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| Monday,
August 6, 2001, Chandigarh, India   
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Guardian
Council row delays Khatami’s oath
German
media exposes ‘shady’ deal with India |
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Satellites:
Russia offers help to N Korea
SC lawyers
to contest Pervez’s Presidency |
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‘Jihad’
donations up Palestinian
fires at Tel Aviv cops 13
hostages saved from Sayyaf men
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Guardian Council row
delays Khatami’s oath Teheran, August 5 Mr Khatami was due to take his oath of office today. But the row between pro-reform parliamentarians and the hardline Islamic judiciary over the election of legal experts to the constitutional watchdog Guardian Council has held things up. In a letter to Parliament Speaker Mehdi Karroubi, the Chief Judge, Ayatollah Mahmoud Hashemi Shahroudi, said negotiations between Parliament and the judiciary over the fate of two empty seats on the Guardian Council were out of question. “Proposals which have no executive guarantees will not solve problems, they will only make matters worse,” state radio quoted the letter by Shahroudi as saying. He said he would not change the list of four candidates he submitted to the assembly yesterday. “Parliament should choose two lawyers from the four and resolve this issue.” Iran’s Parliament had demanded the judiciary come up with new names after MPs declined to give a vote of confidence to all but one of eight lawyers shortlisted by Shahroudi to take three seats on the Guardian Council. “We are not duty-bound to vote for every person who is introduced,” Speaker Karroubi told the assembly today. “In such a case, voting would be meaningless.” The country’s conservative Opposition rejected to any compromise to settle the dilemma over the endorsement of two members of the Guardian Council, the state-run television reported. Following a secret parliamentary session, the Speaker proposed in a letter to the judiciary head to settle the problem through formation of an arbitrary committee consisting of representatives of Parliament, judiciary and the office of the leadership. Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, had ordered the postponement of the swearing-in ceremony of President Khatami which was due to have taken place in parliament today morning after reformist MPs had unconstitutionally refused to vote for two members of the senate-like Guardian Council. The Council of Guardians, a stronghold of the conservative Opposition, has 12 members, six of whom (clerics) are appointed by Khamenei and three each (jurors) by the judiciary head and the Parliament.
Reuters, DPA |
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German media exposes
‘shady’ deal with India Berlin, August 5 News magazine Der Spiegel, in its latest issue, claimed that Bavaria-based company Hunger KG allegedly supplied eight telescope hydraulic cylinders, worth 193,500 German marks, for use in the Agni missile programme. It said authorities were investigating another German firm, Montanhydraulik Gmbh, for allegedly selling hydraulic parts to India. India last week denied that such components procured from Germany were used in the firing mechanism of the intermediate-range ballistic missiles, which have a range of about 2,500 km. New Delhi has said it plans to induct the Agni in its armed forces in 2001-02. Der Spiegel reported that German authorities seized more hydraulic cylinders awaiting shipment to India when they raided the premises of Hunger KG in Lohr in July. It said the firm was fined in 1996 for shipping components to the Nuclear Power Corporation of India without an export license. It quoted state prosecutor Dieter Bauer as saying he was not inclined to believe claims by a senior Hunger KG official that Indian buyers had deceived the German firm about the end use of the components. Der Spiegel maintained that the shipment of hydraulic cylinders from Bavaria to the Indian importing agency, Research and Development Establishment, a major supplier to India’s missile programme, was due to an administrative lapse. A German official said the scandal was a “tip of the iceberg”. The Hunger KG case could possibly lead to revelations about clandestine shipments to India by other companies and “may well open a Pandora’s box” for New Delhi. Walter Hunger, the 70-year-old owner of Hunger KG, is quoted as saying that he did not know the true reason for the Indian purchase of the components. He had supplied the components in good faith and assumed that they were to be used for building
bridges. State prosecutor Bauer said it was possible that Hunger may have been deceived but that he was presently not inclined to believe this.
IANS |
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Satellites: Russia offers help to N Korea Moscow, August 5 Pyongyang is promising to scrap its missile programmes if other countries help it launch its satellites and Russia was ready to offer such assistance but was not going to give it free of charge. “The North Korean missile programmes don’t worry us as much as to make us offer such services free of charge. If the North Korean side shows interest and somebody else pays, we could well take part in such launches,” ‘Interfax’ news agency quoted its sources as saying. Kim and Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a declaration here yesterday in which Russia’s intention to attract foreign financial resources to implement a number of unspecified bilateral projects was “met with understanding by the North Korean side”. Kim will visit Russia’s prime space centres today, including ground control centre in the town of Korolyov near Moscow and Khrunichev space corporation, the producer of space launch vehicles and orbital stations including ‘Mir’ and segments of international space station. The sale of military hardware was one of the issues discussed by Putin and Kim during their summit talks and over Kremlin banquet in honour of the visiting North Korean leader, Russian media reported. However, according to Interfax, no breakthrough is expected. “We will be cooperating without damaging stability in the region and without endangering anyone’s interests,” the agency quoted sources close to the Russian delegation. Meanwhile ex-Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev has blasted “excessive” security arrangements for Kim’s Russia visit.
