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Monday,
April 21, 2003, Chandigarh, India  
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USA plans long-term access to Iraqi bases Iraqi currency to get facelift Shia pilgrims taste freedom
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China admits 339 SARS cases
Chechen rebels ‘kill’ 17 cops
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USA plans long-term access to Iraqi bases Washington, April 20 A Pentagon spokesman said he had no information on the report. The Times online edition yesterday quoted US military officials as saying they hoped to maintain four bases in Iraq — one at the international airport near Baghdad, one at Tallil near Nassiriya in the south, one at an isolated airstrip in the western desert along an old oil pipeline that runs to Jordan and one at the Bashur airfield in the Kurdish north. The US military already uses the bases to support operations against remnants of the old government to deliver supplies and relief aid and for reconnaissance patrols. As the invasion force turns over control to a new Iraqi government, Pentagon officials expect to gain access to the bases in the event of a future crisis, the newspaper said. “There will be some kind of a long-term defence relationship with a new Iraq, similar to Afghanistan,” it quoted a senior administration official as saying. “The scope of that has yet to be defined — whether it will be full operational bases, smaller forward operating bases or just plain access.” The USA is aware that the growing American presence in West Asia and Southwest Asia invites charges of empire-building and might create new targets for terrorists, the newspaper said. And the Pentagon has begun to shrink its military presence in the region. But since September 11, 2001, there has been a concerted diplomatic and military effort to win permission for US forces to operate from the formerly communist nations of eastern Europe, across the Mediterranean, throughout West Asia and the Horn of Africa and across Central Asia, from the periphery of Russia to Pakistan’s ports on the Indian Ocean. “The attacks of September 11 changed more than just the terrorism picture,” the newspaper quoted a senior administration official as saying. “On September 11, we woke up and found ourselves in Central Asia. We found ourselves in eastern Europe as never before, as the gateway to Central Asia and West Asia.”
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First UN food convoy reaches Baghdad Baghdad, April 20 Reuters correspondent Edmund Blair watched 50 trucks, chartered by the United Nations’ WFP from private Jordanian companies, drive into a city centre government food warehouse guarded by US troops. Convoy leader Adnan Dugum said the cargo of 1,400 tonnes of wheat flour had been held up for two days at Ramadi, 90 km west of Baghdad, because no suitable warehouse was available in Baghdad.
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‘Governor’ sets up panels to run Baghdad Baghdad, April 20 “Twentytwo committees have been constituted and put in charge of the administration of Baghdad,” Mohammad Mohsen Zubeidi told a press conference. Among the roles given to the committees were water, education, health, transport and planning, but also defence, foreign affairs and information. “Priority number one,” was to bring back security to the city, Zubeidi said, adding that he met former judges yesterday to consider the return of law and order as well as some 200 ex-army officers “to discuss the future of the army.” “We all want to cooperate,” said Zubeidi who claims to have been elected by city elders despite statements from US forces that there was no governor of Baghdad.
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Kashmiri migrant at Iraq battle front Silicon Valley, April 20 Siddhartha Raina, an LCPL with Marine Corps Reserves now in Kuwait, was among the many South-Asian servicemen who left their families to answer the call of duty and battle in Iraq.
PTI |
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Iraqi currency to get facelift Doha, April 20 But the so-called “Saddam dinar,” which has lost half its value with the collapse of the Iraqi government, could soon go the way of the Italian lira, French franc, German mark and other currencies replaced by the euro. Part of the US reconstruction push is introducing a new Iraqi currency that — officials hope — will hold its value and undoubtedly be expunged of the mustachioed tyrant. Establishing a stable currency is seen as key to rekindling Iraq’s tattered economy and rebuilding a national identity. But many hurdles remain, including the lack of an Iraqi Government and a general mistrust of anything other than US greenbacks. Before the war, one dinar was officially worth about US $3. But its real rate went in the opposite direction, many times over — it was traded at around 2,500 to the dollar on the black market, and has plummeted to 3,500 with the ousting of President Saddam. Merchants who have opened shops are already jacking up prices to compensate for the currency’s hollowed-out value. As a stopgap, the USA flew in $ 20 million of its own currency last week to pay firefighters, the police, electrical workers and other civil servants. Public employees returning to work will get an “emergency payment” of $ 20 as early as next week, said an official at the Office of Reconstruction and Humanitarian Assistance given the charge of revamping the Iraqi monetary system.
