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Thursday,
August 15, 2002, Chandigarh, India  
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27 held in crackdown on ultras in Pak 71 parties
allowed to contest Pak election
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Jail for E. Timor’s ex-Governor
UK deports Afghan family ‘Asian
brown cloud’ alarms UN |
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27 held in crackdown on ultras in Pak Multan, August 14 A senior police officer said the arrests had been made in various Punjab provinces since Sunday following attacks on a church school near Murree and a Christian missionary hospital in Taxila. Khadim Hussain Dhalu, secretary-general of the banned Sipah-e-Sahaba Pakistan, was arrested in Jhang district on Tuesday night. Reutrs, the officer said. He said Dhalu (47) had been evading arrest since his group was banned by President Pervez Musharraf in January. “He was underground since then and we had been looking for him,” he said. The head of the group, Maulana Azam Tariq, has been in detention since the ban was imposed. The police accuses the Sunni group of involvement in the killing of several minority Shia leaders. Separate raids by police in Multan late last night resulted in the arrest of six more militants from two banned extremist groups — four from the SSP and two from the banned Lashkar-e-Jhangvi group, police said. Four more people were arrested in Kot Addu, some 160 km away, on suspicion of involvement in a grenade attack on the Christian hospital in Taxila last Friday, which killed four nurses and an attacker. Police reported 15 other arrests yesterday of militants belonging to the banned Jaish-e-Mohammad group, in connection with the hospital attack. Another man, arrested with five grenades, belonged to Lashkar-e-Jhangvi and was suspected of planning future attacks on Christian targets in Punjab, they said.
Reuters |
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71
parties allowed to contest Pak election Islamabad, August 14 The commission yesterday rejected the documents of 58 other parties that sought to contest for not being in conformity with the law. The documents of the newly formed Pakistan Muslim League (PML) faction headed by Ejazul Haq, son of the late military ruler Zia-ul Haq, were among those declared ineligible. The commission will allot symbols to the eligible parties in the next couple of days. The decision was taken at a meeting held under the chairmanship of Chief Election Commissioner Irshad Hasan Khan yesterday. Under the Political Parties Order 2002, all parties were required to hold internal elections by August 5, with August 12 being the last date for them to submit documents. The prominent parties which qualified include the Awami National Party, Jamaat-e-Islami, Pakistan People’s Party Parliamentarian (PPPP), Pakistan Muslim League (Quaid-e-Azam) or PML-QA, Pakistan People’s Party (PPP-Sherpao), Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz, Pakistan People’s Party (Shaheed Bhutto), Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam (F), Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal, Balochistan National Movement, Pakistan Tehrik-e-Insaf, National Alliance, Pakistan Muslim League (Junejo), Millat Party, National People’s Party and Muttahida Qaumi Movement. While all political parties are expected to get the same symbols they had in the 1997 elections, the PPPP and PPP-Sherpao are both vying for the “arrow”. Besides the PML (Ziaul Haq Shaheed), the parties that have been disqualified are the Tehrik-e-Istaqlal, PML-Qayyum, PML-Nazriati, Jamiat Ahl-e-Hadith, Muttahida Deeni Mahaz and the Mazdoor Kisan Party. The rejection of the papers of the PML (Zia-ul Haq) came as a big shock to the supporters of Mr Ejazul Haq who had parted ways with the PML-QA on August 3. Mr Haq has said he will move higher court against the decision of the commission that says Mr Haq, according to its records, is a member of the PML-QA. Mr Haq had formed his own group after losing the election for the PML-QA president slot against Mian Azhar. He had not resigned from the office of PML-QA senior vice-president before forming his group.
IANS |
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Jail
for E. Timor’s ex-Governor Jakarta, August 14 The family of Abilio Soares wept as the judge read out the guilty verdict before a packed court room and handed down the sentence for the charge of crimes against humanity. Prosecutors had demanded a 10-and-a-half-year jail term for Soares and said they would appeal the verdict because the charge carried a minimum sentence of 10 years. Soares, an East Timorese, faced a maximum penalty of death. “We hereby declare the defendant, Abilio Osorio Soares, has been proven legally guilty of the first and second charges of gross rights violations,” presiding judge Emmy Marni Mustafa told the court. “The fact that there were attacks in (several townships in East Timor) proves that the defendant could not manage his subordinates effectively,” she said. Lawyers for Soares said they would also appeal. It was the court’s first verdict in a string of historic cases over the fury of violence surrounding East Timor’s overwhelming vote to break from 24 years of Indonesian rule. More verdicts are expected on Thursday over the case of East Timor’s former police chief and another involving four mid-ranking soldiers and a policeman. Swarmed by reporters, Soares later defended his role as Governor of the territory, saying he was unable to control the gangs of machete-wielding militiamen who went on a murderous rampage before and after the August 30 ballot. “I have become a scapegoat. Clearly I am a victim here,” Soares said outside the courtroom. Human rights groups have said they did not expect hefty sentences for any of the 18 accused but prosecutors complained that the verdict for Soares was far too lenient. Indonesia is under intense pressure from the international community to adequately punish those responsible for the bloodshed and destruction in which the United Nations estimates more than 1,000 people were killed. Among the things at stake for Indonesia are military ties with the USA, severed in the wake of the violence. The USA recently gave Indonesia a $50 million package to bolster its military and police forces.
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UK deports Afghan family London, August 14 Home Office Minister Beverly Hughes said in a statement that although the case was “very difficult”, the family, who fled Afghanistan’s former Taliban regime, could not stay in Britain. Farid Ahmadi and his wife captured British headlines when they were seized by police in a raid on a mosque in the West Midlands where they had fled for sanctuary earlier this month. Human rights groups were then horrified when a judge ruled last Saturday that the Ahmadi children, who had been staying with family friends in Britain, should be held with their parents at a detention centre until the family was deported. The Ahmadis applied for asylum in Germany but then travelled on to Britain, where they have been refused asylum.
Reuters |
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‘Asian
brown cloud’ alarms UN Washington, August 14 The report said sea levels rose and forests were destroyed at unprecedented rates during the last decade. It noted that more than 40 per cent of the world’s population — two billion people — now face water shortages. And it predicted that with the global population expected to increase from six billion to eight billion people over the next 25 years, another burden would be added to environmental problems. According to UN Under Secretary General Nitin Desai, the most important message in the report was that the world’s environmental crises are interrelated. As an example, he cited the “Asian brown cloud” — a “poisonous cocktail” of particulate matter, chemicals and various aerosols currently hanging over a vast area of South East-Asia. “Here you have a situation that arises because of the unsustainable way energy is used in this region, which is leading to these problems that have an impact on agriculture, water, and on health. Mr Desai, who will lead the Earth summit, said governments must form specific partnerships to reduce threats in five areas — water, energy, agriculture, bio-diversity and health. More than 100 world leaders are expected for the summit, from August 26 to September 4. With more than three million people dying every year from the effects of air pollution, and more than two million dying from contaminated water, Mr Desai said full global participation was essential.
IANS |
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