kidnapping took place.

Another possibility is that the kidnapping went disastrously wrong when someone on one shie or the other panicked. It was the largest kidnapping Yemen has known and came only a few months after the death penalty for was introduced for hostage-taking. Kidnapping has been on the increase for several years, probably because growing numbers of tourists and foreign workers provide more opportunities.

Clinton’s trial set for Jan 11?

WASHINGTON, Dec 30 (AP, UNI) — Senate Majority leader Trent Lott, and 13 of his fellow Republican Congressmen planning to prosecute an impeachment trial of President Clinton in the Senate clashed yesterday over whether to call any witnesses, says The New York Times.

Mr Lott also proposed beginning the Senate trial on January 11. After initial procedural steps next week, and finishing within two weeks, a timetable many Democrats dismiss as overly optimistic.

How long a trial lasts depends in large part on whether the Senate relies on the evidence gathered by independent counsel Kenneth W. Starr, or whether the House managers present witnesses.

Under Mr Lott’s proposed schedule, the two articles of impeachment approved by the House would be read on the Senate floor on January 7, the day after the 106th Congress convenes.

The trial, Mr Lott said in an interview on NBC News, would begin on January 11 and last a week or two. With January 22 being a target date for finishing. The President is scheduled to deliver his State of the Union address on January 19.

For the first time, the House members appointed to prosecute President Bill Clinton have plotted a strategy for the historic Senate impeachment trial. Some said they want to call witnesses, an idea that got a cool reception from the Senate Republican leader.

“I personally, as a former prosecutor, always like to have witnesses,” said Republican James Rogan of California yesterday as he entered the closed-door meeting of House managers named for Mr Clinton’s trial.

Which witnesses, the tenor of their testimony, what areas need to be gone into, depends on a number of things, “including whether Mr Clinton will accept certain facts and not challenge evidence,” Mr Rogan added.

But Senate majority leader Trent Lott, a Republican, said he believes a trial could be held without witnesses.

“Are witnesses required? I don’t think so,” Mr Lott said in a telephone interview with the Associated Press. “I think the record is there to be reviewed, read, presented in a form that (House prosecutors) choose ... and I think that would be sufficient.”

Mr Lott also said he wants Senators to vote up-or-down on removing Mr Clinton from office before seriously considering censure as an alternative.

“I would prefer that there would be a vote on the articles of impeachment,” Mr Lott said.

One option is to take an early trial recess to let Mr Clinton respond to the two House-approved articles of impeachment, a period when negotiations to censure the President can go into high gear.

A second option is to avoid a long recess, complete a trial and have the Senate decide whether to remove Mr Clinton from office by a two-thirds vote.

A third possibility is to neither convict nor acquit Mr Clinton, but end the trial by a simple majority vote.

Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Orrin G. Hatch said that a censure would be “a powerful tool” against Mr Clinton.

Iraq “defying no-fly zones”

BAGHDAD, Dec 30 (AP) — Despite a confrontation this week with Western warplanes, Iraq remains defiant.

The Baghdad Government announced yesterday that its aircraft were flying in the “no-fly” zones patrolled by US and British warplanes. It also said Iraqi anti-aircraft batteries remained ready to fire on allied planes.

US officials would not say whether Iraqi aircraft encountered in the zones would be shot down, and US and British military officials were skeptical of the Iraqi Vice-President’s assertion that planes took to the air.

Iraq’s latest move came only a day after US warplanes fired on an Iraqi anti-aircraft position in northern Iraq, killing four Iraqi soldiers. Washington said the planes attacked after Iraq shot missiles at aircraft patrolling in one of two “no-fly” zones set up after the 1991 Gulf war.

The Iraqi announcement appeared aimed at building support among Arabs who angrily protested against the mid-December US British air strikes, but whose governments did little to back Iraqi demands for lifting the UN sanctions that have devastated the country.

Vice-President Taha Yassin Ramadan, asked by Associated Press Television News whether Iraq was flying aircraft in the “no-fly” zones, said: “We are doing it right now.”

“Iraqi planes in effect are flying in a normal manner in Iraqi airspace,” he said.

There were no flights over the northern “no-fly” zone yesterday strictly due to the weather and nothing else, said Lt-Col Jane Rinell, a US military spokeswoman.

A spokesman for the southern zone said flights continued and there were no “disturbances” from the Iraqi side.

