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Wednesday,
February 20, 2002, Chandigarh, India  
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EU observers pull out
of Zimbabwe Massive deployment to tackle Maoist menace
Kabul killing: 2 UK soldiers sent home |
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Israel attacks refugee camp
‘Kanishka’: pretrial proceedings begin |
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Wife gets 6 years for
poisoning Thai prince Milosevic now the
cross-examiner Lankan objection
to Cabinet appointment
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EU observers pull out of Zimbabwe Harare, February 19 Thirteen of the 26 observers from Ireland, Italy, Spain, France, Belgium and Austria left on a British Airways flight to Johannesburg at around 3 p.m. (1300 GMT). The rest are scheduled to leave later. “Of course we are upset at having to leave. Our job is to observe, not to leave. It’s like a driver who is not entitled to drive,” French observer Jean Francois Leloutre told Reuters at the airport shortly before boarding. Tension is rising in Zimbabwe, where Mugabe will face the biggest challenge to his 22-year rule from opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai in the March 9-10 presidential election. In Rome, Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo downplayed the impact of the EU withdrawal. “I will not say the fact that there are no European Union observers at an election means that it will not be fair and free,” Obasanjo told reporters. Zimbabwe reacted defiantly to the EU decision to impose a visa ban and a freeze on the overseas assets of Mugabe and 19 close associates, saying it amounted to “economic terrorism”. Regional powerhouse South Africa said the EU’s moves were regrettable and that it would be sending more observers to join African teams already in Zimbabwe. “Our principal objective remains the need to create a climate for free and fair elections in Zimbabwe so that the Zimbabwean people can speak through the ballot,” South African Foreign Affairs spokesman Ronnie Mamoepa said. The 15 EU foreign ministers imposed the sanctions on Monday after hearing a report from Pierre Schori, the head of the EU observer mission who was expelled by Zimbabwe on Saturday. Schori, a Swedish diplomat ordered to leave after being accused of “political arrogance”, said he had recommended sanctions because law and order was unravelling in the country. The EU sanctions also include an embargo on the supply of arms and technical advice and of equipment which could be used for internal repression in Zimbabwe. Mugabe’s information minister, Jonathan Moyo, accused the EU of hiding behind the cover of democracy to protect white minority interests in the former British colony. On Tuesday the official Herald newspaper said the EU move showed it had not been dealing in good faith. “It has indeed been behaving like a bully and expected ‘little’ Zimbabwe to cower before the ‘superior white race’,” the paper said in an editorial. “What might seem like a European victory is indeed the unshackling of the African continent from domination by former colonial masters, whose plunder of Africa had not stopped up to now,” it added.
Reuters |
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Massive deployment to tackle Maoist menace Kathmandu, February 19 Maoist guerrillas, who are fighting to overthrow the constitutional monarchy and install a “people’s republic”, attacked government installations on the weekend killing mainly soldiers and police. “We’ve deployed a massive number of troops,” said Defence Secretary Padam Kumar Acharya, but declined to give figures. He said soldiers had encircled Mangalsen, a west Nepali village where 110 people died in the raids. The slaughter shocked the Hindu kingdom. “People are still stunned and terrified to venture out,” Chakra Bahadur Rawal, who runs a telephone booth at Bailpata, near Mangalsen, told Reuters. Narendra Shah, a student in the nearby village of Chorpati said, “There’s a sense of fear and uncertainty. We can’t sleep at night.” Meanwhile, King Gyanendra appealed for unity as Nepal marked National Democracy Day. The King, who ordered the army into action against the rebels last November, said failure to unify would worsen the situation. Nepal was going through a “vulnerable stage”, said Gyanendra, vaulted to the throne last June by a bloody palace massacre in which most of the royal family were slain by a drunken crown prince who later killed himself. “We are confident our countrymen will be able to...unite in overcoming the hardship facing our nation,” King Gyanendra said in a traditional message marking the national holiday. But “during this vulnerable stage, shortcomings in the political and administrative sectors could lead to the further deterioration in the situation”, he added. A government official later said the King was not taking a stand in a heated debate under way over extending a state of emergency declared last November to tackle the revolt. Opposition parties have been bickering over a government motion to prolong by another three months the state of emergency, giving the army sweeping search-and-detention powers. The ruling Nepali Congress needs Opposition support to extend the state of emergency in a vote expected later this week. It holds a majority but under the constitution needs approval of two-thirds of the 205-member Lower House to prolong the state of emergency. Meanwhile, Nepal’s Queen Komal, who survived last year’s palace massacre that vaulted her husband to the throne, has recovered from her injuries and is in good health, reports said. Queen Komal, who turned 52 on Tuesday, was one of four royal members who were injured but survived the palace shootout last June.
