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| Sunday, September 24, 2000, Chandigarh, India    |
Indo-US ties stronger, says Jaswant Singh 
WASHINGTON, Sept 23 — Indian External Affairs Minister Jaswant Singh has said that there is now a “completely altered equation” between the USA and India “as a result of growing confidence in India and recognition of the country as a great democracy.”
USA admits racial problems Gore gets more bang for the buck |
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UN may seek NATO troops for S. Leone Myanmar leaders in custody Bangladesh defers
NAM summit Suharto taken to hospital Kathleen Willey sues Clintons |
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2 suspected Abu Sayyaf men held 
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Indo-US ties stronger, says Jaswant Singh WASHINGTON, Sept 23 (PTI) — External Affairs Minister Jaswant Singh has said that there is now a “completely altered equation” between the USA and India “as a result of growing confidence in India and recognition of the country as a great democracy.” “The candour and confidence in the relationship is unique and the ability of the leadership in both countries to contain their differences and forge closer ties has emerged as a new reality,” he said at a dinner hosted by Indo-US entrepreneurs in Silicon valley last night. Mr Singh, however, warned that post-nuclear sanctions that the USA still had against 38 odd countries, were “counterproductive and ineffective”. “Sanctions act as barriers, especially affecting business in critical areas, such as hi-tech,” he said. On India’s expectation of becoming a permanent member of the UN Security Council, Mr Singh said “India has received open and explicit support for its candidacy, which in itself is a big change from earlier times when such support was not evident.” He hoped that the USA too would be supportive of the Indian position when the appropriate time comes. Mr Singh said there were common bonds between the USA and India, which were being discovered now and added that today there was a recognition of the enormous potential the two countries had in the fields of science and technology, culture, information technology and bio-tech. The essence of the relationship between India and America, said Mr Singh, is based on creativity, continuity, stability and confidence between them. “It is in this context that the role of successful Indo-Americans as heroes needs recognition,” he said. Mr Singh commended the role of Indian Americans, referring to them as ‘great ambassadors’. “Their success has made every Indian proud and has boosted their aspirations in India and abroad, he said. He said: “I have faith in India and the creative genius of Indians... If the Silicon Valley is the success story of the U.S., it also reflects the success of Indian Americans there. With the growing significance of the knowledge-based industry, Indians are beginning to assert themselves all over the world”. |
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USA admits racial problems WASHINGTON, Sept 23 (PTI) — With a candour rare in governments, the Clinton administration has admitted that “persistent racial discrimination and de facto segregation” still exist in the USA. In a report to the UN, prepared by the US State Department and the White House, it said that despite great strides to eliminate racism and inequality over the past half century, there still were half a dozen “notorious incidents” of race-related brutality and bias in California, New York and Texas. The 100-page report said “while the scourge of officially-sanctioned segregation has been eliminated, de facto segregation and persistent racial discrimination continue to exist” in the USA. The incidents cited were the merciless 1991 beating of Rodney King, for a motor vehicle infraction, by two Los Angeles policemen who kicked and pummelled him — a brutality captured on video; the death of Amadou Diallo in New York at the hands of law enforcement officers and the cruel truck-dragging death of James Byrd in Texas. The report said “the forms of discriminatory practices have changed and adapted over time, but racial and ethnic discrimination continues to restrict and limit equal opportunity in the United States”. The report said recent surveys indicated that while most whites did not believe there was much
discrimination today in American society, most minorities saw the opposite in their life experience. The “concern is heightened in light of the fact that nearly 90 per cent of offenders convicted in federal court for crack-cocaine distribution are African-American while the majority of crack cocaine users is white. “Blacks are disproportionately more likely to be sentenced to death and executed than other racial and ethnic groups,” it said. The report said many factors in American society cause continued racial discrimination, “some more subtle and elusive than others.” The top factors listed, according to the report, were “the persistence of attitudes, policies and practices reflecting a legacy of segregation, ignorance, stereotyping, discrimination, and disparities in opportunity and achievement. |