PTI |
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SC lawyers to contest Pervez’s Presidency Islamabad, August 5 “The assumption of Presidency by Gen Pervez Musharraf is clearly unconstitutional and is indicative of his intention to perpetuate military rule,” the SCBAP said in a resolution passed at a meeting yesterday. It said it would also challenge the administration of oath of office to General Musharraf by Chief Justice Irshad Hassan Khan and his taking over as the acting President during General Musharraf’s visit to India last month. General Musharraf eased out incumbent President Rafiq Tarar on June 20 by declaring himself President. “The CJ’s assumption as acting President is clearly unconstitutional and violation of the principle of separation of judiciary from the executive,” the resolution said.
PTI |
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‘Jihad’ donations up Islamabad, August 5 “Believe me, there has been considerable increase in the donations since the (Interior) Minister (Moinuddin Haider) called for a ban on placing our donation boxes in public places,” Abu Saad, chief of Lashker-e-Taiba’s North-West Frontier Province, told ‘The Friday Times.’ Though pooh-poohing officials’ claim that these funds were collected forcibly, the paper quoted an office bearer of the Hizbul Mujahideen as saying “we do not exert pressure on the people at all.” The Federal Interior Minister had announced tough measures on February 12 against “extremism in the name of Islam and jehad”, adding that the ban on fund collection was part of the package Islamabad intented to introduce to check the “rapid growth of fundamentalist groups” in the country. The proposed ban invited pointed criticism from militant groups, backed by religious parties, bringing the Interior Ministry under pressure to shelve the idea and let the terrorist groups receive donations with the help of public support.
PTI |
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Palestinian fires at Tel Aviv cops Tel Aviv, August 5 It was the first such shooting at soldiers inside Israel in a 10-month-old Palestinian uprising and was the latest escalation in a week of spiralling bloodshed. Tel Aviv police chief Yossi Sedbon told Israel’s army radio the “Palestinian terrorist” fled in his car after spraying bullets at the soldiers but then crashed into a post at the roadside after at least one soldier and a traffic officer returned fire. A doctor at Tel Aviv’s Ichilov Hospital said: “He (the gunman) is seriously wounded and cannot be questioned at this time... He has a head wound.” Most of his victims were lightly wounded in the shooting, rescue workers said. The attack came a day after a botched Israeli missile strike against a convoy carrying Palestinian activists, including Marwan Barghouthi. Israeli Government spokesman Avi Pazner said Israel would continue killing “terrorists” in order to thwart attacks, a policy he said had already saved scores of Israeli lives. Barghouthi, a West Bank leader of Palestinian President Yasser Arafat’s Fatah faction, called the attack on his convoy near Ramallah yesterday a “failed assassination attempt” against him. “The criminal occupiers will pay for this new crime,” he added. Early today, Israeli helicopter gunships fired at least three missiles at the headquarters of the Palestinian national security forces in southern Gaza. At least 11 persons were reported injured in the gun battles, described as the heaviest in months, on the outskirts of Jerusalem and near Bethlehem that continued late into the night. The Israeli army said the attack was a response to the firing of four mortar bombs on Saturday from the vicinity of the building, which a military source said was used as a weapons distribution and operational base. TULKARM (WEST BANK): An Israeli missile strike killed a member of the militant group Hamas in the West Bank on Sunday, Palestinian witnesses said. The witnesses identified the Hamas man as Amer Hudeiri and said he was in a car hit by two missiles fired from an Israeli helicopter.
Reuters |
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13 hostages saved from Sayyaf men Zamboanga City August 5 Lt-Gen Gregorio Camiling, chief of the armed forces’ southern command, said the 13 hostages were recovered before dawn on the outskirts of Isabela City, Basilan island province, 900 km south of Manila. Army spokesman Major Alberto Gepilano said the fighting erupted when soldiers stormed a hideout of the Abu Sayyaf in the village of Kapayawan, killing an undetermined number of extremists. He said the rescued hostages were unharmed. The 13 captives were among more than 30 persons held hostage by the rebels, who stormed two predominantly Christian villages of nearby Lamitan town late Thursday, burning a school and ransacking homes. Ten of the captives were beheaded, and 10 others were freed early Friday by the rebels to relay a demand for the military to stop an offensive against them. The Abu Sayyaf were still holding 21 persons captive, including American missionary couple Martin and Gracia Burnham, who were abducted with 20 others on May 27.
DPA |
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