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| Friday, December 22, 2000, Chandigarh, India   
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Musharraf covering up deal on Sharif: Oppn ISLAMABAD, Dec 21 — Leaders of religio-political parties today expressed disappointment over the speech of Chief Executive Gen Pervez Musharraf justifying the exiling of former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and rejected his views against political parties, another former premier Benazir Bhutto and Mr Sharif. Clinton gives parameters
to W. Asia peace deal UN welcomes ceasefire Bush makes key appointments |
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| Kurds seize UK
tourist attraction Protest against action on prisoners SECURITY was breached at one of London’s newest tourist attractions for the third time in just over a year yesterday when about 45 Kurdish protesters seized two pods on London Eye and threatened to set themselves alight. Question Pinochet, orders SC 5 indicted for US embassy bombings Chinese N-reactor goes critical Nepal repatriating Tibetans?
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Musharraf covering up deal on Sharif: Oppn ISLAMABAD, Dec 21 (PTI) — Leaders of religio-political parties today expressed disappointment over the speech of Chief Executive Gen Pervez Musharraf justifying the exiling of former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and rejected his views against political parties, another former premier Benazir Bhutto and Mr Sharif. Reacting sharply over the language used by the Chief Executive against political parties, Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) information secretary Taj Haider warned that an anarchy-like situation could prevail in the country. “It was a confused, disappointing and panic speech meant to cover up the government’s failure and secret deal to release Mr Nawaz Sharif,” said the PPP leader. “Blaming Benazir Bhutto is in fact an attempt to destroy historical facts,” he said. Pakistan Muslim League (Nawaz)
(PML-N) leader Khawaja Tariq Nazir said the speech had nothing new in it. Elections were the only solution to the crisis the country was facing, he said. Deputy chief of Jamaat-e-Islami Prof Ghafoor, while commenting on the speech, said the government would not last long and the military would have to leave the corridors of power soon. Questioning the ethical and legal status of the decisions of General Musharraf, he asked. “In such a situation, what is the significance of the National Security Council and corps commanders.” Terming the proposed local bodies’ election as a “mockery”, he said it would promote hooliganism and provoke ethnic, racial and regional differences. Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam information secretary Riaz Durrani said the speech contained nothing to justify the exile deal and the three reasons explained by the General were hardly convincing. “Even if we believe General Musharraf did the right thing, then how can the spending of millions (of rupees) on court cases against Nawaz Sharif be justified,” he asked. Referring to Mr Sharif, Mr Durrani said: “A national criminal must be punished and compromising on principles for money is condemnable.” Ameer Tehrik-ul-Ikhwan Maulana Akram Awan said the speech contained nothing new. “Neither was it informative nor did it contain guidance or answers to questions hovering in the minds of the people.” He said General Musharraf was indulging in arbitrary decision-making, completely ignoring the nation and the people. “He did not come to power after consulting the nation, nor did he prosecute Nawaz Sharif with national consensus and above all he did not exile the Sharif family after taking the nation into confidence which shows that masses have no say in his policies”, he said. Chief organiser of Pakistani Awami Tehrik Maj Aftab Lodhi asked General Musharraf to explain why only a fraction of Sharif family’s wealth was recovered. “Besides, what should be done to prevent other influential criminals from bringing foreign pressure for their release”, he asked. |
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Clinton gives parameters to W. Asia peace deal JERUSALEM, Dec 21 (AFP) — US president Bill
Clinton has outlined to Israeli and Palestinian negotiators “parameters” of a proposed peace deal, most of which Israel considers acceptable for purposes of discussion, Israeli Foreign Minister Shlomo ben
Ami said today. “President Clinton presented us with the parameters of an accord; that is to say, a possible margin of maneuver on the different unsettled issues, and we consider most of them to be an acceptable basis for discussion,” Mr Ben Ami told Israeli military radio from Washington. Mr Ben Ami also said Mr Clinton had expressed a desire to complete current discussions by January 10, which is 10 days before his term as President ends. “There is no guarantee that we will reach an accord but, for the first time since the (failed) camp
David summit in July, we have the impression that the Palestinians want to succeed.” Israeli and
Palestinian negotiators have been meeting since Tuesday at Bolling air force base near
Washington in an effort to find sufficient common ground to resume the moribund peace process. And yesterday, Mr Clinton met Mr ben
Ami and top Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erakat at the white house. The two officials were expected to remain here through
Saturday and are scheduled to meet us secretary of state Madeleine Albright, said white house national security spokesman
