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| Saturday,
September 9, 2000, Chandigarh, India   
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20 killed in Timor refugee camp: UN
B’desh recalls war ravages Truckers’ group for ending strike Polls predict Milosevic will lose
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Castro shakes hands with Clinton Pak laws fan intolerance: Amnesty No further Israeli
pullout from West Bank
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20 killed in Timor refugee camp: UN JAKARTA, Sept 8 (Reuters) — A United Nations official today said 20 persons had been killed in clashes in the West Timor refugee camp of Betun which had now been taken over by militias opposed to independence in neighbouring East Timor. "A mob killed 11 persons, all of them locals. Eight of those bodies were burnt," an army lieutenant told Reuters by phone from the border town of Atambua. He declined to be identified. He said the killings took place in the early hours of Wednesday before militias stormed the Atambua U.N. office, hacking to death three foreign aid workers. However, Indonesia's military denied reports of new killings in the troubled border area of West Timor but said 11 persons had died in a previously unreported massacre earlier in the week. Meanwhile, the United Nations today prepared to evacuate 90 more staff, most of them local, from the West Timor capital of Kupang, alarmed by reports that militia gangs were mobilising and heading to the city, a UN official said. “There are reports that militia are mobilising refugees in Kupang area and heading towards town”, United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees spokesman Jake Moriand told AFP. This is pretty worrying” Mr Morland said by phone from the island of Bali. Mr Morland and 100 other UN aid workers arrived yesterday on evacuation flights following the brutal murder by ramping militamen of three of their colleagues in the
border town of Atambua on Wednesday. Mr Morland contradicted earlier UN statements that all UN staff had left by yesterday’s evacuation flights. He said two foreign UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) staff and a number of local staff had elected had elected to stay behind yesterday, some for family reasons. He said the UNCHR had chartered a flight to airlift around 90 aid workers from several agencies out of Kupang today. A total of 240 foreign and national aid workers have been evacuated from West Timor since the attack, of which 100 had been flown to Bali and 140 taken over the border into East Timor. WASHINGTON: The global development agency CARE has announced suspension of its work in West Timor, following the killing of three foreign UN workers in the region on Wednesday. “This is the worst kind of nightmare for international relief and development agencies,” said John Watson, CARE’s Canada’s Executive Director, in a statement on Thursday. |
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B’desh recalls
war ravages UNITED NATIONS, Sept 8 — Bangladesh has not forgotten the atrocities committed by the Pakistan Army during the country’s struggle for freedom in 1971. Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, addressing the world millennium summit yesterday, told fellow leaders that her country acquired in 1971 the experience of how harmful the effects of wars and conflicts could be for children. She said 200,000 women were raped, hundreds of thousands were victims of mass murder and lost their lives. The freedom-loving people fought under the father of the nation, Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, and became victorious. Sheikh Hasina said the vanquished forces killed the father of the nation along with his family members on August 15, 1975. Children and women were not spared by the assassins. Her family members were killed brutally. She said she has experience of war, the arms game, terrorism and what role they could play in snatching away human rights and their fearsome manifestations. During the war of the national liberation, “my mother, brothers, sister and I were imprisoned. My first child was born when I was in captivity. May humanity be spared from such awful experiences,” she said. — A.B. |
