• UN steps up pressure
  on Taliban

Australia asks India, Pak to sign CTBT
SYDNEY, Sept 16 — Australia today asked India and Pakistan to sign the CTBT soon and ruled out Canberra’s role in resolution of the Kashmir issue.

US experts favour end to sanctions
WASHINGTON, Sept 16 — Two major American think-tanks have recommended that the USA should lift sanctions against India and Pakistan, imposed after their nuclear tests, saying the “illusory policy” effected potential strategic ties with the two South Asian countries.

Sharif not to bring CTBT before House
ISLAMABAD, Sept 16 — In a sudden turn-around, the Nawaz Sharif government today dropped its plan to bring a draft resolution in Parliament for signing of the CTBT, but said a final decision will be taken keeping national interests in mind.

SADC to treat Savimbi as war criminal
BAIA GRANDE (Mauritius), Sept 16 — The Heads of State and Government of the South Africa Development Community have agreed to declare UNITA faction leader Jonas Savimbi as a war criminal and have decided to support the UNITA Emerging Renewal Committee.

Anti-Chinese riots in Sumatra
JAKARTA, Sept 16 — Thousands of rioters stormed through an east Sumatra city last night torching hundreds of homes, shops and hotels in the latest round of disturbances to strike the troubled country, police and news reports said today.

Taliban chief offers talks to Iran

KABUL, Sept 16 (AFP) — Mullah Mohammad Omar, chief of the Taliban militia, today invited Iran to hold negotiations to defuse tensions as Teheran ordered its forces to be ready for swift action against the Islamic militia.

"Iran should solve its problems with the Islamic emirate of Afghanistan in accordance with the international law", Omar said in a statement over the state-run radio Shariat.

The Taliban movement’s supreme leader also called on the United Nations to condemn the Iranian authorities if they refuse, the broadcast said.

Omar’s statement came after the spiritual Iranian leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei ordered tens of thousands of his soldiers deployed close to Afghanistan’s western borders to be prepared to take action against the Taliban.

DUBAI (PTI): Pakistan offered to mediate peace talks between Taliban and Iran to defuse crisis.

Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif has offered to act as a mediator to ease tension between Iran and the Taliban saying Islamabad "is ready to expedite this process in anyway if our Iranian and Afghan brothers wish."

In a message to Iranian President Mohammad Khatami yesterday, Sharif urged both "Iran and Afghanistan to take steps to end the current tension and show restraint... as this is fundamental to the region’s peace and stability as well as Islamic solidarity in the long run."

Khamenei told the commander of the elite Revolutionary Guards yesterday that "we have human, Islamic, political and national concerns in Afghanistan..." and all officials and armed forces should be prepared to protect "our national interests and thwart any threat to the nation."

However, the Taliban had retorted with a warning that "we shall target Iranian cities if our territory is attacked." Tension between Iran and the Taliban has grown since the killings of Iranian diplomats in Afghanistan last month.

The United Nations is increasing pressure on the Pakistan-backed Taliban to allow a probe into the murder of the diplomats and refrain from killing Shiite Muslims in areas controlled by the militia.

Meeting late yesterday, the powerful Security Council "strongly condemned" the "flagrant" violation of international law by the Taliban and demanded it allow an immediate inquiry with full participation of the UN into the murders of the Iranian diplomats in Mazar-e-Sharif after the militia overran the city last month.

Meanwhile, according to UN sources anti-Taliban forces have staged a series of counter attacks around Bamiyan city in central Afghanistan and have recaptured the local airstrip.

Ethnic Hazara forces staged the attacks in the south-west of Bamiyan town, putting to rest Taliban’s claims that the militia had controlled the strategic Shebar Pass.

The counter attacks were launched yesterday and Hazara men are still fighting at Ahangaran, about 8 km from Bamiyan city, according to media reports.

However, the Taliban denied that the Iran-backed opposition forces had recaptured the local airstrip.

"There is no fighting going on in Bamiyan", Taliban spokesman Adbullah Hay Mudmaen told the independent Afghan Islamic Press (AIP) news agency today.

ISLAMABAD (AFP): One UN source said Bamiyan city is now divided between Hazari and Taliban forces. The militia control the old city near the feet of the Buddha statues.

