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Wednesday,
October
15, 2003,
Chandigarh, India
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Kashmir issue not
purely bilateral: Pak
Israeli Left,
Palestinians reach ‘virtual’ pact US draft resolution invites opposition Peacekeepers to
move beyond Kabul |
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Maoists storm
school, 4 students die in crossfire
Kosovo talks
start, first since 1999 Khatami finally
welcomes Nobel Peace Prize Man held for
honour killing
|
|
Kashmir issue not purely bilateral: Pak Putrajya (Malaysia), October 14 “It is like Israel telling the OIC not to discuss its conflict with the Palestinians,” he told mediapersons on the sidelines of the Islamic Foreign Ministers conference here this morning. Mr Kasuri made these remarks following Indian High Commissioner to Malaysia Veena Sikri’s assertion that the OIC had no locus standi to discuss the Kashmir issue, which Islamabad and New Delhi had agreed to solve through the Simla Agreement and the Lahore Declaration. The Foreign Minister said, “We are prepared to discuss the matter bilaterally with India, but they want to have it both ways. We want to sit down and discuss, they do not. They keep on prevaricating.” The Indian High Commissioner, who is reported to have met top Malaysian officials to convey the sentiments of the Indian government on this issue, also urged Malaysia to exclude the issue from the summit agenda. Malaysia would take over the chairmanship of the OIC on Thursday. Mr Kasuri said, “What we need to do is to restore the hope of the people of Kashmir and Palestine so that they will be able to see the light at the end of the tunnel. But India has twisted it, claiming that Islamabad has admitted to being behind perpetrators of terror.” He urged the Indian Government to reciprocate Islamabad’s goodwill gesture and create awareness for a meaningful dialogue. Asked whether Pakistan would support any move to make India a member of the OIC, he said such a move had to be made by consensus. The Foreign Minister said Pakistan wanted the OIC to do self-analysis so as to be stronger and be able to make a meaningful contribution to the Ummah and the Muslim world. He said the Islamic world had neglected human resource development, research and development and science and technology.
— UNI |
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Pakistan tests another missile Islamabad, October 14 “Pakistan today carried out another successful test- fire of its indigenously developed medium-range surface-to-surface ballistic Hatf-IV/Shaheen-1,” a statement from the military’s public relations department said. It was the second test of Shaheen-1 in less than a week. Islamabad, wary of superiority of its rival India in conventional weapons, carried out the first test of nuclear-capable Shaheen-1 on Wednesday. The missile has a range of up to 700 km and can carry all “kinds of warheads”, the military has said.
— Reuters |
|
Israeli Left, Palestinians reach ‘virtual’ pact
Jerusalem, October 14 But ministers in Prime Minister Ariel Sharon’s right-wing cabinet as well as his Labour predecessor Ehud Barak dismissed the talks as a “virtual agreement” and accused the opposition group of harming Israeli national interests. The pact, which resulted from two years of dialogue initiated by Israeli left-wingers, was a symbolic effort by Israel’s opposition to show negotiations were possible rather than produce a document Sharon’s government would adopt. “In the situation of a vacuum, a lack of dialogue and violence, which has continued for three years, we were told over and over that there was no one to talk to,” said Labour Party politician Avraham Burg, a former Parliament speaker. “It now turns out... that there is someone to talk to and something to talk about,” he told the media. A US-backed “road map” charting the way to a Palestinian state by 2005 has been derailed by persistent violence, though it had been endorsed by the Palestinians and Mr Sharon, albeit with reservations on the Israeli side. The new “peace plan” could give a new lease of life to Israel’s dovish left whose public standing has plunged since the Palestinians launched an uprising replete with suicide bombings after negotiations for a final peace treaty deadlocked in 2000.
— Reuters |
|
US draft resolution invites opposition United Nations, October 14 They expressed disappointment that the resolution did not provide a timetable for handing
over the administrative authority to the Iraqis as demanded by them and France, Germany and Russia said they planned to move amendments. Reacting to the new resolution, Mr Annan said “obviously the current resolution does not represent a major shift in the thinking of the US-led coalition.” The Germans, Russians and Chinese indicated that the third revision of the resolution, which was circulated yesterday, was better than the two previous drafts but still fell short. Russia’s Deputy UN Ambassador Yuri Fedotov said Moscow planed to suggest “a series of additional but very important amendments,” the Interfax agency reported.
— PTI |
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Peacekeepers to move beyond Kabul United Nations, October 14 The approval of the resolution came yesterday after NATO’s Secretary-General, Lord Robertson, sent a letter to Mr John Negroponte, the US Ambassador to the United Nations and the council’s President for October, seeking a vote. The resolution, drafted by Germany, authorises an expansion of the 5,500-strong International Security Assistance Force, known as ISAF, which is now confined to Kabul area.
— AP |
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Maoists storm school, 4 students die in crossfire Kathmandu, October 14 Five students were also injured in the crossfire at Mutuhara village, about 600 km northeast of the capital, Kathmandu. An army official at Nepalgunj, regional headquarters of the security forces, said soldiers stormed the high school after receiving information that the rebels had taken control of the school. The battle between the soldiers and the rebels lasted into the night.
— AP |
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Kosovo talks start, first since 1999
Vienna, October 14 The talks got off to a shaky start after Kosovo’s ethnic Albanian Prime Minister stayed away despite western pressure. Serbian leaders also threatened a last-minute boycott. “I am aware that the first step of a journey is often the most difficult one,” European Union foreign policy chief Javier Solana said in opening remarks. “But as one moves ahead, progress becomes easier,” he said in a text of his speech to the closed-door talks in Vienna, a location chosen as neutral ground. Kosovo was put under UN rule in 1999 after NATO bombing to end Serb repression of the majority Albanians. The two sides remain bitterly divided, with Serbia insisting Kosovo remains part of its territory while Albanians demand independence. The landmark meeting had appeared under threat yesterday when Serbian sources said Belgrade might not attend because there was no representative from Kosovo’s Serb minority in the province’s delegation. European Union diplomats said Solana frantically worked the phones to save the talks.
— Reuters |
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Khatami finally welcomes Nobel Peace Prize
Teheran, October 14 “There is no one who does not delight in the success of a compatriot,” Mr Khatami told mediapersons after leaving Parliament, adding that “obviously, I am pleased that a compatriot has achieved such success”. “I hope this achievement will serve the general interests of the people, world peace and humanity,” said the embattled reformist President.
— AFP |
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Man held for honour killing Islamabad, October 14 Mir Hassan allegedly led a group who shot Shazia Hassan and Mohammed Hassan after Khaskheli tribal members in the town of Sanghar found them guilty of marrying for love instead of following the custom of arranged marriage, Mohammed Fayyaz, a town police official, said today. He said the couple was taken from its home on Wednesday to the outskirts of Sanghar, where a group of people, mostly family members led by Mir Hassan, shot them. Mir Hassan was arrested along with another family member.
— AP |
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