Reuters |
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Kabul killing: 2 UK soldiers sent home Kabul, February 19 British forces said they came under fire early on Saturday morning at an observation post in western Kabul and had returned fire. A spokesman for the British-led, 17-nation International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) said an investigation into the incident had yet to be completed. “The soldiers are not under arrest and in no way does their flight back pre-judge the investigation into what happened,” he added. Mohammad Ishaq, whose brother was killed in the shooting, said his family was unarmed when the paratroopers fired on their car and wounded four other persons, including a pregnant woman, who was being taken to a hospital and later gave birth.
Reuters |
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Israel attacks refugee camp Gaza, February 19 The new bloodshed followed Palestinian attacks which killed four Israelis yesterday in a new spasm of the violence that has raged for nearly 17 months since the Palestinians began an uprising. Hospital sources in the town of Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip said a 14-year-old girl, a 37-year-old woman and a 19-year-old man were killed when tank shells hit their homes last night.
Reuters |
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‘Kanishka’: pretrial proceedings begin Vancouver, February 19 The accused — Ripudaman Singh Malik (53) of Vancouver, Ajaib Singh Bagri (51) of Kamloops, British Columbia, and Inderjit Singh Reyat, formerly of Duncan, British Columbia — were not in the courtroom and watched the proceedings on television. Malik and Bagri, arrested on October 27, 2000, have been charged on eight counts, including first-degree murder and conspiracy to commit murder. Bagri is also charged with the attempted murder in 1988 of the former publisher of the Indo-Canadian Times newspaper Tara
Singh Hayer. Reyat was charged on June 5 last year with murder and conspiracy in the bombing of the India-bound Flight-182 over the Atlantic on June 23, 1985. When the pretrial proceedings began yesterday, security guards frisked people who had lined up to enter the courtroom and checked bags, for hearings on motions involving the trial, which is expected to begin in November.
PTI |
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Wife gets 6 years for poisoning Thai prince Bangkok, February 19 Chalasai Yugala (29) was sentenced to nine years for causing harm that led to the death of her 60-year-old husband, Prince Thitiphan Yugala, in 1995. The sentence was commuted to six years as Chalasai, better known as Luk Pla, or Baby Fish, pleaded guilty during the investigation, the court official said on customary condition of anonymity. Luk Pla, who had been on bail, was detained after sentencing. She would appeal the verdict, said her lawyer, Seri Suwanapanond. He said Luk Pla had confessed only because she was confused after long police interrogation and being given the lie-detector test. Luk Pla, an orphan who was informally adopted by the prince at the age of four, became his beloved at the age of 14 and wife when she was 23. She told the police she put insecticide in the prince’s coffee on August 21, 1995, soon after their marriage to make him unconscious so that she could escape the palace. The prince, a cousin of King Bhumibol Adulyadej, went into a coma and died eight days later. After poisoning him, Luk Pla ran away with her 19-year-old lover, a chestnut peddler named Uthet Choopwa. They have since married and have a son. Luk Pla had run away from the palace several times in the past. The incidents had made headlines at the time, as the prince had placed prominent advertisements in newspapers offering big rewards for information that would lead to her return.
AP |
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Milosevic now the
cross-examiner The Hague, February 19 The former Yugoslav leader deftly probed ethnic Albanian politician Mahmut Bakalli’s
testimony that Serbia inflicted “apartheid” on Kosovo’s Albanian majority in the 1990s in a prelude to what prosecutors say was “ethnic cleansing.” “Could you explain to us what apartheid means?” Milosevic asked Bakalli. “You are under solemn declaration here, Mr Bakalli,” the former Serb President said. “You don’t need to remind me of that,” Bakalli countered. Milosevic asked Bakalli courteous but brisk questions about an alleged Serb bias in Kosovo’s schools. “You imposed the curriculum. You imposed the heads of the schools and the faculties,” the witness told him.
Reuters |
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Lankan objection
to Cabinet appointment Colombo, February 19 Agricultural Minister S. B. Dissanayake was due to be given the additional responsibility of social welfare, or samurdhi, by Prime Minister Ranil
Wickremesinghe but President Chandrika Kumaratunga declined to swear him in at the last minute, officials said.
AFP |
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