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| Tuesday,
July 10, 2001, Chandigarh, India   
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Peace talks open as
ceasefire holds Top Abu Sayyaf commander
held
Lawyer explains Condit’s
silence |
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Protestants’ march
peaceful
Megawati warns of
political collapse Lewinsky gets ‘blue’ dress back Cigarette butt
leads to murderer
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Peace talks open as
ceasefire holds Skopje, July 9 Leaders of Macedonia’s Albanian minority have dismissed it as inadequate, clouding Western optimism that the plan delivered to politicians across the tiny Balkan republic’s ethnic divide would form the basis of a political effort to avert civil war. “I didn’t start the war, I want to stop the war”, Macedonia’s foremost Albanian politician, Mr Arben Xhaferi, told newsmen in an interview. “This offering cannot stop the war.” The U.S.-EU proposals would devolve some power and make Albanian the official language. U.S. special envoy James Pardew and the EU’s Francois Leotard met Macedonian President Boris Trajkovski before party leaders faced off over the negotiating table to debate the plan. “We will discuss it today, tomorrow and the next day,” Mr Leotard told reporters en route to the first session of talks. Mr Xhaferi, leader of the Democratic Party of Albanians (DPA), said he wanted the West to send in NATO troops to keep the peace and back radical demands for constitutional change — demands that the Macedonian majority blame for crippling the talks. Diplomats, who brokered a truce last week to ease pressure on the talks, hope for quick progress towards a deal under which NATO troops would go in — but only for a limited period and only to collect guns from rebels who agree to disarm. But Albanian politicians said a swift solution was unlikely. “I’m not very confident that a serious agreement can be reached this week,” Mr Imer Imeri, the leader of the Party for Democratic Prosperity, told newsmen in a separate interview. “For the most part we will disagree with this when we start talking tomorrow,” Mr Imeri said of the U.S.-EU plan. “There is no substantial difference from what was on the table before.” Diplomats said the Albanians were seriously mistaken if they believed NATO would send another peacekeeping mission to former Yugoslavia in addition to those in Bosnia and Kosovo. “We don’t need a third protectorate in the Balkans. The people here need to resolve their own differences and not have a military occupation force,” one said, adding that the message being given to politicians on both sides was simple. “Talk here, talk now, this is the best option you have.” Albanian leaders want a peace summit outside the country but the idea is rejected by Macedonians, who fear it could serve a separatist Albanian agenda. Albanians, registered in the last census as 24 per cent of Macedonia’s two million people, say their community is far larger but deny they want to secede. Although the ceasefire has broadly held, fire was exchanged above the mainly Albanian town of Tetovo — the scene of fierce battles for territory last week — on Sunday night. In addition to decentralising power in Macedonia and giving the Albanian language official status, the joint U.S.-EU proposals would create mechanisms to ensure laws on ethnic issues can only be passed by Parliament with minority backing. “The only problematic point at this minute for us is the free use of the Albanian language in Parliament,” Social Democratic Party Vice-President Radmila Shekerinska said. Mr Xhaferi said he would not drop demands for an effective veto on any law deemed not to be in the interests of Albanians. Both leaders acknowledged that the National Liberation Army guerrillas, whose rebellion in the name of minority rights has brought Macedonia to the brink of civil war, had been more successful than them in getting Albanian grievances addressed. “If there was no NLA no one would seriously get involved in dialogue with Albanians,” Mr Imeri said. “The bottom line is that every Albanian in his soul is with the NLA.” Both denied they were pushing a hardline agenda for their own political ends. Rivals such as NLA political representative Ali Ahmeti could give up their guns and later stand for office on the basis of gains they helped win. Western diplomats said the Albanians’ hardline stance appeared to be self-defeating unless it was just a negotiating tactic. “They’re going to have to ask themselves do they really want to return to a state of war with more refugees, more tragedy and they still don’t have their issues resolved, so it would be tragic if they don’t seize this opportunity,” one diplomat said.
