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Friday,
July 27, 2001, Chandigarh, India  
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Shift in Russia’s stance on missile defence
Islamist is Megawati’s deputy |
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King swears in Nepal PM
Talks with Maoists likely in Aug Amnesty slams India on Dalits |
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Lankan airline shifts operations ISKCON opposes McDonald’s move Signs of Mars climate change
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Shift in Russia’s stance on missile defence Moscow, July 26 The visit “proves that the agreements that we reached with Bush are being realised”, Mr Putin told a Kremlin meeting attended by US National Security Adviser Condoleeza Rice, US Commerce Secretary Don Evans and Treasury Secretary Paul O’Neill. Ms Rice later reported that she and Russian defence officials had agreed a specific timetable for future missile defence and disarmament talks. Offering to turn over a new leaf in Moscow’s at times chilly relations with Washington, Putin said the US team’s visit should “add new meaning to our relations, without the problems that have lingered on from the past. “It is important ... that the USA no longer views Russia as its enemy,” Putin added, in reference to a Bush statement during the two leaders’ historic summit in Ljubljana last month. A top Moscow minister gave a cautiously receptive response to Rice’s proposal to move beyond the 1972 anti-ballistic missile (ABM) treaty and construct a brand new nuclear defence architecture. Following 40-minute talks with Rice, Russian Defence Minister Sergei Ivanov said Moscow was willing to listen to Washington’s arguments, while noting that such talks would take some time. Meanwhile, Ms Condoleezza Rice expressed satisfaction over her talks with Defence Minister Sergei Ivanov, saying ‘a new vista of cooperation’ had dawned in US-Russian relations. Ms Rice emphasised that there were favourable opportunities for establishing a new system of international security. Defence Minister Ivanov, concurring with Ms Rice, said the international security system was currently in a state of flux. “We have only started on the road,’’ he said. Mr Ivanov said there was a whole range of areas for active bilateral cooperation, the fight against terrorism being an important one for both countries.
AFP, UNI |
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Islamist is Megawati’s deputy
Jakarta, July 26 The choice of United Development Party (PPP) chief Hamzah Haz underlines the potential instability in the fragile alliance that dumped Mr Abdurrahman Wahid and replaced him with the daughter of founding President Sukarno on Monday. But Mr Haz also provides crucial religious support that Ms Megawati Sukarnoputri needs to survive in power, and only time will tell if he is a friend or foe, analysts say. Sources said Mr Haz’s relationship with Ms Megawati was cool and formal. “Ms Megawati is very nationalistic and, therefore, Mr Haz, theoretically, should provide a good mix”, Lin Che Wei, head of research at SG Securities, told Reuters. Mr Haz beat parliamentary Speaker Akbar Tandjung by winning 340 votes among the 611 members of the top Assembly who voted. The PPP, third-largest party, had threatened it would not join the yet-to-be-announced Cabinet if Ms Megawati’s old job went to Mr Tandjung, who also heads the Golkar, the second-largest party and former political tool of ousted autocrat Suharto. Ms Megawati’s Indonesian Democratic Party-Struggle (PDI-P) is the largest but does not command a majority. PPP officials said the Golkar already had enough power through holding the Parliament speakership. The Golkar is also still heavily tarnished by its links to Suharto. Meanwhile, Ms Megawati’s party welcomed today’s vote for Mr Haz as her deputy, saying that it would help shore up her rule. “Mr Haz is the best choice because there had been fears Muslim groups would try to weaken Ms Megawati’s leadership,” party Deputy Chairman Roy Janis told Reuters. “Mr Haz’s appointment has killed off that threat”. Meanwhile, two men on motorbikes today shot and killed an Indonesian judge who last year sentenced the youngest son of ex-dictator Suharto to 18 months in jail for corruption, the police said. Justice Syaifuddin Kartasasita, 61, was shot five times at close range through the window of his car as he drove to his office in central Jakarta, said national police spokesman Maj- Gen Didi Widayadi. “It appears the judge had been targeted,” General Widayadi said, adding that the police was still investigating the motive behind the killing. Justice Kartasasita was the presiding Supreme Court judge who sentenced Tommy Suharto on September 22 for his part in a multimillion-dollar land scam. Reuters,
AP, AFP |
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King swears in Nepal PM Kathmandu, July 26 Shortly afterwards, Mr Deuba administered the oath of office to the rest of his new Cabinet. Earlier today, the King had installed a 13-member Cabinet headed by Mr Deuba.
