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| Tuesday,
September 11, 2001, Chandigarh, India   
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Crisis after Qarase’s swearing-in
Peres, Arafat to meet today Dawood still in Karachi |
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Lukashenko wins landslide Land seizures creating
ripple effect: SADC 8 die in raids on no-fly zone: Iraq Govt troops, rebels halt fighting Shia shot in Karachi Love-struck German minister faces probe
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Crisis after Qarase’s swearing-in Suva, September 10 Mr Qarase, who served as caretaker Prime Minister after the army imposed martial law following the May 2000 coup, earlier said a government involving ousted premier Mahendhra Chaudhry would be unworkable. Mr Chaudhry, who has also said he could put together a government, replied that Mr Qarase might have to go back to President Josefa Iloilo, who swore him in today as Prime Minister after week-long elections, and resign. Mr Chaudhry, the Pacific nation’s first Indian Prime Minister overthrown in Mr George Speight’s coup on May 19 last year, said a multi-party coalition could be made to work “if there is a genuine commitment to make it work.” No party has emerged with a clear majority in the 71-seat parliament with Mr Qarase’s nationalist Soqosoqo Duavata ni Lewenivanua (SDL) becoming the single largest party with 31 seats. Mr Chaudhry’s Fiji Labour Party (FLP) took 27 seats, Mr Speight’s Conservative Alliance Matanitu Vanua (MV) nationalist group got six and New Labour two. The United General Party and the National Federation Party got one each, and two Independents were elected with one seat left vacant due to be decided at a byelection on September 19 following a candidate’s death. Mr Qarase, after his swearing-in said Mr Speight’s alliance wanted to join the government and he had secured the support of two Independents. But under Fiji’s unusual constitution, originally intended to ensure all races have a voice in the government, any party getting 10 per cent or more of the vote is entitled to a proportion of the 20 seats in Cabinet. Mr Chaudhry said he wants 47 per cent of them, and angrily denied he was being politically obstructive. “The ... Constitution provides for a multi-party Cabinet and it has set a threshold at 10 per cent and any party reaching that threshold is entitled to be in government,” he argued. Mr Qarase may have to go back to the President and say he cannot form a government and get the President to select somebody else. Or parliament, which has not yet sat, could be dissolved and new elections called, he said, without saying which option he preferred. The heart of the problem is Fiji’s thorny race issue - 51 per cent of Fiji’s 832,494 people are indigenous Melanesians or Polynesians and 44 per cent Indian. Former banker Qarase warned earlier in the day that if Mr Chaudhry took up his right to seats, “it will be a government that will not function properly.” “It means that he will have to get about eight seats, get 12 and I have an obligation to give some to the smaller parties, say I give five, I end up with seven, so the numbers don’t stack up and it will never work.” Mr Qarase, a Polynesian from the Lau Islands, has been sworn in three times in 16 months as Prime Minister but never after democratic elections.
AFP |
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Masood survives bomb attack; envoy hurt Kabul, September 10 Opposition spokesmen both inside and outside Afghanistan denied a report from Russia’s Itar-Tass news agency that the man who has proved the main obstacle to Taliban hopes of ruling the whole country had been killed in yesterday’s blast. But with the Taliban themselves denying involvement, Masood’s precise whereabouts were unclear. “He is fine and in good health,” a secretary for Masood said from the opposition stronghold in the Panjsher valley, adding that a suicide bomber posing as a journalist had blown himself up after gaining access to Masood’s office in northern Afghanistan. Masood’s anti-Taliban alliance is officially led by President Burhanuddin Rabbani, who was driven from Kabul in 1996 but is still recognised by the United Nations as Afghanistan’s leader. Sayed Najibullah Hashimi, a spokesman for Mr Rabbani, said Mr Rabbani had met Masood and had found him in good health. “Masood is in one of his bases in Takhar after minor injuries were treated,” Hashimi told Reuters, adding that Masood Khalili, the movement’s ambassador to India, had been seriously wounded in the attack and had been operated on in hospital. In Tajikistan, the Afghan embassy, which is under Masood’s control, said Masood was still in Afghanistan receiving treatment. It too said there was no concern for his condition. “There were two Arab journalists with him for an interview at his office in Khoja Bahauddin (Takhar province),” said the Panjsher valley secretary, who asked not to be named. “One of them had attached explosive devices on his body and blew himself up as a suicide bomber or devotee,” he added. “This person got killed on the spot along with a colleague of us and
Masood himself received injuries on his leg, hand and chest. The wounds are minor ones,” he said. The secretary said Masood’s guards opened fire and killed the second Arab. He said they had not determined the nationalities or affiliation of the would-be assassins. Taliban chief spokesman Abdul Hai Mutmaen told Reuters that the Taliban were not behind the assassination attempt. “We are not involved in the incident. If we were, we would have proudly said that because he is our enemy,” Mutmaen said.
