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Tuesday,
September 10, 2002,
Chandigarh, India  
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Pervez
pledges support to war against terrorism
Pak admits
India’s defence superiority
Maoists
kill 85 securitymen
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The long
haul of the war on terrorism PPP asks
Canada to send poll monitors Miss NZ
to attend Nigeria contest
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Pervez pledges support to war against terrorism
Cambridge, September 9 Speaking ahead of his address to the United Nations General Assembly and meetings with U S President George W Bush this week, General Musharraf said he wanted to build a moderate Islamic state in Pakistan and lead it to a democratic future in which it would be a force for peace and stability in South Asia. ‘‘Pakistan is, and will remain, a key member of the global coalition against international terrorism. The strategic decisions we took after September 11 are consistent with our moral principles and national interests,’’ he told an audience of invited guests and students at Harvard University’s John F. Kennedy School of Government. In the aftermath of the September 11 attacks on the USA, General Musharraf — who was an international pariah for seizing power in a 1999 coup — reversed his country’s earlier support for Afghanistan’s Taliban regime and cast himself as a staunch ally of the West. ‘‘Our unstinting support has been critical in the battle against terrorism. This support will continue until our shared objectives are fully met,’’ he said. ‘‘ I remain determined not to allow a fringe element to hold the entire nation hostage and hijack our agenda for reforms.’’ The comment was a reference to hard-line Muslims in Pakistan who were angered by General Musharraf’s policy shift after September 11. He said these hard-liners promoted an ‘‘illiterate view of Islam’’ that he rejected. In a brief departure from his prepared remarks, he appealed to the audience of students to believe in his support for democracy despite his background as a career soldier. ‘‘I am extremely democratic. You have to believe me when I say that,’’ he said to a burst of laughter from the audience. ‘‘What we are trying to do is ... introduce real and sustainable democracy in Pakistan.’’ The President has drawn sharp criticism at home and abroad for effectively blocking two former Prime Ministers in exile, Benazir Bhutto and Nawaz Sharif, from taking part in October elections meant to return the country to civilian rule. He also has been criticised for constitutional changes he unveiled last month that guaranteed a major role for the military in government and imposed a host of obstacles effectively barring the two popular politicians from elections on October 10.
Reuters |
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Pak admits India’s defence superiority
Islamabad, September 9 “At this moment, we do have a gap with India in terms of high-tech aircraft and certain technologically advanced weapons,” The Dawn yesterday quoted Pakistan Air Chief Marshal Mushaf Ali Mir as saying. “But with the support of our nation and professional competence of our engineers and technicians, we shall not allow this gap to increase beyond acceptable limits,” he hoped. He further said that the Pakistan Air Force was capable of addressing numerical disparity with India through ‘’high morale of the fighting force, rigorous training of the pilots, efficient maintenance of equipment, professional operational planning, courageous leadership and a will to fight hard”. “By the grace of God, the Pakistan Air Force proudly possesses all these intangibles, and our fleet of more than 350 fighter aircraft is a force to reckon with,” he claimed. He ruled out the possibility of a nuclear war with India but said fighting in Kashmir or in any particular sector was possible. “And this limited war will be sharp, swift and intense, but I do not see an all-out war,’’ he added.
UNI |
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Maoists kill 85 securitymen Kathmandu, September 9 So far 65 bodies of security forces — 31 policemen, 17 army soldiers and 17 armed police — have been recovered while 30 wounded security personnel were admitted to hospitals, they said here. Out of 200 army and police personnel posted in the district headquarters in Sandhikharak, 300 km west of Kathmandu, 85 were killed in the gun-battle that lasted several hours, Minister for Tourism and Civil Aviation Bala Bahadur said. Five of the security personnel who sustained serious injuries, were brought to Kathmandu’s military hospital for treatment, they said. The number of security forces killed in the incident may be higher, they said adding many terrorists and some civilians might also have been killed during the incident. The rebels, fighting to topple constitutional monarchy in the Himalayan Kingdom, also attacked two army helicopters flown to the area carrying reinforcements, army sources said. One of the choppers with high-level army and police officers on board was hit by a bullet and slightly damaged. It was forced to land in the neighbouring Gulmi district. An intensive search operation was on in the area and adjoining districts to track the rebels. The rebels destroyed almost all government offices in Sandhikhark except a district health post, the officials said. However, Chief District Officer of Arghakhachi Kashiraj Acharya, was safe as he was out of the district at the time of the attack. Over 2,000 rebels chanting pro-Maoist slogans entered the district headquarters last night and attacked the security forces deployed there. They also exploded bombs at various government departments, including district police office, army barracks, district administration office and looted cash and valuables from local banks in the district, the sources said. The attack at Sandhikhark came a day after the insurgents ran down a police post at Bhimad in Sindhuli district executing 49 cops guarding the posts.
