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Chaudhry sacked, new PM sworn in Suva, March 14 A member of Fiji’s post-coup Government, Mr Ratu Tevita Momoedonu, was appointed Prime Minister today in a move by the acting President that threw the Pacific nation into renewed confusion. News of the appointment came after deposed Prime Minister Mahendra Chaudhry was formally dismissed as the first step by newly reappointed President Josefa Iloilo in the country’s return to constitutional rule. Pak seals Afghan border Museveni wins presidential race |
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2 Indians elected to Canadian House Toronto, March 14 Two Indo-Canadian members of the Alberta legislature were elected in the provincial elections held on Monday, but New Democratic Party (NDP) leader Raj Pannu’s hopes of becoming Leader of the Opposition were dashed. Palestinians clash
with Israeli troops USA, Canada ban EU meat Censure against Mori voted down
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Chaudhry sacked, new PM sworn in Suva, March 14 News of the appointment came after deposed Prime Minister Mahendra Chaudhry was formally dismissed as the first step by newly reappointed President Josefa Iloilo in the country’s return to constitutional rule. Mr Momoedonu was sworn in, apparently in a caretaker role, but acting Prime Minister Laisenia Qarase appeared to think he still held the office. Mr Momoedonu was the Labour Minister in Qarase’s interim government installed after last year’s coup but ruled illegal by the Court of Appeal. The swearing-in ceremony took place at Mr Iloilo’s home in Vuda, on the west of the main island of Veti Levu. A report in Fiji News said Mr Qarase was still issuing statements in the belief he remained acting Prime Minister. Mr Chaudhry said he had received a letter from Mr Iloilo, notifying him of his sacking. The decision came after the Fiji’s Appeals Court declared the interim
administration illegal and gave the Great Council of Chiefs time till March 15 to formally confirm Mr Iloilo’s appointment or replace him. Mr Chaudhry, who became Fiji’s first Indian Prime Minister in May 1999, only to be ousted in last year’s coup, told reporters he regarded his dismissal as unconstitutional and had written to Mr Iloilo asking him to reconsider. He said he believed he was still the legal Prime Minister despite the position of Mr Momoedonu and Mr Qarase. “They are all bungling their way through and this will have very grave consequences for the country,” Mr Chaudhry told reporters. “I am quite astounded at the way things are being handled,” he said. Radio Fiji reported earlier that Mr Chaudhry had been dismissed because in Mr Iloilo’s opinion he no longer commanded majority support in Parliament. The powerful 55-strong council said it had also agreed parliament should be dissolved and the interim government formally appointed in a caretaker role pending new elections. Why Qarase was replaced as Acting Prime Minister remained unclear. He believed he was still the legal prime minister despite the position of Momoedonu and Qarase. “They are all bungling their way through and this will have very grave consequences for the country,” Mr Chaudhry told reporters. “I am quite astounded at the way things are being handled.” Radio Fiji reported earlier that Mr Chaudhry had been dismissed because in Iloilo’s opinion, he no longer commanded majority support in parliament. In a six-point proposal to the president, the chiefs accepted the ruling that parliament had not been dissolved on may 29 when army commander Frank Bainimarama assumed executive control of the country. But it said the President has reserve powers which he could exercise if he thought the decisions he made would resolve Fiji’s constitutional and political crisis “and bring prosperity and freedom to the indigenous Fijians and other ethnic communities”.
