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| Wednesday, January 5, 2000, Chandigarh, India  
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Israel-Syria talks fail on first day Pak denies role in hijacking Suicide bomber identified |
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Clashes leave many dead Dry fields breed poverty in China Chandrika may dissolve House this week
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Israel-Syria talks fail on first day SHEPHERDSTOWN, W.VA., Jan 4 (Reuters) — US Secretary of State Madeleine Albright will shuttle between Israeli and Syrian leaders again after President Bill Clinton failed to bring the old foes together for the three-way peace talks. Senior sources in the Israeli delegation said yesterday the hitch was over which issues negotiators would tackle first: Israel insisted on talking about security and normalisation while Syria wanted to discuss an Israeli pullout from the Golan Heights. After about nine hours of on-off separate meetings with the leaders of the visiting delegations, Mr Clinton left for Washington and State Department spokesman James Rubin said a trilateral meeting would not be possible yesterday. White House spokesman Joe Lockhart said a decision would be made today whether Mr Clinton would return to the talks on their second day. "They are getting into the tough issues that they’ve got to work through," he added. Mr Albright, who alternated with Mr Clinton as a mediator throughout yesterday, would resume her efforts today, officials said, downplaying any hopes for a speedy peace deal. "It’s our view that progress can be made and we hope progress will be made, but we have no reason to assume or expect that a core agreement can be achieved in a short number of days," Mr Rubin told reporters. AFP adds: Mr James Rubin denied reports from Israeli sources that the three sides had met at a dinner, saying that such a meeting had never been anticipated. "There was never a plan for a formal three-way discussion and this impression was created earlier in the day," he said. He denied that the lack of such a trilateral meeting on the first day of the talks constituted a setback. "I wouldn’t say that all is lost or that there has been a breakthrough," Mr Rubin told reporters, maintaining that direct talks were" not the only way to make progress." An Israeli official nonetheless said the talks hit an impasse when Syria cancelled a planned trilateral dinner meeting of Mr Clinton, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak and Syrian Foreign Minister Faruq Al-Shara. DAMASCUS, (AP): Meanwhile, Syrians staged a sit-in denouncing the Jewish state and demanding the immediate release of Syrian prisoners in Israeli jails. The protest was a reminder of the many thorny issues facing negotiators, and the need for both sides to take steps to build each other’s confidence. Some 50 protesters, mostly university students, gathered at the offices of the International Committee for the Red Cross here carrying portraits of 17 Syrians from the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights imprisoned in Israel. |
Pak denies role in hijacking ISLAMABAD, Jan 4 (PTI) — Pakistan has dismissed India’s charge that Islamabad was involved in the hijacking of an Indian Airlines plane, saying that it is a propaganda to cover its own "state terrorism" and influence the USA. "The latest accusations appeared designed to divert domestic denunciations for the inefficiency and insensitivity of the Indian Government to the pain and suffering of the hostages of the hijacked Indian airliner," Pakistan Foreign Minister Abdus Sattar said yesterday. His reaction came following Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee’s remarks yesterday that Pakistan’s role in fomenting terrorism in India has now been exposed and that India would strive to get Pakistan declared a "terrorist state". Mr Sattar told the official APP news agency that "in doing so, India no doubt wants the world opinion to ignore India’s abhorrent record of state terrorism". He also accused India of launching this propaganda campaign against Pakistan in a bid to get closer to the USA saying that, "Vajpayee’s statement also points to a pre-conceived objective of building a strategic relationship with the USA on trumped-up charges of terrorism against Pakistan". Mr Sattar’s comments came as Pakistan virtually expressed its unwillingness to nab the Hijackers of the Indian Airlines plane even if they enter Pakistan, while accusing India that New Delhi had not provided any details of the hijackers despite holding negotiations with them during the eight-day long drama at