China, Russia flay NATO action
TOKYO, March 25 — Most leaders in Asia and Europe have expressed support for NATO airstrikes on Yugoslavia, saying early action will prevent a catastrophe of ethnic bloodshed in Kosovo, but China joined Russia in condemning the attacks and called for an immediate halt.

Pinochet can be extradited General Pinochet’s legal team swung into immediate action on Wednesday after the law Lords ruled the former Chilean dictator could be prosecuted and extradited for crimes of torture and conspiracy to torture committed after December 8, 1988. His lawyers immediately applied to the high court for a writ of habeas corpus

Mystery ships enter North Korean waters
TOKYO, March 25 — Two unidentified ships that managed to give a slip to the Japanese navy after a long sea-chase forcing Japanese destroyers and warplanes to open fire for the first time after 1953, have entered the North Korean waters, a senior Japanese official said today.

US delegation to visit India
WASHINGTON, March 25 — A bipartisan congressional delegation, led by Democratic Party leader in the House of Representatives Richard Gephardt, will visit India next week “to obtain an overview of India’s foreign, economic and trade policies.”

Pilgrims pray at Mecca

Diplomatic option ‘still there’

BUDAPEST, March 25 (AFP) — A diplomatic solution to the Kosovo crisis is still open, the US special envoy Richard Holbrooke said here today as NATO continued air strikes against Yugoslavia.

“The situation does not exclude the possibility for a diplomatic solution,” Mr Holbrooke, who failed to sway Belgrade for a peaceful solution to the Kosovo problem in last-ditch talks before NATO air strikes yesterday, told Hungary’s biggest TV commercial television station.

He said it was unusual that diplomacy stepped in while fighting was on.

Yugoslavia said earlier it was ready to continue talks but only until the moment of the attacks.

“I want to stress that diplomacy instead of fighting, or as fighting is on, is not an unusual thing,” Mr Holbrooke said in what was called an exclusive studio interview which broke an after-midnight movie.

“The communication lines are open,” he said. He, however, did not plan to return to Yugoslavia for now.

“I will not go back unless my presence is useful,” he said with his English barely audible under Hungarian dubbing.

Mr Holbrooke arrived in Budapest yesterday on a private visit, but agreed to take part in a Hungarian parliamentary foreign affairs committee session on the crisis today, MTI news agency reported. Hungary, a new NATO member, allowed NATO to use its air space for strikes against Yugoslavia, its southern neighbour.

WASHINGTON (AP): Making his case to the American public, President Bill Clinton says preventing a wider war in the Balkans and averting the slaughter of innocents are the two pillars underlying the continuing US and allied air strikes on Yugoslavia.

The mission entails risks to US Fliers, he acknowledged in a nationally televised address last night, and already has opened a rift in US-Russian relations.

As US and allied warplanes attacked in the first wave of air strikes, Mr Clinton took to the air waves to try to win support from a public largely unaware of the severity of the crisis in Kosovo, and uncertain, even, of where the Yugoslav province is on the map.

“Kosovo is a small place, but it sits on a major fault line between Europe, Asia and the West Asia,” the President said. “All the ingredients for a major war are there.”

Defence Secretary William Cohen said NATO forces would continue hitting the Yugoslav military until Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic relents in a campaign of repression and violence against the majority ethnic Albanian people of Kosovo.

On Capitol Hill, the Republican-controlled Congress followed a long-established pattern: Support for the troops in the field despite skepticism, at best, towards the Clinton administration policy.

Mr Clinton said he was convinced that “the dangers of acting are far outweighed by the dangers of not acting.” He dwelt mainly on what he said would be the hazards of not acting: greater repression by the Yugoslav Government against the ethnic Albanian minority in Kosovo, a widening conflict as refugees streamed into unstable neighbouring countries, and the possibility of a complete loss of western credibility if threats made by NATO were not carried out.

Across the country, however, Americans seemed largely unengaged in the campaign that involved hundreds of US and allied warplanes and warships in cruise missile and bomb attacks that set Yugoslav targets afire.

State Department spokesman James Rubin said the goal of the NATO air strikes against Yugoslavia will be to “seriously damage Belgrade’s military capability to take repressive action against Kosovars.”

He drew a distinction between the “illegitimate-non-democratic forces” in Belgrade headed by Mr Milosevic and the “democratic forces in Montenegro” but said that inasmuch as Montenegro was a part of Yugoslavia, the USA might strike some targets there in addition to targets in Serbia.

Mr Rubin said despite the use of the word “country” three times by President Bill Clinton in his reference to Kosovo, there is no change in the US view that Kosovo was not an independent country but a province of Yugoslavia.

CNN said according to a computer-generated forecast at the Pentagon, the USA may lose 12 planes in raids on Yugoslavia. However, in a similar exercise before operation Desert Fox” raids on Iraq, there was the expectation that 10 planes would be lost. Actually, none was.

