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April 30, 2001, Chandigarh, India   
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Musharraf has launched reign of terror:
Benazir USA not to blacklist Lashkar-e-Toiba Give priority to India over China, Bush urged Israel, Palestine agree
to truce: Mubarak B’desh alleges fresh shooting Lanka invites LTTE for
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China allows US spy plane inspection Violence at Wahid rally; censure decision today Fresh wave of riots in Algeria: toll 35 Chinese ships to visit India Estrada’s call for protests
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Musharraf has launched reign of terror:
Benazir Islamabad, April 29 She said in a statement issued by her Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) that Gen Pervez Musharraf’s Government had begun a “reign of terror” by arresting hundreds of political activists to pre-empt the May 1 rally. The rally, organised by the 16-party Alliance for the Restoration of Democracy (ARD), is planned at the port city of Karachi to express solidarity with the working classes and kick-start a campaign against military rule. “The brutal and barbaric manner in which the police have been raiding the houses of political workers for the past week has only confirmed the vulnerability of the regime,” she said. Bhutto, who has lived abroad in self-imposed exile since early 1999, said the world community should “take note of mass arrests and force the military regime to release the detained political leaders”. The Sindh provincial, government of which Karachi is the capital, said it had arrested 539 people and that more could be detained to prevent the banned rally from taking place at the city’s Nishtar Park ground. The ARD said more than 2,000 activists had been arrested and senior alliance leaders coming from other provinces had been expelled from Sindh. A secret meeting of ARD leaders in Karachi on Saturday decided to go ahead with the rally despite the arrests, local newspapers said on Sunday. “The days of the regime are numbered and such strong-arm tactics cannot rescue it from doom, which is writ large on the wall,” Bhutto said in her statement. ARD organisers said roadblocks had been set up on highways leading to Karachi, Pakistan’s largest city, to intercept people heading to the protest. The ARD alliance includes Bhutto’s PPP and the arch-rival Pakistan Muslim League of ousted prime minister Nawaz Sharif, who was exiled to Saudi Arabia in December. Earlier
the Pakistan’s military regime had said the ban on political rallies would continue till the scheduled general elections in October 2002 even as a section of the ARD had gone into hiding to make preparations for the planned May Day pro-democracy rally in Karachi. “The Alliance for Restoration of Democracy (ARD) would not be permitted to hold public rallies till October 2002, the deadline fixed by the Supreme Court for the military government to hold elections,” Pakistan’s Interior Minister, Gen Moinuddin Haider (retd) told reporters here yesterday. The ARD was free to hold a reference to express solidarity and pay tributes to Chicago martyrs but that should also take place within four walls, he said. The government would not allow anybody to violate the ban on outdoor political activities and the ARD would not be permitted to hold a public rally in Karachi on May Day, he said. The provincial Sindh Government has already banned the proposed ARD rally on May Day which was called to demand an end to the military rule in the country.
Reuters, PTI
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USA not to blacklist Lashkar-e-Toiba Washington, April 29 Administration sources said Pakistan too would not be on the watch-list of countries that sponsor international terrorism, although the report would once again acknowledge “credible reports” of Islamabad’s complicity in fomenting insurgency in Kashmir and the Inter-Services Intelligence’s (ISI’s) sponsorship of organisations such as the LeT, and the Harkat-ul-Mujahideen, already designated a terrorist organisation. Indian government officials here are understandably chagrined that despite the LeT continuing to carry out terrorist acts in Jammu and Kashmir with impunity and available evidence of the ISI’s sponsorship of this organisation, the US Department of State had not deemed it fit to blacklist the Lashkar. One senior diplomatic source said while designating the LeT is the US government’s prerogative, it is galling that the terrorist outfit had been let off the hook again even though there was sufficient evidence to throw the book at it. “There is not much more (evidence) to be given,” the source said. “Naturally, we think that if this is an objective list, then the LeT is eminently qualified to be officially designated a terrorist organisation.” According to the source, it was especially disheartening to see the USA was still holding out two months after Britain had outlawed the LeT, saying it had still not completed its review to go ahead with such a designation. An administration source explained that although the LeT would not be on the list that would be released on Monday, the group was actively under consideration to be designated a foreign terrorist organisation (FTO) and that such a listing could take place at any time. “But the review still hasn’t been completed,” the source said, and explained that the reason for the delay was to have “an iron-clad case so that we can overcome any legal challenges in the future.”
