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Saturday,
April 13, 2002, Chandigarh, India  
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Powell
fails to move Sharon on pullout Pak EC
member quits over referendum Rare US
praise for LTTE NEWS ANALYSIS Latino
strongman Chavez forced to step down US
Congress praises Murli Deora |
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‘Spiderman’
caught in legal web
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Powell fails to move
Sharon on pullout
Jerusalem, April 12 “I hope we can find a way to come into agreement on this point of the duration of the operations and get back to a track that will lead to a political settlement,” said Powell, on a mission to stem 18 months of Israeli-Palestinian bloodshed. Israel maintained a tight grip on most of the West Bank’s important cities, defying U.S. and international pressure to halt the offensive it launched two weeks ago after Palestinian suicide attacks killed dozens of Israelis. “We do understand what terrorism is, and as we have responded to terrorism, we know that Israel has a right to respond to terrorism. The question is how do we get beyond just a response,” Powell said.
He said Israel and the Palestinians must eventually begin peace negotiations and noted there was a “mutual commitment to get to that point”. Speaking at a news conference after talks with Sharon, Powell warned Israel of what he called the long-term strategic consequences of the attacks that have killed at least 200 Palestinians and stoked regional and international anger. Sharon said at the news conference that Israel was conducting a war against “the Palestinian terrorist infrastructure” and repeated that he hoped to wind up the offensive soon. “There cannot be peace with terror,” he said. “The terror of suicide bombers is a danger to Israel and all of the free world.” Powell plans to see Palestinian President Yasser Arafat tomorrow. The Secretary of State is then expected to see Sharon again. A new opinion poll in Maariv newspaper showed 75 per cent of Israelis supported the offensive and that Sharon’s approval rating had soared to 59 per cent from 35 per cent since the operation began. Palestinians have charged Israel carried out a massacre in the Jenin refugee camp, scene of fierce house-to-house fighting this week that ended on Thursday with the surrender of a last group of about 40 gunmen. They urged Powell to go to Jenin to see for himself, but there was no immediate indication the Secretary of State would accept the offer. After what the Israeli media said was U.S. pressure on Sharon, Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Maher was allowed past an Israeli cordon and met Arafat in Ramallah today. Escorted by three Israeli military jeeps, he was the first Arab Foreign Minister to see Arafat since the Israeli offensive began. Egypt scaled back contacts with the Israeli government this month amid mounting frustration in the Arab world at Israel’s armoured thrusts into Palestinian cities, towns and villages. Peace hopes rest largely with the USA, which is the most influential player in the region and is also courting Arab support for any campaign it launches against Iraq in the global war on terror. Residents of the Jenin camp have recounted tales of mangled bodies left littering streets and alleyways, but the accounts have been impossible to verify independently because the army has declared the area off-limits to journalists. Earlier the army said it had killed at least 200 Palestinians, most of them militants, since launching its campaign on March 29. Palestinian Cabinet member Saeb Erekat had put the toll at 500 - though he gave no indication of what he based the estimate on. Israeli leaders are normally careful to avoid alienating the USA, which provides the Jewish state with $3 billion in annual aid, but Sharon has made a career of testing the limits of Washington’s tolerance. The White House, which wants Arafat to do more to rein in militants, urged Palestinians and Arab nations on Wednesday to “step up their responsibilities to denounce terrorism”. Meanwhile, reports from the territories said Israeli tanks had moved into West Bank towns of Bir Zeit and Daharyeh near Hebron, within hours after troops pulled back from 24 West Bank villages. An Israeli government spokesman said about 250 Palestinians were killed over the week in the West Bank town of Jenin in the fierce battles while Palestinians demanded an enquiry by the United Nations over the killings. Israeli army said it will bury the Palestinians killed in the Jenin refugee camp. The army also rounded up “thousands” of Palestinians in Jenin today, reports quoted the town’s mayor as saying. The Israeli army detained “thousands of men, between the age of 15 and 50,” Jenin Mayor Walid Abu Mweiss said.
