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| Wednesday, January 12, 2000, Chandigarh, India  
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Azhar’s
remark to ‘harm Pak image’ India,
Japan to start security dialogue Barak
gets frosty reception |
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| Resume talks without terms: Pak ISLAMABAD, Jan 11 — Pakistan wants to resume bilateral talks with India without any preconditions and third party international intercession in a “two-track” approach towards resolving all outstanding issues between the two sides, Pakistan’s Ambassador to the US Maleeha Lodhi has said. Cuban boy to stay in USA
till hearing Embassy
guards shoot at intruders, 1 hurt Clashes on Spice Isles leave 2 dead Indian farm scientist gets Wolf prize
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Azhar’s remark to ‘harm Pak image’ LONDON, Jan 11 (PTI) — Pakistan has admitted that a statement by Maulana Masood Azhar, a militant recently released by India in exchange for hostages aboard a hijacked Indian Airlines plane, calling for the destruction of the USA will not help its image in the world. “That (statement) won’t help Pakistan’s image in the world,” Pakistan’s High Commissioner to the UK, Dr Akbar Ahmed, said in a programme telecast over Zee TV here last night. India’s Acting High Commissioner Hardeep Puri effectively countered Mr Ahmed’s allegation that the hijack drama was “cooked up” by India and said New Delhi had enough evidence to prove that the hijackers were Pakistanis. “No democratically-elected government accountable to its people concocts a story like this which results in the killing of its own citizens. What the Home Minister (Advani) did on Thursday is to proceed beyond circumstantial evidence to provide hardcore and incontrovertible evidence based on interrogation of four persons arrested in Mumbai, based on intelligence intercepts, all of which point to not only the fact that they were Pakistanis but of the involvement of the Pakistani state in this episode,” Mr Puri said. During the 30-minute programme Mr Ahmed tried to deflect all questions. Asked whether the hijackers were Pakistanis, Mr Ahmed said Azhar has “confirmed” that they were Indians. Mr Puri rejected his contention saying India had the evidence to show that they were Pakistanis. “These are the persons who got on to the aircraft in Kathmandu as a result of a security lapse. They were not wearing masks at that point of time. They mingled with passengers for 35 minutes till the plane was hijacked. The passengers have helped identify these persons,” Mr Puri said. Asked why Pakistan was not countering the photographs and names of the hijackers released by India, Mr Ahmed said: ‘‘We have refuted this. This is so weak.” “You put five persons in a cell. You beat them up. Mr Advani has a track record. He’s the one who spearheaded the Babri Masjid destruction. He locks people up. He can get any statement,” Mr Ahmed alleged. Asked why India failed to deal with the hijackers when the plane was at Amritsar, Mr Puri said a lot of people had criticised the government as they did not have sufficient facts available to them. “How long was the plane at Amritsar? It was actually going to Lahore. It was not allowed to land initially in Lahore, that’s why it came to Amritsar, and the pilot had told the control tower that four passengers had been killed and eight more had been readied for execution. A government which has concern, for the lives of its citizens, over 150 of whom were on board, along with foreign nationals, obviously has to weigh the options before it,” he said. He said the hijackers were not in an open conversation with the Government of India. Their first reaction was — take the plane outside the Indian territory, let’s go to Pakistan. “They were not in a mood to talk to us at that point of time. We started talking to them after the plane landed at Kandahar after returning from Abu Dhabi and the facts speak for themselves, thereafter.” he said. Asked whether it was a mistake to have yielded to the demand of hijackers, Mr Puri said “It was not an ideal outcome” from Indian point of view. “But the core issue
here is the terrorism which has been unleashed documented
by the American State Department, by the US Ambassador
for counter-terrorism, and the issue is not Kashmir which
has to be discussed. Kashmir is an integral part of India
and shall remain so. The only issue is the obsessive
anti-India orientation of the Pakistani state which they
have to come to terms with.” |
India, Japan to start security dialogue TOKYO, Jan 11 (PTI) — In a major breakthrough in bilateral ties since the post-Pokhran setback, India and Japan today agreed in principle to initiate a dialogue on security and defence even as Tokyo asserted it would not resume the suspended Official Development Assistance (ODA) till New Delhi signed the comprehensive test ban treaty (CTBT). “Only the modalities of the security dialogue have to be worked out,” Defence Minister George Fernandes told Indian journalists after two rounds of crucial talks with his Japanese counterpart Tsutomu Kawara and Cabinet Affairs Minister Mikoi Aoki, standing in for Prime Minister Keizo Obuchi away on a tour of South East Asia. Mr Fernandes, who is the first Indian Defence Minister ever on an official visit to Japan, said it had been agreed that the modalities of the security and defence dialogue would be “shortly” finalised by the officials of both sides. Referring to the CTBT, Mr Akoi conveyed his government’s stand that “Signing the treaty would be good not only for the international community but also for India”. Rejecting New Delhi’s plea to resume the nearly 4 million dollar aid suspended after its nuclear tests in 1998, Mr Akoi said “in addition to offering new economic assistance, we are ready to review economic sanctions once India decided to sign the treaty.” Mr Fernandes, who arrived here yesterday at the head of a high-level Indian delegation, categorically told the Japanese Government that sanctions imposed by Tokyo following the nuclear tests were an “irritant” in the process of normalisation of bilateral relations and sought an end to it. Mr Fernandes told Mr
