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| Friday, October 6, 2000, Chandigarh, India   
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Oppn protesters tear-gassed; court chief for fresh poll BELGRADE, Oct 5 — The Serbian police used tear gas and batons against protesters who had gathered in front of the Yugoslav Parliament building in central Belgrade today, the independent Radio Index reported. Israel, Palestine to cease fire Window on Pakistan Lanka rejects Norway’s peace moves Air embargo on
Iraq flouted |
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| Emergency declared
in Ivory Coast ABIDJAN, Oct 5 — The Ivory Coast’s Government declared a state of emergency and a curfew from October 6 to 9, covering the deadline for publication of the final list of candidates for a presidential election to restore civilian rule. Horse saves rider from crocodile E. Timor militia leader arrested
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Oppn protesters tear-gassed; court chief for fresh poll BELGRADE, Oct 5 (Reuters) — The Serbian police used tear gas and batons against protesters who had gathered in front of the Yugoslav Parliament building in central Belgrade today, the independent Radio Index reported. The radio carried a live report from the scene saying that people had begun to climb up the steps of the Parliament building shortly after noon (6.30 p.m.
ISF). The police threw tear gas and used batons to disperse the first line of protesters, the radio said, adding that the situation later calmed down. Meanwhile, the head of the Yugoslav constitutional court, Milutin Srdic, told the Bulgarian office of Radio Free Europe today that the disputed presidential election should be held again after the expiry of Slobodan Milosevic’s mandate. Asked what the court meant by its decision to annul the first round, announced yesterday, Mr Srdic answered, according to the Bulgarian translation: “This means that the election should be repeated after the expiry of the mandate of the current president’’. Mr Milosevic’s mandate expires in mid-2001. Earlier, Yugoslavia’s constitutional court annulled part of the controversial September 24 presidential election, state news agency Tanjug said. The report did not make clear which part of the vote, which the Opposition says was rigged to favour President Slobodan Milosevic, had been annulled. “The Federal Constitutional Court, after a public debate, unanimously
decided... to annul a part of the election procedure for the election of the President of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia which relates to voting, establishing and publishing results of the ballot from September 24, 2000,’’ Tanjug said. Legal experts said it was not immediately clear whether the decision would mean a partial or complete recount of the vote or a rerun of part or all the election. UNITED
NATIONS: Secretary-General Kofi Annan has slapped down a reported proposal by a UN Human Rights official that war crimes charges against Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic should be dropped if he left office. Milosevic, who was indicted last year for alleged crimes against ethnic Albanians in Kosovo and faces possible charges relating to Bosnia and Croatia, has refused to concede defeat in a September 24 Yugoslav presidential election. Mr Annan yesterday said in a statement that he was “surprised to learn’’ of remarks attributed to Jiri Dienstbier, special rapporteur of the UN Human Rights Commission on the situation in Bosnia, Croatia and Yugoslavia, suggesting that the indictment against Milosevic should be dropped if he stepped down. “The Secretary-General wishes to make clear that the special rapporteurs of the Commission on Human Rights act in their personal capacity as independent experts and do not represent the views of the Secretary-General or of any inter-governmental organ,’’ Mr Annan’s spokesman said. Mr Annan added that, under the statute of the Hague-based UN War Crimes Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, the question of indictments ‘’falls within the exclusive competence of the prosecutor and the trial chambers acting as independent organs of the tribunal.’’ The chief prosecutor of the UN Yugoslav War Crimes Tribunal, Carla Del Ponte, told a news conference in Sarajevo on Wednesday that she had a specific mandate from the UN Security Council, adding: “I am not involved in politics and my task is to bring Milosevic to trial in the Hague.’’ |
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Israel, Palestine to cease fire JERUSALEM, Oct 5 (Reuters) — Israel and the Palestinians said today they had agreed on a ceasefire to end a week of violence that has killed 67 persons, mainly Palestinians. An Israeli army announcement made no mention of the failure of Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak and Palestinian President Yasser Arafat to sign a formal agreement during talks in Paris. “During the night, the chief of Israel’s Central Command, Major-General Yitzhak Eitan, met senior officials of the Palestinian security services,” an army statement said. “It was agreed at the meeting to stop the violence, disturbances and shooting incidents at confrontation points between the two sides,” the statement said, adding that more talks between security officials would be held today. Speaking in Paris, Mr Nabil Shaath, a Palestinian Cabinet Minister, told Voice of Palestine Radio: “Mr Barak issued orders to all his commanders to stop the violence and we notified our commanders as well with the same orders.” A Palestinian died today of wounds received on Monday in the West Bank town of Jericho, medical sources said. Of the 67 dead, 55 are Palestinians, nine Arab Israelis and the others an Israeli soldier, a border guard and a Jewish civilian. The West Bank and Gaza Strip were quiet today. Israeli Cabinet Minister Amnon Lipkin-Shahak, who attended the talks in Paris, said Mr Arafat had made a verbal commitment to Mr Barak, Ms Albright and French President Jacques Chirac to end the violence. “The real test will be what will happen today in the field,” Mr Lipkin-Shahak, a former Israeli army chief, told Israel Radio. He said Israeli negotiators had heard Mr Arafat tell his security chiefs over the telephone to cease fire. “If the violence stops, everything will be easier,” he said on the possibility of reviving a peace process in tatters from the worst Israeli-Palestinian violence in four years. PARIS
(AFP): Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak and Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat failed here early today to reach an agreement to end the violence in the West Asia which has claimed 70 lives in the past few days. Mr Barak flew home to Israel instead of joining, as planned, Arafat and us secretary of State Madeleine Albright, both en route to the Egyptian resort of Sharm el-Sheikh. Israeli officials in Paris had earlier indicated an agreement to end the bloodshed would be signed in Egypt. BEIRUT:
With a few exceptions, the Israelis contend that the bloody tumult in Israel and the occupied territory has been instigated and stage-managed by Yasser Arafat in order to strengthen his hand in the faltering peace process. This is not taken seriously by western leaders such as President Jacques Chirac, who put the blame squarely on the far-right politician General Ariel Sharon. Mr Arafat needed new diplomatic clout. Mr Sharon’s gesture came in handy. It is said that members of his own organisation, Fatah, rather than Hamas militants, are playing a key role in the fighting. That is not surprising.
