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Saturday,
March 16, 2002, Chandigarh, India  
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US Grand Jury indicts Omar for Pearl murder Ramallah (West Bank), March 15 Israel withdrew its troops from Ramallah today, ending a brief reoccupation of Palestinian President Yasser Arafat’s West Bank base as a US mediator geared up to give peace another chance.
Top JeM, LeT leaders included Islamabad, March 15 In pursuance of its decision to give a conditional amnesty to over 2000 arrested militants of five banned outfits, the Pakistan Government has directed the country’s provinces to release the detained activists of these groups provided they give a written undertaking to disassociate with the proscribed organisations. WINDOW ON PAKISTAN Pakistan’s military rulers are in a fix. They must hold elections by October and hand over the government to the elected representatives. This is a commitment which President Pervez Musharraf has given to the people, the Supreme Court and to the international community. UN honours Indian peacekeepers’ sacrifice |
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Johannesburg, March 15 South Africa is pressing President Robert Mugabe to defuse growing foreign condemnation of Zimbabwe’s election by asking his defeated foe to join a government of national unity, government sources said today. US Democrat decries India’s secular status THE recent communal violence in Gujarat has found an echo in the US Congress, with a Democrat member questioning India’s secular and democratic status. In the House of Representatives on Tuesday, Congressman Edolphus Towns described the violence as “very disturbing”and said the police stood by and did nothing. It was reminiscent of the violence against Sikhs in Delhi in November 1984. 3 Al-Qaida men killed
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US Grand Jury indicts Omar for Pearl murder Washington, March 15 A federal grand jury in New Jersey has indicted Omar Saeed Sheikh in connection with the January kidnapping and murder of Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl. Sheikh remains in custody in Pakistan, and it is unclear if or when he might be extradited to the USA, although Washington has repeatedly asked Islamabad to hand him over. US Attorney-General John Ashcroft announced in Washington that Omar Saeed Sheikh has been charged with hostage-taking and conspiracy to commit hostage-taking, resulting in Daniel Pearl’s death. “We think it’s important to have charges in place if, for some reason, he would be in any way released,” he said. Mr Ashcroft said the indictment charges that Omar Saeed Sheikh trained in Al-Qaida terrorist camps in Afghanistan and fought with the Taliban before hatching a scheme to take Daniel Pearl hostage. “Using the Internet to communicate, Omar Saeed used a false identity to lure Daniel Pearl to a meeting in Karachi with a fictitious source,” he said. It was from this meeting that Daniel Pearl was kidnapped, according to media reports. Mr Ashcroft said the conspirators sent an initial e-mail on January 26 saying they had taken the reporter hostage. “In a second e-mail sent January on 30, Daniel Pearl’s kidnappers threatened to execute him if their demands were not met and threatened the lives of other American journalists in Pakistan,” he said. “But before that message was sent, the indictment charges, the conspirators had brutally killed Daniel Pearl and videotaped the mutilation of his body.” The charges were brought in New Jersey because that is home to the headquarters of The Wall Street Journal. “We are collaborating with the Pakistanis and informing them of our interest and we expected them to be cooperative,” Mr Ashcroft said. “To say further at this time would be inappropriate.” KARACHI:
The USA has no jurisdiction to try Omar Saeed Sheikh for the kidnap and murder of Daniel Pearl, the lawer for his three co-accused said today. Khwaja Naveed, lawyer for Omar Saeed Sheikh’s three co-accused, insisted any trial must take place in Pakistan and not in the USA. LAHORE: A Pakistani arrested after claiming he murdered US journalist Daniel Peart retracted his confession hours later. Adnan Khan told reporters on Thursday that he had lied to try to save the life of Saeed Omar Sheikh.
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USA for total Israeli pullout Ramallah (West Bank), March 15 A Reuters correspondent saw dozens of tanks leaving Ramallah in an early morning operation. The Israeli army said its forces also quit their positions in two other West Bank cities. Mr Arafat, confined to his headquarters in Ramallah by the Israeli military for three months, called the order a trick. A military source said the army still held positions in Palestinian territory on the outskirts of the West Bank cities of Bethlehem, Nablus, Jenin and Hebron. US peace envoy Anthony Zinni on Thursday began his third trip to the region since November to seek implementation of a US-brokered ceasefire and truce-to-talks plan drawn up by an international committee under ex-US senator George Mitchell. Mr Ariel Sharon hosted Mr Zinni in Jerusalem, and told reporters: “The main effort now is to achieve a ceasefire, and I hope that with combined effort we will manage to achieve this.’’ WASHINGTON: The USA has said that Israel must completely withdraw all its troops and tanks from Palestinian-controlled areas, including Ramallah. “We want to see a full withdrawal,” State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said on Thursday.
