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| Friday, September 1, 2000, Chandigarh, India   
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Chandrika’s poll pact
with Muslim Congress
Clinton visit turns bloody: 20 die |
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16 Kurds killed in clashes Over 160 Heads of
State to attend UN summit 5 UK soldiers freed in Sierra Leone Sharif’s obstruction of plane a crime: CJ Sikh officer may sue police Probe blames high speed for
crash Suharto fails to turn up; hearing on Sept 14
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Chandrika’s poll pact with Muslim Congress COLOMBO, Aug 31 (PTI) — With four days to go for closure of nominations for the October 10 general elections, the Sri Lankan ruling party led by President Chandrika Kumaratunga today finally ironed out differences with its key ally, the Sri Lanka Muslim Congress (SLMC) and reached an understanding to jointly contest poll. The differences between Kumaratunga’s Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) and the SLMC, led by M.H.M. Ashraff, over sharing of seats has been sorted out after a prolonged meeting between Chandrika and Ashraff last night that continued till today, SLFP General Secretary and Minister for Sports S.B. Dissanayake said. In view of the new agreement between the two leaders, Ashraff has agreed to withdraw his resignation as Minister for Port Development. Consequently, two other junior ministers from the SLMC, Deputy Minister for Media, Posts and Telecommunications, M.L.A.M. Hisbullah and Deputy Minister of Social Services, M.L.M. Mohideen, have also decided to withdraw the resignations, SLMC sources said. Their resignations, forwarded last week following differences between the two parties, were not accepted by Chandrika. Under the new arrangement, the SLMC would contest alone in four districts — Colombo, southern Kandy, northern Jaffna and Vanni — under its new banner, the National Unity Alliance and fight in other places, including its stronghold in eastern Amparai district along with peoples’ alliance. The SLMC, believed to be wielding significant influence among the Muslims, held seven seats in the outgoing Parliament. Meanwhile, President Kumaratunga has challenged Opposition and United National Party leader Ranil Wickremesinghe to deny publicly that he was unaware of the details of the LTTE suicide bomb attack on her at an election rally on December 18. Addressing a party convention in the Central Uva province, 220 km from Colombo yesterday, she alleged that Mr Wickremesinghe was aware of the details of the assassination attempt on her life. “I challenge Mr Wickremesinghe to deny it publicly and clear his name, if the allegation is false”, the state-controlled Daily News reported quoting the President. Ms Kumaratunga charged that another UNP MP was also involved in this conspiracy and had constant talks with the LTTE leadership. She said she had escaped death but had still risked her life to resume peace in Sri Lanka for the future generations. The LTTE never wanted peace and the UNP too has allied with them to eliminate the People’s Alliance leadership, “or else, how did Mr Wickremesinghe definitely tell that he would become the President and hand over Chandrika to Prabhakaran?” she asked. |
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Gen Ershad loses Parliament seat DHAKA, Aug 31 (DPA) — Bangladesh’s former military ruler Hussain Muhammad Ershad was stripped of his parliamentary seat after the country’s high court sentenced him to five years in prison on corruption charges a week ago, Parliament officials said today. The high court also fined the deposed military president $ 1 million for constructing a multi-storeyed office complex in central Dhaka, the cost of which was found incompatible with his known sources of income. The Parliament secretariat said in a statement that the seat of the 70-year-old Ershad was declared vacant because of his conviction. “It is an illegal act ... none can take away my seat in Parliament,” Ershad said as his lawyers filed an appeal to the Supreme Court — the country’s highest judiciary — against the jail sentence. Under Bangladeshi laws, a public representative, including a Parliament member, loses his seat if he is convicted of corruption in any court. Ershad was imprisoned immediately after his army-backed regime was overthrown in December, 1990, but was released from the maximum security Dhaka central jail six years later on a court bail. Former Bangladesh military ruler Hussain Mohammad Ershad, who has been convicted to a five-year jail term in a graft case, was today allowed to surrender till the third week of October. Hearing a prayer from Ershad, seeking two weeks’ time after the reopening of the court after the autumn vacation, to surrender. Vacation judge of the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court A.M. Mahmudur Rahman told Ershad to surrender within a week after the vacation ended on October 14. The Supreme Court order came a day after Bangladesh’s longest-serving ruler Ershad was yesterday stripped-off his parliamentary membership, a week after the Dhaka High Court upheld his conviction in a
corruption case and ordered him to surrender “immediately” to the law. |
