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| Saturday, July 22, 2000, Chandigarh, India   
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Israel
okays proposal on shared
rule
G 8
nations ask India, Pak to resume talks
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Speight’s
demands: PM flexible Brother
asks Sharif to quit politics UK Home
Secy caught speeding US
House for easing sanctions on Cuba 9 die in
Russian copter crash Rebels
free 4 Malaysian hostages USA plans
more curbs on Taliban Ties
with India important, says Clinton
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Arab
East Jerusalem JERUSALEM, July 21 — An Israeli Cabinet Minister said today Prime Minister Ehud Barak had embraced a U.S. proposal that could enable Israel and the Palestinians to share sovereignty over parts of Arab East Jerusalem. The Israeli leader’s acceptance — confirmed by Cabinet Minister Michael Melchior in Jerusalem — drew swift criticism from right-wing political foes in Israel who accused Mr Barak of abandoning a promise to uphold the unity of all of the city. Mr Melchior, part of Mr Barak’s public relations team at a 10-day-old peace summit with the Palestinians at Camp David outside Washington, confirmed what Israeli officials in the USA had said only privately. Palestinians have yet to accept the proposal. "What’s being spoken of is a (U.S.) proposal that is definitely within the red line of the Prime Minister and therefore the Prime Minister agreed to the proposal,’’ Mr Melchior, Minister for Diaspora Affairs, said on Israel Radio. Israel captured Arab East Jerusalem in the 1967 war and annexed it in a move not recognised internationally. It has said to date that Jerusalem must be its undivided capital, but Palestinians want East Jerusalem as their future capital. Under the U.S. proposal, Israel would add some Jewish West Bank settlements to Jerusalem, including the largest Maale Adumim, while Palestinian neighbourhoods in Arab East Jerusalem could be jointly controlled, Mr Melchior said. "It’s about administration-plus, perhaps also with signs of joint sovereignty, in the (Arab) neighbourhoods outside the old city, in the neighbourhoods at the edge of Jerusalem such as Shuafat,’’ Mr Melchior said. Jerusalem is by all accounts the toughest of the issues at Mr Barak’s summit with Palestinian President Yasser Arafat. U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright is urging them to resolve the issue before President Bill Clinton races back from a three-day summit of leading industrial nations in Japan. Israeli officials in the USA, leaning on the Palestinians to bend, have said that Mr Barak plans to leave camp David for Israel on Sunday if there is no deal. The U.S. proposal would freeze for several years the status quo in Jerusalem’s old walled city, home to some of the holiest sites for Christians, Jews and Muslims, until a permanent solution could be negotiated, an Israeli official said. The proposal would also offer Palestinians some form of safe passage to the old city’s Al-Aqsa Mosque complex, Islam’s third holiest site. Mr Melchior said Jerusalem would remain undivided and under Israeli sovereignty. But it was unclear how Mr Barak would sell the proposal to Israelis used to hearing their politicians call the city Israel’s "eternal, undivided capital’’. Over 70 per cent of Israeli Jews surveyed for an opinion poll published in the newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth on Friday said they would forbid any deal ending the conflict if Israel returned any part of East Jerusalem to the Palestinians. "If indeed the state of Israel is prepared to discuss the U.S. bridging proposal, it’s a flagrant, unequivocal violation which cannot be ignored of the commitment Ehud Barak gave the people of Israel concerning Jerusalem,’’ Mr Ehud Olmert, the right-wing Israeli Mayor of Jerusalem, told Israel Radio. By contrast, the Dovish Justice Minister Yossi Beilin, of Mr Barak’s One Israel faction, defended the ceding of annexed Arab villages where he said no Israeli visits. "If after 52 years (of conflict), there is a chance to receive recognition once and for all of Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, that will include not only the west of the city but also the (Jewish settlements including Maale Adumim)..., we definitely don’t need these villages,’’ he told Army Radio. The Palestinians showed no sign of accepting the proposal on East Jerusalem. "Without full sovereignty, there will be no deal,’’ Washington-based PLO representative Hassan Abdel-Rahman said. — Reuters AFP adds: But the revelations sparked a swift Palestinian insistence that it wanted all of East Jerusalem, and right-wing accusations that Prime Minister Barak was reneging on his promise to protect the "unity" of the city. The Palestinians want the sector as the capital of an independent state they have vowed to declare by September 13, the deadline for a final peace deal. But the Palestinians insisted they must have full control over the sector and accused Israel of sending up trial balloons. "The Palestinian
