The aftermath of Denver shooting
In any other circumstances it might just have seemed appropriate that Denver, the gateway to the old west where the great plains surrender to the Rockies, is to play host next week to the National Rifle Association.

Ex-IG indicted
KUALA LUMPUR, April 22 — Mr Rahim Noor, former Malaysian police chief, who admitted in front of a royal commission of having hit sacked Finance Minister Anwar Ibrahim, was today indicted by a sessions court here.

Lords back India on Kashmir
by Sanjay Suri

LONDON, April 22 — A debate on Kashmir raised by a Pakistani-origin member of Britain’s House of Lords boomeranged on him after most of his colleagues signalled a hands-off approach.

Only a few backed the demand by Pakistani-born Lord Nazir Ahmed who launched the debate with the argument that Britain has a “moral and legal responsibility to resolve the issue of Kashmir.” He argued that “abuses of human rights are an international matter” but most of the Lords dismissed that demand and spoke only for support to bilateral talks between India and Pakistan.

In one of the most significant statements during the debate, Baroness Symons, replying on behalf of the government, said India had responded positively to correct human rights violations and that it is “for India to determine its own legislation in the face of continuing violence from militant groups.”

The British minister called for “an end to all external support for any violence in Kashmir.” Earlier in the debate, one of the strongest counters to Lord Ahmed came from Lord Avebury, who had for years supported the Pakistani cause over Kashmir. “To be realistic one must look to solutions through bilateral negotiations,” he said. These had been “reconfirmed in the Lahore declaration,” he pointed out.

Lord Avebury joined issue with Lord Ahmed who claimed that 65,000 people had been killed in Kashmir since 1989. Lord Avebury spoke of a figure of about 20,000 and added that “the evidence also shows that many killings are now being perpetrated by foreigners.” He said “political dialogue cannot thrive in the climate of fear and uncertainty which still exists.”

Lord Ahmed had spoken of evidence from U.N. observers about violations by India. Lord Avebury pointed out that “the 45 military observers of the UN throw no light on the matter” because “as the noble Lord (Ahmed) pointed out, UN reports are not made public.”

Baroness Shirley Williams said while abuses of human rights should be condemned, “it is also important to recognise that the accusations are made both ways and that there is some reason to believe that there has been support by the Pakistani intelligence services for training of guerrillas who subsequently infiltrate into the Indian part of Kashmir, with some considerable suffering and victimisation of Hindu civilians.”

Two India-born Lords joined the debate. Lord Swraj Paul said “goodwill is not often sustained by unsolicited involvement in the affairs of friendly states.” He said that “unsolicited help is most unwelcome anywhere.”

Lord Navneet Dholakia spoke far more forcefully. He said it was unfortunate that Lord Ahmed had offered “one-sided quotations on that subject.” He quoted an Amnesty report which pointed out that militant groups had harassed, intimidated, tortured and killed civilians in Kashmir.

Relations between India and Pakistan are improving and “we ought not to destabilise that process by outside intervention,” he said, adding that Britain must “refrain from intervention and interference in other nations’ internal affairs.”

It was clear through the debate that the Pakistani government has been working actively to win support for its cause on Kashmir. Those who spoke in support of Lord Ahmed mentioned their visit to Pakistani Kashmir — a visit on which the Pakistan-born Lord had accompanied them. Lord Clarke said, “Like other noble lords, I was privileged to go with my noble friend Lord Ahmed to Pakistan and Kashmir.” He went on to recount horror stories that he said he heard at refugee camps.

But it became clear through the debate that many even among those who visited Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (Pok) had not adopted the official Pakistani line. Lord Rea rose to say: “Although we were given their views of the conflict, we heard enough from other sources to learn that neither side can claim to be wholly innocent or wholly to blame for the continuing low-grade conflict.”

Speaking of Pakistani-held Kashmir, he said the “overall impression was of a beautiful country but one whose development is still very backward.” The Lords were “shown ambitious plans” but he said that “investment for such matters is not forthcoming because of the unstable military and political situation.” Lord Rea spoke of a need to end the movement of militants across the Line of Control (LoC) to India and also for a full return to law in Jammu and Kashmir.

