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| Saturday,
March 3, 2001, Chandigarh, India   
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Chaudhry
may not lead Fiji’s democratic set-up Clinton
aides opposed Rich’s pardon 7 hostages
freed for $ 13 m ransom Foot &
mouth cases go up to 32 22 die
in B’desh ‘month of violence’ Eight
die in Pak violence Hrithik
named for best actor award |
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Chaudhry may not lead Fiji’s democratic set-up Suva, March 2 Mr Mahendra Chaudhry told Australian Broadcasting Corp radio his return as Prime Minister was not certain, despite claiming yesterday’s ruling effectively ordered the reinstatement of his coalition. “I don’t submit to blackmail, but if there are convincing arguments, I’m prepared to understand them,” he said. Mr Chaudhry is expected to arrive back in Fiji tomorrow after a visit to India. He said he would immediately meet former coalition lawmakers to discuss their next step. Yesterday, Fiji’s Court of Appeal ruled that the interim government of Prime Minister Laisenia Qarase was illegal and ordered President Ratu Josefa Iloilo to recall Parliament. Fiji’s minority Indian community has welcomed a pledge by post-coup government leaders to return to constitutional rule after yesterday’s verdict, but most fear the battle is far from won. The interim government is not expected to resign immediately despite the refusal of an appellate panel of five expatriate judges to give it the legitimacy it sought in a ruling declaring it illegal. Instead, reports here say the government will stay on until a political solution is found to return Fiji to parliamentary democracy. The alternative will be a return to the chaos wrought when George Speight led his band of rebel soldiers into Parliament. With it will come isolation as the international community withdraws support. In their nationally televised broadcast yesterday acting President Josefa Iloilo and Prime Minister Laisenia Qarase both promised the government would abide by the verdict. “I think they are serious about the rule of law,” Mr Krishna Datt, chief government whip in the deposed Labour government said. He believes the interim government would seek to move for an election within the required timeframe of about six months. Meanwhile, the military pulled out of Suva today, leaving tropical Cyclone Paula to keep the peace amid mounting hopes that Fiji may be heading for the polls by the end of this year. Mr Iloilo has called a meeting of the powerful Great Council of Chiefs who will discuss options for returning the troubled South Pacific nation to constitutional rule, including an early election. The Fiji Times quoted unnamed government sources as saying that the elections could be held as early as the end of this year if the parties agreed. WASHINGTON:
The USA has asked Fiji’s interim administration to implement the decision of the appeals court, upholding the validity of the 1997 Constitution but expressed no views on the reinstatement of Mr Mahendra Chaudhry as the Prime Minister. “We have repeatedly stated that upholding basic principles of democracy and international standards of human rights, as embodied in Fiji’s 1997
Constitution, would be a benchmark for determining our reaction to the crisis in Fiji,” State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said yesterday. “We, therefore, welcome the appeals court decision, upholding the validity of Fiji’s 1997 Constitution, and we call on the interim administration to implement the court’s findings without delay,” he said. The court yesterday asked President Ratu Josefa Iloilo to resummon lawmakers and step down by March 15. Meanwhile, the Australian leadership said it was looking forward to a positive response from Fiji’s interim government to the court order and expressed readiness to reconsider the tough measures it adopted in the wake of the coup.
— Agencies |
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Clinton aides opposed Rich’s pardon Washington, March 2 “I thought he should not receive a pardon,” said former White House Chief of Staff John Podesta. “I formed an opinion very quickly that the pardon should not be granted,” agreed former White House counsel Beth Nolan. Along with former presidential adviser Bruce Lindsey, Nolan and Podesta faced intense questioning from members of the House Committee on Government Reform here yesterday. “One can disagree with (Clinton’s) reasoning, as many have,” Mr Podesta told the committee chaired by Indiana representative Dan Burton. “But I believe that President Clinton considered the legal merits of the arguments for the pardons as he understood them and rendered his judgement - wise or unwise - on the merits of the case,” he said. The committee had been looking into the possibility of improper access to the White House and whether improper procedures took place in Mr Clinton’s pardon of Rich, who fled the USA in 1983 following $ 48 million tax evasion charges. Also called as witnesses yesterday were Jack Quinn, one of Rich’s lawyers, and Beth Dozoretz, former chair of the Democratic Party’s main finance committee, who reportedly asked Mr Clinton to pardon Rich. Beth Dozoretz, former finance chairwoman of the Democratic National Committee, refused to testify before the committee, invoking her constitutional right against self-incrimination. Denise Rich also has declined to answer questions before the committee. “On the advice of my counsel, I respectfully decline to answer that question based on the protection afforded me under the US constitution”, Ms Dozoretz said when asked if she ever discussed donations with Clinton in connection with the Rich pardon. The committee, along with a Senate panel and federal criminal investigations, are looking into allegations Denise Rich’s donations of more than $ 1 million to Democratic candidates and groups and $ 450,000 to the Clinton library might have played a role in the pardon granted on his last day in office on January 20. AFP, Reuters |
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7 hostages freed for $ 13 m ransom Quito, (Ecuador), March 2 Four US citizens, a New Zealander, an Argentine and a Chilean were released near Lago Agrio, 305 km east of Quito, close to the Colombian border. They were subsequently flown to the capital where they were escorted to a local hotel by a police caravan. Three weeks earlier US hostage Ron Sander was shot dead when the companies for whom the group worked for failed to meet a ransom demand. The seven were part of a group of 10 foreign workers kidnapped from a Repsol-YPF oil field in Ecuador’s central Amazon region in October. Two French helicopter pilots escaped a few days after the kidnapping. The Chilean and US embassies in Quito, confirming that the hostages had been released, said they were in good health. “After ransom was paid yesterday, this was the natural process and should end like this,” Mr Rodrigo Asenio, Chile’s ambassador in Quito, said. Ecuador, in western South America on the Pacific Ocean, is the size of Italy and has a population of 12.4 million. A military source said the hostages — one Helmerich and Payne employee, four employees of Erickson Air Crane and two workers who contracted with Schlumberger Ltd. — were initially driven to a jungle military base where they received medical attention and were debriefed. A source close to the investigation who spoke on condition of anonymity estimated the ransom paid at $13 million and said the money was flown in by helicopter in denominations of $100 bills at the kidnappers’ request. No one has claimed responsibility for the kidnapping, the second in Ecuador in a year in the oil-rich jungle that borders Colombia’s coca-growing Putumayo region. However, sources close to the investigation said the 20-man strong group that kidnapped the foreigners was believed to be a faction of Colombia’s National Liberation Army (ELN) called “Free America” that is supported by more than a dozen Ecuadoreans who live in the area.
