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| Saturday,
January 13, 2001, Chandigarh, India   
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Palestinians, Israelis agree to keep talking
Norwegian envoy’s
talks ‘encouraging’ |
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NATO acts against
fears on DU shells Bush appoints 2 more
Secys Jews’ biggest saviour ‘may be alive’ WASHINGTON, Jan 12 — President Bill Clinton called South Korean President Kim Dae-Jung late yesterday to personally express his regret about the death 50 years ago of dozens of South Korean refugees shot by US troops near the village of No Hun Ri.
8 Maoist ultras
killed in Nepal
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Palestinians, Israelis agree to keep talking GAZA CITY, Jan 12 (AFP, Reuters) — A marathon meeting between Israeli and Palestinian officials at the Erez crossing between the Gaza Strip and Israel ended early today with an agreement to hold two more days of discussions, Palestinian negotiator Yasser Abed Rabbo said. “There was an agreement to hold meetings over the next two consecutive days,” Mr Rabbo told Voice of Palestine Radio. US President Bill Clinton’s peace proposals were centrestage last night at the meeting of senior Israeli and Palestinian negotiators. Mr Clinton has been struggling to bring about at least a declaration of principles on his proposals. These encompass Israeli concessions on territory in exchange for Palestinians renouncing a demand for refugees to be allowed to return to their homes in what is now Israel. But Mr Rabbo said Palestinians rejected a declaration of principles. “The Palestinian side expressed the need to reach a complete and detailed peace agreement with international guarantees that it will be implemented,” he said. “We reject any agreement that is a declaration of principles or interim agreement. What we want is full agreement,” he added. Former Israeli Prime Minister and current Regional Cooperation Minister Shimon Peres did not attend the meeting, as expected. Instead, he was scheduled to see Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat in Gaza later, the radio said. “The next 72 hours could be decisive, and we hope these efforts will lead to something,” said Nabil Aburdeneh, an aide to Palestinian Yasser Arafat. After a lull in months of fighting the Israeli army said soldiers had shot dead a Palestinian gunman in the divided West Bank city of Hebron after a grenade was thrown at them. After the two sides held security talks this week, the level of violence in a 15-week Palestinian uprising had lessened after the Israeli army eased restrictions on Palestinian areas. Israel allowed the international airport in the Gaza Strip to reopen on Friday, 11 days after closing it for the fourth time since the start of the uprising in late September. Friday’s killing in Hebron raised the death toll in the unrest to at least 307 Palestinians, 13 Israeli Arabs and 43 other Israelis. The sudden return to negotiations — three weeks after the last high-level contacts, in Washington — followed a series of security meetings that led yesterday to the easing of Israel’s blockade on the West Bank and Gaza Strip. Events unfolded so rapidly that Israeli Foreign Minister Shlomo Ben-Ami had to cut short a Paris trip, calling off a meeting with US Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, to return home to lead the Israeli delegation into talks. Ben-Ami spokesman Moshe Debi said the session broke up after three hours with “nothing we can point to” as far as progress. Ben-Ami and Arafat talked afterward on the telephone about the talks and about future dealings, Mr Debi said. Brig-Gen Abde Razek Majaida, a Palestinian security chief, said the Israeli army would also begin pulling back from positions near Palestinian areas. |
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Norwegian envoy’s talks ‘encouraging’ COLOMBO, Jan 12 (PTI) — Norwegian special envoy Erik Solheim today left Sri Lanka after “encouraging” discussions with leaders, including President Chandrika Kumaratunga, on the revival of the deadlocked peace process. “They had an encouraging discussion on the ongoing process of negotiation with the LTTE with a view to taking the process forward. In the meantime, there will be no ceasefire,” the Foreign Affairs Ministry said in a statement. Mr Solheim, who arrived here on Wednesday, also met Foreign Minister Lakshman Kadirgamar. Mrs Kumaratunga ruled out complying with the LTTE demand of a truce before resumption of peace talks, it said. Mrs Kumaratunga expressed her government’s readiness for a ceasefire if the LTTE was willing to come