 |
Thursday,
January 24, 2002, Chandigarh, India  
|
Al-Qaida
men to return after questioning: USA UK radio
station blacks out ‘Asian’ Bush
assails attack; not sure of target |
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Pak not
opposed to free Kashmir: Lodhi Washington, January 23 The Pakistani Ambassador to the USA, Ms Maleeha Lodi, said her country would be prepared to accept an independent Kashmir if India agreed to let its people decide its future. Ms Lodi, in an interview with CNN yesterday, was reprehended India, saying that it had “refused to resolve” the Kashmir issue for the past 50 years, resulting in the rise of terrorism.
Iran
frees 682 Iraqi PoWs 
|
|
Al-Qaida men
to return after questioning: USA
Paris, January 23 Mr Armitage told the French newspaper Le Monde that no decision had been taken on what would happen to the Taliban and Al-Qaida prisoners at Guantanamo Bay once they had been interrogated, but he said repatriation was one option. “I have the feeling that a good number of them will be sent back to the countries where they lived before they went to Afghanistan,” he was quoted as saying. “What we want is to be sure of is that when they go back to those countries they will be investigated,” he said. President George W. Bush has left himself the option of putting at least some of the captives on trial before special military tribunals following the September 11 attacks on the USA. He said the initial aim was to find out what they knew about other possible attacks. Critics ranging from British parliamentarians to human rights groups have spoken out against the conditions in which the prisoners, who so far number 158, are being held. Images of prisoners shackled, wearing blacked-out goggles, ear muffs and surgical masks, kneeling in open-air cages, have sparked outrage around the world. Germany, a close US ally, took the unusual step on Tuesday of issuing a statement criticising the handling of the prisoners. Echoing other senior officials, Mr Armitage defended the conditions as humane. Though the USA regards the captives as “illegal combatants”, he said they were nonetheless being treated in line with the Geneva Convention, which governs among other things the treatment of prisoners of war. “For example, they receive a medically and culturally correct diet. They take showers, they have shoes and clothes, their health is monitored,” he said. Armitage also denied that special treatment was being afforded to John Walker Lindh, an American captured fighting for the Taliban. Meanwhile, the Pentagon has temporarily suspended flights of Afghan war captives to the US navy base at Guantanamo Bay, partly because makeshift jail space there is now almost full, defence officials said. The officials, who asked not to be identified, said the secure military flights to Guantanamo, where 158 Al-Qaida and Taliban “detainees” are already being held in small, outdoor cage-like cells under tight guard, could resume next week. The decision comes amid criticism from civil rights groups and some foreign lawmakers over their treatment and the US refusal to designate them as prisoners of war under the Geneva Convention. The suspension comes as captured US Taliban fighter John Walker was being flown under tight guard to an airport in the Washington area to face trial on federal charges. The 20-year-old from California, who goes by his mother’s name, left Afghanistan on a military cargo jet on Tuesday and was expected to land at Dulles International Airport later on Wednesday. LIMITED SPACE AT BASE Pentagon and Justice Department officials declined comment on Walker’s transition. US officials have said Walker would be handed over to the Department of Justice to face trial in federal court in suburban Alexandria, Virginia. One senior defence official told newsmen it was not clear exactly why the Guantanamo flights, which have transported groups of up to 30 prisoners at a time this month, were suspended. But others said space was limited as more permanent facilities were being built at the isolated outpost where the prisoners are housed in outdoor cells under the constant glare of spotlights. “They have been suspended for now,” said one official, adding that Defence Senetary Rumsfeld was also looking at the possibility of giving news media at the base closer access to the prisoners without violating the privacy rights of those detainees. London:
Amnesty International is demanding access to a Cuban prison camp where the US authorities are holding Al-Qaida and Taliban prisoners, the London-based human rights group said. The group said yesterday that it was alarmed at the veil of secrecy surrounding prisoners at the camp at Guantanamo Bay, saying that it feared the detainees were being subjected to techniques traditionally used to “break” prisoners before interrogation. Referring to pictures released by the USA showing the detainees manacled and wearing blacked-out goggles, ear muffs and surgical masks, Amnesty’s Director of Policy Claudio Cordone said: “The imposition of sensory deprivation bears the hallmarks of known methods to break prisoners prior to interrogation.” “While there are legitimate security considerations... we feel the measures adopted in their regard... go well beyond what is necessary from a security point of view,” he told a press conference. The USA has not classified its captives as prisoners of war, a label which carries specific rights under the Geneva Convention. Some could be tried before a military tribunal. “These people are prisoners of war. How the USA wants to characterise their legal status is not the question. It is what international law characterises them as,” said Amnesty legal adviser Christopher Hall. He said the USA could be guilty of a war crime if it tried them before a military tribunal, saying that this did not constitute a fair trial under international human rights legislation. Both the Red Cross and UN human rights chief Mary Robinson consider the captives to be prisoners of war. WASHINGTON:
The US Defence Secretary, Mr Donald Rumsfeld, has defended the treatment of Al-Qaida detainees at a US naval base in Cuba, saying that critics were “undoubtedly ... uninformed, misinformed, or poorly informed”. “Let there be no doubt that the treatment of the detainees in Guantanamo Bay is proper, it’s humane, it’s appropriate, and it is fully consistent with international conventions”, he said at a press conference on Tuesday. “No detainee has been harmed. No detainee has been mistreated in any way”, he said. “It should be kept in mind that the detainees are extremely dangerous, particularly when being moved”, he added. Mr Rumsfeld said some detainees had already been turned over to the Pakistani authorities, and some to the interim Afghan authorities.
