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Friday,
September 12, 2003, Chandigarh, India  
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World remembers September 11 dead
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Parmar asked me to
make explosive device, says Reyat British Sikhs
float political party
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World remembers
September 11 dead
Canberra, September 11 In Tokyo, yellow-robed Buddhist monks led a group of 20 persons to pray for peace outside the US Embassy and in protest against war in Iraq. Diplomats at US embassies lit candles. Environmental group Planet Ark joined Americans to plant 3,000 native saplings in a Sydney park in memory of those killed when suicide hijackers flew airliners into the World Trade Center, the Pentagon and a field in Pennsylvania. Casting a shadow over the commemorations was a new videotape showing Al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden praising those strikes. It underscored just how much remained to be achieved in the war on terror declared by US President George W. Bush two years ago. “The attacks on the USA did indeed rouse the ‘mighty giant’ Mr Bush spoke of at the time,” said Hong Kong’s South China Morning Post in an editorial. “But the world’s only remaining superpower must realise that the ‘with us, or against us’ approach, and in particular the further use of aggression, will only fuel the hatred which motivated the attacks in the first place.” These were sentiments echoed around Asia and served as a reminder of US military actions that had divided the world in the past two years. The Australian parliament observed a minute’s silence in memory of those who died in the attacks. In Hong Kong, the US consulate lowered its flag to half-mast. Australian Prime Minister John Howard said on television: “This war against terrorism is likely to go on for years and nobody can regard themselves as beyond the reach of terrorism.” In Indonesia the Jakarta Post took a similar tone. “There is also the fear that, unless it is carefully managed, the war against terrorism is likely to be perceived in the Islamic world as a crusade against them,” it said. France’s Le Monde ran a headline after September 11, 2001, saying everyone felt American now. On Thursday, its editorial on Washington ran: “Compassion has given way to the fear that ill-considered actions are aggravating the problems and that the fight against terrorism is a pretext to extend US hegemony.” NEW YORK: Hundreds of family members of victims of the World Trade Center terror attack rallied at Ground Zero to demand a planned monument there extend down to the bedrock footprint of the razed buildings. Standing along the eastern edge of Ground Zero yesterday, members of the coalition of 9/11 families wore yellow ribbons bordered in black, brandished photos of departed loved ones and chanted “preserve sacred ground” the day before the second anniversary of the New York attacks that killed nearly 2,800 persons. |
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Swedish minister stabbed to death Stockholm, September 11 Ms Lindh, who was attacked yesterday, was operated on at Karolinska Hospital for most of the night. She suffered severe internal bleeding and liver and stomach injuries. Ms Lindh was stabbed in the stomach, chest and arm, and the police was searching for a man wearing a camouflage jacket who fled the store. The death shocked a nation that has long prided itself on the accessibility of its politicians. Like many officials, she didn’t use a bodyguard. The police said it didn’t believe the attack was politically motivated, but it stirred memories of the unsolved murder of Prime Minister Olof Palme, who was killed while walking home from a downtown movie theater with his wife in 1986.
— AP |
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Parmar asked me to
make explosive Vancouver, September 11 Reyat has already been convicted and has served a 10-year jail term in connection with Narita airport bombing which occurred on the same day as the Kanishka aircraft exploded over the Atlantic, killing all 329 persons on board. Two baggage handlers were killed at the airport. A former auto mechanic from Duncan, Reyat who is the first among the accused to take the stand in 18 years, yesterday recalled the events before the bombings for the court. Testifying here yesterday under the protection of the Canada Evidence Act, (which means he cannot face new charges based on his testimony), Reyat remembered with a selective memory that he was approached by leader of Babbar Khalsa group Talwinder Singh Parmar in early 1985 about making an explosive device to be used in India. “He (Parmar) wanted to use the device in India,” Reyat testified before the British Columbia Court hearing the trial but said he could not recall why he wanted the device, what the target was or when it would go off. Reyat, however, contradicted himself, saying at one point that he only knew Parmar through religious functions and later called him a “friend.” He also denied that he knew that the bombs would be used on Flight 182 or who had put them on the plane. On being asked what kind of device Parmar wanted him to take to India, he said “I can’t recall the exact words” and to what was the device supposed to do, he replied “explode.” While Reyat remembered the tea that he served to Parmar, he could not recall an unidentified man who visited his house with Parmar, even though the man has been referred to in the court as Mr X and stayed with Reyat and his family for several days, Canadian daily ‘The Globe and Mail’ said. He also acknowledged knowing the two
defendants, Vancouver-based businessman Ripudaman Singh Malik and Kamloops millworker Ajaib Singh Bagri for years through the Sikh religious functions in the 1970s and 80s in Vancouver. —
PTI |
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British Sikhs
float political party London, September 11 The federation plans to set up branches in major towns and cities with a sizeable Sikh population, including Slough, Glasgow and London. However, it does not initially plan to put up its own candidates for local, national or European elections and will support any party that represents the community’s interest best. According to federation spokesman Dabinderjit Singh, one of the main issues the federation plans to take up is the matter of identity. He said the Sikhs were very angry that despite promises from the government, they were let down over issues of identity. Though Mr Dabinderjit Singh did not mention it, some in the community have been reportedly voicing the demand for a specific identity, objecting to being called by the generic term ‘Indians’. Mr Dabinderjit Singh said, “I can name a dozen Labour ministers who have a large number of Sikhs in their constituencies...the Sikh Federation wants to tell them that unless you start helping us and taking our issues seriously we will not vote for you.” He said the Conservatives had been very helpful and “very willing to listen, more so than the government.” —
UNI |
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Bush meets Dalai Lama Washington, September 11 The Dalai Lama, after is second visit to the White House in as many years, told reporters that his meetings with Mr Bush and the earlier one with Secretary of State Colin Powell had been “very useful”. Both leaders had shown “their genuine interest and sympathy regarding our problem,” he said. President Bush declared his strong support for the Dalai Lama’s commitment to the dialogue with China, said White House spokesman Scott McLellan. “The President said he would seek ways to encourage China to continue the dialogue on a substantive basis, and expressed his hope that the Chinese Government would respond favourably,” he said. The Tibetan leader said that he was fully committed to the “middle-way approach” in his dialogue with China, “not seeking independence.” —
PTI |
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