Sunday, January 3, 1999
today's calendar
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W O R L D | Sunday, January 3, 1999 |
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Mystery
solved, claims US daily |
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Jiang Zemin facing dissent:
report
Plan
to take on US missile UNITA
“holding” UN plane crash survivors |
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Pak payments for F-16s WASHINGTON, Jan 2 (UNI) — A US daily has unravelled the mystery over the continued payment of instalments by Pakistan to the USA towards the cost of F-16 fighter aircraft even after the controversial deal fell through in October 1990. The then Bush administration invoked a 1985 non-proliferation law, known as the Pressler Amendment, in protest against Pakistan’s nuclear weapons programme and banned the assistance which had been of the order of $ 650 million a year in the 1980s. Along with it, the USA withheld the delivery of military hardware, including the F-16s, worth $ 1.5 billion Pakistan had contracted and paid for. This led to a dispute between the two countries. The Washington Post yesterday revealed that US officials had pressured Pakistan to pay for the embargoed F-16 fighter bombers even when their delivery was in doubt. It quoted sources saying that justice department had advised President Bill Clinton that Pakistan would probably prevail if it sued the US government in a court of law for recovery of planes or funds because documents showed that US officials had put pressure on Pakistan for ensuring continued payment. However, the daily said that many US lawmakers believed that Pakistan had created the problem by deceiving Congress about its nuclear intentions and by paying for the planes, knowing that delivery might be blocked. Pakistan continued the payment of instalments between 1990-93. Only when former senior World Bank official Moeen Qureshi took over as care-taker Prime Minister in 1993 following the resignation of the then Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, Islamabad stopped the payment. By then, Pakistan had paid a total of about $ 1.25 billion for the equipment it had contracted. Pakistan, till now, had not spelt out reasons for its continued payment after the USA had invoked the Pressler law. The dispute was partially solved two years ago under the Brown Amendment. In 1996, the USA delivered to Pakistan embargoed hardware worth $ 368 million, including three P-3 Orion naval surveillance aircraft. Instead of handing over the F-16s to Pakistan, it provided for the sale of the F-16s to a third country with their proceeds going to Islamabad. The F-16 settlement was clinched in principle during Clinton-Nawaz Sharif meeting here on December 3. New Zealand has agreed to acquire the F-16s, in a ten-year lease-purchase deal that will reduce the cost of the settlement to US taxpayers by $ 105 million. The settlement, announced by the White House on December 21, ends one of the longest-running and most complicated disputes in US foreign policy, a case that wove together issues of arms control, US efforts to end the Soviet role in Afghanistan, congressional input into foreign policy and the nuclear stand-off between Pakistan and India, says the daily. According to a White House
statement, $ 324.6 million of the settlement money came
from a fund maintained by the Treasury Department to pay
litigants who succeed, or would probably succeed, in
court claims against the US government. |
China ‘stole’ bomb secrets from USA WASHINGTON, Jan 2 (PTI) — Security lapses at several atomic laboratories across the USA enabled China and Russia to acquire classified information on nuclear technology, media reports said. “China was able to steal neutron bomb secrets from the Lawrence Laboratory, an atomic establishment designing nuclear, thermo-nuclear and other weapons, during the regime of President Ronald Reagan,” says a former Defence Intelligence official, Nicholas Eftimaides, in a book titled “Chinese Intelligence Operations”. “During the 1980s security at the laboratory was lax and various Chinese delegations visited the facility without appropriate background checks,” he said. “The FBI’s investigation determined several of the visiting scientists either had strong ties to the mss (Ministry of State Security, China’s spy agency) or were in fact intelligence officers,” Eftimaides said. According to “Washington Post” a congressional committee chaired by Republican Congressman Christopher Cox has found that Chinese spies continued to harvest classified nuclear secrets at several us weapons laboratories. Ironically, analysts have noted, the us administration has banned scientists from India, a democratic country, but not China from visiting these laboratories. “Newspapers first reported in 1990 that US officials had found Chinese agents had stolen neutron bomb data from Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California in 1986,” The Post quoted an FBI probe which yielded no indictments. The Cox Committee report echoes criticism of the security procedures levelled by numerous other US government reviews over the past decade. The US General Accounting
Office concluded last year that Chinese and Russian
engineers, who visited the laboratories on scientific
exchanges at the behest of their governments’ spy
agencies, had little difficulty in obtaining the
classified information, The Post said. |