Carved in nearby mountains, the pair of Buddha statues date back to 622 AD and Alexander the Great, and soar 55 metres and 30 metres respectively.

UN steps up pressure on Taliban

UNITED NATIONS, Sept 16 (PTI) — The UN is increasing pressure on Taliban in Afghanistan to allow a probe into the murder of Iranian diplomats and refrain from killing Shias in areas they control.

It is also asking the Taliban’s friends — Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and the UAE — to help rein in the militant soldiers in the wake of reports of mass killings of civilians, mostly Shias, Muslims, in northern Afghanistan.

The world body mounted its pressure as reports spoke of increasing tension on the Afghan-Iran border with the massing of Iranian troops, giving rise to fears that the situation may take a turn for the worse any time.

Meeting late yesterday, the powerful Security Council “strongly condemned” the “flagrant” violation of international law by the Taliban and demanded it allow an immediate inquiry with full participation of the UN into the murder of the Iranian diplomats in Mazar-e-Sharif after the militia overran the city early last month.

The statement came hours after Secretary-General Kofi Annan met the Ambassadors of Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and the UAE to urge them to restrain the Taliban and help defuse the situation.

The three are the only countries which recognise the Taliban government in Afghanistan and diplomats said they were the only states which could restrain the Taliban.

In his briefing to the council, assistant Secretary-General for Political Affairs Alvaro de Soto spoke of the rising tension and said Mr Annan was “very” concerned about the situation in Afghanistan as also on its border with Iran.

Emphasising that killing of the nine Iranian diplomats had “seriously increased” tension in the region, the council statement demanded the Taliban release other Iranians detained in Afghanistan and ensure their “safe and dignified” passage out of Afghanistan “without any delay”.

Advocating restraint, it asked all parties, “in particular the Taliban”, to take action in response to concern expressed by the international community to stop fighting and resume negotiations aimed at achieving a peaceful settlement on the basis of the world body’s resolutions.

US experts favour end to sanctions

WASHINGTON, Sept 16 (PTI) — Two major American think-tanks have recommended that the USA should lift sanctions against India and Pakistan, imposed after their nuclear tests, saying the “illusory policy” effected potential strategic ties with the two South Asian countries.

The New York-based Council on Foreign Relations and Washington based Brookings Institution have recommended to Congress and the administration lifting of all sanctions except for those “that block transfer of technology, material and equipment that could advance Indian and Pakistani missile and nuclear programmes.

The current “illusory policy of ineffective sanctions”, they say, risks US influence, economic and other interest “in an important and increasingly dangerous part of the world”.

It also increases the danger of transfer of nuclear technology to third parties particularly by Pakistan, they said.

AFP adds: India and Pakistan inflated the number and size of the underground nuclear explosions they set off in May, according to a seismological study reviewed in today’s Los Angeles Times Daily.

Two of India’s five nuclear explosions might never have taken place and only two in the series of six tests announced by Pakistan actually involved real nuclear explosions, according to the first independent scientific accounting of the tests.

In addition, the power of the atomic bombs of both countries was overstated by a factor of four, said the study, authored by Terry Wallace of the University of Arizona.

“This is quite clearly a case where governments tested for a political rather than scientific reason. So we have to be suspicious of what they say,” Wallace was quoted as saying in the daily.

Alien mercenaries ‘control J&K militants’

LONDON, Sept 16 (PTI) — Foreign mercenaries trained, armed and financed by the Pakistani army have virtually hijacked the secessionist movement in Jammu and Kashmir and signs of the rising tide of fundamentalism are starting to be felt across the region, British media reports have warned.

“There are no longer effective Kashmiri militant groups left in the valley and foreign mercenaries are firmly in control ..,” The Times said, warning that the near conquest of Afghanistan by the Taliban was adding to the zealotry of Islamic militants in Kashmir.

It said India, with a well-equipped Army presence in the state, was capable of repelling any direct assault by the Taliban or any mercenary force, but added that access given to these elements in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir by the Pakistani Army could fuel tension in the local population.

The infusion of these battle-hardened mercenaries by Pakistan signals that the country’s Army and intelligence network were raising the stakes in Kashmir and that there could be bigger flare-ups in the region, other media reports said.

