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| Tuesday, September 5, 2000, Chandigarh, India   
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230 LTTE rebels die in army offensive 12 hanged ‘illegally’ for Ziaur’s
murder
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Metal strip came from CA DC-10 ? League’s threat to snap ties It’s landslide for
Hariri; PM loses seat Minister beaten up
by supporters Speight release
refused Former commander’s
house ransacked Saddam suffering
‘from cancer’
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230 LTTE rebels die in army offensive COLOMBO, Sept 4 (PTI) — At least 230 Tamil rebels and 114 soldiers were killed and 800 troops injured in fierce fighting between the Sri Lankan army and the LTTE to gain the upper hand at Colombuthurai near Jaffna peninsula even as nominations for the October 10 parliamentary elections closed today. The army admitted that 43 more soldiers were killed in fresh counter attacks by the rebels in addition to 71 troops who died while attempting to push out well-entrenched LTTE defences at Colombuthurai, an army statement said today. The army, quoting LTTE monitored wireless transmissions said that 230 rebels were killed and 300 injured. According to the latest update by the army, troops consolidating the captured areas recovered 69 bodies of the rebels. Fifteen bodies have been handed over to the International Committee or the Red Cross to be sent to the LTTE. The statement said Lankan Air Force jets comprising Ukraine-made MIG-27s and Israeli made Kfir bombers continued to pound LTTE positions. Elaborating on its own casualties, the army said 71 soldiers, including eight officers were killed after the army launched its offensive yesterday from Sarasalai, Maduvil and Nunavil to support the main operation at Colombuthurai. Forty three more soldiers were killed and 298 others injured when the LTTE attacked troops returning after clearing operations. Meanwhile, as nominations for the Parliamentary elections closed today, the Sri Lankan government and its intelligence agencies were seriously considering the implications of reported LTTE attempts to field its candidates in the north and east, media reports said today. An army spokesman Brig Karunaratne said the army has taken back vast areas of Colombuthurai held by the LTTE. “Our troops are now consolidating the captured areas,” he said adding the newly captured areas would provide depth to the defences of Jaffna town. Colombuthurai is located on the southern outskirts of Jaffna town. The
LTTE during its offensive in April-May this year, managed to capture territory up to Colombuthurai, but could not go beyond it. Mr Karunaratne said yesterday’s fighting was the fiercest in recent months but the army managed to overrun of rebel positions despite heavy resistance. Earlier, an army press release quoting intelligence reports, said that the
LTTE was rushing 200 men in adjacent northern Vanni to reinforce its defences in Jaffna. It said that the troops had launched an offensive yesterday to expand the areas controlled by the army at Colombuthurai in the southern outskirt of Jaffna town in order to provide better protection to it during the October 10 parliamentary elections. The operations began on the penultimate day of the closure of the nominations which ended by noon today. The fiercest battle since April forced thousands of civilians to flee their homes to escape artillery fire from both sides. One source said at least 15,000 civilians had left the area until early today. Quoting sources in the security agencies, the state-run ‘Daily News’ newspaper said the LTTE was attempting to pressurise certain political parties and independent groups to field some of its cadre as their candidates in the forthcoming elections in several areas of Tamil dominated north and eastern provinces. Commenting on the heavy casualties army spokesman Brig Sanath Karunarathe said the LTTE, which was initially on the defensive due to heavy fire from the multi barrel rocket launchers (MBRLs) recently imported from Pakistan, resorted to new tactics by regrouping its heavily armed cadre close to the army defences to evade the rocket fire. Though MBRLs can reach upto 20 km, people can save themselves by moving closer to the missiles. As the LTTE moved its forces closer to evade missile fire, the Army had to constantly change the trajectory of the missiles by moving backwards, he said. This gave a respite to the rebels allowing them to move ahead and attack the army lines with heavy artillery and mortars, the spokesman said adding despite strong resistance from the LTTE the army managed to gain firm control of Colombuthurai, which provided a wider depth to Army defences of Jaffna. Besides recovering a number of bodies of the LTTE cadre, the troops also recovered a number of rifles and other weapons used by the rebels, he said. |
