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Sunday,
April 6, 2003, Chandigarh, India  
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Hands off
Pak, USA tells India Garner team prepares
post-war plan Thousands of Palestinians rally for Iraq UK strips Muslim cleric of
citizenship
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Chlamydia bacteria in
SARS cases: scientists
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Hands off Pak, USA tells India Washington, April 5 “Any attempts to draw parallels between the Iraq and Kashmir situations are wrong and are overwhelmed by the differences between them,” State Department spokeswoman Joanne Prokopowicz said yesterday. She was responding to a comment by External Affairs Minister Yashwant Sinha yesterday that India would be justified in taking pre-emptive action across the Pakistan border. Citing Iraq’s 12-year refusal to disarm in the face of U.N. Security Council resolutions, Mr Prokopowicz said the circumstances that made military action necessary in Iraq did not apply in the subcontinent and should not be considered a precedent. “The U.S. recognises the very serious nature of the situation in Kashmir,” she said. “Our joint statement last week with the United Kingdom made clear our repugnance of the killing of innocents that have been taking place in Kashmir with alarming frequency.” in the United Nations, India and Pakistan clashed in the Security Council after New Delhi described Islamabad as “epicenter of terrorism” and charged it with not living up to its commitments to the international community and the United Nations to stop cross-border terrorism. In a firm statement yesterday, India’s UN Ambassador Vijay Nambiar demanded that the Council’s Counter- Terrorism Committee (CTC) identify the countries that violate its resolutions aimed at countering terrorism. mr Nambiar did not name Pakistan, describing it in his entire presentation as “one country” but the reference was so obvious that Pakistan Ambassador Munir Akram took the floor to deny charges of terrorism against his country. The clash came as the council was discussing threats to international peace caused by terrorism. mr Nambiar specifically referred the recent massacre of 24 Kashmiri Pandits, including 11 women and two children, by Pakistan-trained terrorists, and said their objective was“ selective cleansing” through mass murder, an objective, he said, they had pursued all along. Pointing out that the incident had been condemned across the world, he told the council that what had gone unnoticed was the “tremendous restraint and composure” displayed by the government and various communities in India in “not being provoked to reacting disproportionately to this event.” Such a reaction, he said, was possible in a“ situation like this one that inflames religious and communal passions around the country.” But by behaving maturely, “our common people have responded wisely to the latest terrorist outrage.” Irked by Mr Nambiar’s remarks, Mr Akram said India holding “one country” responsible for that situation is a case of “the pot calling the kettle black” and called for an “impartial inquiry” into the Kashmir massacre, saying such allegations could raise tensions and threaten international peace and stability. “Pakistan has asked that the latest massacre be investigate by an organisation such as Amnesty International,” he said, and challenged New Delhi to accept the suggestion if convinced that external forces were responsible for the incident. Stating that the people of Kashmir had waited for 50 years “under Indian occupation” for their right to self- determination, he said, “There is one Indian soldier for every four Kashmiri males. However, my colleague from India could only speak about
terrorism.” AP, PTI |
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Garner team prepares post-war plan Kuwait City, April 5 The future of “post-war Iraq” is being planned at closed sessions at a beach front villa in Kuwait. The office of the reconstruction and humanitarian assistance, which has recruited several hundred Kuwaiti staff, is awaiting the green signal from Washington to move quickly and swiftly into Iraq after the Saddam Hussein government is toppled, according to reports. However, there still appeared some differences on the selection of diplomats to join Mr Garner’s team, the Washington Post reported. The Garner team has held several meetings here in the past few days and is monitoring developments in Iraq closely. It will undertake reconstruction work in restoring electricity and water and providing basic infrastructure in Iraq. A good number of Americans were planned to be sent to Iraq for these jobs, but in the wake of recent suicide bomb attacks and the hostile attitude towards the USA, it has re-evaluated its strategy. “Growing security concern” may force the team to recruit experts and technicians from other countries for undertaking developmental work, the report said. The team comprises officials from the Pentagon, the State Department, the treasury, justice and army corps of engineers. It also includes British and Australian diplomats and a group of Iraqi exiles. Three officials have been named to administer areas in Iraq, the Post added. A retired General has been designated to look after the North, even as former US Ambassador to Yemen Barbara Bodine has been deputed for the central region including Baghdad, while retired general Buc Walters will look after the South. Three other officials would look after humanitarian, reconstruction and civil administration purposes. It is for the first time after World War II that the USA has embarked on such an ambitious transformation project of seizing control of a large country to refashion its political system and rebuild its economy, says the report.
UNI |
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Thousands of Palestinians rally for Iraq Gaza, April 5 Hamas leaders and supporters waved Iraqi, Palestinian and Hamas flags as well as pictures of Iraqi President Saddam Hussein and chanted slogans calling for revenge and condemning the U.S.-led war in Iraq. Hours after the Israeli army carried out an incursion into the Nuseirat refugee camp, several hundred Palestinians demonstrated there, burning Israeli, British and U.S. flags. Several thousand Palestinians also demonstrated in the West Bank town of Nablus in support of Iraq.
DPA |
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UK strips Muslim cleric of citizenship London, April 5 Mr Blunkett said he had informed Abu Hamza al-Masri that his citizenship was being stripped. He is the first person targeted under new measures aimed at deporting immigrants whose words or actions are deemed to "seriously prejudice" British interests. "I have sent him a letter withdrawing his citizenship," Mr Blunkett told BBC radio. Masri now faces deportation. Egyptian-born Masri, a hate figure in British tabloids that had focused on his missing eye and hook in the place of his right hand, had been vilified in the media for applauding the September 11 attacks in the USA and the deaths of Americans and an Israeli in the crash of the space shuttle Columbia. He was banned from preaching at the North London Central Mosque after the police raided it in January in an investigation into the discovery of ricin poison. The mosque had since been closed but Masri had continued to preach in the street outside. Masri lost an eye and both forearms while fighting Soviet forces in Afghanistan and had described Osama bin Laden as a hero. He was not immediately available for comment but had previously indicated he would fight any attempts to deport him. Mr Blunkett’s action follows the introduction of new powers on April 1 allowing the government to strip immigrants of their citizenship if they “seriously prejudice” the country’s vital interests through word or deed.
Reuters |
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Chlamydia bacteria in SARS cases: scientists Guangzhou (China), April 5 the experts here were told yesterday that Chinese scientists had consistently found the bacteria in cases of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) which first appeared in November in Foshan city, southern Guangdong
province, WHO spokesman Chris Powell said. The Chinese findings point to the possibility that the disease could be caused by the bacteria acting with another pathogen, possibly like the coronavirus, he said. “It’s not two viruses at work, but one virus acting with something else which in China happens to be chlamydia,”
Mr Powell told journalists. Mr Li Liming, director of China’s Centre for Disease Prevention and Control told Xinhua news agency that the bacteria Chinese scientists were focusing on was “chlamydia-like” or possibly a mutation of chlamydia. In Hong Kong, where at least 17 persons have died and over 700 have been infected by SARS, scientists have isolated the paramyxovirus as a possible cause of the mysterious disease. In many cases of SARS, labs around the world have isolated an apparent new strain of the coronavirus, which causes the common cold and diseases in animals, making it one of the prime suspected pathogens, the WHO experts in Guangzhou said.
AFP |
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