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Gore gets more bang for the buck WASHINGTON, Sept 23 (Reuters) — Heavy spending by Republican Presidential nominee George W. Bush last month has given his democratic rival, Al Gore, a $ 10 million edge in the final two months of campaigning, The Washington Post reported in today’s edition. Citing figures compiled by the Gore campaign, the newspaper reported that Mr Bush spent about $ 21 million in August, compared with $ 11 million spent by Mr Gore. Both candidates started the general election campaign with about $ 67 million of public funding. “We have two campaigns that were given the same amount of money, and one campaign now has a lot more of it to spend between now and election day,” senior Gore adviser Ted Devine was quoted as saying. With the November 7 Presidential election fast approaching, the Texas Governor has found himself trailing the Vice-President in several national polls. Mr Bush campaign spokeswoman Mindy Tucker said much of the spending gap could be attributed to Mr Gore’s incumbency as Vice-President, as he is allowed to travel on Air Force Two and pay the bill later whereas Mr Bush has to pay up front for his chartered flights, the newspaper reported. Republican National Committee spokesman Terry Holt was quoted as saying the Republicans had been forced to spend more money in responding to attacks. In television advertising, the Gore campaign said the Democratic nominee had spent about $ 13 million since his party’s convention ended on
Aug. 17, while Mr Bush spent about 23 million dollars after the Republican convention ended two weeks earlier, according to the post. |
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UN may seek NATO troops for S. Leone UNITED NATIONS, Sept 23 (Reuters) — A senior UN official yesterday said the United Nations hoped for troops for Sierra Leone from NATO or other developed nations following India’s decision to withdraw all its troops from the force. India’s contingent of 3,059 soldiers was the largest in the force of 12,477. India told the United Nations this week that it was pulling out in phases in the wake of what diplomats say was a dispute between African leaders and the Indian commander of the force, the biggest UN peacekeeping operation to date. Mr Bernard Miyet, the UN Under Secretary-General in charge of peacekeeping, told reporters, “It is clear that for the future, developed countries, powerful countries have to share their part of solidarity and responsibility in hot and risky spots.” He said some African nations questioned why the wealthiest countries were not dispatching troops. However, he said Parliaments were wary after the 1993 debacle in Somalia when US soldiers were killed and in Rwanda when Belgian troops were murdered during the 1994 genocide. The Indian withdrawal sent the United Nations scrambling not only to find troops to replace the Indians but to add 7,500 soldiers to the entire force. The Security Council wants a force of 20,500 but has delayed authorisation until soldiers could be found. Mr Miyet said all countries had been approached about sending troops to Sierra Leone, including Britain, the former colonial power which had military advisors and trainers in the West African nation. Jordan was reported to be considering withdrawing with the Indians after replacements arrived unless troops from NATO countries joined the force. But Mr Miyet said Jordan had not notified his office. “They have discussed with some countries the need for them to move but at no point did Jordan come to see us to say they want to withdraw,” he said. |
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Myanmar leaders in custody YANGON, Sept 23 (DPA) — Myanmar authorities have placed two opposition leaders under “protective custody” while pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi is under house arrest, opposition sources said today. National League for Democracy (NLD) leaders Tin Oo and Than Tun have been kept under police custody in Yemon, 50 km north of the capital, Yangon (Rangoon), since yesterday morning, sources said. In addition, four busloads of about 100 young NLD members who were rounded up on Thursday have been put in Insein jail. The latest crackdown on Myanmar’s opposition has followed Suu Kyi’s attempt on Thursday to take a train to Mandalay, in open defiance of the ruling junta’s unwritten restrictions on her freedom to travel. She and other NLD members, including tin
Oo, were stopped from boarding the train and kept in the Yangon station’s VIP lounge. Ms Suu Kyi remained there until Friday, when authorities forcefully escorted her home. All attempts by Suu Kyi and the NLD leadership to leave
