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| Tuesday, May 30, 2000, Chandigarh, India  
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India, China agree to end border row Fujimori wins amid boycott Pak still developing N-arms: Qadeer Khan Trade Bill: China
not to accept conditions Sikh kingdoms’ art on display |
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Ghost in Royal London Palace? Bid on Khatami’s
life foiled: daily Shuttle Atlantis
returns
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Rebels free all UN peacekeepers FREETOWN, May 29 (Reuters) — Sierra Leonean rebels appear to have released the last of more than 500 UN peacekeepers they took hostage almost four weeks ago when a peace accord foundered, the United Nations said. “We are optimistic that the release of the hostages signals a positive change of direction by the Revolutionary United Front in coming back to seek a peaceful settlement,” said David Wimhurst, the UN’s spokesman in Freetown. The last group of 85 hostages — all Zambian apart from a Gambian observer with a broken leg — returned to Freetown from the Liberian capital Monrovia on Sunday night. Wimhurst discounted reports that 30 of the hostages had been wounded. Another group of 223 Indian peacekeepers remain surrounded by rebels at the eastern towns of Kuiva and Kailahun, but have kept their weapons and uniforms and have not been abducted. With them are 11 observers earlier taken hostage. West African leaders were to meet in the Nigerian capital to approve sending 3,000 troops to try to help the beleaguered UN force disarm all factions and end one of the world’s most brutal wars. In New York, UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan said he was “delighted” at the news that “virtually all of the detained peacekeepers in Sierra Leone have been freed”. He said he hoped their release would “help create conditions in which the long and agonising search for peace and stability in Sierra Leone can at last be brought to a successful conclusion”. Mr Annan was quoted on Monday as saying the world body should abandon outdated concepts of neutral peacekeeping and replace them with a more muscular form of peace enforcement. “We have to rethink how we equip troops and prepare them for these operations,” Annan said in an interview with Britain’s Independent newspaper. Despite the relieved faces at the UN Mission, putting the 1999 Lome peace accord back on any kind of track remains a very delicate matter. Some of President Ahmad Tejan Kabbah’s officials hope military pressure by a motley coalition of loyalists — grouping former enemies with guidance from former colonial power Britain — plus possible negotiation with moderate rebel factions will give them an edge. Kabbah plans to try Sankoh, who is detained at a secret location, for alleged atrocities committed since the amnesty granted under the peace accord. Diplomats in Freetown say Liberian President Charles Taylor, who has historic links to the RUF and who mediated to free the peacekeepers, favours a ceasefire and a quick return to some form of the Lome peace accord, which granted Sankoh the status of vice-president. |
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India, China agree to end border row BEIJING, May 29 (PTI) — India and China today favoured a “fair and reasonable” settlement of their vexed boundary dispute and decided to set up an eminent persons group (EPG) to enhance overall bilateral ties. President K.R. Narayanan, who is here on a week-long state visit, held intensive parleys with his Chinese counterpart Jiang Zemin to convey India’s policy towards Pakistan and to take stock of bilateral, regional and international issues of common concern. The two leaders skirted the nuclear and Taiwan issues. Stating that the spirit of mutual understanding, adjustment and accommodation should be adopted in dealing with the border dispute, Jiang said “from a strategic height we must continue work for constructive partnership of cooperation in the 21st century.” After the two-and-half-hour crucial talks between the two leaders, Foreign Secretary Lalit Mansingh told reporters that both India and China wanted a “fair and reasonable settlement” of the border issue. The Chinese President raised the “political activities” of the Dalai Lama and the 17th Karmapa, who fled from Tibet to India in January, but Mr Narayanan assured Beijing that they would not be allowed to indulge in political activities. Mr Narayanan told Jiang that the Karmapa had been merely allowed to stay in India but it was up to him to decide what kind of future he saw for himself, Mr Mansingh said. Though the Chinese President expressed fears that the “Dalai clique” and anti-China forces might exploit the present situation in India, he praised New Delhi for “prudent and proper handling” of the Karmapa issue. He was also assured by Mr Narayanan that there was no change in India’s policy on Tibet and that it continued to follow the five principles of peaceful co-existence. Without naming Pakistan, Mr Jiang told Mr Narayanan that China was opposed to all kinds of terrorism and said there was no justification for it on political grounds. To India’s suggestion for the establishment of an EPG, the Chinese side decided to work out the details in the new future. India’s May 1998 nuclear