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Thursday,
August 30, 2001, Chandigarh, India   |
Australian troops seize refugee freighter
PA-UNP talks break down |
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Rights body flays India’s decision Teacher with
Al-Jehad links held
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4 Pak Oppn parties to join hands 28 Ahmediyas arrested
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Australian troops seize refugee freighter Canberra, August 29 “The master deliberately breached the territorial 12-mile limit this morning and is holding position 4 miles off the island and members of the ADF (Australian Defence Force) are currently on board,’’ Don O’Donnell told Reuters. Local media reported three high-speed boats manned by special forces took off for the container ship, Tampa. Australia has refused entry to the ship since it rescued the Afghan, Sri Lankan and Pakistani asylum seekers on Sunday from their sinking Indonesian ferry. Indonesia and Norway have also rejected responsibility. Prime Minister John Howard refused to back down today saying the international community had to understand that Australia’s refugee system had been brought to a breaking point by boat people sent down from Indonesia by people smugglers. But he said food, water and medical help were being sent amid reports that some of the asylum seekers had collapsed. Meanwhile, the asylum seekers have started eating again after ending a two-day hunger strke, the vessels’s owners said. “The men have started to eat and drink again,” Hans Christian Bangsmoen, spokesman for Norwegian shipowners Wallenius Wilhelmsen, told newsmen. He said he did not know why the mostly Afghan asylum seekers had ended the hunger strike. The men among the 434 refugees on board the Tampa began their action on Monday in protest at Australia’s refusal to let the ship enter a port at remote Christmas island. Australia accepts more than 10,000 refugees formally resettled each year by the United Nations. Mr Howard’s conservative government has branded boat people “queue jumpers”. Conditions on the Tampa, built to accommodate up to 40 people, have been deteriorating. “The captain’s concern is that their condition is deteriorating, which is creating a very trying circumstance for those who are trying to look after them on board,’’ said Peter Dexter, a spokesman for owner Wallenius Wilhelmsen. Some had also threatened to jump overboard if the ship headed back towards Indonesia. “The (27 man) crew is not equipped in any way to look after 438 people.’’ Four Indonesian crew were also picked up by the Tampa. Mr Howard said the crisis was not Australia’s fault. LONDON: Amnesty International criticised Australia for closing its shores to a shipload of mainly Afghan asylum seekers. Amnesty spokesman Lars Olsson said Australia had violated the 1951 UN Refugee Convention when it refused to let a Norwegian freighter, crammed with asylum seekers, enter a port. “It is clearly Australia’s responsibility to allow the people to disembark and to apply for asylum in Australia,” he told Reuters. “The Australian Government, as a state party to the refugee convention, clearly has obligations and their actions now go totally against the spirit of the convention,” he added.
Reuters |
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PA-UNP talks break down Colombo, August 29 The motion is likely to be moved when the House meets on September 7 after a two-month prorogation. On the breakdown of the talks between the two main political parties, the opposition UNP today blamed the government for trying to create an “unconstitutional position of a Vice-President for the incumbent Prime Minister, who does not even command a majority in parliament”. Commenting on the collapse of the government-opposition talks last night, UNP media spokesman Karunasena Kodituwakku said the PA proposed the creation of a Vice-Presidency to accommodate the Present Prime Minister Ratnasiri Wickremenayake who needs to relinquish office to pave the way for another all-party government. There was general agreement on UNP leader Ranil Wickremsinghe taking over as Prime Minister, but the talks broke down on issues relating to what amount of power he should have and amendment of the Constitution to appoint Mr Ratnasiri Wickremanayake as the Vice-President. During the discussions that continued till late last night, the PA delegation indicated it could compromise on the executive Vice-President but insisted on at least having a ceremonial Vice-President. The UNP rejected this outright, saying that it was absurd for the PA to say it wanted to abolish the executive Presidency and at the same time propose a Vice-Presidency. The UNP also accused the PA of being unwilling to include other political parties, like the minority Tamil and Muslim Congress in the proposed national government. It called for immediate reconvening of Parliament, cancellation of the referendum which is now scheduled for October 18 and the setting up of five independent commissions. The UNP spokesman said the opposition participation in the talks was based on three primary principles and not for sharing the perks of office. The UNP said the government had now two alternatives. It could either invite the member who commands the confidence of the majority in Parliament to form a government or form a caretaker government with the support of all political parties and initiate the peace process before calling for the general election. The PA-UNP delegations discussed many other thorny issues during the past three days before the talks collapsed last night. Meanwhile, Sri Lanka today announced it was ready for a mutually agreed ceasefire with Tamil Tiger rebels ahead of peace talks and said it was considering a fresh invitation to the guerrillas to begin negotiations. “There has been a re-assessment of policy on this matter and we are now ready for a mutually agreed ceasefire before talks,” said Foreign Minister Lakshman Kadirgamar. A pre-talks truce will meet a key rebel demand which stalled a Norwegian-brokered peace bid, and signals a dramatic shift in the position of the government which until now had ruled out a ceasefire before negotiations began.
