Tuesday, October 27, 1998
today's calendar
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W O R L D | Tuesday, October 27, 1998 |
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No freezing
of Jews’ colonies China
rejects proposals on Kosovo |
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Oppn
‘blocking’ plan to end ethnic divide Schroeder
takes over today Hawks
sweep Iran poll US
Democrats got illegal donations Di
made threat calls to Camilla: book |
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No freezing of Jews’ colonies: Israel JERUSALEM, Oct 26 (Reuters) — Israeli Premier Benjamin Netanyahu today said he had made no promises to freeze Jewish settlements in the West Bank during the recent US-brokered peace summit with the Palestinians. The Prime Minister told Israel’s Army Radio he was sticking to a policy of building for Jews in Jerusalem and adjacent to existing West Bank settlements. “We are building throughout the land of Israel and also in Jerusalem”, he said. The radio interviewer asked Mr Netanyahu if he had promised at the Wye river summit not to build new settlements, not to confiscate land except for settler bypass roads, and not to demolish 1,800 Palestinian homes. “There are no agreements. What I have always said publicly — there is nothing secret here — I always said we are building in existing settlements. We build (settlements) generally in the vacant land adjacent”, he said. The radio said Mr Netanyahu planned to publish tenders soon for building the Har Homa settlement on the edge of Arab East Jerusalem. Groundbreaking on the settlement in March 1997, on a hill known as Jabal Abu Ghneim, plunged peace talks into a crisis that ended only with the signing of the Wye document. “I haven’t set a date”, Mr Netanyahu said of the report. “I said homes would be built on Har Homa by 2000”. WASHINGTON: Though he agreed to cede more land to the Palestinians, Netanyahu says he will not drop his opposition to a Palestinian state. The West Bank, he says, “is part of my homeland.” Before flying home late on Saturday, Mr Netanyahu told the Associated Press he was obligated to yield more territory to the Palestinian authority under the Oslo accords reached by previous Israeli governments. “We did not choose this agreement,” Mr Netanyahu said. Under the West Bank accord signed last week, Israel is due to relinquish 13 per cent of the land that many Jews who supported Mr Netanyahu, including most settlers, consider part of Israel. It was captured in the 1967 war from Jordan, which had controlled the West Bank since 1948. Any inch of land that we cede to the Palestinians is painful for me to cede,” Mr Netanyahu said in an interview. “It is part of my homeland.” “Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, in Europe on Saturday seeking financial support, said an independent Palestinian state is coming very soon.” CAIRO: Mr Arafat said he hoped the new peace accord would be “accurately and faithfully” implemented. Mr Arafat’s comment, made at Cairo airport on Sunday after briefing Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak on the accord, reflects Arab scepticism that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will live up to the agreement to withdraw from a further 13 per cent of West Bank land. The Palestinian leader met with Mr Mubarak at the Unity Presidential Palace in Cairo. The two talked briefly alone, then were joined by aides. The session lasted one hour and 15 minutes. Mr Arafat also briefed officials in Algeria on the new pact yesterday. He then flew to Morocco and was to travel later to Saudi Arabia. The agreement, signed on Friday after marathon U.S.-mediated negotiations, call for Mr Arafat to clamp stringent security measures on Palestinian militants to prevent attacks on Israelis in exchange for the Israeli withdrawal in the West Bank. Many in the Arab world
have criticised the pact as geared too much toward
Israel’s security demands and too little toward
Palestinian rights. |
CIA role in W. Asia peace
accord AFTER years of covert operations, the CIA has been sucked into a very public and potentially dangerous role that had put it centre stage in West Asia peace deal. With the blessing of the Israeli Prime Minister, Mr Benjamin Netanyahu, the agency has been training the Palestinian Authority’s security forces in espionage, information-gathering and interrogation. The pay-off for the Israelis is greater security cooperation against the militants opposed to the Oslo peace plan. But the CIA has found itself exposed: to Washington’s alarm, the Hebrew media has regularly reported the comings and goings of senior CIA staff, including its Director, Mr George Tenet, who was here two weeks ago and took part in the Wye summit. And the agency will be expected to oversee the implementation of the deal agreed at Wye, acting as a referee in the expected flare-ups. If either the Palestinians or the Israelis disapprove of the CIA’s adjudications, there could be danger for its agents on the ground who will be monitoring the situation. Nor is the work with Mr Arafat’s security forces likely to enhance the CIA’s reputation. Human rights organisations have highlighted the common use of torture in Palestinian prisons and the 21 persons who have died in detention in the four years since the authority was founded. Half of these deaths occurred after the CIA’s Palestinian training programme began. Up to 10 CIA officials are working in Israel and the Palestinian territories, under a station chief in Tel Aviv. CIA counter-terrorism and covert-operations officers and FBI officials are instructing senior and mid-level Palestinian officials. Mr Tenet has held four meetings with Mr Arafat in the past three years; the most dramatic was at the Erez crossing