Meanwhile, according to AFP, Iraq yesterday fired an angry verbal blast at Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, accusing him of being a tyrant and a lapdog of the USA.

Deputy Prime Minister Tariq Aziz said Mr Mubarak’s comments blaming the Iraqi Government for this month’s US and British air strikes on the country had no support in the Arab world.

“No honest and reasonable person in Egypt, the Arab world and in the world can share the comments of Mr Mubarak who has adopted the US policy of double standards,” Aziz wrote in the Al-Jumhuriya daily.

Meanwhile, Iraq today renewed its attacks on the United Nations Special Commission for Disarmament saying it would not cooperate as long as international sanctions remain in force.

"It is no longer acceptable now to see UNSCOM spy on Iraq while the embargo is maintained," state-run Al-Jumhuriya newspaper said.

"It is time for fair members of the Security Council to insist that the embargo imposed on the Iraqi people is lifted before agreement is reached on any other questions," it said.

Deputy Prime Minister Tareq Aziz declared UNSCOM dead once the USA and Britain launched four nights of air strikes on Iraq from December 16.

A scathing report by UNSCOM chief Richard Butler about Iraq’s failure to cooperate with his inspectors triggered the air attacks.

Al-Jumhuriya also returned to Iraq’s demand for condemnation of the missile strikes by the United Nations.

The council has embarked on discussions on the future Iraq policy, but is divided over how to handle the disarmament issue.

United Nations (AFP): Iraqi defiance of a US and British-Enforced no-fly zone has overshadowed UN Security Council discussions on future Iraq policy.

The Security Council only briefly touched on the Iraqi question - to discuss the illegal entry into northern Iraq of demining units.

Russia, during closed-door council discussions, delayed submitting a new version of a draft statement on Iraq while consultations with other council members continued in a bid to resolve differences, Western diplomats said on Tuesday.

Council President Jassim Buallay told reportrs that “there are still points standing in the way of the final finalisation of the text, but hopefully the council will iron out this in a couple of days.”

He said “no time limit” had been set for the Russian delegation to submit a new text. Other diplomats said no decisions were likely to be taken this week.

Missiles fired on "no-fly" zone in Iraq

WASHINGTON, dec 30 (AP) — US fighter jets fired missiles and laser-guided bombs on an Iraqi missile site early today after a British aircraft observed something fired from the site near Talil in southern Iraqi. A Defence Department spokesman said the British bomber reported the activity at about 9:30 a.m. local time (0630 GMT).

"Something was fired. We’re not sure what was fired", he said, speaking on condition of anonymity. Two US F-16 fighter jets patrolling the area responded and fired two harm missiles and a number of precision-guided bombs onto the site at 10:15 a.m. (0715 gmt), he said. The aircraft left the area about a half hour later.

UK modifies offer on Hawks

LONDON, Dec 30 (PTI) — British Aerospace has offered full joint production of its top-selling Hawk-100 advanced jet trainer at Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) as part of its deal for the sale of 60 Hawks to the Indian Air Force.

The Hawk-100 has been reportedly shortlisted along with the first-ever Russian advanced jet trainer (AJT), the MIG-ATt by the Indian Air Force.

The race for the estimated £ 400 million deal hotted up recently with pronouncements by Defence Minister George Fernandes that a government decision to clear the deal was expected shortly.

“We have submitted a modified new bid to the Indian Air Force’’, a top British Aerospace official told PTI after the return of the company’s team from the Aero 98 show in Bangalore at which it displayed in India for the first time an advanced version trainer jet, the Hawk-200.

Mr Fernandes’ pronouncements of early clearance of the AJT deal came even as Western defence experts here observed that the IAF had suffered huge losses over the past five years with nearly 200 air accidents reported, all believed to be due to human error.

British Aerospace Hawks along with the French Aerospaitiale Alpha jets had been shortlisted by the IAF in 1981 for the acquisition of 90 advanced jet trainers at the then cost of £ 200 million. The French have since then opted out as the assembly lines for the Alpha jets have been closed down.

News analysis
“Killing fields” perpetrators go scot-free?
by Mohan Bhatt

THE report that Khieu Samphan, former head of state of the Khmer Rouge regime, and Nuon Chea, Pol Pot’s political ideologue, have apologised for their role in the massacre of tens of thousands of fellow Cambodians and have been pardoned by Prime Minister Hun Sen is not only shocking for the conscience of humanity but transgresses all canons of justice. In Pol Pot’s four-year reign of terror, over 1.6 million Cambodians were tortured and perished.

