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Thursday,
June 20, 2002, Chandigarh, India  
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USA tells
Pak to shut ultras’ camps Israeli
forces enter West Bank towns
India,
China fail to exchange LAC maps Nine
Maoists killed in Nepal Work on
Sikh museum starts |
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USA tells Pak to shut ultras’ camps
Washington, June 19 "Pakistan has to stop infiltration across the LoC. It means closing down terrorist camps", the State Department Director of Policy Planning, Mr Richard Haass, yesterday said at a joint meeting of the Indo-US Parliamentary Forum, the FICCI and the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. The meeting was attended by the founder of the India Caucus, Mr Frank Pallone, the chairman of the forum Mr Kapil Sibal, members of the Parliament, Mr Rajeev Shukla, Mr Praful Patel, Mr N.J. Panda and Senior Vice-President of FICCI, A.C. Muthiah. "The State Department will continue to support a dialogue between India and Pakistan and lend its good offices for defusing this crisis" Mr Haass said. Answering critics who said cross-border terrorism continued for several months from Pakistan even after General Musharraf’s famous address, Mr Haass said: "I understand there is a difference between words and actions. Many of those things have not yet been translated or not been fully translated into action". "But it still was a major step in the right direction," he added. "He (General Musharraf) has committed himself to ending terrorism across the LoC and removing the terrorist camps. We are seeing significant progress," he said. "One can harp on imperfections on what has not been said and done", Mr Haass said, adding that: "It is also important to recognise where progress has been made and positive things are being said and done". "It is very much in the interests of India and the USA that General Musharraf succeeds, and more important than that, that Pakistan succeeds" in becoming a dynamic, democratic and stable country." Mr Haass praised his actions after September 11 despite there being "probable" resistance from certain quarters in Pakistan. General Musharraf then delivered a "rather extraordinary address" to the Pakistani people. "I am waiting for other leaders of the Muslim world to deliver comparable addresses," he said. Mr Sibal, reacted sharply to the arguments, saying, that "there is definitely a difference in perception" in the approach to Pakistan between the views expressed by Mr Haass and those of India. For India, he said, the issue was how much Pakistan was doing to stop cross-border terrorism. The US perception appears to be that Pakistanis are doing a lot. The Indian experience was definitely different, Mr Sibal said. Mr Haas said the Indo-Pakistan problem could not be solved militarily. For India to fill its role not simply as a major power but as a major contributor to international relations, Mr Haass insisted "it does need to focus on its own region." That meant that in addition to defusing the current crisis, it had to develop a bilateral relationship with Pakistan, he said. In reply to statements by Ambassador Lalit Mansingh and some of the other speakers, he said the travel advisory would be withdrawn only when the danger of war disappeared. "At the moment, after the visits of Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage
and Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, there have been important changes on the part of Pakistan and reciprocal gestures by India and the momentum is finally going in the right direction".
PTI |
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Israeli forces enter West Bank towns
Jerusalem, June 19 Israeli tanks, armoured carriers and helicopter gunships took control of Jenin and Qalqilyah and briefly occupied Nablus shortly after its Cabinet decided to seize parts of the West Bank and hold these as long as terror attacks continued. The new military policy, which was condemned by Palestinians, signalled "a change in the way Israel responds to murderous acts of terror" and came as US President George W Bush was finalising a peace plan based on the creation of a Palestinian state. Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon yesterday angrily rejected the plan after the suicide bombing. "We condemn the Israeli aggression and escalation against our cities, the Palestinian Authority and the Palestinian people which form part of a plan aiming to destroy our institutions", a Palestinian Authority statement said. "We will continue our efforts to advance the peace process, which is our strategic choice," it added. Sharon's office said in a statement "Israel will respond to every terror attack by capturing Palestinian Authority territory, which will be held for as long as the terror continues. Additional terrorist attacks will bring about the capture of additional territories." It said Israel would soon seize Palestinian land in response to yesterday's Jerusalem bombing. The Israeli inner Cabinet also decided against deporting Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat from the territories. English daily 'Ha'aretz' said that the decision against deporting Arafat came in view of intelligence experts strongly warning against such a move. Reports from the West Bank quoting witnesses said clashes also broke out in Jenin refugee camp, the focus of a controversial Israeli operation in April. The Israeli army withdrew from Nablus after arresting a number of suspected
militants. PTI |
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India, China fail to exchange LAC maps Beijing, June 19 Asked to comment on the 12th round of the Expert Group (EG) on the India-China boundary issue held here on Monday, the Chinese Foreign Ministry said the two sides exchanged views on the sample map of the LAC on the western sector. Official sources later confirmed that "due to some problems" the two sides could not exchange the sample maps.