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Pak seals Afghan border Islamabad, March 14 Officials here said the border outpost at Torkham on the Pakistan side of the border in the North-Western Frontier Province (NWFP) was sealed after Taliban militia attempted to kidnap two Pakistan border guards. The skirmishes between the two border guards followed attempts by Taliban militia to hoist its flag on the hills in the Pakistan territory. The border was closed down immediately after the incident. They said Thorkham checkpost had been closed for the past few weeks as hundreds of refugees were pouring in due to severe drought and civil war in Afghanistan. But Pakistan allowed only travellers with official documents. Kabul: The ruling Taliban expelled the British Broadcasting Corporation from Afghanistan on Wednesday for transmitting criticism of the group’s destruction of all ancient statues, including two large Buddhas in Bamiyan. While much of the country’s pre-Islamic heritage has been destroyed, Taliban officials continued to offer conflicting versions of the fate of the giant Buddhas, Afghanistan’s most famous archaeological treasure. A Pakistan-based Afghan news service quoted Information Minister Qudratullah Jamal as saying no trace of the Buddhas remained, while Foreign Minister Wakil Ahmad Muttawakil told reporters in Kabul the demolition continued. But shortly afterwards Muttawakil told a news conference in the capital that work was continuing on Wednesday to eradicate the Buddhas, which towered 53 metres (175 ft) and 38 metres (120 ft) and were hewn into a cliff about 1,500 years ago. The Taliban, which has vowed to eliminate all Afghanistan’s historic statues on the grounds they are heathen idols, were angered by an interview with a US professor broadcast on Tuesday evening by the BBC. After the broadcast which described the destruction as barbaric, the Taliban issued an order on Wednesday for the BBC to close its Kabul office and withdraw its correspondent, Kate Clark, within 24 hours. Clark was packing and planned to leave for Islamabad on Thursday morning.
PTI, Reuters |
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Museveni wins presidential race Kampala, March 14 With results in from all but 14 of the 17,308 polling stations, Museveni won with 69.3 per cent of the votes. His main rival Kizza Besigye trailed with 27.8 per cent, the commission said. “Therefore, President Yoweri Museveni is declared the winner of the 2001 presidential elections,” said Aziz Kasujja, chairman of the commission. Besigye has already rejected the outcome. “We have come to the conclusion the process was grossly fraudulent,” Besigye told Reuters late on Tuesday. “There were very many irregularities in the process which render the result untenable. Definitely we will be challenging it in the courts of law.” In a letter to the Electoral Commission, Besigye said his agents had been chased from many polling stations or detained by the army during the voting. He said Museveni supporters had engaged in multiple voting and some ballot boxes were stuffed. Later, he said in a telephone interview: “If you find 10,000 registered voters and 11,000 votes have been cast, what would be the explanation? I think the Electoral Commission is definitely at the centre of the problem.” International observers have yet to give their verdict on whether the elections were free and fair, but some have said they believed there were irregularities in some parts of the country. “There have been various cases of irregularities and of particular concern are the districts of Rukingiri, Kabale, Mbale and Soroti,” said Pam Okille-Etiang, deputy coordinator of the Nem-Group election monitors. “We have asked the EC (Electoral Commission) to investigate and seriously consider a re-run in these districts. The question we are now discussing is whether these irregularities have seriously compromised the whole election.” EC
spokesperson Dick Kizito said: “If there are cases (of vote rigging) where they can specifically give us details, we can look into it. Museveni’s campaign spokesman, Information Minister Basoga Nsadhu, said he would not comment until he had seen a copy of the letter Besigye wrote to the commission. “Why don’t they wait for the process to be complete?” he said. Local observers and foreign journalists corroborated reports of rigging and intimidation by Museveni supporters in at least four of the country’s 56 districts. Museveni took power as the head of a guerrilla army 15 years ago and garnered almost three-quarters of the vote when he first went to the polls in 1996. He ended a nightmare period under dictators Idi Amin and Milton Obote during which hundreds of thousands of Ugandans were tortured and killed. Museveni rebuilt the economy, introduced free primary education, championed women’s rights and brought AIDS under control, becoming a darling of the West. He also banned political parties, which he blamed for ethnic and sectarian hatred, and governed instead as head of a “no-party” movement.
