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| Friday, August 25, 2000, Chandigarh, India   
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Indian airhostess among 143 crash victims
Seamen’s kin mourn
deaths at disaster area
Protestant faction leader rearrested Nepal’s Maoists using kids |
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| Japan, Korea agree
to fresh talks KISARAZU, (Japan), Aug 24 — Japan and North Korea today agreed to a new round of talks to overcome decades of hostility and set up diplomatic ties. Ershad gets
five-yr term for corruption
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Indian airhostess among 143 crash victims DUBAI, Aug 24 (PTI) — All 135 passengers and eight crew, including an Indian airhostess, on board a Gulf Air Airbus A320 from Cairo were killed when the aircraft crashed into the shallow Gulf waters last night while attempting to land at Bahrain International Airport. Bodies of all passengers and the crew had been recovered after night-long search and rescue operation carried out with the assistance of US navy helicopters and ships from the Bahrain-based American Fifth Fleet. Twentysix children aged 10 years and below were among the deceased. “We have pulled out the bodies of the 143 persons who were on board the plane,” Bahraini Civil Defence Commander Brig Abdul Rahman told the state-run television. Searchers have recovered flight data recorders and the cockpit voice recorder. There was no immediate word on what caused the crash but eyewitnesses quoted by Bahrain television said the GF072 flight from Cairo circled twice over the airport and when the aircraft was making a third attempt to land they noticed fire in one of the engine before the aircraft crashed into the sea. Ruler of Bahrain, one of the Gulf states to own Gulf Air, Sheikh Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa announced that a committee of Bahraini and foreign experts would conduct investigation into the crash. In France, Airbus Industrie said it was sending a team of experts to help in the probe. The eight member crew consisted of three women — an Indian, a Moroccan and an Egyptian — besides two Bahrainis, an Omani, a Filipino and a Dutch. Besides the crew, 63 Egyptians, 34 Bahrains,12 Saudis, nine Palestinians, six from the UAE, three Chinese, two British and one each from Canada, Oman, Kuwait, Sudan and Australia were on board the aircraft. One passenger was
believed to be an American. The Airbus was on a scheduled flight from Cairo to Bahrain and was full of holiday makers and returning workers. AP adds: US Fifth Fleet spokesman Cdr, Jeff Gradeck’s office said the waters at the crash site were less than 40 feet deep. An air traffic controller at the Bahrain airport, on telephone, described watching the plane attempt to land. “The plane was near the runway, but didn’t land,” he said, asking that his name should not be used. “It circled two times and the third time it crashed into the sea.” Ibrahim al-Hamer, Bahrain’s undersecretary for Civil Aviation, said the circling was not unusual and the crew reported nothing out of the ordinary. He added that the captain had 21 years of experience. He did not name the captain. “I could not believe my eyes,” said Sobeih, 27, a resident of the nearby neighbourhood of Al-Fodha who saw the plane go down. “When I saw it heading towards the sea nose down, I screamed ‘oh my god, this is going down.” Weeping relatives of the passengers pleaded with policemen who threw a security ring around the airport outside the capital, Manama. Many did not reach the airport, and cries and screams echoed in its halls. |
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Putin rejects
resignations MOSCOW, Aug 24 (Reuters) — Over 150 relatives of the 118 crew who died in the sinking of “Kursk” submarine attended an emotional memorial ceremony today and later sailed to the Arctic disaster site to toss wreaths and flowers into the water. Relatives boycotted a national day of mourning yesterday, when President Vladimir Putin said he felt guilty and responsible for the August 12 tragedy. It was Mr Putin’s first public statement since the members of the crew were pronounced dead on Monday, but he also used the speech to hit back at his critics and defend the military. The Prosecutor-General’s office also said it had opened a criminal case in connection with the sinking. However, Prosecutor-General Vladimir Ustinov said the probe was not launched under any specific criminal statute, Interfax said. The appropriate criminal statute will be determined only after the accident’s cause is firmly determined, it cited Ustinov as saying. Earlier, President Vladimir Puti rejected the resignation of Defence Minister Igor Sergeyev, Naval Commander in Chief Admiral Vladimir Kuroyedov and head of northern fleet Chief Admiral Vyacheslav Popov. The three top officials had resigned yesterday owning responsibility for the “Kursk” tragedy. In an interview to RTR TV, Mr Putin said: “The guilty will certainly be punished, but we must get an objective picture of the reasons leading to the accident only then we can draw the necessary conclusions”. “I am getting a lot of advice these days for displaying strong will — to dismiss and even put the people responsible in jail for the tragedy. But it is easiest yet most incorrect approach,” the President said. But spokesmen of British and US missions in Moscow denied the presence of any of their submarines in the vicinity of “Kursk” at the time of collision. The submarine disaster will not tarnish President Vladimir Putin’s image, if one accepts opinion poll conducted by the non-Government research centre, Romir. What’s more interesting is the sharp division of political forces over the tragedy, points out political analyst Marina Shakina. Right-wingers don’t
