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Tuesday,
September 24, 2002,
Chandigarh, India  
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Schroeder piggybacks on Greens, scrapes through Pervez under pressure, cracks
whip PoK PM rejects Pak amendments |
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Talks to lift Arafat HQ siege
fail
Labour MP backs ‘Khalistan’ demand |
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Schroeder piggybacks on Greens, scrapes through Berlin, September 23 Schroeder’s Centre-Left government of Social Democrats and Greens got a majority of just nine over the combined opposition parties, down from 21 at the last election. “The country remains ungovernable because it is impossible to tackle its economic problems,” said Karl-Heinz Nassmacher, political scientist at Oldenburg University. “What we need is a German Margaret Thatcher but where do we find her?” Schroeder said he would immediately start coalition talks with the resurgent Greens, who saved his government with their strong showing in the election while his Social Democrats (SPD) fell. “Those who think that there will be large difficulties are wrong,” Schroeder told reporters as he entered SPD party headquarters for a meeting of party leaders. The SPD fell 2.4 points to 38.5 pc as voters punished it for failing to bring down unemployment in its first term. It was level with Edmund Stoiber’s conservatives, who gained 3.4 points, also to 38.5 pc. The surge by the Greens, who gained 1.9 points to 8.6 per cent, rescued the so-called Red-Green coalition’s majority. Meanwhile Stoiber’s prospective allies, the liberal Free Democrats, let him down by gaining just 7.4 per cent, far short of their own expectations. The election was partly so close because Germans were torn between liking the telegenic Schroeder and wanting to punish him for failing to honour a promise to cut unemployment, still stuck above four million, where it was when he took power in 1998. Germany’s consensus-based political system, established after World War II to prevent a repeat of Hitler’s one-party rule, put up multiple hurdles to reforms, Nassmacher said. For a policy to be implemented, Schroeder first had to persuade his own Social Democrats, then the Greens, the vested interests of trade unions and business, and a Bundesrat Upper House of Parliament where he lacks a majority, he added. Red-Green secured 306 of the 603 seats in Parliament, ahead of the conservatives and liberal FDP combined at 295. Two seats were won by the Communist Party of Democratic Socialism. The SPD has a majority of nine seats over the combined opposition parties. Schroeder must now move fast to repair relations with the USA, damaged by his strict opposition to a U.S.-led war on Iraq and by reports that his Justice Minister made comments — which she denied — comparing President George W. Bush’s methods to those of Hitler. The minister has been left out of the new Cabinet. Schroeder’s weakened government is confronted by powerful vested interests in the trade unions and industry lobby groups, and has been elected by a population accustomed to easy prosperity and unwilling to stomach radical reform.
Reuters |
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Pervez under pressure, cracks whip Washington, September 23 The recent acceleration in the anti-terrorism war inside Pakistan comes amid increased pressure on President Pervez Musharraf, Stratfor said. As General Musharraf tries to reassure Washington that he is still cooperating in the war against terrorism, and to get a grip on the situation inside Pakistan before the elections and the strike against Iraq, the pressures on his regime are mounting, the report said. While Gen Musharraf needs to demonstrate domestically — and particularly to the military — that he is firmly in charge, he has little interest in alienating the USA, as the US presence in Pakistan has proven useful in managing tensions with India. “General Musharraf is signalling to Washington that he is still a team player, and the arrest and recent transfer of Binalshibh to the USA may help ease any possible strain on relations caused by terrorist activity during the ongoing election process in Kashmir.” “But the President also is trying to ensure that the threat from any foreign ultras in his country is eliminated before Pakistan’s general elections in October,” Stratfor said. President Musharraf fears that foreign and domestic Al-Qaida or Taliban sympathisers may be trying to destabilise his regime, turning Pakistan into a country where Al-Qaida can live and plan operations with impunity, it added. By intensifying the campaign against terrorism, Musharraf hopes to pre-empt any increase in domestic unrest or violence over the next few weeks, the report said. But in the end, although President Musharraf appears secure enough in his own position to go after the top militants inside Pakistan, his crackdown also reveals the distance he has to travel before he can be confident in his own security, much less the stability of Pakistan, Stratfor said. Meanwhile, President Pervez Musharraf today claimed that turnout in the first round of elections in Jammu and Kashmir was only around 2 to 10 per cent.
UNI |
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PoK PM rejects Pak amendments Islamabad, September 23 Mr Sikandar Hayat Khan who was elected Prime Minister by the ruling Muslim Conference which won the poll to the PoK Assembly last year, told reporters in Muzafarabad yesterday that the proposed amendments sent to the PoK Government, suggesting the abolition of posts of either the Prime Minister or the President were “not acceptable to his government.” Describing the amendment package as “unconstitutional”, he said if the federal government wanted amendments in powers then it should forward the package to the PoK Assembly. He also accused PoK President Anwar Khan, a retired Major-General, of interfering in the official matters of the elected government. He further assailed the federal government for telling him to share powers with the President, “which is impossible for me because we have achieved this goal by struggling for a long time”.
PTI |
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Rights violations
‘much higher’ Islamabad |
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Talks to lift Arafat HQ siege fail Ramallah, September 23 After the talks, the Israeli army briefly opened its tight security cordon around Arafat’s devastated presidential complex in Ramallah to let chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat in to brief the Palestinian leader on the meeting. Erekat said Israeli officials had refused to present him with a list of suspected militants they say are holed up with Arafat and should give themselves up, and demanded Arafat draw up a roster of all those in the compound, identifying militants. “Arafat rejected the Israeli proposal,” he told newsmen. Another Palestinian official said Arafat had demanded talks on political issues as well as military matters with Israel. He wanted the talks to be attended by US representatives. The failure of the talks dealt a new blow to hopes that the siege would end quickly and represented a further setback to international efforts to end two years of violence since the Palestinians rose up against Israeli occupation. Mohammed Dahlan, Arafat’s security adviser, retorted: “If Israel believes we will hand over any Palestinian or accept their deportation to Jericho or Gaza or anywhere else, it is wrong. We will not give Israel a way out to save face.” Efforts to launch a diplomatic initiative also floundered. Senior Israeli security sources said Israel did not give European Union special representative Miguel Angel Moratinos permission to enter Arafat’s compound for talks. Palestinians observed a commercial strike today in parts of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip and Palestinian leaders appealed to the Arab world for help.
Reuters |
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Labour MP backs
‘Khalistan’ demand Wolverhampton, September 23 At the same meeting a senior shadow minister of the Conservative Party expressed support for Sikhs in Britain to register themselves as Sikhs and not Indians. Rob Marris, who is treasurer of the All Party Panjabis in Britain Parliamentary Group, expressed strong support for the Sikh Agenda that the Sikh Secretariat has produced. The agenda calls for Sikhs to be registered as separate from Indians in Britain, and calls for self-determination in Punjab.
IANS |
NEPAL PM DEUBA FORMS NEW PARTY MYANMAR FREES 18 POLITICAL PRISONERS ONE DIES IN BLAST NEAR US MISSION |
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Berlin, September 23
MILITANTS PRODUCED IN COURT