Pak Christians fear Islamists RAWALPINDI, Jan 2 (DPA) — Fear cast a shadow over the Christmas festivities for the Christian minority in Pakistan. “The agitation is frightening. We are even afraid that our neighbours, whom we have known for 20 years, might come and kill us,” said Marco, a young teacher, following mass in the Catholic Church in Rawalpindi. Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif is trying to push through the Islamic Sharia law. Yet a blasphemy law which threatens capital punishment for blasphemers is nearly always used only against Christians. Although the death sentence has not yet been carried out fanatics have murdered indicated persons and defence witnesses. There have been increased calls from Islamic clerics for violence to be used against Christians, according to Mr Dominic Moghal, the head of the Christian study centre in Rawalpindi, who is seeking a dialogue with the Muslims. “It has never been as dangerous for Christians,” said Mary, a Catholic nurse, and Ismail, a student, adds: “when the USA bombed Afghanistan because of Osama bin Laden people asked us, “are you happy now?” They consider us to be foreigners and not Pakistanis like themselves.” Mr Moghal, a sociologist, says poverty and the country’s economic difficulties are the cause of the tension. In addition, envy and resentment are factors. It is easier to target minorities than to find solutions to the problems. “If the fundamentalists are not stopped there will be a genocide against minorities,” he said. Pakistan is an Islamic country under the Constitution. Nearly all its 130 million population are Muslims. The Christians, like the Hindus, make up just under 2 per cent of the population. The Christian minority stems from mass conversions at the end of the last century. Several castes who had been discriminated against as “untouchables” were converted to Christianity. In the province of Punjab in particular, missionaries baptised members of the street-sweeping caste who are regarded by Hindus as especially “impure”. The hopes of the converted were not fulfilled, for the caste hierarchy remained even among the Indian Christians. And several hundred thousand Christians found themselves suddenly a minority in Islamic Pakistan when Britain partitioned India in 1947. Even today many Christians in Pakistan have the same job as their ancestors —street-sweeper. On the whole things are not too bad for the Christians, says Mr Moghal. For a start they have a good chance of being educated thanks to the church schools. Secondly, the church authorities took over the school and church buildings of the colonial rulers when the British left. And thirdly, a lot of the Pakistan upper class went through the Christian school system. All this has made the Christian community the object of hate for radical Muslim activists. Mr Moghal nevertheless hopes reason will prevail among the general Pakistani population. “The Islamists have
money and weapons, but in elections they only have been
able to get the votes of a small minority,” he said. |
Jiang Zemin facing dissent: report BEIJING, Jan 2 (PTI, AFP) — Chinese President Jiang Zemin is facing indirect opposition in the politburo for his iron-fisted measures to prevent social and political unrest, media reports said today. A senior politburo member has expressed doubts about Mr Jiang’s revival of the Maoist slogan that “preserving stability is the party’s overriding task”, “The South China Morning Post” said. The party should stick with late paramount leader, Deng Xiaoping’s line of thought — devoting most resources to economic construction, not political campaigns, the senior cadre is reported to have said. “When the economy has improved, social problems will automatically be removed”, a source quoted the politburo standing committee member as saying. The paper said during the meeting, Mr Jiang, tried to counter the criticism by saying it would take many years before economic recovery would translate into social stability. Mr Jiang warned his colleagues that “neglect of politics” could plunge the nation into a crisis similar to the 1989 pro-democracy demonstrations. The report also said Mr Jiang had his way with the Communist party politburo as a whole backing the tough crackdown on dissent, including slapping heavy sentences on pro-democracy activists. Meanwhile, in a new year message yesterday, Mr Jiang continued to play up the need to “crack down sternly on all kinds of sabotage activities by hostile forces both at home and abroad, so as to ensure social and political stability”. Founders of a new Chinese
party, meanwhile, announced via e-mail that they would
seek to formally register the China Labour Party, despite
Beijing’s tough approach to clamp down on dissent. |