IANS |
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Give priority to India over China, Bush urged US Republican Congressman Dana Rohrabacher, by his own admission, is no
Indo-phile, but his anti-China stance has turned him pro-India, and is now singing the praises of India and Indian democracy. Not only that, he is urging the Bush administration to give priority to New Delhi. “India in not my favourite country in the world”, he told the House of Representatives last week, while attacking Beijing for its belligerence to the USA, “but I will tell you this much, the Indians are struggling to have a free and democratic country. They have democratic institutions and it is a struggle because they have so many varied people that live in India. But they are struggling to make their country better and to have a democratic system that functions”. Mr Rohrabacher said: “They do not have any of that in China. Yet, instead of helping Indian people, we are helping Communist China’s people. These are misplaced priorities. The Congressman, is his “Wake up America” call, said: “The mainland of China is controlled by a rigid, Stalinistic Communist party that is committing genocide in Tibet. “He said the regime in China was more powerful, more belligerent to the USA and more repressive than even before”. His ire against Beijing came in the context of the shooting down of an American spy plane at Hainan island and subsequent developments which had left the USA “humiliated before the world”. Mr Rohrabacher, who had led the floor debate in the House of Representatives against granting China permanent normal trade relations status (PNTR) in the 106th Congress, said the “so-called engagement (with China) theory was “ a total failure”. “Our massive investment in China, pushed and promoted by US billionaires and multi-national corporations, has created not a more peaceful, democratic China, but an aggressive nuclear-based bully that now threatens the world with its hostile acts and proliferation,” he added.
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Israel, Palestine agree
to truce: Mubarak Cairo, April 29 “The two sides have agreed to a ceasefire,” Mr Mubarak told reporters after talks with Israel’s Foreign Minister Shimon Peres, who is in Cairo to discuss an Arab initiative to quell seven months of Israeli-Palestinian bloodshed. “After a ceasefire of four weeks, negotiations between the two sides will start in order to find a solution to the current situation,” Mr Mubarak said, adding that Israel would begin measures today to “ease the life of the Palestinians”. A senior Palestinian official in Gaza, who declined to be identified, said he had not heard of a ceasefire accord. Mr Peres’ visit — the first by a senior Israeli official to Egypt since right-winger Ariel Sharon became Israel’s Prime Minister last month — coincided with a surge in violence in the Palestinian uprising against Israeli occupation. Israel has said it is considering an Egyptian-Jordanian proposal which calls for an end to the violence, confidence-building gestures and a return to negotiations. The proposal has drawn cautious US interest and Russian praise. Mr Peres was due to travel to the Jordanian port of Aqaba to discuss it with King Abdullah later today. Mr Sharon has said he wants significant changes to the plan. Asked whether any changes had been made, Mr Mubarak said: “There are practical amendments that apply to Egypt and Jordan.” Israeli tanks today fired three shells near the Khan Younis refugee camp in the southern Gaza Strip, wounding an 11-year-old boy in the leg, Palestinian hospital sources said. Troops also battled Palestinian gunmen in Beit Hanoun in the southern Gaza Strip, Palestinian security officials said. GAZA: Palestinian police has arrested one of the main leaders of the radical Hamas movement, Abdel Aziz Rantissi, for his “criticisms and threats” against the Palestinian authority during a demonstration in the Gaza Strip, according to a Palestinian source. “Rantissi has been arrested after making threats against the Palestinian Authority, particularly during his speech to a Hamas rally on Friday, in which he challenged the decision of the authority,” an official told AFP yesterday on condition of anonymity. According to the source, Rantissi, one of the founders of the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas), “has violated an agreement reached with the Palestinian police by turning the rally which was supposed to be peaceful into an armed demonstration.” The high council for Palestinian National Security decided at a meeting here late yesterday to dissolve the body within the Fatah movement responsible for firing mortar shells on Israeli settlements, a Palestinian official said. The committees of popular resistance were formed after the start of the Intifada seven months ago. They have claimed responsibility for various anti-Israeli military operations in the occupied territories. The dissolution of these committees comes in the wake of threats of reprisals by the Israelis, following mortar attacks that wounded five settlers from the Netzer Hazani settlement in the Gaza Strip. That operation was claimed directly by Arafat’s Fatah movement in a statement issued in Gaza.
