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| Wednesday,
March 21, 2001, Chandigarh, India   
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Army go-ahead to Musharraf on signing CTBT Minister’s copter attacked ‘RAW hand’ in bid to
break up alliance Hasina to quit
after April 17 Indians protest, blame
Mahathir for violence World’s largest rig sinks |
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Macedonian tanks blast rebel
posts Smashing of statues
brought rain: Omar
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Army go-ahead to Musharraf on signing CTBT Islamabad, March 20 The decision to sign CTBT was taken yesterday on the opening day of the two-day corps commanders conference at Rawalpindi, Pakistan Observer, quoting well-placed sources, said. “Except for very negligible dissent, senior commanders are reported to have agreed that Pakistan has achieved a certain level of nuclear deterrence and the country may go ahead with the signing of the CTBT”, the newspaper said. The decision to sign the CTBT was taken based on the grim economic situation faced by Pakistan due to pressing repayment schedules of $ 38 billion of its foreign debt. The newspaper said “senior commanders are also mindful of the political developments that are taking place in India”. Japan has already indicated its willingness to resume annual aid worth $ 500 million to Pakistan provided it signed the CTBT and restricted its nuclear programme. “In view of the army’s decision to go ahead with signing of CTBT, Gen Parvez Musharraf would in the coming weeks meet the political and religious leaders to evolve a broad political consensus in this regard,” the daily said. The corps commanders also advised the government to concentrate more on putting in place an effective research and development network rather than laying undue emphasis on further nuclear testing, the daily said. The decision to sign the CTBT followed reports that Pakistan has evolved a three-point nuclear doctrine under which it was willing to provide a commitment to maintain a self-imposed nuclear deterrence, steer clear of the arms race and a pledge to refrain from exporting nuclear weapons and technology to any other country. The new doctrine evolved by Islamabad has been conveyed to Japanese leaders during last week’s visit of Pakistan Foreign Minister Abdul Sattar to Tokyo, according to Urdu daily Jung. Under the newly evolved doctrine, Pakistan has decided to maintain self-imposed nuclear deterrence for an indefinite period and would not be the first country to conduct nuclear tests, the report said. Secondly, Pakistan is willing to provide a commitment to refrain from indulging in any arms race with any country, including India, and agreed to keep its nuclear programme at the current levels to ensure reliable deterrence, it said. Finally, Pakistan is willing to give an undertaking not to export its nuclear weapons or technology to any other country nor it would use it for any illegal purposes. The three-point doctrine would shortly be presented to all donor countries and international financial institutions so as to get the sanctions lifted, the report said.
PTI |
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Minister’s copter attacked Medan, Indonesia, March 20 A military official said there were no casualties in the attack, which underscores the security headaches in Aceh that earlier this month forced the closure of economically-vital gas fields. The shooting is the latest in a stream of bad news buffeting Indonesia as Wahid fights for his political life after just 16 months as the country’s first democratically-elected president. Wahid, under pressure to quit after being censured last month by Parliament over two financial scandals, is due to visit Aceh next Monday. It was unclear if he would still go to the province, where rebels have been fighting for independence for decades. In Jakarta, 2,000 Wahid supporters rallied for most of the day, although there was no sign of the huge crowds, for or against him, that had been predicted. By late afternoon many protesters had dispersed and there were no clashes. Shots hit a helicopter ferrying the Minister, Purnomo Yusgiantoro, to the closed gas fields run by Exxon Mobil on the tip of Sumatra island, the official said. Another helicopter with journalists on board was also struck by bullets. Mr Purnawa, speaking later in Medan, capital of North Sumatra province to the south of Aceh, added that gunfire could also be heard while the minister was visiting the Exxon fields. Exxon Mobil’s gas fields in Aceh have been closed for more than a week, halting output at the PT Arun NGL liquefied natural gas plant there and forcing utilities in Japan and South Korea to seek alternative suppliers. Exxon Mobil says the cumulative effect of dozens of security incidents over the past two years has been to force the temporary shutdown in Aceh. Early today one child was killed when security forces clashed with rebels of the Free Aceh Movement near the Arun plant, a military source said. Meanwhile, a Jakarta court today found a former senior official guilty of embezzlement in a corruption scandal that threatens to bring down President Wahid’s Government. The South Jakarta District Court sentenced Sapuan, ex-deputy director of the state-run food procurement agency, Bulog, to two years in prison for his role in the embezzlement of 35 billion rupiah ($ 4.1 million) last year. Sapuan had released the funds to Wahid’s personal masseur and business associate, Suwondo, who fled Jakarta after splitting the money with close friends and business associates of the president. Wahid has acknowledged asking Bulog officials about using money from an employee pension fund for Aceh, but denied ordering his masseur to request the money. However, witnesses to the scandal, including the country’s former national police chief, testified to investigators that Wahid had known large sums of money were being given to his friends.