PTI |
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Nine Maoists killed in Nepal
Kathmandu, June 19 Three rebels were killed in the Khati area of Bajura district during an encounter with security forces and three others were killed in the Nele area of Solukhumbu district in a gun battle between the rebels and the security personnel, he said. Two armed rebels were killed during an encounter in Parvat district and one was shot dead during patrolling by security forces in Dadeldhura district, the official said. In Dang district one person was killed and another injured when security forces opened fire at two persons defying night curfew, the official said. An armed rebel was seriously injured and three others arrested as security forces launched search operations in Chandraudayapur of Siraha district. A rebel was also arrested from Solukhumbu district. Security forces have also recovered a large cache of explosives from the terrorist hideouts.
PTI |
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Work on Sikh museum starts WORK on the much-awaited World Sikh Heritage Museum started in Washington on Tuesday after a day-long seminar-cum-workshop organised by Dr Paul Michael Taylor of Smithsonian Museum Institute. To set the ball rolling for its ambitious project, Mrs Jaswinder Kaur Chatha and Mrs Kamaljit Chaudhary presented a cheque for $ 1 million to the institute. Dr Narendar Singh Kampani of the Sikh Foundation of USA, besides signing an agreement to hand over all artefacts in his personal possession to Sikh Heritage Museum, also agreed to contribute $ 50,00,000 to Smithsonian institute as cost of maintenance of the new museum. Among those present at the seminar and the subsequent function held in the evening was the Indian Ambassador to the USA, Mr Lalit Mansingh, and the Minister for Cultural Affairs of the Embassy of Pakistan in the USA. While Mr Mansingh eulogised the contribution of Sikhs, the Pakistani diplomat promised all help and support for preserving Sikh heritage buildings in Pakistan. Mr Tarlochan Singh, Vice-Chairman, National Commission for Minorities, who earlier inaugurated the day-long seminar, told “The Tribune” over telephone that all participants, including academicians, technocrats, historians and others, earlier inspected and approved the site earmarked for Sikh Heritage Museum before the actual ground work started yesterday. Dr Kampani announced that the organisers of Asian Heritage Museum in San Francisco had also decided to include a Sikh gallery. It may be mentioned here that Dr Paul Michael Taylor, who is the Director of Asian History Programme and curator of Smithsonian Museum, visited Delhi, Punjab and Chandigarh last year to give a final shape to the proposed Sikh Heritage Museum. Inaugurating the seminar, Mr Tarlochan Singh stressed the need for setting of Sikh Heritage Museum or galleries in all those cities the world over where Punjabis in general and Sikhs in particular had settled in large numbers. Others who spoke at the seminar on the preservation of Sikh heritage were Dr Jeewan Deol from Cambridge University in England; Dr Gurmeet Rai from New Delhi, Ms Geetika Kalha from Punjab, Dr Amandeep Singh Madra from London and a few others. It was pointed out at the seminar that there were hardly any heritage buildings left in Punjab to be preserved. For example, the only heritage building in the Golden Temple complex in Amritsar was Ramgarhia Bunga. The invaders and the SGPC were blamed for destroying or damaging the other heritage buildings in the complex. Qila Mubarak of Patiala was suggested as the only international heritage building which should be preserved by the World Heritage Foundation. Mr Tarlochan Singh said that his suggestion about Qila Mubarak was unanimously accepted by the participants. |
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