Kamara that efforts were being made by the Vajpayee
government to create a widest possible national consensus
on the CTBT and conveyed India’s security concerns
in the region. |
Barak gets frosty reception JERUSALEM, Jan 11 (Reuters) — Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak’s coalition partners today joined a chorus of domestic opposition to a possible withdrawal from the Golan Heights under a future peace treaty with Syria. Mr Barak was due to return to Israel this afternoon after holding peace talks with Syrian Foreign Minister Farouq Al-Shara at Shepherdstown, west Virginia (USA). The talks ended without progress but with a promise to resume on January 19. Interior Minister Natan Sharansky and Housing Minister Yitzhak Levy, both from the right side of Mr Baraks broad coalition, said they would leave the government if Mr Barak bowed to Syria’s conditions for peace. “The moment an agreement that I cannot responsibly support is presented for a Cabinet vote, we will leave the government”, Mr Sharansky, who heads a Russian immigrants’ party, told Army Radio. Mr Levy, from the National Religious Party, echoed his words, saying once there was an agreement his party would need to “head those who oppose it”. Both ministers sat on the stage at a mass rally in Tel Aviv’s Rabin Square yesterday night which despite rain and cold attracted an estimated 200,000 Israelis waving banners with slogans calling on Mr Barak not to give up Golan. Mr Sharansky said he opposed Mr Barak’s peacemaking with Syria because “we are against the fact that Israel already agreed in advance to give up 99 per cent of the Golan Heights”. The Mayor of the Katzrin settlement-town in the Golan Heights said the rally illustrated that most Israelis were against withdrawing from the strategic plateau. “We are not alone: this is a just struggle that most of the people in Israel support”, he told Israel Radio. Most Israelis would not accept the “virtual peace” that Syria was offering. According to the latest opinion polls taken last week, support among Israelis for a withdrawal from the heights is dropping, with only 41 per cent supporting a full withdrawal as compared to 45 per cent in December. Mr Barak has promised to bring any deal with Syria to a national referendum. Cabinet Minister Benyamin Ben-Eliezer, from Mr Barak’s Labour Party, said Israelis would approve a treaty once it was reached as peace with Syria would ensure an end to Israel’s presence in Lebanon, where Damascus is the main power-broker. SHEPHERDSTOWN: Israel and Syria ended a week-long round of US-mediated peace talks without progress on Israeli withdrawal from the Golan Heights, but with a promise to resume the negotiations on January 19. The USA announced the resumption date as delegations led by Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak and Syrian Foreign Minister Farouq Al-Shara headed home yesterday. US State Department spokesman James Rubin said both leaders had agreed to attend the next round at a site that was still under discussion. President Bill Clinton, who made five mediation visits to West Virginia in seven days, said Israel and Syria “broke a lot of ground” in the talks. But Mr Clinton’s
upbeat assessment contrasted sharply with comments by
Israeli and Syrian officials, who said no substantial
progress had been reached in the talks, which focused on
the Israeli withdrawal from the Golan. |
Resume talks without terms: Pak ISLAMABAD, Jan 11 (PTI) — Pakistan wants to resume bilateral talks with India without any preconditions and third party international intercession in a “two-track” approach towards resolving all outstanding issues between the two sides, Pakistan’s Ambassador to the US Maleeha Lodhi has said. “We are ready to go anywhere, talk at any place as we would like to resume bilateral negotiations without preconditions...,” Ms Lodhi told CNN in an interview last night. The Ambassador said her country would like third party intercession to solve all outstanding issues with India. India is opposed to third-party intervention in bilateral issues. “We believe in a two-track approach to try to resolve issues between us, one track being bilateral talks and the other being third party international intercession,” she said. Half a century of conflict and confrontation has shown that antagonism between the two countries is so strong that unless there is international third party intercession they are not going to be able to look ahead at this century as a century of peace and of better life for the one billion people who live in South Asia, Ms Lodhi said. On the hijacking of an Indian Airlines plane recently, Ms Lodhi said “Pakistan has declared from the outset when the hijacking took place that it deplores and condemns any criminal act of terrorism.”
