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| Wednesday, August 23, 2000, Chandigarh, India   
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‘Torpedo blast’ caused N-sub sinking Amnesty for probe into killings
US terms for West Asia summit Libya to pay $ 12m
more to kidnappers Gore ahead of Bush in opinion poll |
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| Laden planned attacks on
Israel JERUSALEM, Aug 22 — Israel’s internal security intelligence agency Shin Bet has uncovered a terrorist ring headed by Saudi terrorist Osama bin Laden, which aimed at attacking Israeli targets, according to a media report here yesterday. 
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‘Torpedo blast’ caused N-sub sinking OSLO, Aug 22 (Reuters, DPA) — Norway’s military said today the explosion of a torpedo or another Russian weapon probably sank the “Kursk” nuclear submarine 10 days ago, rejecting Russian suggestions that there had been a collision. “We have no indication there was a collision with another vessel,’’ armed forces spokesman Brig Kjell Grandhagen said. “There may have been an explosion in one of the weapons systems aboard, for example a torpedo, which then triggered a bigger explosion two minutes later,’’ Brig Grandhagen said. Russian officials have said the Kursk might have collided with a foreign vessel. Grandhagen said it was impossible to rule out a mine as a possible cause of the first blast. “This is domestic Russian propaganda”, Rear-Adm Einar Skorgen, heading the Norwegian team of divers, told the daily Dagbladet of Russia’s collision theory. Norway’s intelligence-gathering Marjata vessel, which had been in the Barents Sea 10 days ago to monitor a military exercise involving “Kursk,” registered two explosions at the site of the sunken submarine on August 12 at about 7.30 a.m. (GMT). Seismic monitors coordinated from Norway also registered two explosions, the second equivalent to up to two tonnes of TNT. A Norwegian-led team of divers was preparing to leave the Barents Sea for Norway today after experts sent a remote-controlled video camera into the “Kursk” to film inside the flooded submarine overnight. “The Seaway Eagle lowered a camera into the submarine. The results have been given to the Russians,’’ armed forces spokesman Capt Erland Raanes said. None of the divers went inside the wreck after finding it flooded. The divers, who worked on the seabed 108 metres (354 ft) down, were to start a five-day decompression in a special chamber aboard the “Seaway Eagle” before their bodies would be able to breathe normal air at normal pressures again. The vessel’s owner, has expressed willingness to accept a Russian request to help recover bodies from the submarine. Divers say it would be too dangerous to squeeze into the N-submarine via the existing narrow hatch. However, Russia’s navy said all crew aboard the “Kursk” died within three minutes after the submarine hit an unknown object in the Barents Sea, adding complexity to a raging wordy duel between Russia and the West over the causes of the crash. Russia’s state television quoted Defence Minister igor Sergeyev as saying the submarine collided with an unknown object before going down. Defence sources told Novosti today that reasons for the crash were a collision with another submarine, possibly a British one. They drew attention to the “fact” something similar to a metal protection device of a running hatch of an another submarine was observed when rescuers located the “Kursk” but before it could be picked up it disappeared. They also said a white and green distress buoy had been noticed in the area where the “Kursk” lay after going down. The Russian navy “does not use these colours’’. Moscow: Russian President Vladimir Putin will fly to the Northern Fleet base of Severomorsk today to pay tribute to 118 sailors who died in a nuclear submarine accident, the Kremlin said. A Kremlin spokesman said by telephone he could not say when exactly Putin would fly to the base. Russian news agencies quoted Northern Fleet sources as saying Mr Putin was expected to meet members of the dead sailors’ families. Around 500 relatives of the crew are seeking to visit the site of the disaster. Mr Putin has been strongly criticised at home and abroad for not breaking his holiday after the crisis broke and for being too slow in requesting foreign aid. Meanwhile, angry Russians blamed their government today for the slow and secretive, Soviet-style handling of a submarine disaster after rescuers said none of the 118 Russian sailors remained alive aboard the sunken Kursk. “The authorities have honestly demonstrated their pathological indifference to the fate of Russian citizens,” wrote electronic newspaper Vesti.Ru, which also called Moscow’s botched efforts to save the seamen a “mocking imitation of rescue works.” Earlier, the Admiral of Russia’s Northern Fleet, Vyacheslav Popov, has asked for forgiveness from the relatives of the 118 sailors killed in the tragedy. “We are cut down with sadness, but life goes on”, said the Admiral, taking off his hat as a sign of respect, in an interview with state RTR television aboard the vessel which supervised the failed rescue bid. He then choked out with emotion: ‘Forgive me for not having saved your men’. |
