 |
| Saturday, June 10, 2000, Chandigarh, India   
|
Pentagon ‘rigged’ tests of defence system Solomons PM freed 8 killed in fresh fighting in Jaffna
|
|
|
Bulgaria backs India’s move Tribal chiefs meet Speight
Nov 17 group
claims killing of UK attache Hike in fuel prices sparks off riots |
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|
Pentagon ‘rigged’ tests of defence system NEW YORK, June 9 (PTI) — Citing Pentagon’s own plan, critics of the proposed anti-missile defence and even some military experts say all flight tests of the $ 60 billion weapon have been rigged to hide a fundamental flaw, the New York Times reported today. The newspaper quoted experts as saying that the system cannot distinguish between enemy warheads and decoys. In interviews, they told the paper that after the system failed to achieve this crucial discrimination goal against decoys that would be easier than the anti-missile weapon to recognise”. The Pentagon’s plan, the paper says, was obtained by Mr Theodore Postol, an arms expert at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, who opposes the weapon. It covers the four tests that have taken place as well as the future tests up to the system’s projected deployment in 2005. Pentagon officials are “systematically lying about the performance of a weapon system that is supposed to defend the people of the USA from a nuclear attack,” the New York Times said. Other technical experts who have seen it, including both anti-missile and decoy designers, concurred with his criticism, as did a senior government official, who has examined the Pentagon’s testing plan, the paper said. Though unclassified, the plan is considered sensitive. Mr Postol said he abtained it from a Pentagon source he would not identify. Mr Postol, who is preparing a report for the White House on what he sees as the plan’s flaws, made his argument on Monday at a meeting of the State Department’s advisory board on arms control, along with another anti-missile critic Nira Schwartz. Ms Schwartz, a former senior engineer at the military contractor TRW, lost her job after challenging the claims the company made about the weapon’s ability to distinguish warheads from decoys. |
|
Solomons PM freed WELLINGTON, June 9 (AP) — Warring rebels in the Solomon Islands failed today to agree on a 14-day truce, a New Zealand official said, but in a positive development, radio reported the Prime Minister was freed from house arrest. The factions signed a two-day ceasefire to accommodate a planned weekend visit by dignitaries, including the Foreign Ministers of New Zealand and Australia, but that was as far as they could go. Indigenous militants from the main islands of Guadalcanal, known as the Isatabu Freedom Movement, were willing to sign a 14-day ceasefire, but a rival group originally from the island of Malaria refused, said New Zealand High Commissioner Nick Hurely in the Solomon Islands. No fresh fighting has been reported between the two sides who have established a front line outside the Capital Honiara from where the Australian navy today wrapped up an operation to evacuate hundreds of frightened foreigners. Some 450 persons, including Australians, New Zealanders, Canadians and British, were aboard the landing vessel HMAS Tobruk by late morning today, officials said. Meanwhile, Australian Foreign Minister Alexander Downer and New Zealand Foreign Minister Phil Goff were hoping to fly in and get a first-hand look at the Solomon Islands crisis. Malaita Eagle Force released a statement today saying they would hold fire during the ministerial visit, Solomon Islands radio reported. But the rival Isatabu Freedom Movement of indigenous Guadalcanal people, which had agreed to the truce, had not signed onto the cease-fire during the ministerial visit, Solomon Islands radio reported. Solomon Islands was thrown into crisis on Monday, when members of the Malaita Eagle Force seized Prime Minister Bartholomew Ulufa’alu and placed him under house arrest and demanded that he resign. After several days of negotiations, with Parliament planning a vote of no confidence in Mr Ulufa’alu next week that could remove him from office, the Prime Minister was finally set free last night, radio journalist Johnson Houimae said. There were no armed men surrounding Mr Ulufa’alu’s residence early today as there had been all week, Houimae said. |
|
8 killed in fresh fighting in Jaffna COLOMBO, June 9 (PTI) — Six LTTE rebels and two Sri Lankan soldiers were killed and 12 troops were injured in different confrontations in northern Jaffna as fighting between the two resumed on a small scale after a brief lull. An official press note here said today that troops and rebels clashed at three places in the peninsula. In the first confrontation at Chavakachcheri, a small town south of Jaffna, troops attacked a rebel bunker and destroyed it yesterday. In another incident, two soldiers were killed and 12 others were wounded when an army patrol clashed with rebels near Colombothurai, a Jaffna suburb. The rebels withdrew with their casualties, it said. In the third incident, yesterday, troops attacked rebels moving around Chammani near Jaffna. Six rebels were reported to have died in the confrontation, the release said. Yesterday’s incidents took place after a four-day lull in fighting. On June 5,
LTTE boats attacked naval craft escorting ships carrying reinforcements to the peninsula. The navy lost two Israeli-made fast-moving crafts in the attack. Twentyone sailors were killed in the battle at high seas off the Jaffna coast. Sri Lanka’s main Opposition United National Party
(UNP) has accused the government of not providing troops with modern weapons to effectively combat the
