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| Monday, December 25, 2000, Chandigarh, India   
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Milosevic men bite the dust in poll
TULF plea to Oslo
to settle row Clinton may be peace envoy to N.
Ireland W. Asia talks end in
stalemate |
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Benazir
willing to return to Pakistan
Pressure on Estrada to
explain Africa’s gem merchant of
death Colombia rebels free 45 hostages Illegal immigrants
from W. Asia on rise
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Milosevic men bite the dust in poll BELGRADE, Dec 24 (Reuters) — First official results confirmed on Sunday that reformers humiliated Slobodan Milosevic’s Socialists in Serbia’s parliamentary election in a triumph hailed as the end of the Milosevic era. Based on returns from about a third of polling stations, the pro-democracy alliance backing new Yugoslav President Vojislav Kostunica won 65 per cent of the vote in Saturday’s election, the Electoral Commission said. This would give the 18-party DOS alliance 177 out of the 250 seats in Parliament and a free hand to form the new Serbian government, where true power resides in Yugoslavia. “This was the most convincing victory in the history of elections in Serbia and Yugoslavia,” said Mr Zoran Lucic of the independent CESID monitoring group. The vote has also been hailed as the freest ever held in a country where fraud has been rife. The defeated Socialists, who provided former Yugoslav president Slobodan Milosevic with his power base for a decade, were on course to win just 38 seats, with a share of the vote that collapsed to 14 per cent. After leading his countrymen through a string of bloody defeats and economic disaster in a decade of Balkan wars, Milosevic lost the Yugoslav presidential election three months ago but clung on until street protests forced him out in October. Saturday’s vote will finally sweep all his followers from the corridors of power occupied by the Communists and their Socialist successors since World War II. “The Serbian people’s decision on December 23 is a final rejection of the Milosevic era,” British Foreign Secretary Robin Cook said in a statement. “Yugoslavia is now firmly on the road to integration into the European mainstream.” The powers of the Serbian Government include responsibility for an 85,000-strong police force that was feared under Milosevic and for major economic, financial and social policy. The key victor on Saturday was Zoran Djindjic, who will be Serbia’s next Prime Minister and share influence in the country with Kostunica, his ally but personal rival. Djindjic said he would get down to work swiftly and build his cabinet by January 10, three days after the Orthodox celebration of Christmas. “This is going to be the first government that will not be dealing with itself but with the interests of the citizens,” he told reporters. Leaders of the Democratic Opposition of Serbia alliance (DOS) popped open bottles of champagne in the early hours of Sunday to celebrate their victory, but the disparate bloc faces a major test of its will to stay together. Daunting tasks lie ahead, from rooting out corruption and stemming economic decline to keeping Yugoslavia together amid secession moves in Serbia’s tiny partner republic of Montenegro. DOS must also deal with guerrillas in ethnic Albanian parts of Serbia, the future of the lost province of Kosovo and Western demands for Milosevic to stand trial for war crimes. “A precondition for the rule of law is to immediately call to account the very top of the former authorities,” Mr Nebojsa Covic, a leader of one of the DOS parties, told B-92 radio. He condemned Milosevic and his influential wife, Mira Markovic, for “nationalistic bluffing work based on constant conflicts...and vampire-like profit-making from the blood of others”. Vojislav Seselj’s Radicals should hold about 22 seats and in a surprise showing may just be joined by 13 followers of Arkan, the warlord whose forces sowed terror in Croatia and Bosnia wars and who was gunned down in a Belgrade hotel this year. According to official preliminary results, with 31.17 per cent of the ballots counted, DOS won 65.04 per cent of the vote, or 177 out of 250 seats in Parliament. The Socialist Party of Serbia headed by ousted Yugoslav strongman Slobodan Milosevic, won 14.12 per cent, or 38 seats. Vujislav Seselj’s nationalist Serbian Radical Party picked up 8.23 per cent for 22 seats. The far-right Party of Serbian Unity won 5.07 per cent for 13 deputies. Five other parties, including Vuk Draskovic’s Serbian Renewal Movement, failed to pass the 5 per cent hurdle required for Parliamentary representation. The voter turnout was 59.4 per cent. |
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TULF plea to Oslo
to settle row Colombo, Dec 24 — As Sri Lanka rejected a truce called by Tamil Tiger separatists, due to go into effect midnight Sunday, the island’s main moderate Tamil party urged Norway to speedily settle “the impasse.” The Tamil United Liberation Front (TULF), which was one of the first to hail the rebels’ declaration of a unilateral month-long ceasefire on Thursday, said, “An inflexible attitude would cause immense harm at this stage.” “Both parties should, with the assistance of Norway, endeavour to get over this impasse,” said R. Sampanthan, the TULF General Secretary. “The government appears to think that the ceasefire has come from the LTTE alone.” Colombo complained of just that, when it said that the “LTTE had announced, but not through the Government of Norway, a month-long unilateral ceasefire as a goodwill measure to facilitate the peace process.” However, political observers noted that given Oslo’s close behind the scenes manoeuvering to set negotiations in motion, it was unlikely that the third party facilitator was unaware of the dramatic move by the Tigers. Moreover, Britain’s swift response advising Colombo to accept the truce, just hours after the LTTE’s declaration, led many to believe that the Tigers had the blessings of the international community. Deputy Defence Minister Anruddha Ratwatte was unmoved. He reflected that Colombo’s interpretation of the truce saying that since it had not come formally through Norway, the government would not take note of it. He told reporters that the Tigers offer came as the rebel group suffered repeated defeats at the hands of the armed forces which have been plumped up by newly-bought weaponry and aircraft. Mr Ratwatte said the Tigers had turned their sights on the international community, garnering support for their apparent desire for peace, only because they had been weakened. “Yes, the Tigers may be winning the propaganda war abroad, but it is better for us to lose the propaganda war than lose the real war on the ground,” said Mr Ratwatte, adding that the Tigers had hitherto showed no inclination to enter the peace process even though Colombo and Norway had tried to pressure them into accepting.
