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| Friday, May 12, 2000, Chandigarh, India  
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Hostages moved to new
hideout UN vows to defend Freetown Taliban, Oppn sign pact Oppn may boycott Zimbabwe poll Cannes’ focus on lonely women Child porn trial: 57 convicted Kenyan UN troops break RUF cordon |
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Fire burns homes in Los
Alamos Falungong men detained Syria’s ex-PM to face trial
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Hostages moved to new hideout JOLO, (Philippines) May 11 (DPA) — Muslim extremist rebels have again moved 21 hostages, most of them foreigners, to a new hide-out on a southern Philippine island as the military and police prepared today to re-deploy their forces around the guerrillas, an official said. The police intelligence official, who requested anonymity, said Abu Sayyaf extremists left an encampment in Mount Tunggol in the coastal town of Patikul, Jolo Island, Sulu province, 1,000 km south of Manila, yesterday. The captives were now being held in the adjacent Mount Gasam, 8 km away from where Filipino and Libyan negotiators held the first face-to-face meeting with leaders of the kidnappers on Wednesday, the official said. "The hostages are being guarded by an estimated 400 fully armed Abu Sayyaf guerrillas,’’ the official said DPA. "The rebels are very mobile to prevent the military and police from setting up another dragnet around them.’’ The Abu Sayyaf guerrillas eluded a security cordon earlier set up by the military in the nearby town of Talipao on Monday, when they drove through a post manned by former Muslim rebels mobilised to augment government forces. AFP: The Abu Sayyaf rebels told Philippine negotiator Ghazali Ibrahim and retired Libyan diplomat Rajab Azzarouq at a groundbreaking meeting on Wednesday that they needed 24 hours to decide on a request to release 57 year-old-teacher Renate Wallert. Wallert, who is suffering from high blood pressure and is believed to have suffered a stroke, is being held along with her husband and son. Just hours after the negotiators raised hopes for the release of Wallert, a spokesman for the Abu Sayyaf said in a surprise announcement over radio that she was feigning her illness and would not be freed. Philippine Government officials, however, remain confident of her freedom from a remote village in the southern island of Jolo where all captives from seven nations are being kept. The hostages are from Germany, Malaysia, Philippines, France, Finland, Lebanon. "If we are lucky we
should win her release this afternoon," said
President Joseph Estrada’s adviser, Roberto
Aventajado, sent by the President with a jet to fly the
hostage to hospital in Manila if necessary. |
UN vows to defend Freetown UNITED NATIONS, May 11 (AFP) — The United Nations has said it will fight to defend the government of Sierra Leone and its capital, Freetown, from rebels holding about 500 UN peacekeepers in other parts of the country. It made the pledge yesterday as thousands of frightened civilians fled fighting in interior of the country and began streaming into Freetown, which stands at the end of a peninsula jutting into the Atlantic Ocean. Members of the UN Security Council were briefed by officials from the UN’s Department of Peacekeeping Operations. Diplomats said for the first time since the crisis began 10 days ago, they discussed the possibility of hardening the mandate of the UN mission in Sierra Leone (UNAMSIL) from peacekeeping to peace enforcement. In remarks aimed at the five permanent council members, UN chief Kofi Annan told reporters yesterday: "The UN is as strong as its member states...I hope some of them will come to assistance of those who are in there doing the bidding of the council." Annan said, "If the RUF is indeed moving towards Freetown, they will be checked." FREETOWN (Reuters): A coalition of loyalist forces blocked a rebel advance on Sierra Leone’s capital as UN peacekeepers helped by British paratroops dug in to defend the city, military sources said. The motley mixture of traditional hunters from the Kamajor militia and soldiers of the new and old Sierra Leone armies pushed the revolutionary united front (RUF) rebels back from Waterloo to Newton, 36 km from here, by late yesterday, the sources added. Thousands of refugees have poured into Freetown as pro-government troops rushed to key towns near Sierra Leone’s steamy seaside capital to prepare for a feared rebel attack. UN peacekeepers, the Sierra Leone army and pro-government militia fighters were consolidating their forces along the road into the capital from Waterloo, 25 km away, where fleeing residents said they heard the sound of gunfire yesterday morning. "Waterloo is now the front line," said Joseph Jalloh, an Army commander. DHAKA: Meanwhile, at least 770 Bangladeshi troops are likely to be airlifted by USA into Sierra Leone earlier than the provisional date of May 20-25, official sources said today. Sources said the
Bangladesh contingent, which includes 46 officers, could
fly to Freetown with the help of the US Pacific Command
during a routine exercise. |
