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Friday,
June 15, 2001, Chandigarh, India  
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Israel withdraws tanks
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MACEDONIA CRISIS
US House condemns Taliban order
Philippines
suspends talks with rebels |
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Israel withdraws tanks Jerusalem, June 14 The police spokesman said a Palestinian gunman fired on an Israeli car, wounding one of the passengers, who shot back and killed the attacker. A second Israeli in the car was shot dead in the initial Palestinian gunfire, the emergency workers and Israeli media said. At least 457 Palestinians, 112 Israelis and 13 Israeli Arabs have been killed since the fighting erupted in September after peace talks stalled. GAZA: Israel withdrew tanks and removed a roadblock near the Jewish settlement of Netzarim in the Gaza Strip in what appeared on Thursday to be a step to begin implementing a US brokered ceasefire, witnesses said. A Reuters TV cameraman at the scene said there were no tanks in the area — only Israeli army jeeps — and that Palestinian traffic was flowing freely in an area that had been a flashpoint of Israeli-Palestinian fighting in eight months of bloodshed. The ceasefire officially began at 3 pm local time (1200 GMT) yesterday after US CIA Director George Tenet held talks with Israel and the Palestinians to iron out a final timeline for its implementation. Under the plan, Israel is required to begin pulling back its forces and lifting a blockade on the West Bank and Gaza Strip within 48 hours. The redeployment began despite several shooting incidents in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip reported by the army, including one in which a Palestinian was shot dead in a drive-by shooting —possibly by an Israeli. The army also said Palestinians fired three mortar bombs at a Jewish settlement in Gaza on
Thursday. Reuters |
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MACEDONIA CRISIS Brussels, June 14 On the eve of an EU-US summit in Sweden, Bush faced calls at home and abroad for more decisive action to stop a slide to another Balkan war, pitting ethnic Albanians on Kosovo’s southern border with Macedonia’s majority Slavs. The leaders of France and Britain, speaking at Bush’s first, informal summit of the Atlantic alliance in Brussels on Wednesday, urged bolder action in the former Yugoslav republic to avoid yet more bloodshed in the Balkans. They scrambled to smother resulting speculation that they were considering military intervention. But diplomatic sources said a groundswell was building for more robust action. The issue was
likely to arise again at the Gothenburg summit. Bush in Brussels indicated the signal the allies wanted to send the Macedonia government was that the Alliance’s goal was a political remedy to the conflict between Slavs and minority ethnic Albanians, not a military bail-out. To bolster a twin-track political and security plan by Macedonian President Boris Trajkovski, NATO Secretary-General George Robertson and European Union Foreign Affairs chief Javier Solana were due in Skopje on Thursday to offer support. But some prominent US figures urged military involvement led by the USA, implying it should not be undertaken by any European “coalition of the willing” ready to put troops on the ground to back Macedonia’s limited security forces. French President Jacques Chirac had told the summit that NATO “must not preclude any form of action needed” to stop the conflict. He later said he was not “thinking of an eventual military action because for me that would be a last resort”. Britain’s Tony Blair told leaders it was “better to make preparations and to stabilise the situation rather than to wait and let the situation deteriorate”. British sources also denied afterwards that Blair was suggesting intervention. France and Britain are the prime movers behind the European Union’s plan to create its own rapid reaction military force. “NATO must play a more visible and active role in helping the Macedonian government counter the insurgency there,” Bush told fellow leaders of the alliance. At a news conference, however, he insisted this did not signify sending troops, especially before peace was established between ethnic Albanian guerrillas and government forces. “Most people believe there is still a political solution available before the troops are committed,” Bush said. “the sentiment I heard here was that there’s still a possibility for a political settlement, a good possibility. “The idea of committing troops within Macedonia was one that most nations were troubled over. They want to see if we cannot achieve a political settlement first,” the President said. In Washington, however, Senators urged more US engagement. “This country must increase its involvement. The stakes in Macedonia are simply too high for us to choose to play a secondary role,” Senator Joe Biden, a Democrat, told a hearing. He said only the USA had “the military and political credibility with all ethnic groups to successfully manage and resolve the crisis in the Balkans”. Senator Richard Lugar took a similar line. General Wesley Clark, NATO commander in the war over Kosovo in 1999, said NATO troops in Kosovo should move into Macedonia’s conflict zone. “Even if there’s a political agreement...it’s going to take NATO backing and that’s going to take US leadership and US commitment and no doubt US troops on the ground to enable the Macedonian army to get into the areas where there has been fighting,” Clark told the hearing in written testimony. NATO’s Robertson, flanking Bush at his news conference, emphasised the political track, saying there was “a good wind” behind Trajkovski’s peace plan, which the coalition government agreed to on Tuesday.
Reuters, AFP |
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Clinton statesman or an entertainer? London, June 14 The question over the former U.S. President’s status arose when Clinton was booked to appear at the annual Yorkshire International Business convention in Harrogate in northern England last Friday, the Guardian newspaper reported today. Four weeks earlier, the organiser’s accountant, Tim Parr, contacted the Inland Revenue to ask whether Clinton should be classified as an entertainer or a visiting statesman for tax purposes, the paper said. Under British tax rules, a visiting politician pays no tax, but a foreign entertainer has 22 per cent of his or her income deducted at source. Perhaps confused by Clinton’s habit of appearing with movie stars or because of his well-known saxophone skills, the Inland Revenue only responded to the query on Friday morning just as the former President was arriving in Britain for the event. “The Inland Revenue’s Foreign Entertainers unit took four weeks to consider it,” the Guardian quoted Parr as saying. “The business convention couldn’t believe it, then became quite irate. They didn’t know how much they would have to pay.” On the tax form, which was printed in the paper, the section marked Artiste’s Name, read “Clinton William Jefferson”, while under Stage Name (if any), it said “Bill Clinton”. But in the end there was good news for Clinton: officials decided he didn’t have to pay tax — and was a politician after all.
