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Friday,
May 17, 2002, Chandigarh, India  
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Benazir turns down Pervez’s peace offer Pak cautions USA on operations Musharraf admits to irregularities in referendum
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Palestinian security official shot
Lifting of ban on Tigers sought Maoists bomb minister’s country houses No to Carter plea on Cuba trade embargo Governor Arnold
Schwarzenegger?
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Benazir turns down Pervez’s peace offer Islamabad, May 16 Pakistan Ambassador to the UAE held two brief meetings with Ms Bhutto, who is currently in Dubai, on May 12 and 13 and conveyed an important “conciliatory” message from the government, local paper Daily Times reported today. It quoted sources as saying that a General, two serving diplomats and a former diplomat were preparing the groundwork for a dialogue between the government and the Bhutto-led Pakistan People’s Party (PPP). A PPP spokesman today said a government representative had approached party leaders after the recently-held referendum for a rapproachement. However, the party leadership turned down the offer as the military regime continued to insist that Ms Bhutto should stay away from contesting the October poll, which was not acceptable, spokesman Faratullah Babar said here. Ms Babar said a party representative was contacted to renew the old offer that Ms Bhutto should unilaterally step aside from contesting the forthcoming elections and turn her involuntary exile into a voluntary one. “Evidently, this offer is neither new nor conciliatory,” he said. Meanwhile, Ms Bhutto, who is on a self-imposed exile abroad, is all set to return to the country in the last week of August. The Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) chief will land at the Lahore airport during the last week of August, The Nation said today. ‘’The two-day PPP informal meeting in Dubai had discussed different dates for Ms Bhutto’s return. And there was a consensus that she should come back during the last week of August, when the election campaign may be kicked off,’’ the newspaper, quoting party leaders, said.
PTI, UNI |
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Pak cautions USA on operations Islamabad, May 16 “There is no need to take unnecessary risks by sending foreign troops there as it can provoke the tribal people and will be taken negatively,” The News, quoting sources, said today. It said Islamabad had assured Washington of use of local law enforcement agencies there if the situation demanded. The sources, closely working on a fresh US initiative in its war against terrorism, told the newspaper that the message had been conveyed to visiting US Assistant Secretary of State for South Asia Christina Rocca. They said the government had made it clear to Ms Rocca that Pakistan was ready to extend every possible cooperation in the war against terrorism as it was doing since September 11. But, the tribal situation was different as the people could seriously react against the presence of foreign forces, they added. The sources said the American authorities were pushing Pakistan to accept the logic behind the land and air operation by the US forces there. However, the government was not ready to accept the “tough demand” keeping in view the local volatile situation since the tribal people had threatened to wage a war if attacked.
UNI |
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Musharraf admits to irregularities in referendum Islamabad, May 16 “Although, I do admit that there might be some truth behind the reports of irregularities in the presidential referendum but even if they had not been done, I might have won the election with a thumping majority,” he said. “My inner self is quite satisfied over the outcome of the referendum as I had not ordered such irregularities to be committed,” President Musharraf said. Trying to play down the large-scale irregularities widely reported in national and international media, the military ruler justified the referendum saying it was to continue his reform programmes, The News daily reported.
