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| Saturday, January 8, 2000, Chandigarh, India  
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Clinton
resuscitates W. Asia talks
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| Mass protest against Maluku
clashes JAKARTA, Jan 7 — Threatening to declare a holy war in defence of Islam, at least 50,000 Muslims demonstrators today demanded that the government end sectarian bloodshed in eastern Indonesia. Curfew lifted in Colombo Iqbal
confesses to killing 100 kids ‘Bachelor’
Clinton to live with pets
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Clinton resuscitates W. Asia talks SHEPHERDSTOWN (West Virginia), Jan 7 (AP) — President Bill Clinton plunged back into slow-moving West Asia peace efforts, meeting with Israeli and Syrian leaders after the talks ground to a halt. With face-to-face negotiations between the two sides side-tracked, Mr Clinton held separate meetings yesterday with Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak and Syrian Foreign Minister Farouk al-Sharaa. Without commenting to the media, the President then returned to Washington by helicopter. A State Department spokesman, Mr Philip Reeker, said Mr Clinton would return to the peace talks again. He gave no indication whether Mr Clinton had brought about any progress. “Obviously, these were substantive meetings,” White House spokesman Joe Lockhart told reporters who accompanied the President. There was no word on whether the President was able to set up a three-way meeting or had resolved any of the knotty problems blocking a peace treaty, which would have Israel swap territory for a peace treaty with Syria. The USA wants a treaty exchanging the Golan Heights, a strategic border territory Israel has held for more than three decades, for diplomatic and economic relations with Syria. Israel captured the height from Syria in the 1967 war. Reuters adds: After six hours of apparently inconclusive talks between Mr Clinton and Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak and later Syrian Foreign Minister Farouq al-Sharaa yesterday, a US Spokesman said much work remained to be done. “These were good meetings, but obviously there are a lot of issues on the table, a lot of things to be worked through, and it’s going to take more than one afternoon,” White House spokesman Joe Lockhart said. Mr Lockhart said Mr Clinton did not try to arrange a new three-way meeting. A Syrian official later
said the three leaders would meet again to try to narrow
the differences before the talks adjourn tomorrow for the
Jewish Sabbath and the Muslim Id-ul-Fitr. |
Keep Azhar on watch-list: USA WASHINGTON, Jan 7 (UNI) — The USA has asked Islamabad to probe the activities of Pakistani militant Maulana Masood Azhar freed by the Indian Government in exchange for the hostages of the Indian Airlines flight IC-814 on the New Year’s eve. “Pakistan must assure the safety of Americans, Indians and all foreigners in Pakistan. We would hold the Government of Pakistan responsible for Masood’s activities which threaten the lives of our citizens,” Mr James Rubin, spokesperson of the US State Department was quoted as saying in the media today. A witness yesterday quoted Azhar as saying in a Karachi mosque that he would not “rest in peace until Kashmir is liberated.” “I have come here because this is my duty to tell you that Muslims should not rest in peace until we have destroyed the USA and India,” Azhar reportedly said. Mr Rubin, speaking to reporters on the sidelines of the peace talks between Israel and Syria in the West Virginia town of Shepherdstown, said, “Such language feeds a climate of hostility against both countries and incites violence.’’ He urged Pakistan to investigate whether Azhar’s activities have violated any Pakistani law and if so, he be prosecuted accordingly. Azhar was one of the
three militants released from an Indian jail on December
31 in exchange for 154 hostages held by hijackers for
eight days aboard the Indian Airlines plane in Kandahar,
Afghanistan. |
‘Expel’ Pak agents from Nepal KATHMANDU, Jan 7 (UNI) — Recent incidents of the Pakistani subversive agency ISI operating from Nepalese soil and carrying on anti-Indian operations have evoked deep concern here with social organisations staging demonstrations in front of the Pak Embassy here. The Pashupati Sena
Nepal, working for unity of the world Hindus, has
condemned the involvement of a Pak mission staff in a
counterfeit Indian currency racket and warned the embassy
to desist from carrying on terrorist activities from the
Nepalese soil. |
Window on Pakistan A Dawn editorial of January 5 says that "a bumper crop in neighbouring Afghanistan and the illegal supply from India of acetic anhydride (required for the production of heroin) are a cause for concern" for Pakistan. It claims, quoting the Sindh chief of the Anti-Narcotics Force, that poppy production and the manufacture of narcotics have been "halted". This is unbelievable specially in view of the fact that narcotics have been the major source of easy money for sustaining ISI-sponsored terrorism in Jammu and Kashmir. Pakistan has been the biggest player in the supply of heroin to Europe and the USA. The figures available from the International Narcotics Control Board reveal that Pakistan has been earning around $ 2.7 billion annually from the sale of narcotics. The link between Pakistani politicians and drug trafficking is well known. Narcotic substances are first smuggled into India and then to other countries, particularly those in Europe. The route passes through the Balkans. The manufacture of narcotics has been of great help to Pakistan's Inter Services Intelligence for financing its covert operations abroad. The militant activity in India's Jammu and Kashmir can easily be described as narco-terrorism. There is a close connection between the smuggling of narcotics and terrorism. The two are, in fact, inseparable. According to a report, there is a powerful nexus involving the drug mafia, the Pakistan Army and its ISI. Narcotics smugglers are allowed to use government trucks to carry on their illegal trade. During the Afghan crisis Pakistani trucks carrying arms supplies for the mujahideen were openly used to transport illicit drugs to Islamabad, Karachi, Rawalpindi and certain other cities for their processing, packaging and despatch to overseas destinations. This is how the ISI generates much of the funds it has been spending on the promotion of terrorism. In one and a half years