A brief report from the capital, Phnom Penh, had said the former titular head just said sorry for the bloody events of the period of (1975-79) and spoke about burying the past, dismissing calls for an international trial with the remark “Let bygones, be bygones” and that though “the parents and relatives of some people have suffered, history should remain history”. How absurd for a leader, who ordered a pogrom in the late seventies, to preach about forgetting past events and call his crimes just mere history!. Nuon Chea, Pol Pot’s “brother No. 2,” made a more ludicrous comment that he was sorry “not just for the lives of the people, but also the animals that suffered in the war”. A true-to-life demagogue who wants to get off the hook by showing concern not only for humans but also for animals!

This pardon by Premier Hun Sen, himself a former Khmer Rouge officer who fled the bloody purges during Pol Pot’s reign of terror and rose to power under the hegemony of the Vietnamese invaders after 1979, will remain suspect not only in the eyes of the victims who suffered through disease, starvation or torture, but also human rights organisations seeking the trial of these Khmer leaders for their hand in the killings.

Their words may make nice reading but will these remove the tears from the faces of the kin of lakhs of Cambodians who perished in the labour camps of Pol Pot?

Pleading against their trial, Hun Sen declared: “If we bring them to trial, it will not benefit the nation but will mean a return to civil war,” adding, “we should dig a hole, bury the past and look towards the future.” One wonders what sort of civil war will be caused by trying the two Khmer Rouge leaders, who with Leng Sary (Pol Pot’s brother-in-law) brought about the agrarian revolution (based on China’s “Great Leap”) forcing millions of Cambodians to work in labour camps.

The Khmer Rouge borrowed heavily from Mao Zedong’s ideology and were considered Maoist revolutionaries.

If their pardon was part of a deal worked out by Hun Sen and Prince Ranariddh (Speaker of the National Assembly), it deserves to be condemned. By pardoning the two top Khmer leaders in return for their surrender, can they ever hope to console, if not compensate, the millions of their compatriots who perished in the “killing fields”?

The only saving grace seems to be King Norodom Sihanouk’s comment from Beijing refusing to grant amnesty to the two Khmer defectors.

Another top General, Ta Mok, alias “Butcher”, who later won a power struggle against Pol Pot, is still at large in the jungles on the Thai-Cambodian border. The one-legged General is said to have fallen out with these two surrendered leaders and is hiding with about 100 of his supporters, the remnants of the once- mighty elite fighting force.

When Nazi Gestapo officers could be tried by the war crimes court at Nuremberg for the massacre of Jews, one is stung by the double standard adopted by the Cambodian leaders of allowing two top Khmer Rouge leaders, who have the blood of 1.7 million Cambodians on their hands, to go scot-free and let them settle down honourably in their country in the name of reconciliation.

Khieu Samphan, being the then head of state, has to be held accountable for the genocide as well.

As one of the Cambodian leaders, Sam Rainsy, pointed out, the victims of the “killing fields” have waited too long for justice and have been demanding a trial. “Justice in Cambodia has been delayed so long, but must it be denied now?”

MQM to boycott military courts

ISLAMABAD, Dec 30 (IANS) — The Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) has announced a boycott of military courts functioning in the strife-torn port city of Karachi.

"We do not recognise the military courts in Karachi, their judgements, and we will not go before the appellate military courts in our defence," Sheikh Liaqat Hussain, parliamentary party leader of the MQM, said while initiating the debate on the Karachi situation in the National Assembly, the Lower House.

Kanwar Khalid Yunus, Babar Khan Ghuari and Tariq Javed, also of the MQM, a former ally of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif’s Pakistan Muslim League, vowed not to go to military courts for the defence of their workers as they were "parallel courts" not acceptable to them, NNI news agency reported.

Hussain pointed out that the three other provinces also faced law and order problems but had not been put under military rule like Sindh. He stated that this year, Punjab’s capital Lahore witnessed 998 killings as opposed to just 83 in Karachi.

"Similarly there were 26 bomb blasts killing 48 persons in Punjab and only 11 blasts in Karachi killing nine persons," other MQM leaders added.