Reuters |
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Top Abu Sayyaf commander held Manila, July 9 Police chief Gen Leandro Mendoza told reporters Nadzmi Sabdulla, alias Commander Global, was arrested on Sunday with three other Abu Sayyaf members in the southern city of Santos. Sabdulla (40) is the highest ranking Abu Sayyaf member arrested so far. He was one of the commanders on Jolo Island involved in the abduction last year of 21 people, including several Western tourists, from a Malaysian resort, the police said. He said Sabdulla acted as spokesman for the Abu Sayyaf during negotiations with the government under then President Joseph Estrada. The tourists were released, after ransoms of up to $1 million each were paid, or escaped. Sabdulla’s faction is separate from the group holding 17 Filipinos and three American hostages abducted from a tourist resort off Palawan island on May 27 and taken to Basilan. The gunmen have freed most of them, after payment of ransoms, but took more Filipino hostages on Basilan. They have also beheaded four of their Filipino captives and claim to have beheaded one American tourist. Manila has offered a five million pesos ($94,340) reward for information leading to the arrest of Abu Sayyaf commanders, including Sabdulla, and one million pesos for each member. The Abu Sayyaf, with an estimated force of about 1,000, is one of two groups demanding a Muslim homeland in southern Philippines. But it does little to fight for its professed goals and appears to concentrate on kidnapping for ransom.
Reuters |
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Lawyer explains Condit’s silence Washington, July 9 Speaking a day after a source said the California Democrat had told the police that he had a romantic relationship with Chandra Levy, lawyer Abbe Lowell yesterday refused to discuss what his client had told investigators and said Condit had satisfied their every request for information. Condit (53) who was married, did not know what happened to Levy and had no plans to quit the Congress, Lowell said. A source familiar with the investigation and speaking on the condition of anonymity said on Saturday that Condit, in his third interview with the Washington police and the FBI, told investigators for the first time on Friday that he had a romantic relationship with Levy, who had not been seen since April 30. The police has said Condit is not a suspect. It is investigating Levy’s disappearance as a missing person’s case, not a crime. Lowell parried questions about the relationship during appearances on three talk shows and went on the offensive about the coverage of the case. “It’s not important that you know the nature of the relationship. It’s important that the police do and the police has what it needs to see if it helps them find Chandra Levy,” he said on CBS’s “Face the Nation.” “What he told the police about what his relationships were with her or anybody else is not the news,” Lowell said on CNN’s “Late Edition.” “You’re making it the news. It’s not helping find Chandra Levy.” Lowell contended that the media focus had obscured the search and invaded the Condit family’s privacy. Lowell said disclosing anything the lawmaker had provided investigators could make it harder to find Levy, whose home is in Condit’s district. The lawmaker “doesn’t have a particular idea one way or the other” about what had happened to Levy, Lowell said.
AP |
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Palestinian in suicide bomb blast Jerusalem, July 9 The Palestinian’s body was found at the scene of the apparent suicide bomb attack near Kisufim, on the outskirts of Gush Katif, where several Israeli settlements are located, the sources said. There were no other casualties although the car had been packed with 120 mm and 80 mm mortar rounds, resulting in a powerful explosion, the sources said. In the West Bank an Israeli soldier seriously wounded overnight in a home-made bomb explosion while on patrol near Hebron, has died, Israeli military sources said. The soldier was wounded in the head while patrolling in a Jeep. Another soldier in the vehicle was also wounded, the sources said. Also in the Gaza Strip, the Israeli settlement of Mora was hit by two mortar shells while another settlement, Neve Dekarlim, came under Palestinian fire. Meanwhile, Israel demanded an uncensored viewing of a videotape made by UN peacekeepers in Lebanon which it says may shed light on the abduction of three Israeli soldiers by Hizbullah guerrillas. Israeli Defence Minister Binyamin Ben-Eliezer yesterday said in a letter to United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan that the viewing arrangements offered by the UN were “ disappointing and disturbing”. The UN, which originally denied having the tape, said it would blur the faces of non-UN personnel and allow Lebanese representatives, as well as Israeli officials, to view the footage, shot a day after the soldiers’ capture on October 7. The UN said the tape, received by a peacekeeper, showed two abandoned vehicles believed to have been used in the frontier abduction. UN uniforms and small bloodstains were found inside the vehicles, which bore fake UN licence plates. Several Hizbullah guerrillas are shown preventing UN peacekeepers from towing away the vehicles. The UN said it decided to mask the faces of Hizbullah fighters because the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) was not allowed to deliver intelligence to either side. It also said the tape offered no new details of the abduction.
