 |
| Monday, August 21, 2000, Chandigarh, India   
|
Hostages walk free,
but crisis persists Qureshi to return, face trial USA against sale of
spy plane to India Chaudhry’s own party
‘was after him’ Kumaratunga ‘trying to’ impose
new statute |
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| ‘Fate of peace
process depends on Arafat’ JERUSALEM, Aug 20 — Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak today said the next few weeks would determine the fate of peace talks with the Palestinians, as the USA pursued efforts to overcome the key stumbling blocks to an accord. 
|
|
Hostages walk free,
but crisis persists
ZAMBOANGA (Philippines), Aug 20 (Reuters) — Three Malaysian hostages held by Muslim rebels in the Philippines walked free today but the fate of 12 European and South African captives awaited the resolution of a row between Manila and Libya. Philippine President Joseph Estrada will decide the next move in the four-month-long crisis, which threatened to spiral out of control after Libya said it would end its mediation if Manila did not ensure positive developments in the next 48 hours. The row between the Philippines and Libya erupted after an attempt to free the 12 Caucasian hostages collapsed yesterday. Tripoli, which has mounted a major initiative to end the crisis, said the Philippines had to answer fears of the Abu Sayyaf rebels of a military attack and Manila said the Libyans were free to withdraw if they wished. “I promised the President to give my full report by tomorrow morning, personally to him,” chief hostage negotiator Robert Aventajado told reporters after handing over the Malaysian hostages to their Ambassador. Asked what the next move would be, he said: “I cannot second-guess the President”. The three Malaysians and a Filipino hostage were handed over by the rebels to an emissary, Jamil Hasan, on Friday but were able to make their way down to the main town on the southern island of Jolo only early this morning. “We decided to wait,” said Hasan, adding that the Filipino was later held back by the rebels but would be freed within the next two days. “We wanted to relax... we went to the beach”. Sources close to the negotiations, however, said conditions in Jolo were tense yesterday following the failed deal for the rest of the hostages and Hasan’s decision to wait before making the dash to freedom. “This is excellent. Nothing can be better. It’s like winning a one million dollar lottery, only better,” said Ken Fong Yin Ken, a dive master at the Sipadan Island diving resort, off Borneo, from where the Abu Sayyaf guerrillas kidnapped 21 persons on April 23. The other two Malaysians released were resort cook Kua Yu Loong and Basilius Jim, a forest ranger. They spoke to Reuters after a breakfast of scrambled eggs, fried chicken, corned beef, juice and coffee at the house of Governor Abdusakur Tan, the top civilian official in Jolo, prior to being flown out on a plane piloted by Ken Fong’s father James. “This was the best meal that I have ever eaten,” said Ken Fong, a 28-year-old with long hair tied in a ponytail. Asked what his immediate plans were, he said: “First of all, I need to have a rest, get my energy. After that, I will be back to the island, back to diving”. Since being kidnapped on Easter Sunday 17 weeks ago, the hostages have lived mostly on boiled rice and a scrap or two of fish each day, and had only rain water to drink. Some have been bitten by scorpions, and most are exhausted and depressed. Ken Fong said he had last seen the Caucasian hostages five or six days ago. “They were fine in a way... physically fit but mentally down,” he said. Hopes of an end to their ordeal this weekend were snuffed out when the rebels reneged on the deal to free them during a six-hour meeting with Libyan envoy Rajab Azzarouq on Saturday. “The Philippine military movement there and the demand of Philippine Congress members asking for a military action in the south of the Philippines prevented a release,” said a statement released in Tripoli by the Gaddafi International Association for charitable organisations. The association, run by Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi’s son Seif Al-Islam, is officially the mediator in the crisis. It said it would withdraw if there was no progress by Monday. “They came in voluntarily and they can withdraw any time,” said Aventajado, who is also an adviser to Estrada. Azzarouq, the Libyan negotiator, told Reuters the Abu Sayyaf chieftains themselves appeared undecided, with some willing to release the hostages and others fearful of a military attack. Also at issue is the mode of release — the negotiators want all 12 Caucasian hostages released in one go while the rebels want to free them in batches. |