Plan to take on US missile BRITISH Aerospace and five partners in the European defence industry yesterday launched an all-out campaign to secure multi-billion-dollar contracts to supply “smart” missiles for the new generation of fighter aircraft and break a 30-year American monopoly. Warning that thousands of European jobs are at stake, Mr Alan Garwood, Deputy Chief Executive of Matra BAe Dynamics, said the aim of the campaign was to end an effective veto by the US Congress on the supply of non-American missiles for current and new fighters. The British Ministry of Defence is expected to decide by the end of March whether to award a US $1.6 billion contract to the consortium headed by Matra BAe and composed of GEC, Germany’s Dasa, Italy’s Alenia, Spain’s Casa and Sweden’s Gripen, or to a rival team fronted by US firm Raytheon and including Belfast-based Shorts. The contract is to supply medium-range air-to-air missiles for the 232 Eurofighters being built for Britain. Beyond that the consortium, an embryonic form of the proposed European Aerospace and Defence Company, hopes to win similar contracts from the German, Italian and Spanish Governments for their 388 Eurofighters. They also hope the Swedes will fit it to the JAS 39 Gripen fighter built by Saab, in which BAe has a 35 per cent stake. Over the past 30 years the USA has dominated the world market for short-range missiles through its Sidewinders, but that monopoly has been broken by Matra BAe’s Advanced Short-Range Air-to-Air Missile (Asraam), notably in Australia where it will be fitted to US-built fighters. But, according to Mr Garwood, the Australian contract is the only successful campaign of nine recent bids. “The Koreans are buying F16s (US-built fighters) and wanted to fit our Asraams with an American seeker, but the Pentagon has refused permission for it to be supplied . . . and the USA will try to block the export sales of Eurofighter and Gripen by refusing to supply missiles,” he said. “To have Eurofighter or Gripen exports resting on the will of the Americans is very scary.” The Meteor missile, a beyond-visual-range air-to-air missile (Bvraam), is up against an advanced version of the Raytheon missile, which is being built by, among others, Aerospatiale of France. Known as the AIM120, 8,000 earlier versions of this missile have already been supplied around the world, mainly for the F-15 and F-16 fighters. Raytheon says its “lowest-cost lowest-risk” proposal would also bring final assembly work to the Belfast plant. The Meteor partners say it is inconceivable that Britain would decide against the European consortium when the government is promoting the creation of a single European defence company. Although it would not automatically lead to mergers, the award of the contract would assist the consolidation of the European aerospace and dominate the sector. People involved in the
project say that contracts of this size come up only once
in a lifetime and that winning them inside Europe will be
key to keeping capabilities and technologies going in the
European defence industry. — Guardian News
Service |
UNITA “holding” UN plane crash survivors LUANDA, Jan 2 (AFP) — The 14 persons on board a UN chartered C-130 Hercules that crashed in Angola last weekend are alive and being held hostage by UNITA rebels, an Angolan Army General has said. The survivors, including 10 UN personnel, “are in good condition” after having been taken to the UNITA-held towns of Andulo and Bailundo, said General Joo Jota Manuel on State Radio yesterday. Officials said the Angolan Government had given security guarantees to allow a UN team to travel to the combat zone where the cargo plane went down. The Hercules crashed last Saturday shortly after takeoff from the central city of Huambo, bound for Saurimo in the country’s east. The UN peacekeeping
mission in Angola, known as Monua, has received several
radio signals from the plane, and said there might be
survivors. |
Clinton still most admired man WASHINGTON, Jan 2 (PTI) — A new poll showed US President Bill Clinton was the man most admired by Americans despite the impeachment charges brought against him and his numerous reported sexual affairs, according to the latest gallup poll. Mr Clinton on Thursday led the list of men Americans admire the most that the gallup poll draws up every year. He was named by 18 per cent of those surveyed earlier this week, compared to 14 per cent at the end of 1997. Significantly, Mr Clinton’s admirers have increased by 4 per cent after the the Monica Lewinsky scandal. First Lady Hillary Rodham
Clinton was the most admired woman at 28 per cent. |
Try Khmer Rouge leaders: Hun Sen PHNOM PENH, (Cambodia) Jan 2 (AP) — After a week of feting two Khmer Rouge defectors around the country, Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen made a surprise turnaround yesterday and announced they must be tried for helping draw up the movement’s genocidal policies. Mr Hun Sen said in a broadcast statement that local and international preparations for a tribunal on crimes against humanity would proceed, but he would allow the two guerrilla leaders to remain free until a warrant was issued for their arrest. Khieu Samphan and Nuon
Chea, members of Khmer Rouge leader Pol Pot’s inner
circle during the group’s brutal 1975-79 rule,
emerged from hiding last week and struck a defection deal
with Mr Hun Sen. |
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| Iraq slams Egypt for treachery BAGHDAD: Saudi Arabia and Egypt have behaved “treacherously” towards Iraq, Iraqi Vice-President Taha Yassin Ramadan has charged, blaming them for the postponement of an Arab ministers’ meeting here. “Saudi Arabia and Egypt were irritated by the (Arab) masses’ support for Iraq and disappointed with the results of the (US-British) air strikes after Washington told them that this aggression would hasten the fall of the nationalist regime in Iraq,” Mr Ramadan said on Friday. — AFP 8 die in avalanche Sodas and obesity Warning to
Belgrade Chained boy saved Arafat-Clinton
meet Foretaste of Y2K Pak N-plant Freedom fighter
dead |
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