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| Friday,
September 7, 2001, Chandigarh, India    |
Indigenous coalition
likely in Fiji Kumaratunga-Left poll
alliance begins to crack Pak invites POWs’ kin to see
jails |
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India can participate in Quattrocchi trial
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Fretilin candidates win in E. Timor poll 2 Palestinians die in missile attack
Arab states reject compromise text Proof of black hole
in Milky Way I’ll do it again: skipper Aid workers’ trial to be open Reyat files appeal
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Indigenous coalition
likely in Fiji Suva, September 6 The nationalist Conservative Alliance/Matanitu Vanua (MV) of coup leader George Speight has emerged as holding the balance of power after the week-long polls with six of the 71 seats for which voting was held. With only nine seats still left to declare intense horse-trading has broken out in Suva, but the new government looks like being fragile, whoever wins the backroom bargaining. President Josefa Iloilo was expected to appoint a new Prime Minister later with deposed Premier Mahendra Chaudhry already having declared his bid for power, saying he is confident he has the numbers to govern. Meanwhile, Mahendra Chaudhry refused to concede defeat in the Pacific island nations’s general election and alleged there had been widespread vote-rigging. “I suspect that there has been a widespread attempt to rig votes and influence the results of the 2001 elections,” Chaudhry told reporters as the vote count went on. He urged United Nations and Commonwealth observers, who had been monitoring the polls aimed at restoring democracy after the coup last May to take action. The results of the week-long polls, which ended Sunday, should not be certified as free and fair “until questions raised have been thoroughly investigated and explained,” he said. Chaudhry, the country’s first Indian Prime Minister ousted in a race-inspired coup by indigenous Fijians, predicted that a coalition government was likely to emerge from the elections. “No party has yet got a clear lead and it is highly unlikely that it will happen,” he said, without saying whether his Fiji Labour Party was in talks with any of the other parties to form a coalition. He added it was unlikely that there would be a new government until next week at the earliest. Intense horse-trading was going on today behind the scenes. Just days after Chaudhry and the hostages were released caretaker Prime Minster Laisenia Qarase published a blueprint for indigenous paramountcy which became the manifesto for his newly formed Soqosoqo Duavata ni Lewenivanua (SDL). It differed little from Speight’s demands during the coup for more political power for indigenous Fijians.
AFP |
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Kumaratunga-Left poll
alliance begins to crack Colombo, September 6 Ms Kumaratunga had said she was ready for a deal ‘with any devil’ to ensure her People’s Alliance (PA) government’s survival, but analysts see her alliance with the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (the JVP, People’s Liberation Front) pushing the country into more turmoil. “There might be immediate stability,” said an Asian diplomat. “But the two parties are strange bedfellows, to say the least, and the prospect of more political and economic upheaval could see them parting ways fairly quickly.” Ms Kumaratunga is likely to find it difficult to comply with the tough conditions imposed by the former Marxist insurgent group in exchange for propping the minority PA coalition in Parliament. “We may not be able to implement every single full stop and comma in this agreement,” the PA’s general secretary, D.M. Jayaratne, said on Wednesday, shortly after the pact was signed. “We are in a rapidly changing society and clauses in this agreement will need to be changed as we go on,” he said. But the JVP’s Wimal Weerawansa warned: “We will pull out of the pact if the government fails to deliver on the conditions.” For the JVP, the deal with the government reads like an election manifesto. No attempt must be made to change the Constitution to settle Tamil separatism politically, the JVP directed The two demands alone are enough to set off the panic button in the country’s business community, crippled after the July 24 Tamil Tiger attack on the island’s only airport and main air force base. The private sector has been strongly urging a cease-fire and a revival of peace talks with the rebels in a bid to stabilise the economy. “If the process to find a lasting and early solution is postponed, the private sector will certainly be disappointed,” Ceylon Chamber of Commerce Chairman Chandra Jayaratne was quoted in the local media as saying. Among the other concessions the JVP wrenched from the PA are cancelling some Rs 6 billion in farmer loans, no more privatisation and agreements with international lending organisations, the abolition of the executive presidency and a downsizing of the present cabinet. The JVP also demanded the setting up of independent panels to run elections, the police, the judiciary, public service and the media. But the bottom line is that Kumaratunga needs the JVP’s help only to battle an opposition no-confidence motion, which was to have been presented in the legislature on Friday. The move was certain to bring down the government which, till now, did not have enough members to muster a defence. For Kumaratunga, October 10 could now be a decisive day. It will mark a year since the last general election, and she gets the right to dissolve the legislature. A considerable section of the PA is pushing for an early poll to be called so that the voters can decide who should be at the helm.