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Window on Pakistan THE Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) Directorate continues to maintain its predominance in Pakistan’s ruling establishment. This inference can be drawn from the fact that Chief Executive Pervez Musharraf’s so-called Cabinet is dominated by former ISI operatives. According to newspaper reports, in the latest reshuffle of portfolios, the four new Ministers who took the oath of office and secrecy have an ISI background. Former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto describes this as “the rise of the intelligence officer in the politics of Pakistan”. These new Ministers are Dr Attiya Inayatullah, Dr Ghazi, Gen Javed Ashraff Qazi and Colonel Tressler. Dr Attiya and Dr Ghazi were associated with the intelligence gathering network during the rein of General Zia-ul-Haq. General Qazi once controlled the ISI’s operations as its chief, and Colonel Tressler, a product of the Pakistan Foreign Service, was in the good books of General Zia for his subversive capabilities, according to Ms Bhutto. In an article carried in The Nation of August 29, Ms Bhutto goes deep into the history of the Pakistani intelligence network’s awesome growth since the days of General Zia, who emerged on the political firmament in 1977, two years before the Soviet intervention in Afghanistan. The USA and its western allies were hell bent on humiliating the erstwhile super power, and Pakistan came handy to them because of its strategic location vis-a-vis Afghanistan. Since the CIA played the most effective role in this crucial anti-Soviet-operation, General Zia realised the significance of the intelligence network and patronised the ISI as part of his own geopolitical game plan. In the post-Zia period the ISI got involved in political games also, but no ruler could dare to reduce its power. Ms Bhutto says: “In 1971 when Prime Minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto took over the country, the Inter-Services Intelligence was headed by a Brigadier. The head of Military Intelligence was a Colonel. Soon thereafter the head of the ISI became a Major-General and the head of MI a Brigadier. By 1990, when the PPP government was ousted, interim Prime Minister Jatoi sanctioned an entire corps for intelligence work. Now the ISI was headed by a Lieutenant-General and MI by a Major-General.” In her opinion, jailed Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif “never trusted the intelligence (people) and sought to make his own base. In so seeking, he lost their support and found himself out of office.” The viewpoint appears to be correct if seen in the light of the arguments presented at the Sindh High Court on August 29 in the plane highjacking case in which Mr Nawaz Sharif is the main accused. Barrister Azizullah Sheikh, appearing as counsel for the deposed Prime Minister, said the ISI informed Mr Sharif of a plot to overthrow his government well before the October, 1999, coup. The agency gave the names of three Generals — Pervez Musharraf, Mohammad Aziz Khan and Mehmood Ahmed Khan — as being actively involved in the overthrow of the elected Prime Minister. Obviously, they succeeded in their dirty plan because Mr Nawaz Sharif did not act swiftly to nip the trouble in the bud. He did not give the intelligence reports as much credence as he should have. Perhaps he was so power-intoxicated that he could not realise the extremely serious nature of the warning he had received. He acted too late by rewarding the then ISI chief with the position of Chief of Army Staff which he could never occupy. General Musharraf knows the destructive potential of intelligence officers and also how to ensure that they do not become a threat to the ruler of the day. In less than a year after he seized power, the self-appointed Chief Executive has decided to shift the ISI’s Director-General, Lieut-Gen Mehmood, to the National Accountability Bureau as its chief. The head of the ISI almost independently looks after the implementation of the designs of Pakistan in Afghanistan and Kashmir. He also functions as the eyes and ears of the Chief Executive and keeps a close watch on the country’s politicians and the armed forces. Without the daring role Lieut-General Mehmood played — along with the Chief of General Staff, Lieut-Gen Aziz Khan, who too has been shifted as Corps Commander, Lahore — General Musharraf could not have been successful in overthrowing Mr Nawaz Sharif. As the world later came to know, within minutes things could have been altogether different