Reuters |
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Peres, Arafat to meet today Madrid, September 10 “I have just had a conversation with...Peres and he confirmed to me that, unless there are new circumstances and despite the severity of the situation, the meeting will take place tomorrow night somewhere on the frontier of the (Palestinian) territories and Israel,” Pique said in comments carried by Spanish state television. European Union foreign adviser Javier Solana said he had been working to see if a planned meeting between Peres and Arafat was still possible after three attacks on Israeli targets and reprisals by Israeli military on Sunday. Earlier, the Israeli Government had rejected a Palestinian proposal for a meeting between Peres and Arafat in Taba, Egypt, an Israeli official said. “This proposition by Mr Arafat was made shortly after the three attacks on Sunday and was aimed at averting military retaliation. It was rejected,” said the official on condition of anonymity. Jerusalem: A Palestinian policeman was killed early today in an Israeli reprisal for three Palestinian attacks, including two suicide bombings, which had killed seven persons and injured dozens. The Israeli Army fired anti-tank missiles at a Palestinian police checkpoint in the West Bank village of Tamun, an Army spokesman said. A policeman was killed and four were wounded, Palestinian police and hospital officials said. Earlier, Israeli helicopters pounded Palestinian buildings in the West Bank, but nobody was hurt. A suicide bomber blew himself up yesterday morning near a train station in the northern city of Nahariya, killing three others and wounding dozens. As the train pulled into the station, soldiers and civilians stepped onto the platform, and the bomber moved towards them and detonated his explosives in the crowd. Two hours later, another bomber blew himself up in a car at a busy highway intersection, killing himself. The day began with a Palestinian drive-by shooting attack in the West Bank in which an Israeli teacher and a taxi-driver were killed. Retaliating, Israeli helicopters attacked Palestinian buildings in or near the West Bank towns of Ramallah, Jenin and Jericho.
Reuters, AFP |
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Dawood still in Karachi Islamabad, September 10 Pakistan’s Newsline magazine, in its latest edition, carries a cover story on Dawood’s activities under the title “Karachi’s Underworld King” with pictures of his palatial 6,000 sq ft house with facilities like swimming pool and tennis courts in the posh Clifton area of the southern metropolis. The story, pinpointing the residences and unsavoury activities of Dawood and his underworld gang, contradicts the official denial by President Pervez Musharraf during his July visit to India. The issue of extradition of Dawood and his gang was raised by Home Minister L.K. Advani during his meeting with the Pakistan President. General Musharraf denied the presence of Dawood and his henchmen in Karachi. The Newsline story, however, conclusively establishes that Dawood, his close associates Chhota Shakeel, Tiger Memon and a host of others, besides his family lives under official protection in Karachi. The report says Dawood is allowed to operate with impunity in Karachi as he emerged as Pakistan’s number one espionage operative. Dawood lives in Karachi with his wife, four daughters and a son, who he managed to “smuggle” from India, it said.
PTI |
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Lukashenko
wins landslide Minsk, September 10 According to official figures, Lukashenko secured 75.6 per cent of the vote in Sunday’s election following a campaign marked by smears against main opposition candidate Vladimir Goncharik, who accused the authorities of rigging the vote. “It was not democratic. I would not use the words free and fair,” said Hrair Balian, the head of a mission from the OSCE which monitored the controversial election. “There was an atmosphere of fear that made a fair election impossible.” The international observers said they were particularly concerned about explicit threats made by some senior government officials against opposition leaders and independent media. Kimmo Kiljunen, Vice-President of the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly, told a news conference the major flaws in the electoral process in the ex-Soviet state of 10 million people were “a political regime” which does everything in its power to block the opposition; executive structures with extensive powers, which allowed arbitrary changes to election rules; a lack of legislation to ensure the independence of election authorities; an early voting system, in which voters could cast ballots starting last Tuesday. The system failed to guarantee proper checks and balances on vote counting and a campaign of intimidation against opposition leaders, local observers, independent media and a smear campaign against international observers. Earlier this Central Election Commission said Lukashenko got 78.4 per cent of the votes with 75 per cent of the ballots counted. Opposition candidate Vladimir Goncharik got 12.5 per cent of the votes and Mr Sergei Gaidukevich had 2.2 per cent, Election Commission Chairperson Lidia Yermoshina told a press conference. Mr Goncharik said he wouldn’t recognise the results of the vote and accused Mr Lukashenko of “seizing power.” “This is clear falsification caused by replacing ballots during early balloting and at closed polling stations,” Mr Goncharik said, adding, “We shall launch a protest against it to the state prosecutor’s office, the Election Commission and international organisations.
