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| Thursday, May 25, 2000, Chandigarh, India  
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Israeli withdrawal completed METULLA, Israel, May 24 — Israeli troops evacuated their remaining positions in south Lebanon before dawn today capping an unexpectedly hasty withdrawal that ended one of the most divisive chapters in Israel’s history.
Freed hostages tell tales of ordeal India backs
N-arms conference Philippine hostages
feel strain Military exchanges to “enhance” peace
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Khan’s recital for
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Israeli withdrawal completed METULLA, Israel, May 24 (AP) — Israeli troops evacuated their remaining positions in south Lebanon before dawn today capping an unexpectedly hasty withdrawal that ended one of the most divisive chapters in Israel’s history. Hundreds of soldiers, many dusty and tired-looking, drove across the border in long convoys of tanks and trucks. Several soldiers atop a tank proudly helped up a large Israeli flag. Others waved olive branches. A few climbed down from the armoured vehicles and hugged each other once they reached Israeli soil. “The nightmare is over,” said Ephraim Gandelberg, a bereaved father whose son was killed in fighting in Lebanon in 1996. However, relief was tempered by concern that Israel would be unable to extricate itself fully from what has been called the “mire of Lebanon.” Israeli Prime Minister Barak has said he would retaliate harshly for any Lebanese guerrilla attacks on northern Israel, a scenario that could lead to a renewed Israeli entanglement. By (0730 IST), all Israeli outposts in Lebanon had been dismantled, Israeli military officials said. The last Israeli troops were making their way across the border. Mr Barak initially planned to begin the pullback only several days from now. However, his hand was forced when the South Lebanon Army militia, Israel’s ally, rapidly disintegrated. Over a span of several days, SLA fighters abandoned posts and either surrendered to advancing Hezbollah guerrillas or fled south, seeking asylum in Israel. In the night, Israeli troops blew up most of their remaining outposts in south Lebanon, and evacuated the others. A big ball of fire lit up the night sky when soldiers levelled the Karkoum position with explosives. Israeli war planes bombarded several positions abandoned earlier by the SLA to prevent weaponry from falling into Hezbollah’s hands. Throughout the night, army convoys crossed into Israel, including armoured personnel carriers, trucks loaded with equipment and Mercedes cars still bearing Lebanese licence plates. At the Fatima Gate crossing, four soldiers sitting atop a tank proudly held up a large Israeli flag as they drove past waiting journalists. Others waved olive branches. Shai Mor, a 19-year-old soldier who was posted for nine months at Marjayoun, the Israeli command post in south Lebanon, said the withdrawal came as a great relief to him and many of his comrades. Soldiers are now “finished with all the fear of missiles and landmines, and all the fear of dying, in my opinion, for nothing,” said Mor, as he held a rocket launcher in his arm and watched the tanks rumble past. At Marjayoun troops left without fanfare. “We just picked up our things and drove away,” one soldier told Israel radio. Mr Barak told Israel TV in an interview on Tuesday that the homecoming of the troops sent “shivers down his spine” and that bringing the soldiers home safely made the difficulties of the chaotic withdrawal worthwhile. More than 950 Israeli soldiers have been killed since Israel invaded Lebanon in June, 1982, in an attempt to drive Palestine Liberation Organisation guerrillas out of Lebanon and prevent cross-border attacks. Several years ago, the mounting death toll spawned a grassroots movement pushing for an Israeli withdrawal from Lebanon. |
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Pak readying for N-test? WASHINGTON, May 24 (Reuters) — Pakistan appears to be making preparations for a nuclear test but has not reached the final stages and a detonation does not appear imminent, US. officials said yesterday. “There have been indications of some preparations being made for nuclear tests in Pakistan. There is no indication that these would be the final steps,” a U.S. official said on condition of anonymity. India did not appear to be making similar preparations. “As far as India is concerned, there is no indication at this point of such activity,” the official said. The USA was watching the activity in Pakistan closely, a defence official said. “We watch very closely what they’re doing. Obviously, another test by Pakistan or India would be a huge setback and a step in the wrong direction,” the official said. “We’re watching very closely and if appropriate we will make it clear to them that this would be a mistake”, the defence official said. National Security Adviser Sandy Berger said that he did not believe the USA had “clear evidence that they intend to test.” “If they do, it would be a serious matter and we would reimpose a number of the sanctions that we had in the past against Pakistan,” Mr Berger told CNN. A U.S. official said activity in Pakistan suggested preparations for a nuclear test had been going on for several weeks, but appeared to have tapered off recently and it was unclear whether the country’s leadership had made a decision to go through with a test. “It’s not clear whether a political decision has been made to actually conduct a test”, the official said. Meanwhile, Pakistan today denied reports by US officials that it was preparing to conduct a nuclear test. “The report is utterly baseless, “Foreign Office spokesman Iftikhar Murshid said. “Pakistan has declared a unilateral moratorium on testing and the report has no foundation whatsoever,” he added. The official report was published days before Pakistan marks the second anniversary of its May 28 nuclear tests. |