P. J. Crowley. On the return of refugees, he pointed out that Mr Clinton had “reaffirmed several weeks ago in conversations with (Palestinian leader)
Yasser Arafat that Israel cannot lead, Mr Clinton has raised the possibility of a “resolution in the form of compensation for the refugees, their return to a future
Palestinian state or their (permanent) settlement in the Arab countries” where they are now living. Turning to the question of territory, Mr Ben
Ami declined to confirm or deny media speculation that Mr Barak would be willing to withdraw from 95 per cent of the West bank Complex, over which the Palestinians want complete sovereignty. He said Israel wanted to “keep a special link with temple mount.” “The Palestinians are hoping for more than we are offering them now but we would rather leave that problem open and go on to other issues,” he said. He proposed looking for a solution “within an overall context, based on give and take. |
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UN welcomes ceasefire UNITED NATIONS, Dec 21 (PTI) — “The United Nations welcomes the extension of ceasefire in Kashmir by India,” chief spokesman Fred Eckhard said yesterday. “We hope this would lead to the solution of the Kashmir issue, he told the media in a brief comment. ISLAMABAD: France has welcomed India’s initiative of extending ceasefire along the Line of Control (LoC) for another month as well as Pakistan’s decision of partial withdrawal of troops along the LoC and called for talks between the two countries. ‘‘The European Union (EU) welcomes the development — the announcement of ceasefire by India and the latest move to extend it further for a month,’’ Ambassador of France to Pakistan Yanick Gerard told the media here. ‘‘We think the fresh confidence-building measures are necessary and will continue in the future to pave way for a negotiated settlement of the issue,’’ Mr Gerard said. WASHINGTON: The US President, Mr Bill Clinton, has welcomed Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee’s decision to extend the Ramzan ceasefire by another month, calling it a sign of his “determination to pursue a course of peace in Kashmir.” “I welcome the announcements by both India and Pakistan aimed at reducing tension in Kashmir. The decision by Vajpayee that India will continue ceasefire initiated last month in Kashmir is an important step forward,” he said. |
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Bush makes key appointments WASHINGTON, Dec 21 (PTI) — The US President-elect Mr George W. Bush, has made key appointments in his Cabinet, including businessman Paul O’Neill’s as US Treasury Secretary and Cuban immigrant Mel Martinez as Housing Secretary. The announcement came at the first of a number of press conferences expected yesterday at the University of Texas. ‘‘Our economy is showing warning signs of a possible slowdown,’’ Mr Bush said. ‘‘We must have a steady voice coming out of our administration. Someone, should the economy take a downturn, who can calm people’s nerves, calm the markets, calm those who would speculate on the dollar. ‘‘And that’s why I’m naming Paul O’Neill as the Secretary of Treasury,’’ Mr Bush said. While Bush campaign chairman Don Evans is nominated for the key post of Commerce Secretary, former Agriculture Director Ann Veneman has been chosen as US first woman Secretary of Agriculture. Texas Supreme Court Justice Alberto R. Gonzales has been nominated as White House Counsel. According to Republican sources, former Democratic Congressman Lee Hamilton’s nomination as either Ambassador to the UN or as CIA Director is also being considered. Mr Hamilton is known to have taken a special interest in India as Chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, which was later renamed International Relations Committee. |
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Kurds seize UK
tourist attraction SECURITY was breached at one of London’s newest tourist attractions for the third time in just over a year yesterday when about 45 Kurdish protesters seized two pods on London Eye and threatened to set themselves alight. The Kurds invaded the capsules on the wheel in the afternoon, sparking a massive security operation involving more than 200 police, fire and ambulance crew. Within an hour, police negotiators had secured the release of the 600 tourists who were riding the 135 metre-high wheel near Westminster Bridge. But it took more than five hours for police to persuade the protesters to give themselves up. They were led off the wheel in groups of four. The last of the 45 were escorted from the scene in the evening. The protest was a reaction to the Turkish Government’s operation in its jails yesterday in which at least 19 people have been killed. Inmates in Buca, Umraniye, Diyar Bakar and Ulucalmar have been on indefinite hunger strike for the past two months to protest against plans to transfer hundreds of inmates to different jails. One of the protesters, Sinan Unal, speaking on a mobile phone from a pod, said: “This is a protest against the Turkish Government which has allowed the military to enter more than 20 prisons across Turkey armed with smoke and fire bombs.” “Our action was to get the British Government to speak out on behalf of the prisoners and let the rest of the world know what is going on.” They were supported on the ground by a crowd of around 100 protesters on the ground from the Solidarity Committee with Political Prisoners in Turkey. They waved placards and chanting slogans in English and Turkish calling for an end to the killing of political prisoners. Meanwhile, more protesters, believed to be Turkish Kurds, stormed the London offices of the European commission in central London. Witnesses said the protesters shouted and hung banners out of first-floor windows but there were no reports of violence. They later gave themselves up and were arrested. The two protests followed a similar incident last Friday when a group, believed to have been protesting in support of hunger strikers in Turkey, occupied the premises of the Cyprus-Turkish Association in Soho, central London. The protest at the London Eye is the third time the attraction has been targeted by demonstrators wishing to draw attention to their cause. — The Guardian, London. |