Reuters, AP |
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Land seizures creating ripple effect: SADC Harare, September 10 “Of great concern to all of us is that, if the land issue is not urgently resolved amicably and peacefully, the economic and political problems Zimbabwe is facing now could easily snowball across the entire southern African region,” Malawian President Bakili Muluzi said in a speech be given at the summit charing the two-day talks of the 14-nation Southern African Development Community. “Our other major concern is that the current increasing political instability could create a negative image for critical direct foreign investment in the region,” he added. Muluzi’s hard-hitting speech criticised Zimbabwe’s land redistribution methods, which have resulted in nine white farmers being killed and scores of black farm workers assaulted, since the crisis began in February. “To me the problem lies in the way the government of Zimbabwe is trying to implement the land reform process and the principal of equitable land distribution,” he said. The two-day summit started on Monday, the day after Mugabe endorsed a Nigerian-brokered plan to end seizures of white-owned farms in exchange for funds to implement a fair, just land reform programme. But he said the deal needed the approval of the Zimbabwean cabinet and the top policy-making body of his ZANU-PF party. Before winding up their visit on Tuesday, the African leaders will also hold talks with farmers whose land has been targeted by the government for redistribution to landless blacks, and with business and church leaders and war veterans. The visit is an initiative by the SADC to help resolve the land standoff, which has raised fears among Zimbabwe’s neighbours of a spillover effect that could scupper regional economic growth.
Reuters |
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8 die in raids on
no-fly zone: Iraq Baghdad, September 10 The Iraqi News Agency said the raid targeted farms in the Al-Saliyia area between Al-Numinayah district and Al-Zubaidayah in Wasit province, 170 km south-east of Baghdad. The Pentagon said US and British warplanes attacked three surface-to-air missile sites in Iraq’s southern “no-fly” zone as part of a campaign to disable Baghdad’s air defences. A Pentagon official said three separate strikes occurred between 11 a.m. and 1:30 p.m. The Pentagon said all US aircraft returned safely to their bases. “America and Britain committed yet another savage aggression that targeted Iraqi civilians when their planes attacked Al-Salihiya area in Wasit province, killing eight and wounding three,” INA reported. The agency said US and British warplanes, patrolling a no-fly zone in southern Iraq, fired three missiles and cluster bombs which hit and damaged farms in the area. INA, quoting eyewitnesses, said the attack took place after midday while residents were about to do their midday prayers and others were shopping in a local market. It said the raid also damaged shops in the area.
Reuters |
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Govt troops, rebels
halt fighting Manila, September 10 The military and the separatist Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) blamed each other for instigating the clashes and gave conflicting casualty tolls for the latest fighting to break out in the volatile southern Mindanao region. “If the fighting was not resolved, we were thinking of not going back to the talks anymore,” MILF spokesman Eid Kabalu said.
AP |
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Shia shot in Karachi Karachi, September 10 Syed Altaf Hussain, Divisional Engineer at Pakistan Telecommunication Company Ltd, was on his way to his office when two gunmen riding a motor cycle ambushed his car and opened fire with automatic weapons.
AP |
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Love-struck German minister faces probe Berlin, September 10 The closed-door hearing by parliament’s Defence Committee, called by the Opposition Christian Democrats, was looking into whether Mr Scharping misused military jets to visit his girlfriend in Frankfurt and Majorca. He has said the Opposition is conducting a witchhunt against him. But even members of his own Social Democrats have been distancing themselves from him, and his position was widely expected to become untenable if he could not prove his innocence at the hearing. Mr Scharping apologised at the weekend for allowing a magazine to publish photos of him and his fiancee, Countess Kristina Pilati, splashing about in a pool and kissing just as German troops prepared for a NATO mission in Macedonia.
Reuters |
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