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| Thursday,
April 19, 2001, Chandigarh, India    |
Russia fails to bring
back media baron Strike in Karachi
after 2 bomb blasts Mujib trial ends |
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Iran fires Scuds at Iraqi camps Israelis re-enter Gaza |
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Benazir to return ‘after August’
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Russia fails to bring
back media baron Madrid, April 18 “The decision is against extradition of Gusinsky,” defence lawyer Domingo Plazas told newsmen earlier. Spanish prosecutors may appeal to another panel at the High Court against the ruling on behalf of Russian authorities within three days, Mr Plazas said. Gusinsky was ordered to remain under police guard at his villa in southern Spain pending a possible appeal, documents from the court said. Gusinsky, founder of the independent Media-Most group and a leading critic of Russian President Vladimir Putin, has said the charges against him are politically motivated. A spokesman for Gusinsky in Moscow celebrated the ruling. “It confirms the unfairness of the Prosecutor-General’s accusations against Gusinsky and the politically motivated nature of the charges,” the spokesman, Dmitry Ostalsky, said. “The Media Most and Gusinsky case was something out of nothing; he did not commit any crime as we’ve said for months, and the decision of a truly independent court confirms this.” Russia’s pursuit of Gusinsky has raised international concern that Putin’s government is trying to stifle post-Soviet press freedom. Gusinsky (48) was arrested in Spain last December but allowed out of jail after posting bail of 1 billion pesetas ($5.33 million). He was held again for two weeks in March before being released while the High Court ruled on the extradition request. Prosecutors in Moscow have accused Gusinsky — one of the “oligarchs” who grew rich in Russia’s first years of transition — of large-scale fraud linked to his Media-Most empire. But Gusinsky says the charges are an attempt by the Kremlin to silence Media-Most’s NTV television station, which has been critical of the war in Chechnya and the sinking of the nuclear powered submarine “Kursk” among other issues. Gusinsky suffered further blows to his media empire when co-owners of his political weekly Itogi dismissed all the editorial staff on Tuesday, a day after closing liberal newspaper Sevodnya. Gazprom says the magnate failed to meet debts of up to $300 million. But the Spanish judges at the High Court ruled that did not represent a criminal offence under Spanish law, and instead should be classed unpaid debt.
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Strike in Karachi after 2 bomb blasts Karachi, April 18 The blasts, in the upmarket Clifton and Defence areas, came amid tight security as one-day strike gripped Karachi and major towns and cities throughout the southern province of Sindh, forcing an almost complete shutdown. “We have confirmed reports there is a bomb blast in which a person died,” a police official said about the first explosion. Karachi bomb squad chief Moinuddin told Reuters a second “low-intensity device” exploded near a fast-food shop, wounding one person and smashing windows. The police said the dead person, originally thought to be a bomber, was a drug-addict who had an explosive device placed in his bag while he slept. Doctors said one of the wounded was in stable condition and the other received superficial injuries. The Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM), the biggest political party in Karachi, and the Jiye Sindh Qaumi Mahaz (JSQM) issued the strike call to protest against government clampdowns on political activities and a failure to solve a chronic water shortage. The stoppage follows a night of violence in which 238 persons were arrested and dozens of vehicles torched. MQM officials said the strike was successful and blamed the violence on state agencies out to discredit strike supporters. “We have called a peaceful strike and all business groups in the city have supported us. We have a mass support...so violence by our party is out of question,” senior MQM leader Nasreen Jalil, a senator in the Upper House suspended following Pakistan’s 1999 military coup, told newsmen. “Intelligence agencies and the establishment always play a dirty role in Pakistani politics and they are again doing that to malign the MQM,” she said. On Wednesday, groups of armed paramilitary personnel patrolled Karachi streets and most shops, schools and businesses remained closed and few buses were running. The strike call came after police used tear gas and batons to crush a series of protests against the water crisis, the latest being in Karachi on Monday. The military government has banned public rallies and demonstrations and security forces have arrested thousands of political workers over the past month. Political and religious parties in Sindh have staged a series of demonstrations against the water crisis, accusing the military government of withholding irrigation supplies in some areas of the province in favour of the populous central province of Punjab. The government denies the charge, saying it is doing everything it can to solve the problem which has badly hit crops and livelihood. Pakistan has received an acute rain shortage — especially in the key agricultural province of Sindh — for the last four years.
