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| Tuesday, November 7, 2000, Chandigarh, India   
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Impeachment move against Estrada Statute reform
package in Dec Taliban toughen penalty
on beard trimmers PLO for EU, UN mediation |
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| Warm welcome to
Jaswant in Hanoi HANOI, Nov 6 — The External Affairs Minister, Mr Jaswant Singh, was given a warm welcome on his arrival here this evening at the start of a three-day visit to Vietnam. Lawmakers firm on Chen’s recall 2 killed, 6 hurt in Karachi blast Landslides kill 52 in Java Man tries to feed himself to lions
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Impeachment move against Estrada MANILA, Nov 6 (DPA) — Philippine legislators today began debates on an impeachment motion against President Joseph Estrada as financial markets staged a dramatic rally on expectations the chief executive would be removed from office over bribery allegations. The House of Representatives’ 51-member Justice Committee was locked in heated discussions on whether to immediately elevate the impeachment complaint to the plenary session for approval or to hold hearings on the case. Opposition legislators insisted that the committee must do away with hearings because 99 Congressmen already had endorsed the complaint, which charges Mr Estrada with bribery, graft and corruption, betrayal of public trust and violations of the constitution. Only 73 votes in the 218-member House of Representatives are needed to indict Mr Estrada and submit the articles of impeachment to the Senate for trial. In the 22-seat Senate, 16 votes are required to remove Estrada from office. But some administration Congressmen opposed the move, which they claimed would violate the rules of impeachment. The start of the impeachment proceedings was welcomed by the country’s stocks and currency markets. Philippine stocks soared 16.5 per cent in a record one-day gain of 212.25 points to close at 1,500.10. The peso surged to a midday average of 49.219 to 1 US. Dollar from 51.68 on October 31, the final day of trading last week before the market closed for public holidays. The impeachment bid stemmed from allegations that Mr Estrada received more than $ 8 million in bribes from illegal gambling operations and pocketed $ 2.6 million in tobacco taxes intended for the northern province of Ilocos Sur. The President, a 63-year-old former movie star, has insisted he did not receive “a single centavo” from illegal gambling operations or steal money from the national coffers. He vowed to answer all charges at the Senate trial. The expose fuelled mounting calls for Estrada’s resignation and led his top allies in Congress — House Speaker Manuel Villar and Senate President Franklin Drilon — as well as more than 40 Congressmen and five Senators to desert the chief executive. Today, Senator Ramon Revilla became the sixth ally of Mr Estrada in the Senate to resign from the ruling party to ensure impartiality in the impeachment trial. Aside from his allies in Congress, several members of the Estrada Cabinet, including Trade Secretary Manuel Roxas and Presidential Adviser on Political Affairs Angelito Banayo, have also resigned their posts. Despite the desertions and the almost daily protests, Mr Estrada has been unshaken and vowed he will only step down if found guilty in the impeachment case. Earlier, hundreds of demonstrators, both for and against Estrada, faced off in front of the House of Representatives. Congressman Danilo Suarez, a stalwart of Estrada’s Party for the Filipino Masses (LAMP), assured the public that administration legislators would not block the impeachment case. “Following the order of the President to expedite (the process), we will not object anymore,’’ he said. “Hopefully, we will complete the discussions on form and substance in three days and then ask the respondent to come up with answers on the charges.” The complaint accused Estrada of bribery, graft and corruption, betrayal of public trust and violations of the constitution. |
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Statute reform
package in Dec COLOMBO, Nov 6 (UNI) — in response to the
LTTE’s recent offer of peace talks, the Sri Lankan Government is understood to have decided to introduce the constitutional reform package in Parliament next month. Quoting authoritative sources, local media has reported that the government had informed
Norwegian peace envoy, Dr Erik Solheim, that the new package would also be presented to the
LTTE through them. The previous Constitutional Reforms Bill, which proposed giving more powers to the Tamils, was not pursued in the wake of protests from various quarters, including from within the ruling Peoples’ Alliance. As the government was not sure if the Bill would get the backing of two-third of the House members, the Bill was not forwarded. It lapsed after Parliament was dissolved. There was widespread protest against the Bill with the Buddhist clergy and the Sinhala right-wing parties describing it as a surrender to the minorities. The
LTTE had also rejected the government’s devolution package that was placed before Parliament. The main Opposition, United National Party, also opposed it and asked the government to have consultations with various sections of society, including the clergy. Dr Solheim, after meeting LTTE chief Prabhakaran, had briefed President Chandrika Kumaratunga on Friday but did not disclose any details. Meanwhile, reports indicated that the government would discuss the
