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Saturday,
May 11, 2002, Chandigarh, India   |
Hurriyat torpedoes ISI gameplan |
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WINDOW ON PAKISTAN Deuba rejects Maoists’
ceasefire offer
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Bethlehem church siege ends
Bethlehem (West Bank), May 10 The first to leave the church were 13 militants on Israel’s most-wanted list. One by one they boarded a bus taking them to Israel’s Ben-Gurion airport from where a British military aircraft is due to fly them to Cyprus, the first stop in their exile. The agreement reached overnight after days of intense negotiations and numerous false starts called for the 13 militants to be flown to Cyprus and later transferred to third countries. A British military aircraft left Cyprus at 10 am (IST) to collect the men. Another 26 Palestinian men who had been holed up inside the church were to be sent to the Gaza Strip, while more than 100 clerics, foreign peace activists and Palestinian security men who had remained inside would be set free. The deal appeared to pave the way for Israeli forces to withdraw from Bethlehem, the last city still occupied after a sweeping month-long offensive across the West Bank. As the sun rose over Bethlehem, the men began walking one by one out of the church’s main door and passed through metal detectors under the guns of Israeli soldiers before boarding waiting buses. Palestinian women relatives of the militants stood on nearby rooftops calling out the men’s names. Some were wailing and others shouted abuses at Israeli soldiers. One militant was carried out on a stretcher. Another knelt down and kissed the ancient stones outside the church, built on the spot revered by Christians as birthplace of Jesus. “All these 13 had blood on their hands,’’ Israeli Government spokesman Raanan Gissin told CNN. “I think it is only a just solution to a very complicated situation. Israel had said some of those inside were hostages. The Palestinians said all were there of their own accord. The breakthrough in the deal-making to end the siege of the Church of the Nativity suddenly emerged with the plan to take the militants first to Cyprus where diplomats said the Palestinians would be put up under guard at a hotel. European diplomatic sources said Italy, Spain and other countries were willing to take some of the militants, who are wanted by Israel for alleged complicity in suicide attacks that have killed scores of Israelis during a 19-month-old Palestinain uprising. EU diplomats said the final destinations of the 13 gunmen, who sought refuge in the church when Israeli forces swept into Bethlehem on April 2, might be finalised only when EU Foreign Ministers hold a regular meeting in Brussels on Monday. An initial deal was reached on Tuesday but it fell through after Rome complained it was kept in the dark about plans to transfer the 13 to Italy. Meanwhile, Israel called up reservists and Palestinians in the Gaza Strip steeled themselves for possible attack after the Israeli Government gave the army the go-ahead to hit back for a suicide bombing that killed 15 persons near Tel Aviv on Tuesday.
Reuters, AFP |
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Hurriyat torpedoes ISI gameplan Dubai, May 10 General Haq, along with Brigadier Abdullah, who is looking after the Kashmir affairs in the ISI, made desperate attempts to convince Kashmiri leaders, including Hurriyat representatives, to scuttle the political and electoral process in the state, sources close to
participates at the Sharjah meeting said. The Sharjah meeting on April 16-17 was attended by Sardar Abdul Qayoom Khan, Chairman of the Kashmir Council in Pakistan, Hurriyat leaders Mirwaiz Omar Farooq and Abdul Ghani Lone, London-based Chairman of Council of Human Rights Syed Nazir Gilani, Ghulam Nabi Fai of the Kashmir American Council and Mushtaq Geelani of the Kashmir Canadian Council. During the two-day deliberations, moderate Hurriyat leaders pleaded for a dialogue process to resolve the Kashmir issue stating that the international situation had changed after September 11 terrorist attacks on the USA. Both — Mizwaiz Omar Farooq and Abdul Ghani Lone, while favouring a dialogue, made it clear that there was no scope for violence in the changed circumstances. Sensing growing support for the peace process, General Haq and Brigadier Abdullah promised substantial financial support to the moderates if they derailed the political process. They advised Mr Lone and the Mirwaiz not to split the Hurriyat, a conglommeration of 23 parties, at this juncture.
