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Wednesday,
May 2, 2001, Chandigarh, India  
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Pak paramilitary foils
ARD rally
USA slams Pak on religious freedom Washington, May 1 A U.S. commission has accused Islamabad of “clearly not doing enough to adequately protect the religious freedom of all of its citizens.” The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom, however, acknowledged that the Pakistan Government “does not appear to be engaged in a systematic effort to persecute religious minorities.” |
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Bush assurance to Putin on missile shield End crisis, Annan urges Peres Street battles on May Day
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Pak paramilitary
foils ARD rally Karachi, May 1 City residents said an undeclared curfew had been imposed and central Karachi appeared to be under siege as thousands of security personnel were deployed to block the rally organised by the 16-party Alliance for the Restoration of Democracy (ARD). “We are trying to start (marching)...but obviously every place is a jail, they will nab us anywhere we start from,” said Nisar Khohro, Sindh provincial chief of former premier Benazir Bhutto’s Pakistan Peoples’ Party, a key member of the ARD. “We are starting with a prayer that we are rid of this government which has made the life so miserable,” he added. Khohro and around 150 PPP supporters staged the largest march of the day when they caught the police by surprise and gathered in the city’s upmarket Clifton area, but they were soon arrested. The ARD, the target of mass arrests since last week, vowed to defy a ban imposed by military ruler Gen Pervez Musharraf to rally and demand the army stand down and restore civilian rule. By mid-afternoon, reporters had seen the arrest of around 250 political activists — including senior politicians — as mostly small groups emerged from the shadows to chant slogans. Sources within the main political parties put the figure much higher, saying around 600 people had been arrested in addition to the more than 2,000 netted in a military roundup since last week. Ajaz Durrani, a PPP spokesman, said people had been arrested at Karachi airport, the railway station and on the national highway leading into the city. “Hundreds of people have been arrested when they arrived in Karachi to join the rally,” he said. There were no reports of violence in Karachi, but the police in Banaras Chowk, 15 km west of the city, said they had fired tear gas when more than 50 supporters of the Awami National Party, an ARD member, threw stones and rocks. The ARD, which also includes arch-rivals the Pakistan Muslim Party (PML) of exiled former Premier Nawaz Sharif and the PPP, says the roundup of its workers was nationwide. Reports from other cities in Sindh province, of which Karachi is the capital, said ARD activists had been detained, while authorities in the central Punjab city of Lahore also prevented people travelling to join the rally. One witness at Karachi’s colonial-era Empress Market said about 200 armed police forced shopkeepers and market stallholders to close their businesses, while a helicopter circled overhead. “Today is a total undeclared curfew in Karachi with police harassment in public places,” Munawar Hussain Suharwardy of the PPP told
Reuters. Karachi’s normally bustling streets were quieter than usual with large areas were barricaded with all access barred. A dusty Nishtar Park, the original rally venue, was completely sealed off with water tankers and buses blocking surrounding streets and hundreds of police standing ready. Musharraf, who ousted Nawaz Sharif in an October 1999 bloodless coup, on Monday told politicians to stay at home. “Once we have said there will be no political activity, there will be no political activity,” he told a convention in Islamabad. Ejaz Shaffi, a senior ARD official and a member of the suspended National Assembly, said 25,000 security personnel had been deployed across Karachi and the PML had decided to change the venue and attempt to rally at Empress Market. When small groups of PML supporters did emerge they were promptly arrested. By mid-afternoon Shaffi’s whereabouts were unknown. Naheed Khan, a senior PPP leader, said she was injured when the police pounced as she tried to enter Bilawal House, Bhutto’s official residence and the PPP’s main office. “The policemen manhandled me and tried to get me back out,” she said, adding she escaped arrest after servants inside the grounds intervened on her behalf. Reuters |
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USA slams Pak
on religious freedom Washington, May 1 The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom, however, acknowledged that the Pakistan Government “does not appear to be engaged in a systematic effort to persecute religious minorities.” The commission is a federally constituted body set up to advise the President, the Secretary of State, and Congress on how best to promote religious freedom worldwide and hold violators accountable. In its latest report submitted to the Bush administration and Congress, the commission said in Pakistan, “members of the Ahmadi religious community are prevented by law from engaging in the full practice of their faith.” “Religious minority groups (including Christians, Ahmadis, and Hindus),” it added, “complain that they are politically marginalised by a system of separate electorates, and that this system exacerbates other religious freedom problems.” The report said the “criminal laws against blasphemy are abused, resulting in detention of and sometimes violence against religious minorities as well as the targeting of numerous Muslims on account of their religious beliefs.” It also noted the “substantial amount of sectarian violence, largely targeting Shias, committed by organised groups of religious extremists.” In its recommendations, the commission called on the Bush administration to urge Islamabad “to sign and ratify the international covenant on civil and political rights.” “The U.S.A. in its bilateral relations with the Pakistan Government should take the position that the separate electorate systems for religious minorities is inconsistent with democratic principles, the right to equal citizenship, and the protection of political rights without discrimination on the basis of religion as provided in the universal declaration of human rights and the international covenant on civil and political rights.” The report also called on Washington to strongly point out to Islamabad that the “existence and enforcement of laws targeting Ahmadis that effectively criminalise the public practice of their faith, violates the right to freedom of religion guaranteed in the declaration and international covenant. The commission called on the State Department to “closely monitor the application and enforcement of laws targeting Ahmadis,” and also called on the administration to urge Islamabad to “effectively prevent discrimination against Ahmadis in government and military employment, and education.” The report said the U.S.A. should pressure the Pakistan Government to “implement procedural changes to the blasphemy laws that will reduce and aim at ultimately eliminating their abuse.” It said here too the State Department should monitor the application and enforcement of these laws. The commission said the U.S.A. should press Pakistan to prevent sectarian violence and punish the perpetrators “including disarming militant groups and any religious schools that provide weapons training.” The report also called for pressure on Islamabad by Washington to complete the “denationalisation of Christian schools and colleges in Punjab province.”