AFP, Reuters |
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Pinochet unfit
for trial: court Santiago (Chile), July 9 Legal experts say Pinochet is now likely to avoid trial on any of the scores of charges he faces in Chile, the Andean country he ruled with an iron fist between 1973 and 1990. The Appeals Court said on Monday it was suspending legal procedures against Pinochet over allegations he covered up atrocities by the “caravan of death,” a military death squad. It was the key accusation in efforts to bring Pinochet to trial in Chile after he was freed from 16 months’ detention in Britain last year. A medical report given to the Chilean court shows Pinochet suffers from dementia. Prosecutors had argued he was mentally well enough to stand trial.
Reuters |
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Protestants’ march peaceful Drumcree (Northern Ireland), July 9 “Please, please keep this peaceful”, said Harold Gracie, leader of the Portadown Orange Order, as hundreds of marchers gathered for speeches near a 20 feet high steel and razor-wire barrier blocking a bridge into the Catholic enclave. It was the fourth consecutive year that march had been banned from the Catholic area after serious outbreaks of sectarian violence in previous years. The ban came amid growing unease about the future of the landmark 1998 Good Friday Agreement. After listening to speeches, most of the marchers dispersed. Leaders of the Orange Order denounced the ban by Northern Ireland’s Parades Commission stopping them from continuing their traditional march past Catholic homes, back to nearby Portadown, 35 km southwest of Belfast. Nigel Dawson, an Orange Order official at the head of a line of marchers, waited at the barrier for an official flanked by riot police to come through a steel door to receive a protest letter. “We ask you to remove your men and remove this obscene obstruction,” said Dawson, dressed in the Orange Order’s traditional bowler hat and orange silken sash. But speeches afterwards appealed for the Orange Order to show dignity and to refrain from violence in order to give Protestants as big a voice as possible in the talks in the English Midlands next week to try to shore up the faltering Good Friday peace accord.
Reuters |
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Speight doesn’t deny coup role Suva, July 9 The former businessman does not deny his role in toppling the South Pacific nation’s former government but says a deal reached with the military guaranteed him immunity from prosecution, his lawyer said. Treason carries a maximum penalty of death in the former British colony but capital sentences are generally commuted to life. Outside the court, where about 300 Speight supporters were gathered, lawyer Kitione Vuetaki said Speight had no regrets about storming Parliament on May 19 last year and taking former Prime Minister Mahendra Chaudhry and most of his Cabinet colleagues hostage in the name of indigenous Fijian rights.
Reuters |
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Megawati warns of political collapse Jakarta, July 9 Embattled President Wahid, increasingly likely to be ousted by an impeachment hearing by the top legislature next month, has called an emergency meeting of political leaders for today in a bid to resolve the crisis and save his leadership. But Megawati, who automatically replaces Wahid if he falls, is refusing to attend.
Reuters |
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Lewinsky gets ‘blue’ dress back Washington, July 9 ABC yesterday quoted the Office of the Independent Counsel as saying that Lewinsky had been given back the dress and a “variety of things” that were taken from her apartment during the investigation into her affair with Mr Clinton. Lewinsky’s dress was a key piece of evidence that Independent Counsel Kenneth Starr used against Mr Clinton. The Washington Times said the dress could fetch up to $ 5,00,000. The Lewinsky affair in 1999 almost cost Mr Clinton his presidency.
DPA |
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Cigarette butt
leads to murderer Hong Kong, July 9 The 39-year-old was arrested after a blood sample taken from him allegedly matched the DNA on the cigarette butt found at the scene of the murder in the territory in January, 1999, a police spokesman said. The cigarette was found in the flat of a 32-year-old man who was stabbed to death in his home in Aberdeen, Hong Kong. He had multiple stab wounds to his head and neck. The police arrested the suspect minutes after he was released from a prison on Saturday.
DPA |
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