“Pakistan’s influence in spreading Islamic extremism in Kashmir is pivotal. Jamaat-i-Islami, the biggest fundamentalist group in Pakistan, admits to training Kashmiris, Pakistanis and Afghans for guerrilla warfare in the region,” The Times said.

The Times said Harkat-ul-Ansar, now renamed Harkat-ul-Mujaheedin after the US State Department labelled it as a terrorist organisation, was openly operating in Pakistan.

It said this organisation, active in Kashmir, had its terrorist training camps bombed by US cruise missiles last month.

The Times said foreign Islamic mercenaries were well-equipped and receiving “substantial pay and are on two-year contract” to carry on the terror campaign in Kashmir.

The Janes Defence Weekly, in its latest issue, said the Pakistani Army, besides helping Harkat-ul-Mujaheedin and Lashkar-i-Toiba, had raised a new mercenary formation called Harkat-ul-Jehad Islamee Tanzeem and that all these mercenaries had “disarmed local Kashmiri insurgents”.

The weekly said that after divesting local Kashmiri youth of arms, they have been confined “to menial non-combative tasks”.

In a special report on Kashmir, the weekly said Harkat-ul-Jehad terrorists had been earmarked for Poonch and Rajouri regions where they were now permanently perched on the Indian side of the line of control directing Pakistani artillery fire.

The Janes said Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) was also paying huge compensation to the next of kin of the mercenaries killed in Kashmir and had so far spent between 14 to 19 million dollars for this alone.

Quoting western experts, it said most of this money was being funnelled through Saudi Arabia.

Media reports said Pakistan planned a quick sweep of the Taliban-led offensive in Afghanistan followed by withdrawal of 30,000 to 40,000 of these mercenaries for infiltration into Kashmir for what was being calculated by a Pakistani general as a “decisive phase in Kashmir”.

However, mass genocide of Shias by Taliban forces in Mazar-i-Sharif and its repercussion in Iran have upset the Pakistani plan, the reports said.

Australia asks India, Pak to sign CTBT

SYDNEY, Sept 16 (PTI) — Australia today asked India and Pakistan to sign the CTBT soon and ruled out Canberra’s role in resolution of the Kashmir issue.

By signing the CTBT, India and Pakistan can play much more positive role towards nuclear disarmament and "we hope the two countries will move to sign the treaty and do so soon," the Foreign Minister, Mr Alexander Downer, told foreign journalists here.

"India and Pakistan took a decision to (conduct nuclear) tests and now have to show as members of the international community that they are prepared to pull their weight and take action, including confidence-building measures such as signing the treaty," he said.

Referring to the Kashmir issue, he conceded that Australia had no role in its resolution since the Indian Government had made it clear that New Delhi did not want any third party intervention.

Mr Downer claimed that he, more than many Australian Foreign Ministers in recent years, had made a greater bid for building relations with India, which many diplomatic observers believe are at the lowest ever.

However, he said, "We would thank them if they move to sign the treaty and start to play a much more positive role as they have shown they can in the conference on disarmament."

Sharif not to bring CTBT before House

ISLAMABAD, Sept 16 (PTI) — In a sudden turn-around, the Nawaz Sharif government today dropped its plan to bring a draft resolution in Parliament for signing of the CTBT, but said a final decision will be taken keeping national interests in mind.

Bowing to the intense pressure from the Opposition, the Foreign Minister, Mr Sartaj Aziz, said the House has given enough guidelines to the government to take a final decision on the issue.

"We assure that we will take a final decision on the signing of CTBT keeping in mind our best national interest," Mr Aziz said winding up the four-day discussion in the joint session of Parliament over the CTBT today.

Parliament was later prorogued.

Mr Aziz, however, gave enough hints that Pakistan has more or less decided to sign the treaty as he pointed out that the CTBT only bans further tests, but does not stop from carrying forward the nuclear programme with the help of "cold tests".

He said "Pakistan can come out of the treaty even after signing it if India carries out another nuclear tests and that the signing of the treaty is not going to affect the nuclear deterrent Pakistan has already achieved."

Referring to the demands made by several members that the signing of the CTBT should be linked to the solution of Kashmir, Mr Aziz said Pakistan has already made it clear to the world powers that unless the issue was settled peace cannot return to the South Asia.

He further said after the nuclear tests in May this year, the problem of Kashmir has become more serious and the leading powers of the world are more and more realising it.

