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| Friday, August 11, 2000, Chandigarh, India    |
China aiding Pakistan
missile plan: CIA Window on Pakistan |
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Pakistanis held in Chechnya MOSCOW, Aug 10 — Pakistani citizens are among the mercenaries detained in Chechnya in connection with Tuesday’s bombing in a busy Moscow underpass which killed up to eight people and injured more than 90, Russian Interior Ministry sources have disclosed. India opposes riders to development aid Hillary ahead in opinion poll Pak flayed at UN Cinnamon may prevent diabetes |
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China aiding Pakistan missile plan: CIA WASHINGTON, Aug 10 (UNI) — China increased its missile-related sales to Pakistan last year and continues to supply nuclear, chemical and biological weapons and missile goods to North Korea, Libya and Iran, the CIA said in its latest semi-annual report to congress. The CIA report, a copy of which was obtained by the Washington Times, says, Chinese missile-related technical assistance to Pakistan increased during this reporting period. It also stated that we cannot preclude that China has ongoing contacts with Pakistani nuclear weapons officials — contrary to a pledge made by Beijing in 1996 to halt aid to nuclear programmes in Pakistan that are not under international controls. But the Senate Intelligence Committee is investigating why additional arms proliferation activities by Beijing were left out of the unclassified report, the daily quoted a Senate aide as having said. The 11-page unclassified report is the public version of a more detailed study the CIA is required to produce every six months under a 1997 intelligence law. It is based on intelligence reports of global weapons sales for the last six months of 1999. The report contradicts recent claims by Clinton Administration policy-makers that China’s record of illicit arms sales is improving, says the Washington Times. National Security Adviser Samuel R. Berger recently told the Senate that China’s proliferation record is improving, according to Senate aides. He went to Capitol Hill (Congress) last month to lobby against legislation sponsored by Senator Fred Thompson that would punish China for its numerous arms transfers to rogue states. The daily says state department arms control official John Holum went to Beijing last month to discuss China’s arms sales, including the missile transfers to Pakistan. After meeting Chinese officials, Holum had told reporters: “we held detailed, substantive discussions on the missile issue and we made progress, but the issue remains unresolved.” Reuters adds: “Chinese entities provided increased assistance to Pakistan’s ballistic missile programme during the second half of 1999”, the semiannual report said. North Korea also helped Pakistan in the missile area, and Pakistan acquired nuclear-related equipment and materials from sources in western Europe. Chinese firms also provided missile-related items, raw materials and assistance to countries such as Iran, North Korea and Libya, the report said. Russia, meanwhile, helped Iran with its missile programme and supplied missile-related goods and technical expertise to Iran, India and Libya. A deterioration of economic conditions put more pressure on Russian entities to circumvent export controls, and Russia continued to provide Iran with nuclear technology that could be applied to its weapons programme, the report said. Iran was “one of the most active” countries seeking weapons technology, the report said. Russia, North Korea and China supplied the largest amount of ballistic missile-related goods, technology and expertise to Iran. |
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Window on Pakistan Immediately after the Hizbul Mujahideen made its unilateral ceasefire declaration, now revoked, through its Srinagar-based commander Abdul Majeed Dar on July 24 the Pakistani media launched a quick search for the forces behind this dramatic development. Two theories were given wide publicity. One, the whole drama was enacted in connivance with the Government of Pakistan headed by Gen Pervez Musharraf. The other theory was that the surprising development was a US-scripted plan finalised in secret consultation with the governments in New Delhi and Islamabad. The second theory was highlighted by The Nation on July 30 through a report by its New Delhi representative, Iftikhar Geelani, and then an editorial the following day. The report said that Hizb commander Dar reached Srinagar from his hideout in Jammu and Kashmir by adopting the route PoK (Pakistan-occupied Kashmir)-Karachi-Dubai-New Delhi-Srinagar. He did not use the method normally adopted by militants to hoodwink the security forces. He travelled by air on valid documents. The Nation quoted an unidentified official in New Delhi to stress the point that the Hizb declaration was the result of a secret understanding between "the governments of the United States, India and Pakistan". In the words of the unidentified official: "It was a joint operation of India's internal intelligence wing, the IB, the Military Intelligence (MI) and the Pakistani Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) on the initiative of the USA to wriggle out both countries of the deadlock ... on the issue of talks." The same newspaper in an editorial on July 31 sought to justify this theory by saying, "Suspicions already existed that the Hizbul Mujahideen's dramatic ceasefire announcement might be the result of careful choreography developed in Islamabad and New Delhi. They have now been given further credence by reports that the USA's intelligence agencies played a key role in brokering this cooperation...." However, the developments leading to the withdrawal of the ceasefire decision on August 8 by the Hizb supremo, Syed Salahuddin, in Islamabad have proved that the first theory was based on truth. The most prominent proponent of the Hizb ceasefire idea being the Pakistan government's brainchild was Jamaat-e-Islami