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Pak EC member quits over referendum
Islamabad, April 12 Justice Tariq Mehmood, a member of the commission and also a judge of the Balochistan High Court, resigned as he was of the view that the Election Commission had no mandate to hold such a referendum, a report in local daily Dawn said today. Justice Mehmood resigned on April 6, the first working day after General Musharraf announced the referendum, it said. Officials in the commission, however, declined to comment on the report. In his resignation letter, Justice Mehmood noted that issuance of ballot papers for the referendum and the referendum order were unconstitutional and it was not the mandate of the Election Commission to conduct such an exercise, the daily said. Justice Mehmood’s stand on the constitutionality of the referendum virtually echoes that taken by Pakistan’s principle political and religious parties, which geared up for a massive showdown with the government on the issue. The five-member Election Commission was reconstituted a few months ago by General Musharraf. He appointed the controversial retired Justice of the Supreme Court, Justice Ershad Khan, as the Head of the commission. Justice Khan came under sharp criticism from political parties when the Supreme Court Bench headed by him conferred a limited legitimacy on General Musharraf’s military coup and granted him three years to hand over power to an elected government. Meanwhile, another former Chief Justice of Pakistan, Mr Sajjad Ali Shah, has termed the presidential referendum as “unconstitutional”. General Musharraf’s address at a public meeting at Lahore in military uniform on Tuesday was a violation of the discipline of the armed forces, Justice Shah told Radio Teheran. “The army is a professional national institution,” Justice Shah said, adding that rules did not permit “men in uniform” to indulge in politics and address rallies. He said it was unfortunate that Pakistani army Generals had been playing political roles. PTI Muhammad Najeeb (IANS) adds: Meanwhile, Pakistan’s military regime has said political parties will be allowed to organise rallies against President Pervez Musharraf’s plan to hold a referendum, but only after prior approval. “No meeting would be allowed in cities where the president is already scheduled to hold public meetings for the referendum campaign,” Interior Minister Moinuddin Haider said here. He said this was being done to avoid clashes between different groups. General Musharraf is scheduled to hold public rallies almost daily in different cities to muster support for a referendum on April 30 that will let him to continue as President for five more years. Major political and religious parties, including the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP), the Pakistan Muslim
League-Nawaz Sharif (PML-N) and the Jamaat-e-Islami, have vowed to hold rallies against the referendum. The minister said an alliance of religious parties, the Mutahida Majlis-e-Amal
(MMA), had already been permitted to organise a rally in Lahore on April 15. |
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Rare US praise for LTTE Colombo, April 12 A U.S. embassy statement had rare praise for rebel leader Velupillai Prabhakaran whose group has been on Washington’s list of foreign terrorist organisations since 1997. “We are encouraged by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam’s willingness to work within a political process and to renounce violence,” the statement said. On Wednesday, Prabhakaran addressed his first news conference in more than a decade and suggested he would be willing to give up demand for a separate Tamil state in Sri Lanka’s north and east in return for political concessions. “A political solution to the conflict which maintains Sri Lanka’s territorial integrity would be welcomed by the international community,” the statement said. The United States of America has tightened the screws on the rebels to push them towards a peace deal to end nearly two decades of fighting in which nearly 64,000 people have died. Last month, Washington warned the guerrillas against reneging on a Norwegian-brokered truce designed to pave the way to the first peace talks in seven years. A week later, a senior US diplomat joined Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe on tour of the northern war-zone in a clear signal of support for a government that has staked prestige on the peace bid. The two sides will meet in Thailand next month to start negotiating an end to one of the world’s longest-running conflicts.
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NEWS ANALYSIS IT is still unclear as to why the dreaded chief of the Tamil Tigers, Velupillai Prabhakaran, suddenly decided to go public and presented a change of image. Gone were the bushy hair, fearsome moustaches, unpressed army fatigues. They were replaced by a smooth, clean shaven cheeks and a blue safari suit. Prabhakaran saw himself as a diplomat representing the interests of the Tamils in Sri Lanka. Emerging in public after nearly 15 years, during which he gained the reputation of being the leader of the most ferocious terrorist group in the world, Prabhakaran, was taking advantage of the ceasefire agreed upon between himself and the Sri Lankan Government. There was also a debate on how the LTTE leader ordered the ceasefire and emerged from the hide-outs. What caused his change of mind? Was he running out of options? Was the LTTE suffering from battle fatigue? Did the united, international onslaught against global terrorism upset his plans? The US Government banned the LTTE, the British ordered its representatives to quit London from where they were carrying out a propaganda war and arms must have been hard to come by. Further, there could have been a sense of disillusionment among the LTTE cadres. A close reading of the media reports on the LTTE chief’s press conference makes one wonder if anything at all had changed. The old bluster was there, so were