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| Sunday, January 7, 2001, Chandigarh, India   
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Palestinians carry the body of Mohammed Abu Haseera, chanting anti-Israeli slogans, during his funeral in Gaza on Saturday after he was shot by Israeli troops when he tried to cross the Israeli-Gaza border near an army post. — Reuters photo Party warns of Fiji destabilisation Japan cuts down on ministries New US board to combat spying Captain and 3 crewmen held |
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| Hillary misses vote Fear of coup led to Tiananmen crackdown UK nudist bares all in court Cold wave death toll Pak ex-CM jailed for graft
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| Killings mar Clinton’s last dash for peace JERUSALEM, Jan 6 (Reuters, DPA) — Israeli troops killed two Palestinians in a surge of violence that overshadowed U.S. President Bill Clinton’s last dash to crown his eight years in the White House with a West Asia peace agreement. Both Israelis and Palestinians remained deeply sceptical a final deal could be reached either before Clinton ends his term in 15 days or before an Israeli prime ministerial vote on February 6 that could put the hawk Ariel Sharon in power. Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak told Israel Channel One television that negotiator Gilead Sher’s main priority in Washington was to discuss ending the Palestinian uprising in which 301 Palestinians, 43 Israelis and 13 Israeli Arabs have been killed. Barak said “We are focusing on reducing the violence as our first priority because opposite the reservations of both sides it is not easy to believe we will reach an agreement in the next 10 days.” Upon leaving the meeting, Sher told reporters that Israel expects the Palestinians to reduce the violence in the West Asia, CNN reported. “I must stress that the ultimate test now is for the Palestinians to fulfil their obligations and their undertakings in the security field, in the major reduction in violence, the amount of incitement, and an efficient cooperation in the security and intelligence fields.” Reporters asked Sher if it was realistic to hope for an accord before January 20, when Clinton leaves office. “I believe that we have long odds for that, but I think that we can achieve something,” Sher said. Although the Israelis appear prepared to concede some sovereignty in Jerusalem to the Palestinians, the huge sticking point is the fate of several million refugees who left Israeli territory during the 1948 and 1967 wars. Arab countries that now host the refugees, mainly Lebanon and Syria, are baulking at Clinton’s proposal, because it back’s Israel’s refusal to allow their return to Israeli territory. “We’ve heard directly from both sides, we’ve heard in detail from both sides,” National Security Council spokesman P.J. Crowley said. “What we are trying to do at this point is to reconcile the concerns that both sides have about what the President has put forward. “We’re going to take a couple of days to evaluate their views, then I think in the next couple of days, Sunday or Monday, we’ll be in a position to say what happens next.” CIA Director George Tenet planned to leave today for Cairo to meet Palestinian and Israeli security officials to try to stop the weeks of fighting, a CIA official said. Senior Palestinian negotiator Nabil Shaath told Israel Channel Two television it was important talks continue. “It’s very hard...My thesis on this is really that we should continue without too much expectations,” he said. “What remains in time is very short and the matters are very complex and very difficult, but we should try, but not expect that we can arrive (at an agreement) by the 20th of January.” Israeli troops shot dead a 19-year-old Palestinian woman in the divided West Bank city of Hebron yesterday and a 37-year-old Palestinian man in the Gaza Strip overnight on Thursday. The 19-year-old, Arij Faber al-Jabali, was killed and an 18-year-old woman wounded in the chest when Israeli soldiers fired on their homes from the Beit Haggai Jewish settlement in Hebron, Palestinian hospital officials said. The Israeli army said its troops had returned fire after Palestinian gunmen fired at the Jewish settlement. Palestinian witnesses said children had simply been playing with fireworks. Israeli tank and machinegun fire resounded throughout the West Bank and Gaza Strip. At least 21 Palestinians were wounded. The Israeli army and Palestinian sources reported Thursday’s death of the Palestinian man who was shot by Israeli troops at the Erez crossing between Israel and the Gaza Strip. An