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Freed hostages tell tales of ordeal SIERRA Leonean rebels trussed up the Norwegian naval commander with wire so tightly that when he was ordered to climb out of the car he could not move. So the young Revolutionary United Front soldier calmly raised his gun to Knut Gjellestad’s temple and pulled the trigger. “The gun just clicked. It didn’t fire,” Commander Gjellestad said. “He was about to try again so I asked him to help me get out of the car. He put his gun down and lifted me out. It was completely surprising. A few seconds earlier he had been trying to kill me.” Cmdr Gjellestad (57) was freed at the weekend after three weeks in the RUF’s hands. His arm is bandaged because the wire used to tie him up cut so deep that it turned septic and swelled to several times its normal size. But he is relatively lucky. At least six of the nearly 500 UN peacekeepers taken hostage by the RUF are dead, and many more have been subjected to beatings, mock executions and near-starvation rations. Thirty or more are believed to have untreated gunshot wounds. Gangrene is the great fear. At least 250 UN troops are still believed to be held captive. Many are Zambians, who have been given little more than a mango a day to eat.” We are worried that many of our men have been very badly treated,” said a senior Zambian officer. “We hear stories of them being tied to trees and whipped, cut with knives, and no food. We hope they are all alive but we cannot be sure.’’ Cmdr Gjellestad was captured on May 1 when he went in search of a colleague, a Malaysian army major called Jaganathan Ganase, who had been picked up by the RUF a few hours earlier. A rebel commander, “Colonel Bao”, had arrived shirtless and drunk at a UN demobilisation camp in Makeni to demand that Major Ganase hand over several “deserters” — former RUF fighters who opted to go back to civilian life under the peace accords. Major Ganase (42) told him the demobilised rebels had already returned to their homes. Shortly afterwards another RUF officer arrived, “Brigadier-General Kallow”. He did not argue, he merely opened fire with his Kalashnikov and arrested Major Ganase. “They waved guns and a dagger in my face and said: ‘It’s the end of you. Say bye bye to your life. You’re going to be buried in Sierra Leone’,’’ the major said. That was the beginning of a three-week nightmare. The Malaysian major was taken to an RUF base and strip-searched while General Kallow called the rebel command in Freetown. “He said the UN had seriously attacked the RUF and captured five of his men and he had captured one of theirs — me,’’ Major Ganase said. In the following hours the number of captives grew as more UN officers arrived to check on the fate of Major Ganase and were in turn locked up. By nightfall 11 men were crammed into one tiny cell. They stayed there for two days. On the third night the RUF unbolted the door. “They came around midnight,” Major Ganase said. “We were taken out one by one which was very worrying. We could hear some moaning next door so we thought the worst. They stripped us to our underwear and trussed our arms tight behind our backs with electrical wire. It was so tight we lost all feeling in our arms.’’ The captives were driven south for several hours to meet one of the RUF’s most prominent leaders, “General Issa”. He immediately made clear his dislike of Cmdr Gjellestad. “He was saying whites are the cause of all the problems of the human race. I was the only white and they kept threatening me because of it. They said they would shoot me anytime. They were all drunk or drugged. That’s the whole culture.’’ Another nine Kenyan peacekeepers arrived. Next day all 20 were crammed into a Land-Rover and driven through the night to an old diamond plant at Koidu. The car crashed, breaking one of the hostage’s legs and giving some of the others back and head injuries. In their new prison, Cmdr Gjellestad’s arm became swollen and Major Ganase developed malaria. The hostility eased a little as the guards and their captors got to know each other. Word filtered through to the UN soldiers that they were not the only ones taken hostage. So did news of the rebel leader Foday Sankoh’s capture. “When they heard Foday Sankoh was captured there was not a big problem. They called him a great leader,’’ said the Norwegian officer. “But they told us they were ready to go back to war and that if the UN or the Brits or whoever were to attack they would fight and win. There’s no doubt they were ready for another war.” Last week the rebels announced that all of those fit enough would be marched 40 miles to the Liberian border and freedom. But Cmdr Gjellestad’s arm and Major Ganase’s malaria delayed their release. Finally transport arrived to take them to the frontier. But with freedom in sight, the RUF could not resist one last twist of the knife. “At the last minute they said I could not go across,” Cmdr Gjellestad said. ‘They said I was a white man and I knew things I could still tell them about the UN. I thought I would never make it.” —