hesitate to blame the Head of State and fleet commanders. They have demanded that Mr Putin get rid of guilty commanders. Angered at the President’s refusal to take any such step, two leading Duma parties — the Union of Rightist Forces and Yabloko — have asked for setting up of a parliamentary commission to conduct a full-fledged probe. However, the Communists have squarely blamed the Yeltsin era, when armed forces were deprived of substantial funds to maintain operational readiness. Even the Zionist-controlled media, who have of late been in the forefront of the anti-Putin campaign, have in subdued tone conceded the that “Navy was underfinanced,”. This has been candidly conceded by Mr Boris Berezovsky’s powerful daily Nezavisimaya Gazeta. Meanwhile, the controversy over the nuclear submarine tragedy took a new turn today with a Norwegian Embassy officer in Moscow confirming that the British submarine, “Memphis”, has entered Bergen port in Norway. The earlier version was that “Memphis” had come for repairs but it quickly issued a clarification that the submarine arrived for food supply and giving rest to the crew. Both versions were made to the Russian news agency, Novoski. Oslo: A Norwegian engineering group is in talks with the Russian authorities over the possibility of raising the sector of the sunken submarine “Kursk” that contains its nuclear reactors, the firm said today. Global Tool Management is assessing the feasibility of separating the rear section of the flooded vessel which houses the two reactors with remote-controlled cutters, and then raising it onto a barge, said Mr Harald Ramfjord, one of the company’s directors. “Several attempts in the past to raise entire submarines have shown that they break apart, and trying to repair the ship at the site would be extremely costly for the Russians,” he added. |
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Window on Pakistan THE ongoing battle between the military government and major political parties in Pakistan is getting fiercer day by day. While the government is coming out with one scheme after another to discredit or make ineffective certain top political figures of the country, politicians are losing no opportunity to put pressure on the military regime to hand over power to the people’s elected representatives. After the challenge from the trading class the politicians found a favourable atmosphere to launch a united struggle against the Pervez Musharraf regime. They held what they called the All-Party Conference in the first week of this month with the Pakistan Muslim League (Nawaz) and the Pakistan People’s Party of Ms Benazir Bhutto, two bitter adversaries, sharing a common platform. This was a nerve-racking development for the military government. The response from the ruling establishment that came immediately was equally, rather more, powerful. President Mohammad Rafiq Tarar on August 9 issued an ordinance—-the Political Parties Amendment Ordinance, 2000—- introducing drastic changes in the Political Parties Act, 1962, giving a serious jolt to the leaders of the two principal political organisations. The ordinance has it that any person convicted and disqualified by a court of law to hold any public office will not be allowed to become a member or an office-bearer of a political party. This cut the political wings of both Mr Nawaz Sharif and Ms Benazir Bhutto as they have been convicted and disqualified under the National Accountability Bureau Ordinance and the Ehtesab Act, 1997, respectively. The military regime’s move, though a very calculated one, may boomerang. It may turn the two targeted leaders into political martyrs though the public knows it well that they are no saints. This is how The Friday Times of August 24 looks at the whole issue: “The message is that if the PML and the PPP will not ‘cleanse’ themselves of Nawaz Sharif and Benazir Bhutto, the government will do it for them by a decree. But actually the ordinance is an acknowledgement of the government’s failure to erase Mr Sharif and Ms Bhutto from the hearts and minds of their supporters. “Past experience suggests that this is a dubious strategy. Far from sharpening contradictions within the political arena, the ordinance has served to make the 42-member APC (All-Party Conference) more focused than before. Equally, the PML dissidents who have supported the ordinance could find themselves terminally isolated if the Sharif lobby is able to make common cause with the PPP.” Most other newspapers too have expressed doubts about the ordinance achieving its purpose, declared or undeclared. The government asserts that the idea is to “purify the political process, but that is not the truth. There is a hidden dirty agenda, which may not be so easy to implement successfully under the circumstances. The Nation of Lahore says in an August 11 editorial : “The statements appearing in the Press reacting to the ordinance indicate that neither the PML nor the PPP is in a mood to replace its leaders. The ordinance might exacerbate some of the existing tensions within the PML, or even split it. But there is a likelihood of the majority of the PML rank and file continuing to recognise Mian Nawaz Sharif as their real leader, and adhering to the policy directions from him, irrespective of whether he formally remains their chief or not. As for the PPP, the party will agree to a new chief only if Ms Bhutto is amenable to the idea. Again, the incumbent would be nominated by her and would command loyalty only as long as he enjoyed her confidence....” “The best way for the government” (of General Musharraf), as the paper points out, would have been “ to leave the cases of politicians accused of violating laws or of corruption to the courts or the Election Commission”. Dictators, however, have their own method of dealing with their opponents. It is not their concern if, in the process, crooks turn out as messiahs. —Syed Nooruzzaman |
