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Friday,
June 1, 2001, Chandigarh, India  
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No headway
in W. Asia talks 6 hurt in
Rawalpindi blast |
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Involve Kashmiris in
talks: PoK PM Amnesty
slams USA on death penalty |
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Taliban
ban driving by foreign women Recognise
Taliban, Pak urges Russia
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Wahid urged not to dissolve Parliament Jakarta, May 31 The official Antara news agency today quoted Bambang Susilo Yudhoyono as making the plea following a meeting with military chiefs late yesterday after MPs had imperiled the cleric’s political future and infuriated his supporters. The cleric’s loyalists had raised the stakes yesterday by breaking into Parliament’s grounds while pro-Wahid mobs rampaged in his heartland of East Java for a third straight day, keeping the threat of widespread bloodshed hovering over the archipelago. Speculation has been rife that Mr Wahid would carry out a threat to declare a state of emergency and dissolve the House if MPs went ahead with what was effectively a no-confidence vote in a chaotic rule that has done little to resolve Indonesia’s vast woes. “On the possibility the President will issue a decree which is aimed at dissolving Parliament and (the top legislature)...Our attitude and mine personally is already clear,” said Yudhoyono, a powerful retired general. “Issuing a decree in a situation like this is not appropriate and we hope this decision will not be taken.” Legislators said, Mr Wahid’s impeachment hearing in the People’s Consultative Assembly (MPR) over two graft scandals could be held within two weeks at the earliest if the President did not take drastic action following the challenge laid down by Parliament. However, Slamet Effendy Yusuf, a senior MP from the former ruling Golkar party, said the impeachment hearing could be held in only three days if Mr Wahid declared a state of emergency. Parliament makes up more than two-thirds of the MPR, the only institution which can elect, or sack, a President. Declaring a state of emergency would allow Mr Wahid to dissolve Parliament and call a snap election. The military, which has been cosying up to the taciturn but more predictable Vice-President Megawati Sukarnoputri, has already told Mr Wahid it would not follow the order. Meanwhile, around 1,000 supporters of Indonesian President Abdurrahman Wahid converged on the presidential palace today, urging their revered Muslim cleric to dissolve Parliament. Hundreds of heavily armed soldiers blocked the crowd just outside the palace gates in central Jakarta, one day after Parliament voted to call on the top legislature to consider Wahid’s impeachment over two graft scandals. “Mr President, in front of your people, we demand you dissolve Parliament without hesitation. Do it as soon as possible because inside it (Parliament) are people who want to tear apart this country,” one loyalist leader screamed through a microphone. Wahid had previously threatened to declare a state of emergency and disband Parliament if it moved to call an impeachment hearing against him. The supporters are part of 5,000 loyalists who broke into the grounds of Parliament yesterday while MPs were sending Wahid closer to political oblivion.
Reuters |
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No headway in W. Asia talks Gaza, May 31 The talks held late yesterday followed by a security meeting in the West Bank on Tuesday, which both sides said, failed to make headway in ending eight months of bloodshed. Israel’s Internal Security Service Chief, Avi Dichter and southern command General Doron Almog, held a three-hour meeting with Gaza Public Security Chief Major-Gen Abdel-Razek al-Majaydeh and Palestinian Intelligence Chief Amin al-Hindi. An Israeli Defence Ministry spokesman said the Israeli delegates demanded “an end to violence and terror” in the talks. They told their Palestinian counterparts that “Israel will act in every way to reduce tension”. But no real steps were agreed upon other than lower level meetings between field officers in the next few days, the spokesman said. Al-Majaydeh said in a statement that he had passed on a series of requests for Israel to ease restrictions against Palestinian movement in the Gaza Strip, reopen Gaza Airport and allow labourers and fishermen to work. “We are awaiting an Israeli response to our legitimate demands,” he said. Israel says its closure of Palestinian areas is to prevent militant attacks, but Palestinians say it is collective punishment which is crippling the Palestinian economy. A US Diplomat was present during the meeting. JERUSALEM: A Palestinian gunman shot a Jewish settler on a road near the Palestinian-ruled town of Tulkarm in the West Bank on Thursday the Israeli army said. An army spokeswoman said the man was shot in the head in his car as he was driving near Tulkarm. She said he was from the Jewish settlement of Mevo Dotan but gave no other details. The latest violence followed talks between Israeli and Palestinian security officials on Tuesday and Wednesday which failed to produce any signs of progress. BAGHDAD:
Iraqi President Saddam Hussein has said he wished he had the “honour” of throwing stones at Israeli soldiers and fighting alongside Palestinian youths in the current uprising. Saddam made the remark on Wednesday during a 45-minute speech delivered at the reception of Algerian Minister of Energy and Mining Shakib Khalil. The Iraqi dictator accused the USA of having already established a “real alliance with Zionism against the Arabs”. Reuters,
AFP |
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6 hurt in Rawalpindi blast Islamabad, may 31 The explosion occurred as the van waited for passengers at a taxi stand in the usually crowded Pir Wadahi area, the police said. “The bomb was apparently planted under the van and the explosion injured six persons and damaged seven vehicles also,” police officer Nazir Ahmed said. The blast came as the people voted in Rawalpindi and elsewhere around the country in the third phase of local council elections under the military government’s gradual transition to democracy. No serious violence marred the first two rounds of voting and the police said it had no clue about the motive behind today’s blast. HYDERABAD (Pakistan): Fears of violence kept voters, candidates and officials away from polling stations in the Pakistani city of Hyderabad on Thursday, threatening the credibility of the ruling military’s plans to devolve power. There was a heavy police and paramilitary presence throughout the city with military personnel manning checkpoints in sensitive areas, mostly dominated by the powerful Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM), which has called for a boycott of the local council poll. Military ruler Gen Pervez Musharraf, who seized power in a bloodless coup in October 1999 and has promised to hold a general election by October 2002, sees the council elections as key to breaking up the power bases of main political parties.
