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Thursday,
July 19, 2001, Chandigarh, India   |
Failed talks to cause more violence: Yasin PM’s visit to Pak positive step: USA Musharraf briefs NSC,
Cabinet |
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Carry on talks: Annan Bush to go ahead with NMD Lankan
jets bomb LTTE boats More Israeli forces
for West Bank
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Blair suffers defeat
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Failed talks to cause more violence: Yasin London, July 18 Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF) chief Yasin Malik, who remained in London for the duration of the failed July 15-16 summit, is heading back to India this weekend after prolonged medical treatment in the USA. In his first comments to the media since the summit ended in deadlock, Malik said: “Look, I will tell you one thing, this summit was nothing, both the countries have nothing to offer anything each other.” “Such big summits should be held when an announcement has to be made about solving some problem. But political leaders in the subcontinent have a weakness to hold such high profile summits. Although there is nothing to be achieved, the world’s press is invited to cover the meetings.” “Similar summits are held elsewhere in the world, but they are held to announce the solution to a problem,” he said. “Nothing was ever intended for this summit.” Asked what was likely to happen on the ground in Kashmir, Malik replied, “Violence will escalate from both sides, not just from one side. That’s how it seems to me.” Meanwhile, a Britain-born Pakistani who has arrived back in Manchester after spending seven years in Indian jails has denied he ever expressed a desire to join militant groups fighting Indian security forces in Kashmir. Before he was released last week after strenuous efforts on his behalf by the British Foreign Office and Pakistan-born Lord Nazir Ahmed, Aurangzeb told a local newspaper in Manchester, “I was told mothers and sisters were being raped by Indians. It was my duty to go and fight them.” Islamabad: The son of former Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif has termed President Pervez Musharraf’s visit to India for talks as an absolute disappointment. “The failure was bound to happen and we warned about it several times,” Hassan Nawaz Sharif said. Hassan said General Musharraf did not represent the Pakistani nation and the behaviour of the Indian Government clearly demonstrated this, Online news agency reported. “The only thing the Pakistani nation got from this visit was a few pictures of General Musharraf and his wife under the shadow of the Taj Mahal,” he added. Trying different Indian food, reviving some childhood memories, strolling at the Taj Mahal and talking to the international press did not address the real issues, he said. He said the failure to issue a joint statement was in contrast to the Lahore summit, when Indian Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee visited the Pakistani city and signed a declaration with then Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif.
IANS |
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PM’s visit to Pak positive step: USA Washington, July 18 The USA wants to “encourage a sustained engagement at the senior level,” State Department deputy spokesman Phillip Reeker said. Calling Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee’s acceptance of the offer to visit Pakistan for further talks a positive step, he said, the USA also welcomed statements from the Foreign Ministers of the two countries that they expected the dialogue to continue. Mr Reeker said although India and Pakistan failed to reach an agreement on a final statement, the “serious and constructive atmosphere” of the talks indicated that both sides were committed to resolving their differences. “Obviously this will be a difficult and a lengthy process,” he said, pointing out that the two sides had been “grappling with very difficult issues that have divided them for over 50 years.” Mr Reeker ducked a question on the US position on India’s charge that Pakistan was aiding terrorists in Kashmir, an issue that supposedly fouled the atmosphere of the talks. “Our position has been that they need to have a dialogue on these issues. It is only through dialogue that they are going to solve these problems”, he said. Meanwhile, the USA has said the Agra summit between Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee and President Pervez Musharraf has shown the path to be taken for the eventual settlement of the differences between India and Pakistan. “While India and Pakistan did not reach agreement on a final joint statement, it is important to keep this meeting in perspective. The two sides were grappling with very difficult issues that had divided them for over 50 years,” Assistant Secretary of State for South Asia Christina B. Rocca said yesterday at an Indian-American Friendship Council Banquet organised by council president Krishna Reddy. Brussels: The European Union (EU) has expressed its “deep disappointment” at the failure of the India-Pakistan summit that ended without any significant progress on the path to peace between the two neighbours. A senior E.U official said: “We had great expectations and we are disappointed. It is a missed opportunity. We had felt that something would come out of the summit and so it is a complete surprise that it failed completely,” the official said. The E.U, however, is waiting before apportioning blame for the failure. “The extent of what happened and why it failed is still not clear and we need to see how the people there will explain the failure,” the official said. But the EU says both India and Pakistan have good reasons to push ahead with the peace process. “The time is really ripe. Pakistan needs to get out of the international isolation and to rejuvenate its economy. So, we thought they would be ready for some concessions,” he said. “India can be the engine of growth for the region. There is need for a pole of growth in South Asia and by bringing about peace, trade and economic relations can be facilitated,” the official said.