tests, which had provoked China to condemn it, and the Taiwan issue were not raised by Beijing, Mr Mansingh said, adding that there was hardly any need for any discussion on the nuclear issue since the experts had already deliberated on the matter threadbare at the first-ever Sino-Indian security dialogue in March this year. To a question, Mr Mansingh said the Chinese side not harping on the nuclear issues clearly indicated “greater acceptance and understanding of the issue.” To another question, the Foreign Secretary said that both sides took the border issue seriously. The Chinese President said even though we may not have identical position, certain problems are not easy to settle. It requires patience and gradual efforts to move forward and resolve the issue. Mr Jiang called for scaling higher and moving fast but said, “we have a sense of responsibility to handle the conflicts and issues left over by history”. China favoured restructuring of the UN Security Council but did not give any assurance that it would back India’s claim for a permanent seat in it. Mr Jiang emphasised during the talks that the two countries, having an annual trade of two billion US $, could work together to promote economic and trade cooperation. He took the opportunity to mention about the recent meeting of the Indo-China joint economic group and World Trade Organisation agreement between the two countries. Both sides were strongly opposed to hegemonism, power projection and interventionism with the Chinese President emphasising on multi-polarity as a measure to safeguard the legitimate rights and interests of the developing countries. Mr Narayanan had first a restricted meeting with his Chinese counterpart in which only Heavy Industry Minister Manohar Joshi and the Foreign Secretary were present. After 45-minute of the talks, he was joined by CPM veteran Somnath Chatterjee, BJP leader Sushma Swaraj and Congress leader Sushil Kumar Shinde, India’s Ambassador to China Vijay K. Nambiar and other officials. Mr Jiang was assisted by Vice-Premier Qian Qichen, Foreign Minister Tang Jiaxuan and senior officials. Mr Narayanan invited Jiang to visit India to which he agreed. The Chinese President had visited India in 1996. Mr Narayanan also extended India’s invitation to Chinese Premier Zhu Rongzi to visit the country. The Chinese President lauded economic reforms in India particularly the advancement made in software technology and sought “fruitful cooperation” in this sector. UNI: China put on the backburner the contentious nuclear issue causing serious impediment in bilateral relations with New Delhi during the last two years, but said the presence of the Karmapa with the Dalai Lama could fuel anti-Chinese activities in India. Chinese President Jiang Zemin told visiting Indian President K.R. Narayanan that his country considered Dalai Lama as a person heading a clique, a political leader and not a mere monk. In his preliminary remarks, Mr Jiang described Indian President as an old
friend of China and recalled his role in promoting friendly relations between the two countries. Mr Narayanan was India’s Ambassador to Beijing soon after diplomatic relations
between the two countries were restored in 1976 after the border war. The delegation-level talks which were scheduled for one hour got extended by about 30 minutes. Earlier, Mr Narayanan had a brief meeting with Mr Jiang. |
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Fujimori wins amid boycott /LIMA, May 29 (AFP) — Violence rocked Peru after President Alberto Fujimori won a third term by a landslide, in a vote boycotted by his only rival and by millions of people, amid international claims of irregularities. Hospital sources said three persons suffered bullet wounds in the city of Iquitos after the police dispersed thousands of demonstrators who took to the streets to protest against the run-off election yesterday. Demonstrations and violence erupted in numerous cities as Fujimori garnered 50 per cent of the votes cast, and two-thirds of the valid ballots, which are the only ones considered in official results. A high percentage of voters evidently followed his call to either vote with their feet or to spoil their ballots in protest. One-thirds of the ballots were blank or invalid, and 17 per cent of the 14.5 million voters defied the law and did not go to the polls, according to partial results with half the ballots counted. Despite his decision not to run, Ms Toledo got 16 per cent of the total votes, and one-thirds of the valid ballots, after the electoral authorities ruled that he remained a candidate. Ms Toledo rejected the outcome of the vote and blamed what he called “Fujimori dictatorship” for provoking violence. International monitors have said the vote was undemocratic due to glitches in vote-counting computers before the election, media bias and state hand-outs to the poor aimed at boosting Fujimori’s campaign in this Andean nation of 25 million people. Ms Toledo, who had asked his supporters to boycott the vote or spoil their ballots by etching “no to fraud’’ across them, has warned that victory of Fujimori would be illegitimate in international eyes and lead to US economic sanctions. |
