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| Wednesday,
June 13, 2001, Chandigarh, India   
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Rebels
behead US hostage Nepal
braces for Maoist upsurge Britain
considering green card system Galbraith
awarded Padma Vibhushan |
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State
security for Hasina, sister Blair
affects bumper pay hike |
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Shah of
Iran’s daughter found dead in London China
‘shipping’ arms to Cuba
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Rebels behead US hostage Manila, June 12 Californian Guillermo Sobrero was executed after President Gloria Arroyo refused to call off military operations against the kidnappers, the spokesman for the Abu Sayyaf rebel group told DZMM radio. “Look for his head in Tuburan,” spokesman Abu Sabaya said. Tuburan is a town on the southern island of Basilan. Sabaya also threatened to behead the other two American captives, Christian missionary couple Martin and Gracia Burnham, both from Kansas. Arroyo’s National Security Adviser Roilo Golez told the radio that the news of Sobrero’s execution was still “subject to confirmation”. Sabaya told the radio station: “As an independence day gift we released an amigo, Guillermo Sobrero, but he doesn’t have a head now.” Today is the 103rd anniversary of the Philippines’ declaration of independence from Spain. Sabaya said there would be no more negotiations. “There is no reason why we should not behead the others,” he said. “The government is full of double speak. We have beheaded Sobrero. They better step up the rescue efforts otherwise they won’t find anyone alive.” Meanwhile, the
Philippine Cabinet, at an emergency meeting today, decided to continue a military pursuit of Abu Sayyaf guerrillas who claim to have beheaded an American hostage, a government spokesman said. Arroyo broke off independence day celebrations to convene the cabinet session after the Muslim guerrillas said they had executed one of three Americans they are holding on southern Basilan Island. “If the Abu Sayyaf’s claim is accurate, it only emphasises the fact that it is a merciless, ruthless group that has no qualms at all in murdering an innocent person for the sake of ransom money,” presidential spokesman Rigoberto Tiglao said at the end of the meeting. The US Government today condemned the reported beheading of an American and called for the unconditional release of all hostages. “The murder of an innocent person is a cowardly act. We condemn in the strongest possible terms this reported action,” the US Embassy in Manila said in a statement. SINGAPORE: A Singapore businessman kidnapped in the Philippines has been freed after his wife paid the ransom, the couple confirmed in an interview aired on Tuesday. The couple would not reveal the amount, but Straits Times estimated the ransom paid for businessman Roger Yeo at $ 1,66,000. Yeo, 45, was snatched by unknown gunmen from his Manila office on June 1. He was the second Singaporean reportedly abducted in Manila since April, with the other kidnap victims having been freed although there has been no confirmation of whether any ransom was paid.
AFP |
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Nepal braces for Maoist upsurge Kathmandu, June 12 Shortly before Crown Prince Dipendra’s shooting spree 12 days ago, the Maoists, who have been fighting an increasingly violent “people’s war’’ for five years, were close to negotiations with the relatively liberal King Birendra and the ruling Nepali Congress party. Suddenly talks seem a long way off. The newly crowned King Gyanendra, brother of the late monarch, is regarded as a hardliner who prefers pitting the army against the rebels to negotiating. Two days after Gyanendra’s coronation last week the Editor, Yubraj Ghimre, and two directors of Nepal’s biggest newspaper, Kantipur, were arrested for treason after they published an article by Baburam Bhattarai, an underground Maoist leader, who said the royal murders were a ``political conspiracy’’ and called on the army to rise up against the monarchy. It was only the second time a newspaper Editor had been arrested since Nepal introduced multi-party democracy 11 years ago. Krishna Sen, the other Editor jailed, is now a little nervous as he sits at his desk in a tiny, run-down office in the back streets of Kathmandu. Just a stone’s throw away, beyond the washing-lines and playing children, is the X-Zone nightclub, where the late Prince Dipendra and his friends used to drink and party hard. Sen was released from jail three months ago after serving a two-year sentence. He was originally arrested for publishing articles by the guerrilla leaders in his pro-Maoist weekly newspaper, Janadesh (the people’s order). Now Sen, who describes himself as a “moral sympathiser of the revolutionary trend’’, predicts the Maoists are preparing to strike again. The movement held a large rally in Kathmandu last week to raise its profile. “The situation is critical now,’’ he said. “The Maoists’ strategy is first to capture the countryside and then move towards the cities. There could be some more armed insurgency incidents. People are in mourning but at the same time political conflict is getting deeper so anything could happen.’’ At least 1,670 persons have already died since the Maoist uprising began on February 13, 1996. In one week in April, 69 police officers were killed in a series of raids on posts close to the capital. On the surface, however, the Maoists seem mired in dogma and unlikely to bring their peasant revolution to Kathmandu in the near future. The movement’s shadowy leader, Pushpa Kamal Dahal, 47, who likes to call himself Comrade Prachanda, cannot claim to be the most charismatic of rebel leaders. “We condemn all revisionist cliques as vulgar evolutionism,’’ he told the Revolutionary Worker newspaper last year, in the only interview he has given since the uprising began. “My main thrust is that I hate revisionism. I seriously hate revisionism.’’ Yet in four districts of western Nepal the Maoists have set up their own “people’s government’’, offering what many there see as an attractive alternative in a desperately poor, largely illiterate, remote rural area where local government is swamped by corruption and inefficiency. People’s courts have been established to dole out quick justice and unconventional punishments, which can include shaking a convict by their ears or painting their face with dirt. People’s banks are being set up as cooperatives and collective farms are replacing small landholdings. The movement, which is thought to have 4,000 fighters, is kept alive with guns and money looted from government stocks. “The Maoists have taken advantage of so many failures in our society: the failures of political authority, the lack of coordination between the politicians, the army and the palace, the poor economy and infighting in the ruling party,’’ said Lok Raj Beral, a political scientist at Tribhuvan University in Kathmandu. “Many of the demands put up by the Maoists are genuine. There is a failure of systemic forces. Everything is topsy-turvy.’’ In many other rural districts the guerrillas, who model themselves on the Shining Path movement in Peru, command considerable influence.
Guardian News Service |
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Britain
considering green card system London, June 12 The move will streamline entry procedures for key workers such as the 10,000 Indian IT specialists who were allowed into Britain last year to boost the country’s global share of the new economy. Sources close to Mr Blunkett say that he is motivated by a desire to crack down on those who masquerade as asylum seekers in order to find jobs at the expense of local families. The sources say that Mr Blunkett believes the flood of asylum seekers is a potentially explosive political issue that could undermine the government’s popularity. “It is poor people living in council estates (social housing) who come up against asylum seekers who move into the black economy and take their jobs,” the sources added. “They are the ones who feel the impact and this is where the tension is generated over illegal immigration.” Mr Blunkett’s plan is to imitate the US green card system to allow selective entry of foreign workers for specified periods of time. At the end of that period, they would have to leave. A ceiling on numbers, enforced by rigorous enforcement, would control and legitimise the economic migration. During the recently concluded general election campaign, Labour politicians attacked opposition Conservative plans to lock up asylum seekers in detention centres while their applications were processed. The Conservative proposals were described as both illiberal and expensive. Since then, Mr Blunkett has come up with his own package of ideas to streamline immigration. “There are those, for example, who advocate uncontrolled immigration,” he said last week, “but the impact on their lives would be limited.” On Sunday, Mr Blunkett added, “Protecting communities and vulnerable individuals from the evils of so-called gang masters who trade in illegal immigration will be a priority.”
IANS |
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Galbraith awarded Padma Vibhushan Cambridge (Massachusetts), June 12 Indian Ambassador Lalit Mansingh presented the award to Mr Galbraith, who served in 1961 and 1963 under late US President John F. Kennedy, at his Cambridge residence. The award is India’s second highest civilian decoration and is rarely given to foreigners. “Nothing gives me more pride than looking back on my two stays on what we will one day call not only the world’s largest democracy, but also the most successful democracy both politically and economically,” Mr Galbraith, 92, told a small gathering of friends and family here. “You were a great Ambassador,” Mr Mansingh said. “We remember you with fondness and love.” Mr Galbraith is famous for developing Keynesian and post-Keynesian economics and for his involvement in American politics.
