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Tuesday,
September 4, 2001, Chandigarh, India  
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Chandrika calls off referendum North Korea offers
talks with Seoul Aid
workers’ case for SC: Taliban |
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43 UNITA rebels
killed in attack
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Refugees off-loaded to navy vessel Oslo, September 3 All 433 refugees crammed onto a Norwegian freighter off a remote Australian island were  transferred to an Australian navy vessel today, ending an eight-day diplomatic standoff.“The ‘Tampa’ is empty of asylum seekers’’. Norwegian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Gry Haaheim told newsmen. The owners of the vessel also said that all the asylum seekers had left.Refugees are transferred by small boat from the Norwegian freighter Tampa (top) to the Australian Navy vessel Manoora off Christmas Island on Monday. — Reuters photo Four blasts rock
Jerusalem, 5 hurt
‘Actor of Century’ award for Amitabh
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Chandrika calls off referendum Colombo, September 3 The government today announced that the President had promulgated a midnight order last night, cancelling the referendum fixed for October 18 and issued a separate notification summoning Parliament a day ahead of its scheduled reopening on September 7. The referendum had sought a mandate from the people on the need for replacing the country’s 1978 Constitution, but drew flak from the entire Opposition and several other quarters, forcing Ms Kumaratunga to first postpone it from August 21 to October 18 and, now, to cancel it altogether. Armed with these two confidence-building measures, the ruling People’s Alliance is expected to work out the finer details of an agreement with the Janatha Vimukti Peramuna to remain for a year in office and foil an Opposition bid to topple it in Parliament. Prime Minister Ratnasiri Wickremanayake is set to hold talks with JVP leaders to wrap up the accord after the PA group approved last night a pact with the JVP under which the government will revive the suspended House and downsize its Cabinet in deference to JVP demands. State-run radio said the JVP took the reopening of Parliament and cancellation of the referendum as a positive response from the government and agreed to hold another round of discussions. The two parties are likely to finalise the terms on which the PA would be allowed to run a probationary government for a year. The JVP will not join the government, but its 10 MPs will back it in Parliament. The PA parliamentary group also called for the resignation of all 44 ministers to enable the President to name a new Cabinet of not more than 20 ministers — a key demand of the JVP . Urban Development Minister Mangala Samaraweera, a staunch loyalist of Ms Kumaratunga, was the first to resign to help her prune the ministerial council. Last night, parliamentarians of the ruling People’s Alliance approved a pact with the leftist Janatha Vimukti Peramuna, but will have only a downsized Cabinet, the state-run media said. The government parliamentary group met last night to make the crucial decision to seal the pact just before the midnight deadline set by the JVP in exchange for the support of its 10 MPs for a year, Daily News said. The accord will help the PA government to continue in office, despite being reduced to a minority over two months ago when a key muslim ally walked out of it, triggering a prolonged political crisis. The PA, which has 109 members in the 225-member House, will have a clear majority if the JVP backs it.
PTI |
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North Korea offers talks with Seoul Seoul, September 3 An official message was passed through the Panmunjom truce village on the Korean border following yesterday’s surprise offer made through Pyongyang’s state media to end a six-month-old freeze on contacts, officials said. “We got a telephone message through Panmunjom and we consider that North Korea’s official proposal,” said a South Korean government official in charge of liaison contacts at the village in the de-militarised zone. North Korea has made its offer just ahead of a vote of confidence today in the South Korean National Assembly on Unification Minister Lim Dong-Won, who is closely linked with the policy of rapprochement with Pyongyang. Many analysts believe North Korea is trying to influence the vote. Meanwhile, a report said South Korea welcomed a North Korean proposal to resume stalled talks, saying it would restore the reconciliation process that began with an inter-Korean summit last year. Opposition leaders have accused the government of being too soft on North Korea, dispatching aid and making other concessions while getting little in return. South Korea’s Parliament today approved a no-confidence motion against the Minister in Charge of Seoul’s engagement with North Korea, dealing a blow to President Kim Dae-Jung. Kim is not obliged by law to respect the National Assembly vote to dismiss Unification Minister Lim Dong-Won, whose departure would signal a major defeat for his “sunshine policy” of engaging Communist North Korea. But analysts said the political fallout from ignoring Parliament would be immense, adding to the troubles of the beleaguered President and his wobbly coalition government. A total of 148 of the 271 current members of the Assembly, including members from the ruling coalition, voted for the Opposition Grand National Party’s no-confidence motion against Lim, Kim’s right-hand man in dealing with North Korea. The conservative GNP says Lim’s approach to Pyongyang has failed. It says Seoul has nothing to show for feeding and funding an ungrateful North Korea with money that would be better spent dealing with economic woes at home.
AFP, Reuters |
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Aid workers’ case for SC: Taliban Kabul, September 3
“We have submitted the file to the Supreme Court,” Justice Minister Mullah Nooruddin Turabi, a close aide to Taliban leader Mullah Mohammad Omar, told AFP. “There are so many charges against them but the main one is preaching an abolished religion.” The two Americans, two Australians and four Germans are expected to stand trial in an open court under the fundamentalist militia’s puritanical brand of Sharia law later this week. The Taliban claims to have written confessions from the aid workers, staff of German-based group Shelter Now, as well as evidence such as Afghan-language Bibles and thousands of computer disks containing Christian material. Afghans found guilty of apostasy or inviting Muslims to another faith face the death penalty, but the laws are less clear for foreigners and the Taliban has not previously explained the charges against them. It is unclear what legal procedure will be followed regarding the 16 Afghan aid workers arrested with the foreigners early last month. In the Afghan capital of Kabul there were some suggestions that it could begin later today, but the Taliban have refused to give any indications. For the parents of the two American women, Dayna Curry, (29) and Heather Mercer (24) the wait has been long and uncertain. Curry’s mother, Nancy Cassell of Thompson’s Station, Tennessee, and Mercer’s father, John, of Vienna, Virginia have been in Kabul exactly one week and have twice seen their children. “We just want to bring them home,” Mercer told reporters after his second visit with his daughter which took place on Saturday at the Reform School for Delinquent Afghan Children, where the eight aid workers have been held since their arrest four weeks ago. Three western diplomats from the US, Germany and Australia also are in the Afghan capital to monitor the situation. All employed by the German-based Christian organization, Shelter Now International, the eight foreigners — two Americans, four Germans and two Australians, were arrested along with 16 Afghan workers. Muttawakil said the foreign workers and Afghans would be tried separately.
