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| Thursday, December 21, 2000, Chandigarh, India   
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UN slaps fresh sanctions against Taliban Don’t ignore India, Pak,
Clinton to Bush |
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 US Vice-President Gore puts his hands on the back of President-elect Bush outside the Vice-President's residence before their meeting in Washington on Tuesday. Mr Bush met President Clinton earlier. — AP photo Canada may ban ultras’ fund-raising Battle over Estrada’s
‘slush funds’ hots up |
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Afghanistan shuts down UN mission Bush support to help UN: Annan What would the world be 15 yrs hence? Cell phone has ‘no link’ with cancer
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UN slaps fresh sanctions against Taliban UNITED NATIONS, Dec 20 (PTI) — The UN has decided to slap fresh tough sanctions against Afghanistan’s ruling Taliban and ban arms sale to them unless they close terrorist training camps and surrender Saudi terrorist Osama bin Laden within a month even as the militia condemned the move saying that it would wreak havoc on the Afghan people. The 15-member council last night voted a joint American-Russian resolution imposing sanctions over objections openly voiced by Secretary-General Kofi Annan only a few hours earlier at a press conference. Thirteen members voted in favour of the resolution, a rare joint effort by two former rivals, and China and Malaysia abstained, arguing that the new measures would only harm the people already burdened with two decades of civil war and a crushing drought. The resolution also calls for withdrawal of all foreign military and security advisers who, diplomats say, are mostly Pakistanis. A report from Islamabad said the Taliban immediately denounced the new sanctions, threatening to walk out of the UN-sponsored peace talks. The new measures would lead to a further deterioration in the situation. “The USA takes a whole Afghan nation hostage for one person Osama bin Laden. Under which law is it justifiable to victimise 18 million people of Afghanistan using the excuse of one person,” Taliban Ambassador to Pakistan Mullah Abdul Salam Zaeef said. Mr Zaeef claimed that the “Taliban have made several offers to solve the Osama issue through peaceful means of negotiations”. “Sanctions are starvation tactics used for selfish political goals,” he said. Pakistani diplomats and Taliban representatives expressed distress that the arms embargo is sought to be imposed only against the Taliban while leaving the Northern Alliance untouched. “The UN is playing politics because the arms sanctions are only on the Taliban and not on the opposition alliance. The UN is trying to interfere in Afghanistan’s internal affairs and siding with one party which holds little territory and has no popular support,” Director-General of the state-run Institute of Strategic Studies Shireen Mazari said. The resolution says if the Taliban do not comply with the twin demand of closing terrorist training camps and surrendering Bin Laden, the sale of arms, ammunition and military vehicles and equipment will be banned. Besides, it calls for immediate closure of all offices of the Taliban worldwide, limit travel by Taliban officials and freeze all funds and other financial assets of Bin Laden, his accomplices and his Qaida group. Diplomats say that it will be difficult to monitor the ban but assert it will send a strong message to the Taliban as the resolution clearly says they are not only harbouring Bin Laden but other terrorists also. The UN has already withdrawn all foreign aid workers, fearing reprisals against them. KABUL: Afghanistan’s ruling Taliban movement today rejected new UN Security Council sanctions as unjust and said it was closing a UN mission to the country and would boycott US goods in retaliation. Taliban officials said their Islamic movement would not be forced to surrender Saudi-born militant Osama bin Laden, who is wanted for trial by the USA, but repeated offers for a settlement of the issue through talks. There were no immediate reports of any protests against the sanctions, imposed until the purist Islamic Taliban surrenders Bin Laden and closes “terrorist” camps. In an apparent move to avoid any violent backlash, Taliban leader Mullah Mohammad Omar issued a statement urging people to remain patient and not to hold any demonstrations. Taliban Information Minister Qudratullah Jamal called the Security Council “an enemy of Islam” which was using Bin Laden as an excuse to stop the Taliban’s Islamic movement. Jamal said Afghanistan had no “terrorist” camps. “We will not change our Islamic regime for USA’s sake. Even if Osama’s case is resolved they will find other excuses against us.” ISLAMABAD: Afghan Islamic Press (AIP) quoted Foreign Minister Maulvi Wakeel Ahmed Muttawakil as saying that the curbs would not force the Taliban to hand over Bin Laden and that the movement would also boycott UN-sponsored peace talks. “Russia was our oldest enemy and we were just waiting for the same from the USA. We think this (sanctions) is not a voice of the world but a decision just by the USA, Russia and few of their allies,’’ Mr Muttawakil said. |
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Don’t ignore India, Pak,
