 |
Sunday,
March 17, 2002, Chandigarh, India  
|
USA to
step up military ties with Sri Lanka Hasina
implicated in murder case Pak police
recovers 11 babies US Taliban
man wants access to detainees
USA tests
missile interceptor Islamabad, March 16 The police arrested two men who had brought explosives and a pistol into the offices of the UN refugee agency in the capital. |
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|
USA to step up military ties with Sri Lanka Colombo, March 16 Visiting US Assistant Secretary of State for South Asia Christina Rocca on Saturday said Washington hoped Colombo’s fledgling peace effort, spurred by last month’s truce with the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), would be “a good news story in Asia.” Referring to the heightened interest the USA has taken since the February 23 ceasefire accord, Ms Rocca said: “The world situation has changed (since September 11) and there is a real opportunity for a good news story in South Asia.” She said visiting US Marines commander, Gen Timothy Ghormley, had held talks with the government on extending military cooperation, “from operating C-130s (military aircraft) to other humanitarian matters.” Ms Rocca and General Ghormley on Friday also paid a landmark visit to the northern Jaffna peninsula, claimed by the Tigers as a separate state and which has seen the worst fighting between government troops and the rebels. Although the ceasefire was not the same as a peace accord and there would be setbacks in its implementation, “both sides have indicated that they have chosen peace over war, reconciliation over division,” Ms Rocca said. The USA has backed Oslo’s three-year long effort to bring the government and the rebels to the negotiating table and is now pushing the two sides to begin peace talks as soon as possible. Last week Washington told the LTTE that the separate Tamil homeland they were battling for was both “unattainable and unnecessary.” The two US officials also held talks with Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe in Jaffna, where the Sri Lankan leader was on a two-day tour — the first by a Sinhalese leader in 20 years. Mr Wickremesinghe told reporters there that during discussions with Ms Rocca and General Ghormley he had asked for help with de-mining the area. “We requested four teams of 10 persons each for four months and they (the US officials) said they would get some equipment quickly,” Mr Wickremesinghe said. Since his December election, Mr Wickremesinghe has intensified efforts to end the long war which has seen over 60,000 people killed. He has said he was depending on international support to bring the LTTE to the table to hammer out a political settlement. The US officials who travelled to the north in a US Special Forces aircraft witnessed a de-mining demonstration and toured the war-battered town of Chavakachcheri. Since its 1997 proscription of the LTTE, the USA has increased ties with the country’s military, providing training both here and in the USA and helped to set up a navy commando squadron. Last week, the USA upbraided the LTTE for “jeopardising” the truce by continuing to kidnap, extort and smuggle in weapons despite cessation of hostilities. Washington warned that the group, re-listed as a foreign terrorist organisation after the September 11 terror attacks, would be included in the global strike against terror.
IANS |
|
Hasina implicated in murder case Dhaka, March 16 After the installations of the new government, with formal sanction from the Prime Minister, Ms Khaleda Zia, the Anti-Corruption Department filed a corruption case against Ms Hasina. It is alleged that her order to buy 29 MIG-29 fighter planes from Russia caused a loss of more than 700 crore takas to the nation. Last week, the Dhaka Metropolitan Magistrate admitted a case and asked the police to investigate the charge pertaining to the murder of two students on February 14, 1983, during the rule of Mr H.M. Ershad. The students of the Chhatra League, student wing of the Awami League, were killed in police firing. A Division Bench of the high court has issued a show-cause notice to Ms Hasina in a contempt of court case. A former secretary-general of the Supreme Court Bar Association and BNP supporter filed the case against Ms Hasina for her remarks about the court in an interview with Thikana weekly published from New York when she was in Florida in the USA in December, 2001. Recently, Bahauddin Nasim, Assistant Private Secretary to Ms Hasina and also her relative, was arrested from Dhaka airport where he was to board a flight to the USA. This has created anger against the government. The police claims he is involved in anti-state activities. Last night, a former minister, Dr Mohiuddin Khan Alamgir, was taken into custody from Dhaka airport on his arrival there by a Singapore Airlines flight. He went abroad after the General Election on October 1, 2001. Ms Hasina is on bail in the corruption case. Five former ministers in the Hasina Cabinet and two senior government officers have obtained anticipatory bail after cases were filed against them. The Khaleda government published a white paper on alleged corruption by the Awami League government headed by Ms Hasina. As a sequel, the Awami League published a counter-white paper showing corruption charges against Ms Khaleda, her family members and colleagues during their tenure from 1991 till 1996. |
