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March 23, 2001, Chandigarh, India   
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Hasina reneges on poll pledge Kabul museum opens sans statues Pak Oppn leaders
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Priests ‘sexually
abused’ nuns Rebels cease fire in Macedonia
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Expulsions ‘a relapse into cold war’ Moscow, March 22 An unnamed US official said the USA was expelling diplomats suspected of being intelligence officers, partly in retaliation for the case of FBI agent Robert Hanssen, accused of spying for Moscow over 15 years. Washington, which believes Russia has “too many spies” in the USA, declared six Russians persona non grata on Wednesday. There has been no formal announcement on the others. Interfax news agency quoted Russian official sources as saying the incident — which would be the biggest expulsion of suspected spies since “Operation Famish” in 1986 when President Ronald Reagan ordered 80 Soviet diplomats out — would badly hit bilateral relations. “The sources said that the Russian side would take ‘appropriate steps’ as is normally done in such cases,” Interfax said, implying US diplomats would be expelled. A senior Kremlin aide described US plans to expel about 50 Russian diplomats suspected of spying as a “relapse into the Cold War era”’, interfax news agency reported. “If these reports are true, such action would cause deep regret in Russia,” it quoted President Vladimir Putin’s foreign policy adviser Sergei Prikhodko as saying. “Any campaigns of spy-mania or searches for an enemy are only worthy of deep regret and are a relapse into the Cold War era,” he said in the first Kremlin reaction to the planned US expulsions. US ambassador James Collins held brief talks at the Russian Foreign Ministry on Thursday but declined to comment. “I have no comment whatsoever on this matter. Any comments will come from Washington or from the Government here,” he told reporters. RIA Novosti quoted undisclosed sources as saying that Russia could expel “hundreds” of US diplomats in retaliation for Washington’s decision. ITAR-TASS said while Moscow had the embassy staff of 190 in Washington, the USA had 1,100 strong staff in Russia with many American spies working under the diplomatic cover. According to CBS-TV, the number of Russian spies in the USA was estimated at 450. The CBS-TV said according to law enforcement sources, the latest mass expulsion was done using the Hanssen case as an excuse to reduce the overall number of Russian intelligence officers operating in the country. Meanwhile, a scheduled meeting between Russian Communist Party leader Zyuganov and Mr Collins was put off after the American envoy was called to the Russian Foreign Ministry. Meanwhile, President Vladimir Putin dismissed fears that recent spy scandals could sour relations between Moscow and Washington, calling on the media “not to over-dramatise the situation.” “As for the new US administration’s policy toward Russia, it’s not worth such drama. In any country, a new leadership always rethinks the former policies,” Mr Putin told reporters in an interview published today. “The US President said recently that Russia is neither an enemy nor an opponent of the USA,” he told reporters of four Russian newspapers. “We think it’s a very positive signal, we heard it and feel the same way about the us. We hope for a positive dialogue,” he added. However, Russia will not yield on several key issues, including its vocal opposition to the controversial US plan of installing a national anti-missile defence shield. “We have our differences (with the USA), primarily on security issues, such as our approach toward the ABM treaty of 1972. It continues to be the cornerstone of international security, and we will insist on that,” Putin told the
reporters. Reuters, AFP, PTI |
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Hasina reneges on poll pledge Dhaka, March 22 “Certainly the government’s position on the next polls has changed, The ruling (Awami League) party is now firm to complete its term in office,” the Prime Minister’s spokesman told
Reuters. Ms Hasina took office in 1996 and she need not step down before July 13. On expiry of her term, Ms Hasina is constitutionally bound to hand power to a non-party caretaker authority that will hold the new polls within three months. Industry Minister Tofael Ahmed said: “Our pledge to hold an early election no longer stands following the ultimatum issued by Ms Khaleda Zia.” “She had mistaken the government’s goodwill as weakness. So we have taken the challenge and will now stay in office until the government’s current term ends on July 13,” Mr Ahmed said in an immediate response to Ms Khaleda’s warning. On Monday, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina offered to hand over power to a caretaker authority after April 17 and hold the next election around the middle of June so that Bangladeshis would be able to vote before the rainy season starts. But yesterday, opposition leader Begum Khaleda Zia said Ms Hasina must quit by the end of March and hold the election before the end of May. Otherwise, Ms Khaleda threatened to call a two-day non-stop countrywide strike from April 1 in a fresh attempt to oust Ms Hasina. Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina today renewed her call to opposition leader Khaleda Zia to join the early election she had offered in June and discard the path of strike, killing and violence. Sheikh Hasina’s appeal came a day after Khaleda Zia set an ultimatum asking the government to step down before March 30 otherwise she threatened to call a two-day countrywide strike from April 1 to oust her. Responding to Khaleda’s ultimatum, the Prime Minister counter challenged her and said: “I will wait to see whether the Opposition can pull me down from power.” Sheikh Hasina said she had already declared an early election showing respect to the people but Opposition leader Khaleda Zia issued the ultimatum. About her declaration to hold an election in June, the Prime Minister said she had already met the President and held discussions with him about the demands of the Opposition and ways of forming the caretaker government to conduct the polls. Sheikh Hasina said the government can hang on to power till July 13, and will get a grace period of 15 days to form the caretaker government. “But I have agreed to give an early election and decided to hand over power any day after April 17, the Mujib Nagar Day.” “The opposition, apprehending a massive defeat in the coming election, is trying to stay away from the vote in one or another pretext. It is also conspiring to plunge the country into a deep political crisis,” Home Minister Mohammad Nasim said. The BNP lawmakers have also boycotted Parliament since July, 1999.Reuters,