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Clinton visit turns bloody: 20 die BOGOTA, Aug 31 (Reuters) — A wave of Marxist rebel attacks and anti-American demonstrations left at least 20 dead, including civilians and combatants, across Colombia in a violent backlash against US President Bill Clinton’s visit, the authorities have said. The country’s two main guerrilla forces, with a combined combat force of some 22,000 fighters, have attacked police and army units, bombed banks and a major oil pipeline in at least nine of Colombia’s 32 provinces yesterday, police and army sources said. The Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), the country’s main guerrilla force, and the smaller National Liberation Army (ELN), launched their offensive early Tuesday and clashes were reported throughout Wednesday. The fighting, however, was well away from the colonial port city of Cartagena, where Mr Clinton was meeting his Colombian counterpart President Andres Pastrana. The walled city, once Spain’s biggest port in the new world, was heavily guarded by more than 5,000 soldiers, police and US secret agents. But the Colombian police said they had discovered and deactivated a 2 kg bomb and arrested two alleged guerrilla fighters in a house in the northern port city, 400 yards from a building Mr Clinton had been due to visit. US Secret Service agents, however, said there was no device but simply bomb-making equipment. The rebels and grassroots organisation, including the main unions and student groups, condemned Mr Clinton’s visit, saying that a recently approved US package of $ 1.3 billion in military aid would stoke Colombia’s long-running war that had cost more than 35,000 lives in the past 10 years. In an effort to soothe fears of growing US intervention in Colombia, Mr Clinton said in comments in Cartagena that the US aid would not create “another Vietnam” or give rise to “Yankee imperialism”. He said the aid was designed to help Colombia fight the drug trade which he said was in turn fuelling the civil conflict. A police spokesman said of the 20 dead since early Tuesday, 11 were civilians, three were guerrillas and the remainder police men. |
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16 Kurds killed in clashes ANKARA, Aug 31 — Sixteen members of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) have been killed this week in renewed fighting in south-eastern Turkey, military officials said. Operations involving thousands of troops are continuing in remote mountainous areas. The clashes come almost exactly a year after the PKK’s imprisoned leader Abdullah Ocalan instructed his followers to observe a ceasefire and withdraw from Turkish territory. Thousands of fighters have obeyed the order, and relocated across Turkey’s eastern border to camps in Iraq and Iran. However, several hundred members of the PKK, who are divided into small mobile groups, are still thought to be in Turkey. The armed forces have vowed to hunt them down until they surrender or have been killed. The current fighting is taking place in two separate locations — the border province of Hakkari where seven rebels have been killed, and the province of Tunceli, a traditional PKK stronghold, where nine bodies have been recovered. The Turkish armed forces are taking a hard line against the PKK. They dismiss the ceasefire as a temporary tactic, designed to try to save Ocalan from the gallows and to buy the PKK some time to regroup. Meanwhile, an Ankara state security court prosecutor is to seek five to ten years imprisonment for Fethullah Gulen, a moderate Islamic leader, for allegedly trying to undermine the secular state and implement religious law in Turkey. In a 79-page indictment released on Thursday, prosecutor Nuh Mete Yuksel claimed that Gulen had formed an illegal organisation with the aim of introducing shariah (Islamic law) and bringing back the Caliphate that was abolished when Turkey became a republic in 1923. (The Guardian) |
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Over 160 Heads of State to attend UN summit UNITED NATIONS, Aug 31 (Reuters) — With a promise to New Yorkers of gridlock, more than 160 kings, Presidents and Prime Ministers speak and meet in three compact days next week to chart a course for the United Nations in the 21st century. Planning for the UN millennium Summit has been in the works for two years, including hanging posters throughout New York to soothe residents navigating the inevitable, nightmarish traffic. The session, from September 6 to 8, is billed as the largest-ever gathering of world leaders, even bigger than the world body’s 50th anniversary celebrations five years ago, which drew some 118 heads of state and government. But this year the programme is more ambitious. As the leaders address the General Assembly for a proposed — but rarely executed — five minutes each, those not speaking are in closed round table discussions to map out myriad programmes that would help lift people out of poverty, prevent wars and save the environment. With every issue on the table, many are asking whether anything but vague statements can result, despite specific targets Secretary-General Kofi Annan has proposed. “It’s easy to be cynical about these meetings and say, ‘oh they produce nothing,’ ” Mr Louise Frechette of Canada, Deputy Secretary-General, told a news conference. “But many such gatherings have made a real difference in focusing political energy and raising political will,” she said. The summit should “give a sense of direction to the organisation from which its work should then flow.” In preparation for the meeting, Mr Annan, in an April report, called for benevolent globalisation in the 21st century to ensure that the information revolution did not leave billions of people behind in poverty. |
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5 UK soldiers freed in S. Leone LONDON, Aug 31 (Reuters) — Five of the 11 British soldiers being held in Sierra Leone have been released by militiamen, a spokesman for the Foreign Office has said. “They were released with the help of the United Nations, particularly the Jordanian contingent, for which we are very grateful,” said the spokesman yesterday. “They have probably now reached their camp just outside Freetown,” he added. The Foreign Office said the men had been released earlier last evening. The men were captured last Friday by a group known as the West Side Boys. |