Indo- Asian News Service |
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Pak invites POWs’ kin to see jails Islamabad, September 6 “With the investigations by higher officials of the Pakistan armed forces, Interior Ministry officials and other official agencies into the allegations of Indian POWs drawing blank, the President has instructed his officials to invite the family members of the 54 missing Indian soldiers to visit any Pakistani jail and scrutinise records,” defence spokesman Major-General Rashid Qureshi told PTI here today. He said those who wanted to visit Pakistan to look for their missing kin could approach the Pakistan High Commission in New Delhi and obtain necessary travel documents. General Musharraf has asked the Foreign Ministry officials to facilitate the visit of any kin of the Indian POW willing to visit Pakistan, General Qureshi said. A Pakistani Human Rights activist, Ansar Burney, said foreign prisoners were housed in about 77 jails across Pakistan. Last month, he said, his organisation Burney Welfare Trust began its own investigations into the allegations and promised to come out with details in about two months. Meanwhile, a government spokesman here last night officially declared that no Indian POWs were being held in Pakistan prisons. A report in the local daily Dawn said the Interior Ministry apprised the Cabinet that it had checked all the prisons in the country but found no Indian POW. The official inquiry reports confirming that no POWs existed in Pakistani prisons were released as officials of India and Pakistan geared up for a second meeting between Mr Vajpayee and General Musharraf at New York on September 25.
PTI |
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India can participate in Quattrocchi trial
Kuala Lumpur, September 6 Under the ruling, the Indian Government will now be allowed to respond to Mr Quattrocchi’s allegations. He says he is being made a scapegoat in a politically motivated case. The extradition trial, which has been mired in legal arguments for months, is scheduled to begin on October 22. Judge Abdul Aziz Mohamad ruled that the Indian Government should be allowed to challenge Mr Quattrocchi’s application to quash the extradition order. The court’s decision meant that Mr Quattrocchi, 62, will be up against both Malaysian government prosecutors and lawyers for the Indian Government in his legal fight. Mr Quattrocchi’s lawyers claim that the Malaysian authorities never explained why he had been arrested, contrary to the extradition law. |
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Hasina cautions against radicals Dhaka, September 6 She was replying to questions in a session of exchange of views with members of the Overseas Corres-pondents Association, Bangladesh, at a local hotel. The four-party combine is led by the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), arch rival of the Awami League. Other components include a small faction of the Jatiya Party (JP) and a combination of eight pro-Islamic organisations — the Islami Oikkyo Jote (IOJ). Ms Hasina said if the fundamentalist forces were voted to power, these would deter the progress of women in society since these were proponents of Islamic rule in the country. Jamaat activists raised slogans during the poll campaign to launch a Taliban-like movement to achieve their goal of an Islamic state. Some of the four-party combine candidates were known to have Taliban training, she said. The Awami League chief said she was confident that her party would be able to win by an overwhelming majority. She urged the voters to elect the Awami League for another term to continue the economic programmes which had shown good results. She told a questioner that her party’s priority, if voted to power, would be the establishment of a poverty-free society, providing peaceful atmosphere in educational institutions and to curb all kinds of terrorist activities. |
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Fretilin candidates win in E. Timor poll Jakarta, September 6 But it fell short of the two-thirds majority in the new Constituent Assembly needed unilaterally to draft East Timor’s first democratic Constitution and may be forced into an alliance with one of the minor parties. U.N. Chief Electoral Officer Carlos Valenzuela told reporters Fretilin had won 55 of the 88 seats in the Assembly that will prepare the U.N.-run territory for a presidential election and independence, expected next near. “It is my fervent hope that the election this year will have proven to the people of East Timor that elections can and should be peaceful events,” Valenzuela said. “In my view, this would be the greatest legacy of this election.” Fretilin won 12 of the 13 directly-elected district seats and 43 of the 75 territory-wide seats allocated by proportional representation. Its nearest rivals were two parties with six seats each. One, the Social Democratic Party, is headed by former Governor under Indonesia and member of a leading but deeply divided local family, mario carrascalao. The second, the Association of Timorese Democrats (ASDT), is led by Francisco Xavier do Amaral, an early founder of Fretilin. The new constitution will pave the way for another election, possibly next April, which will choose the new president. Former guerrilla leader Xanana Gusmao is almost certain to win.