UNI |
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Kabul museum opens sans statues Kabul, March 22 Museum staff said about 40 statues had been destroyed following an order last month by Taliban supremo Mullah Mohammad Omar to eradicate what the movement considers heathen idols. All had been smashed inside the closed museum. An hour-long opening of the museum to reporters revealed an empty space where a life-size statue from the country’s Buddhist period of 1,500 years ago had once stood. A screen in another room showed small birds — the nearest thing to a violation of the Taliban’s ban on portrayal of animate objects — but the head of each bird had been carefully chiselled away. The Taliban agreed to open the museum after refusing requests by journalists to visit Bamiyan, where the hardline Islamic movement had destroyed two colossal Buddhas. Islamabad: Swamped by a wave of condemnation from the international community for destroying the 2000-year-old Bamiyan Buddha statues, Taliban supremo Mullah Omar has agreed to protect the remaining relics and statues, a Pakistan official has claimed. Omar has agreed to negotiate the protection of the remaining relics and statues with
UNESCO after his recent meeting with a team of religious scholars from Qatar, the United Arab Emirates and Egypt, Maulana Tahir Ashrafi, Adviser to the Governor of Pakistan’s Punjab province, told reporters here. The Islamic scholars met Omar and convinced him about the need for protecting the remaining heritage monuments.
Reuters, PTI |
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Pak Oppn leaders released Lahore, March 22 According to the police, 28 senior politicians from the 16-party Alliance for the Restoration of Democracy (ARD), Pakistan’s main political alliance, were detained after a meeting here on Wednesday. Eighteen of them were freed overnight and only 10 remained in custody. The alliance says at least 1,650 of its political workers have been arrested over the last two days, in the what is widely seen as the military regime’s biggest crackdown on the country’s political parties. “The information today is that activists are still being arrested. This is a contravention of human rights, to ban this kind of peaceful political activity does not inspire confidence among the people,” Alliance chief Nawabzada Nasrullah Khan, who was one of those temporarily detained, said. He also said that the ARD was determined to go ahead with the planned anti-government rally on Friday here.
ANI |
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Priests ‘sexually abused’ nuns Vatican City, March 22 Some nuns were forced to take the contraceptive pill, the report cited in Rome daily la Repubblica said on Tuesday. The Vatican said the issue was restricted to a certain geographical area, but the report cited cases in 23 countries, including the USA, Brazil, the Philippines, India, Ireland and Italy. Missionary news agency misna condemned the abuse while recalling that missionaries often worked “at the limit of human endurance”. It urged the media to remember the good deeds of missionaries around the world as well as their failings. A Vatican statement said in relation to the news of cases of sexual abuse against nuns committed by priests and missionaries, chief Vatican spokesman Joaquin Navarro-Valls had the following announcement: “The problem is known about and is restricted to a certain geographical area. While the Vatican did not name the geographical area, the report said most incidents of sexual abuse against nuns occurred in Africa where the nuns were identified as “safe” following the onset of the
HIV and aids virus devastating the continent. Charges made in the report, signed with names and surnames, were made known to the Church authorities on several occasions throughout the 1990s, the article by la Repubblica’s respected Vatican correspondent Marco Politi said. The author of the report was nun and physician Maura O’Donohue, who presented it to the head of the Vatican’s Congregation for Holy Orders, Cardinal Martinez Somalo, in February, 1995. He ordered a working group from the congregation to study the problem with O’Donohue, who was aids coordinator for Cafod, the London-based Roman Catholic Fund for Overseas Development.
Reuters |
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Rebels cease fire in Macedonia Shipkovica, March 22 The concession was offered by Mr Ali Ahmeti, political head of the National Liberation Army, in a television broadcast in the neighbouring Kosovo. “We, the general staff of the National Liberation Army, announce a unilateral ceasefire and we open the road for dialogue so heads can cool down and to find the best solution,” he said. He said the ceasefire was open-ended, but warned in case of an attack the more than four-week struggle would continue. There was no immediate government reaction to the offer, made public less than five hours before the time set by the government for the rebels to lay down their arms and disperse or face a full counter-attack. The government issued its ultimatum late on Tuesday, telling the guerrillas they had 24 hours to surrender or leave Macedonia. After midnight yesterday, the Army and the police would launch an offensive to push the insurgents northward towards Kosovo, and out of Macedonia, it said.
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Bhagwati is global
rights panel chief Washington, March 22 This important committee consists of 18 members of State Parties to the International Covenant of Civil and Political Rights which came into force on March 23, 1976.
PTI |
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