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Saturday,
June 9, 2001, Chandigarh, India  
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Indo-Pak
summit may lead to more talks: USA
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Oklahoma
bomber gives up Indian
scientist wins top US award Habermas
wins peace award Jagmohan
favours equitable system |
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20
students hurt in clash
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Indo-Pak summit may lead to more talks: USA Washington, June 8 The US Government has adopted a hands-off stance to the summit, being careful to avoid the appearance of interfering in South Asian affairs. A State Department official described the event as “a big step” and “a potentially very positive development.” The official said the USA was not pushing any particular agenda and that Washington was not expecting any breakthroughs. “Anything concrete coming out would be very welcome,” he said, “We don’t have that expectation, necessarily, but I think it would be good for both sides to come out with a greater appreciation of each other, and hopefully a strengthened willingness to deal with [their] problems.” The general consensus in the Washington think-tank community is that the summit is unlikely to produce more than an agreement to hold more talks. But the forthcoming summit will have to at least attempt to address the issues separating India and Pakistan — most notably, the situation in Jammu and Kashmir. Ms Deepa Ollapally, a senior South Asia analyst at the United States Institute for Peace, says unlike Pakistan, India would rather discuss issues like trade, terrorism, and energy sharing, before delving into Kashmir. “I think what India would like to do is to start small and move toward the broader and bigger and more difficult issues,” she said. “Pakistan’s goal I think is just exactly the opposite. They’d like to start with Kashmir ... start with the most difficult issues and then leave the other things to follow.” Dr Ollapally, a US citizen of Indian descent, worries that the lack of any stated agenda for the talks will make it nearly impossible to accomplish anything concrete. Mr Dana Dillon at the conservative Heritage Foundation is even more pessimistic about Pakistan’s willingness to talk about anything besides Kashmir. “Even though they have said that they will discuss other issues at this conference, I really don’t see anything permanent coming out of it,” he said. While some analysts worry that General Musharraf lacks domestic support for a peace process with India, they also note that he’s privy to the mood of the military and would be careful to avoid any agreement that the army would not accept. India’s situation has changed as well, and Mr Stephen Cohen of the Brookings Institution says New Delhi is entering these talks from a position of strength. “Pakistan has to learn to live with a much larger, more powerful India,” he said, “and it’s going to have to come back from its maximalist position on Kashmir.” But he says Delhi will have to make some concessions too, if anything productive is to come from the summit. India’s stature in the international community has grown in part because of its rapidly warming relations with the USA. And some in Washington believe the emergence of such a powerful backer may have emboldened Delhi to take the risk involved in inviting General Musharraf to a summit. According to Dr Ollapally from the US Institute of Peace, “The closer relations are between India and the USA, the more free India will feel to actually talk to Pakistan, without feeling that there’s gonna be a great deal of pressure to bring some solution to Kashmir in a way that it won’t like.” There’s been speculation that Washington used its influence with both sides to bring them to the table. The USA denies it applied any direct pressure, but one State Department official says that the USA has been a proponent of new talks for years. “I wouldn’t say that there’s been any pressure for this specific agreement to come together. We have for quite awhile now been encouraging both sides to resume their dialogue, along with other things as well — to reduce the level of violence in Kashmir, to respect the Line of Control, so on — but I don’t think we can take credit for this one,” the official said. That version of the story is widely accepted in the think-tank community as well. Analysts believe India had plenty of motivation to initiate the talks without any intervention from Washington. In their view, Delhi realised its efforts to resolve the Kashmir issue without Pakistan were not working, and decided it was time to talk to Islamabad, no matter how distasteful it found the regime there. Mr Stephen Cohen of the Brookings Institution believes Delhi may have also been trying to preempt outside intervention in its affairs. “I think they wanted to make sure that they were the ones dealing with Pakistan and that outside interests, such as the USA or the UN, would not get engaged in the region. So I think that the larger Indian strategic goal is to keep developments in South Asia largely under their control,” he said. The summit will be closely watched in both official and unofficial Washington. The general consensus is that this meeting won’t have any direct impact on the Indo-US relationship, but it’s certainly in the USA’s interest to encourage the resumption of a dialogue that could lessen tensions in a region that the USA considers a possible site for a nuclear flare-up.