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Sharif’s obstruction of plane a crime: CJ KARACHI, Aug 30 (AFP) — A top Pakistani judge today observed that ousted Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif committed a crime in obstructing the landing of an aircraft carrying then-Army Chief General Pervez Musharraf and 200 others ahead of the October 1999 coup. “If the then-Army Chief was alone in the plane it would have been justified, but there were 198 passengers also in the flight when the landing was obstructed, endangering their lives,” Syed Saeed Ashhad, Chief Justice of the Sindh High Court said. Justice Ashhad is heading a three-judge bench hearing Sharif’s appeal against a conviction for hijacking and terrorism for which he received a life sentence in April from Karachi’s anti-terrorism court. The prosecution also filed an appeal, seeking the death penalty for Sharif and a reversal of the acquittal of his six co-accused, including Sharif’s brother Shahbaz. Sharif had committed “illegality” by not allowing the plane to land, hours after he had sacked General Musharraf on October 12, the judge observed. Sharif’s lawyer Azizullah Sheikh argued the former Prime Minister had not hijacked the plane but it was the Army and General Musharraf who should be held responsible for keeping the plane in the air for 48 minutes. |
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Sikh officer may sue police LONDON, Aug 31 — A New Delhi-born Sikh police officer, who was recently vindicated in a racial harassment case against the London Metropolitan Police, now believes that his parents were hounded to an early death because of their son’s bitter experience. He also claimed that other Asian and Black colleagues continued to suffer from racial prejudice and he hoped to help them to overcome their difficulties. Mr Gurpal Singh Virdi was arrested and then suspended from the police force as the prime suspect responsible for writing abusive letters to himself and other Black and Asian officers working in the London police. An employment tribunal ruled last week that he had been suspended without cause, but Mr Virdi regretted the decision had come too late as far as his parents were concerned. “When I was sacked, my police colleagues made sure everyone knew”, he said. “It was all over the Six ‘O Clock News. I believe I lost both my parents as a consequence of what they did. The worry and stress on them was incredible, especially for my father who was a very strong man. My mother passed away last September and my father in April. The police delayed and my parents did not live to see me cleared,” he added. Mr Virdi’s parents were from Jalandhar and Amritsar respectively, until they settled down in New Delhi. The family migrated to London in 1967 where the young Virdi went to school until he got a job in the police, eventually rising to the rank of sergeant. His explanation of why he was later singled out for harassment and eventual dismissal in 1998 was a government inquiry at the time that concluded that the police suffered from “institutional racism.” “I was used to deflect the criticism the force was receiving,” Mr Virdi explained. “They were pleased to hold an ethnic officer responsible because it allowed them to say look, racism exists within their own kind.” Since his departure from the police force, Mr Virdi has been working for a charity near his West London home close to Heathrow Airport. —
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Probe blames high speed for crash MANAMA, Aug 31 (AP) — Investigations have revealed that the Gulf airliner that crashed off the coast of Bahrain last week was flying at “above normal” speed while approaching the runway to land. But the officials, speaking yesterday, fell short of blaming pilot error for the August 23 crash. All 143 persons aboard the Cairo-Manama flight were killed. “It is very early in the investigation ... we are not in any position to reach a conclusion,” said Mr Frank Hilldrup, an official of the US-based National Transportation Safety Board. Mr Hilldrup who was appointed by Bahrain as chief investigator ruled out fire as the cause of the crash. “At this point we don’t see any damage of fire on the parts”. Bahrain’s Under Secretary for Civil Aviation Ibrahim Al-Hamer said the Airbus A320 was travelling at “above normal” landing speed before it nose-dived into the Gulf. Its last recorded speed prior to the impact was approximately 270 knots, said Mr Al-Hamer. Mr Al-Hamer said the black boxes — flight data and cockpit voice recorders — that have been sent to the NTSB headquarters in Washington for analysis appeared to have yielded “reliable data.” They have revealed that
Capt Ihsan Shakeeb was the pilot flying the aircraft,
that the autopilot was disconnected on final approach and
that the remainder of the flight was flown manually, said
Mr Al-Hamer without elaborating. |
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Suharto fails to turn up; hearing on Sept 14 JAKARTA, Aug 31 (Reuters) — An Indonesian court adjourned the landmark corruption trial of former President Suharto today for two weeks to give the one-time autocrat’s doctors time to prepare submissions on his ailing health. Suharto’s lawyers said the 79-year-old former General had failed to appear at the start of the trial because he was too ill. The case will be resumed on September 14. |
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