Clinton to Bush WASHINGTON, Dec 20 — Outgoing US President Bill Clinton has told his successor George W. Bush that it is imperative for him not to ignore developments taking place in the Indian subcontinent and to give it the attention it deserves from a strategic point of view and a population perspective, senior administration sources said. Mr Clinton and Mr Bush met at the White House yesterday for more than two hours. According to the sources, the discussions focused on foreign policy,
including the Kashmir imbroglio and the nuclear weapons prowess of India and Pakistan that is likely to make South Asia a flashpoint for a nuclear confrontation. Mr Clinton informed Mr Bush about how tensions between New Delhi and Islamabad had almost gone out of hand during the Kargil conflict and how Washington had been able to prevail upon both countries to exercise restraint and not let the hostilities spill over to a full-scale war. Mr Clinton briefed Mr Bush about his trip to South Asia in March and also bemoaned that the region had been off the US radar screen for too long. He said the same mistake should not be repeated and that Washington should offer its good offices if both parties so desired to alleviate their differences and bring about a rapprochement to ensure regional security and stability. In perhaps his final major foreign policy address before leaving the White House next month, Mr Clinton said last week that it was imperative for the USA to have a systematic, committed and long-term relationship with South Asia especially India. In his discussions with Mr Bush, Mr Clinton spoke of the tremendous success of the Indian American and Pakistani American communities and their contribution to American society, adding that if this type of success could be translated into resolving some of South Asia’s problems, it would do much to alleviate the current prevailing tensions between the two countries. The sources said Mr Clinton also expounded on the technological prowess of Indian Americans and Indians, a favourite topic of his following his trip to India, and the success of the community in being at the top of the information technology industry. Mr Bush replied that he too was aware of their success, adding that his National Security Adviser-designate Condoleezza Rice had often mentioned the achievements of Indian American entrepreneurs in the Silicon valley. Administration sources also said that South Asia had briefly figured in the talks between Mr Clinton’s National Security Adviser Samuel “Sandy” Berger and Ms Rice as also between outgoing US Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs Thomas Pickering and Bush’s Secretary of State-designate Colin Powell on December 18. Before their talks, first at the Oval Office and then over lunch in the family dining room — which White House officials described as “frank and open and very serious,” Mr Bush told reporters. “I look forward to the discussion. I am here to listen, and if the President is kind enough to offer some advice, I will take it.” White House Press Secretary Jake Siewert later confirmed that foreign policy was the primary focus of the Clinton-Bush talks, adding that Mr Clinton had “talked about some of the hot spots around the world and some of the challenges the new administration will face and the state of play in some of those places that make headlines in the news here in the USA.” —
IANS AFP adds: Mr Bush met his defeated rival Vice-President Al Gore, for a private discussion, according to the US media. Mr Bush met Mr Gore at the latter’s official Washington Residence. It was their first face-to-face meeting since the two squared off in a nationally televised debate on October 17 during the pre-ballot race for the presidency. |
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Canada may ban
ultras’ fund-raising TORONTO, Dec 20 — The Supreme Court in Canada’s British Columbia province will hear the applications for bail put forward by the two accused in the 1985 bombing of an Air India plane tomorrow. Mr Geoffrey Gaul, who is part of the team of crown lawyers prosecuting the case against Ripudaman Singh Malik and Ajaib Singh Bagri for bombing of the Air India flight Kanishka, said the hearing had been set for two days. During the bail hearing, crown attorneys are expected to release some information from the tonnes of papers, information for which has been collected and prepared for over two years. The two Indo-Canadians were charged on October 27 with eight counts of murder, attempted murder and endangering an aircraft in the bombing that took place on June 23, 1985, off the Irish coast, claiming the lives of all 329 passengers and crew. The Royal Canadian Mounted Police has alleged that Malik and Bagri were part of a conspiracy hatched in British Columbia, which has the second largest concentration of Indo-Canadians, to blow up the Air India Boeing 747. Meanwhile, Canada may soon enact a legislation prohibiting ethnic groups here from raising money for terrorist activities in their respective homelands if the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS), the country’s top spy agency, has its way. According to a report in Canada’s Toronto Star daily, a draft Bill is before the federal Cabinet that seeks to allow the CSIS to strip all organisations promoting clandestine support for ethnic, religious and nationalistic conflicts now proliferating the world of their charitable status. The report was published yesterday. Indications are that ethnic groups raising funds in Toronto, Montreal and Vancouver are linked to every major regional conflict from West Asia to Sri Lanka and include organisations like the Federation of Associations of Canadian Tamils (FACT) among others.