the old demands. Prabhakaran demanded the lifting of the ban on his organisation, called for a more active role by India and asserted that his demand for a separate Tamil state would not be diluted. Though his leadership within the LTTE continued to be unchallenged, one must speculate if his views were those of all Tamil citizens of Sri Lanka. Diehard fanatics often assumed they were speaking for an entire community or a group. Prabhakaran’s bravado, might, after all, be a facade. After emerging from a 15-year long absence, he should not be seen as a defeated weakling ready to end his crusade in view of the international outrage against global terrorism. Brought to the negotiating table to talk facts with the government, there is every possibility of the LTTE chief toning down his rhetoric and tall claims. He knew that the LTTE, though not a toothless tiger, had not been able to keep up its momentum in the war against the government. Recruits were hard to come by, arms merchants were more careful in their dealings and the environment, since September 11, 2001, had chanted dramatically against men who fought shadowy wars. Perhaps, that was the reason why Prabhakaran did not spurn the forthcoming Thailand talks with the Sri Lankan Government on the issue of interim administration of the Tamil-majority northern provinces. Did the term ‘interim administration’ meant only autonomy or something more than that? Successive Sri Lankan Governments had promised autonomy to the LTTE-run governments in the Tamil majority regions, but so far there have been no takers. Further, the LTTE chief talked of ‘right conditions’ for his organisation to drop its demand for ‘Eelam’ but would not explain on what these were. He must also make it clear in the days to come the exact position of the LTTE among the Tamil groups. Will the LTTE be the only group entitled to negotiate with the government? Will such an arrangement be agreeable to the others? India should not be unduly flattered at Prabhakaran’s soft references to its role. We have had enough bitter experiences with the LTTE people and would not easily forget the mangled bodies or Rajiv Gandhi and others who were killed by the suicide bomber deputed by the terrorist group. The Vajpayee government will definitely face pressures from its southern allies. It should not allow itself to be swayed by the excessive zeal of men like Vaiko to sit down and sup with the LTTE devils. Our attitude should be to wait and watch and allow the Sri Lankan Government to push towards a negotiated settlement with the Tigers. If the Tiger had really changed its stripes and ready to give up its violent methods, India, could play a role in the island. Commonsense, not sentiment, should guide our approach. |
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Latino strongman Chavez forced to step down
Caracas (Venezuela), April 12 The dramatic events in the world’s fourth biggest oil exporter sent shock waves through oil and debt markets and ended the turbulent three-year rule of one of the most colorful and controversial leaders on the international scene. “The country is entering a new stage,” said Pedro Carmona, the president of Venezuela’s leading business association Fedecamaras, who was named to head a transition government to lead the country to new elections. He pledged to maintain a democratic, pluralist system and the rule of law. Chavez, a 47-year-old firebrand former paratrooper, resigned early today under pressure from senior armed forces officers who had lost patience with his confrontational leadership style and left-wing populist politics. The final straw was the killing yesterday by suspected pro-Chavez gunmen of at least 10 people in violence which erupted during a huge protest march in downtown Caracas calling for the resignation of the president. The final toll was expected to rise as bodies were still being picked up from the streets of Caracas overnight, officials said. Chavez was placed in military custody to await possible trial and senior officers from all branches of the military — army, navy, air force and national guard — announced the formation of a transition government led by Carmona. “We are going to start the process of transition straight away today,” Gen. Luis Camacho Kairuz, who had served as Vice-Minister for Security under Chavez, said. “The entire country is under the control of the national armed forces,’’ National Guard Gen. Alberto Camacho Kairuz said. “The government has abandoned its functions.’’ Near Caracas’ La Carlota airport, a group of demonstrators waving national flags turned out to celebrate the apparent end of Mr Chavez’s three-year rule.
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US Congress
praises Murli Deora IN an unusual gesture reflecting the warm US-India relations, two leading lawmakers in the US Congress have hailed the election of Mr Murli Deora to the Rajya Sabha. Mr Deora, who won the seat in the Upper House for the Congress, came for a special mention in the House of Representatives earlier this week when the immediate past co-chairman and the current co-chairman of the congressional caucus on India and Indian Americans, praised his services in building better relations between Washington and New Delhi. In separate statements, both of which were entered into the Congressional record, Gary Ackerman, who was awarded the Padma Bhushan by the Government of India this year, and Jim McDermott, both Democrats, warmly acknowledged Mr Deora’s role in the two nations’ friendly ties. |
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‘Spiderman’ caught in legal web New York April 12 In a lawsuit filed in a Manhattan federal court, the owners of 2 Times Square allege that Columbia Pictures digitally replaced a Samsung advertisement on the side of the building with that of USA Today. The sign appears three times in the film, according to court papers. Samsung is a competitor of Sony, which owns Columbia Pictures.
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