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Pak to free 2000 ultras Islamabad, March 15 The Musharraf government has asked the four provinces to release those activists of the five banned religious organisations, including Jaish-e-Mohammad and Lashkar-e-Toiba, who are ready to disassociate themselves from their organisations permanently, local daily ‘The News’ said quoting sources. The activists of these outfits have been asked to sign a good behaviour bond for a period of at least two years under orders of the court, it said adding the papers should be sent to the government for formal approval of the release of detained militants. The amnesty confined to the militants against whom no specific charges were made or FIRs registered against them. Only those who were not facing any charges would be given amnesty during the present exercise. According to the government instructions, if the arrested militants declined to sign the papers, they should be grilled and proceeded against under the provisions of the Anti Terrorism Act of 1997. The detainees included the top leaders of the Jaish-e-Mohammad and Lashkar-e-Toiba. But the bulk of the detained militants reported to belong to three other banned sectarian outfits, Sipah-e-Sahaba of Pakistan (SSP), Tehrik-e-Nifaz-e-Shariat-e-Mohammadi, both extremist of the majority Sunni sects, and their Shia rival Teherik-e-Jafriya of Pakistan (TJP). The three were banned for the sectarian violence which surfaced in a big way during the past few weeks. An action plan evolved by a recent high-level meeting of officials said the arrested activists must first disassociate themselves from the proscribed organisations before they were released. According to latest reports, the police detained 781 activists in Punjab, 852 in Sindh, 341 in NWFP and 18 in Balochistan during the crackdown. The decision to give amnesty to the detained militants was taken by Pakistan Interior Minister Moinuddin Haider on March 7.
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WINDOW ON PAKISTAN Pakistan’s military rulers are in a fix. They must hold elections by October and hand over the government to the elected representatives. This is a commitment which President Pervez Musharraf has given to the people, the Supreme Court and to the international community. The General is finding it tough to design a move that would keep him in power, besides bringing a semblance of democracy to the hapless state. This would broadly mean an elected parliament and a prime minister with the President retaining the real powers to run the country. On the surface it looks simple, but in Pakistan it is easier said than done. The biggest hurdle is the army top brass itself. In the past five decades, the army has been in power for more than half of the time and even when civilian rulers were there, it often called the shots. Its interests are deep rooted and well anchored. If any class of people have benefited from the system the most, it is the army, a la Indonesia style. And the equally corrupt bureaucracy, the business sections, and the landlords have ably helped it. In the process, Pakistan remained a surrogate state, fighting the little battles, which the masters so wished, and pauperising the country. Over the years, the army generals serving and retired, have developed a clout of their own. In fact, ever since General Musharraf took over, the army top brass has been operating at macro and micro levels, relegating the babus far behind except in matters of finances where they are yet to develop their expertise. Ayaz Amir, writing recently in Dawn, aptly summed up the situation, “If other sectors of national life are stagnating, one by the grace of Allah is flourishing: the assembly line, which produces the military’s higher officers. This year, to no one’s surprise, 27 brigadiers — including three from the Army Medical Corps — have been approved for promotion to the rank of major general. Last year, 22 entered this charmed circle. Of glistening hardware we may have a shortage but of potential Nepoleons we obviously have none”. It is courageous for Amir to make pithy comments when Pakistani journalists are getting sacked, courtesy the army rulers. And he ruefully adds, “Moreover, since soldiers never die, and in Pakistan they do not even fade away, a general’s retirement does not mean his being put out to grass. A hundred sinecures ensure his profitable re-employment. Who is serving whom? The military serving the country or the country at the service of the military? In Pakistan, little has changed: not the judicial system, legal system, police system or education and health systems. The foreign policy agenda has shifted mainly because of external pressure. Ayaz Amir asks some disturbing questions. Can the frontiers of military privilege be rolled back? Can military expenses come under public scrutiny? It seems unlikely because no class likes losing its privileges. So the next question relates to democracy. Can it survive, let alone prosper in such a climate? So the situation does not need a clairvoyant to see that Pakistan is headed for an experiment in Indonesian democracy: where the president, anchored firmly in his military constituency, calls the shots while the Prime Minister and Parliament walk dutifully in his shadow. There are indeed no happy tidings for Pakistan. One has to read General Musharraf’s assertion that he would not permit either Mian Nawaz Sharif or Benazir Bhutto to come back to power in this context. He might opt for Imran Khan. He may be a more suitable boy for him. But for Pakistan, dark days are ahead. Clearly, the agenda for the Pakistani rulers is to keep the Kashmir issue boiling and anyone selected for the prime ministerial gaddi shall have to toe that line. |
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UN honours Indian peacekeepers’ sacrifice United Nations, March 15 The United Nations recognised the supreme sacrifices by the peacekeepers yesterday and India was among the first 20 countries to be honoured, with 106 Indian peacekeepers receiving the medals posthumously. India’s Acting Permanent Representative to the UN, A Gopinanthan, received the medal presented posthumously to sepoy Ram Chander Nasim, who served with the UN Emergency Force in the West Asia and was the first Indian casualty in the peace-keeping operations. Nasim died on August 19, 1955. The medal was presented by Under Secretary-General for peace-keeping operations Jean-Marie Guehenno at a brief solemn ceremony. The remaining 105 medals were handed over to the Indian officials at the end of the formal ceremony. The egg-shaped medal is made of clear lead crystal and engraved with the name and date of the death of recipient, the United Nations logo and the inscriptions, “The Dag Hammarskjold Medal: in the “Service of Peace” in English and French. Other countries which received the medals included China, Argentina, Australia, Japan, Jordan, Kenya, South Korea, Malaysia, Nepal, Panama, Peru, Brazil, Chad, Chile, Croatia, Denmark and Greece. India is among the largest troop contributors to the United Nations. Nepal has lost 42 personnel in peace-keeping operations. A total of 1,738 personnel of various countries have lost their lives while implementing UN mandates for peace from 1948 to the end of last year.