Reuters |
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Rights body flays India’s decision Washington, August 29 It points out that a UN subcommission on human rights passed a resolution on discrimination based on work and descent, which would qualify caste as a topic of discussion at the conference. Despite this, the Indian Government has tried to censor discussion of caste at the conference and at all meetings leading up to it, says the Washington-based body. The HRW report notes that “India’s caste system is perhaps the world’s longest surviving social hierarchy,” and says the practice has corollaries in other South Asian countries like Nepal, Sri Lanka, Pakistan and Bangladesh. Despite a Constitutional abolition in 1950, the practice of “untouchability — the imposition of social disabilities on persons by reason of birth into a particular caste — remains very much a part of rural India.”
IANS |
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Teacher with Al-Jehad links held Toronto, August 29 Mahmoud Jaballah, an Egyptian refugee who taught in a Toronto Muslim school, is charged with being a member of Al Jihad, an Egyptian-based organisation said to be funded by terrorist mastermind Osama bin Laden, according to agency documents filed on Monday in the Federal Court of Canada. “The information gathered by the service
(CSIS) relating to Jaballah leads the service to believe that Jaballah is a member of the Al Jehad and that he has supported and will engage in terrorism,” the documents said. Al Jehad is said to have played a critical role in the 1998 bombing of U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania, which killed over 200 persons and injured more than 5,000.
Jaballah, who received refugee status in Canada in 1996, was arrested two weeks ago in Toronto. “Islamic terrorism is the service’s number one priority,” said CSIS spokeswoman Chantal
Lapalme. Reuters |
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Pull out of Palestinian land : USA Jerusalem, August 29 Israeli troops shot dead two Palestinians in incidents in the West Bank and Gaza Strip early today, a Palestinian security source said. Mohammed el Omrani, 24, was killed and three others injured near Rafah, in the southern Gaza Strip during a skirmish with the Israeli troops, the source said. A second man, who was not identified, was killed near the village of Farou’n, in the West Bank’s Tulkarem region. In the meantime, on the diplomatic front, the USA called for Israel to withdraw from Palestinian-ruled Beit Jala which is also near the West Bank town of Bethlehem, the traditional birthplace of Jesus. Near the Jewish settlement of Anatot, north of Jerusalem, assailants opened fire on a Palestinian car, killing one of the passengers and injuring two others, the israeli radio said. An anonymous caller claimed responsibility for the attack in the name of an unknown Jewish group, saying it was to avenge the killing of a Jewish settler by Palestinians at the start of the 11 month intifada, or uprising, the radio said. An Israeli police spokesman said that no possibility had been ruled out but that the attack was probably by Jewish terrorists “because the car clearly had a Palestinian licence plate”. Meanwhile an Israeli man was shot and injured overnight in the West Bank north of Jerusalem, a military source said. GAZA CITY: Israeli tanks lay seige overnight to a hospital in Rafah, an autonomous Palestinian area in the south of the Gaza Strip, Palestinian security sources said today. The tanks rolled right up to the approaches to the hospital after penetrating a kilometre into Rafah, destroying a Palestinian security post in the process, the sources said. A Palestinian teenager was left clinically dead yesterday after being shot by Israeli troops near Rafah, hospital sources said earlier. They said 17-year-old Mohammad al-Dabbas took a bullet in the head not far from the border between Rafah and Egypt. “The Israelis need to understand that incursions like this will not solve the security problems,’’ State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said, adding that Palestinians must stop shooting at Israelis in Gilo and elsewhere.
AFP, Reuters |
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4 Pak Oppn parties to join hands Islamabad, August 29 The four parties are Tehrik-e-Istiqlal, National Awami Party, National Workers Party and Political Social Group. They will form a “national council”, which will approve a name for the proposed party, elect a head, and give final shape to its organisation veteran politician Asghar Khan told reporters. Khan said Pakistanis were “the victims of the so-called big political parties, which were adding to their miseries instead of providing solutions to their problems.” Khan also hit out at the government of President Pervez Musharraf. “There is no political government in Pakistan. The military government should be terminated, and a political government should be formed.” Meanwhile, a former Pakistani Finance Minister Ishaq Dar, who was arrested in a money-laundering case soon after the October 1999 coup, has been released after nearly two years in custody. “I thank almighty Allah for my release after an unjust detention of 654 days, including 79-day solitary confinement,” Dar told newsmen on the phone from Lahore. Earlier this month, two former ministers — Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan and Syed Ghouse Ali Shah — were released.
IANS |
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28 Ahmediyas arrested Lahore, August 28 According to the police, an anti-Ahmedi organisation complained that the Ahmediyas were allegedly planning to hold a meeting, aimed at hurting the religious sentiments of the majority. Acting on the complaint, the police convened a meeting of the elders of both Muslims and Ahmediyas, who agreed not to indulge in any activity that would disturb peace in the area.
IANS |
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