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| Monday,
March 19, 2001, Chandigarh, India   
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LTTE shifts HQ from
London to Wanni
Pak not to
sign CTBT yet |
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News Analysis FMD
spreads to West Asia Aceh violence claims 15
lives Lanka
offers to buy Buddha remains NATO vows
action Clash at global forum
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LTTE shifts HQ from London to Wanni Colombo, March 18 Media reports here said Norwegian peace envoy Erik Solheim, who will return to Colombo within the next few days, will meet Tiger leader Velupillai Prabhakaran at the new office shortly. However, there is no official confirmation about Mr Solheims meeting with Prabhakaran. Political and diplomatic sources said the British ban on the LTTE would not affect the current peace process. With the LTTE shifting its international headquarters from London to Wanni, Mr Solheim will prefer to hold talks with the LTTE leadership in Wanni, reports said. Although there was speculation about the LTTE shifting its international headquarters to another Western country, the LTTE hierarchy preferred to relocate it to the Wanni permanently rather than seek temporary accommodation elsewhere. The secretariat in London was primarily responsible for disseminating information, generating propaganda and coordinating the activities of the LTTE in 55 countries. It had no role in the LTTE’s decision-making process and functioned merely as an agency. Mr Solheim is coming here on another round of talks with Sri Lankan leaders after meeting Foreign Minister Jaswant Singh and other officials in New Delhi this week. Meanwhile, Mr Solheim has said India is “fully supportive and appreciative” of the Oslo-brokered Lankan peace efforts, effectively putting at rest the recent media reports that New Delhi is impeding the peace talks. “They are all rumours. There has been no such objection from India, which is fully supportive and appreciative of my efforts” Mr Solheim said in an exclusive interview from Oslo to the London representative of independent Tamil daily, ‘thinakkural’, published in its Sunday edition today. He denied reports that spoke of India’s objections to the presence of some countries in a proposed monitoring committee to oversee the implementation of a prospective preliminary agreement. In the past few weeks, reports have been appearing in a Sunday weekly newspaper and a few other publications here that India had objections to the presence of Britain and Japan on the monitoring committee. The reports had caused suspicion here that New Delhi was placing impediments in the path of the peace process.
UNI, PTI |
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Pak not to sign
CTBT yet Tokyo, March 18 Sattar met the Japanese Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori on Friday and gave him a letter from Gen Pervez Musharraf. It stated that the chief executive was making efforts to ratify the CTBT and reform his country’s economy.
ANI |
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News Analysis THE pronouncements of Pakistan’s Interior Minister Mr. Moinuddin Haider, on curbing activities of the jehadis received unusual hype in sections of the Pakistani press. In particular his Press conference on February 12, 2001 struck the headlines in some of the dailies. “I have already ordered that banners asking for funds for the jehad be removed. No one will be allowed to force people into giving donations for the purchase of weapons in the name of jehad. There is no jehad going on in Karachi or in Pakistan and these organisations cannot be allowed to act arbitrarily. I am giving clear orders to the police that if they see anyone displaying arms, they should stop and warn them and if they face resistance they should shoot. No one is above the law”, reported the Friday Times in its issue of March 1, 2001. Prior to it, the military government had announced some more measures indicative of its intention to restrain the activities of the jehadis. These were the banning of carrying of arms in public and enforcement of revised curricula in the seminaries (madarsas) providing space for the teaching of secular sciences. The intended reform package began with the declaration of bringing about modifications in the blasphemy law. Announcement of imposition of some curbs and restrictions on Islamic militias created an impression that the military government did not want further isolation of Pakistan in the international fraternity. It must behave more with a sense of responsibility. That impression was perhaps created for the consumption of the big powers especially the USA. Sanctions imposed recently by the UN Security Council on the Taliban with suspected Osama bin Laden links, have brought Pakistani Islamist organisations also into the orbit of narco-religious terrorists. Thus pressure was mounted on the military regime in Islamabad to do something to contain these diehards, their militant wings and the sphere of their activities. A couple of statements emerging from the State Department also pointedly referred to these Islamists fighting the Indian forces in Kashmir. Thus for public consumption, a couple of much touted preventive measures as cited above were announced by the regime in Islamabad But what happened immediately after the government made known its intention of amending the blasphemy law, prompted analysts to visualise two situations. Either the rhetoric exuded by the Interior Minister was only a cover or that it was to convey to the Americans how much difficult it was to contain the Frankenstein — their own creation during the Afghan war. Reacting to the proposed amendment to the blasphemy law, Qazi Husain Ahmad, chief of the
