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Thursday,
August 23, 2001, Chandigarh, India  
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250 ultras detained in Karachi
Israeli
army kills 4 Palestinians |
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Majlis approves Khatami men
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USA sets
deadine on ABM treaty Top
Chechen rebel hurt, 35 dead Unesco
to ‘engage’ Taliban on relics US debt to UN hits $ 2 b mark
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250 ultras detained in Karachi Karachi, August 22 A senior police official said the raids netted more than 200 activists, at least 700 collection boxes, some weapons and a number of signboards promoting
jehad. “We gave them 24 hours to comply with the order issued by the Sindh government and after the expiry of that time limit, detentions were made for defying the government ban,” he said. A Sindh provincial government order on banning militant Islamist groups from displaying signboards and publicly raising jehad funds took effect from Tuesday. The order warned militant groups that “any deviation from this order will be seriously viewed by the government and appropriate action shall be initiated against the offenders”. The order covers all jehadi groups, including those operating in Indian-controlled Kashmir where more than 12 guerrilla organisations are fighting New Delhi’s rule. The police said the offices of Al-Badar Mujahideen, Lashkar-e-Toiba and Jaish-e-Mohammad were sealed after the raids. Al-Badar Mujahideen, one of the groups fighting Indian rule in Kashmir, condemned the detentions of its activists and said the action would only harm the Kashmir freedom struggle. Earlier, it said the Mujahideen, or holy warriors, would not accept the ban. An Al-Badar Mujahideen statement pledged the group would continue with its jehad to fight Indian rule in Kashmir. India accuses Pakistan of backing the rebels in the disputed Himalayan region — a charge Pakistan denies, saying it only provides moral and diplomatic support to the separatists. Pakistani militants are also known to have operated in support of Muslim fighters in Afghanistan, Bosnia, Chechnya and the Philippines. Islamabad has also stepped up a drive against widespread illegal weapons and mounted a campaign against the rising levels of crime. Meanwhile, unhappy with a ban on public fund raising and advertising ‘jehad’ campaign, militant outfits operating from Pakistan have asked President Pervez Musharraf to explain Islamabad’s official policy on their “fight” in Kashmir. The militant groups said ‘jehad’ was not a philosophy or ideology but an Islamic duty and one should be free to perform it in Pakistan. The army-led Sindh Government had yesterday told ‘jehadi’ groups, including those fighting in Kashmir, to stop public fund-raising, displaying weapons and advertising their campaign. Al-Badr Mujahideen described the ban as “a discouraging and disappointing move detrimental to militancy in Kashmir.” Its leaders told newspapers here yesterday that the groups fighting in Kashmir were not involved in any anti-Pakistan activity. “We consider Pakistan dearer than our lives and would be in the forefront with our valiant armed forces in any hour of trial,” they said describing ‘jehad’ as “a sacred cause.” Deputy leader of the Al-Badr, M. Hamza, called on General Musharraf to restrain government officials from making statements against such groups and explain official policy towards their fight in Kashmir.
Reuters, PTI |
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Israeli army kills 4 Palestinians Ramallah (West Bank), August 22 Three of the bullet-riddled bodies were recognised while the fourth was taken away by the Israelis, they said. The clash took place at dawn when an Israeli elite unit surprised a group of Palestinian activists about to plant a bomb near Shavei Shomron settlement, an Israeli military source said. Nablus Governor Mahmoud el-Alul said on Palestinian radio that the incident started when a Palestinian was wounded by Israelis overnight near Beit Ila and Israeli soldiers opened fire again when one of his comrades tried to help him, killing the four Palestinians. The deaths bring to 731 the total number killed since the intifada or uprising started on September 28 last year. JERUSALEM: Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon today insisted on a week of calm before implementing an internationally backed peace plan. “We have not given up on this test period of seven days, which was agreed with US Secretary of State Colin Powell,” Mr Sharon said in a statement after meeting German Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer, who is on a three-day mission to revive the moribund peace process. Switzerland offered to host a meeting between the Israelis and Palestinians, a Swiss government spokesman said, but no formal reply has been received. Mr Sharon has insisted that the Mitchell peace plan, seen by the international community as a roadmap to end the 11-month conflict, cannot be implemented until all violence has halted. Mr Fischer called for the plan to be put into practice to unblock the peace process.
AFP, Reuters |
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NATO clears mission to disarm rebels Brussels, August 22 “At 12 noon today, the North Atlantic Council agreed to issue the execution directive authorising the Supreme Allied Commander Europe, General Joseph Ralston, to release the activation order for Operation ‘Essential Harvest’,’’ a NATO statement said. The 19 countries of the Atlantic alliance had until noon to register any objections to the operation, which envisages the deployment of 3,500 NATO troops across the tiny former Yugoslav republic to collect the guerrillas’ weapons. None did, so the operation will go ahead. SKOPJE: A NATO operation to collect weapons from ethnic Albanian rebels in Macedonia was set to get under way despite a last-minute “provocation” when a 14th century Orthodox church was bombed. The bombing failed to prevent NATO ambassadors in Brussels from giving the green light yesterday to the operation, if none of the allies objected. A NATO spokesman in Brussels said the 19 ambassadors — the North Atlantic Council, or NAC — agreed on the so-called “silence procedure” after hearing a report from the Supreme Allied Commander for Europe, US General Joseph Ralston, that the conditions for Operation Essential Harvest had been met. General Ralston, who spent several hours in Macedonia on Monday, told the ambassadors the fragile week-old ceasefire between government and rebel forces was holding as well as could be expected, a NATO source said.