AFP |
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Talks with Maoists likely in Aug Nearly two months after the Narayan Hity palace bloodbath in which Nepal lost its much revered King, Queen and other members of the royal family, public attention has now shifted to the new government’s call for a ceasefire in the country’s six year-old insurgency. Nepal’s new Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba’s unilateral declaration of a ceasefire early this week was responded to sooner than expected through a news flash of Maoist leader Prachand’s statement broadcast in an unprecedented manner on the state-controlled Nepal Television. The Maoist leadership’s willingness to come to the negotiating table has brought some relief to people in the Himalayan Kingdom. The insurgency has claimed more than 1700 lives so far. Sources in the Nepali Congress are optimistic that the talks will be held around the second week of August. In a telephonic conversation from Kathmandu on Thursday, former Mayor of Kathmandu and Nepali Congress MP P.L. Singh said people were relieved since the announcement of the truce. The much expected change in leadership has brought a ray of hope to the otherwise cynical 24 million people of Nepal. The reasons are not far to seek. In his statement, Mr Prachand described Prime Minister Deuba as “progressive” and his peace appeal “comparatively positive.” He has also appreciated Mr Deuba’s priority to finding a solution to the Maoist insurgency. Mr Deuba’s reported assurance to the Maoist leadership that the security forces had been instructed not to take any action assumes significance in light of the recent and unprecedented mobilisation of the Royal Nepal Army to search 71 policemen abducted by the Maoist rebels. The 55-year-old Prime Minister enjoys credibility among the Maoist leadership also because he has been Chairman of a government appointed Maoist Problem Resolution Committee and has had several rounds of negotiations with the Maoist leadership. He had recommended that the only solution to the Maoist insurgency lay in a dialogue in a report to the new Prime Minister, Mr G.P. Koirala. The Koirala government which believed in tackling the Maoists by use of armed forces, chose to overlook the report. Experts on Nepal feel that it is too early to say whether the Deuba government will last its full term. Speaking on condition of anonymity, an Indian journalist who has served in Nepal said it was imperative to watch the performance of any government for at least the first 100 days to know how things would take shape. He said it remained to be seen how the new Prime Minister, who is young in age, would restore peace, tranquility and ensure stability of his own government. A premature appraisal of Mr Deuba’s governance is being attempted through newspaper opinion polls in Kathmandu. The question raised in one such poll is: “Will Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba be able to resolve the Maoist insurgency and tackle widespread corruption?” Experts believe that Mr Deuba is confronted with a challenging and herculean task due to dissension in the Nepali Congress on finding a solution to the Maoist insurgency. While the President of the Nepali Congress and former PM, Mr G.P. Koirala, and his supporters want to solve the Maoist problem by using the armed forces, Mr Deuba is in favour of initiating a dialogue. Speaking in Parliament after being sworn in, Mr Deuba said violence and crime that had been plaguing the country needed to be given priority. Known to be accommodating, Mr Deuba has lost no time in calling upon all political parties within and outside the Parliament to evolve a consensus on the Maoist issue. Some experts see no hope in the truce and liken the Maoists with the jehadis. They term the Nepali Congress choice of the new PM candidate as a victory of youth and feel that the party preferred him to other senior leaders, Mr K.P. Bhattarai and Mr G.P. Koirala and the party General Secretary, Mr Sushil Koirala. Other observers on Nepal believe that Mr Koirala stepped down in the larger interests of the party, the public, the palace and the country as he realised that the Maoists were more receptive to holding talks with any person other than him. He responded to a strong opinion within the party that Mr Deuba be given a chance to negotiate with the Maoists. Mr Koirala had little choice. The Maoists had been insisting on his removal as a pre-condition for freeing the captive policemen. They had also said that they would hold peace talks with the government only if Mr Koirala resigned. |