"We want to assure this house that we will sign the CTBT only after we will be assured that the unjustified sanctions — both economic and non-economic — will be removed", Mr Aziz said.

The Foreign Minister pointed that most of the members, including those from the Opposition parties before their walkout, were almost unanimous in their view against the proliferation of the nuclear weapons in the world, which is the aim of the CTBT.

The government, however, dropped its plan to move a draft resolution in the joint session for securing an authorisation from Parliament for signing the treaty as several members of the ruling Pakistan Muslim League also expressed their apprehensions over the signing of the CTBT by Pakistan thus giving clear signal that the authorisation resolution may face difficulty on the floor of the House.

Earlier despite "best efforts" of the government, the Opposition led by the Pakistan People’s Party and Awami National Party, who had staged a walkout on Tuesday, refused to come back to the House as they maintained that the government was using Parliament just as a "rubber stamp".

White House shifts strategy

WASHINGTON, Sept 16 (Reuters) — Congressional Republicans have pushed for release of the videotape of US President Bill Clinton’s grand jury testimony about Monica Lewinsky as the White House beefed up its effort to head off impeachment.

At the same time, Representative Henry Hyde, the Illinois Republican who heads the House of Representatives Judiciary Committee, warned Clinton supporters yesterday not to dig into the private lives of members of Congress to find embarrassing details.

“Efforts to intimidate members of Congress or interfere with the discharge of their official duties in relation to the impeachment matter could constitute violation of federal criminal law,” Mr Hyde said.

Mr Peter Kadzik, a new member of Clinton’s team of legal advisers, signalled a shift in White House strategy, acknowledging that legalistic arguments about whether Mr Clinton committed perjury were not the best way to avert impeachment.

“The whole issue of whether or not there should be an impeachment inquiry is one that’s a political decision that’s going to be made by members of Congress,” Mr Kadzik told CNBC. “And in that situation, making technical legal arguments isn’t going to work.”

He said Mr Clinton’s advisers needed to bring public opinion — which has remained strongly in the President’s favour despite the damning Starr report — to bear on lawmakers.

Several members on the judiciary committee and its staff went to a guarded room near the Capitol to review 17 boxes of evidence that Mr Starr said supported his claim Mr Clinton committed possibly impeachable offences during the affair with the former White House intern.

Republican and Democratic judiciary staff met late into the evening to try to reach agreement on what material would be released to the public first.

The committee, facing its first possible presidential impeachment hearings since Richard Nixon in 1974, was due to meet in closed session, probably tomorrow, to vote on how much more material should be given to a public that, according to polls, has had enough already.

Meanwhile, US public support for having President Bill Clinton serve the remainder of his term remains fairly strong, according to a fresh New York Times/CBS News poll.

In a telephone survey by The New York Times, 58 per cent of respondents opposed beginning impeachment hearings against the President.

Significantly, out of 61 per cent who said they believed Mr Clinton asked Monica Lewinsky to lie under oath, a full half said the country would be best served if he stayed in office through the end of his term.

Fifty-seven per cent of respondents believed the President should be censured. But at the same time, 68 per cent said the investigation against the President had not been worthwhile.

President Clinton’s approval rating remained practically unchanged at 62 per cent, against 60 per cent earlier this month and 65 per cent last month after he admitted to an affair with Lewinsky. When the scandal broke in January, Clinton’s approval rating was 56 per cent.

Mr Clinton’s personal image, however, did take some beating with 66 per cent of those surveyed saying he did not share their moral values.

Only five per cent of the respondents said they had read independent counsel Kenneth Starr’s report on the Monica affair in full, while 50 per cent said they had read only part of it.

SADC to treat Savimbi as war criminal

BAIA GRANDE (Mauritius), Sept 16 (Pool-Angop) — The Heads of State and Government of the South Africa Development Community (SADC) have agreed to declare UNITA faction leader Jonas Savimbi as a war criminal and have decided to support the UNITA Emerging Renewal Committee.

In a declaration at the SADC annual summit here, the Heads of State of the 14-member community said Savimbi had proved himself incapable of leading the party towards peace in Angola.

They recognised the UNITA rebel renewal movement as competent enough to act as a government partner in the search for a fair solution to the country’s peace process and strengthening of democracy in Angola.

