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Tuesday,
March 5, 2002, Chandigarh, India  
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Ending Pak support to ultras key to peace: US body Israel retaliates in Gaza, West Bank: 9 dead
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Mugabe rival’s meeting blocked Peace not at cost of security: Ranil
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| Chance to nab Laden ‘wasted’ Washington, March 4 Scant intelligence, poorly-chosen allies and dubious military tactics caused US-led forces in Afghanistan to squander its best chance to capture Osama bin Laden and his top Al-Qaeda command, the Christian Science Monitor newspaper reported today.
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Ending Pak support to ultras key to peace: US body Washington, March 4 The Centre for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), however, says such a measure would be difficult to implement for Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf. The CSIS also points out in its journal South Asia Monitor that Kashmir and Afghanistan are the two major issues that could potentially deal a setback to bilateral ties between Islamabad and Washington. The article “High Stakes for USA and Pakistan” is written by former Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for South Asia Teresita Schaffer and researcher Richa Gulati. It points out that the massive Indian and Pakistani troop deployment along their border means the situation could escalate very fast. To prevent this from spiralling into a war and eliminating the risk of a nuclear confrontation, “Pakistan has to give up its role in supporting organisations that commit violence in India” and then start a dialogue with India to settle the differences between the two South Asian rivals. “Ending Pakistan-based support for armed militancy in Kashmir” will be a more painful process for Musharraf than confronting militants domestically, but in practice delinking these two theatres of operation may have become impossible. “It may not be easy to keep U.S. and Pakistani policies in harmony. The limits of Pakistan’s new policy toward militants and toward Kashmir will not be clear until winter ends and the passes into Kashmir open,” it says. The report goes on to claim that New Delhi is ready to accept a discreet U.S. role in mediation talks over Kashmir given the vast improvement in its relations with Washington. The USA did not accept Musharraf’s appeal for mediation, but President George Bush’s statement that the USA wanted to help both sides to talk directly on the issue suggested a more active diplomatic posture than it has taken in the past. It says the news of reporter Daniel Pearl’s murder has only shown the difficulty of Musharraf bringing militant organisations under control. The CSIS has described as “disturbing” the way Pakistan kept the USA in the dark about the surrender of Omar Saeed Sheikh, one of Pearl’s kidnappers, for a full week and how it was made public after Musharraf arrived in Washington.
IANS |
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ISI still backs
J&K ultras New York, March 4 The agency has obeyed General Musharraf’s orders to reverse policy in Afghanistan, ‘Newsweek’ says. But this is not the case in Jammu and Kashmir. "General Musharraf has ordered the agency to cut off contact with Pakistan-based insurgents that have battled Indian forces" in the state, it said. "But the cause is a very potent issue for nationalists of all stripes, not least of all the President himself. And the ISI’s interest in trading (accused kidnapper of Wall Street Journal reporter) Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh for Daniel Pearl (the reporter) could indicate that sympathy for those groups continues to permeate the agency," it stresses.
PTI |
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Israel retaliates in Gaza, West Bank: 9 dead Ramallah (West Bank), March 4 The activist, Hussein Abu Kwaik, survived the blast. The sources said the dead also included Kwaik’s sister-in-law as well as an unidentified man and his son who were in a second vehicle. Witness Nidama Shal said she saw four people in one of the cars, “all burnt to death and blown up”. She said “one child looked as if he had been sliced in half”. Israel has killed Palestinian militants with missile strikes and tank-shell hits on their cars during the 17-month-old uprising against Israeli occupation. Jerusalem: Israeli forces entered the Rafah refugee camp in the Gaza strip early today killing three Palestinians as Tel Aviv decided to turn the heat on the Palestinian Authority after a weekend burst of violence left 21 Israelis dead. Israeli tanks rolled into the refugee camp and opened fire killing three Palestinians during a four-hour incursion. Palestinian militants fired back at the Israeli army. The incursions followed last night’s Israeli Cabinet meeting which approved a broad plan by its defence forces “to put continuous military pressure on the Palestinian Authority and terrorist organisations which aim to put brakes on terror.’’ As an aggrieved nation buried its dead, Mr Sharon and his Cabinet held lengthy discussions on how to put a halt to terror attacks by the Palestinians. Defence Minister Benjamin Ben-Eliezer argued with Mr Sharon over how far to go in punishing Chairman Yasser Arafat for the attacks and whether to allow the Palestinian leader to leave Ramallah. As Mr Sharon held a meeting with his Cabinet, ministers from the Right of his coalition and protesters called on the government to give the military a free hand in other Palestinian areas and topple the Palestinian Authority.