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Amnesty slams India on Dalits London, July 26 “Despite the abolition by law of untouchability, Dalits continue to be discriminated against on the basis of their descent,” Amnesty said in its report, released on the day “bandit queen” Phoolan Devi was shot dead after she had sought to reinvent herself as a champion of the lower castes. “They are marginalised, particularly in rural areas,” the report said. “Among the violations persistently reported are torture including rape, arbitrary arrests and extra-judicial executions.” Dalits also suffer violence in the community. “Abuses against Dalits frequently go unpunished, with local police frequently refusing to record complaints by Dalits,” it said. “Much evidence points towards a connivance between powerful caste groups and the police in violent attacks against Dalits.” Amnesty said Dalits are vulnerable to a whole range of human rights abuses because of their caste. The report “Racism and the Administration of Justice” focuses on justice through the state. Amnesty supported demands for compensation from states where violations were carried out in the past. “States cannot avoid responsibility for such violations because they were committed by past governments,” it pointed out. Many governments, including Israel, are opposed to such proposals. Organisers fear these disputes can lead to a boycott of the Durban conference. “If at all that happens the world will have missed a unique opportunity to make a difference in the fight against racism,” Amnesty said. Many of the continuing forms of racism relate to administration of justice, Amnesty said. In the U.S.A., the report says, blacks and whites are the victims of murder in almost equal numbers, yet more than 80 per cent of prisoners executed since 1977 were convicted for the murder of whites. The report paints a grim picture of racial discrimination around the world: against the Chinese in Indonesia, against Serbs, Croats and Muslims in one or the other area of the Balkans, against Kurds in Europe and West Asia, particularly in Iraq and Turkey, northerners against southerners in Sudan, minorities in Myanmar, and Tibetans and Uighurs in China.
IANS |
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Lankan airline shifts operations Colombo, July 26 Sri Lankan Airlines, which is partly owned and fully managed by Emirates of Dubai, said it was struggling to work out a weekly schedule after Tuesday’s LTTE attack on Sri Lanka’s international airport put six of their planes out of service. Mr Peter Hill, the airline’s chief Executive Officer, said they would not be able to operate direct services to Europe and the far East and would be using Dubai and Singapore as new operational hubs. The airline’s 40 per cent equity partner Emirates will pick up Sri Lankan passengers from Dubai and Singapore to onward destinations, Mr Hill said. He said the airlines would also be banking on other airlines out of Singapore to carry their passengers to other destinations. Meanwhile, the Sri Lankan police today said it had impounded a minibus it believed was used by Tamil Tiger rebels in the attack. The police detained the driver of the minibus, and three other Tamil men in overnight raids. The Sri Lankan air force has appointed a special committee to probe Tuesday’s assault by the Tigers on Katunayake airbase and the Bandaranaike International airport.
Agencies |
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ISKCON opposes McDonald’s move Chicago, July 25 Members of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON), a temple in Dallas, Texas, are protesting the proposal to open a McDonald’s restaurant right next to it. “If McDonald’s comes up next door it will be one more blow against Hindus,” Mr Vinod Patel, president of the temple, said. A final decision is to be taken by the City Council on August 22 on whether to approve the
restaurant. The temple had 300 families as “full-time members of the congregation”, Mr Patel said. It had about 3,000 devotees on the temple’s mailing list.
IANS |
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Signs of Mars climate change London, July 26 John Mustard and geologists at Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island, have identified and mapped a unique, young terrain resembling cemented ice that suggests there are shallow ice reserves below the surface. High-resolution images from Surveyor show the terrain is breaking down, indicating climate change and perhaps modern Martian ice ages. “The layer is so young it is evidence of climate change very recently and perhaps operating the same way as the earth’s ice age,” Mustard said in a telephone interview yesterday.
Reuters |
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