|
Qureshi to return, face trial GENEVA, Aug 20 (UNI) — Holland-based Kashmiri separatist leader Hashim Qureshi, who masterminded the hijacking of the Indian Airlines aircraft to Lahore in 1971, has decided to return to India in October to stand trial. “I am ready to face trial in the hijacking case, I want to go back even if the court awards me death sentence. The case is still pending in the Motibagh police station in Srinagar,” 46-year-old Hashim, chairman of the Democratic Liberation Front, told UNI. “I want to go back to my motherland. At least I want to die in my own land. People send their children to Europe for studies but I am sending my children to Kashmir so that they do not lose connection with their roots,” Hashim said. Hashim was 17 years old when he, along with his cousin Ashraf Qureshi, hijacked a Fokker Friendship aircraft from Srinagar to Lahore. The aircraft was blown up by the Pakistanis and both Hashim and his cousin were taken in procession from the Lahore airport. He was later sentenced to life by a commission of inquiry set up by Pakistan authorities which investigated the hijacking episode. After spending 10 years in Pakistani jail, he fled to Holland and took refuge there. Asked why he had left Pakistan, Hashim said the ISI was forcing him to influence Kashmiri youth to indulge in militant activities in the valley, adding that he was well aware that this “misadventure” by Pakistan would destroy Kashmir. Hashim who was here to participate in the UN sub-commission on Promotion and Protection of Human Rights, said gun culture and violence were no solution to the Kashmir problem. For the past 10 years I have been advocating the need to resolve the problem through peaceful negotiations, he added. He is of the opinion that to achieve permanent peace in Kashmir, it was essential to involve all concerned parties in a negotiated settlement. Condemning violence in the troubled state he said even militants belonging to different factions were killing one another. “JKLF people get killed by the Hizbul Mujahideen, the Lashkar-e-Toiba and the Hizbul Mujahideen clash against each other. The situation has reached a stage that those who at one time raised their guns for “azadi” (independence) are now either playing in the hands of India or Pakistan. The common Kashmiri has been left friendless and his voice has been buried under the sound of bombs and bullets.” No third party was in a position to resolve the Kashmir issue. In fact India, Pakistan and Kashmiris must sit together to discuss the problem, he said. “It is a test for the Indian government to see how they can convert the Kargil victory into a successful resolution of the Kashmir problem.” During his stay here, Hashim Qureshi met Kashmiri separatist leaders based in Pakistan and representatives of various non-government organisations (NGOs) of India and discussed with them the current political situation in Jammu and Kashmir. |
|
USA against sale of
spy plane to India
JERUSALEM, Aug 20 (PTI) — The United States of America is opposed to an Israeli sale of Phalcon Airborne Warning System to India which Washington contends could escalate tension between Islamabad and New Delhi, a US official has said. The American opposition stems from concerns that the sale of Phalcon spy plane to New Delhi could undermine stability in South Asia, altering the fragile balance of power between India and Pakistan, English daily Ha’aretz quoted the unidentified official as saying today. The USA does not perceive any threat from India to its own security, but are wary of tension escalating in India-Pakistan stand-off in the wake of a possible Phalcon deal, he said. An Israeli official said the sale of Phalcon spy plane to India is the main stumbling block in the signing of a new Israel-US agreement for the supervision of Israeli arms exports, the daily reported. Israel also fears that the USA could cast a veto, cancelling the sale of the advanced reconnaissance aircraft, the official said. The USA last year agreed to Israeli sale of a sophisticated land-based radar device, that draws upon technology used by the Phalcon Airborne System, to India on the condition that Tel Aviv confer with officials in Washington prior to supplying the radar equipment to Indian army, Ha’aretz said. Last month Israeli Premier Ehud Barak cancelled a planned sale of the Phalcon plane to China under US pressure with Washington contending that the installation of the highly classified radar equipment in China’s Russian-supplied planes could provide Beijing with a decisive military edge in a possible future stand-off with Taiwan and jeopardise US troops in the region. Americans have also demanded an Israeli promise for prior consultation with them concerning military sale to India, Pakistan, China and Russia — the four problematic countries in the US list, the daily said. Earlier, the USA had asked Tel Aviv to inform prior to any export of weapons and military supplies to 27 “states of concern” — including India and China. |
