• Russia bows to Pushkin

NATO, Yugoslav Generals meet
BLACE, (Macedonia), June 5 — Senior Yugoslav military and police officers crossed into Macedonia today to meet NATO Lieut-General Sir Mike Jackson who was to give them plans for withdrawing their forces from Kosovo.

Diana, Che top icons

Congressman Gilman warns Sharif

WASHINGTON, June 5 (UNI) — Congressman Benjamin A. Gilman, chairman of the House of Representatives’ committee on international relations, has urged Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif to “instruct Pakistan’s military force to withdraw and to end its support for current fighting” in the Kargil sector of Kashmir.

In a letter to Mr Sharif he warned against the threat to peace and stability of Asia arising out of the “insertion of a large Pakistani-supported military force across the Line of Control (LoC) in Kashmir.

Expressing “alarm and regret” over the Pakistani military action across the LoC, he urged Prime Minister Sharif to respond positively to what he called the Government of India’s offer to permit safe passage for the Pakistani-backed military force to retreat back across the LoC.

“Pakistan has nothing to gain by permitting the fighting to continue and much to lose by prolonging the crises,” he remarked.

Mr Gilman said, “the international community recognised your (Mr Sharif’s) courage and distinction by the unwavering support you gave for the Lahore agreement. It is discouraging that the current activity threatens to tarnish that well deserved reputation.”

Congressman Gilman is a member of the Republican Party which enjoys a majority support in Congress.

BEIJING (PTI): A leading official Chinese daily on Saturday appealed to India and Pakistan to shun military confrontation, settle disputes through peaceful means and concentrate on economic development.

“History has repeatedly told us that war will do nothing to the settlement of border disputes but crank up the tension,” China Daily said adding the India-Pakistan military confrontation has raised regional tension.

The war has once again put a dark cloud over the regional stability, the paper said in a signed editorial, the first since India started military operation in the Kargil sector of Jammu and Kashmir to flush out Pakistan-backed infiltrators.

As two countries of great significance to the stability of South Asia, India and Pakistan should rather create an environment instrumental for their internal economic development, China’s lone English newspaper commented.

It noted that Pakistan on Thursday released a captured Indian pilot as a sign of goodwill and diplomatic thaw and that India responded to Pakistan’s gesture positively by welcoming Pakistan Foreign Minister Sartaz Aziz who is reaching New Delhi on June 7.

“We sincerely hope that both sides can seize this opportunity, show restraint and settle their differences through peaceful dialogue in a frank and patient way,” the paper said, reflecting China’s official stand on the latest clashes between the two South Asian nuclear powers.

Such a step, the paper said, would not only be in the fundamental interests of India and Pakistan but also in tune with the aspirations of peace-loving people all over the world.

On Thursday, China had appealed to both New Delhi and Islamabad to exercise restraint and settle their disputes through peaceful dialogue in a frank and patient spirit.

The top priority at the moment for the two neighbours is to exercise restraint and relax the current tense situation, Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhu Bangzao told reporters.

While describing both India and Pakistan as friendly neighbours of China, he said “the Chinese Government was closely following the development of the situation there (Kashmir).”

The situation in Kashmir this time is akin to war as India continues air and ground attacks to flush out Pakistan-backed intruders, the paper said while noting that the death toll has been rising in the military confrontation.

75 South Lebanon men surrender

BEIRUT, June 5 (DPA) — About 75 members of the Israeli-backed South Lebanon Army (SLA) surrendered to the Lebanese army after they decided to remain behind following the withdrawal of SLA militia units from the strategic town of Jezzine, security sources said.

By late yesterday around 75 SLA militiamen had surrendered to the nearest army checkpoint, the sources said.

“They were all transported to Beirut”, sources said adding that the “operation will continue over the coming few days”.

A total of 203 SLA members have chosen to remain in Jezzine and face trials by a Lebanese military court on charges of “collaborating with the enemy”.

Some 400 SLA fighters under repeated attacks by Hezbollah guerrillas, withdrew over a two-day period from Jezzine.

The SLA fighters fear either possible reprisals by the Hezbollah, which is conducting guerrilla warfare to end Israel’s 21-year occupation of its so-called security zone in Lebanon.

Meanwhile, The Palestinian Cabinet has emphasised that the peace process would resume with the implementation of the WYE river land-for-security agreement.

“Resumption of the peace process starts with the implementation of the second and third phases of the WYE river agreement”, said the Cabinet in a statement issued yesterday following its weekly meeting in Ramallah.

The outgoing Israeli Government suspended the WYE agreement, signed in Washington last October, charging the Palestinians had failed to meet the agreement. It had only implemented the first phase which included redeployment in parts of the West Bank.

The Cabinet applauded the mass protests during the “day of rage” against settlements on Thursday, stressing that while the Palestinian people “are concerned about peace, they will not give up even an inch of their homeland and holy Jerusalem”.

The cabinet welcomed the Israeli pullout form Jezzine in South Lebanon, saying it will help Palestinian negotiations and accelerate the Israeli withdrawal from the occupied Syrian Golan Heights and the Palestinian areas, including East Jerusalem.

Pak move to deplore India fails

ISLAMABAD, June 5 (PTI) — The Sharif government has failed to pass a resolution deploring the Indian military action against infiltrators in Kashmir in the Lower House of Parliament following serious differences between Opposition and treasury benches over seat allocation.

The resolution, deploring the Indian military action and expressing support for Mr Sharif’s peace initiative, could not be passed in the national assembly yesterday after the House was adjourned for the day without transacting any business amidst uproarious scenes.