Reuters, PTI |
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Mugabe rival’s meeting blocked Harare, March 4 Diplomats who were present said police called Tsvangirai out of the meeting with about 30 foreign envoys in a hotel and told him that the gathering called by his Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) was illegal. The few pre-election polls show that Tsvangirai has a chance of unseating President Robert Mugabe, who has held power for 22 years, after a runup to the polls that has been marred by violence. The MDC says at least 107 of its members and supporters have died in political violence over the past two years. Many of its rallies have been blocked or disrupted. Spanish Ambassador Javier Sandomingo told newsmen the disruption of the diplomatic meeting with Tsvangirai was unprecedented. “We have the right and the duty under the Vienna Convention to talk to political forces when we think it’s appropriate,” he said. MDC spokesman Percy Makombe told Reuters: “The president (Tsvangirai) had a meeting with diplomats this morning, but 20 minutes into the meeting it was disrupted by the police, who said it was illegal.” Mugabe’s ruling ZANU-PF party is campaigning largely on the claim that the MDC and Tsvangirai are stooges of Britain, the former colonial power, and Zimbabwe’s tiny white minority of around 70,000 in a population of 13 million. Tsvangirai charges that Mugabe has wrecked a once vibrant economy, reducing many to poverty. The economy is in bad shape with inflation at a record 117 per cent, unemployment doubled in a decade to 60 per cent and most Zimbabweans living below the poverty line. An opinion poll published 12 days ago showed Tsvangirai in the lead, but nearly 60 per cent of those surveyed refused to say how they would vote. The election is Mugabe’s most serious test since independence in 1980.
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Peace not at cost of security: Ranil Colombo, March 4 Initiating a debate in Parliament on the landmark ceasefire agreement he signed with the LTTE on February 22, Mr Wickremesinghe said he was aware of the pitfalls of the peace process and told his critics that he was not lowering military guard. The rebels have been waging an 18-year-old war to divide the tropical island along ethnic lines, saying the 3.2 million minority Tamils are discriminated by the 14 million Sinhalese in this country of 18.6 million people. Over 64,500 persons have been killed in the insurrection and 1.6 million displaced. "Given the history of the conflict, it is not surprising that there is a high level of mistrust between the two parties," said Mr Wickremesinghe, who won the December 5 parliamentary elections promising an end to the war. "Therefore, while we go forward to implement the agreement, we will continue to keep our armed forces on constant alert," he said.
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Rugova elected President Pristina (Yugoslavia, March 4 Kosovo has been under United Nations rule since the NATO 1999 bombing campaign drove Serb forces out of the ethnic Albanian-dominated territory. The Kosovo assembly also appointed a Prime Minister and a 10-member Cabinet. Rugova's Democratic League of Kosovo has the largest number of ministers in the Cabinet but Prime Minister Bajram Rexhepi comes from the rival Democratic Party of Kosovo. Assembly President Nexhat Daci said 88 deputies voted in favour of the deal, 15 abstained and three voted against it. The result was greeted by a standing ovation in the assembly. Reuters |
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Chance to nab Laden ‘wasted’ Washington, March 4 In an exhaustive account based on interviews with participants at the scene, the daily described how Bin Laden eluded US-led forces. The newspaper detailed a Bin Laden escape route from Jalalabad to a favoured fortified location in Tora Bora, in hasty departure in a convoy of armoured-four wheeler vehicles. "The Americans had a plan to invade, but if we are united and believe in Allah, we’ll teach them a lesson, the same one we taught the Russians," he said, the Monitor reported quoting two tribal leaders who attended the speech.
AFP |
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