for negotiations with some concrete proposals. She is understood to have conveyed the government’s position in clear terms with regard to the unilteral ceasefire announced by the LTTE. Expressing her doubts over the unilateral declaration by the LTTE, she said the ceasefire could be a ploy to regroup and launch a fresh offensive. The rebels had demanded suspension of military operation before revival of peace talks and followed it up by declaration of a unilateral ceasefire from December 25. It said Mr Solheim would continue to engage the LTTE in discussions, indicating that the peace process would go on even though he did not meet Prabhakaran, as was speculated by the media before his arrival. “The Norwegian special envoy will discuss the matter further with the LTTE and thereafter with the Government of Sri Lanka,” it said. During his two-day visit, Mr Solheim met Prime Minister Ratnasiri Wickromanayake, Speaker Anura Bandaranaike, Ministers C.L. Peiris and Rauf Hakeem, besides Leader of the Opposition Ranil Wickremesinghe. He also briefed Indian High Commissioner Gopal Krishna Gandhi, as part of Norway’s practice of keeping India fully informed of all developments. With the Lankan government making it clear that it would not accept the rebel ceasefire, Mr Solheim’s next task will be to get the LTTE leadership to agree to negotiations for a political solution to the ethnic conflict. Mr Solheim had a rare personal meeting with Prabhakaran in November last year at the rebel-held northern Vanni region. Meanwhile, Parliament has extended emergency rule in Sri Lanka for another month. The emergency rule, which empowers armed forces to detain any person suspected of involvement with Tamil Tiger rebels, has been in force for long periods during the 17-year civil war and requires monthly renewal. It was extended in the 225-seat assembly with a majority of 94 votes yesterday. |
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NATO acts against
fears on DU shells NATO has launched a massive damage-limitation exercise it hopes will defuse growing concern that its use of armour-piercing depleted uranium-tipped shells in Kosovo may be the cause of unexplained cases of cancer among its troops. In a carefully orchestrated publicity campaign at the alliance’s Brussels headquarters, Nato’s Secretary-General, Lord Robertson, told reporters that “no link of any kind” had been discovered between the use of depleted uranium (DU) shells and leukaemia or other illnesses. “I do not believe the public should have been as excited as it has been. We are confident that there is little risk from the DU munitions, but we refuse to be complacent,” he said after a meeting of the alliance’s top policy making body, the North Atlantic Council. However, he was adamant that even temporarily banning the use of such shells would be a grave mistake. Italy, Germany and Greece all pushed for a moratorium on the use of the DU on Wednesday, but opposition from the UK and the USA meant that the proposal was stillborn. Norway later said it, too, wanted a ban. NATO’s 19 ambassadors did agree to set up a working party to coordinate information on the DU shells, a move which will go some way to assuaging Italy and other states which are pressing for a full inquiry. But the alliance will not conduct its own inquiry, preferring to leave it to organisations such as the UN, which it believes are better equipped for the job. It has, however, already passed on the location of 112 sites in Kosovo where the DU shells were used against Serb armour, and which it suspects may be contaminated. The UN said on Wednesday that it would consider marking and possibly sealing off these sites, and NATO has pledged to help with a clean-up. Acutely aware of public anger in countries such as Italy over the perceived dangers of the shells, the alliance on Wednesday distributed a thick dossier of scientific reports debunking claims that the DU was dangerous to health, and wheeled out two US medical experts from the Pentagon who claimed that the metal was practically harmless. A former BBC defence correspondent, Mark Laity, now a NATO spokesman, also did his best to dampen rising alarm, in front of the biggest turnout of journalists since the Kosovo conflict in 1999. Seated behind a 30mm DU-tipped shell of the kind fired by American tank-busting A-10 planes, Mr Laity criticised the media for blowing the issue out of proportion. He said the DU also had several civilian applications and was used as ballast in airliners and in the keels of many yachts. But the concerns refuse to fade and have been fuelled by the death of six Italian Balkan peacekeepers from cancer.