Many members of the House of Lords spoke in support of India in language stronger than has been customary in the past. “We do not want to return to 1947,” said the Earl of Sandwich. He even took the occasion to support India’s nuclear status. “In spite of what has been said, today India needs some defence,” he said. “She appears even more vulnerable than ever to aggression along her northern border.”

The prime ministers of the two countries are engaged in dialogue, the Earl of Sandwich noted. “They certainly do not need (British Prime Minister) Tony Blair to help them,” he added.

In her reply to the debate, Baroness Symons noted there had been no resolution of the Kashmir dispute in 50 years and said “we remain deeply concerned about the situation there.” The minister said that for any solution to last, it must “involve and reflect the view of the people living in Kashmir.”

But in a significant departure from recent Labour Party statements on Kashmir, the Baroness referred to support to terrorism in Kashmir by Pakistan. “We condemn acts of terrorism and abuses of human rights that bring suffering to the people. We also call for an end to all external support for any violence in Kashmir,” she said. She pointed out that it is “for India to determine its own legislation in the face of continuing violence from militant groups.”

The Baroness said any offer of help, whether from Britain or from other countries, “must be acceptable to both countries if it is to have any chance of success.”

— India Abroad News Service

The aftermath of Denver shooting
from Mike Ellison in Littleton, Colorado

In any other circumstances it might just have seemed appropriate that Denver, the gateway to the old west where the great plains surrender to the Rockies, is to play host next week to the National Rifle Association.

The organisation, one of the strongest lobby groups in the USA, likes to argue that it is not guns but people that take lives. The NRA is stronger nowhere than in Denver and always looks forward to the keynote address from its leader, the movie star Charlton Heston.

But with 15 people lying dead — two of them by their own hands — in a suburban school with the smell of freshly cut grass on the warm breeze, the talk here last night was of mourning, compassion and the beginnings of some recrimination.

Five bunches of carnations were placed at the foot of a tree, with a sign saying “May God Be With You”, overlooking the school’s playing fields. Amy Thompson, 18, lugging around a placard reading “Stop The Killings”, said: “We’ve had enough and we don’t want it any more. We’re in this together and we can end it by creating an awareness.”

Fine words, but perhaps something of value actually will emerge from

America’s worst school slaying. The sponsors of a bill in the Colorado state legislature which would allow people to carry concealed guns dropped their measure yesterday — for this year at least.

From a distance the commotion surrounding Columbine High School in Littleton - vehicles parked on the grass, stalls serving meals to go, neat piles of rubbish and empty pizza cartons on the ground in front of platforms under construction - might have been taken for a funfair setting up for a bank holiday weekend.

But the trucks belonged to the world’s television channels, their masts reaching up to meet the snow-capped mountains beyond, the cars were for the police who had sealed off the area, and the stalls were run by the Samaritans and the Red Cross.

All day the bodies lay were they had fallen - crouching underneath desks, in cubicles or boxes, shot while trying to hide from the two hour terror. Teams of officers, rightly worried about booby traps, painstakingly checked thousands of lockers and backpacks for unexploded devices.

The two teenagers in black trench coats who had laughed and hooted as they opened fire on their classmates had left 30 explosive devices in their wake. The bombs were found in the school, and in two cars outside. One device, on a timer, blew up more than 11 hours after the shootings, but no one was injured. Some were like crude hand grenades, with shrapnel wrapped around butane containers.

As parents agonised yesterday over the identities of the dead and

missing, the sheriff’s spokesman, Steve Davis, confirmed that 15 had died, including the two gunmen. Four of the dead were women and one was believed to be a staff member. At one point the authorities had said that up to 25 had died.

The attackers marched in with guns and pipe bombs, demanding that “all jocks stand up, we’re going to kill every one of you,’’ student Aaron Cohn said.

It is a sizeable deal also for the rest of America, which has grown all too

accustomed to gun deaths at school: two in Oregon last May, one in Tennessee two days before that; one in Philadelphia last April; five in Arkansas the previous month; three in Kentucky in December 1997; and two in Mississippi.

Contrary to the violent image of America’s inner cities, all these murders happened in quiet, rural areas. Littleton is not rural, but it is quiet.

Its 40,000 people - 93 per cent of them white - sustain 49 homeowner

associations, 17 shopping centres and an average income of about $50,000, 25 per cent above the national norm. Columbine High School, one of three in Littleton, has been described as “a Colorado prep school powerhouse”.