Guardian News Service
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India backs
N-arms conference
UNITED NATIONS, May 24 (PTI) — Calling for effective ways to fight terrorism and drug trafficking, India has strongly supported a proposal for convening an international conference on eliminating nuclear weapons. ‘‘The time is now at hand to ring the death knell of such (nuclear) weapons,’’ Indian Ambassador Kamalesh Sharma said at the General Assembly’s informal consultations on the agenda for the UN millennium summit scheduled for September. Concurring with the Secretary-General Kofi Annan’s assessment, he said that the main problem was the insistence by the nuclear-weapon states that these weapons enhanced their security while, if in the hands of others, were a threat to world peace. |
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Philippine hostages
feel strain
JOLO (Philippines), May 24 (Reuters) — A group of 21 mostly foreign hostages held by Muslim rebels today appealed to the Philippines to hasten talks for their release, saying their long captivity was driving some of them to thoughts of suicide. The nerves of some of the group have become so frayed they have begun looking for fights, while others have been haunted by nightmares, Finnish captive Mirko Johannen Risto told a group of Filipino reporters who visited them in the rebels’ heavily fortified jungle camp on southern Jolo island. Yesterday, the fundamentalist Abu Sayyaf guerrillas freed a Filipino hostage they had held for more than three months but gave no sign when they would release the 21, now in the 32nd day of captivity. |
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Military exchanges
to “enhance” peace
BEIJING, May 24 (PTI) — The resumption of military exchanges between India and China will enhance peace and understanding between the two countries and is a sign that bilateral ties are moving in the right direction after a brief hiatus, official sources said here today. The resumption of military exchanges between the two neighbouring countries would enhance understanding and trust between the two and enhance peace and stability in the region, an official source told PTI. It was evident during discussions between Indian Army officials and their counterparts in the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) on Monday and yesterday, he said. “Our interaction with the PLA has been positive and fruitful,” Maj Gen P.K. Renjen, head of a 15-member delegation from India’s National Defence College (NDC), told PTI here. The visit marks the re-establishment of military exchanges, suspended in the aftermath of the Pokhran-II nuclear tests in May, 1998. “Our meeting showed the eagerness of both sides to accelerate the normalisation process of military-to-military relations,” he said before leaving for Shanghai city. Diplomatic sources said the resumption of exchanges ahead of President K.R. Narayanan’s forthcoming May 28 visit was a sign that bilateral relations were steadily making progress since the brief hiatus. The NDC delegation during its two-day stay here also met PLA’s Assistant Chief of Gen Staff Lt- Gen Zhang Li who did not lay much stress on the South Asian nuclear issue, indicating willingness to move ahead with bilateral relations. |
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Khan’s recital for Indo-US friendship NEW YORK, May 24 (PTI) — Sarod maestro Amjad Ali Khan gave a scintillating recital at a charity concert here last night which he dedicated to growing friendship between India and the USA and said he was now finding a more appreciative audience rather than “curious” participants. The maestro billed the concert as “Sarod for Harmony” and said he was dedicating it to the growing Indo-US friendship. This was first of several performances he has planned to give during his one-and-half month tour of the USA and Europe. Connoisseur of the Indian classical music who had paid up to $ 125 each were enthralled by his performance. For over three hours, the 2800-seat Carnegie Hall with sound system especially suited for classical music performance, reverberated with melodious tunes on Sarod. The maestro started the performance with raag bihag and followed it up with darbari kanara. The finale was provided by raag kirwani in which his sons, Amaan Ali Bangash and Ayaan Ali Bangash, also joined him on the sarod. Tanmoy Bose accompanied Amjad Ali Khan on tabla and Fateh Singh Gangani on pakhawaj. The proceeds from the concert will go to the Centre for Indian Studies at Stony Brook University. The centre is mostly financed by the money collected at charity events organised by the Indian community. |
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Lebanese Muslim Shiia women embrace as they celebrate their return to their village in Chihin some 70 km. south of Beirut Tuesday. Israeli forces have partially
withdrawn from South Lebanon and residents are returning to their homes. AP/PTI
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Maestro Amjad Ali
Khan performing at Carnegie Hall in New York on Tuesday. — AP/PTI
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