the Kandahar Airport. Leading Pakistan daily ‘Jung’ had earlier quoted a Taliban spokesman saying that in Kandahar that the hijackers were headed towards the Pakistani city of Quetta. Pakistani Foreign Office spokesman Tariq Altaf in a statement yesterday, alleged that the Indian negotiators were holding "exclusive negotiations" with the hijackers with the help of specialised communications equipments which no one else had listened. He also said Pakistani authorities on the Pakistan-Afghanistan border had been asked to maintain strict vigil and asked to arrest persons bearing the names of hijackers announced by the Indian Government if they sought entry into Pakistan. SHEPHERDSTOWN, WEST VIRGINIA (AFP): Pakistan has assured the USA that it will act in compliance with international aviation agreements and arrest the hijackers of an the Indian Airlines Jet plane should they be found on its soil, State Department spokesman James Rubin told reporters yesterday. DHAKA (PTI): Bangladesh on Tuesday endorsed India’s appeal for a global stand against terrorism and said Dhaka was committed to combat the menace in any part of the world. Bangladesh "condemns terrorism in any part of the globe and considers it as a serious violation of human rights", Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Abul Hasan Chowdhury said. |
Suicide bomber identified COLOMBO, Jan 4 (UNI) — The LTTE woman suicide bomber, who blew herself at an election rally in an abortive attempt to kill President Chandrika Kumaratunga last month, has been identified as Gunanayagam Leela Laxmi, known as ‘Neero,’ a resident of eastern Batticaloa investigating agencies said. The special CID investigation team probing the case had gone to Batticaloa where Laxmi is believed to have lived. It has taken into custody a woman and her daughter, believed to be the mother and sister of the suspected female suicide bomber and brought them to Colombo for questioning. The police team had also questioned the Principal of Vinaynagar Vidyalaya where the suspect had her education. According to preliminary investigation, Laxmi had joined LTTE 10 years ago and was a member of the LTTE suicide squad known as the Black Tiger unit. Sources said the CID had already found some clues regarding the bombing incident in which 23 persons were killed and 120 injured. Another CID team has gone to Jaffna to carry out further investigations. More than 15 persons have been taken into custody on suspicion in connection with the December 18 blast. Meanwhile, the Sri Lankan President, Ms Chandrika Kumartunga has castigated a top police official for "prematurely blaming" her senior bodyguards for security lapses during last month’s assassination attempt on her. In a television interview here last night, the President said the comments by DIG Indra de Silva, who is heading the probe into the December 18 blast at her election rally, were "premature" and the lapses were "committed" by local police personnel. |
Clashes leave many dead AMBON, Jan 4 (AP) — Dozens of people were killed today in the latest clash between Christians and Muslims in the strife-torn spice islands, security forces said. Military spokesman Lt Col IWA Budiman said the two warring sides started fighting this morning and clashes were still continuing in Masohi town on seram island, 2,600 km east of Jakarta. "The fighting is still going on but initial reports suggest at least dozens dead and scores injured," he said. In the Maluku provincial capital of Ambon, the situation was peaceful but tense as soldiers, the police and marines continued a massive sweep of the port city searching for illegal weapons. Most of the thousands of confiscated weapons were homemade, including daggers, pipe bombs, spears and bows and arrows. In neighbouring north Maluku province, the exodus of refugees from Halmahera island continued, as the death toll from a week of violence rose. The police reported that at least 15 persons were killed on Halmahera yesterday. Official statistics say more than 400 persons were killed in last week’s fighting, but unconfirmed media reports in Jakarta claimed the figure was much higher. JAKARTA: (Reuters): Indonesian police is investigating allegations that 200 muslims have been massacred in a village in the remote spice islands, as Christians and Muslims continued fighting today. A policeman on Ternate island, in the northern spice islands, told reuters almost 200 persons had died on neighbouring Halmahera island already this week despite the arrival of thousands of extra soldiers in the area. "Clashes happen on a daily basis,’’ he said. "Nearly 200 persons have been killed in new violence in Halmahera this week.’’ He said dozens more had died on Ternate. "It’s still tense out there, but ternate is quiet.’’ The official Antara news agency said police was investigating allegations that 200 Muslims were massacred in the Halmahera village of Togolua on December 27. It gave no details. At least 8,000 extra soldiers had been rushed to the northern part of the spice islands, or Moluccas, in Indonesia’s remote east in a bid to quell the fighting, Antara said. More than 500 persons have died in just over a week of clashes as Christians and Muslims battle each other with guns, machetes and home-made bombs, said officials in the provincial capital Ambon, 2,300 km (1,400 miles) east of Jakarta. But the remoteness of the Moluccas — covering 86,000 square kilometres — and poor communications make an accurate count difficult. Ambon was quiet today as markets and some banks reopened in the once sleepy port town that now looks like a battlefield. The police says 1,500 persons have died in fighting between Christians and Muslims over the past year in one of mainly-Muslim Indonesia’s worst religious conflicts. |
Freed cleric can return to Pak: regime KARACHI, Jan 4 (AFP) — A jailed Islamic cleric freed by India in a deal with the hijackers of an Indian Airlines plane could return home if his Pakistani identity was established, a military spokesman said today. "He has a right to come back to Pakistan but only if he is the genuine one. He has not committed any offence, "Brig Rashid Qureshi told reporters here. "Nobody knows whether the gentleman who was released was Maulana Masood Azahar or not. Afghans don’t, the Pakistanis have not seen him. "One needs to establish the identity of the hijackers and of the Maulana (cleric)." He denied Indian allegations that the hijackers had entered Pakistan after the hostage drama ended on Friday with the release of 154 hostages in exchange for the freedom of three militants. "To our best of knowledge the hijackers have not crossed our borders. If they do then they will be arrested and punished," he said. Azhar and two militants, Mushtaq Ahmad Zargar and Ahmed Umar Syed Sheikh, a British passport holder, were brought from India and freed in Kandahar, Afghanistan, on Friday. |
Dry fields breed poverty in China DINGXI China, Jan 4 (Reuters) — Zhou Tianxi’s fields are dry and cracked, and if he relied on farming to put food on his table, his family would go hungry. Zhou lives in China’s poorest county — Dingxi, in the barren north-west province of Gansu — and like many of his neighbours he must head to the city to supplement his meagre earnings from farming. "There just isn’t enough to eat," Zhou said of his harvest this year of 300 kg of wheat. After sowing his single crop, the stocky 35-year-old farmer toils in a brick factory in Yinchuan, capital of nearby Ningxia-province, leaving his wife to till the soil and care for their two young children until harvest. Beijing boasts it has reduced those living below the poverty line to 42 million compared with about 300 million in the mid-1980s. "This is immensely impressive,’’ said Juergen Voegele, a Beijing-based agricultural economist at the World Bank, which has provided billions of dollars in soft credit to China since 1990. But "to reach the remaining absolute poor has become much more difficult", he said. The poorest of the poor are scattered in small pockets of misery in mountainous regions like Dingxi county. Migration may be the only answer, but persuading illiterate peasants to uproot themselves is a tough challenge. Water is precious in north-west China, much of it a lunar landscape of eroded soil and deserts. Average rainfall is about 300 mm a year, or about one-third that in south China. "Dingxi is famous. It’s famous for its destitution," said county deputy chief Yang Ruiying. "We’re poor not because we are dumb or lazy," said Yang, herself a former farmer. "We’re poor because natural conditions are tough." Most of Dingxi’s wells are dry and its 90,000 families mostly rely for drinking water on rain that runs off their roofs and is channelled through pipes into backyard storage tanks built with government money. Only 20 per cent of the households have tap water. Far fewer — 4.5 per cent — have telephones. Without refrigerators, most farmers dip pork in oil to preserve it for five to six months. Some have gone for years without eating meat. Animal dung is used to heat homes and brick beds. Some families share one thin quilt. Stories of brothers sharing one pair of pants are common. A piece of doggerel describes life in Dingxi. "For lighting, we depend on oil for communications, our throats for transportation, our feet for farming, cows