The Tribune, Chandigarh, India

Wednesday, October 30, 2002, Chandigarh, India

THE TRIBUNE SPECIALS

50 YEARS OF INDEPENDENCE

TERCENTENARY CELEBRATIONS

W O R L D

Crackdown in Moscow
Police officer among scores held
Moscow, October 29
In a massive crackdown, the Russian authorities have rounded up scores of people, including a police officer here for alleged involvement in preparations for the Chechnyan rebels taking the Moscow theatre with over 800 hostage, Interior Minister Boris Gryzlov today said.

Relatives of Alexei Bochkov, 25, who died during the Moscow theatre hostage-taking incident, grieve during his funeral at Kuzminskoye cemetery in Moscow on Tuesday.
— Reuters photo

Editorial: Still behind Iron Curtain

Call for parleys hollow: India
United Nations, October 29
India and Pakistan clashed at the United Nations on the Kashmir issue with New Delhi rejecting Islamabad’s call for a dialogue as “hollow” in the face of its continued encouragement to cross-border terrorism.

Pervez: delay in power transfer not due to me
Islamabad, October 29
Pakistani President Gen Pervez Musharraf said today that his military regime was not responsible for the delay in government formation following the elections held on October 10.

A plaintiff wipes her tears as she stands among other plaintiffs after a Japanese court A plaintiff wipes her tears as she stands among other plaintiffs after a Japanese court on Tuesday ordered the central and Tokyo city governments to pay $ 642,600 to compensate for health problems caused by diesel exhaust fumes in Tokyo. — Reuters

Dosanjh may run as a Liberal
Vancouver, October 29
British Columbia’s former Indo-Canadian Premier Ujjal Dosanjh, who remained in office until June last year as a New Democratic leader, may run as a Liberal in the next federal elections.

GLOBAL MONITOR

PAK TIT-BITS

Actress Sigourney Weaver poses for photographers as she arrives at the Glamour magazine Women of the Year awards in New York. Weaver was given the Lifetime Achievement award.
— Reuters

EARLIER STORIES

	Chemical weapon used in hostage crisis: expert October 29, 2002
	Freed hostages hospitalised October 28, 2002
	Israeli troops roll into Jenin October 27, 2002
	Pervez to take fresh oath of office on October 31 October 26, 2002
	Cracks appear in MMA alliance October 25, 2002
	USA okays oil for North Korea October 24, 2002
	Talk with political parties, Pervez told October 23, 2002
	Bhutto, Sharif can’t run for Senate October 22, 2002
	Three blasts caused Bali carnage October 21, 2002
	Pak did supply N-arms material to N. Korea October 20, 2002
	‘Pak gave N-equipment to N. Korea’ October 19, 2002
	Musharraf to ‘respect’ wish of Parliament October 18, 2002

Crackdown in Moscow
Police officer among scores held

Moscow, October 29
In a massive crackdown, the Russian authorities have rounded up scores of people, including a police officer here for alleged involvement in preparations for the Chechnyan rebels taking the Moscow theatre with over 800 hostage, Interior Minister Boris Gryzlov today said.

Law enforcement agencies are involved in an unprecedented operation to uncover the terrorist network in Moscow and suburban towns, Mayak radio reported quoting Gryzlov.

A middle-rank police officer has been nabbed for allegedly giving full information about the activities of the crisis management group and special forces’ assault plans on the mobile phone to leader of Chechen hostage-takers Movsar Barayev, the Inzvestia daily said here.

Barayev and his 49 militants, including 18 women suicide-bombers, were killed in the pre-dawn commando assault on Saturday to release over 800 hostages.

Due to an unidentified gas used by the special forces, 117 hostages were killed, mainly due to asphyxiation caused by improper first aid and transportation to hospitals, media reports said.

However, Health Ministry spokesman Alexander Zharov told TVS channel today that among the dead 45 had bullet wounds.

According to Moscow Mayor Yuri Luzhkov, 41 hostages were wounded by the terrorists. In all, after the release of 338 ex-hostages from the hospitals, 317 are undergoing treatment with 27 in ‘grave but stable’ condition.