Taliban, Oppn sign pact JEDDAH, Saudi Arabia, May 11 (AP) — Representatives of Afghanistan’s ruling Taliban and the opposition have signed an agreement to exchange prisoners, refrain from firing at civilians and ensure safe passage for humanitarian aid officials. The International Committee of the Red Cross will be in charge of the prisoner exchange through contacts with the Taliban and the opposition, the United Front, according to Mr Mohammed Jawad Zarif, head of a peace committee on Afghanistan set up by the Organisation of the Islamic Conference (OIC). The agreement was ironed out yesterday in talks held under the auspices of the IOC in Saudi Arabia’s Red Sea port city of Jiddah, the OIC’s headquarters, with the aim of reaching a comprehensive settlement to the Afghan problem. In New York, a spokesman for UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan said in a statement the two sides agreed on a comprehensive exchange of prisoners only. OIC officials on Tuesday said the agreement would immediately put into force a cease-fire, but Mr Zarif’s remarks referred only to ending firing at civilians. Mr Zarif called the agreement "an important achievement as a start for confidence building between the two sides. There are also some suggestions and ideas to be discussed by the leaders." He did not elaborate. The agreement comes just days after the UN warned of heavy fighting in coming weeks in Afghanistan. But the Taliban
dismissed the warning, saying they were committed to
realising peace in the country and would not initiate any
fighting. |
Oppn may boycott Zimbabwe
poll ZIMBABWE’s main opposition party, the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), is considering a national strike, a call for international sanctions and a boycott of the coming election in protest against the unrelenting state-sponsored violence against its members. Reeling from the killing of 19 members since April 1, the MDC will hold an emergency national council on Saturday. "Faced with this situation of lawlessness and murders against our members, the MDC must consider new strategies, including a possible boycott of the parliamentary elections, mass action and an appeal to the international community for more drastic action," said the MDC’s president, Mr Morgan Tsvangirai. President Robert Mugabe’s ruling Zanu-PF party is facing a strong challenge from the MDC in the parliamentary elections, due by August. The MDC had previously said it would not boycott the elections because the party is committed to change by democratic means. "But with this level of government violence against our members, we have now reached a stage where we must review participation in the elections," said Mr Tsvangirai. "To talk of free and fair elections with this state of affairs, this amount of violence and intimidation, we are just fooling ourselves." He said there was only one way his party could fight back. "The answer is that we must compete with the only weapons we have. These are truth and the people’s determination for democratic change." — The Guardian,
London |
Cannes’ focus on lonely women CANNES, May 11 (Reuters, AFP), — There were exploited workers, unpayable debts and evil capitalist bosses. With yet another on-screen manifesto, British director Ken Loach depicted the poor, oppressed masses and their struggle to survive in a cruel laissez-faire world in "Bread and Roses", presented at the Cannes Film Festival yesterday. And Rodrigo Garcia, the son of Nobel Prize-winning writer Gabriel Garcia Marquez, unveiled his first try at film-making, "Things you can tell just by looking at her", five portraits of women struggling with loneliness and fear. Loach’s Golden Palm entry is set in Los Angeles, where a group of illegal Mexican immigrants work as night-time cleaners in an office building for paltry wages. They have no health care, no job protection and an abusive boss. "Bread and Roses", which left hardly a dry eye in the audience, traces their fight to bring in a union and hang on to their jobs, some resorting to theft or prostitution to pay the rent and feed the kids. Speaking yesterday at
the start of the 53rd Cannes Film Festival, the French
Prime Minister, Mr Lionel Jospin, warned against cinema
being reduced to mere spectacle and said more must be
done to encourage movie-making outside the USA. |
Child porn trial: 57 convicted FRANCE’s biggest and most controversial paedophile trial ended on Wednesday when a court in Macon sentenced a supplier of child sex videos to three years in prison and handed down suspended jail terms to more than 50 others. Bernard Alapetite, the chief executive of Platypus, a Paris publishing company, was found guilty of copying foreign child porn videos — some featuring rapes of boys under 15 and young children having sex with animals — and selling them for between $ 130 and $ 160 each. Fiftyone other men who were found with child sex videos in their homes received suspended sentences ranging from to six months. The case followed an unprecedented police crackdown in 1997 which prompted widespread alarm. More than 2,500 policemen searched 800 homes, questioned 700 men and detained 300 suspects, finally bringing charges against 61. Elsewhere in France, more than 100 unrelated paedophile cases were opened following the two-day operation, codenamed Ado 71. Several hundred more men were arrested for "receiving objects obtained by means of the corruption of minors". Six were also charged with child rape. But the operation also led to public concern at a "name them and shame them" policy that saw five suspects commit suicide immediately after being released from custody. Those