AFP, Reuters |
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Involve Kashmiris in talks: PoK PM Islamabad, May 31 “In my opinion, India is trying to gain time because there is tremendous international pressure on it to have a dialogue with Pakistan”, the elected Prime Minister of PoK said in a television interview. “Kashmiris who are the real party to the Kashmir issue must be included in those talks,” Mr Mehmood said. He was speaking a day after Pakistani military ruler General Pervez Musharraf accepted last week’s surprise invitation by Indian Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee to come to New Delhi for talks. “If General Musharraf and Mr Vajpayee have to talk on trade, culture, sports or anything else, then it is okay, but if they want to talk about Kashmir, the Kashmiris must be represented on those talks”, he asserted.
ANI |
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Amnesty slams USA on death penalty Washington, May 31 With convicted Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh set for execution on June 11 and two of four men convicted of bombing US Embassies in East Africa now possible candidates for the death penalty, Amnesty International yesterday accused the USA of abdicating its global role as a leader on human rights. “The USA’s continuing use of the death penalty is another example of the failure of human rights leadership,” said Mr William Schulz, US director of the international group which has its headquarters in London. He was speaking at a news conference to release a global report on rights abuses 2000. “It is no wonder that the USA was ousted from the United Nations Human Rights Commission,” he said. “That defeat was precipitated in part by waning US influence and double standards practices by various administrations and Congresses in the USA.” He said the USA “stands in the same shameful death penalty league as China, Iran and Saudi Arabia.” These four countries account for 88 per cent of all known state killings, he said. He also criticised the execution of US prisoners who were under 18 when they committed crimes, the mentally impaired and those who got inadequate legal representation. Amnesty International also named Chinese President Jiang Zemin as one of its human rights “scoundrels” of 2000 in a condemnation of China’s rights record that the group said did not appear to be improving with expanding trade ties. Energy company Unocal was also deemed a scoundrel for providing financial support to the military government in Myanmar with its operations there.
Reuters |
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Taliban
ban driving by
foreign women Kabul, May 31 The move comes amid growing tension between the fundamentalist Islamic militia and the United Nations over the harassment of aid workers and the employment of Afghan women amid a major humanitarian crisis. The letter, circulated last week by the militia’s religious police, says “it has been seen that some foreign women drive cars in the cities, which is against the Afghan tradition and has a negative impact on the environment.” “In future foreign women must not drive cars and must observe the Afghan tradition of our country and abide by the regulations of the Islamic Emirate (the Taliban),” the letter concludes. Relief workers refused to comment on the letter but provided copies to journalists. If it is enforced, the order could disrupt relief work at a time when severe drought and relentless civil war have pushed more than 10 lakh Afghans to the brink of famine.
AFP |
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Recognise
Taliban, Pak urges Russia Moscow, May 31 General Musharraf, in an interview published here today, also refused to rule out that Pakistan could in the future conduct new nuclear tests in response to India’s own accumulation of atomic weaponry.
AFP |
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Schoolchildren wait for festivities to start in Tiananmen Square in Beijing
on Thursday. Thousands of Chinese children gathered to celebrate ahead of International Children's Day on
Friday. Spending on children takes up a large part of family budgets and parents are willing to lavish money on the only child they are allowed.—Reuters
