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Monday,
August 18, 2003, Chandigarh, India  
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Maoists reject Nepal Govt proposal
Teheran claims on Al-Qaida attacks Idi Amin buried in Jeddah Dictator the world forgot UK Defence Secy accepts blame for Kelly’s death |
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9 arrested for Marriot hotel bombing 15 Afghan guerrillas killed
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Maoists reject Nepal Govt proposal Kathmandu, August 17 “We are disappointed by the government’s proposal as we want a complete change, not just reforms,” chief Maoist negotiator Baburam Bhattarai said after the talks in Nepalgunj, 450 km from here. “The government’s proposal does not resolve the current political crisis,” he added. In its political concept paper presented at the first session of talks, the government had said it was ready to form a multi-party interim regime which would include the Maoists, but rejected the rebels’ demand for elections to a Constituent Assembly to draft a new constitution. Information and Communication Minister Kamal Thapa, part of the two-member government negotiating team, said multi-party democracy, constitutional monarchy and sovereignty vested in the people would be the “bottom line” of its proposed reforms. The political agenda of the government released to the media suggested that it was ready to hold a round-table conference with Opposition parties for a national consensus on the composition of the proposed interim government. Instead of holding elections for the Constituent Assembly, the government proposed to hold elections to the House of Representatives and amend the Constitution within the present framework in accordance with the document of the national consensus. However, Bhattarai rejected the proposals saying that “round-table discussions, an interim government and a Constituent Assembly are interlinked, and one cannot be separated from the other.” After the first session of talks today, the negotiators left for Hapure in Purandare village of Dang district where they held more parleys, Radio Nepal said. However, details of the second meeting were not disclosed. They will meet again tomorrow in Hapure, the radio said.
— PTI |
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Teheran claims on Al-Qaida attacks Teheran, August 17 “Their (Al-Qaida’s) plans for a wide range of terrorist acts inside Iran were neutralised by our intelligence organisations,’’ IRNA quoted Hassan Rohani, Secretary-General of the Supreme National Security Council, as saying. Mr Rohani gave no details of the planned attacks or whether any Al-Qaida members linked to them were arrested. Washington had accused Iran of sheltering Al-Qaida and said members of Bin Laden’s network in Iran might have planned the May 12 bombings in Riyadh which killed 35 persons. Teheran accuses Washington of double standards on terrorism and called on it to deal with the Mujahideen-e-Khalq (MEK) — an Iranian opposition group based in Iraq which has long been termed “terrorist” by the U S State Department.
— Reuters |
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6 killed in violence Teheran, August 17 |
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Idi Amin buried in Jeddah Kampala, August 17 Amin, dubbed “the butcher” by many Ugandans, was buried in the Red Sea coastal city of Jeddah where he had lived in a villa for much of the time since being ousted from power in 1979. He was in his late 70s. The quick funeral was in keeping with Amin’s Muslim faith, but the mostly family affair was a far cry from the pomp he demanded during in the 1970s when he ruled Uganda with a whimsical savagery that shocked and revolted the world. “The family decided and we have buried him in Jeddah,’’ Ali, one of Amin’s sons, said by the telephone from his home in Jinja, some 80 km (50 miles) east of Kampala. “The funeral was modest and the attendance was small, mostly family members,” said a Saudi media source, declining to be identified.