(Guardian) |
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Window on Pakistan Chief Executive Gen Pervez Musharraf said something during his recent US visit and the Press in Pakistan began showing signs of nervousness. There was widespread fear that the military dictatorship could no longer tolerate critical comments on its functioning. It was believed that carrying sharp editorials and articles to tell the military ruler to allow people’s elected representatives to take over the reins of power was going to be a thing of the past. But media people were wrong. General Musharraf surprised the members of the journalistic fraternity and their well-wishers after coming back home, declaring that the “government has no intention to control the Press in any way”. He gave a categorical assurance that the Fourth Estate would continue to enjoy freedom and that the apprehensions of curbs were “unfounded”. The General has perhaps come to realise that a positive attitude towards the Press is the best way to elicit favourable comments. In a country where the political class has little respectability, having lost the confidence of the public, media exposures bring more good than harm to the military regime. General Musharraf’s only weak point, in the people’s opinion, is that he has grabbed power by the use of force, which is not new in Pakistan. The masses know this and hence their acceptance of the illegal rule of the military. In a way the Press is helping the General to perpetuate his dictatorship. Two cases that come to mind immediately are those of an editorial carried in The Nation on September 17 and a series of full-length articles by Humayun Gauhar. The editorial showers undue praise on the Chief Executive for his assurance that “the Press will remain free”. In fact, the General should have been told clearly that military rule and a free Press do not go together and, therefore, the uncomfortable questions that were posed to the General in New York were not without reason. If the Press has escaped curbs, it is because this situation suits the military regime. The Press does not enjoy freedom as a right. But The Nation says: “This is not the first time that the issue of Press freedom has been raised at official Press conferences. We have had the occasion to comment on issues regarding this subject a number of times, sometimes perhaps more critically than others. But on this particular occasion we want to welcome the CE’s positive comments on the fundamentals of Press freedom and responsibility. We fully agree with the proposal he made for the Press where truth, responsibility and national interest are of uppermost consideration for a journalist.” However, it was an appropriate occasion to say that the Press can grow on healthy lines only when democracy is put on rails as quickly as possible. Humayun Gauhar’s study of the Press in Third World countries and elsewhere is quite absorbing but he appears to be evasive with regard to the situation prevailing in his own country. It is true that no government in Pakistan has allowed the Press to acquire the necessary muscle to fearlessly play its watchdog role. But the military has played the worst role by snapping the democratic process. General Musharraf’s assurance carries no meaning. What he has said is like offering a bone to a dog so that it stops barking. Gauhar admits that democracy and a free Press go together when he says that “one of the few Third World countries that has developed a Press is India...” But he has tried to look at it by wearing a religion-tinted glass, not fair on his part. Yet the kind of analysis he has given is rarely seen in Pakistani newspapers. In the opinion of Gauhar, “It is a symbiotic relationship between the Press and the public. One feeds and lives off the other. What has always been missing in Pakistan is a symbiotic relationship between the government and the Press, as indeed a symbiotic relationship has always been missing between the government and the people, no matter whether the government has been representative, quasi-representative, or unrepresentative.”