Unlike many schools, Columbine did not screen pupils for weapons on the grounds that it is just not that sort of place. Ms Brown said: “No matter how inconvenient it is the schools should be doing a better job of security.” Despite that her group believes in the right to bear arms.

—The Guardian, London

Gun control to be poll issue
from Martin Kettle in Washington

THE Littleton gun killings are set to re-energise the passionate debate about gun control, pitting the mounting indignation of parents and urban dwellers against the multi-billion dollar gun industry and the country’s most powerful lobbying group, the National Rifle Association.

There can be little doubt that, once the initial mourning ends for the victims of Tuesday’s massacre at Columbine High School, Colorado, the gun issue will become one of the defining issues of next year’s presidential and congressional elections.

A string of high profile, sometimes fatal, incidents in schools in 1997 and early last year involving armed students has already drawn political attention to the issues of youth — especially male — violence in American life.

Mr Clinton said that the Littleton school massacre was a wake-up call to American society and hinted that he intended to renew efforts to tighten gun control.

“If it can happen here, then surely people will recognise that they have to be aware for the possibility that it could occur in any community in America,’’ Mr Clinton said of the bloodbath. “Maybe that will help us to keep it from happening again.”

Within hours of the Littleton shootings, anti-gun campaigners were seeking to draw wider lessons. “How many more of these do we have to see?” said Ms Sarah Brady, head of Handgun Control. Her husband was severely wounded in a 1984 assassination attempt on Mr Ronald Reagan.

She was supported by Ms Kathleen Kennedy Townsend, daughter of the murdered senator Robert Kennedy. “One of the things that I think is critical is now to ask the NRA, ‘What are you going to do? Are you going to support child-proof guns so that kids can’t use these kinds of guns, that they don’t get into unauthorised hands, that they can’t be used in this kind of way?”’ Ms Kennedy Townsend said.

Even before the massacre, pro-gun campaigners were reeling from a series of political defeats and legal reverses.

Earlier this month, in what was widely seen as a bellwether ballot battle over the gun issue, the state of Missouri voted by 52-48 per cent to ban the carrying of concealed handguns. The result, in a state which often reflects the mood of the nation, was a blow to the NRA, which had poured $3.8m into trying to maintain the right.

The NRA, now led by veteran actor Charlton Heston, had attempted a less combative campaign strategy, emphasising “choice and rights” as the basis for gun ownership. “Don’t cave in to the politically correct elite. It’s your choice. It’s your right,” the actor said in a campaign advert.

The make-up of the majority for gun control in Missouri was seen as highly significant, with black urban voters and suburban white voters rallying for gun control against pro-gun rural areas. In addition, women voters were more in favour of control than men. Such a coalition is at the heart of the new Democrat electoral strategy.

Six cities — Chicago, Atlanta, New Orleans, Miami, Cleveland and Bridgeport - have filed civil suits against weapons makers in which they seek to recover millions of dollars for hospital, police and other costs of gun violence.

More than two dozen class action lawsuits are also pending against the gun industry. In February, in a landmark decision, a jury in Brooklyn found nine gun makers negligent for failing to exercise stringent control over the sale of weapons.

—The Guardian, London

Attack on Anwar
Ex-IG indicted

KUALA LUMPUR, April 22 (ANI) — Mr Rahim Noor, former Malaysian police chief, who admitted in front of a royal commission of having hit sacked Finance Minister Anwar Ibrahim, was today indicted by a sessions court here.

The court charged Mr Noor with attempting to cause grievous hurt to Anwar. Anwar who appeared in court in September with a black eye, said he had been hand-cuffed and blindfolded, then hit at least seven times until he was unconscious. The news triggered international outrage.

The charge carries a maximum punishment of three and a half years in jail and a fine set at the discretion of the court. Mr Noor’s lawyer, Mr K.Kumarendran, however, said a medical report on Anwar’s injuries showed “simple hurt”, and the former Inspector-General should be indicted under a lesser charge.

Meanwhile, one of the five sodomy charges against Anwar Ibrahim is to be discussed next week when a judge would ask the government whether or not it wanted to pursue these charges.

The Kuala Lumpur High Court will next week take up the charge of sodomy levelled by his family driver in 1997.