AP |
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State security for Hasina, sister Dhaka, June 12 The law titled “The Father of the Nation’s Family Members Security Act, 2001,” is to protect the two surviving daughters of the country’s founder Sheikh Mujibur Rahman — Hasina and sister Sheikh Rehana. Amid debate between the ruling Awami League and the Opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), their allied organisations and other professional bodies, the Cabinet approved the much talked about draft law at its weekly meeting chaired by Hasina. The law says Mujib’s daughters would get state security as VIPs, as defined in the Special Security Forces (SSF) Ordinance. To ensure security, the government would provide residential and other facilities to Hasina and Rehana. “It is a very simple law,” Law Minister Abdul Matin Khasru said. “The same level of security for them (Hasina and Rehana) could have been ensured through a government executive order. But as the government believes in democracy, we are processing it through Parliament. The law would be placed in Parliament soon.” Under the SSF Ordinance, a VIP is a person who is a state chief of a foreign country and who has been announced a VIP in the government gazette. Hasina and Rehana would be considered VIPs once Parliament approves the law. After the law is approved, separate residential facilities would be arranged for Hasina and Rehana. Khasru rejected newspaper reports that Hasina would continue to stay at Ganobhaban, the Prime Minister’s official residence, and said, “She would live wherever the government arranges the residential facilities.” Meanwhile, Opposition parties continued to criticize the law, saying it would affect the next elections. Their main objection, however, was on the assumption that Hasina would stay at Ganobhaban during the election and would continue to be entitled to official protocol. When asked why Hasina and Rehana suddenly needed such a special law, Khasru said: “As per Clauses 31 and 32 of the Constitution, the state is responsible for security of all citizens. However, not all people live amidst life risk. The state ensures special security for those exposed to greater risk. Many of the killers of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman are still at large. That is why Hasina and Rehana are exposed to high risk.”
IANS |
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Blair affects bumper pay hike London, June 12 Besides accepting the resignation of Europe Minister Keith Vaz who opted to “stand down” on health grounds, Mr Blair yesterday dismissed Mike O’Brien, Home Office Minister at the centre of the Hinduja passport affair, Kate Hoey, Sports Minister and Alan Howarth, Arts Minister who defected from the Tories. Mr Blair also finally accepted the pay increase that he and his senior ministers had forgone since 1997. His own pay goes up from £ 116,339 to £ 163,418. That of Cabinet Ministers — who were paid less than opposition leader William Hague in the last parliament — rises from £ 99,793 to £ 117,979. Mr Blair had earlier boosted the cause of women ministers by bringing back Mrs Harriet Harman as Solicitor-General. Simultaneously, he catapulted his political secretary Sally Morgan into ministerial office by making her a Baroness and sending her to the Cabinet Office, where she will oversee women’s unit. Ms Lady
Symons of Vernham Dean was promoted as Minister for Trade and deputy leader of the Lords while Ms Jane Kennedy was made minister of State in the Northern Ireland Office. Ms Margaret Hodge took over as Minister for the Universities at Minister of state level and Ms Barbara Roche, Immigration Minister in the outgoing ministry, was made the Cabinet Office Minister. Mr Blair also inducted fresh blood in the government with Ms Ruth Kelly, Ms Rosie Winterton, Ms Maria Eagle, Ms Sally Keeble and Ms Hazel Blears. Mr Blair’s ruthlessness towards his government team began on Friday with the demotion of Robin Cook from Foreign Secretary to Leader of the Commons, removal from the Cabinet of Nick Brown and sacking of Chris Smith and Ann Taylor. Mrs Vaz has been replaced by former anti-apartheid activist Peter
Hain. Mr Stephen Twigg, who uprooted Mr Michael Portillo, the Tory leader from Enfield Southgate in 1997, becomes Mr Cook’s parliamentary Secretary.
PTI |
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Shah of Iran’s
daughter found dead in London London, June 12 The body of Princess Leila Pahlavi (31), who lived in the USA, was discovered by the staff at the Leonard Hotel on Sunday evening. A post-mortem examination failed to reveal the cause of death and the police said there were no suspicious circumstances. “It is classed as an unexplained death,” a spokeswoman for Scotland Yard said.
IANS |
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China ‘shipping’
arms to Cuba Washington, June 12 At least three arms shipments were traced from China to the Cuban port of Mariel over the past few months and all arms belonged to the state-owned China Ocean Shipping Company, US intelligence officials told The Washington Times. The details of the arms shipment were sketchy but involved a known Chinese arms dealer who arranged the transfer, officials said.
UNI |
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