Israeli army spokesman said the man, in his mid-30s, had tried to climb a fence into an army facility and soldiers opened fire. But Palestinian security forces — to whom the body was handed yesterday — assumed that the man had been trying to enter Israel to work, as had many Palestinians since the border was closed Monday. About 120,000 Palestinians who normally work in Israel have been denied access after Monday’s car bomb attack in Netanya, north of Tel Aviv. The firing broke a three-day lull in which no deaths were reported, a rarity in the 14 weeks of sustained Palestinian protests against Israeli occupation. The talks in Washington and the violence provided a backdrop to an Israeli election campaign kicking into high gear. Polls showed Barak trailing far behind his rightwing opponent Ariel Sharon, who could win the February ballot. The rivals took to the television airwaves yesterday to tout their peace and security plans. Sharon is reviled by Arabs for master-minding Israel’s 1982 invasion of Lebanon and particularly by Palestinians for his role in the subsequent massacre of Palestinian civilians in Beirut’s Sabra and Chatila refugee camps by rightwing christian Lebanese militiamen allied to the Jewish state. Sharon vowed not to hold peace talks while the violence continues. “The public in Israel knows me...it knows I will bring peace, because I can bring peace, because I am committed to peace,” Sharon told Israel Channel One television. “Why do they (the Arabs) know they can negotiate with me? Because I mean what I say and I say what I mean. My no is no and my yes is yes,” he added. Barak, who appeared in a Channel One interview with Nobel peace laureate Shimon Peres as his ally, slammed Sharon for not having a clear peace plan. |
| Party warns of Fiji destabilisation SYDNEY, Jan 6 (PTI) — The newly formed nationalist group in Fiji has warned of further destabilisation in the country if the court of appeal upholds the high court’s decision that the abrogation of the 1997 constitution was illegal, paving the way for the reconvening of the pre-May 19 parliament. The Fijian Nationalist Party, in a letter to President Ratu Josefa Iloilo, has warned of a repeat of the events of May 19, 2000, if the People’s Coalition returns to power. However, military spokesperson Ilaisa Tagitupou said the government was aware of the letter. “Our priority is to see that law and order is maintained in the country,” he was quoted as saying by the local media. “The military’s position is that we stand by the interim administration and the President,” Lieutenant Tagitupou said. Interim Prime Minister Laisenia Qarase has asked the Fijian people to put aside their differences and support his government. He had earlier stated that his administration had a mandate from the Great Council of Chiefs to take Fiji ahead through this transitional period. One of his principal tasks is the promulgation of a new constitution where “no section of the community would be disenfranchised.” Fiji’s ethnic Indian Prime Minister Mahendra Chaudhry was ousted in a coup on May 19 by failed businessman George Speight. After the coup was crushed, Speight and other coup plotters were arrested. They are now facing trial. The High Court in Suva had on January 4 rejected a plea by the state to stop Chief Magistrate Salesi Temo from presiding over the committal hearing involving George Speight and his group. Media reports said Fiji Labour Party President Jokapeci Koroi had refuted allegations of a rift within the party. Ms Koroi said the deposed Prime Minister, Mahendra Chaudhry was still the party’s leader. Meanwhile, media reports quoted the National Farmers Union as saying that the move by the Qarase regime to transfer state-owned land to the Native Lands Trust Board (NLTB) was illegal. The union has been calling on farmers to continue to treat the state as the landlord and not the NLTB, meaning thereby that tenants should continue to pay land rent to the Lands Department as in the past and not to the NLTB. |