Reuters, DPA |
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‘RAW hand’ in bid to
break up alliance Dhaka, March 20 The statement is based on a report in a Opposition daily that an Indian diplomat and Palestinan envoy went to meet former President and Jatiya Party chairperson in the Dhaka Central Jail to convince him to dissociate from the four party Opposition alliance. The report is a sequel to move by a JP legistator Mr G.M. Quader, younger brother of Gen Ershad, who recently met the former President twice inside the jail and initiated a resolution to seek division vote in the coming session of the parliament to prove majority of the party’s faction headed by Ershad so that the party’s poll symbol “plough” could be retained. A section of the party’s presidium led by Secretary General Naziur Rahman Manjur at a meeting on Monday night opposed the move. However, Raushan the Generals wife, and others sided with the move and was adopted. Now, JP parliamentary party will approach the speaker in this regard. The other faction, headed by the Communications Minister, is unfazed by the move. The move has created a serious confusion among the partners of the four-party alliance that it was bid by the ruling party to break the alliance through departure of the JP. The partners are boycotting Parliament which may be dissolved soon. Ms Khaleda Zia is likely to speak to Raushan on this matter soon. Meanwhile, Naziur Rahman Manjur, in press interviews to a number of local dailies namely Jugantar, Daily Star, Pratham Alo alleged that Mr Quader was a RAW agent and the Indian intelligence agency was involved in attempt to break the four-party alliance. He alleged that Quader get huge sums and his wife ran a business with money from RAW. He also blamed that the Indian diplomat meeting Ershad exerted pressure to write a letter to party leaders for seeking division vote. As usual RAW is dragged in to Bangladesh politics by the anti-Indian parties. Always RAW is a scapegoat. |
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Hasina to quit
after April 17 Dhaka, March 20 Hasina, whose Centre-Left government would end its five-year term in office on June 23, told senior members of her ruling Awami League that she had decided to resign early to enable polls to be held before the onset of the monsoon. Under Bangladesh’s Constitution, a general election can only be held under a non-partisan government with a retired Chief Justice of the Supreme Court serving as the caretaker Prime Minister. The Parliament, which is meeting until the end of March, is to be dissolved by the country’s President Shahabuddin Ahmad before the caretaker government takes charge. The monsoon season, which officially begins in the middle of June, unleashes floods that submerge homes, farms and roads and creates communication problems in the countryside where the majority of more than 60 million voters live. The announcement on transferring power by Hasina followed demands by an Opposition alliance
for her to quit office immediately and hold parliamentary polls in May.
DPA |
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Indians protest, blame Mahathir for violence Kuala Lumpur, March 20 Waving banners reading “We demand justice and development” and “Maintain harmony without racism,” the protesters demanded a meeting with Mahathir to air grievances over social and economic problems faced by ethnic Indians, Malaysia’s third-largest minority group. Mahathir, however, was not in Parliament — where Speaker Mohamed Zahir Ismail rejected an opposition motion today to hold a special debate over this month’s fighting between ethnic Malays and ethnic Indians. The demonstration came one day after the 25-day session opened with a plea for unity by Malaysia’s king. K. Arumugam, a spokesman for 51 non-government organisations who demonstrated, said ethnic Indians felt alienated and deprived compared to Malay Muslims, who comprise more than half of the Southeast Asian nation’s 22 million people and benefit from government affirmative action programmes. In a letter to Mahathir, the protesters urged Malaysia’s leader of nearly 20 years to establish a multi-ethnic police task force to handle racial conflicts and a race relations commission to probe intolerance.