Meanwhile, giving in to the demand by the “Union of Right Forces”, the Russian State Duma (lower House of Parliament) is expected on November 1 to consider a parliamentary commission to investigate the theatre siege.

“We want to find out who botched the brilliant operation conducted by the special forces,” leader of the SPS Boris Nemtsov told the media after his parliamentary party’s emergency meeting yesterday.

Secret services have refused to divulge the details of the gas used, claiming that this information would permit would-be terrorists to come prepared with antidotes.

Meanwhile, A grieving Russia buried the first victims of the Moscow theatre siege today as it emerged that the mystery gas responsible for 115 hostage deaths may have been opium-based and not a nerve agent.

One leading political party called for an inquiry into how heavily armed Chechen guerrillas had been able to take over a packed theatre just a few miles from the Kremlin. PTI, Reuters

Call for parleys hollow: India

United Nations, October 29
India and Pakistan clashed at the United Nations on the Kashmir issue with New Delhi rejecting Islamabad’s call for a dialogue as “hollow” in the face of its continued encouragement to cross-border terrorism.

“Pakistan’s call for a dialogue with India sounds hollow in the face of its encouragement to terrorism which is responsible for widespread killings of innocent people in Jammu and Kashmir whose interests it pretends to promote,” Mr Ajit Kumar Panja, former Minister of State for External Affairs, said.

He was speaking at a discussion on “elimination of racism and racial discrimination and right of peoples to self-determination” in the UN General Assembly Committee yesterday after Pakistani representative indulged in India bashing while reiterating Islamabad’s demand for self-determination in Jammu and Kashmir.

“Pakistan should first ensure the right of self-determination for its own people before sermonising others on it,” Mr Panja said in a harshly worded speech.

He pointed out that it was Islamabad which had made UN resolutions on Jammu and Kashmir “unimplementable”.

Mr Panja also slammed Pakistan’s military regime for perpetuating and justifying cross-border terrorism and rejected criticism of government’s handling of communal violence in Gujarat.

Lashing out at Pakistan for spreading “misinformation and disinformation” on Gujarat, Mr Panja said “this is typical of the genetic material of military regimes whose lack of accountability and whimsicality are so intrinsic to their nature that it infects their efforts so demonstrably.” PTI

Pervez: delay in power transfer not due to me

Islamabad, October 29
Pakistani President Gen Pervez Musharraf said today that his military regime was not responsible for the delay in government formation following the elections held on October 10.

“I am not interfering with the political process,” he told journalists in Islamabad before leaving on a two-day visit to Saudi Arabia.

General Musharraf rejected as “totally wrong” the speculation that his “chance meeting” with Amin Fahim, leader of the second largest party in the newly elected National Assembly, in a restaurant on Sunday was in fact “arranged” for political talks between them.

“Our meeting lasted two or three minutes. We just exchanged pleasantries,” he said.

General Musharraf said besides holding talks with Saudi leaders on regional issues and the Indo-Pakistan dispute over Kashmir, he will also perform Umra. DPA

Dosanjh may run as a Liberal

Vancouver, October 29
British Columbia’s former Indo-Canadian Premier Ujjal Dosanjh, who remained in office until June last year as a New Democratic leader, may run as a Liberal in the next federal elections.

Sources close to the Liberal Party say that former Finance Minister Paul Martin is seeking Mr Dosanjh’s support because he is considered to have significant support in Canada’s Sikh community, especially among the moderates. The Sikh community, which includes conservatives and moderates, has traditionally played a pivotal role in leadership campaigns and election wins and is expected to do the same in the upcoming Liberal leadership campaign.

Mr Dosanjh’s party-switch is sure if Mr Martin becomes head of the Liberal Party, a Liberal insider told The Hill Times in an interview.

Mr Dosanjh became British Columbia’s first Indo-Canadian Premier in 2000. He was succeeded by Gordon Campbell, a Liberal, on June 5, 2001.

The former British Columbia Premier, who is a lawyer by profession, came to Canada from India in 1970, and became a member of the Provincial Legislature in 1991. He was made Attorney-General in 1995.