PTI |
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Palestinian security official shot Ramallah, May 16 Mohammed Ghanam, a member of the national security service, was shot dead outside a building in the south of the town when eight tanks and armoured personnel carriers moved into a Palestinian-run area, the officials said. Three members of Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat’s Force 17 elite guards unit were also arrested when Israeli forces stormed the building. At the same time, three Israeli tanks and a number of troop carriers also moved several hundred metres into the north of the town before pulling back, and without opening fire. The forces in the south also withdrew after the raid, with witnesses reporting an explosion inside the raided building, which was a civilian structure. The operation was the first raid on Ramallah since Israel ended its month-long siege of Mr Arafat’s headquarters on May 2. JERUSALEM: The Israeli army blew up a sophisticated tunnel dug out by Palestinians to smuggle weapons and people between Egypt and the Gaza Strip. A pool reporter for the Foreign Press Association (FPA), who visited the site with the army, said soldiers placed explosives inside the shaft and blew the tunnel up shortly after showing it to journalists on Wednesday. The reporter said the tunnel entrance was hidden in the shower room of a single storeyed four-room house, about 100 metres from the border with Egypt. The house appeared to have been deserted by its inhabitants before the discovery. AFP, Reuters |
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Lifting of ban on Tigers sought Colombo, May 16 “The LTTE has made it clear that it will not come for talks unless the ban is lifted. This is a very reasonable request, as it is going to speak on behalf of the Tamils as their sole representative,” TULF president M. Sivasithamparam said in a statement here. The London-based Tamil Guardian newspaper accused Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe of “dithering” on the LTTE’s key demand to be legally rehabilitated by removal of the four-year ban on it in Sri Lanka. Further, it said there was a new stridency in the military’s attitude towards their 10-week-old ceasefire as restrictions on civilian movements, aerial surveillance and armed encounters at sea had taken place in recent days. The LTTE had also noted that political opposition to peace initiatives seemed to retard the peace process. Peace proponents also agree with the view that the tussle between the government and President Chandrika Kumaratunga’s People’s Alliance remains a major impediment to peace. “The inability or unwillingness of the government to get the opposition on board the peace process is a major contributor to the rise in anti-peace propaganda”, said the National Peace Council. The Sri Lanka Muslim Congress, the main Muslim party, is also worried about the adverse fallout of any major confrontation between the President and the Prime Minister and wants them to make peace. SLMC leader and Cabinet Minister Rauff Hakeem met the Prime Minister on Tuesday to express his reservations over the government’s intention to bring in a Constitution amendment to trim the President’s enormous powers, especially to prorogue and dissolve
Parliament. PTI |
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Maoists bomb minister’s country houses Kathmandu, May 16 The Leftist guerrillas attacked the houses on Tuesday night in Dang district, completely destroying one and damaging the other. The rebels also set fire to nearby government vehicles. No one was injured and Mr Khadka was in the capital Kathmandu at the time. The Maoists had already damaged one of Mr Khadka’s houses at Satbariya on April 11 when they mounted a massive assault on police posts in Dang district that left at least 164 persons dead. The Maoists on April 24 also torched the country home of Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba in western Nepal. He was also in Kathmandu at the time. More than 4,000 persons have been killed since the Maoists launched their “people’s war” in 1996 to topple the constitutional monarchy.
AFP |
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No to Carter plea on Cuba trade embargo
Washington, May 16 “The President (Mr George W. Bush) believes the trade embargo is a vital part of America’s foreign policy and human rights policy towards Cuba because trade with Cuba does not benefit the people of Cuba — it is used to prop up a repressive regime,” White House spokesman Ari Fleischer said yesterday. “Cuba is the last tyrant left on earth — let me emphasise that. And that is the problem with these typical devices that do help improve relations with other nations, that wouldn’t work with a nation like Cuba because of the repressive nature of the regime,” he told reporters. Asked about Washington’s trade ties with China despite its concerns over the Communist nation’s rights record, he said China had a totally different system, with different economic values.
PTI |
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Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger? Hollywood, May 16 The Austrian-born star admittedly has political ambitions, and the California electorate has been kindly disposed towards actors running for public office in the past. What further proof is required than the election of Ronald Reagan to the Governor’s mansion in Sacramento and thereafter Reagan’s election to the presidency of the USA. Not once, but twice. Reagan, still revered in California — and in much of the rest of the country — was not anywhere near as big a movie star as Arnold. But Reagan, a victim of Alzheimer’s disease and living quietly in Bel Air, was an all-American type. He is wholesome, home-bred American from Illinois. Arnold, on the other hand, is foreign-born with a Teutonic accent you could cut with a bayonet. There is something homespun and folksy about this star of action pictures that he shares with the former President. If not homespun, then he has a trustworthy aura uncommon to most slick office-seekers in every culture around the planet. Arnold is not as polished and smooth as the late actor George Murphy, who served with distinction in the US Senate in the ’60s, but he is considerably more dynamic. In addition to being a performer, Arnold shares the same political philosophy with Reagan and Murphy. He is a Republican. But that is not necessarily a good thing. Voter registration in California is almost a 2-1 Democratic. However, Arnold is unfazed by overwhelming odds. He arrived in this country in 1968, a muscle-bound body-builder from Austria speaking broken English and with a vague desire to become a Hollywood actor some day.
UPI |
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Hollywood, May 16
