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Monday,
July 14, 2003, Chandigarh, India  
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Blair erred over Iraq
WMDs: Blix Pak ready to reduce troops if Kashmir issue is settled Indo-Pak ties can’t improve under military rule: Benazir Indian youth delegation leaves Pak Menon to arrive in Pak on July 15
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A-I bombing suspect’s firms served warrants 12 more killed in Bangladesh floods
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Blair erred over Iraq WMDs: Blix London, July 13 The figure of 45 minutes to deploy weapons of mass destruction seemed pretty far off the mark, Blix told The Independent on Sunday. “I think that was a fundamental mistake. I do not know exactly how they calculated this figure of 45 minutes in the dossier of September last year. That seems pretty far off the mark to me,” he said. The claim was made in the government’s WMD dossier last September and repeated by the Prime Minister when he presented the document in the House of Commons. Blix said it was theoretically possible to switch in an instant from producing vaccines to producing biological weapons. “But a weapon is also about a means of delivery. It seems to me highly unlikely that there were any means of delivering biological or chemical weapons within 45 minutes,” he said. He also said the British Government “overinterpreted” the intelligence they had. Saying that Blair was “strongly convinced” about the existence of WMDs he maintained “In fact, I was the one who was skeptical and critical, said that I did not think that the evidence was so strong and said so to the Security Council.”
— PTI |
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Pak ready to reduce troops if Kashmir issue is settled Islamabad, July 13 “We have offered and are ready to reduce the number of our troops if the Kashmir issue is addressed and South Asia is declared a nuclear-free zone,” The News quoted General Musharraf as saying in an interview to a German TV channel. He maintained that Pakistan would continue to maintain conventional and non-conventional military balance in the region. General Musharraf, pointing out that there would be no compromise on their honour and dignity, said, “we do not want war, but peaceful resolution of all disputes”. “We want the resolution of all disputes. That does not mean that we will ever sideline the Kashmir issue,” he underlined while addressing officers and engineers of Pakistan Ordnance Factories in Wah here, the paper said. The President said ultimate peace could be achieved through the resolution of disputes and added that it had no aggressive designs and its weapons production capability was meant for peace with honour and dignity. He said the government introduced constitutional amendments through the LFO for the purpose of checks and balances on everyone, including the President, the Prime Minister and the army chief. “Democracy means rule of the majority,” he said, adding that the country needed a permanent system for a sustainable democracy so that no one could derail it. The president said the country had no threat from outside as the country was powerful enough to defend itself, but “the threat was from within Pakistan.”
— UNI |
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Indo-Pak ties can’t improve under military rule: Benazir Kathmandu, July 13 “The relations between Pakistan and India deteriorated during military rule,” she told Indian media this morning. Ms Bhutto, here on a private visit, said, “When there is democracy in Pakistan, the relations between the two countries improved. They improved during my premiership.” President Musharraf could not control extremists, she said, adding that military rulers worked under the influence of extremists and had no control over them. “I have doubts about his ability to control the extremists. The hardliners play in the military. I myself have that experience,” she said. There must be democracy in South Asia otherwise the entire South Asian region will be unstable and dangerous, the former Pakistani premier warned. “Non-state actors are active in the absence of democracy and there will be violence and murder. There is a threat of terrorism in the absence of democracy. The state becomes dangerous and unstable,’’ she said. “If we want to avoid such a situation, let us build peace and understanding, which is only possible in a democracy,” the chairperson of the Pakistan People’s Party said. Asked about the resumption of the bus service between India and Pakistan, she said, “This is a silver lining in the dark and gloomy clouds.” She said the SAARC progress was very slow because there was lack of political understanding.
— UNI |
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Indian youth delegation leaves Pak after visit Karachi, July 13 “It was a very successful visit and we look forward to further exchanges,” said group coordinator Ragni Kidwai, a 17-year-old Pakistani student. The trip was funded by the Youth Initiative for Peace, a year-old organisation promoting sustainable peace on the subcontinent that counts young people from both India and Pakistan as members. The group came up with the idea for the trip during a 2002 meeting in Singapore, where they realised the need for greater interaction by the youth of the two nations. “The visit has changed my opinion about Pakistanis,” said Harmus Masani, a student from Nasik. The students spent 10 days together discussing the tensions that stretch across the borders of the two countries and what the implications of warming ties between New Delhi and Islamabad could mean for future generations. They also participated in dance, music, film and arts projects in an effort to overcome decades of mutual acrimony. Their time together ended with their collaboration on “Bus,” a 10-minute documentary film about their travels onboard a bus and the trials and arguments they confront as they try to map out a way towards peace between India and Pakistan, which have fought three wars since Independence in 1947.
— AFP |
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Menon to arrive in Pak on July 15 Islamabad, July 13 Mr Menon, who formally relinquished his previous charge as Ambassador to China early this week, will travel through the Wagah border in Punjab, in the same way as his Pakistani counterpart Aziz Ahmad Khan travelled to India. According to officials at the Indian High Commission here, arrangements have been made to receive Mr Menon at the Wagah checkpost on Tuesday. He will be received at Wagah, among others, by Charge d’Affaires of the Indian High Commission T.C.A. Raghavan and protocol officials of the Pakistan Foreign Office. Mr Menon, they said, was expected to submit his credentials towards the end of this month to President Musharraf, who is leaving on a 10-day tour of three African countries Morocco, Tunisia and Algeria tomorrow. The Indian envoy’s arrival will formally restore the diplomatic links between the two countries at the top after they were severed during the height of military tensions that gripped the nuclear neighbours in the aftermath of the terrorist attack on Parliament in December 2001.
— PTI |
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A-I bombing suspect’s firms served warrants Vancouver, July 13 The warrants, issued in the past two weeks, were for separate branches of Khalsa Credit Union, the controversial financial institution funded by the main Air-India bombing suspect Ripudaman Singh Malik. They indicated that the police was looking for more detailed information about the accounts in the credit union of Khalsa School, another institution founded by Malik, receiving more than $ 3 million in British Columbia Government funding each year. One warrant was executed by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police at the credit union’s Vancouver branch about two weeks ago while the second was executed this week in Surrey, a media report said. The trial of Malik and co-accused Ajaib Singh Bagri began on April 28, but had been adjourned till September. The Air-India Kanishka flight exploded off the coast of Ireland on June 23, 1985, killing all 329 persons on board. Sergeant Grant Learned confirmed yesterday that the search warrants had been executed, but said he could not comment on any details because the case was in court. “The investigation into matters relating to Air-India is still open. Investigative actions are still being conducted,” Learned said, adding, “I can confirm that search warrants were executed in June and July in relation to the Air-India case.”
— PTI |
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12 more killed in Bangladesh floods Dhaka, July 13 At least 12 persons were drowned and an estimated 4,00,000 had become homeless as heavy rains and water cascading down the hills from across the border in India converted the Brahmaputra and the Ganga into raging flood waters. Disaster Management Office sources said renewed flooding had destroyed 72,000 mud and straw houses in the northern Rangpur region. About 12,000 farming families living near the Teesta river dam in Dimla and Jaldhaka sub-districts were told to move to flood shelters with their movable valuables and animals. Engineers were making emergency repairs to a dam close to the capital Dhaka which showed signs of stress in the face of mounting pressure of rain-swollen branch rivers of the Ganga, the Flood Information Centre said.
— DPA |
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