| Japan cuts down on ministries TOKYO, Jan 6 (Reuters) — Japan unveiled a new government structure today, slashing the number of ministries and agencies by close to half in a bid to boost efficiency and strengthen political control over policy-making. Japan has been criticised for relying too heavily on consensus in major policy decisions which traditionally have been made by bureaucrats, and not giving enough power to Prime Ministers to make difficult choices. Under the new line-up, the Prime Minister’s authority in making policy proposals will be strengthened and his cabinet office reinforced. “Japan’s social and economic systems, which have supported the nation’s development in the 20th century, are facing difficulties in dealing appropriately with changes in domestic and international situations,” Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori said in a statement. “We are facing the need to carry out drastic reforms.” Japan is also trying to do away with bureaucratic sectionalism in which rival ministries fight over budget and policy turf and which often results in increased spending and delay in decisions. “We are trying to remove this sectionalism barrier,” Chief Cabinet Secretary Yasuo Fukuda said. “I think it is a matter of how much we can do for the country and the countrymen by working closely with our partners (ministries and agencies),” he said. The new structure will slash the number of government agencies and ministries to 13 from 23 through the merger of several agencies with overlapping portfolios into new mega-ministries. The number of direct government employees will also be slashed by 25 per cent over 10 years. Some analysts say the reorganisation will cut costs by reducing inter-agency strife and speed up decisions on vital national policies. But others say giant ministries will be difficult to control and inter-ministry battles will just become intra-ministry ones. The restructured government also signals an end to the once-mighty Finance Ministry, which has lost significant power and authority due to the move. A new Council on Economic and Fiscal Policy headed by the Prime Minister, takes over the task of drafting the outline of the national budget, previously one of the ministry’s roles. But the Ministry of International Trade and Industry which has long chafed at the Finance Ministry’s dominance, could gain influence within the new structure, under which it remains intact as the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry. |
| New US board to combat spying WASHINGTON, Jan 6 (PTI) — President Bill Clinton has ordered the establishment of a counter-intelligence board to devise “a more effective strategy” to combat spying against the USA, a White House official said. “A threat today can as easily come from a laptop as it could from an old, cloak-and-dagger spy. And we need a counter-intelligence capability that matches the new globalised reality,” White House spokesman Jake Siewart said yesterday. Entitled ci-21 (counter-intelligence for the 21st century), the board comprising officials from Federal Bureau of Investigation, Central Intelligence Agency and Defence Intelligence will be headed by FBI director Louis J Freeh. “We have always looked at spies and tried to figure out who was spying on us and what they were after. Now, we are looking more at what it is we want to protect. We will no longer focus on embassies as the centres of foreign intelligence-gathering activities,” a senior administration official said. The presidential directive yesterday for the creation of the board restructures the counter-intelligence community by formalising information-sharing without regard to borders or federal agencies, officials said. It also reflected a heightened focus on economic espionage and other types of spying rather than solely emphasising on the protection of government secrets, they said, adding the board was charged with implementing a “pro-active” (taking aggressive initiatives and not merely responding to proven threats) counter-espionage programme. |
| Captain and 3 crewmen held ANKARA, Jan 6 (AFP) — A Turkish court formally arrested yesterday the Greek captain and three crewmen of a cargo ship loaded with illegal immigrants that ran into a coral reef and sank off Turkey’s Mediterranean coast, leaving at least nine dead, Anatolia news agency reported. Besides the captain of the Georgian registered ship, Polizois Gulanis, the court in the Mediterranean city of Antalya also arrested his Georgian assistant Alexander Leontiev and two other crewmen of Greek and Albanian nationality, the agency said. In an indictment to be issued later, they were expected to be formally charged with human-trafficking and causing the death of more than one person by negligence. Two other Albanians were released pending trial, while the seventh crewman, an Israeli, was set free after the authorities found out that he had been hospitalised in Antalya before the ship embarked on its journey, Anatolia said. Previous reports had said that all crewmen were Greeks. The ship split in two when it crashed into a reef off the resort town of Kemer early on Monday after its engine failed in a heavy storm. The vessel, which should have been carrying only a 10-man crew, was also transporting an estimated 80 illegal immigrants, mostly from South Asia, according to accounts from survivors. Thirtytwo persons were rescued after the disaster on Monday, and a Bangladeshi man was pulled alive from the sea on Tuesday The Turkish media has speculated that survivors could have reached the shore after the crash and fled. But the captain was rejecting the charges, he added. |