|
Pak police recovers 11 babies
Karachi, March 16 The police also arrested eight suspects, including three Maltese and five Pakistanis, a police official was quoted as saying. The gang kept the infants, aged between 10 days and two months, in a bungalow in the Gulshan-e-Iqbal area of the city, Deputy Inspector-General Fayyaz Leghari told reporters. “The babies were to be taken to Malta where the gang could sell them to desirous families for up to $20,000,” he said. The infants recovered by the police include four boys and seven girls, but how and where the gang kidnapped them could not be ascertained. “The Maltese gang had hired four nurses to take care of the babies, who have been handed over to the Edhi Welfare Foundation,” Mr Leghari said. Dennis Chance, identified as the ringleader, had been arrested in Karachi two years ago. The matter was pending in court when he fled from Pakistan, only to return later to continue the business, a police source said. His other accomplices included his brother Derek Chance, mother Choice Marshal, local link Joseph Aziz and nurses Shazia, Nasreen, Parveen and Zeenat. The official said the gang had managed to get Pakistani passports for the infants so that the children could be taken abroad easily. When asked about links between the gang and other reports of missing infants, Mr Leghari said: “Offhand I cannot tell you (anything) in this respect. I will have to check.” He said the police were also investigating the gang’s past activities in Pakistan following reports that it has been in the business for a long time. Two years ago, a human rights activist had brought up the matter of infant smuggling by filing a suit in the court against Dennis Chance’s wife Kochita, who had then claimed she was working in an NGO established by them and taking the babies to Malta for desirous couples. She had pleaded at that time that the babies were found through Christian churches and that they were being taken to Malta for a better future.
IANS |
|
US Taliban man wants access to detainees
Washington, March 16 In court papers filed in Alexandria, Virginia, the defence lawyers also said yesterday there were two differing versions about what Lindh told US military interrogators in December. In one, they said, “Lindh was obviously disillusioned when he learned of the attacks on the World Trade Center and wanted to leave his Taliban unit, but could not do so for fear of death.’’ But the other later version omitted any reference to those statements, his lawyers said in arguing that they were entitled to the complete military reports summarising Lindh’s statements. They currently only have reports with deletions. The 21-year-old Californian’s lawyers also asked that the US Government reveal the identities of those in US custody in Cuba and elsewhere who have provided information about the allegations against him. Seeking information that helps Lindh, the lawyers said, “Mr Lindh cannot get a fair trial without information about and access to those witnesses.’’ About 300 Al-Qaida and Taliban prisoners, who were captured in Afghanistan, are being held at the base in Cuba.
Reuters |
|
USA tests missile interceptor Washington, March 16 Roaring into space from Kwajalein Atoll on Thursday, the interceptor released a “kill vehicle” that sought out and struck the target exactly 30 minutes after it was launched from the Vandenberg Air Force base in California, spokeswoman Cheryl Irwin said. It was the third consecutive intercept for the Pentagon’s ground-based midcourse missile defence system, formerly known as the National Missile Defence system. In six tries, it has hit its target four times. The latest test was almost identical to the previous three except that this time the “kill vehicle” had to distinguish the warhead from three balloon decoys, two more than in previous tests.
AFP |
|
Two arrested from
UN Karachi office Islamabad, March 16 The arrest came after one of the men, an Iranian seeking political asylum, came to the UN High Commissioner of Refugees Office in Islamabad with his wife, three children and a friend, the police said today.
AFP |
 |
| 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 | | 122 Years of Trust | Calendar | Weather | Archive | Subscribe | Suggestion | E-mail | |
Colombo, March 16
In video