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Pak still developing N-arms: Qadeer Khan ISLAMABAD, May 29 (ANI) — Father of Pakistan’s atomic bomb Dr Abdul Qadeer Khan said his secret nuclear research laboratories at Kahuta were still engaged in developing atomic products. “Anybody, who is manufacturing something...always tries to improve, makes them better, makes them safer. So that is what the Pakistani scientists and engineers are doing”, Dr Qadeer said in an interview with Reuters Television. After conducting nuclear tests on May 28, 1998, Pakistan had declared unilateral moratorium on further nuclear tests. Dr Qadeer also said that his country should now look for a peaceful scientific advancement rather than harp on the nuclear prowess it proved two years ago to compete with India. “It was a good thing, it gave us a viable deterrence, but please forget it now. Now concentrate on the development of science and technology”, Dr Qadeer said. He said nuclear tests that Pakistan carried out on May 28, 1998 were necessary to give the country a credible deterrence after India did the same. But he said the feat, mainly credited to him as the country’s top nuclear scientist, was messed up economically by the then Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif. The nuclear scientist regretted that Pakistan was doing little in science and technology and said he and his colleagues had been advising government that “please don’t keep on harping what happened two years ago. “One should not live in the past. The nuclear weapons or whatever we produced is not something that really we should be very, very proud of”, Dr Qadeer said. He also created the 2,000-km range Ghauri ballistic missile that can carry nuclear warheads. In reply to a question Dr Qadeer said Pakistan “had no option” but to carry out the tests in the southwestern Chagai mountains to prove its capability to deter India. “But unfortunately the government of the time... made a mess of it. Instead of benefiting from it, getting the people behind it, due to one step of usurping the foreign exchange of expatriates and local Pakistanis, it killed the whole spirit”, he said. |
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Trade Bill: China not to accept conditions BEIJING, May 29 (PTI) — China has told the USA that it cannot accept the conditions attached to the Permanent Normal Trade Relations (PNTR) Bill recently passed by the House of Representatives but said relations between the two countries have been improving. “It is wise for the US House of Representatives to pass the PNTR Bill, though the Bill contains some articles that China cannot accept,” Chinese President Jiang Zemin said in a phone conversation with his US counterpart Bill Clinton yesterday, the official Xinhua news agency reported today. Expressing appreciation for the support extended by the Americans, especially by Mr Clinton, to realise the PNTR status for China, Mr Zemin said “I believe that an early settlement of the PNTR status for China will serve to promote Sino-US economic and trade relations.” He said bilateral ties as a whole were in the fundamental interests of both countries and were the common aspiration of the people of the two countries. The House of Representatives voted 237-197 on May 24 to grant PNTR status to China ending 20 years of annual reviews. However, the legislation attached conditions to monitor China’s human rights. China has already rejected these conditions. The PNTR status to China would guarantee Chinese goods get the same low-tariff access to the US markets as products from other nations while opening the way for US businesses to take full advantage of a series of market-opening concessions China has pledged. The Chinese President said though the Sino-US relations have witnessed ups and downs since the two leaders met for the first time in Seattle almost eight years ago, bilateral ties on the whole “have been steadily improving and developing”. |
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Sikh kingdoms’ art on display TORONTO, May 29 — There is a broad smile on the face of the life- size statue of the Buddha, sitting in the great hall of the Royal Ontario Museum here. That smile acquired new significance when the museum building echoed with the sound of ‘Bole So Nihal, Sat Sri Akal”. It was the powerful voice of 71-year-old Maj Gen (retd) Trevor Morlin that gave a call to the faithful of the Sikh community here to let truth prevail at the opening of the landmark “The Art of the Sikh Kingdoms” exhibition at the Royal Ontario Museum. It was as if the over 400 invited guests in the great hall were watching some Hollywood movie. There was first a beating of drums and then two young Sikhs wearing colourful turbans and the robes of Bhangra dancers held the ribbon across two sides and like a warrior, General Morlin descended from the podium, took the sword out of its case and landed it on the ribbon. It was at that stage this retired General, who commanded the 17th battalion of the Sikh Regiment in 1963-64 and retired from the Indian Army in 1979, gave his call to the faithful “Bole So Nihal....” and the response was quick “Sat Sri Akal.” The beating of drums started with the large crowd following the drummers and bhangra dancers to the section of the museum that housed the exhibition on the Sikh kingdoms. Organised by the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, the