chief Qazi Hussain Ahmed. He continued to stick to his stand despite the Pakistan government's denial of its involvement. A maverick who does not believe in holding negotiations with India on the Kashmir question, the right wing leader categorically stated on August 2 that "there is a (Pakistan) government hand behind the Hizbul Mujahideen ceasefire" declaration. The Hizb has so far had the image of being very close to the Jamaat. But the Qazi said that "neither the Jamaat was consulted nor were there any prior indications from the Hizb that they were going to pronounce the ceasefire...." Clearly, the Hizb leadership had dumped the Jamaat to reach an understanding with the military regime, obviously through the ISI. Anything is possible in the race for supremacy among the various militant outfits having their headquarters in Pakistan. This development, if true, falsifies the belief that the ISI had abandoned the Hizb and was concentrating on the Lashkar-e-Toiba, which claimed responsibility for the recent series of killings in Pahalgam and elsewhere in Kashmir. In his popular column in Jang newspaper carried on August 2, Irshad Ahmed Haqqani gave details of the Jamaat chief's alarming views on Kashmir and the ceasefire issue. The Qazi told the columnist that "he was not even given a hint about the (Hizb) decision." The Urdu commentator was, however, of the view that the ceasefire idea had the potential of creating an atmosphere that could lead to the establishment of peace in Kashmir. But the Pakistan government appeared to have a different game-plan. It perhaps wanted to trap India in the kind of dialogue it had been insisting on without ending its sponsorship of cross-border terrorism, as demanded by New Delhi. The Pakistani viewpoint is that Kashmir is a disputed territory involving three parties — India, Pakistan and the people of Kashmir — which could have come into sharp focus if Islamabad had succeeded in entering into a dialogue through the backdoor, using the Hizbul Mujahideen. Pakistan's failure has exposed its desperation to falsely demonstrate before the world that it was interested in ending the Kashmir crisis through peaceful means despite the belief contrary to this. The disapproval of this strategy by the other militant outfits has also brought to light that these organisations have grown too strong to be dictated by the military regime. In fact, the situation appears to be the other way round. The day is not very far when these militant groups, operating in the name of Islamic jehad, will start influencing the policies of the Government of Pakistan in a big way, leading to the Talibanisation of the administration in India's immediate neighbourhood! And that will mean "Kashmir par samjhauta? Hargiz nahin!" as an advertisement to promote "Kashmir" vanaspati says. — Syed Nooruzzaman |
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Pakistanis held in Chechnya MOSCOW, Aug 10 (UNI) — Pakistani citizens are among the mercenaries detained in Chechnya in connection with Tuesday’s bombing in a busy Moscow underpass which killed up to eight people and injured more than 90, Russian Interior Ministry sources have disclosed. Reiterating the charge about the existence of terrorist training camps in Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Afghanistan and Tajikistan, a spokesman of the ministry said yesterday that the fact of the Afghan Taliban continuing to enter the territories of the former Soviet Central Asian republics had been proved when Uzbek authorities yesterday said that its troops had liquidated Afghan bandits who intruded into their land from adjoining Tajikistan on their way to Chechnya. A Novosti report said the authorities had also found a Chinese national fighting on the side of the Chechen militants, who are suspected to be behind the bomb attack. Sources in Russia’s Federal Security Bureau (FSB) said that the blast was a part of a series of nation-wide terrorist activities planned on August seven by Chechen terrorists who, as part of their plan, had also placed lethal explosives at Kazan Sky Station, the busiest railway station in Moscow, which was to explode simultaneously with the blast that occurred in the underground train. The explosives at Kazan Sky Station were, however, detected in time and defused, the sources said and added that the Chechen militants succeeded in carrying out only one successful bomb blast in the centre of Moscow. “The militants have now fixed August 25 as the new date for fresh attempts to mark their “presence” in Russia,” the sources said. Reuters adds: Another of those injured in Tuesday’s bomb blast in a busy Moscow underpass has died, bringing the death toll to eight, an official said today. The 33-year-old man, who was badly burned, died in hospital late yesterday, a spokesman at Moscow’s City Health Committee said. Interfax news agency quoted the medical service as saying yesterday that 61 people remained in hospital after the blast. It said 100 had been injured in total — 58 women, 35 men and seven children. A nationwide manhunt for suspects continued today. A Moscow prosecutor said two men already in custody could not be directly linked to the