"If military courts were to be established then this had to be done in the Punjab province, Governor’s rule had to be imposed in Punjab," Hussain said.

MQM leaders alleged that because Punjab’s Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif was the Prime Minister’s brother, his province was spared.

"If the federation is to stay, then the government must take along all the parties by giving them their due rights, otherwise the federation will not work," Hussain said.

He alleged that the suspension of the Sindh Assembly was unjustified and the imposition of Governor’s rule in the province was without reason and resorted to with ulterior motives. This was done despite a Sindh Assembly resolution opposing imposition of Governor’s rule, he pointed out. "The government was taking steps in Sindh province so that democracy could not flourish there," Hussain claimed.

He argued that Article 245 of the Constitution, under which the special courts were avowedly set up, did not mention establishment of military courts, which could only be brought in under martial law.

Indians get bail
NAIROBI: Seventeen Indians rounded up in a sweep of more than 1,000 suspected illegal aliens in Nairobi two weeks ago have been released on bonds of 300,000 Kenyan shillings ($4,900) each, with surety of the same amount. Nairobi Chief Magistrate Peter Mugo released the suspects on Tuesday and ordered that they report every Monday to the Criminal Investigations Department offices in Nairobi. — AFP

New MIG unveiled
MOSCOW: A new generation of one of the world’s most successful military aircraft, the MIG fighter jet, has rolled off the production line, a news agency reported. The new MIG-29SMT is a retrofitted version of the standard MIG-29 fighter, offering more sophisticated instrumentation, longer range and greater combat load capacity, ITAR-Tass said on Tuesday quoting the plane’s chief designer, Valery Novikov. The overhauling of the MIG-29, which would raise its combat efficiency eight times, would help raise the striking potential of the Russian air force many times. — AP

UN mission chief
ISLAMABAD: British diplomat Andrew Tesoriere has taken charge of the Islamabad-based United Nations Special Mission for Afghanistan (UNSMA), a UN statement said here today. Mr Teroriere, former British Ambassador of Albania, succeeds Mr James Nagobi who left here earlier this month on the expiry of his tenure. — AFP

Eiffel attraction
PARIS: The landmark iron-laced Eiffel Tower has attracted six million visitors this year, beating its own record as the world’s most popular monument. The company that manages the 320-metre tower said on Tuesday that the number of visitors in 1998 had exceeded the almost 110-year-old monument’s previous bumper year in 1992, when it drew 5,747,357 people. — AFP

Bust removed
LONDON: A bust of Arthur Koestler has been removed from view at Edinburgh University where some female students felt “uneasy under his gaze” after suggestions he was a rapist, newspapers said. The bronze sculpture of the late Hungarian-born writer and philosopher was withdrawn temporarily from public for “security reasons” following student complaints, the daily Telegraph reported on Tuesday. A recently published biography written by David Cesarani and entitled “The Homeless Mind” claimed that rape was “almost a hallmark of his conduct,” the paper said. — AFP

Nixon hated eves
WASHINGTON: Late u s president Richard Nixon had hated women and had absolute contempt for the blacks and minorities but he could not avoid appointing them for political reasons, newly released tapes have revealed. Women in the government, “they are a pain in the neck; very difficult to handle” and doubted whether “they are really worth it,” Nixon was quoted as saying. According to the tape Nixon had contempt for blacks, Mexicans and Italians. — PTI

Albright’s visit
WASHINGTON: Trying to take the chill out of frosty relations, US Secretary of State Madeleine Albright has scheduled talks in Moscow in late January, hoping to concentrate on shared goals despite tactical differences. There have been some recent disagreements. Russia angrily objected to US attacks on Iraq over that country’s refusal to permit UN inspectors to hunt for chemical and biological weapons. The Clinton Administration, meanwhile, is frustrated over the refusal of the Duma, the Lower House of the Russian Parliament, to ratify the start ii nearly seven years after its completion. — AP

‘Waking’ drug
WASHINGTON: The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved a drug that keeps people with debilitating sleepiness awake and attentive. The drug — modafinil — was approved by the FDA for people with a serious sleep disorder called narcolepsy and claims to have very few of the side effects associated with caffeine, amphetamines and other commonly used stimulants. Narcolepsy affects at least one in every 2,000 persons and is characterised by sudden, overwhelming waves of intense sleepiness. — PTI