PTI |
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The long haul of the war on terrorism On Wednesday, September 11, world leaders assembled in New York for the UN General Assembly session, will join President Bush at Ground Zero — the epicentre of terrorist attacks — for a solemn ceremony of remembrance of the first anniversary of the tragedy of death, destruction and devastation. No other event in recent history has shocked the world as much as the horror that descended on the towering World Trade Center in New York. On that fateful day last year, at least 3000 persons of different cultures, races and religious faiths died at Ground Zero. Since then, the world has been echoing with voices of anger, fear, hate and vengeance. As eminent American educationist Patricia Mische reminds us through her recent article in a U.S. magazine, in reacting to the terror attack, some people wanted to “nuke them (the perpetrators of the September 11 horror) to the stone age.” Others, more humane, called for reason, introspection and rejection of violence. Some quoted Mahatma Gandhi:” An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth leaves the world blind and toothless.” If there was a significant message from the September 11 events, it was that terrorism is not a threat to any particular nation, but to humanity as a whole. The USA realised this only when terrorists struck at the citadel of American defence and security system — the Pentagon in Washington. As anger swept through America over the mass murder of September 11, the former U.S. ambassador to India, Mr.Patrick Moynihan, urged the nation to consider how much terror India endured in the second half of last century and its response. Until terror struck in its face, the United States turned a deaf ear to New Delhi’s repeated pleas to successive administrations in Washington to take note of the terrorism that Pakistan was fomenting and encouraging in Jammu and Kashmir. Many eminent analysts and commentators have said that terrorism did not begin on September 11, 2001. Nor will it end there. As a former MI5 chief points out, though the method of attacks was new and the results particularly horrific, September 11 was just the latest stage in the phenomenon that has gripped the modern world since about the ’60s. In the aftermath of the terrorist attacks, President Bush, while declaring a war on terrorism, was careful enough not to link terrorism with Islam, and sent out a message to the world:” Either you are with us or your are with terrorists.” He lost no time in launching “Operation Enduring Freedom”, a war on Afghanistan, and succeeded in ending the Taliban regime. The U.S. actions won wide international support, but one year later, the terrorist threats continue to haunt the world, more especially the United States. The one dominant question that has surfaced since the September 11 disaster is why the United States was especially targeted by the terrorists. According to a recent survey conducted by the German Marshall Fund of the U.S. (GMF) in conjunction with the Chicago Council of Foreign Relations, most Europeans believe that America itself is partly to blame for the devastating attacks in New York and Washington. The poll revealed that 55 per cent of Europeans think U.S. foreign policy contributed to the tragic events. However, majority of Europeans — 59 per cent — think that America’s overseas conduct since the attacks is aimed mostly at protecting itself, rather than enforcing its will around the globe. In the USA itself, paranoia had overtaken the Bush administration which, in the name of fighting terrorism, launched a series of what civil rights bodies called “draconian laws” that curtailed the citizens’ rights. In this connection, the U.S. magazine, Insight, recalls the prediction of Osama bin Laden shortly after the September 11 attacks that “freedom and human rights in America are doomed. The U.S. government will lead the American people —and the west in general—into an unbearable hell and a choking life.” The magazine quotes American Civil Liberties Union Executive Director Anthony Romero as saying that the wholesale abridgement of the Bill of Rights fundamentally puts it “on its head”—there is no such thing as the presumption of being innocent until proved guilty and “this is fundamentally un-American.” Many American columnists have cautioned the Bush administration against “cowboy culture” at home and abroad. A federal appeals panel in Cincinati rebuked the administration for its excessive secrecy in the war on terrorism. Even before the September 11 attacks, world leaders had been stressing the direct link between poverty and violence. Since then, they have renewed the warning that the world’s poorest areas are the “breeding ground for violence and despair.” The UN Secretary-General, Mr Kofi Annan, has been reminding the world that the fundamental cause of violence is massive inequality and no legitimate means of addressing it. At the forthcoming UN General Assembly session, heads of state and government will once again harp on the need to focus on the political roots of September 11. The world organisation is already seized of the goal to combat terrorism, but ironically, the member states are yet to reach a consensus on the definition of terrorism. |
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PPP asks Canada to send poll monitors Islamabad, September 9 The observers have also been urged to take notice of the undemocratic steps taken by the Pervez
Musharraf-government, The Dawn reported today. According to a party statement, a PPP delegation led by President PPP, Canada unit, Mr Saleem Janjua, called on Canadian Minister of Heritage Sheila Copps on Friday and presented to her a memorandum for the Canadian Prime Minister on the rejection of Ms Bhutto’s nomination papers. The memorandum observes that Canada was the first country to denounce and condemn the military takeover when President Musharraf assumed power. Also, Canada’s former Minister for Foreign Affairs Lloyd Axworthy led a Commonwealth delegation to Pakistan.
UNI |
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Miss NZ to attend Nigeria contest Auckland, September 9 Rachel Huljich, 17, said the Nigerian court decision to execute women convicted of adultery was disgraceful, but she still hoped the pageant would go ahead. She was aware of mounting pressure on the Miss World hosts after Miss France said she would join Belgium, Ivory Coast and Kenya in boycotting the event.
AFP |
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