beginning from January, 1997, India recovered 19.45 kg of
heroin worth $ 5 million (New York price) from
Pakistan-trained militants operating in the Kashmir
valley. This gives a clear idea of the role of narcotics
in the growth of militancy at the behest of Pakistan. |
Mass protest against Maluku clashes JAKARTA, Jan 7 (AP) — Threatening to declare a holy war in defence of Islam, at least 50,000 Muslims demonstrators today demanded that thep government end sectarian bloodshed in eastern Indonesia. Waving hundreds of banners reading “We are ready to die in defence of Maluku Muslims” and “Stop the killings of Muslims,” the crowd chanted “jehad” or “holy war,” and “Allah Akbar” or “God is great.” The rally, held after this today’s morning prayers at central Jakarta’s National Monument Square, follows a series of smaller protests by Muslims in the capital in recent days. Up to 1,000 persons are reported to have died in inter-communal clashes during the past two weeks in Maluku and north Maluku provinces, some 2,600 km northeast of Jakarta. The two provinces, known as the Spice islands during Dutch colonial rule, have been rocked by bloody fighting between local Muslims and Christian mobs for the past year. The security forces have deployed thousands of troops to the islands, and the violence is said to have subsided in recent days. Almost 90 per cent of Indonesia’s 210 million people are Muslims. Analysts have warned that if the violence does not end soon, it could quickly spread and engulf other provinces. “We give (President
Abdur Rahman Wahid) one month to stop the violence.” |
Curfew lifted in Colombo COLOMBO, Jan 7 (UNI) — Curfew, clamped down last night in Sri Lankan capital and adjoining areas as part of the army’s cordon-and-search operation was lifted at noon today, a government spokesman here said. It was lifted one-and-half hour before the scheduled time of 2.00 p.m. as search operation jointly conducted by the police and army was completed, the spokesman added. More than 2,000 Tamils taken into custody for questioning, a senior police officer said. The police said, people who were rounded up have been categorised into four categories and were being questioned. Those unable to give proper identity would be handed over to the terrorist branch. Security here was tightened after a suicide bomber set off an explosion in front of the Prime Minister’s office on the high-security flower road on Wednesday killing 13 persons and injuring 24. Just two hours after the blast, a leading Tamil leader Kumar Ponnambalam was gunned down by unidentified assailants in Wellavatte. Office and schools in the capital, rocked this week by a suicide bombing outside the Premier’s office, shut down as security men moved from house to house. Banks and the Colombo Stock Exchange were also shut, and no trading was expected on the Country’s foreign exchange market. The curfew, imposed
after intelligence reports that more Tamil Tiger suicide
bombers had infiltrated the city, began at midnight
yesterday after just an hour’s notice. |
Iqbal confesses to killing 100 kids LAHORE, Jan 7 (Reuters) — A Pakistani man who claims to have killed about 100 boys has told a court that he was guilty and would not engage a lawyer to defend himself. Accused Javed Iqbal made the statement yesterday when the police brought him to a local magistrate where he was remanded in custody for another week for questioning. “I am (the) nation’s culprit,” Iqbal told the magistrate, confirming the statement of an investigating officer that the accused had confessed during interrogation to killing 100 children over an unspecified period. If confirmed, Iqbal’s killings would be the worst serial murders in the history of Pakistan. It was Iqbal’s first comment in court but he has yet to formally plead. The officer said more investigation was needed to determine the real motive of the killings. A newspaper last week quoted Iqbal as confessing to the crimes in detail. The magistrate, Ghulam Hussain, asked Iqbal if he would need legal assistance or a counsel to plead for him. But the accused said he would not engage a counsel. The police found what they called the remains of several children in barrels of acid at Iqbal’s house in a local slum. “I have killed 100 children and put their bodies in acid containers and later disposed of the undissolved body parts,’’ the note allegedly left by Iqbal said. The police has said parents and other relatives had identified clothes and other belongings of 74 of the missing children who Iqbal claimed to have killed. Iqbal told the
magistrate yesterday he had not been tortured after
giving himself up. |
‘Bachelor’ Clinton to live with pets WASHINGTON, Jan 7 (DPA) — Buddy and Socks, the first dog and cat of the USA, respectively, will be the only “family” President Bill Clinton shares the White House with after his wife Hillary left to live in New York this week. Mr Clinton officially began “bachelor” life when he accompanied the First Lady to their new home in Chappaqua, an upmarket New York suburb, from where Ms Hillary Clinton hopes to pursue her own political career as an elected Senator. The move, a precondition for Ms Hillary Clinton’s as yet unofficial candidature, and a major national media event, has made the Clintons the world’s most famous commuter couple. It was also a historic event, marking the first time a President’s wife has been absent from the White House since the first term of Mr Wodrow Wilson, who married his second wife Edith in 1915. This week, the moving vans, packed with furniture and household goods from the White House and previous homes, rumbled into the driveway of the $ 1.7 million Dutch colonial-era home, which boasts a swimming pool. On Wednesday they moved off, leaving Mr Clinton and Ms Hillary Clinton to unpack with the help of her mother Dorothy Rodham and finding items they had not seen in 20 years, like a table they bought shortly after their wedding in 1975. As with any other family the move was an exciting event for the first couple. “This is the first
home we have had since January of 1983, 17 years ago,
when we moved back into the Governor’s mansion of
Little Rock,” beamed a delighted President. |
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