Lanka’s temple for temple
COLOMBO, June 6 — The Sri Lankan Government proposes to construct a $ 600-million project to build a multi-religious temple at Muthurajawela, North of Colombo, believing it will ward off ill effects from a temple in South India and help restore peace in Sri Lanka, reports here said.

Sharif to visit China soon

ISLAMABAD, June 6 (PTI) — Pakistan’s Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif will embark on a week-long official visit of China from June 28 during which he will sign two agreements with Beijing in the fields of communications and trade.

Sharif’s visit, his second during the current term as the Prime Minister, is crucial in the sense that it comes a month after his Army Chief General Pervez Musharraf visited Beijing and held extensive discussions with Chinese authorities, including their defence minister.

During the visit, which will be till July 4, the two sides are expected to sign two agreements — one for forging cooperation between their electronic media and the other to set up a business council for promotion of trade and business, the official APP news agency said.

Sharif, during his two-day stay in Beijing, will hold talks with Chinese President Jiang Zemin, Chairman of the standing committee of the National People’s Congress of China Li Peng and Chinese Premier Zhu Rongji.

He will later also visit Xiainman economic zone and a horticulture expo in Kunming in China apart from visiting Hong Kong, which came under Chinese control two years ago.

Pakistan has close links with China in several areas, mainly in defence, and according to western media reports Pakistan’s nuclear and missile programmes had been helped by continued contributions from Beijing.

Pak merging PoK: Sardar Qayyum

ISLAMABAD, June 6 (UNI) — Describing the present identity of Pakistan occupied Kashmir (PoK) as a ‘third class municipality’, former President of PoK Sardar Abdul Qayyum has accused Pakistani rulers of trying to merge it with Pakistan.

In an article in Jang, Mr Qayyum said after signing the ceasefire agreement in January, 1949, Pakistani rulers made strenuous efforts to merge the occupied territory with the border districts of Punjab and North West Frontier Province, expecting the ceasefire line to be the permanent boundary with India.

Mr Qayyum's outburst has been triggered by his erstwhile patron Nawaz Sharif's Muslim League's reported move to establish its party unit in PoK.

Successive governments in Pakistan have tried to establish their party units there. In 1956 the then Prime Minister Hussain Shahid tried to set up Awami League's branch although he considered the ‘Movement for Kashmir's Liberation’ a threat to Pakistan itself.

Later President Ayub Khan also toyed with the idea but abandoned it midway. But when Zulfikar Ali Bhutto became the Prime Minister, he established his Pakistan People's Party (PPP) branch there and made it plainly known that the PoK be converted into a province of Pakistan and the ceasefire line as the permanent boundary.

Mr Qayyum alleged that the present government in PoK was working to the same end which spoke of a defeatist mentality.

Mbeki’s wish to quit

NEW YORK, June 6 (Reuters) — Mr Thabo Mbeki, due to take over from Mr Nelson Mandela as President of South Africa this month, has been quoted as saying he was already looking forward to quitting politics.

“It will be very good, actually to hand over to people who sit a bit more comfortably with the notion of being a professional politician,” Mr Mbeki said in an interview with Newsweek magazine.

“The sooner that kind of person takes over, the better, because we can contribute in other ways. I dream about devoting time to students at universities and giving lectures about the rest of the world,” Mr Mbeki said.

Mr Mandela (80) is retiring after the country’s second all-race election, held on Wednesday.

Mr Mandela, who spent 27 years in jail for opposing apartheid has named Mr Mbeki (56), now Deputy President, to succeed him. The handover is scheduled for June 16.

But Mr Mbeki, who is more of an unknown quantity than Mr Mandela said in the Newsweek interview his elevation to the presidency was the result of “natural evolution” rather than ambition.

“We — many in my generation — got into the struggle to end the system of apartheid. We had no notion of becoming professional politicians.

The interview appears in the magazine’s edition which hits news-stands tomorrow.

“Even as we came back to South Africa in 1990, the idea was to negotiate a constitution and hold elections. Then we would have finished the job we were doing and could go back to our professions and become teachers and lawyers,” Mr Mbeki said.

He and other ANC leaders returned from exile in 1990 after the then ruling National Party freed Mr Mandela and unbanned the ANC as part of moves to introduce majority rule. The first all-race election was held in 1994.

Asked when the idea of entering politics first struck him, Mr Mbeki replied: “still hasn’t.”

He said reconciliation between the Black majority and the White minority was “very important” but would succeed only if White privilege was eliminated.