— Syed Nooruzzaman |
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Lanka rejects Norway’s peace moves COLOMBO, Oct 5 (Reuters) — Sri Lanka’s Prime Minister has ruled out further talks with Tamil Tiger rebels and said the government would no longer pursue a Norwegian-brokered peace initiative. “Let the Norwegians do what they want, all that is in the past,’’ Mr Ratnasiri Wickremanayake said yesterday. The government would pursue the military option until it defeated the
LTTE, who are fighting for a separate state for minority Tamils in the country’s North and East. Norway, which played a prominent role in the Middle East peace process, had offered to host talks between the Sri Lankan Government and the rebels. Norwegian diplomats made several visits to the island earlier this year, but the peace process never got off the ground as fighting escalated in the country’s North. Some 800 soldiers and rebels have been killed since the government launched a series of offensives to gain ground in Sri Lanka’s northern Jaffna peninsula last month as campaigning began for the October 10 parliamentary poll. Ms Kumaratunga plans to give Tamils a political alternative to the
LTTE by amending the Constitution to devolve more power to regional councils, including one controlled by the minority group. Mr Wickremanayake, widely seen to be close to Sri Lanka’s powerful Buddhist clergy who oppose the political reforms, was named Prime Minister in August after mounting opposition forced the government to withdraw a constitutional draft from Parliament. |
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Air embargo on Iraq flouted ANKARA, Oct 5 (AFP) — Turkey has given a green light for a humanitarian flight to Iraq despite the UN air embargo against Baghdad. The airline Arkas was given permission to fly medical equipment to the Iraqi capital, the Foreign Ministry said yesterday, without giving a date for the flight. It will be the latest in a string of recent solidarity flights to Iraq, which has been under international sanctions, including the controversial air embargo, since it invaded Kuwait in August 1990. Earlier yesterday, Tunisia sent a plane to Baghdad and the United Arab Emirates was set today to become the first Gulf Arab monarchy to join the flow of flights landing in Baghdad. Planes from Jordan, Yemen, Morocco, France and Russia have also landed at Saddam International Airport since September 27 in a wave of flights to test the air embargo. In Ankara, the Foreign
Ministry has said it was also likely to grant a businessman from the southeastern town Mersin permission to charter a flight to the Iraqi capital. Meanwhile the president of the Chamber of Commerce in the southeastern town of Gaziantep told AFP his organisation had requested permission to allow a flight transporting businessmen, doctors, nurses, artists and journalists to Baghdad in the near future. |
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Emergency declared
in Ivory Coast ABIDJAN, Oct 5 (Reuters) — The Ivory Coast’s Government declared a state of emergency and a curfew from October 6 to 9, covering the deadline for publication of the final list of candidates for a presidential election to restore civilian rule. In a statement read on state television by Information Minister Henri Cesar Sama, the government declared the measures in order to maintain public order in what it said were ‘’exceptional circumstances’’. Shortly after General Guei’s announcement, state television reported that four persons had been killed in an explosion in the main city Abidjan. |
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Horse saves rider
from crocodile SYDNEY, Oct 5 (AFP) — A racehorse dragged its trainer to safety after a crocodile attacked him in Australia’s far north. Two-year-old Candlelight Dancer hauled his trainer Jim Morris from a Queensland river after the 15 feet crocodile attacked them during an early morning swim. Mr Morris said he owed his life to the horse, which had managed to elude the crocodile’s lunge as he clung to the bridle. The incident took place along the Fitzroy river in central Queensland where Mr Morris regularly took horses under his charge for a swim each morning. One of the horses’ hind legs was gashed in the attack. Mr Morris said he would drop swimming from horses’ daily exercise routine. |
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E. Timor militia
leader arrested JAKARTA, Oct 5 — The most notorious of East Timor’s militia leader was arrested yesterday on suspicion of being involved in the sacking of a UN refugee agency office in West Timor last month during which three members of staff were hacked to death. The national police chief, General Suroyo Bimantoro, accused Eurico Guterres of refusing to hand over weapons and instructing hundreds of his men to take back guns they had surrendered to the police in the town of Atambua, near the border with East Timor. (Guardian ) Two Pak plane
hangers freeze
KUALA LUMPUR, Oct 5 (AP) — Two Pakistani stowaways were frozen to death aboard a Lufthansa Airlines cargo plane, news reports yesterday said. The airport authorities said the two were contract workers at Bayan Lepas International Airport in the northern state of Penang in
Malayasia, national news agency Bernama reported. Their names were not released.
SC dismisses
Sharif’s plea ISLAMABAD,
Oct 5 (PTI)— The Supreme Court of Pakistan has dismissed deposed
Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif’s petition seeking to restrain the Sind
High Court from citing the apex court verdict that validated the military takeover while deciding appeals in the plane hijacking case. The apex court did not agree to Mr
Sharif"s counsel’s contention that taking into account the SC verdict the military takeover would amount to a foreclosure of the deposed prime minister’s defence or prejudice his defence in any way. 12
PA men killed in LTTE suicide attack COLOMBO,
Oct 5 (PTI) — Twelve supporters of the ruling People’s Alliance (pa) were killed and yet another Sri Lankan minister escaped an assassination attempt in a powerful
LTTE suicide bomb attack at an election rally in North-Central Sri Lanka this evening as the poll campaign turns bloodier. The blast occurred when an
LTTE suicide bomber blew himself up at the crowded pa rally in Medawachchiya, near the
LTTE-held Vanni region ahead of the October 10 polls, the police said , adding 50 persons were also injured in the blast. Deputy Minister for Indigenous Medicine Tissa Karaliyatha who was addressing the rally escaped unhurt in the blast.
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