UNI |
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WINDOW ON PAKISTAN Gen. Pervez Musharraf might be gloating over his sham victory in a fake referendum that installed him as President of Pakistan for five years, but Islamic fundamentalists and their terrorist front organisations are calling the shots. Intriguingly, these have been created by Pakistan’s intelligence net work. The human car bomb that claimed the life of 12 French technicians, four Pakistanis and injured 26 others on Wednesday in Karachi, is not an isolated case. There was a bomb blast in a church in March, killing half a dozen people. The day Karachi blast took place, two policemen were gunned down in Rawalpinidi. Earlier on Tuesday, Lahore witnessed the gory killing of Dr Ghulam Mustafa Malik, a religious leader. This drew loud protests from all quarters. In fact, sectarian killings since October 1999, when Musharraf took over the command of the country in a bloodless coup, have been on the rise. At least 85 doctors belonging to one Muslim sect have fallen to the guns of the rival Muslim faction. The political, military and police authorities who would have loved to blame the Indian intelligence agency, RAW, developed cold feet for two reasons. One, the blast as the Nation argued by a human bomb in the fashion of Palestinians in West Asia and unlike earlier time bombs or the ones thrown from moving vehicles. Second, it targeted the French nationals. How would the French, the Americans and others believe an unestablished fact? The intelligence agencies of these two countries and their governments have pointed out their fingers towards Al Quaida. The Nation, in its editorial (May 9), took a more humane and realistic line. It said, “Its multiple implications are far-reaching and dangerous. The delay that this will cause in the project the Frenchmen were working on, the Agosta submarine assembly at the Karachi Dockyard, is the least of the problems that arise. The immediate fallout includes the crashing of the stock markets as soon as they opened, and the cancellation of the rest of the New Zealand cricket tour of Pakistan. This is also a major blow to the slow improvement in the country’s international investment image. Apart from the memories of the event, the kind of security measures that will be put in place will act as a constant reminder to foreign visitors. Certainly, the consequences are such that they fit in with well-known Indian designs against Pakistan’s prosperity and security. The most pressing problem is whether Pakistanis, no matter how few in number, are now desperate enough to sacrifice their lives for their objectives. If so, that means the security apparatus, already under pressure from a rising tide of high-profile incidents, may find its task becoming more difficult.” The Nation boldly suggested, “Just as much as Israel must realise that only genuine policy changes can reduce the perpetration of such acts, the Pakistan government must also review how its policies might be provoking such a reaction. Its wholehearted support of the USA should not seem a wholesale surrender of sovereignty. The limits of its cooperation with the USA have been stretched beyond recognition, and the USA has had demands accepted which Islamabad could not have imagined acceding to before September 11. There has to be a reining in of the US’ free run in Pakistan, and certain limits must be re-established. Hopefully it is not too late, that there are no more suicide bombers waiting out there,” the Nation urged the policy makers. A similar position was taken by Dawn. Meanwhile, following the example of the USA and Canada, the European countries are likely to declare Pakistan a non-family station after the Karachi incident. Following the killing of American reporter Daniel Pearl and the church bombing in high security diplomatic enclave, the diplomatic community living in the federal capital has serious reservations about the security situation in Pakistan. “I would call it alarming,” a European diplomat told The Nation while commenting on the suicide bombing. “The suicide bombing is un-characteristic of Pakistan,” the diplomat said adding, “We will have to be prepared for it.” Soon after the church bombing, the USA, the UK and Canada had allowed their diplomats’ families to leave Pakistan. In a Travel Warning, the US State Department issued an alert to Americans and ordered the departure of all non-emergency personnel and family members of the US Embassy and consulates in Pakistan. The Pakistani political and military establishment that has been rejoicing after bogging down India in Kashmir can now see that the chickens have come home to roost. |
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Deuba rejects Maoists’ ceasefire offer United Nations, May 10 “If they want to prove themselves — that they are sincere for a peaceful solution — they have to renounce violence and lay down their arms,” Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba said in an interview yesterday. Otherwise, he said, the military campaign against the rebels would continue. A signed statement by the rebel commander, Pushpa Kamal Dahal, known as Prachant, was faxed to news media and government offices yesterday, saying that a ceasefire could begin next Wednesday, but that the government must reciprocate. Mr Deuba said that he initiated a dialogue with the Maoists when he became Prime Minister but after three rounds of talks, they started a boycott and attacked many army barracks and the police headquarters and looted many banks. During previous ceasefires, he said: “They have been able to regroup their cadres and rank and file, and they’ve been able to strengthen their position to attack. Therefore, I can’t trust them any more. By announcing a ceasefire, they may regroup again so that they might attack again.” He accused the Maoists of using “terror tactics” to try to destroy Nepal’s democracy and said they were financed by “international terrorist organisations” that want to take over the Himalayan Kingdom.
AP |
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Elizabeth
joins a street party in London to celebrate her 50th year
on throne.
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