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12 hanged ‘illegally’ for Ziaur’s murder DHAKA, Sept 4 (PTI) — Twelve army officers implicated in the assassination of former Bangladeshi President Ziaur Rahman were hanged under a “pre-designated plan,” a parliamentary probe has revealed. “The accused were punished unlawfully and illegally,” the startling findings of a sub-committee of Parliament’s Standing Committee on defence, which took 19 years to complete its probe, said. The sub-committee formed to look into the complaints and irregularities in the defence forces submitted its report to the main committee yesterday, an official statement said. On receiving applications from widows of two army officers who were hanged, the committee found that the accused were not given proper legal protection for self-defence. “Provisions of the law were not followed judiciously during the trial at the martial law court,” it quoted a source close to the sub-committee as saying. Meanwhile, rejecting the opposition demand to resign, Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has asserted that she would complete her full five-year term after which a caretaker administration would be set up to hold the general election by mid-October next year. She made this announcement at a meeting of the working committee and advisory council of her ruling Awami League Party last night before departing for New York to attend the UN millennium session. Hasina, who is facing a mounting demand from the combined Opposition to step down and call for early elections, had so far avoided giving a time-frame for the next elections. Hasina’s five-year term in office is due to end in mid-July next year after which she has to hand over power under a constitutional requirement to a caretaker administration to hold the next parliamentary poll. |
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Putin no to Japan’s plea for isles TOKYO, Sept 4 (AFP)—The Russian President ,Mr Vladimir Putin , today rejected a Japanese call for sovereignty over four disputed islands, officials said, dashing any hopes of a peace treaty this year. The Japanese Prime
Minister, Mr Yoshiro Mori ,had proposed that Japan’s borders be expanded to include the islands, known as the southern Kurils in Russia and northern territories in Japan, they said. “The Japanese idea is brave and well-considered but it does not correspond exactly with the Russian idea,”
Mr Putin told Mori, according to a Japanese government official. The islands were occupied by Soviet troops in the dying days of World War ll, blocking the path to a peace treaty ever since. The two sides agreed at a summit three years ago to forge a peace treaty by the end of 2000, but progress has since been glacial because of the festering dispute. Japanese rightist groups meanwhile drove through Tokyo’s streets demanding the return of the islands. “It is important to find a peace treaty by resolving the issue of the four
islands,” Mr Mori told the Russian leader, who arrived here yesterday for a three-day visit. The four islands — Kunashiri (Kunashir in Russian), Etorofu (iturup in Russian), Shikotan and Habomai — are home to about 16,000 persons, according to
Russian statistics. Based on the idea of the islands being incorporated within Japanese territory, “we would like to see a peace treaty that is very acceptable to both sides,” Mr Mori said. “Putin remarked that this proposal contains a number of new elements but it cannot be viewed as a basis for a mutually-acceptable compromise,” said a member of the Russian delegation. |
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Metal strip came from CA DC-10 ? PARIS, Sept 4 (AFP) — A metal piece, similar to the one found on the runway after July’s Concorde crash here, is missing from a Continental Airlines (CA) dc-10 that passed through the airport shortly before the crash, the us airline said in a statement received here today. Investigators found the metal strip was similar in shape but “it has not been determined definitively that the metal piece found on the runway is the piece of wear strip missing from the Continental aircraft,” the airline said. Experts have suggested that the metal strip found on the runway could have started the chain of events that caused the July 25 crash, which killed all 109 people on board and four others on the ground. The 43-cm piece of metal could have shredded a tyre, pieces of which in turn punctured the fuel tanks of the aircraft hurtling down the runway, causing a major fuel leak and a fire. After over a month of investigations, the source of the suspect metal strip — at one point thought to have fallen from the doomed supersonic jet — has still not been identified. Earlier in a statement, Continental Airlines confirmed that one of its dc-10s was missing a piece similar to the 43-cm-long strip that was found among the debris on the runway after the accident. The company’s statement went on to explain that the office of Accident Investigation (bea), which is leading the inquiry into the crash, had said on Friday that it wanted to examine the dc-10 which left Charles de Gaulle Airport shortly before the accident. On Saturday, in Houston, representatives from Continental, bea, the National Transportation Safety Board and the U.S. Civil Aviation Authority inspected the plane and noticed that a piece similar to that found on the runway was missing from the dc-10’s right-side engine, the U.S. airline said. Investigators have detected that the burst tyre provoked a chain reaction of failures — including a fuel leak, a fire and loss of power in two engines — that caused the Concorde to crash and explode less than two minutes after take-off. |
