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Thursday,
April 25, 2002, Chandigarh, India  
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No provision for referendum: SC Judge
No changes in Jenin panel,
Annan tells Sharon
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Arafat backers near HQ fired at
Nepal PM’s country house burnt down Opposition to lifting LTTE ban mounts UK court annuls
forced Pak marriage Surrender land, Indians told Another
Al-Qaida man held
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No provision for referendum: SC Judge
Islamabad, April 24 “Prima facie the referendum order has no mention in the constitution,” Mr Justice Munir A. Shaikh, one of the judges on the nine-member Bench, said while hearing the arguments of the petitioners yesterday. Mr Justice Shaikh made the significant observation while hearing identical petitions praying to prevent General Musharraf from holding referendum to get elected as President. Meanwhile, the Jamat-e-Islami filed another petition questioning the legitimacy of the presidency of General Musharraf. During the course of the arguments yesterday, Mr Justice Shaikh said, “We had given him (Musharraf) the permission of (only) Chief Executive”, ‘The Nation’ daily reported. The daily ‘Dawn’ quoted one of the lawyers engaged by General Musharraf to defend the referendum as saying that the government has committed to pay Rs 4 million as the fees for defence team. Meanwhile, lawyers throughout Pakistan will go on strike tomorrow to protest against the holding of the referendum. The call for the strike was given by the Supreme Court Bar Association and four other provincial High Court Bar Associations. The lawyers have declared that the proposed referendum would be illegal and unconstitutional and have urged the President to call it off. The High Court Bar Association of Rawalpindi yesterday cancelled the membership of five prominent lawyers who attended a meeting with President Pervez Musharraf and extended support to the referendum. The District Bar Association, in its emergency meeting there yesterday, also removed its president from the basic membership of the association for acting against the interest of the lawyer-community. Meanwhile, preparations by the Election Commission for holding the referendum have been completed. The government has decided not to declare April 30 a holiday. Only schools will be closed while the colleges will function as usual. Political parties opposing the referendum are preparing to hold a protest public meeting in Lahore on April 27 at the Minar-e-Pakistan. The permission to hold the public meeting was given by President Musharraf. However, till last night the Governor of Punjab insisted that the administration had not received the application for the permission but the Jamaat-i-Islami leaders in Lahore said a formal request had already been made in this regard. PTI, UNI
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No changes in Jenin panel, Annan tells Sharon
United Nations, April 24 Diplomats yesterday said the USA and UN officials both were surprised by the Israeli demand as they had thought that Israel would not object to the composition of the team after agreeing to admit a fact-finding team headed by former Finnish President Martti Ahtisaari. Israeli Ambassador Yehuda Lancry told Mr Annan that Tel Aviv wanted more military and counter-terrorism experts on the three-member team and an investigation of Palestinian terrorist activities in the refugee camp. While agreeing to delay the departure, Mr Annan’s office said he expected the team to be in West Asia by Saturday. Israel, which had earlier agreed to the mission, said it would not allow the panel unless the team included military as well as counter-terrorism experts. Mr Annan said the team could be expanded if necessary, but refused to substantially change its composition. Diplomats say Israel wants to renegotiate terms of the mission and objects to Mr Cornelio Sommaruga, former President of the International Committee of Red Cross, being on the team. Meanwhile, concerned over the detonation of explosives in a prison close to Mr Arafat’s Ramallah headquarters, the Security Council, at an emergency meeting, told Israel that “there must be no harm to him”. Amnesty International has expressed dismay at Isreal’s reversal of the decision to cooperate with the UN team. “Given that the government has stated that it has nothing to hide, Amnesty International calls on the Israeli Government to permit the UN fact-finding team to undertake its vital task as planned without delay,” a statement said. A spokesman for a group of 19 Euro MPs visiting the West Bank said that the Israeli Army’s assault on the Jenin refugee camp “shows all signs of a war crime.” Mr Francis Wurtz, who heads a delegation from nine parliamentary blocs representing 10 European Union (EU) countries, said the situation was “totally intolerable.” He said: “I believe that Sharon is a great misfortune for the Palestinian people and the Israeli people. He promised peace and security and he has led to war and insecurity.” Another member of the group, Swedish MEP Per Gahrton, described the camp, devastated during a nine-day battle earlier this month, as “ground zero; there is nothing left.” The delegation condemned the “systematic destruction” of the infrastructure in occupied Palestinian territories, “the humanitarian tragedy” and the gravity of the situation in the region, calling for a peacekeeping force. RABAT: The creation of a Palestinian state is the only solution to the West Asia crisis, US President George W. Bush told Morocco’s King Mohammed VI during talks in Washington. “We must work to bring this about as soon as possible,” he said. PTI, AFP
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Arafat backers near HQ fired at
Ramallah (West Bank), April 24 It was the first Palestinian rally in Arafat’s support here since the army withdrew from most of the city on Sunday after a three-week reoccupation. The protesters, waving flags and photographs of Arafat, marched from the city centre to a barricade 500 metres (yards) short of the Palestinian leader’s battered compound. Within seconds, Israeli troops behind another barrier of earth and tank-crushed cars 50 metres up the road fired shots and lobbed stun grenades towards the crowd. Youths planted Palestinian flags on the barricade, drawing more gunfire, and threw stones which fell short of the soldiers. Israel first encircled Arafat’s compound saying he was an enemy who should be isolated. It later vowed to keep up the siege until the Palestinians hand over wanted militants inside. Later, European Union foreign policy chief Javier Solana began talks with Yasser Arafat at the Palestinian leader’s besieged headquarters. On arrival at Israel’s Ben-Gurion airport earlier, Solana told reporters he would try to help resolve Israeli siege around Arafat’s headquarters and at Bethlehem’s Church of the Nativity. Israel gave the go-ahead for Solana to visit the Palestinian President after denying him access earlier this month. But it banned Arafat aides outside the compound from attending the meeting. Reuters
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Nepal PM’s country house burnt down
Kathmandu, April 24 A group of rebels surrounded the house late yesterday and ordered the housekeeper to leave before torching the residence at Assigram, 490 km west of Kathmandu, said Narendra Raj Sharma, Chief Administrator of Dadel Dhura district. “We have sent a team to assess the damage,” Mr Sharma told AFP by the telephone. The attack came on the first day of a nationwide strike called by the Maoists, who have been fighting since 1996 to topple the constitutional monarchy. Some 3,100 persons have died in the insurgency, more than a third of them since the Maoists broke off talks in November. Meanwhile, after five months of emergency, Nepal has declared an all-out war against Maoists rebels by announcing huge cash rewards on the heads of top Guerrilla leaders, virtually ruling out any peace talks with them. Taking a tough stand against the terror unleashed by Maoist rebels for the past seven years, the government announced rewards of Nepal Rs 5 million each on the heads of top three Maoist leaders. The Home Ministry announced on Tuesday that the government had given top priority to capture dead or alive Baburam Bhattarai, Pushpa Kamal Dahal, alias Comrade Prachanda and Mohan Vaidya, alias Kiran. Similar price tags have been announced for the arrest of Bahadur Bogati, Nanda Kishor Pun, Krishna Bahadur Mahara and C.P. Gajurel — known to be members of the politburo of the Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist). Cash awards have also been announced for those giving clues on the seizure of weapons looted by Maoists from the security forces. AFP, IANS