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India opposes riders to development aid GENEVA, Aug 10 (PTI) — India today opposed any attempt to put conditions on development aid in the garb of pursuing a “rights-based approach to development” saying it would exacerbate the burden of the developing countries. Rejecting the “rights-based approach to development” propagated by global financial institutions and industrialised countries, Sharat Sabharwal, Deputy Permanent Representative at India’s permanent mission in Geneva, said: “The need of the hour is to adopt a ‘developmental approach’ to human rights”. India’s views on the realisation of the right to development at the ongoing 52nd session of the UN sub-commission on the promotion and protection of human rights came amid calls for a review of the performance of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). “A mechanism is needed to evaluate and monitor whether or not it (UNDP) is meeting its objectives of sustainable human development and poverty eradication,” said Riyaz Punjabi representing an Indian non-governmental organisation, Himalayan Research and Cultural Foundation. The debate on the right to development in the context of the UN decade for the elimination of poverty (1997-2006) was marked by passionate pleas by several NGOs from India and abroad that more had to be done to counter the negative effects of economic globalisation on the poor. Mr Sabharwal said poverty and lack of development constituted one of the major hurdles to human rights. “Vanquishing poverty and promoting development must, therefore, become a priority not just for their own sake but also for the sake of promoting human rights,” he noted. Mr Sabharwal said India had been providing Rs 100 million each year for technical and economic cooperation with developing countries. This showed that despite resource constraints, India had not neglected the international cooperation aspect of assistance to poorer countries. Jane Hampson of the UK, one of the 26 independent experts assisting the sub-commission, said government and treaty bodies should not shy away from addressing some of the problems posed by globalisation. |
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Hillary ahead in opinion poll NEW YORK, Aug 10 (Reuters) — Ms Hillary Rodham Clinton has pulled slightly ahead of Representative Rick Lazio in New York’s closely watched race for the US Senate, according to a poll released yesterday. The First Lady led Mr Lazio 46 per cent to 43 per cent in the Quinnipiac University poll of registered New York voters taken between August 2 to 8. The survey had a margin of error of 2.8 per cent. Two weeks ago, a
Quinnipiac poll showed the two candidates locked in a 45 per cent to 45 per cent tie. President Bill Clinton said he was buoyed by the latest poll numbers and predicted his wife would win. He attended two fund-raising events last night in
McLean, Virginia, and Washington, that raised a total of 600,000 dollars for the First Lady’s Senate bid. STAMFORD (Conn): Democrats Al Gore and Joseph Lieberman led each other on visits to their boyhood hometowns yesterday — one in the south, the other in the New England — as they campaigned together for the first time for the White House. Mr Lieberman was greeted with chants of “Joe, Joe,” at a rally by a crowd of several hundred people in Stamford, Connecticut, after Mr Gore was saluted in Carthage, Tennessee, by friends, neighbours and constituents as a faithful public servant. “I want to thank you all for making me feel like a homecoming king,” Mr Lieberman said as he again thanked Mr Gore for having the courage to make him the first Jewish person on a major party presidential ticket. The Vice-President’s choice already has prompted controversy in Texas, where Lee Alcorn, a Dallas civil rights activist, quit as head of the local branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Coloured People after civil rights leaders rebuked him for what they called anti-semitic remarks about Mr Lieberman. Mr Gore and Mr Lieberman will campaign in Atlanta on Thursday and Pennsylvania on Friday, before going their separate ways to the Democratic national convention in Los Angeles next week, where they will be nominated as the party’s 2000 standard bearers. |
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Pak flayed at UN GENEVA, Aug 10 (UNI) —Pakistan, which made several attempts to raise the Kashmir problem at the UN Subcommission on the Protection and Promotion of Human Rights, found itself in a quagmire when several groups levelled serious allegations against the military junta for victimising and terrorising Mohajirs and Sindhis. Pakistan diplomats, who missed no opportunity in highlighting the Kashmir problem despite several warnings by the commission, remained mute spectators at the plenary session when Mr Mohammed Ahsan of Interfaith International blasted the Pakistani Government for denying the people of Sindh and Mohajirs their economic, social and cultural rights. “In a country where medieval feudalism and contemporary militarism share political and economic power, it appears very difficult or even impossible for Mohajirs and Sindhis to enjoy full rights of economic and social development. The successive Pakistani Governments have systematically weeded out Mohajir civil and police officials over a period of time. He said that people in Pakistan were being divided on ethnic and linguistic lines. He urged the sub commission to direct Pakistan to reverse its policy of discrimination and repression against Mohajirs and Sindhis to allow true democracy and pluralism in the country. |
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Cinnamon may
prevent diabetes LONDON, Aug 10 (DPA) — A teaspoon of cinnamon a day may help prevent or delay the onset of diabetes II — a non-insulin dependent diabetes —, the variant of the disease elderly people tend to suffer from, according to a report in the journal New Scientist published yesterday. The type II diabetes develops in old age and worldwide causes 100 million premature deaths every year. The condition causes fat and muscle cells to gradually lose their ability to respond to insulin, the hormone which directs cells to remove excess glucose from the bloodstream. Glucose, therefore, builds up in the blood, causing tiredness, weight loss and blurred vision. In extreme cases, diabetes can eventually lead to blindness, kidney damage and heart disease. Scientists from the agricultural research unit in Maryland found that cinnamon rekindles the ability of fat cells in diabetes patients to respond to insulin and increases glucose removal twenty-fold. Scientists believe a substance found in cinnamon called methylhydroxy chalcone polymer (MHCP) is responsible for the change. In other studies, high glucose concentrations in mice fell drastically when they were given the MHCP. |
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