AFP, AP  |
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43 UNITA rebels
killed in attack Luanda, September 3 “The attack was made against a government army post in which 45 soldiers were killed, among them two government soldiers,” Radio Ecclesia said. Government troops captured communications equipment, weapons and documents from the rebels during the fighting near the town of Cuvango, about 720 km (430 miles) southeast of Luanda, the radio said. The Luanda government has been locked for 26 years in a civil war against the National Union for the Total Independence of Angola (UNITA), led by veteran guerrilla fighter Jonas Savimbi. The conflict has killed about a million people. Earlier, the state radio reported that suspected rebels of UNITA attacked two buses in Angola, killing at least 38 persons and injuring dozens more. The radio had earlier said the UNITA rebels were responsible for yesterday’s attack at Gabela in Cuanza Sul province, 150 km southwest of the capital Luanda. “We were going to Luanda when our bus was attacked by gunmen,” it quoted survivor Isaquiel Tomas as saying. Both buses were carrying civilians, it said. Analysts say UNITA has stepped up its activity lately, especially near the capital, in a bid to force the government back to the negotiating table.
Reuters |
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SA President flays US stance on talks Durban, September 3 He chided those western European governments which sent low-level delegations to the talks he is hosting in Durban and denied that his view of a world divided between rich whites and poor blacks and “browns” was excessively bleak. Speaking in a interview with Reuters yesterday, Mbeki said the extent to which the U.N. World Conference Against Racism had been dominated by the West Asia crisis was largely the result of U.S. threats to boycott the 153-nation gathering. Bitter arguments over whether Israel is a racist state have eclipsed every other issue, as they did in the preparatory negotiations. “I think if the United States of America had said we do not agree with this particular position, let’s meet and discuss it, you would not have had this,” Mbeki said. “People have been forced to make statements in order to assert which side they are on in this particular debate,” he added. President George W. Bush sent a low-level delegation to the August 31-September 7 conference and officials warned they would leave unless harshly anti-Israeli language was excised from the draft final declaration. Mbeki, who took over from President Nelson Mandela in 1999, was also displeased with the junior political representatives sent to the racism conference by some European states. “There certainly has been that insensitivity which I think is unfortunate. We did communicate our concern to some of the west European governments.
Reuters |
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Refugees off-loaded to navy vessel Oslo, September 3 “The ‘Tampa’ is empty of asylum seekers’’. Norwegian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Gry Haaheim told newsmen. The owners of the vessel also said that all the asylum seekers had left. The refugees, mostly from Afghanistan, had been packed on to the “Tampa” since it picked them up from a sinking ferry between Australia and Indonesia eight days ago. The refugees walked down the gangway to barges and were then transferred to the Australian navy troop carrier, the HMAS Manoora, waiting alongside about one nautical mile offshore. The ‘Manoora’ will take the asylum seekers to Papua New Guinea, a voyage lasting about a week. From there, they will be flown to New Zealand or the tiny Pacific island of Nauru, which have agreed to take them while asylum requests are processed. The freighter’s owners, Wallenius Wilhelmsen, said the cargo vessel aimed to resume its interrupted voyage to Singapore from Australia in the next few hours. “All the refugees are off the boat,’’ spokesman Hans Christian Bangsmoen said adding that there were no reports of injuries during disembarkation. He said the Australian authorities would check the vessel for possible stowaways and complete other formalities. The Norwegian Foreign Ministry said there were 34 Australian soldiers aboard the vessel. Australian special forces boarded the “Tampa” last week after the captain entered Australian waters, arguing that several refugees needed medical help.
Reuters |
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Four blasts rock
Jerusalem, 5 hurt Jerusalem, September 3 Three of the bombs went off in the French Hill neighbourhood in northern Jerusalem, the latest being a car bomb that injured one person. Earlier a bomb went off near an apartment building in the neighbourhood and a second exploded under a truck, the police said. At the same time, a bomb went off in a jerusalem municipality truck parked in the Gilo Jewish settlement, wounding two persons. Gilo, considered by Israel to be a neighbourhood of Jerusalem, has witnessed fierce gunbattles between Palestinian gunmen and Israeli soldiers since the start of a Palestinian uprising against Israeli occupation.
Reuters |
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‘Actor of Century’ award for Amitabh Dubai, September 3 Bachchan, who is one of the most popular Indian stars, will be given the award at the festival to be held from September 5 to 10. Jaya Bachchan, who is the president of the jury of the festival, said the festival would largely screen films from the mediterranean region. In all, 18 films will be participating in the festival, the largest representation being from France and Italy. On a question regarding the dominance of American films that threatened regional cinema, including Indian cinema, the actress said that if the cinema industry in the region got together for joint productions, they could match any perceived threat or dominance.
PTI |
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slightly wounding at least five persons, the Israeli police said.
Three of the bombs went off in the French Hill neighbourhood in northern Jerusalem, the latest being a car bomb that injured one person. Earlier a bomb went off near an apartment building in the neighbourhood and a second exploded under a truck, the police said.
Dubai, September 3