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Amnesty for probe into killings LONDON, Aug 22 (PTI, UNI) — Amnesty International has asked the Jammu and Kashmir Government to set up an independent and impartial investigation into killings of at least 100 civilians on August 1 and 2. “Under international human rights law, everyone has the right to legal redress for abuses suffered. The state government is obliged to set up an independent and impartial inquiry into the killings,” Amnesty said in an open letter to the state Chief Minister, Dr Farooq Abdullah. “The failure to bring the perpetrators of human rights abuses to justice results in a climate in which more and more human rights violations are committed,”Amnesty said. Militants opposed to the Hizbul Mujahideen’s ceasefire declaration in Jammu and Kashmir, had gunned down 100 persons and left scores of others wounded on the outskirts of Pahalgam on August 1 and 2. Meanwhile, a New York-based human rights group has denounced the series of attacks on Hindu residents of Kashmir and has called for a judicial inquiry into the violence. “The recent attacks on Hindus in Kashmir are a reminder of the continued failure by all parties to protect civilian non-combatants, said Mr Sidney Jones, Executive Director of Human Rights Watch’s Asia division. Although the massacres were condemned by most major political parties and armed groups active in Kashmir, Mr Jones pointed out, they were believed to have been carried out by militant factions opposed to peace talks then under way between the Hizb-ul-Mujahideen and the Indian Government. |
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A case of too little, too late AS mourning shrouds Russia, the candles lit in hundreds of churches for the 118 submariners of the “Kursk” can only flicker in honour of their souls. For not only has all hope for the sailors’ lives gone, some of the faith in a new Russia has died too. A political inquest has begun and it was two of the youngest MPs, Boris Nemtsov, a leader of the Union of the Rightwing Forces, and Sergei Ivanenko of the centrist Yabloko party, who demanded that the Duma - Russia’s Lower House - hold hearings as soon as it reconvenes early next month. As the questions pile up, the timing of when President Vladimir Putin first learned of the gravity of the accident will become more important than his inappropriate reactions. Even yesterday (Monday), as television showed him chairing a meeting at the Kremlin, he was not in a black tie. The inquest will reveal whether the naval authorities told him the truth, and whether he can escape some blame for his insensitive behaviour by saying he was kept in the dark. The incident which sent the “Kursk” to the bottom of the Barents Sea occurred at 10.31 a.m. on Saturday (August 11) according to a distant boom which foreign seismic listening-devices picked up. A second loud boom followed two and a quarter minutes later. The Russian navy says the first time it became aware of a problem was 13 hours afterwards when the N-submarine failed to give a pre-arranged signal. If this was true, it would be easy to understand how Mr Putin seemed so relaxed during a meeting with Mr Gennady Seleznev, the Duma Speaker, at 1 p.m. that Saturday, shortly before he set off on holiday. No one knew then that disaster had struck the pride of its Northern Fleet. But Mr Seleznev suggested that the navy might have known but did not see fit to tell the President. The Speaker said he too favoured a parliamentary inquiry. A post-mortem inquiry is bound to ask why it took so long for Mr Putin to accept foreign offers of help, particularly since it emerged that the navy had no deep-sea diving team and that its rescue efforts were doomed. The government failed to approach private oil companies such as Lukoil which operate drilling rigs, but in a sign that the new Russian oligarchs are still partly stuck in the past none of them offered professional help. Only a few individual divers came forward. The lies, secrecy, and appalling insensitivity of the authorities will also merit scrutiny. It was only when the newspaper, Komsomolskaya Pravda paid an officer under the counter to obtain the crew list that the families knew whether their loved ones were trapped in the sunken vessel. The navy itself did not tell them. Mr Putin and the government failed to come up with any offer of free transport for the relatives, let alone of organising special flights to Murmansk, until two days ago. The navy bosses trotted out the usual Soviet-style excuse that bad weather was the reason why rescue efforts were failing. Pulling out the phoney rule “Always keep the morale high’’, they peddled false optimism, pretending there was hope long after it was realistic. It was only when Oleg Dobrodeyev, the chief editor of the state-owned television station RTR, had the courage to insist on getting his cameramen on to the battle-cruiser leading the rescue operation that Russians began to see a little of what was going on. The only heroes in this sad affair have been the press. Led by the independent television channel NTV and its radio stable-mate, Moscow Echo, as well as the newspapers Komsomolskaya Pravda and Novaya Gazeta, they have been pointing out the contradictions in official statements, asking searching questions, and running the blistering headlines. “The Defence Minister has delivered an account of various military-technical aspects of the operations in the Barents Sea. Now we are going to talk about humanitarian aspects,’’ President Putin told reporters. “The families of the sailors will get special help.’’ Shortly after he spoke, it was left - again - to the media to fill the sensitivity gap and lead the national mourning. The two main television channels — one private, the other state-owned — began their evening news broadcasts with solemn music and a slow roll call of the names of every member of the lost crew. There was no address by the President, and no declaration of a day of mourning. Not for the first time, Russia waits for change. — The Guardian, London |