AFP, Reuters |
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Majlis approves Khatami men Teheran, August 22 Reformers had attacked many of Khatami’s Cabinet nominees as being lack-lustre and mediocre. They wanted the mild-mannered President to capitalise on his June election landside and name a more outright reformist Cabinet. “I chose them because of their high ability in management, besides which they are followers of the Islamic system and have the ability to work together,” Khatami told The Majlis in a speech defending his choices ahead of the vote. Many MPs swung in behind the President during the marathon debate which began on Sunday, after reformist party chiefs called them into line. Some conservative MPs are also thought to have backed Khatami fearing a more radical Cabinet if his nominees were rejected. Meanwhile, President Khatami today announced that first Vice-President Hassan Habibi had resigned from his post and would be replaced by Mohammad-Reza Aref. Habibi, a former Justice Minister in the 1980s and Vice President under former President Ali Akbar Hashemi-Rafsanjani, was named Vice-President by Khatami in 1997. The Press yesterday reported that Habibi said he was “leaving to pray.” Aref, (60), has a doctorate in telecommunications from Stanford University in the USA and is currently Director of the Plan and Budget Organisation. He will be replacing Habibi as first Vice-President during Khatami’s second four-year term in office.
Reuters, AP |
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USA sets deadine on ABM treaty New York, August 22 The US Under Secretary of State for Arms Control and International Security Mr John R. Bolton, said Washington planned to “resolve its strategy for withdrawal from the arms control treaty before Russian President Vladimir Putin visited Mr George W. Bush this fall.” Mr Bolton said this after holding two-day talks with Moscow officials, in an interview to a Russian radio, to be aired this evening, the New York Times reported today. Mr Bolton is the first member of the Bush Administration to set a deadline for consultations before acting on his campaign to develop a new national missile defence system, the newspaper said. Mr Bush had pledged to consult with US allies, with Russia and China before withdrawing from the treaty. A senior Pentagon official had told the Congress in July that an anti-missile testing programme would be “bumping up against the ABM treaty” in a matter of months. The USA’s withdrawal from the treaty, six months after a formal notification to Moscow, would pave the way for the construction of a missile defence test site in Alaska.
PTI |
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Top Chechen rebel hurt, 35 dead Moscow, August 22 “Yesterday, during an operation by military intelligence, we have information that Shamil Basayev was injured. We are checking the information and also think that six of his personal bodyguards were killed,” Alexei Kuznetsov, Deputy Commander of the Russian forces in North Caucasus, told NTV television. Basayev gained notoriety in 1995 when he seized a hospital in the southern Russian town of Budennovsk. More than 100 people died during the siege and Basayev escaped unharmed. He lost part of a leg in a mine field while withdrawing from Grozny early last year and is still a talismanic figure for the rebels. Itar-Tass news agency quoted military
sources as saying 13 rebels had been killed when troops engaged a group of about 30 guerrillas in southern Chechnya. Two more died during a separate military operation and a further seven were killed when helicopters destroyed two of their camps, Tass added. The Interior Ministry press centre said nine rebels had been killed after being caught planting explosives in Grozny and the town of Nozhai-Yurt, RIA news agency reported. A Chechen rebel website said guerrillas had suffered only a handful of casualties but killed about 50 Russian soldiers in the last few days. It said rebels had killed about 30 soldiers on Tuesday in a three-hour battle in the southern Vedeno district. Six soldiers also died when rebels ambushed an armoured personnel carrier and eight more died in a separate rebel ambush, the website said.
Reuters |
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Unesco to ‘engage’ Taliban on relics Beijing, August 22 Director-General of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (Unesco) Kochiro Matsuura said he had sought cooperation from two Arab organisations to rope in the Taliban leadership to attend a meeting of Islamic religious leaders to be organised by Unesco later this year. Admitting that his efforts to persuade the Taliban to abandon their plans to destroy the pre-Islamic Afghan statues did not succeed, Mr Matsuura emphasised the need for mobilising international efforts to prevent the destruction of cultural relics worldwide.
PTI |
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US debt to UN hits $ 2 b mark United Nations, August 22 About $ 1.8 billion of the total is for peacekeeping missions for 2001 and in past years. The balance is Washington’s share of the UN’s regular $ 1.1 billion annual administrative budget, UN spokesman Fred Eckhard said. Even the $ 582 million which the US Senate promised to pay this year has been held up the House of Representatives. Conservatives are seeking to attach the funds to a Bill that bars American cooperation with a new International Criminal Court.” The House measure would demand parties to the court, which include all of NATO and other allies of the USA, exclude US servicemen from any prosecution. UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan has said Washington would undermine its effectiveness at the United Nations if it does not pay the promised funds ahead of this September’s General Assembly session. The 189-member UN General Assembly agreed in December to cut the US share of the $1 billion annual administrative budget to 22 per cent from 25 per cent. The American share of the $3 billion peacekeeping budget was reduced to 28 per cent from 31 per cent this year.
Reuters |
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