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Opposition to lifting LTTE ban mounts Colombo, April 24 The People’s Alliance, led by President Chandrika Kumaratunga, has come out against the de-proscription of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) just as Norway said that peace moves in the country were making amazing progress. Besides the People’s Alliance, Marxist-oriented Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) and the influential Buddhist clergy are pressuring Ms Kumaratunga’s key foe, Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe, not to lift the ban on the LTTE. Ms Kumaratunga’s brother, Anura Bandaranaike, appeared yesterday on a JVP platform to decry the proposed lifting of the ban on Tamil rebels imposed in 1998 after a devastating attack on the island’s holiest Buddhist shrine, Temple of the Tooth. Thousands of monks joined the protest, which Ms Bandaranaike described as a show of unity of patriotic forces. Norway is goading the Sri Lankan government of Mr Wickremesinghe and the LTTE, which is fighting to secede the north and east of the island, to go for talks to end a dragging separatist war. Oslo’s Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Vidar Helgesen said last week that Sri Lanka’s three-year-old bid to bring Colombo and the LTTE together had gathered momentum in the recent months, and was, perhaps, “even moving too fast”. The protesters also slammed LTTE chief Velupillai Prabhakaran for seeking an interim body to govern the sprawling north and east of the island, the region the rebels want to carve out of Sri Lanka to form a separate state. Warned Opposition leader Mahinda Rajapakse last week: “If the government is going to lift the proscription, they should remember it will hurt the feelings of the Sinhala Buddhists in the country.” “It would be very unwise to dismiss those who raise grievances and suspicions of the majority Sinhalese as being the voices of extremism, while blindly appeasing the Tiger,” said the Daily Mirror in an editorial. The newspaper pointed out that the LTTE was continuing to receive arms shipments, despite the Scandinavian-monitored truce. “Prabhakaran is demanding so much in advance and if we are to do everything in good faith, then what is there to be given when it comes to actual negotiations?,” asked the newspaper.
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UK court annuls forced Pak marriage
London, April 24 At the Sessions Court in Edinburgh yesterday, Lord McEwan ruled that he was “heartily sorry” for the young couple, who, he said, were both dominated by their parents. Earlier Aneeka Sohrab (19) had argued that the wedding ceremony she went through as a 16-year-old schoolgirl was held under duress and should not be allowed to stand. Agreeing with her, Lord McEwan said the failed marriage was a case of ancient Eastern cultural and religious ethics clashing “with the spirit of 21st century children”. Sohrab — described by the judge as “basically Glaswegian” — had only been to Pakistan once — at the age of four — while her husband, Raja Sulman Khan, then a 19-year-old student, arrived in Britain three months before marriage. Though the marriage was solemnised in December 1998, Sohrab left her marital home in April 1999 and did not meet her husband again until they appeared in court. She has a job and is living with her family. In seeking an order of nullity, Sohrab said her parents met those of Khan weeks before the marriage and agreed on the wedding. She said she was told about it only a week in advance and refused to go through with it. She added that she came under pressure and was told she would disgrace her family and would have to be sent to Pakistan. Khan, who contested the action, claimed that she was willing and happy to go through with the marriage. PTI
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Surrender land, Indians told
Harare, April 24 The Indians have also been ordered to stop all illegal dealings in foreign exchange, reduce exhorbitant rentals, bank their money in local banks and improve working conditions of their workers. News agency Xinhua quoted the government-owned Herald as saying today that war veterans’ leader Andrew Ndlovu has declared, “In 1980, when most Whites left the country, Indians had money to buy nearly all developed land in cities. We now want these Indians to surrender a certain per cent of that land to the government.’’ “If they do not stop looting our economy they will leave us with no choice but to go door-to-door making sure all Indians in the cities are complying with instructions from war veterans,’’ he warned. “They were privileged because of the liberation struggle we fought,’’ he added. UNI
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Another Al-Qaida man held
Madrid, April 24 The suspect, whose name was given as Mohammed Galeb Kalaje Zouaydi, is a Syrian with a Spanish passport, the Interior Ministry said last evening in Madrid. Since October, the Spanish police has detained 21 Al-Qaida suspects. Zouaydi, alias “Abu Talha’’, reportedly had contacts with the suicide hijacker during the time Atta — one of the suicide pilots in the U.S. attack — lived in Germany. DPA
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US advisers to join
Pak troops in raids New York, April 24
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