AFP, Reuters |
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B’desh alleges fresh shooting Dhaka, April 29 “We heard gunshots near the Achintapur border outpost on Friday night,’’ Major Abul Quashem Mohammad Arif of the Bangladesh Rifles (BDR) border force’s Dinajpur Sector said. Dinajpur lies across from India’s West Bengal, west of the spot on the 4,000-km border where 16 Indian and three Bangladeshi troops died in a clash earlier this month. Mr Arif said BSF officials had denied, during a meeting between senior officers of the two sides at a border point yesterday, that there had been any incident of shooting the previous night. Officials of the BSF said the gunshot-like sound was due to firecrackers being exploded at an Indian village near the border during a marriage ceremony. A Bangladesh Rifles official who asked not to be named, said today that both sides were continuing to bolster their forces at vulnerable points along the frontier. Only 6.5 km of the border is undelineated. However, there are dozens of enclaves — known as ‘’adverse possessions’’ — which are marked on the map as belonging to one country but are occupied by the other.
Reuters |
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Dhaka begins probe Dhaka, April 29 “Our investigation into the conditions under which the (India) BSF men were killed has begun,” Foreign Secretary Syed Muazzem Ali told reporters. “The Indian have informed us of the allegations that the bodies were
mutilated. We will investigate thoroughly in conformity with the allegations,” said Mr Ali.
AP |
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Lanka invites LTTE for talks Colombo, April 29 Asking the Tigers to participate in negotiations, the government in an elaborate statement last night, told the rebels not to squander a valuable opportunity for peace. However, it justified its refusal to announce a ceasefire. By stressing on ‘honesty’ and “swiftness”, the government was apparently asking the LTTE not to impede the process by raising some ‘concerns’. These concerns, not a mounting to ‘preconditions’, include a government ceasefire and lifting of the ban on the outfit in Sri Lanka — measures the government cannot countenance at the present stage. In its statement, the government also made a series of accusations against the LTTE, including alleged misuse of its unilateral ceasefire for rebuilding its forces. It also held the rebels responsible for holding up finalisation of the preliminary accord. “The latest action of the LTTE fully justifies the government’s decision not to reciprocate its unilateral ceasefire. The LTTE has once again proved that it cannot be trusted on the issue of a genuine ceasefire,” it said. Meanwhile, the ‘Sunday Leader’ said Norwegian special envoy Erik Solheim would arrive tomorrow to continue efforts to forge a preliminary understanding to pave the way for future political dialogue. His focus is expected to be on Referring to the LTTE’s bitter comment in its April 23 statement announcing the end of its ceasefire that the international community, especially the UK, the USA and India, had failed to persuade Lanka to pursue positively its truce, the government said these countries knew the LTTE’s ‘track record’ of announcing ceasefires and not adhering to them. The government said it remained committed to the core issues that ought to be the agenda for direct talks: stoppage of war and terrorist killings, the resolution of the Tamils’ problems through a negotiated political settlement and speedy resolution of the problems of those displaced by war. The LTTE has claimed that the Sri Lankan army suffered a “humiliating military debacle” in its abortive offensive against the rebels and said it killed over 400 security personnel, but admitted the death of only 75 of its cadres. “In the ferocious counter-offensive assaults by the Tamil Tiger combat formations, which lasted for four days, more than 400 Sri Lankan troops were killed and over 2000 injured. On our side 75 ltte fighters, including female cadres, were killed,” it claimed. The army has put the death toll at 187 killed and 860 wounded. Holding a two-km stretch of area near the A9 highway (Jaffna-Kandy road), these troopers holed up in an area surrounded by the LTTE fighters on three sides faced intense artillery and mortar fire day and night for four days.