position is that it should have full sovereignty in East Jerusalem
which was occupied in 1967. That was the negotiating position,"
Palestinian Minister of Parliamentary Affairs Nabil Amr said. |
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G 8 nations ask India, Pak to resume talks NAGO (Japan), July 21 (AFP) — The Group of Eight urged India and Pakistan today to reopen their stalled dialogue as soon as possible, saying prolonged tension between the two South Asian neighbours concerned international community. "We call on both India and Pakistan to join international efforts to strengthen the non-proliferation and disarmament regime," the G8 leaders said in a statement. "The level of tension between India and Pakistan remains a cause of international concern," the statement said. "We call on the two countries to resume dialogue as soon as possible." In the statement, the eight —
Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia and the USA —
also called on the two nations to sign and ratify the Comprehensive
Test Ban Treaty. |
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Window
on Pakistan THIS is the tale of two once powerful women of Pakistan. One has been the Prime Minister and the other is making efforts to succeed in politics. Ms Benazir Bhutto has been twice the Prime Minister of that hapless country. Mrs Kulsoom Nawaz, wife of the deposed Prime Minister, Mr Nawaz Sharif, has been trying not only to project herself as the leader of the Pakistan Muslim League, the ruling party till October last year, but also as a crusader to save the life of her husband. Interestingly, both have much in common. Currently, the husbands of both are in jail. Ms Bhutto’s husband, Mr Asif Ali Zardari, a rich landlord, is in jail after being convicted in cases of corruption and murder. The same is the fate of Mr Nawaz Sharif. He has been sentenced to life imprisonment on the charge of hijacking the plane that carried the then Army Chief and now the military dictator, Gen Pervez Musharraf. He also faces corruption charges. If the military ruler has his way, both Mr Sharif and Mr Zardari can end their lives in jail. Ms Bhutto has been campaigning against the present regime from London and Washington, taking help from her friends in the West. Mrs Kulsoom Nawaz has been leading a shouting brigade from Lahore, Karachi and Islamabad to get "justice" for husband from the Pakistani courts. There is a similarity in the causes of both, but their style of functioning is entirely different. Ms Bhutto is scared of entering Pakistan. She knows that she will be immediately arrested and put behind bars the moment she lands in her country. Her campaign through Press interviews, articles and TV presentations rests on two factors. Mr Zardari is innocent and has been framed in false cases, she asserts. But more important than this is her sensing of the mood in Washington and London. These days she has been making one kind of confession after another. She says she lost a major opportunity of settling the vexed Kashmir issue with India when Rajiv Gandhi offered her a big deal. She was misguided, she confesses. But this is how most politicians describe their failures. Ms Bhutto promises not to waste another opportunity if it ever comes. She agrees with her arch rival, Mr Nawaz Sharif, that the Kargil adventure was the brain child of the Army to kill the peace initiative with India. Both are, therefore, making common cause with each other these days. Newspaper reports indicate that some kind of a grand alliance of political parties is emerging fast. It would be primarily aimed at preventing the Chief Executive from becoming the president of Pakistan forever after amending the constitution. Next four or five weeks appear to be crucial. Most Pakistani politicians have agreed to come to one platform under the banner of the Pakistan Awami Ittehad. A formal launching of this alliance later this month is being planned. General Musharraf too is not sitting idle. He has started his game of dividing these politicians and appeasing the fundamentalist forces. He has also decreed that the Ahmedias, a minority sect, are to be treated as non-Muslim. He has also prohibited the formulation of any law that conflicts with the Islamic principles. All provisions of the constitution embodying Islamic injunctions remain in force. This is the second time the General has met the demands of the Muslim clergy. He has rejected the demand of the human rights groups that the blasphemy law should be scrapped. At least 54 Ahmedias are currently facing charges under the blasphemy law. This may finally deprive them of their lives. Christians and Hindus may also face a similar situation. This is how General Musharraf may
respond to the schemes of the grand alliance. It is going to be a
ding-dong battle in the months to come all in the name of Allah and
democracy. — Gobind Thukral |