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Mujib trial ends Dhaka, April 18 In his verdict on December 14, 2000 Justice Ruhul Amin of the High Court acquitted five of the accused and sentenced 10 to death while Justice ABM Khairul Huq of the same Bench convicted all 15 with death penalty. They were hearing the death reference on the verdict given by District and Sessions Judge Kazi Golam Rasul on November 8, 1998 sentencing all 15 to death. The district court acquitted Taheruddin Thakur, former state minister in the Sheikh Mujib government and two other army personnel. The single judge Bench started hearing on the split judgement on February 12 this year and completed the hearing in 24 court days. Only four of the convicted, accused are in custody. Ten of the convicts to face the death penalty fled their place of posting as diplomats and now are fugitives. The government was moving friendly nation to extradite the fugitives staying in that country, to face conviction. Former Bangladesh Foreign Secretary C.M. Shafi Sami is now in the USA to hold talks with US officials in this regard. In a recent news a New Delhi daily said that Mohiuddin Ahmed (lancer) is now in a small town of Holland and held a meeting of these fugitives to plan killing of Sheikh Hasina. The delay in the trial of the killing of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman along with other family members on August 15, 1975 was because the successive governments since then did not hold the trial. Rather Late General Ziaur Rahman, the assassinated President of the country had rehabilitated the killers in diplomatic jobs. After 23 years the Awami League was voted to power in 1996. Sheikh Hasina, elder of the two surviving daughters of the slain leader became the Prime Minister and arranged to reopen the investigation and trial of the cold-blooded murder. However, the lengthy procedure of trial took this long time and the final execution of the verdict will take more time. If the defendants move the Supreme Court then there will be further delays. |
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Both sides refuse to yield ground Beijing, April 18 US officials declined immediate comment on talks, which both countries expect to set the tone of a relationship already fraught with deep disagreements on issues ranging from US arms sales to Taiwan to human rights. But state television quoted Lu Shumin, the head of the Chinese delegation, as saying Beijing had “plenty of evidence” that an American EP-3 spy plane caused the April 1 mid-air collision with a Chinese F-8 fighter that sparked the stand-off. That suggested no weakening of the Chinese position. Washington blames F-8 pilot Wang Wei for the accident. Wednesday’s talks did not begin until 3 p.m. (7 a.m. GMT) and lasted only three hours. These will resume tomorrow. “I have no indication that they’re all finished,” a US embassy spokesman told newsmen although he said no time had been set for a second meeting. Two Chinese protesters staged a small demonstration outside the Foreign Ministry, where the talks were held, and chanted anti-US slogans. One waved a model of the Chinese F-8 fighter that crashed into the South China Sea after colliding with an American EP-3 spy plane. Plainclothes men police tore a paper sign denouncing “superpower arrogance” from the other protester, but let him walk away. Neither side appeared ready to give ground on the collision, after which the 24 crew members of the U.S. plane were detained for 11 days. “We are going to demand that the US side gives us an explanation and also that they halt the surveillance flights over Chinese coasts, so that by doing so they stop threatening China’s national security,” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhu Bangzao said in Venezuela. Officials in Washington said top Pentagon staff had recommended that spy flights should not resume immediately off China’s southern coast, scene of the collision. “What they are talking about is a measured approach to give the Chinese a chance to come to grips with international law,” one of the U.S. officials said. The dispute now threatens to spill over into a host of other sensitive issues, including US arms sales to Taiwan, China’s trade privileges with the USA and even Beijing’s bid for the 2008 Olympic Games. At the same time, China is fighting a diplomatic battle to block a US resolution criticising its human rights record from coming to a vote at a UN commission in Geneva. “We’ll just work our way through this,” US Ambassador Joseph Prueher told reporters earlier on Wednesday. In Washington, State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said told reporters the US team would call on China to stop harassing reconnaissance aircraft as well as return the EP-3. US officials insisted the meeting would have no bearing on Bush’s pending decision on whether to sell an advanced ship-mounted missile defence and battle management system to Taiwan, which China considers a renegade province.