Yangon have been blocked since 1995, when the Nobel Peace Prize laureate was released from house arrest. The NLD won the general election of 1990 with an overwhelming majority but has been denied political power for the past decade by the military, which claims the country is not ready for civilian rule. |
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Bangladesh defers
NAM summit DHAKA, Sept 23 (AFP) — The 13th Non-Aligned Movement summit scheduled to be held in Bangladesh in September, 2001, has been deferred by about six months, a government source said today. “We will hold the summit by February or March, 2002,” he said, requesting anonymity. He added that Foreign Minister Abdus Samad Azad would make the formal announcement on his return home tomorrow from New York. Asked if the next year’s general election was behind the postponement, he said “several factors are involved.” Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina Wajed indicated earlier this month that the summit would be postponed, saying the time frame was not mandatory and she wanted an elected government to preside over the meeting. |
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Suharto taken to hospital JAKARTA, Sept 23 (Reuters) — Indonesia’s disgraced former President Suharto was taken to a Jakarta hospital today to be examined by an independent team of doctors to determine whether he was fit enough to attend his landmark corruption trial. Mr Suharto, Indonesia’s autocratic ruler for 32 years until he was forced to step down amid widening political and economic crisis in 1998, has failed to show up at either session of his trial so for on the grounds of ill-health. Witnesses said Mr Suharto, accompanied by three of his children and several bodyguards, looked healthy on his arrival at the Pertamina hospital in south Jakarta. His doctors have said the 79-year-old Suharto is too ill to attend his trial following a number of strokes. Beaming his customary wide smile, the former ruler managed a few steps unaided before he was taken inside on a wheelchair. Plans to examine the ex-despot at a different hospital were dropped after street brawls outside yesterday. His trial opened on August 31 and is scheduled to reconvene on September 28 when the independent medical team will report its findings to the judge. Under Indonesian law, it is up to the judge to decide whether the defendant must appear or not. Violence of pro and anti-Suharto protesters has dogged the trial. There has also been a rash of bomb attacks. On the eve of the resumption of the trial last week, a huge bomb exploded in the Jakarta Stock Exchange building, killing 15 persons. Officials have suggested dropping the trial because of the violence, but President Abdurrahman Wahid said yesterday it would go on. He also said the courtroom could be moved to Mr
Suharto’s home if necessary. The trial is seen as a crucial test of the credibility of the Wahid government which has largely failed to bring to account those involved in the massive corruption that became pervasive during the Suharto era. |
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Kathleen Willey
sues Clintons WASHINGTON, Sept 23 (PTI) — Former White House aide Kathleen Willey Schwicker, who accused President Bill Clinton of groping her in the oval office when, as a volunteer, she went to him for a regular job, filed a lawsuit yesterday naming the President, First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton and some of their top aides in an alleged conspiracy to violate her privacy rights. In the civil suit, filed in the US District Court here, she said the Clintons and others “improperly released personal letters she sent and turned over confidential information about her in a scheme aimed at destroying her good name, credibility and reputation”. Mr Willey, also named the Federal Bureaue of Investigation (FBI) as a defendant in the case, saying that the FBI released information about her “without any lawful justification”. Others named in the suit included former White House counsel Charles F.C. Ruff, current and former Presidential aides Bruce Lindsey, Cheryl Mills, Sidney Blumenthal, James Carville, and David E Kendall, Clinton’s personal attorney. |
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2 suspected Abu
Sayyaf men held JOLO, Sept 23 (AFP) — Philippine coastguard said it stopped two ferries off the southern island of Jolo today and intelligence sources said two suspected Abu Sayyaf members were taken off a boat. The MV Nickel Princely, from the southern city of Zamboanga, was bound for the southernmost Tawi-Tawi islands. It was stopped as it passed Jolo island, where Abu Sayyaf kidnappers are holding 17 hostages, and forced to dock at the wharf in the main town. Two young men were taken off the boat escorted by heavily armed troops before the boat was allowed to proceed, witnesses said. The coastguard later stopped another ferry bound for Tawi-Tawi, the MV Magnolia Fragrance, and forced it to dock in Jolo. The vessel was still there in the early hours of
afternoon. |
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