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Sunday,
February 23, 2003, Chandigarh, India  
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Blix orders Iraq to destroy missiles NAM SUMMIT
India rejects NAM conference on terror MALAYSIA DIARY |
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Blix orders Iraq to destroy missiles United Nations, February 22 Diplomats said Mr Blix was under intense pressure from the USA and the UK to move fast, and Iraq’s reaction to this major development could make the difference between war and peace. In a four-page letter handed over to Iraqi Ambassador Mohammed Al-Douri yesterday, Mr Blix told Iraq that appropriate arrangements should be made so that the destruction process could commence by March 1. Mr Blix’s order followed the conclusion reached by an international experts’ panel, convened by him, that the missiles were capable of exceeding the range of 150 km set by the Security Council. A copy of the findings of the experts’ panel was attached to the letter. The inspectors, he said in the letter, would select a variety of methods for destruction depending on items to be destroyed such as explosive demolition, crushing, melting and other physical and chemical methods. Mr Blix is also preparing a list of 35 outstanding questions about Iraq’s chemical and biological weapons and long-range missile programmes which he would like Baghdad to answer. He would discuss it on Monday with his advisory board of commissioners before finally submitting to Baghdad. Diplomats said Iraq’s response to the letter would be closely watched, for, a reluctance to demolish one of its most prized weapon systems would be taken by Washington and London as Baghdad’s failure to disarm voluntarily and support their case for war. The UN assessment is based on data provided by Iraq, which had explained that in some of the tests, the missiles went beyond the allowed range because it lacked a guidance system and the absence of any warhead also made them lighter. Mr Blix is expected to present a written report to the council on March 1 but now diplomats say it may be delayed till March 7 by which time destruction of missiles and related materials should have started. Mr Al-Douri wants the UN experts to go to Iraq and see for themselves that the missile cannot exceed 150-km limit rather than depending on theoretical calculations.
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NAM SUMMIT Kuala Lumpur, February 22 Mr Vajpayee is also fully prepared to reply back to Pakistan in the same coin if President Pervez Musharraf were to harp on his one-point obsession — Kashmir — at this multilateral forum also. A high point on the agenda of the summit is the revitalisation of NAM as there is a growing feeling in the comity of nations that in an era when a much bigger and older organisation like the United Nations was getting bulldozed and marginalised by the developed countries, NAM had lost relevance. India is deeply interested in the revitalisation of NAM and External Affairs Minister Yashwant Sinha had led an Indian delegation to Cape Town (South Africa) last December for a meeting of previous NAM chairmen where a brainstorming session was held on the theme of the “Revitalisation of NAM”. The ministerial meeting had reaffirmed the relevance of NAM but emphasised that continued relevance required a focussed agenda and greater organisational effectiveness. The 13th NAM summit is going to discuss the new agenda for NAM in terms of the following clusters of issues:
According to Mr Sinha, India strongly feels that NAM and developing countries have to pool their resources with regard to markets, technology and skills so that they could effectively engage the North. South-South cooperation was another imperative to strengthen the position of the developing countries.
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India rejects NAM conference on terror Kuala Lumpur, February 22 Senior Indian officials here said India was not interested in the proposal to have a NAM conference exclusively on terrorism because there was not even an agreement on the definition of terrorism. Before such a conference is organized India considers it important to first prepare a roadmap on what to discuss and how to implement whatever decisions are arrived at during these discussions. External Affairs Minister Yashwant Sinha, who attended the NAM Ministerial conference just before the summit meeting, said the draft on terrorism was confusing. He said there was no point in having a conference on terrorism until we have reached a consensus. The draft came up for intense discussions at the Ministerial meeting of NAM today. The draft now has been referred to the political committee of senior officials which will deliberate on it tomorrow.
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MALAYSIA DIARY Kuala Lumpur, February 22 As the Indians outnumber other South Asians, the Pakistanis, the Bangladeshis and the Sri Lankans obviously feel swamped. Tamils, Malayalis and Telugu-speaking people constitute over 85 per cent of the PIOs in Malaysia, though the Punjabis (mostly Sikhs) are also in substantial numbers. There are over 1000 Hindu temples and about 100 Sikh gurdwaras in Malaysia. «««« The Bharat Club here is as well known among the 40,000 Indian expatriates as the Indian High Commission. It is a useful focal point for the increasing number of Indian expatriates, a large number of them Punjabis, who are coming to Malaysia for work as IT professionals, engineers, doctors and in joint ventures and overseas subsidiaries set up by Indian companies in Malaysia. «««« Malaysia has a unique system of constitutional monarchy giving each of the nine state rulers a chance to be King for five years in rotation. The rotation of the post was the brainchild of Tunku Abdul Rahman, the first Prime Minister when Malaysia gained independence in 1957. Malaysia consists of 13 states and three federal territories. Nine Malay states have hereditary rulers or Sultans while the others have Governors appointed by the King. The government is based on parliamentary democracy. This multi-racial Islamic country with a population of 23.3 million has a sizeable number of Indians (8 per cent), while Malays are 51 per cent and Chinese 27 per cent. Confusion sometimes arises in the usage of words “Malay”, “Malaysian” and “Malaya”. Malay connotes ethnicity and describes people of a particular race, Malaysian denotes nationality regardless of racial origin, while Malaya is the old geographical name of the peninsula. «««« Islam is the official religion in Malaysia, though other religions such as Hinduism, Sikhism and Buddhism are practised freely. The Malaysian Constitution provides that every citizen has the right to profess and practice his own religion and propagate his own faith. There is no pan-Malaysian head of Islam. Each hereditary Malay ruler is the head of Islam in his state. The Yang Di-Pertuan Agong (the King) is head of Islam in his own state and also in the states of Melaka, Penang, the federal territories, Sabah and Sarawak. |
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United Nations, February 22