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Question Pinochet, orders SC CHILE’S Supreme Court ruled yesterday that a warrant issued for the arrest of the country’s ageing former dictator Augusto Pinochet was invalid because he had not been questioned prior to the order. However, the court ordered that General Pinochet face interrogation within 20 days by investigating judge Juan Guzman Tapia, who is inquiring into human rights abuses committed by army generals during the dictatorship. General Pinochet, a Senator for life, is required to undergo questioning regardless of his health and mental condition. “This signifies that the process goes forward,” said Vivianna Diaz, president of Family Members of the Detained and Disappeared, outside the Santiago
court." It is fundamental that Pinochet be brought to justice.” On December 1, Mr Guzman stunned Chile by ordering the arrest of the former dictator, who had been considered untouchable. That order was annulled by a court which ruled that General Pinochet had not been properly questioned. Yesterday the Supreme Court voted by four to one to ratify that earlier ruling, throwing out an appeal lodged by human rights lawyers. General Pinochet’s lawyers will still attempt to have the entire investigation halted on the grounds that the 85-year-old Senator is medically unfit for trial. These lawyers won a victory on Tuesday when the Santiago appeal court decided that General Pinochet’s medical examination should be held at the Military Hospital. Regardless of the outcome of Mr Guzman’s current investigation, nearly 200 other criminal charges against General Pinochet have been accepted by Chilean courts. In October, an Argentine judge also asked for his arrest and extradition for a 1974 car bomb murder of exiled Chilean army general Carlos Prats and his wife Sofia. It is the drug charges that have sparked the latest flurry of trans-Atlantic investigations. Following published reports in Britain and Chile that General Pinochet’s direct subordinates were involved in cocaine smuggling, investigations have begun into the most specific charge - that in 1988 members of the Chilean army facilitated a 12 tonne cocaine shipment to Europe. “We have asked the human rights group (of members of the British parliament) as well as various British anti-narcotics Agencies to prepare a formal report for our Foreign Relations Ministry,’’ said Mr Alejandro Navarro, a Congressman from the southern Chilean city of Concepcion. —The Guardian, London |
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5 indicted for
US embassy bombings NEW YORK, Dec 21 (AFP) — Five members of the Al Qadea organisation suspected of participating in the 1998 attacks on US Embassies in Kenya and Tanzania have been indicted in a New York court, the federal prosecutor announced. The US attorney, Ms Mary Jo White, said yesterday that Saif Al Adel, Abdullah Ahmed Abdullah, Mushin Musa Matwalli Atwah, Ahmed Mohamed Hamed Ali and Anas Al Liby faced charges of conspiracy to murder and a host of other federal charges for their roles in the August 7, 1998, bombings which left 223 dead and thousands injured. Saudi billionaire Osama-bin Laden, in exile in Afghanistan, is one of the eight additional defendants in the embassy bombings still at large. He is considered leader of the terrorist Al Qaeda
organisation. |
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Chinese N-reactor
goes critical BEIJING, Dec 21 (PTI) — China’s first high-temperature, gas-cooled indigenous nuclear reactor went critical here today, signalling a breakthrough in easing the energy crunch while ensuring nuclear safety, the state media reported. “The reactor is the first of its kind to be built in a capital in the world. It signifies that China has entered a new stage in peacefully using nuclear technology,” Xinhua news agency reported, quoting China’s Minister of Science and Technology Zhu Lilan. |
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Nepal repatriating
Tibetans? BEIJING, Dec 21 (AFP) — Nepal has begun repatriating Tibetans under pressure from China to tighten border security in the wake of the Karmapa Lama’s escape, a watchdog group said today. London-based Tibet Information Network said it received unofficial reports that at least 60 Tibetan refugees who reached the border areas of Nepal after escaping across the Himalayas were returned to the police on the Chinese side. The Nepalese Government has also intensified security on the Nepal-India border and has arrested several Tibetans trying to return to Tibet from Northern India. Nepal has been used for years as a transit for Tibetans travelling from China to India. |
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