Jamaat-i-Islami exhorted the corps commanders to throw out the Chief Executive because he was allegedly “an American agent.” The government was alarmed and dragged its feet leaving the blasphemy law untouched. Maulana Awan, chief of the most influential Islamist organisation called Tanzimu-I-Akhwan, issued an ultimatum to the military regime that if it did not declare Pakistan an Islamic theocratic state and made Sharia the operational law in the country within a specific date, the Tanzim would make an announcement on its own. The regime was shaken and
dispatched emissaries to the Maulana seeking a reprieve. This happened because the General knew that the Tanzim had reached the core of the military establishment and the top brass had attained the sobriquet of “Jehadi Generals” from the organisation. Pak observers and insiders placed too flimsy a credibility on the rhetoric exuded by Moinuddin Haider. It was not just a speculation but their firm knowledge of the situation in Pakistan that led to the emergence of these forces. The left- of- the centre image of Z.A. Bhutto had helped General Zia to promote the interests of the right-of-the centre political elements as counterweight to the PPP. Having thrown out the PPP, Zia effectively manipulated the military’s conservative and centrist tendencies to strengthen his own political image. Then followed state’s institutional support to the rightwing. He further strengthened it by bringing in institutional safeguards for his person as well as the military. The Afghan war further helped him in Islamising the institutions. Thus the power of the rightwing extended much beyond its electoral clout. The result was the transformation of the character of Pakistani society, a process that is continuing with much more fury and speed today than ever before. It has manifested itself in the form of proliferation of small arms and light weapons within Pakistan and in the region, increasing sectarian violence, lack of political space and dissent and deep political polarisation. It should not spring a surprise to anybody now that the military regime has made a volte-face and through a negotiated settlement has permitted the Islamist organisation to discreetly collect funds and recruit volunteers to fight Indian forces in Kashmir. The News said: “After prolonged negotiations with the government agencies, mainstream religious organisations, involved in armed struggle against Indian forces in Kashmir, have agreed to discreetly pursue their drive to collect donations and recruit volunteers.” Commenting on this the Pakistani paper says: “The latest development has effectively reversed the dramatic announcement made by Interior Minister Moinuddin Haider, promising elimination of all such activities on February 13.” The paper continues: “Though sections of the regime made a fine distinction, between the sectarian Sunni and Shia outfits that indulged in violence in Pakistan, it is the jehadi organisations fighting in Kashmir that have registered phenomenal growth in small and big towns in Pakistan.” What Pakistan is actually doing in the matter is this. It made a flurry of announcement that it was coming down with a heavy hand on the extremists and jehadis; their madarsas would be put under check; their funding made transparent; their training and bearing arms curbed. She sold this propaganda with specific media hype to the Americans to silence their criticism and to block any further action on their subtle warning of considering Pakistan among states that do not cooperate to curb terrorism. But at the same time, it entered into an agreement with the jehadis to continue their jehad in Kashmir, recruitment of volunteers, receiving funds and disbursing these among the activists and to provide them all the logistical support they need to continue their fight against the Indian forces in Kashmir. Nobody can say whether the Americans would be satisfied with this posturing of Pakistan. As far as India is concerned, rhetoric of Pakistan Interior Minister against the narco-religious chapters is fully belied by the secret agreement made with the Islamists. But at the root of all this lies the amusing question: “Can the military rule get rid of them?” |
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Dubai, March 18 Farm owners burnt carcasses of the 101 cows and 50 goats in a farm, 85 km south east of Dubai, the Gulf News daily said. The disease is believed to have reached the UAE through imports from abroad. Meanwhile, organisers of the $ 15 million Dubai World Cup, the richest horse race in the world, said the outbreak would in no way affect the event. Horses are believed to be resistant to the disease. The municipal Public Health Committee for Livestock and Poultry has discussed the situation in order to establish an emergency set-up to contain and control the disease, the official UAE news agency WAM said. In Saudi Arabia, five cases of sick animals had been identified in Jeddah and Khamees Mishait but the authorities there did not confirm them as foot-and-mouth infection. Iran said it would distribute 2.5 million doses of vaccine to farmers after the disease was discovered in sheep in three centres near the town of Shahroud. LONDON: Britain began culling apparently healthy animals on Sunday in a desperate bid to stop the foot-and-mouth outbreak in its tracks, while a nervous mainland Europe tightened up its anti-disease measures. The tally of infected sites in Britain had reached 297 with the Agriculture Ministry on Sunday announcing 24 new cases, including one in Shropshire, central England, which had until now been free of the contagion. Agriculture Ministry officials announced that at two farms in Scotland they had already started their programme of slaughtering sheep even though they were showing no symptoms of the foot-and-mouth disease.