The summit appealed to the United Nations, the peace process observers (the US, Russia, and Portugal) and the international community to recognise the new UNITA leadership.

They also called upon members of the international community to support and encourage the emerging UNITA leadership of the Lusaka protocol as soon as possible.

Anti-Chinese riots in Sumatra

JAKARTA, Sept 16 (DPA) — Thousands of rioters stormed through an east Sumatra city last night torching hundreds of homes, shops and hotels in the latest round of disturbances to strike the troubled country, police and news reports said today.

Lieutenant Colonel Luther Harefa, police chief of the Bengkalis district of Riau province, said fires in the coastal city of Bagansiapi-Api were burning through this morning. He said the town lacked firefighting equipment.

“The situation of Bagansiapi-Api was under control. There is no more burning by the mobs against shops and homes. But the fire was still unable to be put out because there is no fire extinguisher here,” Mr Harefa said in an interview broadcast by SCTV television.

He said about 3,000 angry people went on the rampage and estimated that as many as 400 homes, shops, hotels, markets and government offices were set ablaze by the rioters.

Luxembourg Premier
LUXEMBOURG: Luxembourg Prime Minister Jean Claude Juncker will visit India in January, officials accompanying President K.R. Narayanan indicated here on Wednesday. Mr Narayanan, who flew to Ankara on a six-day visit to Turkey after concluding a three-day tour in Luxembourg, had extensive talks with Juncker and his Deputy, Jacques Poos to boost economic ties between the two countries. —AFP

Assembly on democracy
WASHINGTON: The National Endowment for Democracy (NED), a worldwide forum to defend and strengthen democracy, with hold its first assembly in Delhi in February. The four-day long meeting, beginning on February 14, would be the first in a series of assemblies where a growing community of Democrats would discuss how to defend and strengthen democracy, said the Congressionally-funded organisation. —PTI

Transgenic sheep
AUCKLAND: A Scottish company, which created the world’s first cloned sheep, wants to “field test” in New Zealand a flock of transgenic sheep to produce milk containing human genes. The company, PPL Therapeutics, has already imported semen from genetically engineered sheep in Britain for a conventional breeding programme using New Zealand ewes. —AFP

Taiwan’s membership
United Nations: Friends of Taiwan have once again failed to put the issue of its representation in the UN on the agenda of the General Assembly in the face of strong opposition from China. Nigeria on Tuesday led 11 countries in asking the issue to be brought on the agenda.

27 killed in mishap
BEIJING: As many as 27 persons were killed in China’s Shaanxi province when a train collided with a bus carrying a wedding party, the Canton Yangcheng Wanbai newspaper reported on Wednesday. The bus, carrying 70 persons, was on its way to the town of XI’an when it was hit by the train at an unmanned level crossing and dragged 200 metres down the line. —DPA

Malaysian ex-minister
KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia’s sacked Finance Minister Anwar Ibrahim would be charged for holding public assemblies without a permit, Bernama news agency quoting a senior police official said. Anwar had contravened the Police Act and appropriate action would be taken against him, Inspector-General of Police (IGP) Abdul Rahim Noor was quoted as saying on Tuesday —Reuters

‘Land of the giants’
DUBAI: The Gulf Emirate of Dubai is turning into a “land of the giants” as rivals from Pakistan and Somalia line up for the title of the world’s tallest man that was vacated by a Pakistani record-holder who died in July. Khaleej Times newspaper said a Somali measuring 2.49 metre strode into its offices on Monday to dispute the claim of a Pakistani student who wants to enter the Guinness Book of World Records. — AFP

Death penalty
BEIJING: A Chinese court has sentenced three drug traffickers to death penalty for smuggling over four tonnes of marijuana from Cambodia, an official report said here on Wednesday. The Shanwei Intermediate People’s Court of Guangdong province in South China found the three, along with six others, guilty of smuggling 4,354 kg of marijuana from Cambodiad — PTI

Missile interceptor
NICOSIA: Israel will soon carry out another test launch of its Arrow defence system — this time to test the interception of a missile. Reports from Jerusalem quoted Israeli Defence Minister Yitzak Mordechai as saying that a real missile would be fired so as to try to intercept it. This, he said, would allow them to check that the programme was operational. — ANI