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Thursday,
July 17, 2003, Chandigarh, India  
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US aid
only ‘if Pak fulfils pledges’ UN for
global check on small arms
US soldiers guard the body of a soldier killed in an attack on a convoy on a main highway as a medic Blackhawk helicopter takes
off on Wednesday in west Baghdad. — AP/PTI photo Lashkar-e-Jhangvi
behind Quetta massacre |
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US aid only ‘if Pak fulfils pledges’ Washington, July 16 The Congress will be watching to ensure that aid to Pakistan is given only under the three conditions President George W Bush has set namely — restoration of democracy, non-proliferation and anti-terrorism, Co-chairman of the India Caucus, Democratic Congressman Joseph Crowley, said at the annual banquet hosted by the Indian American Friendship Council last night. Indian Ambassador Lalit Mansingh, while expressing concern at the US military aid to Islamabad, said in the past US arms in Pakistani hands were used only against India. India welcomed economic aid to Pakistan, but, because of past experience, not military aid, Mr Mansingh said, pointing out that the $ 3 billion aid to Pakistan included $ 1.5 billion for the country’s military. The India Caucus had grown from eight to 163, the largest Caucus in the USA, Mr Mansingh said and hoped that Indian Americans would persuade US Senators to set up a similar body. The banquet, attended by a number of Senators and congressional India Caucus members, was marked by expressions of support for New Delhi as speakers stressed the values shared by the two countries and the new geopolitical ties. In a message to the council, US President George W Bush praised the Indian American community saying that it played “an important role in helping shape our culture, our character, and our future”. Through their commitment to family, community and education these talented citizens have “made contributions that enrich our society and contribute to the diversity that makes our nation strong”, Mr Bush said. “We look forward to a future of continued friendship and collaboration between our great nations,” he said. Republican Co-chairman of the India Caucus Joe Wilson pointed out that he had spoken out on the House floor against the “unremitting terrorism India faces in Kashmir”. Noting that the community of Indian origin in the USA had played a “sterling role” in fostering the recent transformation in the relations between the two countries, Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, in his message, said “with its growing numbers and influence, the community has a special responsibility to ensure that the momentum of our exchanges is further accelerated, and that our people reap the benefits of the opportunities so generated”. Mr Vajpayee said relations between India and the USA had now entered “a new and promising era of partnership and cooperation.”
— PTI |
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UN for global check on small arms THE continuing global scourge of small arms and light weapons that kills around 60 persons every hour worldwide has given a fresh impetus to international efforts to tackle the deadly problem. At last week’s meeting at the United Nations office in New York to review the implementation of the 2001 programme of action on small arms, Secretary-General Kofi Annan noted in a message that half a million people a year were killed by those weapons — 90 per cent of them were women and children. While most of the 500 million small arms in circulation are in the hands of police forces, armies and lawful owners, a significant number end up in the hands of irregular forces, criminals, drug traffickers and terrorists. An independent small arms survey in 2003 revealed that the small arms industry had continued to grow and that the USA and the Russian federation were dominating the field. The survey also points out that although Europeans thought they lived in a gun-free society, there were actually 84 million firearms in the European Union, 80 per cent of which were in civilian hands. The European Union as a whole was the largest small arms exporter. According to the survey, the USA is home to the largest number of small arms manufacturers. The Inter-American Development Bank has estimated the direct and indirect costs of small arms violence at $ 140 to 170 billion per year in Latin America alone. Despite US ambivalence on the small arms issue, the 2001 UN conference had adopted a programme of action to combat the illicit trade in small arms. The week-long session of the first biennial follow-up meeting earlier this month took stock of the progress made so far and discussed ways of gathering further momentum, political will and professional expertise to better implement the programme. As the chairperson of the meeting, Ms Kuniko Inoguchi of Japan noted in her summing up of the deliberations that significant progress had been made in terms of public disclosures about the origins, destruction, modus operandi and profiling of groups engaged in the illicit small arms trade. Over 90 countries had reported that they had domestic laws governing the illicit manufacture, possession and trade in weapons. What emerged at the biennial meeting was that moving ahead on a global scale was a big challenge. Ms Inoguchi reminded the delegates that nearly all terrorist acts were committed with small arms. The illicit flow of those weapons was linked to issues like terrorism, drug trafficking and money laundering. At the 2006 review conference, the focus will be on the threat created by terrorism. The New York conference may at the least have provided an opportunity to states to recount experiences and lessons learnt in pursuit of eradicating the billion dollar illicit small arms trade. It also established that tackling the small arms menace is now definitely on the agendas of the world’s governments, notwithstanding the powerful clout and influence of gun lobbies in countries like the USA. |