LTTE's offer of peace talks with all major political parties. Quoting informed sources, the reports said though there was a general reluctance within the government to resume negotiations with the
LTTE given past experience, Mrs Kumaratunga was willing to give it one more chance. “The general consensus in the government is that unconditional peace talks could resume. They feel that peace talks can proceed while the war is on as is the case in Northern Ireland”, reports said. The
UNP and Tamil parties have welcomed the LTTE offer saying that the government should make use of the opportunity to resume talks. However, the leftist Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna and the
extremist Sihala Urumaya have come out strongly against Norwegian mediation to resolve the ethnic conflict. They have also charged that the peace initiative undertaken was quite contrary to what Prime Minister Ratnasiri Wickremenayake said during the election campaign that the
LTTE would be wiped out militarily. |
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Taliban toughen penalty on beard trimmers KABUL, Nov 6 (AFP) — The ultra-puritanical Taliban militia ruling most of Afghanistan has toughened penalties for men who trim or shave their beards, officials said today. They said militia supreme leader Mulla Mohammad Omar has issued a decree ordering all government agencies to ignore men who have trimmed their facial hair. Copies of the decree, which have been glued to the gates of many ministries, say men must follow the example of the Prophet Mohammed, who had a beard, and obey the Taliban’s strict version of Islamic Sharia law. The decree says “a small number of people” still trim their facial hair, leading to disputes with the religious police. “In view of the above problems, all Emirate authorities are bound not to do the work of those people who have shortened or shaven their beards against the Sharia law,” it says. The decree makes allowances for men with problems such as skin diseases or who have just returned to Afghanistan from abroad. The Taliban forced men to sport untrimmed beards soon after their 1996 capture of Kabul, once known as a liberal city but now the focus of the Taliban’s experiment in creating a “pure” Islamic state. Religious police teams patrol the major cities and beat or detain men with shortened beards for up to 10 days. They are usually released after passing a religious test. DUBAI: A Taliban official was quoted as saying that Afghanistan would not expel Osama bin Laden, wanted by the USA, even if evidence linked him to the 1998 bombings of US embassies. “Even if there is evidence that shows his involvement, any trial he could face would be here in Afghanistan,’’ Taliban spokesman Mohammad Tayeb was quoted yesterday by bab.com, a daily Arabic e-newspaper on the internet from Saudi Arabia. Mr Tayeb said the stance of Afghanistan’s strictly Islamist ruling Taliban movement had been conveyed to the US Ambassador to Pakistan, Mr William Milam. Mr Milam met Afghan Ambassador Mullah Abdul Salam Zaeef in Islamabad on November 2 to repeat Washington’s demand that Afghanistan should expel the militant Saudi Islamist to enable him to be put on trial. The Taliban has repeatedly insisted that the USA has failed to present it with evidence to support its allegation that Bin Laden was behind the attacks on US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania in 1998 which killed more than 200 people. The USA bombed suspected bases of Bin Laden in eastern Afghanistan soon after the blasts. Mr Zaeef said Mr Milam had assured him that rumours that another such attack on Afghan territory was imminent were unfounded. |
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PLO for EU, UN mediation JERUSALEM, Nov 6 (AP) — Ahead of the planned Middle East peace talks in Washington, Palestinians complained that US mediation had been ineffective and demanded that the European Union, Russia and the United Nations be asked to join the talks. Israel, meanwhile, said the Palestinians had been violating the latest truce meant to end more than five weeks of bloodshed. Palestinian gunmen opened fire on several Israeli enclaves overnight, including the Nahal Elisha army outpost near the West Bank town of Jericho. At the time of the shooting, the army Chief of Staff, Lt-Gen Shaul Mofaz, was addressing soldiers in Nahal Elisha. Lieutenant-General Mofaz said Israel had kept its part in the truce agreement, negotiated last week by Palestinian Labour Organisation (PLO) leader Yasser Arafat and Israel’s elder statesman Shimon Peres, but the Palestinians had not. Mr Arafat, meanwhile, renewed a demand for international protection. “I am asking for quick international forces to protect us, to stop this war, the massacres against our people,” he said in an interview with CBS TV yesterday. In all, 170
persons have been killed since Israeli- Palestinian fighting broke out, on September 28. Of the victims, 141 were Palestinians killed by Israeli fire in rock-throwing clashes and gun battles. The Palestinians said the violence was triggered by the September 28 visit of Israel’s Opposition leader Ariel Sharon to a major Jerusalem shrine revered by both Muslims and Jews. Mr Arafat told “60 minutes” that ahead of the Sharon visit, he had appealed to Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak and US President Bill Clinton to prevent the trip, warning that it could unleash widespread violence, but that his concerns had gone unheeded. Mr Arafat will meet Mr Clinton in Washington on November 9, and Mr Barak will hold talks with the President today. Israeli Foreign Minister Shlomo Ben-Ami, meanwhile, said Mr Arafat had raised the possibility of holding a three-way meeting with Mr Clinton and Mr Barak in Washington, but that Israel would only consider a summit once the violence stopped. In a new twist to the conflict, Israel army radio said senior Israeli officials were considering releasing details about corruption in the Palestinian authority, including the personal use Mr Arafat and his ministers had allegedly made of international aid money. |