Protestant faction leader rearrested THE loyalist (Protestant) paramilitary leader Johnny Adair was thrown back into jail after the Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC) drew up a damning intelligence report that accused him of exchanging weapons with the outlawed Loyalist Volunteer Force (LVF) and organising terrorist displays in Belfast. As Adair’s supporters announced plans for a legal challenge against his imprisonment, details emerged on Wednesday of an RUC dossier linking the Ulster Defence Association (UDA) commander to recent paramilitary violence in the province. The report, which was used by the Northern Ireland Secretary Peter Mandelson as the basis for jailing Adair on Tuesday night, accused Adair of exchanging weapons with the LVF in Portadown. Adair colluded with the LVF during a high profile visit to the Co Armagh town in July at the height of the Drumcree disturbances. Adair is also accused in the report, which was released by security sources to BBC Northern Ireland, of orchestrating sectarian violence on the boundaries between Protestant and Catholic communities. He is also accused of running drugs rackets. Mr Mandelson refused to be drawn on the specific allegations. However, the Northern Ireland Secretary said: “He has been pursuing and associating himself very directly with acts of violence. It is unacceptable incitement of terrorist activity and that is a clear breach of the conditions on which he was released from prison.” Adair, who was released from prison early last year under the Good Friday agreement, was hauled back into jail after three days of loyalist feuding which left two men dead. Over the weekend Adair appeared in the company of UDA gunmen at a Belfast rally and he taunted the police up until his arrest. Adair’s supporters said he was confident that his legal challenge would succeed. John White, the chairman of the UDA’s political wing, said: “Johnny Adair feels he’s been made a scapegoat. Johnny Adair lives a charismatic life, verging on flamboyancy, but he has done nothing illegal.” On his first day in the Maghaberry jail, outside Belfast, Adair held talks with lawyers to draw up plans to overturn Mr Mandelson’s decision, which could keep him in prison until May 2002. That was the date he was due to be released before the Good Friday agreement came into being. Mr Mandelson voiced the hope that Adair’s arrest would provide loyalist paramilitaries with a chance to end the feud. However, hardline supporters of Adair were reported to be pressing for more protests and for the feud with the UVF to be stepped up. — The Guardian, London |
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Nepal’s Maoists using kids KATHMANDU, Aug 24 (AFP) — Maoist guerrillas in Nepal are increasingly using children in their brutal campaign to overthrow the country’s constitutional monarchy, human right activists say. “At least 30 per cent of the some 5,000-strong liberation army of the Maoist insurgents are children below 18,” said Kapil Shrestha, a member of Nepal’s recently formed Human Rights Commission. Mr Shrestha charged the insurgents with violating international human rights law by abducting and forcing children under the age of 18 to fight in their army. He condemned the Maoists’ terror tactics, including its forceful closing of schools in remote northwestern districts. “The Maoists are also extorting billions of rupees from businessmen, industrialists, schools, non-governmental organisations and village chiefs through intimidation,” he said. The Maoists have been waging a “people’s war” since 1996 for a republican form of government in Nepal in place of the constitutional monarchy established in 1990. |
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Japan, Korea agree
to fresh talks KISARAZU, (Japan), Aug 24 (AFP) — Japan and North Korea today agreed to a new round of talks to overcome decades of hostility and set up diplomatic ties. “We had a very serious exchange of views in order to hold constructive discussions for the next round,” said a Japanese Foreign Ministry official after a morning session between delegates from both nations. The next talks after the current round in Japan were expected to be held in October, possibly in Beijing, officials said. The two sides are divided over Pyongyang’s demand for compensation for Japan’s brutal 1910-1945 colonial rule of the Korean peninsula, and Tokyo’s concerns about the alleged abductions of Japanese by North Korean agents. No breakthrough was expected in the talks between delegations led by North Korean special envoy Jong Thae-Hwa and Kojiro Takano of Japan, the Foreign Ministry official said. |
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Ershad gets five-yr term for corruption DHAKA, Aug 24 (PTI) — Former Bangladesh President Hussain Mohammad Ershad was today sentenced to a five-year simple imprisonment and fined 5.5 crore taka by the High Court here which found the former military ruler guilty of corruption. A Division Bench of the High Court, upholding a lower court conviction, also scrapped Mr Ershad’s membership in Parliament. In case of default in paying the fine, he will have to undergo an additional jail term of two years.
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