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Cuban boy to stay in USA till hearing MIAMI, Jan 11 (Reuters) — A Florida family court judge has ruled a 6-year-old Cuban boy at the heart of an international custody battle should stay in Miami until a hearing to determine if he would be harmed by going back to Communist Cuba. The ruling, in which Miami-Dade judge Rosa Rodriguez decided she had limited jurisdiction over the fate of Elian Gonzalez, gave interim custody to his Miami relatives until a March 6 hearing. Her decision contradicted a US Government ruling that his father in Cuba had custody and only he could speak for the boy. The ruling was a victory for Elian’s Miami relatives, who, backed by Cuban American exiles, have fought to keep him in the USA. They had petitioned the court for custody on the grounds that the boy could suffer mental and emotional harm by being returned to his father in Cuba. “We have always believed in the laws of this country and we were very sure that a just decision would be made and this we have seen”, said Elian’s great-uncle Lazaro Gonzalez, who was given custody of the boy. Tens of thousands of Cubans rallied yesterday outside the US diplomatic mission in Havana to call for the return of Elian as a six-week-old campaign of rolling protests across Cuba returned to its starting point. The case had caused a furore that had reached from the streets of Miami and Havana to the White House. Cuban President Fidel Castro and a pack of US politicians and exile leaders appear to have seized upon the fate of the photogenic little boy to make political capital. Mr Clinton declined to say what he thought of Vice-President Al Gore’s statements that the final decision should be up to the courts instead of the federal agency.
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Embassy guards shoot at intruders, 1 hurt MOSCOW, Jan 11 (Reuters) — Guards at the US Embassy in Moscow opened fire at two Russian soldiers who had broken into their compound, wounding one of them, Russian news agencies reported. The reports, quoting the police, said the wounded intruder was being treated in hospital after the pair tried to steal a car. His accomplice was detained by the police at a nearby underground station after fleeing from the scene. State Department spokesman James Rubin, speaking at a news conference in Shepherdstown, West Virginia, said the wounded intruder had yesterday “gained access to a vehicle and was using that vehicle in threatening ways. He was warned to stop. He was then subdued by force.”
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Clashes on Spice Isles leave 2 dead JAKARTA, Jan 11 (Reuters) — New clashes in Indonesia’s eastern Spice Islands killed two persons and wounded 10 others today, aid workers said. Violence broke out near the town of Galela, on Halmahera Island. Hundreds, possibly thousands, have died in recent violence between the Christians and the Muslims in the area.
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Indian farm scientist gets Wolf prize JERUSALEM, Jan 11 (AP) — Dr Gurdev S. Khush of the Manila-based International Rice Research Institute has won this year’s Wolf prize for agriculture, the Wolf Foundation announced in Jerusalem. Professor F. Albert Cotton (69) of Texas A-and-M University, has won the prize for chemistry, the foundation said yesterday. Each will receive $ 100,000, it said. Mr Khush (54) a Fellow of the Royal Society in Britain, was honoured for his “extraordinary contribution to theoretical research in plant genetics, evolution and breeding, especially of rice, with regard to food production and alleviation of hunger.” He has been able to
produce more eco-friendly rice varieties resistant to
several major insect pests, the foundation said in its
citation. |
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