|
Chaudhry’s own party
‘was after him’ ADELAIDE, Aug 20 (Reuters) — Fiji’s ousted multi-racial government had been set to dump its ethnic-Indian leader Mahendra Chaudhry but was pre-empted by the May 19 coup launched by nationalist rebels, a senior Australian diplomat said today. Australian High Commissioner to Fiji, Ms Sue Boyd, said Chaudhry’s Labour Party could have averted the political crisis which had rocked Fiji if it had acted more quickly to quell rising indigenous discontent in the South Pacific nation. “What is actually ironic is that our friends in the Fiji Labour Party tell us that they themselves had decided that Mahendra Chaudhry had to go,” Ms Boyd told the Australian Broadcasting Corp (ABC) radio ahead of her return this week to Fiji. “(We were told) that they had resolved that at their party meeting the following week (after the coup) that they would ask him to step down and put in his deputy, Mr Tupeni Baba, who is an indigenous Fijian... as Prime Minister,” she said. “And had that happened, maybe a week before, the crisis may have been averted,” she said. Ms Boyd’s confirmation of reports that Mr Chaudhry’s party planned to dump him came as the ousted Prime Minister was in India as part of an international tour to rally support for his deposed government. Nationalist rebels led by businessman George Speight seized Mr Chaudhry and held him hostage, along with most of his Cabinet members, including Mr Baba, for 56 days as they pressed their demands for indigenous Fijian political domination. Thousands of indigenous Fijians had marched in anti-Chaudhry protests through the capital of Suva in the weeks before the coup. Ms Boyd was withdrawn from Fiji last month by the Australian Government in protest over the coup and the appointment by President Ratu Josefa Iloilo of an all-indigenous Fijian Cabinet. She well return to Suva on Tuesday. |
|
Kumaratunga ‘trying to’ impose
new statute
COLOMBO, Aug 20 (UNI) — With the battlelines drawn for the October 10 parliamentary elections, opposition United National Party (UNP) leader Ranil Wickremesinghe today launched a scathing attack on Sri Lankan President Chandrika Kumaratunga for attempting to “impose” a new Constitution on the people without a “national consensus”. “After the government miserably failed to muster the required strength to pass the new Constitution Bill, some senior government ministers are now hoping to get it passed in Parliament through some strange ways. It is a violation of democracy,” he said. “The people of this country will never allow it to happen,” Mr Wickremesinghe told a press conference convened to explain the party’s strategy for the ensuing poll. Mr Wickremesinghe said the UNP would go by the rules and the directive of the court before bringing any changes in the present Constitution. “The Constitution cannot be the monopoly of any party. It has to be discussed with the public and a national consensus must be reached before its presentation in Parliament,” he opined. On allegations that he and some other prominent UNP members were involved in the “battalanda torture” as alleged by former police officer Douglas Peiris, the UNP leader said it was part of the “mudslinging campaign unleashed by the government to discredit his party on the eve of the general election”. |
|
‘Fate of peace
process depends on Arafat’ JERUSALEM, Aug 20 (AFP) — Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak today said the next few weeks would determine the fate of peace talks with the Palestinians, as the USA pursued efforts to overcome the key stumbling blocks to an accord. “We will know in several weeks if Yasser Arafat is open to a peace accord or if we are heading towards an impasse,” Mr Barak told a weekly Cabinet meeting. “At present we have no indications that the Palestinians have studied our proposals made at Camp David summit, particularly on Jerusalem,” he said, according to a statement from his office. The peace talks at Camp David broke down after two weeks on July 25 over the fate of Jerusalem, the issue at the heart of the decades-old Israeli-Palestinian conflict. |
 |
| Punjab | Haryana | Jammu & Kashmir | Himachal Pradesh | Regional Briefs | Nation | Editorial | | Business | Sport | World | Mailbag | In Spotlight | Chandigarh Tribune | Ludhiana Tribune 50 years of Independence | Tercentenary Celebrations | | 120 Years of Trust | Calendar | Weather | Archive | Subscribe | Suggestion | E-mail | |