— IANS |
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Clinton may be peace envoy to N. Ireland LONDON, Dec 24 (AFP) — US President Bill Clinton could become a special envoy for peace in northern Ireland under the new regime of President-elect George W Bush, which takes over in January, the Sunday Express reported. Mr Bush made a suggestion along those lines during a meeting with Mr Clinton on Tuesday in Washington, the British weekly said quoting a source close to the Dublin Government. “Mr Bush knows his limitations. He knows what he doesn’t know and he knows what to stay away from,” the source was quoted as saying. The Sunday Express also quoted a source in Washington confirming the plan, “Mr Bush would be keen to let Mr Clinton carry on as a fireman, to get involved if and when necessary. It’s not something Mr Bush has any specialist knowledge of, while Mr Clinton knows Ulster.” Meanwhile, the Independent today reported that Mr Clinton had been holding secret discussions with Gerry Adams, leader of the Irish Republican Army’s political wing Sinn Fein, on decommissioning the paramilitary group’s weapons. |
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W. Asia talks end in stalemate jerusalem, dec 24 (Reuters) — Israel said today that the “moment of truth” had arrived for peacemaking with the Palestinians after both sides capped five days of inconclusive talks in Washington by meeting U.S. President Bill Clinton. Nowhere was the cold reality of almost three months of Israeli-Palestinian violence that has killed hundreds of people more evident than in the West Bank town of Bethlehem, where Christmas cheer was but a ghost of past celebrations. After meeting Mr Clinton at the White House, negotiators said they would report back to him in the coming days on ideas he suggested they discuss with their respective leaderships and on how to proceed towards a final Middle East peace settlement. “We and the Palestinians now face the moment of truth following the work we’ve done with the Americans,” Mr Shlomo Ben-Ami, Israel’s Foreign Minister and chief negotiator, told Israeli Army Radio in a telephonic interview from Washington. Mr Ben-Ami declined to detail the proposals, but Israeli media reports spoke of Israeli concessions on Palestinian sovereignty in Arab East Jerusalem and elsewhere in the West Bank in exchange for a Palestinian compromise on the return of refugees. During this week’s talks, at the secluded Bolling air force base in Washington, Palestinian negotiator Yasser Abed Rabbo said the Israelis were close to conceding Palestinian sovereignty over Arab East Jerusalem, including the holy sites in the city. Mr Clinton is eager to crown his two-term presidency, which ends on January 20, with a Middle East peace deal. Such an accord could bolster the re-election chances of Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak in Israel’s February 6 ballot. In Bethlehem, the town where Jesus was born, Christmas seemed more like a lamentation of death than a celebration of Christ”s birth. The Israeli army, which controls access to Palestinian-ruled Bethlehem, said it would permit the entry of visitors into the town for Christmas, but only as far as the security situation allowed. Mr Yasser Arafat, who always attends midnight mass at the Church of the Nativity, will arrive in Bethlehem later. At least 343 persons, all Palestinians except for 13 Israeli Arabs and 39 other Israelis, have been killed in the fighting. Meanwhile, Mr Saeb Erekat, the head of the Palestinian delegation, said wide gaps still existed between the two sides. “There are differences on refugees, on Jerusalem, security and on territorial issues,” he told reporters. Mr Ben-Ami said he expected that by December 27, Mr Clinton would receive word whether Mr Barak and Mr Arafat saw “the ideas and concepts discussed here as an appropriate basis for them to proceed with meetings with the President”. AFP adds: Meanwhile The Israeli army arrested 14 suspected members of the Islamic movement Hamas in an overnight raid on a West Bank village, a military spokesman said on Sunday. Residents said most of those arrested were students at An-Najah University in Nablus. Palestinian security sources also said that a local leader of Fatah faction was arrested overnight from the village of Salfit south of
Nablus. |
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Benazir
willing to return to Pakistan DUBAI, Dec 24 (PTI) — Former Pakistani Prime
Minister Benazir Bhutto is willing to return to her country to provide
leadership to the Opposition against the military rule in the wake of
a vacuum created after the sudden exile of Pakistan Muslim League
leader Nawaz Sharif, a newspaper report said. “She will do that only at the invitation of the
party’s Central Executive Committee which is now studying the pros
and cons of her possible safe return,” the vice-chairman of the
Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) Mr Makhdoom Amin Fahim said. Mr Fahim
was in Dubai along with some top PPP leaders from Sindh, Punjab and
Balochistan to meet Benazir who is here on the occasion of Id. At an
Iftar dinner offered by Benazir for the party leaders at her residence