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Speight’s demands: PM flexible SUVA, July 21 (Reuters) — Fiji’s military-backed Prime Minister said today that he would consider giving nationalist rebel supporters a larger role in his government if it would resolve the country’s nine-week long political crisis. Mr Qarase said he was going ahead with his 32-member government announced on Tuesday, despite threats by rebel leader George Speight of further civil unrest if his supporters are excluded from key Cabinet positions. But Mr Qarase said he could be flexible if it would end the political and economic crisis. "If there is a change (proposed) in the line-up, depending on the people involved and if it resolves the entire problem, I certainly would have to look at it,’’ Mr Qarase told Reuters. He said he could quit if he felt unable to serve certain members of the new government, which would rule for the next two years before fresh elections. The rebels, who held Mr Chaudhry and members of his government hostage for 56 days, have demanded Mr Qarase’s resignation and a more dominant role for supporters in the new administration. Mr Chaudhry’s People’s Coalition has demanded that his multi-racial government be reinstated. Mr Chaudhry, the first ethnic Indian Prime Minister in Fiji, suggested the United Nations may be called on to run a referendum on what government Fijians want. "The final objective (of the May 19 coup) to be fulfilled is the right government with the right people,’’ Mr Speight said. Asked if he expected a totally different line-up from the interim government announced on Tuesday, Mr Speight said: "I am’’. A swearing-in ceremony planned for Wednesday was cancelled amid rebel threats of widespread unrest against the new Cabinet. Mr Qarase said the ceremony was postponed because of Iloilo’s ill health. Iloilo shook considerably during his own swearing-in today and is reported to have Parkinson’s disease. The president’s office rejected speculation in Suva that the ageing Iloilo would step down or be forced out by the military. Rumours also swept through Suva in
the past 24 hours that Iloilo had died, but late on Friday he made a
national broadcast explaining it was not just illness but the
"prospect of Fijian disunity’’ which had prompted him to
cancel the swearing-in. |
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Brother asks Sharif to quit politics ISLAMABAD, July 21 (PTI) — Differences have cropped up in deposed Pakistan Premier Nawaz Sharif’s family with his younger brother Shahbaz Sharif reportedly asking him to quit politics and disapproving the current policy of confrontation with the military regime. In his four-page letter, as reported in local Urdu press today, Shahbaz, former Chief Minister of Punjab province, asked his brother, who is in jail, to apologise to the military regime for the "past mistakes". In the letter, he told Nawaz Sharif that he had no role in any coming political set-up and asked him to nominate one of his trusted men as acting President of his Pakistan Muslim League (N). Party sources confirmed the letter which they said had also been signed by former Sindh Chief Minister Syed Ghous Ali Shah and ex-PIA chairman Shahid Khaqan Abbasi, who turned approver and was acquitted by the court in the plane hijacking case against the deposed premier. The letter however, did not go well
with Kulsoom Nawaz, wife of Nawaz Sharif, who has followed the South
Asian tradition of females taking mantle from their brothers, fathers
and husbands and joining politics. "Ask your friend (the Chief
Executive) to shun tussle," Kulsoom retorted to Shahbaz’s
letter. |
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9 die in Russian copter crash ST PETERSBURG, (Russia), July 21 (Reuters) — A Russian MI-8 military helicopter crashed at an airfield near St Petersburg today, killing all 19 persons on board, the Emergencies Ministry said. Ministry spokesman Vladimir Drozdov said 16 passengers and three crew members died in the accident near the town of Levashovo north of St Petersburg. Interfax news agency quoted the Russian air force as saying that the 16 passengers were parachutists taking part in a routine drop. It said the aircraft had crashed from a height of about 70 metres. An air force commission was investigating the reasons behind the crash, which occurred just after 9 am. The MI-8 helicopter, transport
workhorse of the Russian military and various civilian institutions,
has been prone to accidents in recent years throughout the former
Soviet Union. |
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UK Home Secy caught speeding LONDON, July 21 (DPA) — A car carrying British Home Secretary Jack Straw has been trapped on a motorway, travelling at 103 miles (165 km) an hour, 33 miles an hour above the speed limit on British Motorways, news reports said today. Mr Straw had been on his way to a Labour Party event when the unmarked Jaguar, driven by a police bodyguard, was stopped by the police at about 9 a.m. on Sunday. He was running late for a meeting with Prime Minister Tony Blair, the reports said. Under court guidelines, any motorist travelling at more than 100 miles an hour can be banned from driving and fined heavily. In 1993 before he took office, he was caught driving at 48 miles an hour in a 30 mile an hour zone. As the Government Minister responsible for law and order and the police, Mr Straw has taken a tough line on driving offences. The incident is seen as likely to cause further embarrassment to the Government. In recent weeks there have been