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Warm welcome to
Jaswant in Hanoi HANOI, Nov 6 (UNI, AFP) — The External Affairs Minister, Mr Jaswant Singh, was given a warm welcome on his arrival here this evening at the start of a three-day visit to Vietnam. Mr Jaswant Singh and his delegation were formally received at the Government Guest House by Vietnamese Foreign Minister Nguyen Dy
Nien. Both sides stressed the traditionally close ties enjoyed by the two countries and the scope for further cooperation. Earlier, Mr Jaswant Singh arrived at the Noi Bai International Airport here and drove straight to the Government Guest House. The External Affairs Minister, during his Vietnam visit, will head the Indian side at the meeting of the bilateral Joint Commission. He would also call on President Tran Duch Luong and Prime Minister Phan Van Khai besides having extensive discussions with the foreign and defence ministers. |
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Lawmakers firm on Chen’s recall TAIPEI, Nov 6 (AP) — Lawmakers stuck to their threats today to seek a recall of President Chen Shui-bian, despite the Taiwanese leader’s apology to the head of the island’s largest party. Mr Chen’s televised apology last evening was apparently designed to soothe the Opposition, which has accused the President of being rude and disrespectful to Nationalist Party leader Lien Chan. The Nationalists were furious with Mr Chen when his minority government decided last month that it would halt construction on a nuclear plant. The announcement came just hours after Mr Chen held a special meeting with Mr Lien and told the Nationalist leader he would consider Mr Lien’s proposal to finish the nuclear project. In his apology, Mr Chen acknowledged that the timing of the announcement was inappropriate but that he still stood by his government’s decision to scrap the plant. A senior Nationalist lawmaker, Chen Horng-chi, told TVBS cable news today that the President seemed to be sincere. However, the lawmaker said he was disappointed that the President did not describe concrete measures he planned to take to rectify his mistake in unilaterally scrapping the plant. “Only expressing your sincerity is not enough,” the lawmaker said. At a news conference today, Yu Shyi-Kun, secretary-general of the Presidential Office, reiterated the President’s admission that he still had much to learn about how to lead Taiwan. |
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2 killed, 6 hurt in Karachi blast KARACHI, Nov 6 (AFP) — At least two persons were killed and six others injured today when a bomb exploded inside a media group’s building in this troubled Pakistani port city, police and hospital sources said. The explosion tore through the building owned by the Nawa-i-Waqat press group, which publishes the Urdu-language Nawa-i-Waqat and English-language The Nation newspapers, witnesses said. The powerful blast destroyed the office building’s main gate and damaged walls and windows of an adjacent private hospital, they said. Bomb disposal squad chief Moinuddin Ahmad said the bomb had been planted inside the advertising department on the ground floor. “It is an act of terrorism,” said senior police officer Aleem Jafery, as the police and paramilitary troops surrounded the area. |
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Landslides kill 52 in Java JAKARTA, Nov 6 (Reuters) — At least 52 persons have been killed in landslides triggered by torrential rain in Indonesia’s central Java province, local media reported today. The Kompas newspaper said the landslides hit the hill district of Purworejo in the early hours of Sunday after three days of heavy rain. Most residents were sleeping when the mud buried seven villages in the area, 400 km southeast of Jakarta, the daily said. It said the toll was likely to climb as rescuers continued to comb the area searching for bodies. It was the second series of landslides in a week in the province. Last week up to 28 persons were killed in the districts of Cilacap and Banyumas. |
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Man tries to feed himself to lions COLOMBO, Nov 6 (AFP) — A Sri Lankan Buddhist, who jumped into the lions’ den at a Colombo zoo to feed himself to the beasts, was rescued after being badly mauled, officials said today. Gamini Sarath Rajakaruna, 21, from Balangoda town in central Sri Lanka, caused panic among the crowds when he stripped off yesterday and jumped into the den at Dehiwala Zoo, Director s
Gunesena said. Zoo staff had to chase off three hungry lions and rushed him to hospital where he was in intensive care unit with severe injuries to his head, chest, legs and groin,
Gunesena said. He later told zoo security officials that he had jumped into the den of his own free will. A note found among his clothes said that as devoted Buddhist he had resorted to the ghastly action out of love and devotion for the animals. |
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