Speaker Ilahi Bux Soomro, who tried in vain to restore order, adjourned the house after opposition parties led by the main opposition Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) repeatedly disrupted proceedings in protest against the government’s new seat allocation in the House.

“It is indeed a sad day for Parliament as everybody has seen this poor performance,” he said.

The opposition parties were objecting to the government’s move to allot them seats behind ministers’ seats and were demanding re-allocation of seats.

At one stage the war of words between the treasury and the Opposition provoked independent member, Muhammad Asghar, to remark that he would seriously, “consider whether the House is really a place to sit in or whether he should resign.”

In the chaos that followed the government’s attempt to pass a resolution supporting its peace initiative to defuse situation on the Line of Control (LoC) failed as the House was adjourned for the day.

The resolution, already passed by the Senate, deplored the, “brutal use of force” by India against the Kashmiri militants.

The resolution also expressed support for the peace initiative of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif to send Foreign Minister Sartaj Aziz to New Delhi to defuse the situation and underscored the need for a just and final settlement of the Kashmir issue which it said, “is essential to durable peace and security in the region”.

Moscow papers over domestic rift

MOSCOW, June 5 (AFP) — Russia sought to paper over domestic rifts over a Yugoslav peace accord today as The Kremlin’s pointman on Kosovo defended himself against charges that he had betrayed Moscow’s historic ally Belgrade.

President Boris Yeltsin met his Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov to discuss overnight air raids by NATO against Yugoslavia, saying “we must continue to search for a way out of the crisis” in the Balkans, agencies reported.

Ivanov said work on a UN resolution enshrining the Kosovo peace plan, accepted by Belgrade, could only start once the air war had stopped, and was non-committal about joining an international peace force for the province.

But while Yeltsin’s Balkans envoy Viktor Chernomyrdin said the President had congratulated him on Friday on securing Belgrade’s agreement to a peace accord, Russia’s chief diplomat gave the document a cool reception.

Russia bows to Pushkin

MOSCOW, June 5 (AFP) — Political leaders, churchmen and thousands of ordinary folk across Russia today celebrated the 200th anniversary of the birth of Alexander Pushkin, poet, dramatist and symbol of the Russian soul.

“We cannot but be proud of such a man,” President Boris Yeltsin said during a ceremony at The Kremlin to present a newly-created Pushkin Medal to academics and artists celebrated for their work with the poet’s legacy.

However, the President, who appeared puffy and appeared to lose his train of thought during comments broadcast on the commercial NTV channel, failed to show up at festivities organised at Pushkin Square in downtown Moscow.

NATO, Yugoslav Generals meet

BLACE, (Macedonia), June 5 (Reuters) — Senior Yugoslav military and police officers crossed into Macedonia today to meet NATO Lieut-General Sir Mike Jackson who was to give them plans for withdrawing their forces from Kosovo.

Jackson arrived first at the Europa 93 restaurant near the Blace border post where tens of thousands of ethnic Albanian refugees have crossed since the war began in late March.

He was followed soon by a group of senior Yugoslav officers that included Lieut-General Blagoje Kovacevic, a Deputy Chief of Staff of the Yugoslav army, and police general Obrad Stevanovic.

NATO had earlier said it expected Jackson would meet General Svetozar Marjanovic, another Deputy Chief of Staff.

Jackson, Commander of NATO’s rapid reaction force, was to give the officers a detailed plan of the withdrawal of the Yugoslav army, Interior Ministry and other forces from Kosovo.

Diana, Che top icons

NEW YORK, June 5 (AFP) — Princess Diana, the Kennedys, Che Guevara, black baseball player Jackie Robinson and kung fu whiz Bruce Lee are among the 20th century figures named in the Time magazine’s list of heroes and icons of the century.

The list, to be published in the magazine’s June 14 edition, was the fifth in a series of six special issues profiling the most influential people of the century.

Yugoslav N-reactor
UNITED NATIONS: A team from the UN nuclear agency has inspected a Yugoslav nuclear reactor for the first time since January, a UN spokesman has said. Three inspectors from the Vienna-based International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) were at the Vinca nuclear facility, about 20 km from Belgrade’s city centre, on Thursday and Friday, said UN spokesman Fred Eckhard. There was no immediate report from the inspectors. —AP

Illegal immigrants
SYDNEY: Australian officials today said they had found more than 100 persons, thought to be illegal immigrants from China, aboard a boat just north of Sydney. Customs and naval vessels intercepted the boat late last night in the Pacific Ocean just off the Broken Bay, a bush resort area at the northern end of Sydney’s suburban sprawl. “The vessel is suspected of bringing illegal immigrants in to Australia,” a customs official told Australian Broadcasting Corp radio. — Reuters

Tallest tree
UKIAH: An ancient California redwood tree which towers 367.5 feet above the forest floor has taken the official title of the tallest living thing in the world. The giant, dubbed “The Mendocino Tree” and estimated to be between 600 and 800 years old, is part of a grove called the Montgomery Woods located some 19 km west of Ukiah in northern California’s redwood country, the Santa Rosa Press Democrat reported on Friday. — Reuters

“Notre Dame” films
BERLIN: The curtain is set to rise here on the world’s most expensive musical, the world premiere of the Walt Disney production, “The Hunchback of Notre Dame.” Based on Disney’s cartoon version of Victor Hugo’s classic novel, the music was composed by Oscar-winning Alan Menken and the book by James Lapine. But the German production company Stella putting on the $ 24 million show, said the music would be “no simple remake” of the Disney film. — AFP