if these two officers had obeyed the order of the then Prime Minister to accept ISI chief General Ziauddin as the new Chief of Army Staff. General Mehmood was the Corps Commander, Rawalpindi, at that crucial point of time, and General Aziz held the office of Chief of General Staff, which he continued to occupy till he was transferred as Corps Commander, Lahore, a few days back. General Mehmood’s position as the ISI chief, a reward for his key role, is to be soon taken by Lieut-Gen Muzaffar Usmani, so far functioning as Corps Commander, Karachi. These and certain other changes in the Pakistan Army have been brought about giving the impression of this being a routine matter. But the underlying message is that in the game of power, the man who controls the reins has to keep shuffling his cards to prevent even his friends and admirers from growing too big to become a serious threat to his position. — Syed Nooruzzaman |
Castro shakes hands with Clinton UNITED NATIONS, Sept 8 (Reuters) — Cuban President Fidel Castro spoke for the first time with his US counterpart Bill Clinton and shook his hand in a crush of UN dignitaries, officials have said. Diplomats and other observers believed it was also the first time since Mr Castro, 74, took power in 1959 that the communist leader had shaken the hand of an American President. This could not be officially confirmed. “So far as I know it’s a first,’’ Mr Wayne Smith, a Cuba expert and former senior US diplomat in Cuba, told Reuters of the Clinton-Castro encounter. The chance meeting between the leaders of two nations separated by 40 years of enmity took place on Wednesday at the United Nations Millennium Summit. Mr Castro and Mr Clinton had attended a lunch for the roughly 150 world leaders taking part in the summit and were making their way to a conference room for a group photograph when the encounter took place. They found themselves pushed together at a choke-point in the crowd and “there was a handshake and an exchange of words,’’ a UN source said. The White House confirmed that the handshake had taken place. “As the President was preparing to leave the lunch, Castro approached him. They had a brief exchange of words. I would not characterise this as a substantive encounter,’’ US National Security Council spokesman P.J. Crowley said yesterday when asked to confirm the report. Asked if the encounter signalled a thaw in relations, Mr Crowley said it did not change US concerns about Mr Castro’s government. “It signifies that Fidel Castro used the opportunity of yesterday’s lunch to greet the President but it doesn’t change the concerns that we have about the Castro regime and the fact that there continues to be no movement toward democracy in Cuba as we believe the Cuban people deserve,’’ he said. “It is the first time they have actually spoken,’’ he added. Cuban officials were not immediately available for comment. In Havana, Cuban state-run media gave blanket coverage to President Castro’s UN visit but did not refer to the handshake. Chances to meet US Presidents have been rare since Mr Castro took power, although Mr Clinton has in the past been in the same meeting room with the Cuban leader. Mr Castro met President Richard Nixon, who was Vice-President at the time, during an unofficial visit to the United States in April 1959, just months after he took power. Cuba-US relations have been hostile since then, with the Caribbean island taking a communist course that made it a close ally of the former Soviet Union for three decades. Washington has maintained a 38-year economic embargo on Cuba and the two countries do not have diplomatic relations. When Mr Castro and President George Bush both attended the Rio Earth summit in 1992, they applauded each other’s speeches but never shook hands. Despite acrimony between Washington and Havana, Mr Castro has sometimes taken a sympathetic attitude towards Mr Clinton and has never subjected him to the derisive attacks he reserves for right-wing US politicians. “I once asked Castro what he thought of Clinton and he said: “I have nothing against Clinton. He’s a good boy. It’s Congress’,” said Ms Ana Julia Jatar, a Cuba expert at the inter-American dialogue. Despite the encounter, Mr Castro won’t get to go to Mr Clinton’s party. His name is not on the guest list to a glittering reception that Mr Clinton is throwing at New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art.