China, Russia flay NATO action

TOKYO, March 25 (AP) — Most leaders in Asia and Europe have expressed support for NATO airstrikes on Yugoslavia, saying early action will prevent a catastrophe of ethnic bloodshed in Kosovo, but China joined Russia in condemning the attacks and called for an immediate halt.

“Japan understands NATO’s use of force as measures that had to be taken to prevent a humanitarian catastrophe of a further increase in victims,” Japan’s Foreign Minister Masahiko Komura said in a statement today.

Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic’s refusal to end attacks on Albanians in Kosovo made the NATO strikes unavoidable, said Australian Prime Minister John Howard.

“History has told us if you sit by and do nothing, you pay a much greater price later on,” Mr Howard told reporters.

Chinese and Russian leaders also spoke out against the bombings.

“I am extremely concerned and worried,” state media quoted Chinese President Jiang Zemin as saying yesterday in Milan, Italy, where he is on a state visit.

‘We appeal for an immediate end to the air strikes and to put the Kosovo issue back on the track of political solution,” Mr Jiang was quoted as saying by China’s state-run Xinhua news agency.

Russian President Boris Yeltsin said his nation was “deeply upset by NATO’s military action against sovereign Yugoslavia.”

Russia called an emergency meeting of the UN Security Council in New York, where Secretary-General Kofi Annan chided NATO for acting without consulting the Security Council.

“The Security Council has primary responsibility for maintaining international peace and security,” Mr Annan said. “The council should be involved in any decision to resort to the use of force.”

Earlier in Berlin, 15 European Union leaders issued a statement saying Mr Milosevic could “stop the military actions by ceasing his use of violence in Kosovo without delay and accepting the Rambouillet accords,” the pact aimed at bringing peace to Yugoslavia.

French President Jacques Chirac said the air attacks were launched to “defend peace on our soil, peace in Europe.”

In Toronto, nearly 50 Serbian-Canadians demonstrated outside the US Consulate to demand a halt to the airstrikes. The protesters chanted, “Hey, hey, USA, how many Serbs will you kill today?” They carried signs that read: “NATO: don’t end a war by starting another.”

Up to 400 protesters gathered outside Mr Blair’s residence in London last night to condemn the bombings, Scotland Yard said.

In front of New York’s Grand Central Terminal, nearly 80 supporters of the airstrikes traded jeers with some 300 protesters. Chants of “Stop the bombing, stop the war” by the protesters were countered by proponents chanting “Drop the bomb” and “U-S-A.”

UK proposals on arms inspections

UNITED NATIONS, March 25 (AP) — Britain has submitted proposals to monitor Iraq’s weapons, calling for a “new approach” that must continue intrusive UN inspections to prevent a revival of Baghdad’s banned arms programmes.

A British outline was circulated this week among members of the Security Council, which heard other proposals from Russia, France and the USA in January.

The British proposals are similar in some ways to the Russian and French suggestions, indicating some consensus might have emerged within the council for a new Iraqi policy after months of paralysis.

The inspections, mandated by the UN resolutions that ended the Gulf War, ground to a halt when the USA and Britain bombed Iraq in mid-December. Baghdad was accused of having failed to cooperate with UNSCOM, which had overseen the destruction of Iraq’s biological, chemical and long-range missiles since 1991.

While Baghdad has given no indication it will ever resume cooperation, the council has convened three panels to try to forge a new relationship with Saddam Hussein.

The recommendations are expected to be made on April 15, after which the council is expected to begin negotiations in earnest on a new Iraqi policy.

The USA and Britain have taken the hardest line with Iraq, while Russia, France and China have been more sympathetic to the Iraqi cause after eight years of sanctions which have crippled Baghdad’s economy.

The British paper acknowledges that Iraq’s record suggests it will not meet the council’s original conditions of complete disarmament before sanctions can be lifted.

It, therefore, calls for a “new approach” to Iraq based on a technical assessment of its disarmament status. Echoing French and Russian calls, it suggests an ongoing monitoring and verification regime to be established to ensure that Iraq cannot develop or reconstitute weapons of mass destruction.

UNSCOM and the International Atomic Energy Agency should remain the designated organisations to check Baghdad’s weapons programmes, the British paper has said.

Pinochet can be extradited
from Clare Dyer in London

General Pinochet’s legal team swung into immediate action on Wednesday after the law Lords ruled the former Chilean dictator could be prosecuted and extradited for crimes of torture and conspiracy to torture committed after December 8, 1988.

His lawyers immediately applied to the high court for a writ of habeas corpus and leave to seek judicial review of the authority to go ahead with extradition proceedings issued by Mr Jack Straw, Home Secretary, last December. The application was adjourned till Monday.

Last night Mr Straw was under strong pressure to reconsider that go-ahead, now that the case against General Pinochet has shrunk dramatically. Most of the offences of torture, hostage-taking and conspiracy to murder were alleged to have been committed early in his 17-year reign, which began in 1973. The ruling that he can be prosecuted only for offences of torture and conspiracy to torture said to have been committed after December 8, 1988 means that 27 of the 30 charges fall away, leaving only three.