PTI
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China allows US spy plane inspection Beijing, April 29 “Having completed its investigation and evidence collection involving the U.S. plane, and in view of international precedents in handling such issues, the Chinese side has decided to allow the U.S. side to inspect its plane at Lingshui Airport,” Xinhua said. Beijing insists its fighter jet was rammed by the EP-3 surveillance aircraft. The Chinese pilot of the F-8 fighter was killed after he bailed out into the South China Sea. Xinhua said during talks in Beijing on the spy plane incident earlier this month that the USA agreed to consider making a payment to China. “The two sides will conduct another round of negotiations on the specific amount of the U.S. payment and the items to be covered,” Xinhua said. U.S. and Chinese negotiators also agreed to discuss ways to avoid similar incidents “through enhanced consultation mechanism on military maritime safety”, the news agency said. WASHINGTON: President George W. Bush has ruled out any agreement with China on Taiwan and human rights issues but said relations between the two countries were “maturing”. “Our relationship with China is maturing,” Mr Bush said on Saturday in his weekly radio address.
Reuters, AFP |
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Violence at Wahid rally; censure decision today Jakarta, April 29 The explosion marred an otherwise peaceful rally by 25,000 Muslim worshippers in a parking lot outside Jakarta’s largest sports stadium. “I can confirm there was an explosion,” said Jakarta police spokesman Makmur. “There were eight people slightly wounded.” He said some of the victims were burned, but none of the injuries were considered serious. The explosion occurred shortly after Wahid, who is facing possible impeachment for corruption, gave a speech in which he urged his supporters not to use violence when Parliament meets on Monday to debate the President’s fate. “I appeal to all of you to go home peacefully and witness tomorrow what will be done by those people because we are strong and it’s not necessary for us to behave like little children,” a defiant Wahid said of his political rivals in Parliament. Parliament will debate issuing a formal censure against Wahid — the second in three months — which would open the doors for a full impeachment session by the National Assembly as early as June. As dawn broke over the Indonesian capital, thousands of people were already packing the sprawling eastern parking lot venue at the Senayan sports complex. Jakarta police spokesman Adjunct Senior Commissioner Anton Bahrul Alam estimated the crowd at around 8,000 people while independent estimates put the number at around 20,000, many of whom arrived in the capital yesterday. Wahid, who led the NU for 15 years until he became the country’s first democratically-elected President in October 1999, had arrived some 30 minutes earlier to wide applause from the crowd and was due to address the rally.
DPA, AFP |
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Fresh wave of riots in Algeria: toll 35 TIZI OUZOU (Algeria) April 29 Four demonstrators were killed by gunfire on Saturday in the main city of Tizi
Ouzou, 90 km east of Algiers, and another 130 were wounded, adding to the 16 dead and 34 injured already reported on Saturday, doctors at the city’s main hospital said. One protester was killed at point blank range by a bullet in the head, one nurse said.
Tizi Ouzou saw pitched battles between masked stone-throwing demonstrators, most of them in their ealry 20s, and police firing tear gas canisters. At
Bejaia, further to the east, a protest march degenerated ino violence, residents said by telephone. The Algerian Government, urging the population in Kabylie to remain calm, said nine demonstrators had been killed in Bejaia province and six in Tizi Ouzou in the past week. The unrest in Kabylie erupted last weekened after a paramilitary gendarme shot dead an 18-year-old while in custody. It was followed by the reported beating of three teenagers by gendarmes. The three were accused of insulting police during a peaceful commemoration of a state crackdown on Berbers 21 years ago.
Reuters |
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Chinese ships to visit India Beijing, April 29 Though details were being worked out, the Chinese People’s Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) ships are likely to dock at a southern or western port in the third week of May, the sources said. The friendly port call by PLAN ships to India would be yet another symbol of normalcy in India-China military relations strained following the Pokhran nuclear tests in May, 1998.
PTI Estrada’s call for protests Manila, April 29 “Let us continue this fight,” the deposed President said in a taped message aired during an all-night protest by his followers at Manila’s Edsa religious shrine, the same site where his opponents launched a “people power” revolt in January which ended his 31-month rule. “Let us continue this protest at Edsa and in all corners of our country,” Mr Estrada added. “My conviction is strong that it will not be so long before the voice of ordinary people like you will achieve victory”. Since he was taken into custody on Wednesday, Mr Estrada’s followers had mounted a round-the-clock protest vigil at the Edsa shrine with the crowds swelling to about 150,000 at one point on Thursday. Reuters |
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