Reuters |
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China’s image suffers dent THE spy plane incident involving the USA and China may provide fresh ammunition for lawmakers on Capitol Hill, who in May, last year, had opposed permanent normalised trade relations (PNTR) with Beijing, to put a spoke when the issue comes up again before the
Congress in late June or July. Republican member of the House of Representatives Duncan Hunter has already introduced legislation to revoke the PNTR status and has so far secured 28 co-sponsors, including two members, who had voted in its favour. Sensing trouble in the Congress, a Chinese trade official has urged the US lawmakers not to link the spy plane incident with the coming vote on renewed PNTR, saying that such linkage could greatly damage economic relations between the two countries. According to the Roll Call, a Capitol Hill newspaper, a whole set of China-related issues, including free trade, arms to Taiwan and Baijing’s bid to host the 2008 Olympics, remain on the congressional radar screen. “Without doubt, the events of the last 10 days emboldened those in the Congress who have always opposed engagement with China,” Democrat Senator John Kerry has been quoted as saying. When the issue of trade relations comes up in the US Congress in a couple of
months, there may be a lot of sound and fury directed against Beijing, but in the end the lawmakers would likely end up renewing the PNTR status. While the trade relations between the USA and China are unlikely to be affected by the spy plane incident, the war of words between the two countries is expected to intensify over Beijing’s bid to host the 2008 Olympics. A bi-partisan group of 41 members of the House of Representatives has introduced a resolution urging the International Olympics Committee to deny China, with its “abominable” human rights record,” the chance to host the 2008 Olympics, and a warning that if it were awarded the games, its leaders “would copy Adolf Hitler and use the event to cement their rule.” The non-binding resolution, introduced before the April 1 spy plane incident, contends that China’s record of suppressing political dissent is incompatible with the Olympics ideal, which frowns on discrimination on grounds of race, religion, politics or sex. The reaction to the congressional initiative from Beijing was both prompt and sharp. The Chinese Ambassador to Washington sent out to the Congress a strongly worded letter, warning the lawmakers not to try to block Beijing’s bid to host the Olympic Games. “You are probably aware that it is entirely under the jurisdiction of the International Olympics Committee to judge whether a country is suitable for the games. That choice rests with the IOC and it alone, no individual or organisation, has a right to influence the IOC on the matter,” the Ambassador said in the letter dated April 2. The senate version of the resolution has three co-sponsors, but the House version has 60 and has been placed on the House calendar after the International Relations Committee approved it on April 4 by a vote of 27 to eight. |
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Iran fires Scuds at Iraqi camps Baghdad, April 18 The Iraqi government issued no immediate statement on the report. “The mullahs’ regime has fired 48 Scuds so far at the Mujahideen camps and various Iraqi cities and towns from Jalawla to Basra between 3a.m. and 7 a.m. local time (2400 to 0300 GMT),” Fareed Suleimani, a spokesman for the Mujahideen Khalq opposition group, said. “Until now one Mujahideen member has been killed,” he said, naming him as Reza Zahmatkesh. “Several Iraqi civilians in the cities of Jalawla and Basra have been killed and many others have been injured.” A statement faxed to the Reuters office in Baghdad said the attack was continuing.
“At 8:30 a.m. local time (0430 GMT)Camps Homayoun and Mouzarmi, near the city of al-Amarah, were hit by Scuds,” the statement said. “Camp Habib, 45 km north of Basra, was hit in two series of attacks with 12 missiles,” Suleimani added. “So far nine missiles have hit the city of Jalawla — two out of them landed near the city’s mosque and the rest landed on residential areas,” he said.
Reuters |
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Israelis re-enter Gaza Gaza, April 18 They said the troops moved into a Palestinian-ruled area east of Rafah in the southern part of the heavily-populated strip. Palestinian policemen fired on the troops. A resident of Shuka village said the Israelis bulldozed a Palestinian police position and headed towards another position nearby. “We are not going to recapture Area A,” an army spokeswoman said, using the official term for Palestinian-controlled territory. “Palestinians opened fire while engineering work was under way (adjacent to Palestinian territory) and it was decided to enter the position and destroy it. It’s nothing new,” the spokeswoman said. Under cover of heavy machinegun fire and tank shells, the bulldozers demolished a police position, 220 metres from the border with Israel and tanks and bulldozers moved towards other positions, the witnesses said. The army has accused Palestinians of hurling hand grenades and firing at soldiers from the area, near the border with Egypt. The site is north of Gaza international airport. Hebron : Six Palestinians were wounded, one of them seriously, when Israeli tanks shelled two neighbourhoods in Hebron and exchanged fire with Palestinian gunmen, witnesses and hospital sources said. The Israeli army said Palestinian gunmen opened fire from Abu Sneineh and Harat al-Sheikh on Jewish settlements in the middle of Hebron late yesterday. It said its tanks shelled the areas in response and exchanges of fire followed. Witnesses said a small missile hit Hebron’s Alia Hospital, a government hospital, smashing windows and damaging
walls. Reuters
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Benazir to return ‘after August’ Islamabad, April 18 The influential daughter of one of Pakistan’s most powerful families was waiting for “great political mobilisation as well as national and international attention”, her party was quoted as saying in the News daily. She was the last of the “political Bhuttos” and the “path that she treads needs to be properly measured,” her Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) said in a statement after a key meeting with Bhutto in London. The two-time Prime Minister has lived in exile between London and Dubai since shortly before her conviction for corruption here in 1999, but she has said her “bags are packed” to come home and lead the opposition . Her opportunity appeared to have arrived earlier this month when the Supreme Court ordered a retrial of her corruption case. However, the regime has threatened her with arrest due to other corruption allegations against her.
AFP
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Burundi govt overthrown Bujumbura, April 18
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Madrid, April 18