— The Guardian, London |
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Bush appoints 2 more Secys WASHINGTON, Jan 12 (PTI) — Two days after Linda Chavez withdrew her nomination as Labour Secretary, President-elect George W. Bush today nominated Elaine Chao, a former Peace Corpe Director and wife of US Republican Senator Mitch McConnell for the post. Chavez withdrew from the post to quell controversy over the disclosure that she allowed a Guatemalan woman, an illegal immigrant to stay with her and do some jobs for which she paid her but did not pay social security. The President-elect also nominated Robert B Zoellick (47) as US Trade Representative. Mr Bush had originally wanted to strip this post of Cabinet rank in order to keep the Cabinet compact but changed his mind on representations made by the business community. Mr Bush said Mr Zoellick, who has been a State and Treasury Department official in two Republican Administrations will report directly to him. “He will be a member of the Cabinet and the reason why the position is to remain a Cabinet-level position is because of the importance of trade in the global economy. It should reconfirm our nation’s commitment to free trade,” he said. Mr Bush thus completed his Cabinet selection again after his first choice, Linda Chavez, withdrew to quell controversy. Chao, who is also a former Deputy Transportation Secretary said she would work to “protect, nurture and develop America’s most precious resource,” its working men and women. Meanwhile, the Defence Secretary designate Donald Rumsfeld yesterday said that from a cold war-era strategy of massive nuclear retaliation to new forms of deterrence against missiles and weapons of mass destruction. “Credible deterrence no longer can be based solely on the prospect of punishment through massive retaliation,” Rumsfeld said. He outlined the new US Administration’s intent to deploy a national missile defence system in a still-undecided form at a confirmation hearing before the US Senate’s Armed Services Committee. |
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Jews’ biggest saviour ‘may be alive’ STOCKHOLM, Jan 12 (Reuters) — Raoul Wallenberg, the Swedish diplomat spirited away by the Red Army in 1945 after saving thousands of Jews from the Nazis, may still be alive, Sweden said on Friday. After the release of the results of 10 years of Swedish-Russian investigations, Swedish Prime Minister Goran Persson said there was no clear evidence that Wallenberg was dead, and his government would try to find out what had happened to him. Wallenberg, a member of the powerful Swedish business dynasty, saved the lives of tens of thousands of Hungarian Jews during World War II by issuing them with Swedish passports from the Swedish Embassy in Budapest. He disappeared after being seized by Red Army troops in the city in January 1945. The Soviet and Russian authorities, most recently last December, have asserted that Wallenberg died in Moscow’s notorious Lubyanka prison in July 1947. But there have been persistent reports that he was alive on a Soviet Gulag or psychiatric hospital, perhaps as late as 1989. If he were still alive, he would be 87. The Swedish members of the government-level working group, presenting their conclusions, said no evidence had been found that Wallenberg had died. “Even though all the versions from Russian sources largely assume that Wallenberg had died at that point, the working group has not uncovered any evidence to confirm a definite conclusion to this effect,” they said. “The Russian announcement of Wallenberg’s death could only be accepted if it were confirmed beyond any reasonable doubt. This has not happened, partly for the want of a credible death certificate and partly because the testimony about Wallenberg being alive after 1947 cannot be dismissed.” But a separate summary presented by the Russian half of the working group stuck to the view that he was long dead. “All the circumstantial evidence confirms that Wallenberg died, or most likely was killed, on July 17, 1947,” it said. It said Wallenberg had been executed on a charge of spying for Germany and that most documents relating to the matter were then destroyed. Prime Minister Persson said his government would continue to try and find out what had happened to Wallenberg, based on the assumption that he may have been alive after 1947. The report said the Swedish government of the time had failed to respond to Soviet advances seeking the extradition of Soviet citizens, which could have led to Wallenberg’s release. |