Mr Straw will want to take legal advice, but the reduction in charges will not bar him from issuing a fresh go-ahead limited to those charges. He has a wide discretion as to whether to allow extradition proceedings to proceed.

However, the law Lords stressed that the changed circumstances will require him to consider the case anew. He will need to show that he has fully weighed up the new situation to avoid a successful judicial review of any fresh authority to proceed.

The omens for success in a challenge by General Pinochet to Mr Straw’s go-ahead are not particularly favourable. Paradoxically, an unsuccessful application to the high court by Amnesty International in December points to a likely failure for General Pinochet as well.

Amnesty applied to the court for an injunction stopping General Pinochet leaving the country pending a challenge by the human rights body. In the event, Mr Straw decided not to issue the authority to proceed.

Lord Justice Simon Brown refused the application, ruling that the Home Secretary has a wide discretion in deciding whether or not to give the go-ahead for extradition proceedings. This means the scope for a challenge by either side is small.

To challenge Mr Straw’s decision, General Pinochet’s lawyers would have to show he acted unfairly, unreasonably or outside his powers, for example by giving weight to factors he should not have, or excluding a factor which should have been taken into account.

Assuming a new authority to proceed is issued and any challenge to it fails, the scene then shifts to Belmarsh magistrates court in south London, where the extradition proceedings will get under way before Chief Metropolitan Stipendiary Magistrate Graham Parkinson.

Lord Hope said the magistrate would have to “pay very careful attention to the question whether the information which is laid before him supports the allegation that torture in pursuance of a conspiracy to commit systematic torture, including the single act of torture which is alleged in charge 30, was being committed by Senator Pinochet after December 8, 1988, when he lost his immunity”.

The Magistrate has no power to refuse to send General Pinochet to Spain on grounds of abuse of process, unfairness, oppression, or breach of natural justice. But these issues would come to the fore if the general’s lawyers sought judicial review of a decision by the magistrate that the extradition should go ahead.

Lawyers believe that at this stage General Pinochet would have his best chance of success, because the argument would then shift to whether it was unjust or oppressive to surrender him to Spain.

There could be a further appeal to the House of Lords. After all legal avenues are exhausted, Mr Straw would still have a discretion to allow General Pinochet to go back to Chile, for example on humanitarian grounds. On the other hand, Britain has an obligation under international treaties to either extradite or bring to trial those thought to have been involved in torture.
— The Guardian, London

Mystery ships enter North Korean waters

TOKYO, March 25 (PTI) — Two unidentified ships that managed to give a slip to the Japanese navy after a long sea-chase forcing Japanese destroyers and warplanes to open fire for the first time after 1953, have entered the North Korean waters, a senior Japanese official said today.

“The information gathered from various agencies point out that the two ships have entered North Korean waters,” Cabinet Secretary Hiromu Nonaka was quoted by Kyodo as saying.

However, he said the identity of the two ships was yet to be ascertained.

Tokyo has asked North Korea to hand over the two ships through its embassy in Beijing and permanent U.N mission in New York.

The Maritime Self-Defence Force (MSDF) destroyer “Myoukou” fired 13 warning shots at the ship while another destroyer “Haruna” fired 10 warning shots, Japanese official news agency Kyodo quoted army chief Hosei Norota as saying.

US delegation to visit India

WASHINGTON, March 25 (UNI) — A bipartisan congressional delegation, led by Democratic Party leader in the House of Representatives Richard Gephardt, will visit India next week “to obtain an overview of India’s foreign, economic and trade policies.”

Mr Gephardt, who made this announcement here last night, said: “I am particularly interested in India’s role in the global community as it relates to regional stability and bilateral and multilateral competitiveness and economic relations.”

In addition to India, the delegation will visit some other countries between March 28 and April 5.

Pilgrims pray at Mecca

DUBAI, March 25 (PTI) — Close to a million Muslim pilgrims, including several thousands from India, prayed at the Grand Mosque in the holy city of Mecca ahead of the climax of the annual Haj pilgrimage tomorrow.

Men without distinction of rich and poor clad in seamless white robes converged on Mecca for the five-day Haj, which is expected to see another one million coming to the valley of Mina, 10 km from Mecca.

‘Titanic’ wreckage
RICHMOND (VIRGINIA): The company that holds exclusive salvage rights to the Titanic cannot prevent sightseeing tours of the famous shipwreck, a federal appeals court has ruled. A three-judge panel of the 4th US Circuit Court of Appeals reversed a judge’s ruling that RMS Titanic Inc’s exclusive rights include viewing and photographing the wreckage in international waters, 645 km off Newfoundland, Canada. — AP

Ex-agent jailed
TEL AVIV: A former Mossad agent was sentenced to five years in prison for falsifying intelligence reports that suggested Syria was preparing for war against the Jewish state. Yehuda Gil (64) had been convicted by a Tel Aviv court earlier this month of faking and stealing documents with the intention of harming state security, and of fraud. Gil was sentenced on Wednesday. — AFP