“We need to pursue the notion of national reconciliation, to develop a South Africa in which all South Africans — Black and White —develop a common patriotism and overcome the distrust and racial antagonisms of the past.

“But you cannot achieve national reconciliation on the basis of the perpetuation of the injustices and disparities of the past,” Mr Mbeki said.

Mr Mandela was accused by some Black South Africans of taking too many pains during his five-year term to ensure Whites did not feel threatened by majority rule.

However, a steady stream of Whites — including doctors, managers and computer specialists —have emigrated over the last decade, initially because of political uncertainty and later because of endemic violent crime.

G-8 meeting on Kosovo likely today

BONN, June 6 (AFP) — The Group of Eight (G-8) Foreign Ministers are expected to meet tomorrow to discuss the developments in the Kosovo crisis, diplomatic sources said here today.

The meeting at which ministers are to adopt a draft resolution to put before the UN Security Council, had originally been expected today, but was put back yesterday “until the beginning of the week.”

The German Foreign Ministry said the meeting had been postponed to give ministers time to evaluate the results of yesterday’s talks on the Macedonian border between NATO and Yugoslav military commanders.

In Washington, the State Department announced that US Secretary of State Madeleine Albright would leave to attend the G-8 meeting on Kosovo.

TIRANA (Albania): Serb forces shelled a northern Albanian border town crowded with refugees late on Saturday, sending relief workers and residents fleeing into cellars, international officials said.

Eight shells exploded in Kruma, 9 miles north of Kukes and about 5 miles west of the Yugoslav border, according to officials from the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE).

OSCE spokesman Andrea Angeli said there was no word on casualties and damage because the organisation’s personnel were stuck in cellars for their own safety. Angeli also said three shells hit the nearby village of Nikoliq, injuring three young women.

Yugoslavia’s acceptance of the international peace plan for Kosovo has not brought an end to shelling in the border areas, where rebels from the Kosovo Liberation Army are trying to move fighters and supplies into the province to continue their fight for independence.

Late Friday, Angeli said Serb-led Yugoslav forces shelled several Albanian border villages, injuring two persons in Perollaj and mortally wounding an 18-year-old woman in the village of Golaj.

The KLA’s press service, Kosova Press, also reported Serb attacks around the town of Malisevo, a former rebel stronghold 21 miles southwest of the provincial capital, Pristina. Kosova Press said Yugoslav forces attacked villages around Malisevo with tanks and mortars.

Meanwhile, the Albanian Government has accused the Serb Army of using chemical shells against Albanian civilians and the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) in Kosovo.

“The Serb armed forces have for the first time fired artillery shells filled with nerve-paralysing gas at civilian population and the KLA fighters,” Albanian Information Minister Musa Ulqini told a press conference in Tirana yesterday. According to the minister, the gas caused loss of sight, psychic disorders and loss of balance.

He said the Serb forces had started using the gas shells in the past two days. The area most affected was the plain of Metohija, northwest Kosovo, close to the borders with Albania, a stronghold of the KLA.

Meanwhile, the Serb bombardment of Albanian border villages had continued along the entire border belt over the past 48 hours, Mr Ulqini said.

“The Serb Army is also using heavy artillery and land-to-land missiles to attack KLA-controlled areas in Kosovo,’’ he said.

Lanka’s temple for temple

COLOMBO, June 6 (UNI) — The Sri Lankan Government proposes to construct a $ 600-million project to build a multi-religious temple at Muthurajawela, North of Colombo, believing it will ward off ill effects from a temple in South India and help restore peace in Sri Lanka, reports here said.

Two Cabinet ministers, who have launched the fund collection on behalf of the government recently met businessmen and others for the project. They were asked to help a temple complex where it is hoped a new statue of Lord Vishnu will help end the ethnic violence that has so far claimed 55000 lives since 1972. A businessman reportedly confirmed that he was asked to contribute to the temple.

Businessmen who have been approached for funds feel the scheme is based on some religious advice of some South Indian priests, who say that a Vishnu Temple in Srirangam near Tiruchirappilli has malefic effects on Sri Lanka. This temple, according to those priests, is facing Sri Lanka, thus causing evil effects. They believe this phenomenon is largely responsible for the turmoil in the country.

According to the ministers, it was not Lord Vishnu who was not looking upon Sri Lanka unfavourably but his benevolent view was being obstructed by a building, 35 feet above sea level. This was completed by former Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M.G. Ramachandran.