— Reuters |
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Dictator the world forgot Although a forgotten figure now, Idi Amin Dada Oumee, as the ruler of Uganda unleashed a reign of terror that is rivalled, perhaps, only by Hitler, Mussolini, Stalin and Pol Pot. Amin died on August 16 in a Saudi hospital, where he had been critically ill for weeks. The story of his life reads like a chilling chapter from a horror book, the only difference is that in this case the characters and events are true. In the eight years that he ruled Uganda, he was personally responsible for the torture and death of 100,000 and 400,000 people. Anyone who was even suspected of slightly disagreeing with him was immediately imprisoned, tortured and executed. To assist him in this programme of genocide, he appointed 15,000 personal henchmen to “keep the peace”. In the witch hunt that ensued, thousands lost their lives, families and homes. Bodies were discovered with noses, eyes, livers, and genitals missing. Yet, this is the man the world forgot to punish. A textbook case for the students of subnormal and psychopathic behaviour, Amin was born somewhere around 1925, in Koboko, near Arua in the northwest corner of Uganda, to a small Kakwa tribe from north-west Uganda. Always overweight, he grew to a staggering 6’4”. With a physique like that, he held Uganda’s national heavyweight boxing title for nine years. He served in the King’s African Rifles and fought for Britain in World War II in Burma. At the time of Uganda’s independence from Britain in 1962, he was an officer. Although he had had only rudimentary education, he rose to become the chief of staff of Uganda’s army and air force in 1966. When he discovered that President Milton Obote had plans to arrest him on charges of misappropriating millions of dollars of military funds, Amin grabbed power in a military coup on January 25, 1971. He subsequently declared himself field marshal in 1975 and life president in 1976. An immensely unpredictable man, Amin was prone to violent mood swings and morbid psychotic behaviour. His favourite pastime was to place the blood-soaked decapitated heads of his enemies on the dinner table and berate them. Although Amin saw himself as a great leader and liberator, to the rest of the world he was nothing more than a buffoon. And he proved this by his ridiculous actions and statements. He once declared himself King of Scotland and Conqueror of the British Empire in Africa, and even offered to visit Northern Ireland as a peace mediator. Perhaps aware of his growing unpopularity with the masses, Amin suddenly decided to go patriotic, and in an attempt to “Africanise” Uganda’s economy, he gave 60,000 Asians, mainly Indians and Pakistanis, 90 days to leave the country. In the process, he ruined Uganda’s flourishing economy. A man like Amin makes many enemies. Twenty-two assassination attempts were made on his life, but like most dictators, he survived each one of them only to get back at his detractors with a vengeance. At the height of his power, Amin appeared to be invincible, but he made one fatal mistake. In an attempt to divert attention from Uganda’s internal problems, in 1978, Amin launched a military attack on Tanzania in order to annex the Kagera area. He was forced to flee Uganda in April 1979 by Ugandan exiles backed by the Tanzanian army. With a brutal past like that, Amin makes the likes of Saddam Hussein look like a schoolboy. After fleeing Uganda, he first found shelter in Libya, and then in Saudi Arabia, and for the past two decades or so, he has been living quite comfortably in exile with his four wives and 43 children. He tried to return to Uganda but was identified at Kinshasa, Zaire (now the Democratic Republic of the Congo), and forced to return to Saudi Arabia. |
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UK Defence Secy accepts blame for Kelly’s death London, August 17 According to the paper, Mr Hoon telephoned colleagues to tell them he expected to have to “fall on his sword” over the affair, which has triggered a major political crisis for Prime Minister Tony Blair. Last week, a judicial inquiry into the suspected suicide of weapons expert David Kelly heard that Mr Hoon had overruled his most senior civil servant’s request that the scientist be spared a public grilling by a parliamentary committee. Mr Hoon has informed friends that he believes the disclosure, and allegations that he was prepared to put political expediency ahead of Kelly’s welfare, spell doom for his career as a member of Blair’s cabinet of senior ministers, the paper reported. “He’s told us he’s going to carry the can,” one close colleague told the right-wing weekly.
— AFP |
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9 arrested for Marriot hotel bombing Jakarta, August 17 General Da’i Bachtiar said the nine individuals had been picked up in separate raids over the past week. He gave no further details. On Friday, the police said it had detained one suspect and interrogating several others in connection with the attack on August 5 in downtown Jakarta. The speed with which the arrests were made in the latest bombing indicates that the police might have the same degree of success in solving the Marriott bombing as they had with last October’s bombings of two nightclubs in Bali, in which 202 persons were killed. In the ensuing months, the police arrested nearly 30 suspects. The first of these to face trial, Amrozi bin Nurhasyim, was convicted last week and sentenced to be executed by firing squad. He is now appealing his conviction. Bachtiar’s announcement came two days after the arrest in Thailand of Riduan Isamuddin Hambali, head of the Al-Qaida linked terror group Jemaah Islamiyah that is blamed for both the Bali and Marriott blasts. He is now being interrogated by U.S. investigators at an unknown
location. — AP |
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15 Afghan guerrillas killed Kabul, August 17 Shortly before midnight yesterday around 400 guerrillas attacked the headquarters in the town of Barmal in Paktika province, about 200 km south-east of Kabul, said provincial governor Mohammed Ali Jalali.
— AP |
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despots who was blamed for killing tens of thousands of his people, was buried at a small funeral in Saudi Arabia hours after his death today.