ANI |
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Communists
felicitate new King Kathmandu (Nepal), June 8 The party has also conveyed its felicitations to King Gyanendra on his accession to the throne. At the same time, it has wished speedy recovery to Queen Komal Rajya Laxmi Devi Shah and other members of the royal family who are undergoing treatment at Birendra Military Hospital here. The resolution was passed at the end of a two-hour emergency meeting of the 43-member Central Committee in Balkhu today. The meeting was chaired by Madhav Nepal, leader of the Opposition and General Secretary of the Communist Party of Nepal (UML). Mr Bhim Acharya, member of the Central Committee told TNS at the party office in Madannagar, Balkhu, that the party had expressed the hope that King Gyanendra would contribute towards preserving the sovereignty, integrity and the tradition of the kingship. The meeting further expressed the hope that the King would strengthen multi-party democrarcy, fulfil the aspirations of the people and accelerate the pace of social, economic and cultural development. It is noteworthy that the formal felicitations from Nepal’s main Opposition party have come a day after felicitation messages from various world leaders. Nepal’s national daily, the Rising Nepal, today reported on the congratulation messages sent to the King from the President of the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga, the Chairman of the European Commission Romano Prodi and the King of Norway. According to the report, felicitation messages have also been sent by the President of the Presidium of the Supreme People’s Assembly of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, Kim Yong Nam and the President of Latvia Vaira Vike Freiberga and the President of Mauritius Cassam Uteem. The Communist Party of Nepal (UML), however, said the meeting held to pass the resolution of condolence and felicitation could not be held earlier as most MPs who are in the Central Committee were out of station. Mr Bhim Acharya said some of the 16 MPs of the Lower House (Pratinidhi Sabha) were away to their constituencies. The five-decade old party is represented by 68 members in the 205 member strong Pratinidhi Sabha and 17 in the 60-member Rashtriya
Sabha. |
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Oklahoma
bomber gives up Washington, June 8 “Mr McVeigh does not want to proceed any further in legal actions in order to stop his execution,” the 33-year-old’s attorney Rob Nigh told reporters shortly after the court here denied his request for a stay. Nigh said his client wanted to use the time remaining before his June 11 execution to prepare himself mentally for his death. McVeigh’s legal team had sought to exploit the fact that the FBI had failed to hand over evidence to the bomber’s legal team prior to his 1997 trial. His lawyers argued that their client had been denied “due process” and that they needed more time to review the documents. But neither Federal Judge Richard Matsch, who presided over McVeigh’s original trial nor a three-judge panel from the Federal Appeals Court were convinced by the argument. Meanwhile, reacting to McVeigh’s announcement to abandon his legal fight, US Attorney-General John Ashcroft said he was grateful the “uncertainty” would be brought to an end soon. “For the victims who have endured additional pain as a result of this last month of uncertainty, I am grateful this process will be over soon,” Mr Ashcroft said. The relatives of over 100 victims of McVeigh’s bombing of a Federal Building in Oklahoma will be allowed to witness his execution on Monday by lethal injection.
PTI |
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Indian scientist wins top US award New York, June 8 Mr Netravali, chief technology officer and chief network architect at Lucents, shares this year’s Jack S. Kilby Signal Processing Medal with Mr Thomas Huang, a professor at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Sponsored by Texas Instruments, where Jack Kilby developed the first integrated circuit, the award honours Mr Netravali and Mr Huang for their pioneering and sustained contributions to image sequence processing and its use in digital TV, pattern recognition and computer animation. Mr Netravali led the development of high-definition television (HDTV) technology at Bell Labs. He is a fellow of the IEEE and has received numerous awards and honours for his scientific and management achievements. He has authored more than 170 technical papers, co-authored three books and holds more than 70 patents in the areas of computer networks, human interface to machines, picture processing and digital television.
PTI |
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Habermas wins
peace award Frankfurt, June 8 Habermas, 71, widely considered as the most influential thinker in Germany in the past 30 years, was cited for championing “peace and justice as the cornerstone of human conscience”, the organisation said. His roots are in the tradition of German thought from Immanuel Kant to Karl Marx and he has been associated with the Frankfurt School of critical theorists which pioneered in the study of the relationship of the ideas of Marx and Sigmund Freud. The 10,000-dollar award will be conferred upon him during the Frankfurt Book Fair in October.
DPA |
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Jagmohan favours equitable system New York, June 8 “Since the international community began discussing the issue of habitat 29 years ago, the disparities between the rich and the poor have increased both within and amongst the countries,” he said. At the first international conference on habitat in Vancouver in 1976, where he was a delegate, women had taken out a procession with empty buckets to stress the shortage of drinking water, he said adding “if anything now, the bucket is more empty.” “If the resources are transferred only to the developed countries and the rich, it will be difficult to meet the goals whatever declarations the international gatherings make on improving the lot the poor and to meet their basic needs of shelter, sanitation and drinking water,” he told a news conference yesterday. How could the developing nations improve the lot of workers when they compete among themselves for the markets of the developed nations, said Mr Jagmohan, who is leading the Indian delegation at the UN Habitat Conference. The basic issue is of equity in distribution of resources which gets little attention in the conference, he said adding unless this imbalance was corrected, the declaration, despite the pious thoughts, would not be very effective. The issue of urban development and alleviation of poverty is linked to capacity, Mr Jagmohan said and the developing countries must have the capacities to take steps to meet the goals. Whatever be the declarations, he said it was a question of creating capacities and enabling environment in the developing countries to enable them to meet the challenges of providing better life for their people.
PTI |
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20 students hurt in clash Beijing, June 8 The fight broke out in the early hours yesterday after Han students returning from a drinking session allegedly hurled abuses at the Uighurs from China’s far western region of Xinjiang, said officials of Changan University in Xian city. "There was a confrontation between Han and Xinjiang students," said an official from the university’s No. 6 dormitory. The 700 students living in the dormitory include more than 100 Uighurs, she said. "Some are injured," a university administrator said, but she declined to give details. The fighting was caused by drinking and began when Uighur students attacked Han students, another official said. The Hong Kong-based Information Centre for Human Rights and Democracy said Han students returning to the dormitory shouted "Xinjiang pigs" and "go back to Xinjiang." Several Uighur students confronted the Han students and more joined in on both sides until about 300 persons were involved, with another 1,500 watching, the centre said.
DPA |
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