LTTE in northern Jaffna, which, it said, had resulted in the fall of key garrisons and loss of territory to the rebels. Lashing out at the government for withholding funds for weapons purchases,
UNP leader Ranil Wickramasinghe said in Parliament yesterday: “The battle for Elephant Pass was not lost in the slatterns surrounding the area but on the banks of the Beira Lake in Colombo, where the government treasury is.” Taking part in a debate for the extension of national emergency by a month, he said “The government has money to subsidise the construction of a terminal building for Shellgas...but has no money to buy weapons”. He said the present military crisis in the Jaffna peninsula was the government’s own creation as there were instances where tenders were called, necessary funds made available but the purchases were not made. Reffering to the June 7
LTTE suicide blast in Colombo in which a senior minister and 24 others were killed, he said the attack demonstrated
LTTE’s ability to simultaneously go for conventional warfare and carry on with guerrilla tactics. “The intentions of the
LTTE are clear. They want to create a separate country. But what are the intentions of the government?” he asked, adding that his party was willing to take part in any bipartisan approach to work out a political settlement to solve the ethnic problem. |
|
Window on Pakistan The tug of war between the all-powerful military government and the traders and smugglers has entered a crucial stage. What is at stake is just not the collection of taxes and an end to the long-prevailing smuggling, but the very existence of the nation-state of Pakistan. This three-week-long battle, in which the traders are backed by powerful political interests, seems to be shifting to the streets. The authorities, determined to collect taxes, are heading towards a straight collision with the traders. Reports in the Pakistani media indicate this clearly. The military government has launched a country-wide drive for the assessment of sales tax at the shops. It wants to end illegal trade that is killing industry and keeping the government’s coffers empty. According to an estimate by a well-known columnist, Mr M.P. Bhandara of The Dawn, there is scope for increasing the government’s earnings by Rs 100 million every year. Pakistan has to start the payment of its rescheduled debt to the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund from April, 2002 — $ 2.2 billion annually. Reports, have it that “bara traders,” who thrive on the smuggling of all types of goods like electronics, cigarettes and tyres from Afghanistan into Pakistan and vice versa, control a thriving market. No tax or duty of any kind is paid. Government agencies are just helpless onlookers. The Durand Line, which divides the two counties, allows access to the Afghans to use Pakistan territory to reach the outside world, but this facility has been misused by the smugglers of narcotics and arms, besides other goods. The Pakistani authorities also used this channel to fight the Russians and later install the Taliban regime. These “bara traders” are a source of supply of arms, contraband and money to the Taliban and their henchmen in Pakistan. Also, the fundamentalist parties like the Jamaat-e-Islami, led by Qazi Hussain Ahmed, draw their strength mainly from these illegal activities. This organisation along with other fundamentalist groups runs camps of mercenaries in Pakistan and occupied Kashmir. At times boys are picked up from the religious schools spread across the country and willingly or unwillingly pushed to this side of Kashmir for “jehad’’. Parents have no access to these camps. During any election none of these parties has won a
respectable number of seats in the assemblies or in Parliament. This shows their unpopularity, but their real strength lies in that they control religious institutions and wield the gun. There is a kind of parallel government in Pakistan. Now these forces, having sown the seeds of strife between the Shias and the Sunnis are supporting the traders. The present-day rulers, like the previous corrupt regime of jailed Prime Minister Nawaz Sharief, at times appear helpless before the might of these manipulators of religion and trade. At present there are six major private armies being run by these groups, and they are the ones who keep the country backward. No land reforms are possible as the landlords support this nexus, and liberal politicians, once in control of institutions, find themselves downsized and in minority. Thus these groups pose a serious challenge to the sovereignty of Pakistan. The preamble to the Pakistani constitution declares:” And whereas it is the will of the people of Pakistan to establish an order wherein the State shall exercise its powers and authority through the chosen representatives of the people; wherein the principles of democracy, freedom, equality, tolerance and social justice, as enunciated by Islam, shall be fully observed”. All this has been given a goodbye. Clearly, the real power lies in the hands of the fundamentalists, corrupt traders and smugglers, whose private armies rule the roost. — Gobind Thukral |
|