Reuters |
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Foot & mouth cases go up to 32 London, March 2 Although there were no widespread reports of shortages of meat on supermarket shelves, some independent butchers were badly hit, and one major supermarket reported it had run out of some lines. Imported meat made up most shortfall, although prices rose. Junior Agriculture Minister Baroness Hayman said special licences to get livestock to abattoirs could be issued to farms in disease-free areas as early as Monday. The general ban on the movement of livestock remained in force. More than 25,000 animals from confirmed sites have now been slaughtered, including 3,400 cattle, 19,600 sheep, 1,750 pigs and one goat.\ Officials expressed concern that wildlife could carry the disease and were considering measures. In Northern Ireland, the police was questioning a man in connection with the illegal movement of livestock across the Irish border, amid fear in the Republic of Ireland of an outbreak. Agriculture provides a considerably larger share of national income in Northern Ireland and the Republic than it does on mainland Britain. Prime Minister Tony Blair has promised a long-term future for farming in the UK after the foot-and-mouth crisis is over. “Once this is over, we need to go back round the table again and sit and work it out on a long-term basis,’’ Mr Blair said, hinting at long-term changes in the food chain, which had come under considerable criticism in recent years.
DPA |
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22 die in B’desh ‘month of violence’ Dhaka, March 2 The urgings by the chamber bodies diplomats to the main Opposition alliance to stop agitation programmes failed to deter the violence. The country passed through a series of shutdowns across the country. The four party alliance observed a dawn-to-dusk shutdown on February 13 in protest against the killing of eight persons in the district town of Brahmanbaria on February 6 due to firing by the police and paramilitary Bangladesh Rifles. The main demand of the Opposition is the immediate resignation of the Awami League government of Ms Sheikh Hasina. This month the violence began on February 3 during the observance of a shutdown in the capital city called by Islami zealots to foil the mass public rally by the NGOs to voice their protest against the fatwahs (religious edicts) mainly against women. The zealots brutally killed a Dhaka Metropolitan Police (DMP) constable inside a mosque that resulted in the arrest of 80 activists of the newly formed religious organisation— Islami Ain Bastabayan Parishad (Islamic Law Implementation Council). The two main leaders Moulana Azizul Huq and Moulana Fazlul Huq Amini were also arrested later and charged with murder and inciting people against the High Court judges who pronounced the ban on all kinds of fatwahs. The zealots announced a programme of a day-long shutdown on February 6 but later extended it to two days of dawn-to-dusk shutdown
across the country to protest the arrests. The four party alliance led by the Bangladesh Nationalist Party headed by Ms Khaleda Zia extended support to the programme. On February 7 a train bound for Port City of Chittagong met a tragic accident killing two passengers on the spot. On February 19 Jainul Abedin, an employee of the Bangladesh Railway was arrested on charges of involvement in the sabotage. Incidents of violence on February 13 lead to the death of three persons on the Dhaka streets in a gunbattle between supporters of the BNP and ruling Awami League. Nasir , another constable of Dhaka Metropolitan Police fell victim of gunshots fired at his mess by activists of the BNP while retreating from the place of earlier violence. |
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Peshawar, March 2 The police said riots erupted after gunmen opened fire in a market, killing three Shiite Muslims and critically wounding another person, a day after the execution of a Sunni extremist for the murder of an Iranian diplomat. The assailants emerged from a van and sprayed bullets at a crowded market before escaping. The incident triggered violent demonstrations in the city and exchanges of gunfire between Shiites and Sunnis, they said. The police said clashes between rival armed groups left five persons dead and another five wounded. Rampaging crowds of Shiites and Sunnis also torched shops and vehicles. At least six shops and several vehicles were set on fire, the police said. Violent protests and gunbattles between the police and religious extremists in Jhang yesterday left two civilians dead and 11 injured, the police said. One of them succumbed to his wounds overnight in hospital.
AFP |
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Hrithik named for best actor award New York, March 2 For female lead, Tabu (“Astitiva)” Aishwarya Rai “Hamara Dil Aapke Pas Hai” and Krishma Kapoor (“Fiza”) have been nominated for the Best Actress award to be presented on April 28. "Kaho Na Pyar Hai", “Mission Kashmir” and “Mohabattein” are the choices for the best movie. Matinee idol of yesteryear Dev Anand will receive the prestigious Evergreen Star of the Millennium award and Ashok Amritraj will be honoured with the Pride of India award.
PTI |
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