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Shia pilgrims taste freedom
Baghdad, April 20 “In the past we couldn’t talk about anything. Now we can talk about everything,” said Raad Abdul Hamid, a 36-year-old taxi driver. Thousands of Shia pilgrims renewed a tradition banned for decades as they set out on a walk of faith to the holy cities of Najaf and Karbala. The US troops kept anxious watch for signs it could turn into an anti-American display, and said they would keep a respectful distance as long as the march of three to four days did not turn against them. The first convoy of food aid arrived in Baghdad via Jordan. The flour and other supplies, carried in 50 truck organised by the United Nations, will be stored in warehouses until the authorities arrange distribution. In southern Iraq, British and Iraqi workers reopened a rail line between the port city of Umm Qasr and Basra to spur humanitarian relief supplies to that region. The coalition military forces in Iraq are putting the finishing touches to a proclamation formally declaring the war over, Australia’s foreign minister Alexander Downer said today. Mr Downer told Australian television’s Seven Network that final details were still being worked out, “but it will happen in the next few days.” Warning that the continuing vacuum in public administration in Iraq is increasing tension and rivalries, the International Committee of the Red Cross said the coalition forces must do more to restore order and stability. The group said looters had responded to calls from religious leaders in the mosques to return stolen medicines and equipment to hospitals - and those returns were now the main source of supply for health institutions. On another front, Jordanian officials announced the seizure of 42 paintings believed to have been looted from Iraq’s National Museum, at best just a portion of Iraq’s plundered antiquities from the days of chaos that followed the American occupation of Baghdad. Meanwhile, in an apparent effort to counter US charges that it is sheltering former members of Saddam Hussein’s regime, Syria banned Iraqis without visas from entering the country, airline sources confirmed yesterday. Previously, visas could be obtained at airports or border crossings upon arrival. In Baghdad, vendors began peddling whiskey and beer on the street yesterday. Hundreds of Iraqis swarmed Palestine Hotel in hopes of obtaining jobs with the transitional government. Later, at least 500 persons marched toward the hotel, carrying such signs as “No to occupation.” US Marines began leaving the capital as they transfer control of Baghdad to their Army counterparts. Marines will work in southern cities before heading home. Their parting tasks include picking up empty plastic food-rations packets discarded by many Marines on the road to Baghdad. AP |
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Pope’s Easter message is ‘peace in Iraq’ Vatican City, April 20 The Pope, marking the 25th Easter season of his pontificate, called for an end to “the chain of hatred”. He said he was grieved by unending violence in the Holy Land and urged the world to remember the many forgotten wars. “Peace in Iraq!,” he said in his twice-yearly “Urbi et Orbi” (to the city and the world) message after celebrating an Easter Sunday mass for tens of thousands of people in a rainy St Peter’s Square. “Let there be an end to the chain of hatred, which threatens the orderly development of the human family,” he said.
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China admits 339 SARS cases Beijing, April 20 The death toll from the SARS epidemic in Beijing was dramatically revised from four to 18, confirming the worst fears of the World Health Organisation (WHO), which reported that Beijing was under-reporting the magnitude of the epidemic that had killed over 200 persons worldwide. Vice-Health Minister Gao Qiang, who stood in for beleaguered Health Minister Zhang Wenkang, admitted that there were 339 persons infected with SARS in Beijing and 402 suspected cases as of April 18. Gao said the new figures included 235 confirmed and suspected cases at the highly secretive military hospitals run by the Chinese People’s Liberation Army. Until today, the Ministry of Health had reported only 37 infections and four fatalities in the city despite estimates by WHO experts, who had said Beijing could have upto 200 cases. The nationwide number of cases now stood at 1,807, with 79 deaths. Out of the 1,807 confirmed cases of SARS, 1,304 cases were found in the southern Chinese province of Guangdong from where the epidemic had spread worldwide. There were 339 cases found in Beijing, 108 in Shanxi, 25 in Inner Mongolia, 12 in Guangxi, six in Hunan, five in Sichuan, three in Fujian, two in Shanghai, two in Henan and one in Ningxia, Gao said. HONG KONG: Seven more persons died from SARS, in Hong Kong, pushing the death toll in the territory to 88, the government said on Sunday. The latest fatalities included an 88-year-old man and two elderly women with chronic illnesses, a statement said. The other four patients were younger — aged between 35 and 47 years — adding to a group of SARS victims whose recent deaths had raised fears that the little-understood disease was more lethal than originally believed. Twentytwo new cases of SARS were reported, bringing the number of persons affected by the disease in Hong Kong to 1,380, the government said. It said 46 patients were discharged from hospitals on Sunday, raising the number of persons who had recovered from SARS to 409.
PTI, AP |
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Sacks Health Minister China sacked Health Minister Zhang Wenkang and Beijing Municipal Committee deputy secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Meng Xuenong today, just hours after officials disclosed a tenfold leap in the number of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome
(SARS) cases in Beijing. Reuters |
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Israeli raid kills five Gaza, April 20 Weekend bloodshed that included the killing of a Palestinian television cameraman in the West Bank cast a shadow over US preparations to unveil a long-delayed “roadmap’’ peace plan once Palestinians install a Cabinet dedicated to democratic reform. New uncertainty loomed after Prime Minister-designate Mahmoud Abbas stalked out of Cabinet talks last evening and threatened to quit after his choice to run the security services was again rejected by President Yasser Arafat. Dozens of Israeli tanks and other armoured vehicles entered Rafah last night, sparking fighting that killed five Palestinians and wounded 45, witnesses and medics said. Witnesses said army bulldozers demolished the home of a fugitive Islamic militant and troops blew up another house alleged to conceal the mouth of a tunnel from nearby Egypt used to smuggle in weapons to militants. Israeli forces withdrew from Rafah in the early hours, today, Palestinian residents said. The army had no immediate comment. Israeli military sources earlier said the incursion struck at “terror activity’’ emanating from the cinder-block camp, a stronghold of militants spearheading a two-and-a-half-year-old Palestinian uprising against Israel for an independent state. Palestinian medics said two of the dead were civilian males aged 14 and 32 while the others were a militant, a policeman and an unidentified man. They said many of the wounded were civilians, including women and children, along with some gunmen. In the West Bank city of Nablus, Palestinian cameraman Nazih Darwazeh, (45), was shot dead by Israeli troops while filming a clash between them and Palestinians, journalists and other witnesses said.
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Chechen rebels ‘kill’ 17 cops Moscow, April 20 The video, which the website said was recorded on Tuesday just outside the Chechen capital of Grozny, shows a white van being ripped apart in a huge explosion. One man appears from the mangled wreckage, and staggers back and forth until he is rescued by a jeep which appears about 30 seconds later. A second, smaller explosion follows about a minute after the jeep’s arrival. “Resulting from a successful attack of the Chechen mujahideen (Muslim holy warriors), a bus was almost completely destroyed along with 15 occupiers and traitors,’’ a statement posted with the video said.
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