Bulgaria backs India’s move SOFIA, June 9 (PTI) — Bulgaria today came out in strong support of India’s move for a UN convention against international terrorism as the two countries agreed to fight the menace that posed a serious threat to democracy and economic development. Terrorism and its ramifications for ethnic problems and democracy across the world figured prominently at the hour-long talks between the visiting Indian Vice President Mr Krishan Kant and Bulgarian President Mr Petar Stoyanov, on the second day of the former’s state visit to this country. With both India and Bulgaria bearing the brunt of terrorism in its varied manifestations, the two countries resolved to work unitedly to combat it to save democracy and economic progress. Mr Kant, while conveying the urgency of the terrorism issue to Mr Stoyanv, mentioned how the menace derailed the democratic process in Fiji and threatened the same in South Asia, Central Asia, South America and Africa. Later, Mr Kant told newsmen that the Bulgarian President was “very appreciative’’ of India’s move on international terrorism at the UN. A spokesperson for the Bulgarian President said that Sofia had “not only political and economic but emotional compulsions’’ to support India’s move against terrorism as Bulgaria had faced the same problem being a neighbour to
Kosovo torn by ethnic strife. “Terrorism is a sickness that destroys democracy. When terrorism is linked to an ethnic problem, it becomes completely unacceptable,’’ Mr Stoyanov conveyed to Mr Kant. During the talks with the Bulgarian President, Mr Kant raised a key area of New Delhi’s interest from the point of view of economic cooperation between the two countries — the future of economic relations in the light of Sofia’s efforts to join the European Union. Mr Stoyanov assured that his country’s joining the European Union would further bolster Indo-Bulgarian trade links as Bulgaria could become for India the door to Europe. Declaring that India was the most important Asian partner for Bulgaria, he said, “Sky is the limit’’ for developing trade between the two countries, especially because of the excellent people-to-people contact between them and the convergence of views and interests of New Delhi and Sofia in all areas. |
|
Tribal chiefs meet Speight SUVA (Fiji), June 9 (AP) — An influential delegation of tribal chiefs met today Fijian coup leader George Speight — but they went away with no word on a deal to free the deposed Prime Minister and 30 others kept as hostages. The chiefs, from Fiji’s economically powerful western provinces, want Speight to bring an end to the three-week-old stand-off by releasing his hostages. Although the chiefs carry little political power, they believed their economic muscle could be decisive in persuading Speight. They spent two hours at Speight’s camp in the parliamentary complex where he seized the hostages on May 19, but no progress in ending the stand-off was reported. "It was a good meeting, a great meeting," Speight said later without elaboration. "A lot of the basis on which our economy relies is based in the western division — sugar, tourism, mining, pine," the delegation’s leader, Ratu Osea Gavidi, said before the meeting. |
|
Nov 17 group claims killing of UK attache ATHENS, June 9 (AFP) — The Greek “terrorist group” November 17, said today that it had killed British defence attache in Athens Brig Stephen Saunders due to his role in the Kosovo crisis, the police said. The group sent its claim of the murder to the independent Leftist daily ‘Eleftherotypia’ as it had often done in the past, a police source said. In the 13-page document, to be published by the paper today, the group said it had assassinated Brigadier Saunders for his participation in the programming of allied operations during the Kosovo crisis, the source said. Saunders (53) was shot four times in the chest and stomach by two gunmen on a motor cycle, which pulled up alongside his white embassy Rover as he was driving to work yesterday. He was rushed to a nearby hospital but died from multiple injuries shortly after the attack. Ballistic analysis of four spent cartridges found by the police at the scene of the shooting confirmed that the bullets had been fired from the same .45 calibre pistol used by November 17 in five other killings between 1980 and 1997. The group also claimed a series of attacks that had been attributed to it by the police in the spring of 1999 in which no one was killed. It included rocket attacks on branches of three foreign banks and another on the residence of the German Ambassador to Athens on May 16, last year. |
|
Hike in fuel prices sparks off riots LAGOS, June 9 (AP) — Rioting brought Nigeria’s commercial capital to a standstill after last-ditch talks between the government and trade union leaders failed to avert a nation-wide strike touched off by a 50 per cent hike in fuel prices. Protesting youths in Lagos barricaded roads and attacked commuter buses, halting traffic for several hours yesterday. Many people abandoned their vehicles and made their way on foot. Traffic was similarly paralysed in the southern cities of Abeokuta, Ibadan and Benin City. Schools, offices and most banks were closed in major cities across Nigeria, Africa’s most populous nation. Airports also shut down, Radio Nigeria reported. Trade union members barricaded the main office complex in the Capital, Abuja, and refused to let people enter. They were later driven away by the police. The armed police guarded Abuja’s petrol stations, which were closed in the morning but opened in the afternoon, when long lines formed. In Lagos, the petrol stations stayed closed. However, oil production — the country’s economic mainstay — was not affected, industry officials said. “Production, loading of vessels and all other essential services are going on uninterrupted,” a spokesman for oil giant Shell said on condition of
anonymity. Government and labour leaders met throughout the night in Abuja but failed to reach agreement to avert the strike by yesterday morning. |
 |
| Punjab | Haryana | Jammu & Kashmir | Himachal Pradesh | Regional Briefs | Nation | Editorial | | Business | Sport | World | Mailbag | Chandigarh Tribune | In Spotlight | 50 years of Independence | Tercentenary Celebrations | | 120 Years of Trust | Calendar | Weather | Archive | Subscribe | Suggestion | E-mail | |
