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| Tuesday, February 27, 2001, Chandigarh, India   
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Iraq loses hope in UN
talks SC: was
Benazir trial fixed? Foot and
mouth makes farmers bust
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Sharon’s terms to end
West Bank blockade
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Iraq
loses hope in UN talks United Nations, February 26 Disarmament issues and humanitarian concerns are on the agenda. Any unfinished business will be taken up tomorrow. Expectations are low that the talks will produce an early agreement on issues that have eluded UN officials and a divided 15 nation Security Council — allowing arms inspectors to verify Iraq no longer has any weapons of mass destruction. With the recent US-British airstrikes over Iraq, some UN officials fear the meetings will turn into a propaganda exercise with the Baghdad team, led by Foreign Minister Mohammed Saeed al-Sahaf, blasting Washington. Nevertheless, Mr Annan said, “you have to have some hope. Otherwise I wouldn’t be getting into this exercise. It may take some time.” So far Iraq has said nothing short of lifting the sanctions, imposed in August 1990 when Baghdad’s troops invaded Kuwait, would be acceptable. And it has refused to allow weapons inspectors back into the country since December 1998 when Washington and London conducted a four-day bombing raid to punish Iraq for allegedly failing to cooperate with searches for forbidden weapons. Al-Sahaf, before arriving in New York, said he would provide documents showing his country is free of nuclear, chemical, biological and long-range ballistic weapons. And he said he had no intention of allowing the inspectors to return. Iraq has said that USA and the UK will use the expected failure of high-level talks at the United Nations as a pretext to impose “smart sanctions” designed to keep a stranglehold on Iraq. “Iraq does not pin any hope on this dialogue, which is conducted with a party (the UN that has no authority to take decisions,” said the Al-Thawra newspaper, the organ of the ruling Ba’ath Party. “Iraq is keen to take part in any dialogue in which it would table the injustices inflicted upon it and defend its national rights in international arenas,” the newspaper said. But it said the USA and the UK were waiting for the failure of the dialogue to use it as a “pretext to take new steps (smart sanctions) already been cooked by them.” British and US officials met in Washington last week to explore a switch to “smart sanctions” focused more tightly on banning arms imports and axing controls on civilian goods imposed on Iraq after its 1990 invasion of Kuwait.
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Islamabad, February 26 The order was issued on the first day of Bhutto’s appeal of a corruption conviction in April 1999. Bhutto, who lives in self-imposed exile in the United Arab Emirates with her three children, was found guilty of corruption, sentenced to five years in jail, fined and disqualified from politics for seven years. She has appealed against the conviction, as has her husband, Asif Ali Zardari, who was found guilty in the same case. Her lawyer, Mr Hafeez Pirzada, argued that a taped telephone conversation between a member of Sharif’s government and the judge, trying Bhutto, provided proof of an unfair trial. A transcript of the taped telephone conversations indicated that the judge had written the judgment in the Bhutto corruption case before handing down his guilty verdict. Meanwhile, her lawyers are giving final touches to her appeal against a conviction handed out by a trial court. The Sunday Times revelation that Bhutto’s trial was fixed has strengthened Bhutto’s arguments that she is innocent of the charges against her. Gen Pervez Musharraf has announced that he would stop Bhutto from contesting the elections. This has put pressure on the Supreme Court. Bhutto’s lawyers plan to use taped conversations between the trial judge and Cabinet members to prove that the judgement against her was “dictated” by the regime on political grounds. They also plan to ask the Cabinet ministers and the trial judge to undergo voice verification tests. In this connection, Bhutto supporters have contacted legal firms and detective agencies to assist them in identifying a forensic expert. The Supreme Court will be asked to allow voice verification tests as her lawyers are confident that the tapes would prove the obstruction of justice by no less a person than the Law Minister and the investigator on the orders of the then Prime Minister. Bhutto’s lawyers will also ask for the President to submit the tapes sent to him by the intelligence officer to the Supreme Court. The Bhutto’s lawyers are expected to ask the Supreme Court to form a commission to examine the intelligence officer and record his evidence. They will rely on the precedent of Judge Qayyam forming a commission during the trial and sending the court Registrar, Judge Muazzam, to Switzerland. Judge Muazzam was used to authenticate documents which are unproven under the Pakistani Evidence Act. Those documents have not yet been submitted to the Swiss authorities either. Bhutto’s has alleged that those unproven papers are fake and should be dismissed. She claimed that the unproven papers were “computer forgeries”. The tapes cast serious aspersions on Judge Muazzam. From the conversations, it appears that Muazzam was also involved in the obstruction of justice. The court hearing has been adjourned till Wednesday.