“It is this obstruction which is believed to be causing the havoc in Sri Lanka. Indian priests have told us that in order to counter these malefic effects, it is necessary to build a temple here. Located at the same height, 35 feet above sea level, this place of worship should face India and be surrounded by water. This is why Muthurajawela was chosen by the Indian priests themselves.” Deputy Defence Minister Anuruddha Ratwatte, one of the ministers pushing the project was quoted as saying.

A top Hindu historian has dismissed the evil effects theory as a “fabrication, fable or myth.”

According to Prof S. Pathmananthan, Vice-Chairman of the University Grants Commission, the Temple in Trichy is 2000 years old and has repeatedly undergone reconstruction. In Sri Lanka, a story has been propagated during the past 15 years that there is an inscription of the 13th century which says that when the ‘gopuram’ of this temple is completed, it will be inauspicious for Sri Lanka.

In 1981 when Mr M.G. Ramachandran was Chief Minister, the Gopuram was completed. A very heavy carving, the Gopuram sits at a height of more than 400 feet at the entrance of the temple. “This story has taken hold of imagination of the people in Sri Lanka. I believe the story should be treated as a myth or fable,” he said.

Hindu Council President Yogendra Duraiswamy said it was believed by some that this Gopuram at the Srirangam temple brought ill luck to Sri Lanka. “If this is so why is that no such ill effects have been noticed in the areas of Tamil Nadu which are South of the Gopuram?, he asked.

However, reaction among businessmen was varied. One said both the ministers had said in a letter that malefic effects from the Trichy temple needed to be warded off and financial support for this was required from businessmen. Apart from a letter requesting for funds, they were given no other details of the project.

Reports here said plans are underway to sea-freight a massive statue of Lord Vishnu from Tamil Nadu to Sri Lanka.

MTV movie awards
SANTA MONICA: The MTV generation has put its youthful stamp on the movies at the MTV movie awards with “There’s Something About Mary” winning best movies and Jim Carry and Cameron Diaz taking top acting awards. Carrey, hidden under shoulder-length wig and fake beard, was named best male in a film for “The Truman Show” and Diaz best female for her hit comedy “There’s Something About Mary” on Saturday. One of the hottest category “Best Kiss”, went to Gwyneth Paltrow and Joseph Fienness for their steamy on-screen romance in “Shakespeare in Love”. — Reuters

Jazz singer dead
LOS ANGELES: American Jazz singer and composer Mel Terme (73) died on Saturday from complications following a stroke he suffered in 1996, media reports said. He was 73. Torme, wrote more than 300 songs and co-authored the classic “The Christmas Songs” with the line, “Chestnuts Roasting on an Open Fire...” The song was a hit for singer Nat “King” Cole in 1946 and was also recorded by Torme himself. — DPA

Rebels kill 63
BRAZZAVILLE (Republic of Congo): Rebels ambushed an Army supply truck filled with local residents outside the capital, killing all 63 persons inside, according to military officials. Col-Jean Robert Obargui said on Saturday that the passengers, almost all civilians and many of them children, had been granted a lift by the truck driver, who was delivering supplies to military troops stationed in the region. — AP

US embassy attacked
PRAGUE (Czech Republic): Hundreds of demonstrators chanting anti-NATO slogans threw stones at the US embassy on Saturday, breaking windows and injuring several policemen. The crowd marched to the embassy in downtown Prague after a gathering in another part of the capital to protest multinational corporation impact on the environment. — AP

Azerbaijan quake
BAKU (AZERBAIJAN): All 74 villages in a Western Azerbaijani region suffered damage from a powerful earthquake that injured at least 18 persons, official said on Saturday. The quake, with a magnitude of 7 occurred on Friday near the town of Agdash, about 220 km west of the capital Baku. The Azerbaijani interior ministry initially said one person was killed, but later could not confirm the death. — AP

Saxophonist dead
COPENHAGEN: American-born composer and saxophonist Ernie Wilkins, who was credited with helping the popularity of the count basie orchestra in the 1950s, died on Saturday. He was 79. Wilkins who also composed music for Dizzy Gillespie, Clark Terry and Tommy Dorsey suffered a stroke, his wife said. He got his big break in 1951 when trumpeter Clark Terry recommended him to Count Basie,he wrote them a hit. The tune was ‘Every Day (I Have The Blues),’ and Basie recorded it with singer Joe Williams in 1955. — AP