| Hillary misses vote WASHINGTON, Jan 6 (AP) — New York’s new Senator missed her first opportunity to vote in the Senate. Ms Hillary Rodham Clinton was not at the Capitol for a voice vote ratifying a power-sharing agreement in the Senate. Only a few senators were on hand for the vote, a formality because the deal already had been hammered out by Senate leaders. Voice votes are typically taken on issues where the outcome is a foregone conclusion and are often sparsely attended. Ms Clinton was with her husband at a White House event in Virginia when the vote occurred. Until January 20, when President Bill Clinton leaves office, Ms Clinton is juggling the roles of First Lady and Senator. The First Lady was officially sworn in as a Senator on Wednesday. She will be sworn in again tomorrow in a splashy re-enactment ceremony at the Madison Square Garden in New York City. Some 3,000 supporters, including the President, are expected to attend. Fear of coup led to Tiananmen crackdown NEW YORK, Jan 6 (AP) — Documents reportedly brought out of China by a disaffected civil servant say that the late Chinese leader Den Xiaoping ordered the violent crackdown on demonstrators at the Tiananmen Square out of fear they could topple the Communist regime. The documents reveal deep-seated paranoia that the protests were controlled by unknown anti-Communist conspirators and anxiety by the party’s top leaders that the more than one million demonstrators gathered on the Tiananmen Square could demand their arrest. ‘‘After thinking long and hard about this, I’ve concluded that we should bring in the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) and declare martial law in Beijing,” Deng was quoted as saying at a meeting held at the party central office on May 18, 1989.The documents say Deng was encouraged by several members of his inner circle, including Wang Zhen, who said, “The students are nuts if they think this handful of people can overthrow our party and our government. ”Two weeks later, troops using live ammunition moved in on the demonstrators, ending seven weeks of pro-democracy protests in Beijing. The comments by Deng and Zhen - together with what are said to be minutes of secret high-level meetings, Chinese intelligence reports and records of Deng’s private phone calls - appear in the “The Tiananmen papers: the Chinese leadership’s decision to use force against their own people.” |
| UK nudist bares all in court LONDON, Jan 6 (Reuters) — A British nudist campaigner appeared in court for his trial with nothing on, according to court officials. Vincent Bethell, from Coventry in central England, is charged with causing a public nuisance by refusing to wear clothes in a public place on several occasions last August. He was ordered by the judge to remain seated in the dock during the trial at London’s Southwark Crown Court, affording the jury no more than a glimpse of his body, media reports said. A supporter of the “Freedom to be Yourself,” campaign, the 28-year-old former art student has said he wants non-sexual public nudity to be legalised in the UK. As the law stands, anyone appearing naked in public can be prosecuted under the Public Order Act of 1986. |
| Cold wave death toll DHAKA, Jan 6 (PTI) — Bangladesh has been gripped by a cold wave which has claimed the lives of 13 persons during the past three days as dense fog affected air and road traffic, media reports said today. The toll could be higher as all deaths due to cold or related causes are not immediately reported in the media. Seven of the deaths have been reported from Rangpur district in northern Bangladesh which experienced the season’s lowest temperature of -5.3°C yesterday, the largest circulated vernacular daily Ittefaq reported. Pak ex-CM jailed for graft ISLAMABAD, Jan 6 (AFP) — A court today jailed a former Pakistani provincial Chief Minister for graft, the latest conviction in a crackdown on corruption launched by the military rulers. Manzoor Watoo, former Chief Minister of Punjab province, was found guilty by an accountability court of misusing official funds to benefit a private firm, state-run Associated Press of Pakistan said. He was given three years jail and also fined Rs 100 million by the court sitting in Punjab’s capital, Lahore. |
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