Mr Dosanjh was Premier for only a year before calling the elections in which he and his party were defeated. He resigned as a party leader and started his own law practice.

Earlier this year, there were rumours suggesting that Mr Dosanjh may be appointed to the Senate or appointed as Canada’s Consul-General to India. UNI

GLOBAL MONITOR

As a reminder of the attacks in the United States on September 11, 2001, air crews painted "Nose-Art" on aircraft aboard the US Navy aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln (CVN 72) in the North Arabian Gulf, seen on Monday. Ships from the Lincoln Battle Group have moved to the Arabian Gulf to support Operation Southern Watch over Iraq after supporting Operation Enduring Freedom in Afghanistan. Picture taken on Monday. — Reuters

RESPECTS PAID TO WTC HERO DOG
NEW YORK: New York paid its respects to a golden retriever named Bear who became “the most celebrated dog in the world” in the wake of the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. The title was given to Bear by the Guinness Book of World Records after he discovered the remains of more victims in the rubble of the World Trade Center than any other search and rescue dog. He was remembered at a memorial service on Sunday after he died of cancer on September 23 at the age of 12. DPA

92-YEAR-OLD MAN GETS DOCTORATE
SYDNEY: A 92-year-old Australian man proved you are never too old to learn when he became one of the world’s oldest university graduates. Ron Fitch was presented on Tuesday with his doctorate in engineering during a graduation ceremony at the University of New South Wales in Sydney. “Age is certainly no barrier to scholarship,” said Fitch, who got his Bachelor of Engineering in 1932. AP

8,200-YEAR-OLD VILLAGE
BEIJING: The remains of a village thought to date back 8,200 years has been unearthed by archaeologists in China’s Inner Mongolia region, state press said on Tuesday. The primitive settlement, found in Chifeng in the far north of the country, is the largest and best preserved early village ever found in China, the China Daily newspaper said. So far 11 rectangular houses and 10 tombs have been explored and archaeologists believe the village contains a total of 150 houses. AFP

4 KILLED IN US VARSITY SHOOTING
LOS ANGELES: Four persons were killed at a US university nursing school after an angry student shot at least two professors before killing himself, officials said. The rampage on Monday marked the second high-profile shooting in the USA since two men were arrested on Thursday and later charged with a wave of deadly sniper attacks in the US capital that left 10 persons dead. “As far as we know four persons are dead as the result of the shooting, including two members of the teaching staff,” a spokeswoman for the University of Arizona police force said. AFP

TORTURE, RAPES COMMON IN RUSSIA: AMNESTY
LONDON: Torture, rapes and “disappearances” are common currency in Russia’s legal “climate of impunity,” international human rights group Amnesty International charged on Tuesday in a report published days after 800 persons were taken hostage by Chechen rebels in Moscow. Drafted last June, the report’s publication coincides with a major campaign by Amnesty to highlight the discrepancy between the human rights protection enshrined under international and Russian law and the reality of widespread abuse. AFP

PAK TIT-BITS

PERVEZ LEAVES FOR S. ARABIA
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf on Tuesday left for a two-day visit to the oil-rich kingdom of Saudi Arabia to meet with King Fahd and other Saudi leaders, state-run Pakistan television reported. “During the visit, the President would apprise the Saudi leadership of the latest position in the Pakistan-India relations and have discussions on the developments in and around the Middle East, Afghanistan and bilateral matters,” said Mr Aziz Ahmed Khan, the spokesman for the Pakistani foreign office. AP

PPP’S TERMS FOR GOVT FORMATION
ISLAMABAD: The Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) has laid down four conditions for joining hands with President Pervez Musharraf for formation of government with the Pakistan Muslim League (Quaid-e-Azam). The conditions are restoration of the 1973 Constitution in the position as it was on October 12, 1999, Legal Framework Order to be made a part of the Constitution, safe return of Ms Benazir Bhutto and withdrawal of fabricated cases against her and finally, the release of political prisoners and withdrawal of cases against them. UNI