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USA regrets killing S. Korean civilians WASHINGTON, Jan 12 (Reuters) — President Bill Clinton called South Korean President Kim Dae-Jung late yesterday to personally express his regret about the death 50 years ago of dozens of South Korean refugees shot by US troops near the village of No Hun Ri. “I just talked to President Kim about the No Gun Ri incident and personally expressed my regret to him and I thanked him for the work we have done together in developing our mutual statement,” Mr Clinton told Reuters in an interview as he flew back to Washington from Boston. “I had a good talk with him,” Mr Clinton said, adding that the UNA had set up a scholarship fund and other measures as “a genuine gesture of our regret.” Yesterday Mr Clinton said in a statement, “On behalf of the USA I deeply regret that Korean civilians lost their lives at No Gun Ri in late July, 1950.” But his statement fell far short of the formal apology and admission of guilt some Korean officials had been seeking. It followed a 15-month investigation into the Korean War incident on July 26, 1950. Asked why he chose not to formally apologise to Mr Kim and the Korean people, Mr Clinton said, “I think he knows that regret and apology both mean the same thing in terms of being profoundly sorry for what happened.” Investigators had not found enough evidence to conclude the shootings were a “deliberate act decided at a high enough level in the military hierarchy” to warrant a formal apology, the president said. “I don’t think there’s any difference in the two words on a human level, because we are profoundly sorry that it happened, and sorry that any Americans were involved in it,” he said. |
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Ape’s DNA modified, humans next? NEW YORK, Jan 12 (PTI) — For the first time in genetic history, scientists have successfully modified the DNA of a primates giving rise to fears among ethicists that it could lead to tampering with human DNA to produce babies with specific qualities. The genetic coding of primates differs from that of humans only by slightly more than 1 per cent. However, researchers have denied that their intention is to tinker with human genes and asserted that their research would lead to speeding up cures for deadly and disabling diseases, including AIDS. The Rhesus monkey named ANDI, the acronym of “inserted DNA” read backwards, got genes plucked from a fluorescent jellyfish and was shown on television frolicking about with other monkeys. Scientists at Oregon Health Sciences University in the USA, who produced ANDI, say that the successful insertion of DNA would help in finding cure for diseases like breast cancer, Alzheimer’s disease and diabetes. But ethicists say it would mean introducing human genes into monkeys and producing sick monkeys who would undergo untold sufferings. The research centre says it would refine the technology with the aim of producing hundreds of monkey for medical research. The scientists plucked DNA from a fluorescent jellyfish and inserted it into 224 unfertilised eggs by neutralised virus. The eggs were then fertilised in test tubes and implanted in surrogates. Out of them, 40 embryos resulted, leading to only five pregnancies. Three monkeys were born alive but only ANDI showed signs of modifications in genes. The other two monkeys too are said to be healthy. “We wouldn’t want to make a monkey that carries a disease unless we are sure there is a cure right in front of us. Our goal is not to make sick monkeys but to eradicate diseases,” the lead scientist, Dr Gerald Schatten, was quoted as saying. But pro-animal groups say that once the technique is refined, it would be utilised to produce primates with missing genes and result in suffering for the monkeys. Scientists, however, say that primates make better models of diseases than the altered mice and flies which have been used in research. |
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8 Maoist ultras
killed in Nepal KATHMANDU, Jan 12 (DPA) — The Nepalese police has said they killed seven Maoist insurgents in a shootout in which one police officer was injured, news reports said today. The two-hour gun battle took place yesterday in Fukot village, Kalikot district, some 450 km west of the capital. The Maoist insurgents are claiming a large part of Kalikot as “liberated zone” after they blew up two major bridges over the Karnali river late last year. More than 1,500 persons have been killed in the five-year-old conflict between the communist insurgents and the government. |
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