AP, ANI |
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Foot and mouth makes farmers bust London, February 26 The outbreak in cattle was confirmed at Burdon Farm, Highampton, the home of a large-scale sheep dealer, Willy Cleave, who also exports to Europe via Dover. The Agriculture Minister, Nick Brown, said the European commission had been informed of the risk that infected sheep might have been exported from the Highampton farm. A large number of sheep was exported on February 17 and the last live exports were at 3 a.m. last Tuesday — hours before the first case of foot and mouth was confirmed at an Essex
abattoir. Mr Cleave has 13 farms and travelled as far north as Carlisle last week to visit markets. It emerged last night that some of those sheep might have come from Heddon-on-the-Wall in Northumberland, providing the link with other outbreaks that Britain’s Ministry of Agriculture is looking for. Mr Cleave said last night that the outbreak could have come on to his farm through animals bought at market. “We buy a lot of sheep and deal in a lot, and we were unlucky. Some must have been contaminated with foot and mouth. “I was checking them and I noticed something was wrong. I rang the veterinary doctor and then the ministry came. It has been a big shock.” As the grim task of burning the carcasses of 450 cattle, 1,300 pigs and 250 sheep already slaughtered began, Jim Scudamore, the British government’s chief vet, confirmed that the Devon outbreak was the largest so far. The farm has 600 cattle and 1,500 sheep. The other 12 farms involved, 10 in Devon and two in Cornwall, have also been isolated. Ministry’s policy is to destroy all animals which might develop the disease through contact with infected animals even though they appear healthy. The UK-based National Farmers’ Union president, Ben Gill, who will hold talks with Mr Brown today, said: “The latest outbreak will send a chill through farmers everywhere. Our hopes that the disease could be contained have been horribly shattered.” In sheep it is far more difficult to spot than in cattle. So far no sheep has been found confirmed with foot and mouth, but they were present on Prestwick Hill Farm, Ponteland, Northumberland, four miles from Heddon-on-the-Wall, which became the sixth confirmed case on Friday when 45 of 90 cattle went down with symptoms. Ian Johnson, regional spokesman for the National Farmers’ Union, said: “This is potentially a nightmare scenario for the south-west, which is Britain’s biggest livestock area. In good times it would be a disaster but in times like these it is a catastrophe.” Mr Brown will fly to Brussels tomorrow to brief his EU opposite numbers, who are concerned that the UK may have exported foot and mouth. The Guardian, London |
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Sharon’s terms to end West Bank blockade Shikmim Ranch, February 26 In a written statement issued at his farm in southern Israel, the Israeli leader said that he had spoken to Powell by telephone yesterday after the latter met Arafat in the West Bank. Powell had conveyed his demand that a five-month spate of violence end before he made concessions, he said. “Powell made clear to Arafat these three main demands — Arafat must make a public statement calling unequivocally for an end to violence, the Palestinian Authority must act to stop incitement, and renewal of security coordination in the field,” the statement said. “If this is carried out, Israel will be able to allow raw materials to pass and also some labourers into Israel.” Israel has limited the movement of goods and people through the borders of the West Bank and Gaza Strip since the beginning of the Palestinian uprising in September. Sharon has said any resumption of peacemaking will depend on ending the five months of violence that has killed at least 400 people, mostly Palestinians. His statement was the first public disclosure of the demands Powell had said he conveyed to Arafat. AHMADI (kuwait): U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell has assured Kuwait that Iraq will never again be able to occupy the oil-rich state but stressed the need to keep the pressure on Baghdad. “Don’t worry, we are not going to see a repeat of that disaster,” the former Gulf war commander told reporters upon his arrival in Kuwait yesterday where the USA has deployed 5,000 troops and heavy military equipment. “Kuwait is free, Kuwait has friends, Kuwait has allies. (Iraq President Saddam Hussein) has nothing but rhetoric and shooting his mouth off,” General Powell said.
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Liquidate Arafat, urges Jewish leader
Jerusalem, February 26 “We are at war,” said Mr Shlomo Filber, Secretary-General of the Settlers’ Council for the Gaza Strip and the West Bank. “We have suffered more than 2,000 attacks in less than five months perpetrated by Arafat and his security forces. He must be liquidated and the apparatus he runs destroyed,” Mr Filber told Israeli public radio. Mr Filber’s inflammatory comments came the day after two Jewish settlers were wounded in separate shooting attacks in the West Bank, while the US Secretary of State, Mr Colin Powell, was visiting the region for talks with Israeli and Palestinian leaders on ways to end the five-month wave of deadly violence.
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Forces deployed to stop ethnic killings JAKARTA, FEBRUARY 26 “The serious nature of the feud between the Madurese and the Dayak people make it necessary for us to send special forces there,” Mr Wahid said as cited by The Jakarta Post. He was speaking during opening of a summit of developing countries in Cairo yesterday. Indonesia’s security forces have been criticised for doing virtually nothing to stop the killings between indigenous Dayaks and minority Madurese ethnic group in the town of Sampit in Central Kalimantan province. The bloodshed has so far claimed 270 lives. Although two battalions of troops and paramilitary police — numbering about 1,300 men — had already arrived, new reinforcements had been dispatched. Another army battalion was on its way to Palangkaraya, officials said. Mr Wahid is facing mounting pressure to cut short his 15-day overseas trip to seven North African and Middle Eastern countries.
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Dhaka, February 26 All schools were closed as was the Dhaka Stock Exchange and most buses and trucks remained off the streets. Banks and offices worked with fewer staff, but trains, ferries and flights were running normally. The strike disrupted deliveries from Chittagong port which handles 80 per cent of country’s exports and imports. A four-party Opposition alliance backed off an original call for a dawn-to-dusk nationwide strike. They gave no details but alliance sources said it felt discouraged by lack of public support. At least 20 persons were killed in six days of alliance-led strikes earlier this month. Headed by former premier Begum Khaleda Zia, the Opposition alliance wants Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina to step down and hold early parliamentary elections, which are not due before July 13.
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London, February 26 Teenage star Jamie Bell from Teesside in the north of England yesterday beat back no fewer than three nominees for the US Oscars to win best actor’s position. “I was kind of thinking: ‘I’m not bothering coming. What’s the point?” Bell told the cheering black-tie crowd inside the Odeon Leicester square in London’s West End. Instead, Bell found himself at the podium, beating out such Hollywood heavy-hitters as Tom Hanks (“Cast Away”) and Russell Crowe (“Gladiator”). Crowe, Hanks, and fellow nominee Geoffrey Rush (“quills”) will again face off against one another at next month’s academy awards on March 25. Best actress award went, as expected, to Julia Roberts for “Erin Brockovich,” while the supporting actor prize went to a second Oscar front-runner, Benicio Del Toro for “Traffic.”
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