exhibition is the most extensive display of the art of the Sikh kingdoms’ ever shown in North America. It has a magnificent array of textiles, pashmina and phulkari shawls, rugs, armaments, head gear, paintings and books on display, reflecting the rich cultural history of the Sikhs. Then there is the rare Janam Sakhi, illuminated by paintings, which tells the life story of Guru Nanak. It will close on August 20 when the artefacts will be returned to the Victoria and Albert Museum. About 50 rare pieces have been loaned by private Sikh collectors in Canada. The sword used by General Morlin to cut the ribbon itself has an interesting story. This sword with an inscription was presented by the 17th Sikh Regiment to General Morlin in 1964 when he took command of the 8th battalion of the Sikh Regiment. For some unexplained reasons General Morlin himself has no answer - the sword landed in an antique store in Toronto. The Royal Ontario Museum has initiated an extensive advertising campaign to induce Canadians and also people from South of the border to visit this outstanding exhibition. According to Mr Garry Singh, they will mount huge posters on a flat bed truck and take it round Greater Toronto and suburban areas to sensitise the population about the exhibition. During the media preview, Mr Garry Singh said “when the Royal Ontario Museum committed to the exhibition, it placed its initial faith in our community. We believe we have delivered and delivered it well. It has been a most rewarding partnership between the Sikh Foundation, the Royal Ontario Museum Foundation and our community at large.” Bharadia said the arts of the Sikh kingdoms “is a unique exhibition exploring the arts produced in the Punjab during Sikh rule.” The entrance to the exhibition is dominated by the striking painting of the Golden Temple showing it at the centre of the sacred pool, in all its shimmering glory. On entering, visitors are struck by a beautiful golden and ivory image of the Golden Temple which, Bharadia said, was on loan to the Royal Ontario Museum from the royal collections since 1939 where it was sent for safe keeping prior to the World War II. — IANS |
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Ghost in Royal London Palace? LONDON, May 29 (Reuters) — Ghostbusters were conducting experiments and interviewing visitors to Britain’s Hampton court yesterday in their search for one of King Henry VIII’s beheaded wives, who is said to haunt the Royal London Palace. Using thermal imaging equipment and devices for measuring gravity, they will spend a week surveying the palace where Catherine Howard — the fifth of Henry’s six wives and the second to be executed — was held before being taken to the Tower of London in 1542. “Visitors have reported experiencing a ghost at the court since 1870 when Queen Victoria opened it to the public”, a spokeswoman for the court said. “Several people have noticed unexplained cold spots here and there and two ladies who fainted a few years ago said afterwards that they felt very strange, the spokeswoman stated. She said a team led by Dr Richard Wiseman, a lecturer in psychological phenomena at the University of Hertfordshire, was carrying out experiments to try to find a scientific explanation for the ghost stories. “They have been asking tourists if they have noticed anything different around the palace and they have had enthusiastic responses”, she said. Dr Wiseman said 20-year-old Catherine Howard, who had been accused of adultery, was believed to have made a desperate attempt to escape from the palace before her execution. |
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Bid on Khatami’s
life foiled: daily
TEHERAN, May 29 (Reuters) — Intelligence officers of Iran’s elite Revolutionary Guards recently foiled an attempt on the life of President Mohammad Khatami by one of his bodyguards, according to a prominent conservative politician. The daily Bayan today quoted Ahmad Tavakoli, a former presidential candidate and newspaper publisher, as telling students that the incident showed the future attempts should not be ruled out. |
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Shuttle
Atlantis returns CAPE CANAVERAL, May 29 (AP) — Space shuttle Atlantis and its astronauts returned to earth early today and closed out a successful space station repair mission. Throughout yesterday, NASA had fretted that the crosswind may be too strong. But the wind eased to within safety limits, and Mission Control gave the crew the go-ahead to come home. Atlantis glided on to the floodlit runway at 2:20 a.m. (1150 IST). It was only the 14th time in 98 flights that a space shuttle landed in darkness. The rejuvenated international space station had passed over the Kennedy Space Center just 10 minutes earlier, and was crossing the North Atlantic when Atlantis touched down. “Jim, congratulations to you and the crew on just a super mission to the international space station,” Mission Control told commander James Halsell, Jr. |
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Israeli Arabs talk to their relatives from Lebanon on the Israel Lebanon border near the village of Arab El Aramsh on Sunday. Hundreds of Lebanese, guerrillas and civilians, have been converging on the border fence since Israeli troops hastily withdrew
on Wednesday from Lebanon after an 18-year occupation. — AP/PTI
photo