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March 16, 2001, Chandigarh, India   
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Qarase recalled as interim PM Iloilo sworn in as Fiji’s President Suva, March 15 Fijian President Ratu Josefa Iloilo today announced the appointment of a new caretaker government led by former interim Premier Laisenia Qarase. The new administration’s main task will be to organise a general election to return the Pacific nation to democracy after last year’s coup, Mr Iloilo said. Koirala govt faces crisis Heavy gunfire in Macedonia |
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| Palestinian blockade to ease: Sharon Jerusalem, March 15 Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon said he would ease a blockade on parts of the West Bank and Gaza Strip despite the Palestinian Authority’s desire to continue its nearly six-month-old uprising. Bomb ‘blew up’ Thai plane Jakarta, March 15 Thousands of supporters of Indonesia’s embattled President Abdurrahman Wahid rallied today calling for one of his leading critics to be killed. £ 500,000
for FMD-hit farmers
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Qarase recalled as interim PM Suva, March 15 The new administration’s main task will be to organise a general election to return the Pacific nation to democracy after last year’s coup, Mr Iloilo said. “I believe that going back to the people for fresh elections is the most democratic way to resolve the confusion among the parties,” Mr Iloilo said at Qarase’s swearing-in ceremony in the capital. “It will allow those who aspire to be in Parliament to go back and seek a mandate from the people,” he said. Mr Qarase’s appointment was made possible following caretaker Prime Minister Tatu Tevita Momoedonu’s resignation this morning after barely 24 hours in the post. He had formally advised the President to dissolve Parliament, Momoedonu told newsmen. President Ratu Josefa Iloilo — Mr Momoedonu’s uncle — named him caretaker Prime Minister in a surprise move yesterday. The appointment was seen merely as a tool to allow Mr Iloilo to follow the formal mechanism required to recall and then dissolve Parliament, finally leading to elections after the May 2000 coup. Mr Momoedonu was Labour Minister in the military-backed interim administration put in place after the coup by nationalist rebels that toppled Prime Minister Mahendra Chaudhry, Fiji’s first ethnic Indian leader. Meanwhile, at a sombre ceremony today at a sprawling colonial mansion, Fiji swore in an elderly, ailing tribal chief as President in the latest move aimed at guiding the ethnically divided nation back to democracy. Dressed in a traditional “sulu” skirt and black jacket, Mr Iloilo was sworn in by the Pacific nation’s Chief Justice Sir Timoti Tuivaga, as heavily armed special forces in civilian clothing patrolled the mansion’s manicured lawns. Mr Iloilo’s appointment had to be rubber stamped by the country’s Prime Minister and Mr Momoedonu was chosen for the job because Mr Chaudhry, who still claims to be the legal Prime Minister, would almost certainly not have approved Mr Iloilo’s appointment. Mr Iloilo formally dismissed Mr Chaudhry, the country’s first ethnic Indian Prime Minister, from office prior to swearing in Mr Momoedonu. Mr Chaudhry called the move “unconstitutional and unlawful” and is expected to launch a legal challenge, further complicating the political situation. Adelaide: Fiji could still be back on the road to democracy after last year’s racist coup, despite the reappointment today of a Prime Minister whose military-backed government has been declared illegal. Analysts said the reappointment of merchant banker Laisenia Qarase as interim Prime Minister was controversial, particularly as it allowed indigenous Fijians to retain political power. But they cautiously welcomed pledges of elections within six months and talk of a renewed commitment to a 1997 constitution that sought to safeguard the rights of Fiji’s ethnic Indians, who make up 44 per cent of the population. “But it could all be a
charade," he told newsmen. The key to Fiji’s future as a constitutional democracy, and to a revival of its crippled economy, will be whether a commission set up to review the 1997 constitution continues its work, and whether a timetable for elections holds firm. The latest political moves will be a test for Fiji’s biggest neighbour and donor, Australia, which suggested this week that it might lift political and economic sanctions if it can be sure elections will be held, as promised, around August. But they may also mark the end of political influence for Fiji’s first ethnic Indian Prime Minister, Mahendra Chaudhry. Fiji’s military is expected to stay in the background.
AFP, Reuters |
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Koirala govt faces crisis Kathmandu, March 15 Minister for Agriculture and Cooperation Jayaprakash Prasad Gupta and Minister of State for Labour and Transport Management Surendra Hamal resigned on Tuesday, leaving Mr Koirala a worried man, they say. The two are expected to join a rebel camp in the ruling Nepal Congress (NC) led by former premiers Krishna Prasad Bhattarai and Sher Bahadur Deuba. Mr Koirala reshuffled his Council of Ministers on February 7 seeking to balance the NC factions, but some party leaders were unimpressed. Senior leader Khum Bahadur Khadka did not attend the swearing-in ceremony to show his pique. Mr Gupta, one of the ministers who resigned, was reported to be unhappy at being shifted from the Information Ministry. In his resignation letter, Mr Gupta said: “As I have already expressed my resentment at the Cabinet meeting, I consider it unethical and beyond my dignity to continue.” In a separate statement, Mr Hamal echoed the sentiments, noting that “the political crisis in the country is moving towards complexity.” Mr Koirala is yet to announce the acceptance of the resignations of Mr Gupta and Mr Hamal.