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US terms for West Asia summit WASHINGTON, Aug 22 (AFP) — the USA will not host a second Camp David West Asia peace summit until both Israelis and the Palestinians are ready to make the tough decisions necessary for peace, the State Department has said. “Only when the parties are ready to make tough decisions, can we bring them together,” spokesman Richard Boucher told newsmen at a news briefing yesterday. “If the parties are ready to make the tough decisions, we are ready to bring them together,” he said as the Israelis and the Palestinians dug in their heels over the status of Jerusalem. Israeli and Palestinian officials earlier yesterday warned there would be no peace if their demands went unmet while diplomatic efforts intensified to advance the negotiations as a self-imposed September 13 deadline for a final accord looms. Those comments came as us special West Asia envoy Dennis Ross, ostensibly in the region on a family holiday, continued the not-so leisurely task of sounding out prospects for a second summit. Ross, who has already met with Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak and Egyptian Foreign Minister Amr Moussa, began a meeting with Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat shortly after Boucher’s briefing ended. “He’ll continue these meetings throughout the trip”, Boucher said, stressing that Camp David had yielded some progress. “Clearly, there’s been progress at Camp David on the core issues. The Israelis and Palestinians have resumed their discussions,” Boucher said, referring to post-summit negotiator-level meetings. |
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Libya to pay $ 12m
more to kidnappers MANILA, Aug 22 (AFP) — Libya has agreed to raise an extra $ 12 million ransom for the release of Westerners among 28 hostages held by Muslim extremists in the southern Philippines, an official in President Joseph Estrada’s office was reported as saying today. The money is believed to be on top of $ 25 million Libya had pledged in development aid to Jolo Island, a stronghold of Abu Sayyaf gunmen where the hostages are being held. A Libyan foundation mediating the release of the hostages — 12 Westerners and 16 Filipinos — has begrudgingly agreed to raise an extra $ 12 million in exchange for the Caucasians’ freedom, a senior Presidential Palace official told the Philippine daily Inquirer. The Gaddafi Charity Organisation run by Libyan leader Moamer Gaddafi’s son, Seif, had asked for “three days” to come up with the ransom after the Abu Sayyaf reneged on an agreement to free the hostages on Saturday. The newspaper said the organisation was buying time to raise the extra money. Although the guerrillas said they backed off on Saturday because they feared a military attack, government sources have said the main reason was an argument over ransom payments between the Abu Sayyaf and Rajab Azzarouq, an official of the Libyan foundation and Tripoli’s pointman in the hostage talks here. JOLO (Philippines): The Philippine’s top hostage negotiator said today that new attempts to free 12 Western captives held by Islamic extremists will be launched within the week under a “formula” aimed at breaking an impasse in the negotiations. Muslim peace advocate Farouk Hussein, a member of the government’s negotiating team, was already on Jolo island, Sulu province, 1,000 km south of Manila, to hold advance talks with leaders of the Abu Sayyaf rebels. Chief Government negotiator Roberto Aventajado said his team was already “planning the details of the framework of the formula” after Libyan mediator Rajab Azzarouq received a “go-signal” from Tripoli to work on the new plan. |
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Gore ahead of Bush in opinion poll NEW YORK, Aug 22 (PTI, Reuters) — Democratic presidential nominee Al Gore has erased the 14-point lead which Republican rival George W. Bush held on August 6 and has established a five-point lead in post-party convention bounce, according to the latest ABC News, Washington Post opinion poll. This is the first time since the presidential race began in March that a poll shows Mr Gore leading over Mr Bush. In the poll conducted among registered voters and posted on the website of ABC News on Monday, 50 per cent favoured Mr Gore and 45 per cent Mr Bush. Analysts say the poll makes it clear that Mr Gore has stepped out of President Bill Clinton’s shadow and is back in political contention. Most of the gain is among key swing voters whose votes are considered crucial in the poll. The poll shows that it is a bigger post-party convention bounce than Mr Bush’s and also bigger than usual in polls measuring bounces since 1968. Mr Gore, the analysts say, achieved his advance on several fronts: He successfully distanced himself from Mr Clinton. His appeal to working families has resonated. He improved his own leadership ratings. And he gained ground on several of the issues — economy, health care and education — enumerated in his nomination acceptance speech. Meanwhile, Mr Gore returned verbal fire today from Mr Bush on the state of the US military, according to a report from Milwaukee. Mr Gore rejected accusations by Mr Bush that under the Clinton-Gore administration for the past seven and half years many of the US Military’s needs have been neglected. |
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Laden planned attacks on Israel JERUSALEM, Aug 22 (PTI) — Israel’s internal security intelligence agency Shin Bet has uncovered a terrorist ring headed by Saudi terrorist Osama bin Laden, which aimed at attacking Israeli targets, according to a media report here yesterday. The members of the terrorist ring, who got training in Pakistan and Afghanistan, planned to carry out a series of attacks against Israeli targets, including suicide-bomb attacks, English daily Ha’aretz reported. The group also planned to launch anti-tank missiles at Jewish settlements in the territories, the daily said. The ring was discovered following the capture of their leader Nabil Oukal from a refugee camp in the Gaza Strip. Oukal had undergone training at camps sponsored by Bin Laden in Pakistan and Aghanistan, where he was instructed to set up a network that would perpetrate attacks against Israel, the daily said. The paper quoted sources in the defence establishment as saying that warnings about the intentions of the terrorist groups to perpetrate large-scale attacks in Israel, particularly in Jerusalem, were valid, though there was no concrete information about any specific squad that was about to carry out such an attack. |
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