on trial included priests, doctors, lawyers, a managing director, a tax inspector, a banker, a pharmacist, a bus driver, a scriptwriter and an advertising executive. But while Mr Alapetite had numerous previous convictions for similar offences, his clients either strongly protested their innocence or broke down during the court case last March as they tried to express their remorse. The case raised questions about definitions of paedophilia in French law: half the suspects were in court for being in possession of one video. One was a retired schools inspector who had bought his sole cassette 25 years ago "because morals were degenerating and I wanted to find out how and why". Several others produced medical evidence showing that they had long recognised their "deviant tastes" and "attraction for young boys", but had never molested anyone and had been undergoing psychiatric treatment. "I have never molested a child in my life," sobbed one retired office worker during the trial. "I am on medication. I bought two cassettes from a catalogue. And now my children and my grandchildren will not speak to me." Others said the tapes had been advertised and sold to them through legitimate channels. Two expert witnesses brought by the public prosecutor, Jean-Louis Casta, sowed further confusion by disagreeing in court on the likely ages of the boys involved. But despite public doubts, Marie-Therese Hermange, a member of the European Parliament and French expert on child abuse, said it was essential that the trial took place. "We have to stop
hiding our heads in the sand," she said. "This
is a global problem which we in France have only recently
begun to wake up to — The Guardian, London |
Kenyan UN troops break RUF cordon FREETOWN, May 11 (Agencies) — Kenyan troops serving with the UN mission in Sierra Leone have broken through the lines of rebels who had surrounded them at Makeni and Magburaka, east of Freetown, the government said today. Six of the Kenyans were then shot and wounded by government soldiers who took them for rebels, the Information Ministry said. After breaking through the rebel lines, the Kenyans reached Kabala, 220 km north-east of Freetown, according to a ministry security update on state-run Democracy fm Radio. Arriving in Kabala, the UN troops were fired on by the Sierra Leone army who mistook them for rebels in UN uniform, according to the radio. Six Kenyans were wounded and have been transferred to Freetown for treatment. Makeni, 240 km inland
from the capital, is a stronghold of the Revolutionary
United Front (RUF), whose forces last week took hostage
some 300 UN peacekeeping forces, while another 200 went
missing, also believed captive. The RUF has taken
uniforms, weapons and equipment from several hundred UN
mission (UNAMSIL) troops held hostage since May 2. |
Fire burns homes in Los Alamos WHITE ROCK, N.M. May 11 (Reuters) — A raging wildfire stormed into the New Mexico town of Los Alamos, home of the biggest US nuclear weapons laboratory, destroying or damaging two-thirds of the town’s houses just hours after all 11,000 residents were evacuated, officials said early today. Flying embers set off spot fires yesterday on the grounds of Los Alamos National Laboratory, birthplace of the first atomic bomb in 1945, and one blaze swept around a concrete weapons testing building before being extinguished. Lab officials said plutonium and high explosives were securely sealed in disaster-proof bunkers of concrete and steel. A red glow visible 30 km away hung over the Los Alamos area through the night. Flames jumped more than 200 ft into the sky from Ponderosa pine forests. "My worst fears were realised. I didn’t think a fire could move that fast,’’ lab official Dick Buric told a news conference at midnight yesterday in White Rock, a small town 16 km south-east of Los Alamos. White Rock was hurriedly evacuated early today at the end of the news conference because officials feared the blaze could spread quickly down a canyon. To the north, Espanola began evacuating its 7,000 people because of thickening smoke. Energy Secretary Bill
Richardson assured residents that nuclear materials
stored at the laboratory were safe. |
Falungong men detained BEIJING, May 11 (AFP) — The Chinese police detained several people in Beijing’s Tiananmen Square early today as the Falungong spiritual movement marked the birthday of their exiled founder Li Hongzhi. An AFP reporter saw at least 30 persons being detained in the square in an hour as the police roamed the central esplanade questioning tourists. One man tried to make a Buddhist peace sign as he was dragged into a waiting police van, and police officers tried to force his hands down to his sides. Others were led away in
knots of two or three at regular intervals, with the
police occasionally kicking and shoving them into
vehicles. |
Syria’s ex-PM to face trial DAMASCUS, May 11 (AFP) — Mahmud al-Zohbi, who occupied the post of Prime Minister in Syria for 13 years, is to face trial on corruption charges, a move unprecedented since President Hafez al-Assad came to power in 1970. The ruling Baath party decided yesterday to expel Zohbi, (65) and to take him to court to answer for the "irregularities and abuses" committed under his administration, the official SANA news agency announced. Zohbi had been a member
of the Baath’s leadership since 1985. |
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