AFP |
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Heavy gunfire in Macedonia Tetovo, Macedonia, March 15 Reuters TV crew in Tetovo said heavily armed Macedonian police opened mortar and heavy machinegun fire from Tetovo suburbs in the direction of a nearby mountain from their armoured personnel carriers. Gunmen returned fire. It was the second day of fighting near the ethnic Albanian city of Tetovo. One civilian died on Wednesday and two were wounded. Reuters Nick Wood of The Guardian, London, adds: Macedonia appeared to be on the brink of civil war on Wednesday night as fighting between the police and ethnic Albanian rebels erupted close to Tetovo, the country’s second largest city, and threatened to ignite another Balkan conflagration. At least seven policemen were injured in the violence, which marks the spread of the ethnic Albanian insurgency into north-western Macedonia. Meanwhile, Yugoslav security forces, with NATO’s consent, rolled into the buffer zone between Kosovo and Serbia on Wednesday to push back rebels who had occupied the Presevo valley. The artillery and machine-gun fire which could be heard coming from hills a mile from Tetovo seemed to be getting closer to the city. The latest clashes began on Wednesday and took place 35 miles from previous incursions. “The situation is horrible. They’re shooting at our positions with various types of weapons. There is a major attack under way,’’ said Mr Stevo Pemdarovski, a spokesman for the Macedonian Interior Ministry. Around 200 ethnic Albanian rebels were reported to be involved in the fighting, which is taking place in and around the Larce village. Mr Pemdarovski blamed the attacks on the National Liberation Army, an ethnic Albanian rebel group that emerged in Macedonia two months ago. Last night fires began to burn in the wooded hills surrounding Tetovo and flares lit up the sky. Young men watched from the city’s main square. “We’ve been waiting for this moment for 40 years,’’ said one man who refused to be named. ``We have nothing here, no work or any rights.’’ Opposition to the ethnic Macedonian government has been strong among Tetovo’s majority Albanians for a long time. Albanians make up over a quarter of the Macedonian population, but their language has yet to be given official recognition in the Constitution. Further north, on Kosovo’s eastern border, convoys of Serb military trucks and armoured personnel carriers churned into the Presevo valley at dawn on Wednesday, disgorging paratroopers and paramilitary police into wooded hills controlled by ethnic Albanian guerrillas. Nato peacekeepers watched from helicopters and observation posts as the Serbs plodded through fog and mud to reclaim the southern tip of the three-mile buffer zone created in June 1999 to separate the two armies. Belgrade and the guerrillas signed a 20-day ceasefire on Monday, but few expect it to last that long. Several detonations, thought to be mortars, rocked the area two hours after the Serbs arrived. |
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Palestinian blockade to ease: Sharon Jerusalem, March 15 Mr Sharon yesterday told his 13-member security cabinet at its first meeting since he took office last week that he would selectively lift restrictions in Palestinian areas where violence dropped. Palestinians had taken to the streets hours earlier to demonstrate against the blockade, which hampers their movement and has dealt a severe blow to their already ailing economy. In the latest violence, Israeli troops killed Ahmed Bannar, 19, at the Karni commercial crossing on the Israel-Gaza border. At least 345 Palestinians, 65 Israelis and 13 Israeli Arabs have been killed in the violence that erupted in late September after peace talks reached a deadlock. Israel said it had imposed the blockade, which has been criticised by Washington and the European Union, for security reasons. Palestinians brand the closure collective punishment. Mr Raanan Gissin, Mr Sharon’s spokesman, said easing the blockade was in line with the government’s policy of differentiating between “terrorists” and the rest of the population. He said local military commanders had been given orders to lift the blockade in areas where fighting eased, but knew they were free to reimpose restrictions should violence flare.
Reuters |
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Bomb ‘blew up’ Thai plane Bangkok, March 15 However, it is still not known if Mr Shinawatra was the target of the bomb blast. The parked Boeing blew up at the Bangkok airport on March 3, minutes before Thaksin was to board it. The Defence Minister, Mr Chavalit Yongchaiyudh, today gave a copy of the probe report to Mr Thaksin. So far various theories have been put forward by officials regarding the motive of the blast-ranging from drug war, business rivalry between handling agencies operating in the airport to disgruntled employees.
PTI |
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Threat to kill Wahid’s rival Jakarta, March 15 In the port-town of Ketapang in Wahid’s heartland of East Java province, about 3,000 demonstrators, carrying sickles and machetes, vowed to attack Amien Rais, the speaker of the nation’s highest Legislative body. The demonstrators blockaded the port in the town, about 900 km (540 miles) East of Jakarta. About 100 armed police officers watched the protest but did not intervene.
AP |
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£ 500,000 for
FMD-hit farmers London, March 15 Charles said in a statement yesterday that six charities would benefit from the handout. “Many farmers throughout the UK are facing desperate hardship at the moment,” said the Prince and heir to the British throne. RIYADH:
Officials in Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) reported cases of foot-and-mouth disease, the first reported in the Middle-East since the current world-wide wave of concern over the highly infectious livestock disease. The UAE reported eight cases yesterday and responded by restricting imports of animals and birds.
AFP, AP |
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