AP |
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World’s largest rig sinks Macae (Brazil), March 20 After stabilising the 40-storey platform for a day and raising hopes it could be saved, the rig sank another 1.3 feet (40 cm) on Sunday night, Brazil’s state oil giant Petrobras, said. The platform tower was listing more than ever, at a 27-degree angle, almost three times the Leaning Tower of Pisa. “Certainly today we are in a worse situation than yesterday and this is a worrying trend,” said Carlos Eduardo Bellot, general manager of Petrobras operations in the oil-rich Campos Basin. “But we have a strong chance of keeping the platform floating,” he added. Three explosions rocked the rig early on Thursday, killing 10 of the 175 men aboard and seriously injuring another. Nearly 350 engineers, divers and navy men worked around the clock, though the weather worsened as a cold front moved up the southern Atlantic seaboard to the northern coast of Rio de Janeiro state. Meanwhile, workers’ unions said they were stepping up protests to demand more safety. They will maintain only skeleton crews on the 50 platforms in the Campos Basin off the Rio coast, which supplies around 80 per cent of Brazil’s oil. Petrobras flew in US and Dutch experts and 50 tonnes of European equipment to try to keep the deep-sea platform afloat and prevent an oil spill over the weekend. They are pumping in nitrogen and compressed air and trying to pump out almost 3,000 tonnes of water weighing down the rig. But rough seas with five-foot (1.5-metre) waves complicated the operation and the rig ended up sinking further beneath the surface. It has sunk almost 15 feet (4.6 metres) since the explosions. The P-36 rig, which cost $350 million and is insured for $500 million, is located 125 km off Macae, the gateway to the Campos Basin. Though Petrobras president Henri Philippe Reichstul said the recovery of the bodies was the main priority, officials said it was impossible to access the chambers where the bodies were trapped, at least for the next 48 hours. Only one severely burnt body has been recovered and identified as a 34-year-old father.
Reuters |
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Macedonian tanks blast rebel posts Tetovo (Macedonia), March 20 At Skopje, European Union security chief Javier Solana urged a political rather than military solution to the conflict. “The Balkans have suffered too many wars already, too many people have suffered,” Mr Solana told Spanish state radio in the republic’s capital. Troops with armoured personnel carriers and firing from behind a wall of sandbags directed long volleys of fire into two houses close to the city football stadium. The buildings were on fire and belching thick smoke. Yesterday, the Macedonian army brought up tanks and several hundred troops and a government spokesman said a “final operation’’ was being readied to oust the rebels. Interior Ministry troops have pounded rebel targets in the hills for the past six days. A government spokesman in Skopje said security forces had destroyed the main guerrilla stronghold on a hill overlooking Tetovo, a town of around 70,000 people. “The Macedonian security forces will soon start a final operation to destroy terrorists,” Mr Antonio Milosovski said. “That will happen when our commanders in the field decide that there will be minimum risk of losing lives of security forces,” he said. But Macedonian forces had not yet managed to destroy guerrilla underground tunnels, he said. They have mortared and machine-gunned rebel targets since Wednesday in an effort to dislodge what Macedonia says is a force of several hundred guerrillas of the self-styled National Liberation Army (NLA).
Reuters |
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Smashing of statues brought rain: Omar Islamabad, March 20 Widespread rain broke a four-year drought in Afghanistan last week while the radical Islamic Taliban were destroying the world-famous Bamiyan Buddhas, which were cut into a cliff 1,400 years ago, and all other statues in the country. Washington: The official-level talks between the US State Department and the Taliban Foreign Ministry ended in a deadlock today with Washington maintaining that the Kabul regime failed to give specific proposals on ending terrorism in the region. The USA has dismissed as “self-serving” and “inaccurate” the Taliban’s reasoning to justify destruction of ancient Buddha statues in Afghanistan. Rahmatullah yesterday presented a letter addressed to US President George W. Bush calling for improved relations and continued dialogue between the two countries.
DPA, UNI |
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