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Ex-Marine held, girl safe London, July 16 Toby Studabaker, 31, was detained in Frankfurt, bringing to an end a four-day international manhunt involving detectives in Britain, France, Germany, Ireland and the US. The British police said it was sending two officers to Germany and would apply for Studabaker's extradition to Britain, where Shevaun Pennington was reunited with her distraught parents. German magistrate Clemens Becker told reporters that any extradition request would be studied. He expected Studabaker to be brought before a judge on Thursday afternoon. In Britain, investigating officer Peter Mason said Shevaun was not with Studabaker when she was found. "Shevaun was en route to this country...they had separated," he told reporters.Her mother Joanna broke down in tears and clutched her husband Stephen's hand as she described their overwhelming sense of relief. "This is absolutely unbelievable," she said. "I cannot tell you how relieved I am. It is such a turnaround from days ago, which seems years ago. It is absolutely fantastic," she said. Her first words to her daughter were "How are You?" and "Give us a hug." Shevaun left their home in Wigan, near Manchester, on Saturday. It later emerged she had gone to meet Studabaker and the pair had flown to Paris together. The previous day, he had flown from Detroit to Manchester to be with her. The police says they had been in touch with each other for some time via e-mail after making contact through an Internet chat room. The case rekindled concerns in Britain and abroad about so-called
"grooming" by adults, who contact children via the Internet. |
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One more US soldier killed in Iraq Abu Ghraib (Iraq), July 16 A military convoy driving on a highway near Abu Ghraib, 25 km west of Baghdad, was hit by an explosion that badly damaged a military truck and left two other soldiers wounded, US soldiers on the scene said. “We were driving by in a convoy and we heard a big explosion. As the convoy passed that truck over there blew up,” specialist Jose Colon told Reuters. “One of the men who was injured was angry so he jumped out of the truck and started firing on those bushes. He is lucky because he almost died the other day as well in another truck explosion.” An officer at the scene said the type of explosion was not clear. The body of the soldier lay on the highway covered with a yellow sheet as the two wounded men received treatment. Helicopters hovered above and US soldiers stood guard, pointing their machineguns towards the edge of the road and peering through binoculars for other possible attackers. One soldier put his arm around another and comforted him as he cried while sitting on the barrier that divides the highway. About 40 Iraqis walked out of their neighbourhood and watched. Their mood was different. “We are happy because this is an occupation,” said Mansour Badri, a teenager who lives in a village nearby. “The Americans lied to us when they said they would save us from Saddam. They just want to occupy our country.” Badri and his friends said Baath Party supporters had been encouraging teenagers like them to fight against Americans and had offered them money. The blast was the latest in a spate of increasingly bold guerrilla attacks. US forces have come under daily attack in recent weeks which have continued despite a crackdown by US troops in areas to the northeast and north of the capital, once a hotbed for Saddam loyalists. US administrator Paul Bremer said Washington and London would pull out their forces from Iraq once the coalition’s mission was accomplished.
— Reuters |
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Lashkar-e-Jhangvi behind
Quetta massacre Islamabad, July 16 While Prime Minister Mir Zafrullah Khan Jamali held a “foreign hand” responsible for the massacre, Interior Minister Faisal Saleh Hayat had blamed India for the incident. “The involvement of the two Indian missions at Kandahar and Herat in Afghanistan in the tragic incident of Quetta cannot be ruled out,” he had reportedly claimed. Meanwhile, a videotape and a letter have been handed over to the BBC in which the Lashkar-e-Jhangvi claimed responsibility for the killings. The terrorists have been identified as Asghar and Omar —both Lashkar-e-Jhangvi activists, the newspaper said quoting a senior police official on condition of anonymity. |
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