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League’s threat to snap ties CAIRO, Sept 4 (AFP) — The ministerial council of the Arab League will issue a declaration threatening to break diplomatic relations with any country that moves its embassy in Israel to Jerusalem, one of the participants said. A draft communique obtained by AFP yesterday said the council notes a 1980 call by the United Nations Security Council for countries not to move their embassies to Jerusalem. It also “recalls a decision by the Arab summit held in Amman in 1980 stipulating the severance of all relations with countries that transfer their embassies to Jerusalem or recognise (the city) as the capital of Israel.” In late July, following the collapse of the Camp David summit between Israel and the Palestinians, US President Bill Clinton said he was reviewing the policy against having the US Embassy in Jerusalem and would make a decision by the year-end. Referring to the peace process, the draft communique says that “any solution that does not take into account the question of Jerusalem will be doomed to failure.” It calls on the “international community, particularly the five permanent members of the (UN) Security Council, to recognise the Palestinian state, with east Jerusalem as its capital, when it is proclaimed, in conformity with the commitment of the Security Council to the right of peoples to self-determination.” It also reaffirms that peace “is the strategic option of the Arabs” and calls on Israel to “withdraw to the borders of June 4, 1967, including from Jerusalem, in conformity with resolutions 242 and 338 of the UN Security Council.” |
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It’s landslide for
Hariri; PM loses seat BEIRUT, Sept 4 (Reuters) — Prime Minister Selim al-Hoss conceded defeat today in Lebanon’s parliamentary elections and his billionaire rival, Rafik al-Hariri looked set to sweep to victory. Mr Hoss failed to hold his parliamentary seat according to unofficial results of yesterday’s second and final round of voting in Beirut, southern Lebanon and the eastern Bekaa valley. “After 25 years serving this country, I am turning a page in my political life,” a sombre Hoss told a news conference. He accepted the result despite saying said the elections had been undemocratic and were “the fiercest and dirtiest elections in Lebanon’s history.” “I bow to the results of the elections. Of course I accept it democratically and I will act accordingly,” Mr Hoss said. The unofficial results indicated that Hariri and his candidates won almost all of Beirut’s 19 seats, routing Mr Hoss, a quiet economics professor who held the post for two years. Mr Hoss replaced Hariri, Prime Minister from 1992 until he was effectively ousted by President Emile Lahoud in 1998. Mr Hariri, a construction tycoon, led a massive reconstruction programme after the 1975-90 civil war which initially revived the economy but saddled it with a huge debt that now exceeds 140 per cent of the gross domestic product. |
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Minister beaten up
by supporters COLOMBO, Sept 4 (AFP) — Sri Lankan Tourism Minister was hospitalised after supporters of his own party beat him up while putting up their election posters in the historic town of Anuradhapura today, the police said. Minister H. B. Semasinghe was bleeding from his forehead after being punched and beaten by supporters of another candidate of the ruling People’s Alliance. Mr Semasinghe’s armed bodyguards were also wounded in the brawl over the pasting of posters in Anuradhapura, 206 km north of here. Mr Semasinghe told local journalists from his hospital that he knew the identity of his attackers and urged the government to take strong action to prevent poll violence, which has already claimed three lives. |
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Speight release
refused SUVA, Sept 4 (AFP) — Fiji’s Chief Magistrate Sailesi Temo refused to release coup leader George Speight and his co-conspirators on the orders of the country’s high court at a brief hearing today. Mr Temo said he had received a direction from the high court ordering that he should make no further rulings on whether immunity granted by the military to Speight and his men during their siege of Parliament earlier this year was valid. As the complicated ruling was read out and its implications understood, the 21 defendants and their supporters packing the court room appeared surprised. Many of the defendants had brought suitcases to the court, expecting that Mr Temo would rule in their favour and immediately release them on bail. |
| Former commander’s
house ransacked COLOMBO, Sept 4 (UNI) — Six armed men broke into the house of former army commander Tissa Weeratunga on Saturday but left without taking any valuables. General Weeratunga who was army commander between 1981 and 1985 said the house was ransacked while he and his family were visiting a friend. Gen Weeratunga had also held the post of joint operation commander and was Sri Lanka’s high commissioner to Canada. He said six armed men carrying torches and dressed in black jumped over the six foot boundary wall and rang the door bell. When the maid did not let them in three of them entered the house through the kitchen entrance while the other three remained outside. |
| Saddam suffering
‘from cancer’ LONDON, Sept 4 (DPA) — Iraqi President Saddam Hussein is suffering from lymph cancer and is about to undergo chemotherapy, according to a report in a London-based Arab newspaper. A family council led by Saddam’s youngest son, Qusay, is to take control if and when the Iraqi dictator dies, according to the report published yesterday in the Saudi-financed Asharq al-Awsat newspaper. |
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