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Polls predict Milosevic will lose IF opinion polls are correct and the elections fair, Slobodan Milosevic has less than a month left as Yugoslavia’s President — and the candidate tipped to beat him is a rare animal among the Serbian elite, a man who never joined the Communist Party or accepted favours from the present regime. This unusual record in a centralised country where careers rarely advance without loyalty to the ruling party belongs to Vojislav Kostunica, leader of the Democratic Party of Serbia. The latest figures from the Centre for the Research of Alternatives put him at 52 per cent, against Mr Milosevic’s 26 per cent. Two other recent polls gave him a lead of more than 20 per cent. Mr Kostunica’s success is all the more extraordinary, given that he is a low-key professor of constitutional law with none of the requirements of modern electioneering. “I am not a presumptuous man and I do not think that I am charismatic at all. I am not a populist either’’, he told a press conference in Belgrade this week, according to the text his party put out. His attraction may be that he is the exact opposite of Mr Milosevic in character. He prides himself on being approachable and trustworthy. His campaign posters say: “Who can look you straight in the eye? Kostunica’’. He is also helped by rare unity among Serbia’s many Opposition parties which back him. (Only the Serbian Renewal Movement led by the maverick Vuk Draskovic has put up its own candidate). The elections were called by Mr Milosevic a year early, after he rushed through constitutional amendments calling for the President to be elected by direct popular vote instead of Parliament. This would allow him to run for two new four-year terms. He hoped to wrongfoot the opposition, but the polls suggest he may have miscalculated. The Opposition and most independent analysts assume there will be poll fraud, unless Mr Kostunica is ahead by a huge margin. On the stump he appeals to nationalist pride, invoking local heroes who fought Serbia’s occupiers. At Zajecar, on the border with Bulgaria, he told a crowd: “Everyone in Serbia still has some heroic blood. We will show how worthy we are of our ancestors on September 24.” Aged 56, he is a lifelong anti-Communist, a moderate Serb nationalist and an economic liberal. He was among Belgrade University staff who were sacked in 1974 for opposing constitutional changes which gave Yugoslavia’s republics and Kosovo substantial autonomy. After the death of Tito, the country’s leader since World War-II he co-authored the first book which was allowed to be published advocating a multi-party system. Six years later he refused to take his job back at the university when Serbia’s new leader, Mr Milosevic, offered it. Instead, Mr Kostunica took up the political fight against Mr Milosevic and joined other friends in forming the Democratic Party. They were elected to the federal Parliament. Three years later the party split over whether to cooperate with Mr Milosevic, and Mr Kostunica took the radicals with him to form the Democratic Party of Serbia. In foreign policy he is trying to steer a line between strong criticism of Nato and opening Serbia towards integration with Europe. He denounces Western sanctions and welcomes French hints that they may be lifted after the election. He wants closer ties with the Serb-run entity in Bosnia. Denied access to the state television and radio, Mr Kostunica has campaigned in small towns. “Most people can hardly make ends meet. They are humiliated and tormented,’’ he said. “Now they have raised their heads.’’ His big problem is whether Mr Milosevic will let him win. Mr Kostunica puts the issue in apocalyptic terms: “These are not normal elections. It is a matter of life and death.” — The Guardian, London |
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Truckers’ group for ending strike PARIS, Sept 8 (Reuters) — France’s National Road Hauliers Federation, the largest truck owners group protesting against high fuel prices, today urged its members to lift the blockade strangling fuel supplies around the country. But Unostra, the other group manning the barricades, said its members want to continue the five-day protest aimed at winning a 20 per cent cut in diesel fuel taxes for large lorries. Both groups emerged from late-night talks with Transport Minister Jean-Claude Gayssot saying that progress had been made, but consultations with their member apparently produced different assessments of the compromise deal. The federation represents the larger hauliers while Unostra is made up of small firms that say they are threatened with failure if they cannot get their fuel costs under control. The government has said it would not go beyond the 15 per cent tax cut. PTI adds: France reeled under severe fuel shortage as striking truck owners and the government failed to reach an agreement on fuel prices even as the ongoing blockade of fuelling stations started spreading to other parts of Europe. Despite night-long negotiations between French transport unions and the government there was no sign of solution to the blockade, which entered the sixth day today with farmers and taxi drivers joining the protest against fuel price increase. “Nearly 80 per cent of the country’s fuel pumps are empty,’’ Radio France International (RFI) quoting official sources said. Truck owners and farmers have blocked access to roads to oil facilities on major highways leading to the rationing of fuel in many parts of the country. Cornered from all side, the French Government announced that it would reduce 35 centimes (Rs 2.10) per litre this year and another 25 centimes (Rs 1.35) by 2001. However, the two of the three major transport associations have rejected the offer and pledged to continue their stir. Prime Minister Jospin said “The government will not go any farther. There will be no more negotiations.’’ The Green Party has been campaigning for higher diesel taxes to reduce reliance on the fuel and promotes its environmental policies. Normal traffic has been disturbed at the main Charles de Gaulle international airport in Paris with many flights leaving behind schedule. Truckers sealed off the international airport at the southern city of Nice and the airport has advised incoming aircraft to carry enough fuel to take off again, since it could not guarantee supplies. The food markets outside Paris are feeling the pinch and there will be a shortage of supplies in a few days. Farmers’ federation has said that even if truckers settled with the government they would not withdraw their tractors from barricades unless they were offered relief against the rising prices. Meanwhile, reports said British farmers have also followed suit with tractors barricading an oil facility in the north of the country and the farmers have threatened to extend their strike to the rest of the country if the fuel prices are not brought down. |
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Pak laws fan intolerance: Amnesty LONDON, Sept 8 (ANI) — As the issue of religious freedom is being discussed in international circles, a Sufi mystic in Pakistan has been convicted of blasphemy and sentenced to death. “Pakistan’s laws are so vaguely formulated that they serve to fan religious intolerance and provide a ready tool to incarcerate people holding a divergent religious view. Such law should be abolished,” Amnesty International said. The organisation considers Yousuf Ali to be a prisoner of conscience and calls for his immediate and unconditional release. In contravention of international fair trial standards, the trial was conducted in camera and some of the Urdu media conducted a vilification campaign against him which might have influenced the judgement. The judgement shows little evidence to support the complainant’s assertion that Yousuf Ali claimed he was a prophet. He has denied making such claims and some of the prosecution witnesses have admitted that they did not understand what Yousuf taught. The complainant against Yousuf Ali is the secretary-general of the Majlis-e-Khatam-e-Nabuwwat (organisation of the Finality of the Prophet), an organisation that has harassed and criminally prosecuted many people or groups they believe have deviated from the central belief that there can be no prophet after the prophet Mohammad. Many of the blasphemy charges lodged against Ahmadias were initiated or encouraged by members of this organisation. The blasphemy law contained in Section 295 C of the Pakistan Penal Code proscribes the mandatory death penalty for anyone found to have “By words insinuation, directly or indirectly, defiled the name of the Prophet Mohammad”. It neither defines the terms used such as “defilement ” nor looks into the criminal intent of the alleged offender. The law has frequently been abused to imprison people on ground of religious enmity but also has proved an easy tool to have people imprisoned when the real motives are business rivalry or land issues. Amnesty International welcomed an announcement made by the Chief Executive Gen Pervaz Musharraf in April 2000 that to lessen the possibility of abuse of the law, procedural changes would be introduced. The amendment was withdrawn in May on the grounds that the ulema (Islamic scholars) and the people had “unanimously” demanded it. Local human rights groups, minority rights organisations and international human rights organisations, including Amnesty International, have called for the abolition of the blasphemy laws, particularly Section 295 C and for introduction of such procedural safeguards as were promised and withdrawn, as long as the law remains on the statute book. |
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No further Israeli
pullout from West Bank WASHINGTON, Sept 8 (AFP) — Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat has indicated firm rejection of any proposal for shared sovereignty over Jerusalem. In a TV interview broadcast yesterday on CNN television, Mr Arafat was asked by interviewer about proposals for shared sovereignty over Jerusalem. “Would you accept shared sovereignty over Washington?” he replied back. United Nations: Meanwhile, a top Israeli
official has said further Israeli withdrawal from the West Bank has “died a natural death.” The official was speaking on Thursday after Prime Minister Ehud Barak accused Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat during a news conference of not being a responsive partner to peace. “Until now we
didn't find a responsive partner from the other said,” Mr Barak said. “If there is no partner for peace, we cannot carry out the pullout,” the official said, speaking on the condition of anonymity. Since the Oslo accords were signed in 1993, Israel had withdrawn from about 40 per cent of the West Bank, which it occupied in the 1967 Middle East War. It had agreed to further withdrawals, except from the Jewish settlements and military locations, but these were postponed several times because Israelis and Palestinians failed to agree on their scope. |
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