point between Israel and the Gaza Strip in March, 1996, when he urged Mr Arafat to arrest five Islamic militants suspected of organising suicide-bomb attacks. The agency’s role was further expanded at Mr Netanyahu’s request in the summer of last year, immediately after the Hamas suicide bombs in Jerusalem. The CIA station chief arranged meetings between Palestinian and Israeli security officials. The result was a draft security cooperation memorandum signed by Gen Shlomo Yanai of the Israeli defence forces and Mohamed Dahlan, chief of Mr Arafat’s preventive security apparatus in Gaza. But last December Mr Netanyahu rejected the agreement, which would have meant disarming some of the right-wing settlers who helped elect him. The CIA went back to work, trying to find a formula that would keep both sides happy. When Mr Tenet accompanied the US Secretary of State, Ms Madeleine Albright, to Israel earlier this month a new deal was thought to be close. When the next Israeli phased withdrawal from the West Bank goes ahead, the CIA’s new tasks will include verifying that 13 murder suspects are expelled from the Palestinian police; ensuring militants convicted in Palestinian courts remain in prison; and monitoring Palestinian efforts to seize arms from Hamas activists and dismantle its infrastructure. According to the Hebrew newspaper Yediot Aharanot, the Palestinians have agreed to CIA officials giving them the names of suspects the Israelis want arrested. Yediot also claimed that the CIA has confirmed Israeli intelligence that Hamas is planning a wave of attacks, bigger in scale than the suicide bombs which have already killed scores. — The
Guardian, London |
China rejects UN proposals on Kosovo BEIGING, Oct 26 (PTI) — China has opposed the UN Security Council authorisation to position NATO aircraft and European monitors in Serbia’s ethnic Albanian province of Kosovo, saying any use of force in the region will be irresponsible and set a dangerous precedent. China, one of the five permanent members of the UN Council, abstained from the vote on Saturday authorising NATO aircraft and European monitors in Kosovo. Commenting on China’s stand on the issue, Foreign Ministry spokesman Tang Guoqiang said his country would not accept the proposals by UN Council members. “This irresponsible action is not in line with the actual conditions and runs counter to the principles outlined in the UN Charter and in international laws, and sets a dangerous precedent in international relations”, Mr Tang was quoted as saying by the official Chinese media today. WASHINGTON (Reuters): Military force may be used if Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic does not live up to an agreement to withdraw Serbian troops and police from Kosovo, US National Security Adviser Sandy Berger has said. Berger’s comments
came on Sunday after NATO supreme commander general
Wesley Clark met Milosevic in Belgrade in advance of
Tuesday’s deadline for compliance by Yugoslavia with
UN demands for peace in Kosovo. “He (Clark) has the
authority to take military action and is ready to do so
if there is not military compliance”, Berger said on
ABC’s “This Week”. — |
Oppn ‘blocking’ plan to end ethnic divide COLOMBO, Oct 26 (PTI) — Sri Lankan President Chandrika Kumaratunga has described her government’s war against the Tamil Tigers as a “battle for peace” and said her biggest victory has been to win the support of the Sinhalese majority to grant equal rights for minority Tamils. The President, answering questions from the Tamil community on state television last night, said that for the first time since independence, the government had launched a campaign among the Sinhalese to grant devolution and equal rights to the Tamils. Claiming it to be a “big victory”, she said “the vast majority of Sinhala people have accepted it without any doubt because of the government’s efforts”. Ms Kumaratunga accused the
main Opposition, the United Nationalist Party (UNP) of
formulating a “strange and immoral
constitution” during its rule adding, though her
package of political proposals granting autonomy to
provinces has a large support base among the Sinhalese,
Tamils and Muslims, they were stuck in Parliament for
want of two-thirds majority. |
Schroeder takes over today BONN, Oct 26 (PTI) — The first Centre-Left Government in Germany in 16 years is expected to take office tomorrow with the Bundestag (Federal Parliament) electing Gerhard Schroeder as the country’s new Chancellor. The final hurdle for the formation of Left-of-Centre Government was cleared after Mr Schroeder’s Social Democrats (SPD) and the Left-wing Greens approved a coalition pact over the weekend. Mr Schroeder needs 335 votes in the 669, member Parliament to get elected with his SPD and the environmentalist Greens together forming 345 seats and the coalition having a majority of 21 seats. The Greens, which will have three Cabinet posts including the Foreign Ministry headed by their leader Joschka Fischer, at their convention pledged to close down Germany’s nuclear plants, which produces one-third of the country’s energy, and to raise taxes on fuel use. “Even if the majority seems to be clear, there is always a bit of tension,” 54-year-old Schroeder was quoted by the media on the eve of assuming office. The SPD and the Greens cobbled together the alliance after three weeks of negotiations following the election victory of Mr Schroeder. Dr Kohl (68) will receive a letter of discharge from President Roman Herzog after the inaugural session and will remain in Parliament as an ordinary deputy of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU). At the Social Democrats convention, 525 delegates solidly backed the coalition accord with a lone candidate voting against the alliance and three abstentions. Only 20 delegates voted against the treaty at the convention of the Greens, which capped its transformation from a loose band of peace-protesters, anti-nuclear activists and feminists to join the federal government for the first time in the country’s history. Social Democrats and Greens share power in four states. Defending Germany’s social welfare state, Mr Schroeder focussed on his plans to seek a consensus with the German industry and labour on how to create jobs. Mr Fischer appealed to the