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Form unity
govt, SA tells Harare Johannesburg, March 15 The sources said the proposal was at the heart of a message sent to Mugabe by South African President Thabo Mbeki the previous day. South Africa has not passed a formal judgment on the chaotic three-day election won by Mugabe with 56 per cent of the vote, but the ballot has been rejected by key Western governments including Britain and the USA. The Johannesburg Star said on Friday South African Deputy President Jacob Zuma carried a proposal to Mugabe suggesting a government of national unity and promising Mbeki’s support if Zimbabwe followed this route. Government sources in Pretoria confirmed that South Africa’s call to Zimbabweans to set aside their differences referred to the proposal for a government of national unity. Austrlian Prime Minister John Howard said on Thursday he would chair a meeting of the three-nation taskforce in London on Tuesday to prepare a recommendation to the full Commonwealth. The worst the Commonwealth could do would be to suspend Zimbabwe from the association.
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Mugabe muzzles Press Zimbabwe President Mugabe has enacted controversial media laws criticised by local and international journalists as aimed at muzzling the Press and freedom of expression. The Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Act, published in the government gazette on Friday, bars foreign correspondents from working full-time in Zimbabwe. The Act imposes tight control on local reporters who have to be accredited by a state-appointed commission. Journalists face up to two years in jail for breaking the regulations.
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US Democrat decries India’s secular status THE recent communal violence in Gujarat has found an echo in the US Congress, with a Democrat member questioning India’s secular and democratic status. In the House of Representatives on Tuesday, Congressman Edolphus Towns described the violence as “very disturbing”and said the police stood by and did nothing. It was reminiscent of the violence against Sikhs in Delhi in November 1984. “When the government, through its police, stands by and lets these attacks unfold, it condones them,” Mr Towns said. “Unfortunately, this shows the real truth about India’s claim that it is secular and democratic. In a secular, democratic country, the police does not allow minorities to be massacred. This is the act of a theocratic country that seeks to wipe out minorities. That is not the kind of country that America should be supporting.” In a separate statement, Mr Towns referred to the attack on a train full of Hindus at Godhra, and said no one condoned the killing of these Hindus, even if they were militants, “but I hope none of my colleagues justifies the killing of Muslims that has erupted in response. The militant Hindu nationalists want to make a Hindu society in India, and they can justify actions like these in the name of their cause, but there is no justification.” In making these two statements, the democrat lawmaker cited a recent press note issued by the Washington-based so-called Council of Khalistan discussing the parallels between the current violence and the violence against sikhs in Delhi, and an article in Gujarat Samachar titled, “Truth about the train accident”. |
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3 Al-Qaida men killed Kabul, March 15 The three fighters were killed after Canadian troops entered a complex of caves on Thursday, Canadian news reports said. The Canadian-led attack lasted about 90 minutes. Operation Harpoon was launched on Wednesday to scour and secure the mountainous Shah-e-Kot region south of Gardez, Paktia province. Reports said one of the three Al-Qaida fighters killed had his head blown off. US and Canadian forces were trying to seal a cave entrance when the three fighters emerged and opened fire. The Canadians returned fire and killed them, a Canadian officer was quoted as saying. Bagram Air Base: Coalition forces have seized terror manuals and bodies from caves used by Taliban and Al-Qaida fighters in their last known Afghan stronghold, a US forces spokesman said on Friday.
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