Anwar is already under detention on different counts of corruption and unless the judgement is overturned in appeal, he will remain in police custody till 2008.

Oppn claims capture of Bamiyan

ISLAMABAD, April 22 (ANI) — Afghanistan’s ruling Taliban appears to have lost possession of the Shia-dominated town of Bamiyan after being forced to retreat in the face of a swift attack by the Opposition Northern Alliance.

According to reports from Kabul and Peshwar, Syed Mustafa Kazmi of Harkat-i-Islami and Haji Muhammad Mohaqiq of Hezb-i-Wahdat claimed the fall of Bamiyan.

Kazmi said the Harkat-i-Islami and Hezb-i-Wahdat forces launched a joint attack on Bamiyan and made a triumphant entry into the town yesterday. Mohaqiq claimed he himself entered Bamiyan at 3 p.m. (local time) and saw 30 bodies of Taliban fighters killed in the fighting. He also claimed that another 55 Taliban had been captured in the conflict.

Meanwhile, it has been reliably learnt that the Taliban-led Afghan government is rushing reinforcements to Bamiyan to try and regain control of the town. A military convoy was reportedly heading towards Bamiyan from Baghlan province via Tola Burfaq. Another Taliban military convoy, comprising the elite “Zarbati Quwa”, was said to have reached Baisood after leaving Maidan Shahr in Wardak province on its way to Bamiyan, Taliban forces were also gathering at Sighan and Kehmar areas inhabited by the Hazara tribe.

The Taliban had captured Bamiyan on September 13 last year, meeting little resistance from Shia armed groups.

Benazir’s return
ISLAMABAD: Former Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, who has been convicted of corruption charges, is expected back in this country on May 2 from Britain. Sources in her Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) told NNI news agency that Ms Bhutto would arrive either in Karachi or Islamabad. If she landed in the capital, she would be escorted to the Supreme Court where she would file an appeal challenging the Rawalpindi court’s order. Law Minister Khalid Anwar said Ms Bhutto had the right to move a bail petition while she was abroad but would most likely not be granted bail as long as she was outside the country. — IANS

Amnesty plea
WASHINGTON: Amnesty International has strongly appealed to the Sri Lankan Government not to resume executions 23 years after being a de facto abolitionist country. In an open letter to President Chandrika Kumaratunga, the rights body’s Secretary-General, Mr Pierre Sane, expressed deep concern over the recent announcement by the Sri Lankan Government that death sentences would no longer be automatically commuted when they come before the President. Mr Sane said in his missive to Ms Kumaratunga that resuming executions would be contrary to “an unmistakable international trend towards worldwide abolition.” — IANS

Khaleda Zia
DHAKA: Former Prime Minister Khaleda Zia, expressing concern over the alleged killing of six persons by Indian border guards in Kushtia, has alleged the incident suggests India cares little about the sovereignty of Bangladesh. In a statement on the exchange of fire with India’s Border Security Force (BSF) on Monday which reportedly left six Bangladeshis — including one member of Bangladesh Rifles — dead, Ms Zia held the Hasina government’s “subservient” policy towards New Delhi responsible for such acts. The BSF has claimed in a statement that Bangladeshi guards opened fire. — IANS

Pak satellite
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan will launch its second indigenously developed satellite, Badar-II in August with the help of the Russian space agency and plans to send into orbit its communication satellite, Pak-Sat, two years later. Badar-II, a satellite developed by Pakistan’s Space and Upper Atmosphere Research Commission (SUPARCO), will be launched from the Kazakh launching station, Baikanour, exactly a year after it was originally planned, SUPARCO Chairman Abdul Majid was quoted as saying by the official APP news agency. “This indigenously developed satellite with an expected lifespan of three years will weigh 70 kg”, the SUPARCO chief said. — PTI

Porn company sued
WASHINGTON: Citigroup, an international financial services firm, has filed a lawsuit against a pornographic website company for illegitimately using the trademarked name of its subsidiary Citibank to direct users to X-rated advertisements. Apart from the Seattle-based Internet Entertainment Group that sells advertising space on pornographic sites, another defendant in the case is Rafael Fortuny, a franchisee of the company, which has been accused of registering the mooted site name with Network Solutions Inc (NSI). — ANI