last evening, they discussed the current political situation in
Pakistan and how best to take advantage of the situation after Mr
Sharif’s exit. The leaders denied that the PPP was seeking a deal
with the military ruler Gen Pervez Musharraf for Benazir’s return or
for the release of her husband Asif Ali Zardari, the daily said. The
report said, quoting a PPP source, that the party was divided on the
issue of Benazir’s return to Pakistan. Ban on campaigning for Pak gram poll KARACHI, Dec 24 (AFP) — Pakistan will take the first steps towards restoring democracy with village elections next week, but candidates are already wondering what sort of democracy the military is trying to create. Military ruler Gen Pervez Musharraf has described his plan to devolve power to the village level as “revolutionary”. But candidates and observers are unconvinced, pointing to rules forbidding election campaigns. “We have been told by the administration that any candidate holding public meetings, putting up banners and posters will be disqualified,” said Sakina, one of the women candidates for whom a third of the seats in village councils have been reserved. The Pakistan Election Commission recently announced a code of ethics barring candidates from holding public meetings, leading processions, waving flags, displaying banners. The rules, which allow low-key speeches, are part of a strategy to ensure that Pakistan’s political parties have nothing to do with the elections. But Mr Qaim Ali Shah, former Chief Minister of Sindh in Benazir Bhutto’s first government, said her Pakistan People’s Party was quietly supporting candidates “as awam dost” (people’s friends). |
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Noor Jahan laid to rest in Karachi KARACHI, Dec 24 (PTI) — Pakistan’s melody queen and legendary singer Noor Jahan was laid to rest in the presence of thousands of fans who bade her a tearful farewell last night. The funeral prayers were offered at Jamia Masjid Sultan, Defence Society Karachi, attended by admirers and fans, as well as family members, relatives and friends. There were touching scenes when her body was taken to the mosque from her residence, where Pakistanis with tears in their eyes were present to pay tributes to the singing legend. Noor Jahan passed away following a cardiac arrest in Karachi yesterday. Noor Jahan, 75, who started singing at the tender age of five in India, leaves behind two sons and five daughters. Her pleasing euphonious voice in scores of soothing hit songs, including national songs, had fascinated people before and after the partition of the sub-continent, besides music lovers in Gulf states and the far-East. Two years back, Noor Jahan had undergone a heart bypass in London and after her return, remained under treatment for other illnesses. |
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Pressure on Estrada to explain MANILA, Dec 24 (AFP) — Pressure mounted today for embattled Philippine President Joseph Estrada to explain devastating allegations that he used a false name on a bank account allegedly built up from criminal activities. Prosecutor Joker Arroyo said the “burden of proof” had now shifted to Estrada’s camp at the leader’s corruption trial in the country’s senate, whose members would decide whether the President was still fit to govern. He said evidence that Estrada possessed wealth far beyond his professed means left him needing to explain how it was acquired, increasing the likelihood that the leader would have to take the witness stand at his own trial. Members of defense panel were not available for comment. The bombshell for Estrada had come on Friday when a senior bank official testified she personally saw the President repeatedly sign documents relating to a 500 million peso ($ 10 million) trust account using the, alias Jose Velarde. Equitable PCI Bank senior vice-president Clarissa Ocampo said she was only a foot away when Estrada signed false name on bank documents at the presidential palace early this year. Earlier they recovered a cheque signed by “Velarde” for 142 million pesos which was allegedly used to fund a shell company which in turn acquired a mansion for an Estrada mistress. The signature on the cheque closely resembled that of Estrada’s, as seen on Philippine bank notes. Supreme Court Chief Lustice Hilario Davide, the presiding officer of the tribunal allowed Ocampo to testify only after a long debate on Friday. |
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Africa’s gem merchant of