Reuters, IANS |
|
UK radio
station blacks out ‘Asian’ London, January 23 Sunrise Radio said its non-Muslim audience no longer wanted to be associated with Muslims and was keen for the station to differentiate between different religions and countries of origin. Mr Avtar Lit, Sunrise’s chief executive, said: “In the wake of September 11 and also following the race riots last year we have had a lot of calls from Sikhs and Hindus worried that in the eyes of many people, the word “Asian” links them to events involving Muslims. “In the last three months, especially, we have received many calls from Indians, Pakistanis, Sri Lankans and Bangladeshis, asking us to be more precise when it comes to our news coverage. Hindus and Sikhs feel that Muslims are bringing the Asian community into disrepute in Britain and do not want to be bracket as them.” Sunrise Radio, an independent station, broadcasts to more than one million listeners from its stations in London, West Midlands and Scotland. Its ban, expected to come into effect in about two months after consultations, highlights the tensions felt within ethnic communities across Britain. In November, The Daily Telegraph reported that a group of Sikhs and Hindus from Southall, (London), had begun talks with British National Party, a right extremist party, to counter the threat they said Muslims were posing to their society. Mr Lit said: “It’s not just the Sikhs and Hindus don’t want to be called Asian. The Muslim population in the United Kingdom wants to be identified as being Muslims, and there is some justification to it. It’s a natural process. Fifteen years ago it was blacks and whites, then blacks and Asians, and now the number of Asians is large enough to split them into their religious or cultural groups.” Mr Gurmel Bolla, vice-president of the
gurdwara in Derby, which saw an increase in violent attacks in the wake of
September 11, said: “I have been knocked off my bike by white people after the race riots and the attacks on America because people see Asians as one community, when Sikhs were not involved in either incident. “If one group of people is causing trouble then others who are not involved should not have to take the blame as well.” Mr Iqbal Sacranie of the Muslim Council of Britain supported the move. “It will give a clear recognition of how communities are identified, which is by faith. We have had in the census 2001, for the first time, a question about religious identity and we are getting clear signals from the government how important faith identity is, so it is a practical and useful move. These days the term Asian has no real meaning.”
PTI |
|
Bush assails attack; not sure of target Washington, January 23 “We’re gathering more information about it, to find out exactly what the facts are. Terror is terror, however — it doesn’t matter whether it’s an attack on us or an attack on other people. You have got to work together to fight off terrorists,” Mr Bush told reporters. Mr Bush said he was not “sure” if the attack — in which no Americans were killed or injured — was “targeted at the USA or provoked by a grievance” against the local police. State Department Spokesman Richard Boucher said he had unverified reports that the attack was targeted at the West Bengal police. “We have seen reports that a phone call to the police and newspaper claims the attack targeted the West Bengal police in retaliation for police actions against a group that is active on the India-Bangladesh border, but we are unable to verify that claim,” he said. Meanwhile, officials said Secretary of State Colin Powell spoke to External Affairs Minister Jaswant Singh and Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf hours after the attack amid fears of rise in South Asian tension.