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2 Indians elected to Canadian House Toronto, March 14 There were seven Indo-Canadian candidates in the fray — four from the NDP, two from the ruling Progressive Conservatives (PCs) and one from the Liberal Party. The NDP’s strength remains at two in the 83-member state legislature. Voters in Pannu’s riding (constituency) of Edmonton-Strathcoma overwhelmingly voted for the retired Indo-Canadian professor of sociology at the University of Alberta. He polled 6,997 votes against his nearest PC rival John Logan, who got 4,746 votes. Shiraz Shariff, the Indo-Canadian incumbent from Calgary-McCall representing the PCs, was re-elected with 6,503 votes against his Liberal opponent John Phillips, who polled a mere 2,132 votes. The other five Indo-Canadian candidates were defeated, some by huge margins. NDP’s Mathew Zachariah, a retired professor from the University of Alberta, chose to become a candidate against Alberta Premier Ralph Klein. He got 368 votes against Klein’s 10,174. The PC has been ruling Alberta for 30 uninterrupted years. The PCs comprised 64 members when the elections were called last month. The party’s strength has now increased to 74 — all at the cost of the Liberals. Liberal leader Nancy MacBeth was defeated by PC candidate Mark Norris by over 1,000 votes. But despite the PC wave, Indo-Canadian Sukhi Randhawa lost in Edmonton-Ellerslie constituency. He was defeated by Liberal Party’s Debby Carlson by a mere 314 votes (4,504 for Carlson against Randhawa’s 4,190 votes).
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Palestinians clash with Israeli troops Jerusalem, March 14 Israel bowed to international pressure yesterday, opening roads and removing roadblocks that had hampered Palestinian movement and dealt a severe blow to an already ailing economy. But as firefights raged throughout the West Bank and Gaza Strip, an army spokesman said troops had been forced to reclose roads around the town of Qalqilya after gunmen fired on an Israeli car. No casualties were reported. A blockade on Ramallah, the West Bank’s business centre, was eased on Tuesday but Brigadier-General Benny Gantz said restrictions would remain in place until
Israel captured a “terror” cell planning an attack in Jerusalem. Palestinians brand the closure collective punishment. A senior Israeli military source told reporters on Tuesday the army was bracing for an escalation of violence towards the end of the month when Arab leaders meet in Amman, Jordan. At least 18 Palestinians suffered teargas inhalation after clashing with Israeli troops in the West Bank village of Tqou’a, Palestinian witnesses and hospital officials said. The officials said a number of victims had reached hospital unconscious. The Israeli army reported gunmen had opened fire in the Nablus area of the West Bank and that firefights had flared in the Gaza Strip. No casualties were reported.
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USA, Canada ban EU meat Washington, March 14 The government also banned yesterday all imports of live animals and raw meat products from the European Union after the disease surfaced at a cattle farm in France. Washington took the actions to prevent the spread of foot-and-mouth disease, a virus that cripples cattle, pigs, goats, sheep and deer and is so infectious it can be spread by gusty winds or truck tires. All EU meat products shipped to the USA since February 21 would be quarantined and inspected. Canada immediately followed with its own ban on EU imports. All EU products are put on hold,” said Kevin Herglotz, a US Agriculture Department spokesman. “Any shipment en route to the USA since around February 21 will be held for inspection.” The ban does not affect imported cooked foods such as Italian prosciutto, German bratwurst and Danish hams. A detailed list of banned products was to be released on Wednesday, USDA officials said. New Zealand too suspended imports of all meat and dairy products from the European Union and Argentina until further notice on Wednesday because of foot and mouth outbreaks, a report from Wellington said. Reuters,
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Censure against
Mori voted down Tokyo, March 14 The non-binding motion, which called for Mr Mori’s immediate resignation, was put to a vote in a plenary session of the bicameral Parliament’s upper house. From the start, it had no chance of passing as Mr Mori’s ruling three-party coalition has a majority of seats. The censure was defeated with 138 against it, to 105 for it, said Mr Hitoshi Toda, a parliamentary spokesman. Mr Mori, whose public approval ratings have plunged to below 10 per cent, has been dogged by scandals and gaffes since assuming office last April. He was selected by ruling party leaders to replace Keizo Obuchi, who suffered a fatal stroke in office. Opposition parties, however, say his lame duck status has created a political vacuum and are demanding that he step down immediately. They have submitted two no-confidence motions against him.
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