PTI, AFP |
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Jakarta, March 18 The local police chief, Lt Col Said Huseini, said officers shot three rebels to death yesterday on the outskirts of the provincial capital Banda Aceh, while a civilian was also killed in a crossfire in a separate gunfight nearby. Human rights workers said the bodies of four villagers were found yesterday in southern Aceh, about 1,750 km northwest of Jakarta. The victims appeared to have been shot dead. Also in eastern Aceh seven civilians were killed yesterday. Rights activist Nasruddin Badai said the victims were executed by Indonesian security forces after being arrested and taken away. However, local police spokesman Sudarsono said the rebels were responsible for the deaths. Indonesia’s government has deployed three battalions of troops to Aceh to protect US-based Ekkon-Mobil’s natural gas fields after the company suspended operations last week due to security threats. Meanwhile, indigenous Dayak tribesmen have continued their killing spree in Borneo, murdering at least another eight migrants, a report said today. The bodies of eight victims have been found since Friday last in and near the central Kalimantan town of Sampit, where bloody ethnic violence erupted last month, Banjarmasin Post said. But the head of the local district police, Adjutant Senior Commissioner Petrus Hardono, said over the telephone from Sampit that he had not received reports of the incidents. However, he said the police had arrested 10 persons for looting houses left vacant by their fleeing Madurese owners.
AP, AFP |
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Lanka offers to buy Buddha remains Colombo, March 18 Sri Lanka, the seat of Theravada Buddhism, had earlier offered to finance an international operation to save the two statues which date back more than 1,500 years. The Presidential aide, Mr Lakshman Jayakody, said he believed Sri Lanka had the expertise to reconstruct the statues. “We want to make a formal request to get what remains of the Bamiyan Buddha statues.” Prime Minister Ratnasiri Wickremanayake and Foreign Minister Lakshman Kadirgamar made separate visits to Pakistan in a bid to pressure the Taliban to spare the priceless statues. On Friday, Taliban’s supreme leader Mullah Mohammad Omar ordered 100 cows to be sacrificed on Monday to atone for delays in the destruction of the ancient statues in the central Bamiyan province. Kabul’s official media, however, did not make it clear if Omar meant the delay since Islam came to Afghanistan around 14 centuries ago or since the Taliban took over Kabul in 1996.
AFP |
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Pristina (Yugoslavia), March 18
SKOPJE: Macedonia’s Interior Ministry said on Sunday its troops would start an offensive against ethnic Albanian guerrillas on a hillside near the northwestern town of Tetovo later in the day. “The situation is the same as before but we expect a more important advance of our troops during this evening,” spokesman Stevo Pendarovski told a news conference. “We can expect our troops to advance on some of their positions.” Interior Ministry troops have been pouring machinegun and artillery fire onto the mountain slopes close to Tetovo since Wednesday but have not yet been able to move up on the guerrilla positions.
Reuters  |
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Naples (Italy), March 18 The riot police fired tear-gas grenades baton-charged demonstrators in the centre of the city after the protesters hurled stones at the police and managed to throw some of the grenades back at the officers. Demonstrators tried to break through police cordons to reach conference delegates, but were kept back by the police. Organisers of the demonstration claimed there were 50,000 protesters, while the police numbered the activists at 20,000. Several journalists and television crews were also hit by the protesters and the police, Italian press agency, ANSA said.
AFP |
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