PTI |
|
Pak not opposed to free Kashmir: Lodhi Washington, January 23 Ms
Lodi, in an interview with CNN yesterday, was reprehended India,
saying that it had “refused to resolve” the Kashmir issue for the
past 50 years, resulting in the rise of terrorism. She indicated that Pakistan would accept an independent Kashmir if that was the wish of the people of the region. Asked if Pakistan would agree to an independent Kashmir, she said, “It begs the question of whether India will even allow Kashmiris to decide their future.” But after repeated questions on this aspect, Ms Lodi said, “Yes, if that is the wish of the Kashmiri people.” “Kashmir did not give rise to terrorism. Terrorism was an outcome of Kashmir,” said Ms Lodi. She accused Indian Defence Minister George Fernandes of “externalising what is a domestic issue, namely, suppressing the will of the Kashmiri people.” India, she said, is playing “a very dangerous game of brinkmanship.” She insisted that the need of the hour was to get back to dialogue. “The path out is not by sabre-rattling or intimidating Pakistan,” emphasised Ms Lodi. Meanwhile, the USA wants to create a new balance of relations in South Asia and has little interest in solving the Kashmir conflict, says a private intelligence think-tank. Strategic Forecasting (Stratfor), which conducts risk analyses of countries, says Secretary of State Colin Powell’s balancing act with India and Pakistan, countries which he just visited, was aimed at keeping Islamabad cooperating in the war on terrorism, and gaining India as a long-term strategic partner. “The focus on Kashmir belied a deeper US agenda for South Asia,” says Stratfor. After the South Asian nuclear tests and the 1999 Kargil conflict, Washington attempted to “de-link” itself from India and Pakistan. “That’s diplomatic shorthand for distancing itself from its former allies in Islamabad and seeking out New Delhi as a future partner to contain a burgeoning China,” says Stratfor, but adds that “events following September 11 have clearly demonstrated “de-linkage” has proven politically impossible. Washington has separate plans for its current and future ties with India and Pakistan, which point to a radical shift in the balance of relations in South Asia and beyond.
IANS |
|
Gunman kills 2 Israelis, shot Jerusalem, January 23 The women, aged 78 and 56, were critically wounded when the gunman appeared during the afternoon rush hour on west Jerusalem’s main shopping thoroughfare, Jaffa Road, spraying shoppers and workers with bullets and wounding 39 persons. The gunman was shot dead by the police after he tried to escape. A spokesman for Haddassah Ein Kerem Hospital said 14 of the injured were still hospitalised, two in a serious condition. The attack occurred halfway between the Sbarro pizzera, where 15 persons were killed in an August suicide bombing, and the entrance to the Ben Yehuda pedestrian mall, where two young suicide bombers killed 11 persons in December. The assailant was a 24-year-old member of Al-Aqsa Martrs Brigades, an armed offshoot of Arafat’s Fatah faction, a caller claiming to represent the group told AFP in Nablus over telephone. The shooting spree came shortly after the Islamic radical group Hamas threatened “total war” on the Jewish state for killing four of its militants in a raid in the West Bank’s main town of Nablus.
AFP |
|
Lockerbie case convict appeals Campzeist, Netherlands, January 23 Abdel Basset al-Megrahi was jailed for life last January for killing 259 passengers and crew and 11 persons on the ground with a suitcase bomb which blew up London-New York Pan Am 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland. Co-accused Libyan Al-Amin Khalifa Fahima was acquitted. Lawyers for Megrahi (49) said they might produce new evidence from a British former airport security guard that emerged only after the nine-month trial. Like the trial, the appeal will be at a special Scottish court here — a disused US airbase in the Netherlands chosen to allay Libyan objections to a trial in the UK. The hearings, which lawyers estimate will last about three weeks, are open to television cameras although broadcasters are barred from showing witness testimony. |
|
Iran frees
682 Iraqi PoWs Tehran, January 23 It said the prisoners were handed over to Iraqi officials on the Iran-Iraq border at Khosravi in the western Iranian province of Kermanshah. An Iraqi Foreign Ministry spokesman said Tehran and Baghdad would also exchange the bodies of 1,183 Iraqis and 574 Iranians killed during the war.
Reuters |
|
Visa-on-arrival for S. Asian tourists Colombo |
 |
| Punjab | Haryana | Jammu & Kashmir | Himachal Pradesh | Regional Briefs | Nation | Editorial | | Business | Sport | World | Mailbag | In Spotlight | Chandigarh Tribune | Ludhiana Tribune 50 years of Independence | Tercentenary Celebrations | | 121 Years of Trust | Calendar | Weather | Archive | Subscribe | Suggestion | E-mail | |