repeated leaks of sensitive government information to the Press. Mr
Blair’s 16-year-old son has been found drunk and incapable in public
and attempts by the Government to regain the political initiative have
backfired in some cases. |
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US House for easing sanctions on Cuba WASHINGTON, July 21 (Reuters) — The US House of Representatives has backed efforts to ease the 38-year-old US trade embargo against Cuba as critics of the sanctions continued to push for an overhaul of Washington’s policies towards its Communist-ruled neighbour. The Republican-led House yesterday passed amendments aimed at easing restrictions on Americans travelling to the Caribbean Island, about 145 km off Florida, and exempting food and medicine from a unilateral embargo meant to weaken Cuban President Fidel Castro’s grip on power. But lawmakers rejected a broader
amendment pushed by New York Democratic representative Charles Rangel
that would have gone farther towards lifting the trade embargo. |
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Rebels free 4 Malaysian hostages JOLO (Philippines), July 21 (Reuters) — Muslim rebels released four Malaysian hostages in the Southern Philippines today out of several captives held for months. The rebels today freed two Filipino women schoolteachers they had held hostage in jungles in the southern Philippines for four months, local officials said. After they were released, the two Filipinos were taken to the residence of Vice-Governor of Jolo island. Journalists said they saw them later at that location. The women were abducted in March from a high school on nearby Basilan island. Reporters saw the four driven into a military camp in the main town on Jolo island, 960 km south of Manila at dawn. They waved to reporters but were not allowed to speak to them and a military spokesman did not immediately comment. There was no word on the three remaining Malaysian hostages. The Malaysians were among 21 persons kidnapped by Abu Sayyaf rebels from a Malaysian diving resort on April 23 and brought to Jolo. Two Malaysians and a German woman were released earlier. All remaining
Malaysian captives were expected to be freed on Wednesday, but sources
close to the negotiating team said efforts were being hampered by
squabbling among government emissaries and disputes among the rebels
over the sharing of a huge ransom. Malaysia has denied that any money
was paid. |
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USA plans more curbs on Taliban WASHINGTON, July 21 (PTI) — Sharing India’s concerns over Taliban’s role in abetting terrorism, the USA has threatened to use force against the Islamic militia in Afghanistan if terrorist mastermind Osama bin Laden undertakes any terrorist act. "We have let them known, in no
uncertain terms that we will hold them responsible for any terrorist
act undertaken by Osama bin Laden from Afghanistan. We reserve the
right to use military force in self-defence if required",
Assistant Secretary of State Karl Inderfurth told a congressional
committee yesterday. |
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Ties with India important, says Clinton WASHINGTON, July 21 (IANS) — President Bill Clinton has predicted that the new millennium "holds great opportunities and challenges" for both the USA and India, "and our partnership will become even more important in the years ahead." In a message to the annual legislative conference of the Indian American Leadership Council (IALC), Mr Clinton noted that "the people of the USA and India have created a strong, genuine, and enduring relationship during more than 50 years of close cooperation. "It is a relationship that draws its strength from our shared values: a reverence for freedom, a belief in democracy, and a conviction that, working together, we can make the world a safer and better place for our children," he said. Mr Clinton lauded the IALC "for promoting greater understanding and cooperation between our two nations, and for raising awareness of the contributions of millions of Americans of Indian ancestry whose skills, energy, culture, and values have so enriched our nation’s life and heritage." Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee
in his message to the conference also lauded that contributions of the
Indian-American community saying that they," Have made an
impressive contribution in the fields of education, information
technology and health." |
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