death A RUSSIAN arms dealer and former KGB officer who is undermining international sanctions by supplying arms for diamonds to rebel forces in Africa is named and shamed in a ground-breaking report published by the UN yesterday. Victor Anatoliyevich Bout, who holds at least five passports and uses as many as seven aliases, is identified as the businessman responsible for fueling civil wars across Africa, including conflicts in Sierra Leone, Angola and the Democratic Republic of Congo. He is accused of ferrying heavy weapons, automatic rifles and ammunition from eastern Europe to rebel groups which control diamond mines. Mr Bout’s arms-dealing record in Africa was highlighted by the Guardian in January this year. Now, in extraordinarily detailed dossiers, the UN has exposed the use of forged end-user arms certificates by a secretive, commercial network at the heart of some of the most protracted and destabilising conflicts in Africa. A UN report focusing on Angola alleges that Mr Bout sent 38 flights carrying heavy military equipment to the rebel movement Unita. Mr Bout’s network of companies has, allegedly, worked with a Briton, named in the report as Michael Harridine. He, it is said, was able to “obtain or change aircraft registration to certain ‘less scrupulous’ countries”. Such “flags of convenience” allow paperwork to be circumvented, according to the UN. At one stage Mr Harridine, along with Mr Bout’s partner, a Belgian pilot by the name of Ronald De Smet, allegedly held the authority to conduct business in the UK on behalf of the Liberian aircraft register. Mr Harridine, who is said to work through a UK company based in Kent, Aircraft Registration Bureau, could not be contacted yesterday. Earlier this week, a separate UN report claimed that Mr Bout’s fleet of ex-Soviet planes, registered as Air Cess, had been used to deliver attack helicopters, armoured vehicles and anti-tank mines to Liberia, which supports the RUF rebels in neighbouring Sierra Leone. So far the civil war in Sierra Leone has claimed 50,000 lives; the war in Angola has resulted in as many as 500,000 deaths since it began in 1975. Responding to the latest UN study, Foreign Minister, Peter Hain, declared: “Bout is the leading merchant of death who is the principal conduit for planes and supply routes that take arms, including heavy military equipment, from east Europe, principally Bugaria, Moldova, and the Ukraine, to Liberia and Angola. “The UN has exposed Bout as the centre of a spider’s web of shady arms dealers, diamond brokers, and other operatives, sustaining the wars. Without someone like him we would be much, much, closer to ending the conflicts.” Mr Bout, 33, was born in Tashkent and trained with the Russian air force. He conducts his illicit deals from the privacy of a walled compound in the Gulf state of Sharjah, which is part of the United Arab Emirates. Yesterday’s UN report, which is unusual in focusing so much on one man, lists Mr Bout’s address and telephone number, his date of birth, his wife’s name and a breakdown of his gun-running and air freight contacts around the world. “(Our) objective has been to try to shed light on the interaction between Unita and shady arms dealers and transporters who have been instrumental in the rearmament of (Unita) for profit and greed rather than ideology,” the UN investigators say. Mr Bout is said to live with his wife, Alla, and her father, Zuiguin, who, according to the UN report, “at one point held a high position in the KGB, perhaps even as high as a deputy chairman”. “Victor Bout is often referred to in law enforcement circles as Victor B. There is a good reason for this, as he is thought to have at least five aliases and it is highly likely there are several more that aren’t known about.” His aliases include: Boutov, Butt, But, Budd, Bouta, all with Victor or Viktor as the first name. He is also thought to call himself Vadim Aminov and Victor Bulakin. — The Guardian, London |
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Colombia rebels free 45 hostages BUCARAMANGA (Colombia), Dec 24 (Reuters) — Colombia’s second-biggest leftist guerrilla group has freed 42 policemen and soldiers in a Christmas goodwill gesture that officials said was a concrete step toward full-scale peace talks. The presidential press service ANCOL yesterday said the first group of released officers had been handed over to President Andres Pastrana’s peace commissioner, Camilo Gomez, in a remote jungle hamlet northeast of the capital, Bogota. The National Liberation Army (ELN) had promised to release 45 policemen and soldiers it captured in combat two years ago. The men were being flown to the nearby town of Bucaramanga, where they were due to be reunited with their families. The rebels’ show of seasonal goodwill — with no strings attached — has been widely welcomed in this increasingly war-weary nation and officials said it should spur moves to create a demilitarised enclave in the north of the country. |
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Illegal immigrants
from W. Asia on rise SYDNEY, Dec 24 (DPA) — Illegal immigrants from the West Asia now outnumber those arriving from China, Australian Immigration Minister Philip Ruddock said today. There has also been a variation in arrivals from the West Asia, with people from the Palestinian territories, Syria and Iran tagging along with those from Iraq and Afghanistan. |
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China not to attend
fleet review BEIJING, Dec 24 (PTI) — China will not participate in the upcoming International Fleet Review (IFR) in India but the Chinese warships will make a port call next year to enhance mutual understanding between the armed forces of the two countries, official sources said. |
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