delegates to “grow up” and grasp the chance for
a share of power after winning 6.7 per cent of the vote,
down from 7.3 per cent in the last election in 1994. |
Hawks sweep Iran poll DUBAI, Oct 26 (PTI) — Right wing conservatives and their allies have swept the poll to the Iranian Assembly of Religious Experts, responsible for appointing the supreme leader of the nation, by winning 63 seats in the 86-member House. The Association of Militant Clergy, a leading group of conservatives, has won 42 seats while 21 candidates backed by them and Iran’s Centrist party also made it to the Assembly. Fortysix per cent of the 39 million voters exercised their franchise in the poll, Iran’s official media reported adding, that the victory was expected to strengthen the hands of the present supreme leader of Iran, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. However, the results have dampened President Mohammed Khatami’s efforts to bring in more social and political freedom, the reports said. They noted that the
rejection of nominations of a large number of
“progressive” candidates by the “Guardians
Council” or the screening committee at the
nominations stage was attributed as a reason for the
dismal performance of the Independents and moderates
which could manage only 23 seats. |
US Democrats got illegal donations WASHINGTON, Oct 26 (AP) — House of Representatives investigators have unearthed bank records that confirm a long-held suspicion that $ 45,000 in Democratic donations made by the controversial Lippo group at a 1993 event featuring Vice-President Al Gore was reimbursed with foreign money. The House Government Reform and Oversight Committee, which continues to investigate alleged Democratic fund-raising abuses, located the records just as the statute of limitations for criminal liability expired. It nonetheless forwarded the evidence to the federal election commission and asked for a prompt investigation. Federal law generally prohibits donors from giving foreign funds in US elections, although a federal judge in Washington recently put a wrinkle into the law by ruling it doesn’t cover so-called soft-money donations made by corporations and wealthy individuals to political parties. The Justice Department or Election Commission could appeal the ruling. Three cheques of $ 15,000 each were written by three US subsidiaries of Lippo, an Indonesia-based financial conglomerate, and donated in connection with a September 27, 1993, fund-raiser in Los Angeles. All three donations went to the Democratic Party’s soft money accounts, and Senate and House investigators have suspected for well over a year that the donations had foreign origins. The cheques, one each from Hip Hing Holdings Ltd, San Jose Holdings Ltd and Toy Center Holdings of California, were signed by two Lippo executives. One was Mr John Huang, a Democratic fund-raiser and former Commerce Department official who has been a major focus of the fund-raising probes. The cheques are dated September 23, 1993. The committee investigators said the newly uncovered bank records show the three Lippo subsidiaries received reimbursements of $ 15,000 each from a $ 45,000 wire originating October 15, 1993, from Lippo’s headquarters in Jakarta, Indonesia. Lippo is controlled by the
family of James Riady, an Indonesian billionaire and
longtime friend of President Clinton who has been another
focus of the fund-raising investigation. Lippo has denied
wrongdoing, and Lippo, Mr Huang and Mr Riady have not
been charged. |
Di made threat calls to Camilla: book LONDON, Oct 26 (AFP) — Diana, Princess of Wales, cheated first on her marriage vows and made death threat calls to Prince Charles’ long-standing mistress, reports across the British press said yesterday. Newspapers leapt upon a serialisation of a new book “Charles: Victim or Villain?”, in The Mail today, written by one of Charles’ staunchest supporters and drawing on interview with his friends. Most concluded that the book would backfire on Charles and destroy attempts to rehabilitate him with the public. The book, by Penny Junor,
reported that the Princess told Parker Bowles:
“I’ve sent someone to kill you. They’re
outside in the garden. Look out of the window. Can you
see them?’’ |
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| 6-year jail term for Chetia DHAKA: A Bangladesh court on Sunday sentenced the United Liberation Front of Asom (ULFA) leader Anup Chetia to imprisonment for six years and nine months after he admitted his guilt during the trial. Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Mohammad Habibur Rehman while passing the order said the conviction would be effective from the date of his arrest. Case against his two associates would, however, continue. — PTI Lockerbie case Chilean plane Office raided Cleric’s
ruling Plea for boycott Man of year award 8 more held |
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KATHMANDU: Kaji
Sherpa, 34, who scaled the world's highest peak,
Mt Everest, on October 17 in a record time of 20
hours and 24 minutes, is welcomed on arrival at
Kathmandu airport on Sunday. Kaji covered the
distance, that usually takes climbers two to four
days, from the base camp at 17,500 feet to the
29,828-foot high summit creating a new climbing
record. — AP/PTI