and for entertainment, sex." By Dingxi standards, Zhou is by no means poor. In fact, his pitiful grain harvest, plus the 370 yuan he scrapes in each month at the brick factory, put him in the middle-income bracket. Some 10,000 Dingxi peasants make less than 600 yuan each year. The average income of county residents was 1,038 yuan in 1998, according to official statistics. By the World Bank’s reckoning, there are still about 120 million Chinese living in abject poverty. The Chinese Government sets the poverty line much lower at 60 a year. "There are still many, many people that are just barely above the poverty line who can slide back into poverty," Voegele said. Poverty and famine are ancient scourges that have toppled many Chinese dynasties. Wary Communist party leaders have lately poured funds each year into their original aim of eliminating poverty by 2000. The limits of tolerance are stretched each time a Beijing leader visits this impoverished region, whose inhabitants are filled with envy as they watch their eastern, coastal cousins growing wealthy. Communist Party chief Jiang Zemin came in December 1995, weeks before Lunar New Year festivities, and sought to appease residents by ordering the southern boomtown of Shantou to donate eight million yuan in cash and 20 train cars of goods. Premier Zhu Rongji set foot in Dingxi last october and promised to give away surplus grain to farmers whose land was unproductive. In return, farmers would be asked to plant trees instead of grain on steep farmland to curb soil erosion. But one Western economist, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the plan was likely to meet resistance from farmers, who would rather be given money to terrace their land and boost production. During three years of man-made famine that followed Mao Zedong’s catastrophic Great Leap Forward in 1958, the people of an entire village in Dingxi, led by their mayor, trekked for days to neighbouring cities to beg for food. The Great Leap Forward campaign saw farmers abandon their fields to join a mad rush to make steel in backyard furnaces to boost economic growth. Today, beggars are still a common sight outside mosques in Gansu’s capital, Lanzhou. Poverty has led to a spate of other problems, including prostitution, trafficking in women and children, drug abuse and rising crime. "It’s the sheer size of the problem," Voegele said. "China has so many people and you have many, many poor people." |
Chandrika may dissolve House this week COLOMBO, Jan 4 (UNI) — Sri Lankan President Chadrika Kumaratunga is likely to dissolve Parliament this week and call for an early general election, authoritative sources said. Though the term of Parliament ends on August 16 this year, political sources said the President might opt for an early general election which could be held sometime in April this year. They said the President would take the decision immediately after the routine practice of passing the resolution to extend the state of emergency on the 7th of every month. After winning the presidential election last month, Mrs Kumaratunga had hinted that she would go for an early election to get the required majority to get the new draft constitution through Parliament as a measure to resolve the ethnic problem. |
Militants may take refuge in Sudan, Nigeria ISLAMABAD, Jan 4 (UNI) — The three militants released by India in exchange for 155 hostages in Kandahar on New Year’s eve may seek temporary refuge in Sudan, Nigeria or Saudi Arabia before ultimately returning to Kashmir, a Lahore daily reported. The Nation, a sister publication of Urdu daily Nawa-e-Waqt, quoting a "top-secret report prepared by RAW" in New Delhi, said the three militants — Maulana Masud Azhar, Mushtaq Ahmed Zargar and Ahmed Umar Syed would "cool off in one of these countries till the heat due to the hijack of the Indian Airlines flight-814 dies down." The paper said "thereafter, they will receive fresh training and indoctrination in an Afghan or Pakistani training camp before being sneaked into Jammu and Kashmir." Meanwhile, India today said Pakistan was bound to take action against the hijackers and the released militants who were reported to have entered occupied Kashmir (POK). "Pakistan is obligated to act in respect of its own territory and the territory under its control even if that happens to be under its illegal occupation," an External Affairs Ministry spokesman said in New Delhi. |
30 killed in two road mishaps Frog eyes grown in lab Killer-turned-scribe dead Ex-museum director dies of stroke Woman with 18 kids is Mother of Year Gun firm up for sale |
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