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2 Palestinians die in missile attack Tulkarm (West Bank), September 6 The Israeli army had no immediate comment. Israel has tracked and killed dozens of Palestinian militants it says are behind attacks against Israelis since a Palestinian uprising against occupation erupted last September. Palestinian hospital officials said Mustafa Onbas, 19, and Omar Subuh, 21, both low-level members of Palestinian President Yasser Arafat’s Fatah faction were killed in the Apache helicopter strike on a Nissan jeep at the entrance to Tulkarm. They said Raed al-Karmi, a Fatah activist wanted by Israel was also in the vehicle. He was wounded in the attack. The Tulkarm incident came a day after a ground-to-ground missile strike against a building used by Palestinian President Yasser Arafat’s Force-17 security unit in the Gaza Strip in retaliation for a recent spate of mortar bomb attacks. At least 556 Palestinians and 157 Israelis have been killed since the uprising began last year after peace talks deadlocked.
Reuters |
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Arab states reject compromise text Durban, September 6 The South African-crafted proposal was supposed to break an impasse between the European Union and Arab states. The U.S.A. and Israel pulled out of the conference on Monday because of anti-Israel wording. The new proposal expressed concern “about the plight of the Palestinian people under foreign occupation” but did not specifically criticise Israel or mention Zionism, the movement to establish and maintain a Jewish state. It also referred to the Holocaust, condemned
anti-semitism and Islamophobia. The proposal was presented by South Africa earlier today and was accepted by the
EU. But Muslim and Arab countries rejected the proposal and sent it back to South African Foreign Minister Nkosazana
Dlamini-Zuma, who is mediating the talks, with recommendations, said
Nasseral-Kidwa, the Palestinian representative to the United Nations.
NEW DELHI: The All-India Democratic Womens Association (AIDWA) on Thursday condemned Minister of State for External Affairs Omar Abdullah’s statement that caste-discrimination was not a major problem in the Indian society and said it was far from
reality. AIDWA secretary Subhashini Ali said Mr Abdullah’s statement at the United Nation’s anti-racism conference in Durban was like adding “insult to the injury caused by his government’s vehement opposition to the demand to include caste as part of the conference agenda.” The minister’s statement is not only far removed from reality but it also does not represent the country’s perception of this social problem,’’ she said.
AP, UNI |
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Proof of black hole
in Milky Way Baltimore, September 6 Scientists generally hold that almost every galaxy revolves around a supermassive black hole. Previous studies have estimated that the centre of our galaxy, the Milky Way, contains something very dense and massive, which most scientists already believed was a black hole. Black holes are extremely dense celestial objects. Their gravity is so powerful that not even light can escape them, making them invisible to conventional telescopes. To study them, astronomers observe stars and gas swirling around the centre of a black hole before they fall into its invisible core like water swirling down a drain. In the new study, led by Frederick Baganoff of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, scientists used NASA’s $ 1.5 billion Chandra x-ray telescope to observe a flare of x-ray energy produced where the lip of the black hole should be. The clear-cut image of the flare was the first of its kind.
AP |
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I’ll do it again: skipper Singapore, September 6 “I am a little bit surprised and disappointed,” Captain Arne Rinnan, master of the MS Tampa, told journalists after the vessel made a scheduled stop in Singapore three days after the refugees were moved to an Australian warship. He was prevented from bringing them to Christmas Island, an Australian possession in the Indian Ocean. “I don’t feel like a hero. I only did my job, rescue people in distress,” said the captain, who has received international acclaim, including a personal message from Norwegian Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg, for his actions.
AFP |
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Aid workers’ trial to be open Kabul, September 6 He said diplomats, relatives of the accused and journalists would also be allowed to attend the “open trial” once the initial phase of the proceedings was completed. “That might take place very soon,” Mr Mutawakel told journalists at a press conference here. “The process of scrutinising the investigation files is continuing in the court,” he said as the trial continued for the third day behind closed doors. “In the second phase the detainees will appear in front of the court and diplomats, journalists and relatives will be able to attend. “It will be an open trial.”
AFP |
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Reyat files appeal Vancouver, September 6 “We haven’t received the documents for (Reyat’s) appeal, but we have received notification of it,” Mr Geoffrey Gaul, a spokesman for the British Columbia Attorney-General’s office said on Wednesday. Lawyers for Reyat will argue that he cannot be charged in the Air-India bombing because this first request only referred to the Narita bombing, which killed two baggage handlers, and not the Air-India bombing.
AFP |
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Fujimori faces homicide charges Lima, September 6 |
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