—IANS |
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Battle over Estrada’s ‘slush funds’ hots up MANILA, Dec 20 (AFP) — Prosecutors seeking to nail President Joseph Estrada for corruption were to resume a fight today to lift the lid on bank accounts which they called the “fruits of the poison tree” of his alleged criminal activities. Senators sitting as judges in Estrada’s unprecedented corruption trial yesterday endorsed a ruling by the presiding officer, Supreme Court Chief Justice Hilario Davide, to unseal records of a secret bank account. However, Estrada’s lawyers filed a motion for reconsideration. Prosecutors allege Estrada and at least three of his friends conspired to launder $ 2.6 million in stolen government funds and at least 200 million pesos in bribes from operators of illegal lotteries called “Jueteng”. Prosecutor Joker Arroyo said today that United Overseas Bank had submitted records of the accounts allegedly used to launder the embezzled tax money. Equitable PCI Bank submitted records of the other account last week. Mr Arroyo said Chief Justice Davide ordered the documents unsealed yesterday, but Estrada’s lawyers “objected” at the last moment and demanded that prosecutors show proof that it was material to the case. The star witness in the corruption case, provincial Governor and Estrada’s former friend Luis Singson, testified yesterday that he and another friend of the President had siphoned off excise taxes slapped on tobacco products and given most of the loot to the first family. |
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Afghanistan shuts down UN mission ISLAMABAD, Dec 20 (Reuters) — Afghanistan’s ruling Taliban movement today said it was shutting down a UN special mission to the country and would boycott US goods to retaliate against new sanctions ordered by the UN Security Council. Taliban Ambassador to Pakistan Mullah Abdul Salam Zaeef told a news conference that the UN was no longer neutral in Afghanistan and his Islamic movement would reject any UN mediation in peace talks against its opponents. “In the meantime, UNSMA (UN special mission to Afghanistan) will be closed in retaliation to the closure of our offices outside the country,” he said. “We will ban all goods produced in America and exported to Afghanistan and connected to American interests,” he said speaking through an interpreter. “We ask all other Islamic countries also to do the same.”
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Bush support to
help UN: Annan UNITED NATIONS, Dec 20 (AP) — After speaking to US President-elect George W. Bush and his top foreign policy advisers, Secretary-General Kofi Annan says he feels confident that the United Nations will benefit from their understanding and support over the next four years. “I hope to work very effectively with President-elect Bush and his foreign policy team,” Mr Annan said yesterday. He said he met Mr Bush briefly before the election and had “a very warm and friendly conversation with him” after last week’s election victory. “We have agreed to work together, and I think we both realise the importance of the UN to the rest of the world and to the USA,” he said. Mr Annan said he and Secretary of State-designate Colin Powell, had also agreed “to cooperate and work together very effectively.” He said he had spoken to National Security Adviser designate Condoleeza Rice, yesterday about the US-UN relationship “and the challenges ahead of us .” He said the UN relations with Washington would be smoother if the General Assembly agreed to a US demand to reduce Washington’s share of the UN regular and peacekeeping budgets. “It is a problem that has unnecessarily complicated the un-us relationship, and I hope we will find a solution with the new administration,” Mr Annan said. |
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What would the world be 15 yrs hence? NEW YORK, Dec 21 (PTI) — In the year 2015, water shortages around the world would cause regional instability, the Russian economy would crumble, a Palestinian state would come up in the Middle East and ‘megacities’ of more than 10 million persons each would grow. These are some of the projections of a report “Global Trends 2015” by the American intelligence community published in The New York Times yesterday. The assessment, in the unclassified report, also makes a number of predictions about the political landscape of the world. The Times says an advance copy of the report was made available to it. Russia will continue to become weaker economically, militarily and socially, the report predicts. China will be faced by political, economic and social pressures that will “increasingly challenge the regime’s legitimacy, and perhaps its survival.” And Israel “at best” will conclude a cold peace with its adversaries. |
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Cell phone has ‘no
link’ with cancer WASHINGTON, Dec 20 (AFP) — There is apparently no link between short-term cellular phone use and brain cancer, according to a study published in the December 20 issue of The Journal of the American Medical Association. The study, conducted between 1994 and 1998, focused on 891 men and women aged between 18 and 80, including 469 brain cancer patients. The participants were interviewed to see if they were “regular” cell phone users — that is, whether they subscribed to a cellular phone service — and they were asked about the number of years they had used cell phones, amount of time they spent on phones each month, manufacturer of their cell phones and average amount of their monthly cell phone bill. In addition, 700 of the 891 patients were asked which hand they had used to hold their cellular phones. Brain cancer patients interviewed had a median monthly usage of 2.5 hours, compared with 2.2 hours for the control group, and they had been using cell phones for a mean duration of 2.8 years, compared with 2.7 years. |
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