Reuters |
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US House condemns Taliban order Washington, June 14 The resolution, passed unanimously by the House yesterday, called on the Pakistan Government to “use its influence on the Taliban to demand that they revoke the policy of forcing Afghan Hindus and other non-Muslims to wear a yellow identifying symbol.” The vote was a massive 420 votes in favour, none against and 12 not voting. Speakers in the House compared the order to Hitler’s persecution of the Jews in a similar fashion, which ultimately led to the holocaust. The resolution was co-sponsored by over 60 members, and there is a concurrent resolution in the Senate as well. The operative part says that the Congress “strongly condemns the use of Nazi tactics to force Hindus in Afghanistan to wear symbols identifying them as Hindus; joins with people of all faiths round the world in standing against the religious persecution by the Taliban regime; demands the Taliban regime immediately revoke its order stigmatising Hindus and other non-Muslims in Afghanistan and conform its laws to all basic international civil and human rights standards. The preamble refers, among other things, to the Taliban’s violation of human rights and mistreatment of women and the destruction of pre-Islamic Buddhist statues in Afghanistan.
PTI |
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Philippines suspends talks with rebels Manila, June 14 Silvestre Bello, chief government negotiator with the Communists, said the team would be returning to Manila from talks in Oslo, Norway, ahead of their scheduled June 16 flight. “The killing (of Congressman Rodolfo Aguinaldo) has gravely affected the progress of the talks,” he said in telephone interviews with media in Manila. “We are now on recess. The panel decided to get instructions from President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo.’’ Bello said the negotiations would resume after the government receives a “formal response and explanation” from the National Democratic Front (NDF), an umbrella organisation representing all Communist groups in the talks. Aguinaldo was killed on Tuesday by three assassins of the New People’s Army (NPA), the armed wing of the Communist Movement. One of his security aides was also slain in the ambush in Cagayan province, 345 km north of Manila. The NPA said Aguinaldo deserved to die for his “cruelty to the masses, violations against women and servitude to imperialism, feudalism and capitalism”. It added that the former military colonel’s death was “long overdue”. NDF peace panel chairman Luis Jalandoni congratulated the NPA on the killing, further irritating government negotiators. “We view as an act of bad faith that the NDF panel had congratulated the perpetrators of this dastardly act,” the government team said in a statement. “We are concerned by the insincere actuations manifested by the ability of the NDF to sit at the negotiating table while undertaking a brazen act of political assassination,” the statement added. In justifying the assassination, the NPA cited a long list of “crimes” committed by Aguinaldo, a former military colonel and a member of an anti-Communist intelligence unit under the regime of the late dictator Ferdinand Marcos. The offences included arresting thousands of activists during Marcos’ rule, raping wives of rebels, kidnapping guerrillas’ children, torture and corruption. Aguinaldo had served as governor of Cagayan province for nine years starting in 1988. He was elected Congressman in 1998 but lost a re-election bid last month. Communist rebels have been fighting for a Marxist state in the Philippines since the late 1960s, making the movement one of Asia’s longest-running Leftist insurgencies.
DPA |
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Asma Jahan Gir’s properties attached Islamabad, June 14 Confirming the media reports in this regard, Asma’s spokesman, Gohar told PTI here over the phone from Lahore that the tax authorities had issued notices for the attachment of properties of both asma and her sister Hina Jilani even though both of them have paid their dues concerning their Wealth Tax. Both sisters, recipients of this year’s UNESCO award for Women’s Initiative for Peace, were currently out of the country. Reporting the details of the case, Pakistan newspaper’s the Nation said today that the immovable properties of Hina Jilani, Usman Jilani and Sabiha Jilani besides that of Asma have been attached by the it department. All the three Jilanis are co-owners of the attached properties of Asma, it said. Reacting to the notices, Gohar said it was apparent that Asma, one of the vocal and bitter critic of human rights violations of official agencies as well as extremist religious groups, was being victimised for her efforts for the restoration of human rights in Pakistan. Early this month tax officials raided the residence of Chairman of the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP), Afrasiyab Khatak on similar grounds of non payment of taxes, even though he had cleared all his tax dues.
PTI |
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Illegal Indian workers begin leaving Oman Dubai, June 14 According to the Indian Embassy in Muscat, it had already issued some 4300 emergency certificates to the illegal Indian immigrants, wanting to avail of the amnesty. The amnesty came into effect on April 21 and ends on June 16. However, there are indications that the amnesty period might be extended. “We are working overtime to cope with the rush of illegal expatriates wanting to return home”, an Indian official said. The official said there were some 5,000 to 10,000 illegal Indian expatriates in Oman, living mainly in interior and remote areas. A large number of them were employed by Omani individuals. They have been categorised as illegal immigrants as their illiterate sponsors are generally not aware of the fact that their documents have to be revalidated every year. The Indian official said there had been cases where some Indian expatriates had not been able to go to India for as many as 10 years because of their illegal status. “Only when some emergency occurs back home, they restlessly run around to get their papers right,” he added. He said Oman Labour Department levied heavy fines on the defaulters for not renewing their documents on time. However, the amnesty also proved to be of no help to many illegal expatriates, mostly from Kerala, because of the expenditure involved in the exercise. Most of them are not in a position to afford their one-way journey from Oman to India.
UNI |
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