UNI, PTI, IANS |
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Musharraf briefs NSC,
Cabinet Islamabad, July 18 The two bodies approved the stand taken by him, officials said. President Musharraf would address a press conference on July 20 for which the Indian media would be invited, they said. He would also soon convene meetings with politicians, Islamic clerics, leaders of Pakistan-based Kashmiri parties, editors of Pakistan media, students and women groups to brief them about the outcome of his visit. Media reports here said his popularity graph soared specially after the telecast of his meeting with senior Indian editors. Officials said he was all set to repeat the exercise of meetings with groups and individuals whom he met in the run-up to his talks with Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee in order to consolidate the “positive” image he “acquired by standing firm on the Kashmir issue.” It was also evident from yesterday’s press conference by Pakistan Foreign Minister Abdul Sattar that President Musharraf considered the summit “inconclusive” and not a failure and hoped to continue his talks with Mr Vajpayee when the two meet in September this year at the UN General Assembly in New York. Barring former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto-led Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) and deposed Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif-led Pakistan Muslim League (PML) and 19 party Alliance for Restoration of Democracy (ARD) and other small parties and groups supported his visit to India.
PTI |
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Carry on talks: Annan United Nations, July 18 A spokesman for the Secretary- General said in a statement that Mr Annan called on Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee and Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf to persevere with their efforts to establish a sustainable bilateral dialogue. “A sustained Indo-Pakistan dialogue, especially at the highest level, is sorely needed, and the summit should be seen as an important step towards this,” spokesman Fred Eckhard said quoting Mr Annan. “It would have been too much to expect a major breakthrough on the difficult issues of substance from a first meeting,” he said. “The fact that the two leaders are talking can contribute to an easing of tensions, especially on the question of Kashmir.” Asked what role the Secretary- general had played in contributing to the dialogue, the spokesman said Mr Annan had visited both India and Pakistan earlier this year, and urged both leaders to talk to resolve their differences, including those over Kashmir. Both governments had been receptive to the plea, he added.
IANS |
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Bush to go ahead with NMD London, July 18 Although Russia views the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile (ABM) treaty as the cornerstone of strategic arms control and opposes Mr Bush’s plans for a US missile defence system, the US leader yesterday made clear he would not let the ABM stand in his way. “We should not adhere to a treaty that prevents the USA and other freedom-loving people from developing defences, not offensive weapons but defences,” Mr Bush told BBC television in an interview before this weekend’s Group of Eight summit in Genoa, Italy. “I’ve made it very clear that we need to see aside, the ABM treaty and that we need to move forward,” he said. Meanwhile, President Bush told a British newspaper that he stood “ready to help” with the Northern Ireland peace process, which is now in danger of collapsing. “The situation in Northern Ireland is coming to a critical stage,” Mr Bush told The Times newspaper, according to an interview published today ahead of Mr Bush’s visit to Britain. “I stand ready to help.”
Reuters, AP |
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Lankan jets bomb LTTE boats Colombo, July 18 Eight boats of the LTTE were detected by naval gunboats, which called in the air force to carry out the attack near the coast of Mullaitivu, Mr Karunaratne said. He said the navy believed the guerrillas were transporting supplies from Mullaitivu to a base further north when they were detected this morning. “It is believed that the flotilla was a logistics run of the LTTE,” Mr Karunaratne said, adding that the military had no immediate details of rebel casualties. There was a similar attack against an LTTE sea convoy on April 20. The guerrillas later admitted losing six of their cadres, including two self-styled lieut colonels. Meanwhile, series of explosions destroyed an office of the Sri Lankan Muslim Party, which last month plunged the country into crisis by defecting to the Opposition, party officials and the police said today. Three devices exploded before dawn at the Sri Lanka Muslim Party office in the eastern town of Kalmunai, destroying the building but causing no casualties, the police said.
AFP, Reuters |
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More Israeli forces for West Bank Jerusalem, July 18 The move came after a day of tit-for-tat violence in which Israeli helicopter gunships killed four activists of the militant Hamas group and Palestinians launched their first West Bank mortar bomb attacks since violence erupted in September. Israeli Channel One television reported that the infantry and armoured units would be deployed on the borders of Palestinian-ruled areas in case a deterioration in the situation forced Israel to recapture the territories. “At this time, the Israeli Army is mobilising infantry and armoured vehicles to the Judea and Samaria area (the West Bank) in light of today’s flagrant violation of the ceasefire and the launching of two mortar shells towards the Jerusalem neighbourhood of Gilo,” the military officials told Reuters. They said the forces would gather at a road in the Jewish settlement of Gilo, on the edge of Jerusalem, and deploy from there to different parts of the West Bank. An armoured bulldozer and two busloads of Israeli soldiers — about 60 men — arrived early on Wednesday at the meeting place, a Reuters camera crew said.
Reuters |
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Blair suffers defeat London, July 18 A number of Labour members of Parliament joined political opponents and rebelled against their leader. The government’s massive 166-seat majority dissolved as MPs rejected its proposed Foreign Affairs Committee line-up by 301 votes to 232. The cast list for the Transport Committee was thrown out by 308 votes to 221.
Reuters |
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