IANS |
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Manila under ‘state of rebellion’ Manila, May 1 The 54-year-old leader struck back hours after government forces put down an alleged pre-dawn attempt to seize power by a ragged army of supporters of her jailed predecessor, Joseph Estrada. The government reported two policemen and a civilian killed and several injured in pitched battles between the riot police and up to 8,000 Estrada supporters in the deadliest political violence in Manila in 15 years. Ms Arroyo declared a “state of rebellion” in Manila in the wake of the rioting, which she said was instigated by opposition leaders in an attempt to overthrow her government and install a junta. The police fanned out across the capital in the afternoon and raided several homes in search of pro-Estrada senators Juan Ponce Enrile, Gregorio Honasan and Miriam Santiago, as well as Estrada’s former police chief Panfilo Lacson. Two senior police officers were taken in custody while four other officers were at large, police intelligence chief Reynaldo Berroya said. Justice Department sources said the rioters would be charged with sedition and the politicians with “inciting to sedition”. Some of the conspirators “had a lot of experience in trying to topple a government,” and used Estrada’s largely unarmed supporters as “bait” to provoke violence, Ms Arroyo spokesman Rigoberto Tiglao said. As the pre-dawn rioting raged, two police helicopters picked up Mr Estrada from a military hospital in suburban Manila where he had been confined since Saturday, and took him to a special prison facility south of the capital. From his new cell, Mr Estrada appealed to supporters to calm down, but defended their actions. “There is only one thing we are fighting for,” Mr Estrada said through his son and co-defendant Jose Ejercito “the constitution. That is what they must understand.” Mr Estrada is to appear in court on June 27 to answer the charge of plunder or massive corruption, a crime punishable by death. Meanwhile, USA and Canada today threw their support behind the beleaguered government of Philippine President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo as thousands of supporters of jailed ex-leader Joseph Estrada went on a rampage.
AFP, DPA |
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Bush assurance to Putin on missile shield Moscow, May 1 Putin said existing arms accords needed to be maintained. Bush made a call to Putin to discuss a speech the US leader was due to make later on Tuesday, in which he was expected to set out his ideas on a US missile defence shield and changes to the key 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile (ABM) pact. Russia fears any US shield will upset the global strategic balance by giving Washington the power to stop Russian nuclear missiles. As ABM bans such defence shields, Moscow has also opposed any changes to the treaty. “George Bush discussed the main direction of his speech planned for today on the theme of ‘a new vision of how to maintain peace on earth’,” the Kremlin said in a statement after Bush called Putin. “In this respect, it was stressed that the USA does not intend to go along the path of taking unilateral decisions in questions of strategic stability,” it added. Putin, in turn, said Russia was ready to continue efforts on reducing nuclear arsenals and finding ways to respond to potential threats “without violating the structure of disarmament treaties created over the last 30 years”. Russia and the USA have been going back and forth over the idea of a missile defence shield for several years. Bush, in his speech to the Pentagon’s National Defense University, was expected to argue for moving past the limitations in the ABM pact and for building a missile defence system in consultation with allies and Russia. The USA says such a shield would be aimed against what it calls “rogue states”, such as Libya and Iraq, fearing they will one day have the ability to launch nuclear strikes on US territory. Bush has already discussed his speech with European leaders, some of whom have also been worried about Washington’s plans, and the head of NATO. Russia, without clearly accepting such a threat exists, has advanced its own ideas for a more limited theatre defence system, based near areas of possible threat.
Reuters |
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End crisis, Annan urges Peres United Nations, May 1 There is need for both the countries to take reciprocal steps to end violence in the region, he told reporters before meeting Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres. “I think that the discussions that appear to be taking place between the Israelis, the Egyptians and the Jordanians seem to show some flexibility in how they are approaching the crisis, so I am encouraged,” he said. Emerging after his meeting with the Secretary General which he described as “candid and responsible,” Mr Peres said the Israelis and Palestinians had reached “an understanding” on the ceasefire which will end seven-months of violence but said there was no written agreement JERUSALEM: An Israeli motorist was killed in a shooting attack on Tuesday near a Jewish settlement in the West Bank, Israel Radio said. In a separate incident, Palestinian gunmen shot and wounded an Israeli driving on a road near the West Bank town of Nablus, the report said. The radio said an Israeli was killed when his car overturned outside the Jewish settlement of Ofra, near Palestinian-ruled Ramallah, after shots were fired at the vehicle.
PTI, Reuters |
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Street battles on May Day London, May 1 At least 20,000 workers faced 15,000 riot police on the streets of the South Korean capital of Seoul in protest against government-initiated economic restructuring and a harsh police crackdown on Daewoo Motor workers in April. In Taiwan, thousands of unemployed workers and union activists marched through Taipei, demanding jobs and resignation of top government officials. In eastern Russia demonstrators turned out in their thousands to demand better wages and price control. The Berlin police turned water cannon on thousands of leftist protesters after being pelted by bottles and stones in what has become an annual ritual of May Day streetbattles in the city. Over 6,000 leftists and anarchists built barricades overnight in two eastern Berlin suburbs, setting some alight. Leftists also barricaded streets in the northern city of Hamburg, damaging cars, street-signs and telephone boxes and setting off fireworks. In Kiev some 7,000 protestors gathered for a Left rally at the European Square situated in the city’s central regions. UNI |
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