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Arafat buried amid chaotic scenes
Militants take ‘control’ of parts of Mosul
Minister: 1,000 rebels dead
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US steering Indo-Pak relations
Report shows Pak judiciary
in poor light
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Arafat buried amid chaotic scenes
Ramallah, November 13 It was the end of an era for Israelis and Palestinians locked for decades in a conflict of which Arafat was one of the most recognised symbols, and stirred hopes for reviving Middle East peacemaking for the first time in years. Offering condolences to the Palestinians, US President George W. Bush said he saw a “great chance” for lasting peace and creation of a Palestinian state. Bush had in the past shunned Arafat, branding him an “obstacle to peace”. But fears remained of an internal power struggle that could thrust Palestinian territories into chaos and block diplomacy. Amid scenes of frenzied mourning, soil brought from the site of Jerusalem’s Al-Aqsa mosque — Islam’s third holiest site — was poured over Arafat’s casket. A Palestinian flag and a black and white headdress, his trademark, were placed on the tomb of black and white marble. “With our blood and soul we redeem you, Abu Ammar,” the crowd chanted, using the nom de guerre of their leader, who fought for decades for a state he never achieved. With Arafat’s death, Palestinians lost a paternal leader whose autocratic rule and corruption-ridden administration never diminished their admiration for his struggle for independence. Israel put its security forces on high alert over fears that Palestinian militants, whom it says Arafat never tried to restrain, would try to steal centre stage. Militants in Arafat’s own Fatah movement vowed further anti-Israel attacks. An Egyptian helicopter flew Arafat’s coffin from Egypt, where a funeral service was held, to his Muqata headquarters in Ramallah. The aircraft was quickly engulfed by a surging crowd of thousands chanting Arafat’s name. Firing into the air, Palestinian security men struggled to remove the coffin from the aircraft and then held on to it tight as they placed it on a vehicle that plied its way through a dense throng of weeping mourners. Nine Palestinians were wounded by shots fired by the security forces or gunmen. Medics said hundreds were treated after fainting or for minor injuries during the crush. Arafat’s body had been due to lie in state, but an official said it was taken directly to the tree-shaded tomb instead because the crowd’s emotions were running so high. Arafat, a former guerrilla who became a Third World liberation icon and won a Nobel Peace Prize only to sink into renewed conflict with Israel, died at the age of 75 in a French hospital yesterday of an undetermined illness. Within hours of his burial, the new Palestinian leadership appeared to put out its first diplomatic feelers. “We want peace,” Palestinian Cabinet Minister Saeb Erekat told Israeli television, appealing to the Jewish state to pull back troops from West Bank cities to allow elections for Arafat’s successor. The chaotic scenes in Ramallah were in high contrast to a funeral earlier at a Cairo airbase, where the public was kept away and even some world leaders were shut out by mistake by over-zealous Egyptian guards. Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, accompanied by leaders, including Saudi Arabia’s de facto ruler Crown Prince Abdullah and Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, led the mourners in Cairo. Indian External Affairs Minister K. Natwar Singh led a high-level delegation comprising Mr Laloo Prasad Yadav, Mr Ghulam Nabi Azad, Mr E. Ahamed and Mr Sitaram Yechury at the funeral. Arafat’s widow Suha, who had lived apart from him for the last few years of his life, watched the procession from a black car which drove alongside. Accompanied by their 9-year-old daughter Zahwa, Suha wept at the airbase. The United States sent a second-ranking State Department official, Assistant Secretary of State William Burns, to the Cairo ceremony in a slight attesting to its boycott of Arafat. Mr Bush, however, appeared to take a more positive tone during a joint news conference with British Prime Minister Tony Blair in Washington. Israel dispatched no one at all to the ceremonies for Arafat. “I do not think we should send a representative to the funeral of somebody who killed thousands of our people,” Justice Minister Yosef Lapid said.
— Reuters |
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Militants take ‘control’ of parts of Mosul
Mosul (Iraq), November 13 Residents in neighbourhoods throughout the city on the Tigris river, 390 km (240 miles) north of Baghdad, said there was no visible presence of Iraqi security forces or U.S. troops today and armed gunmen held some areas. “In the South and the West of the city, insurgents are doing patrols to protect banks and shops from looters. They are guarding hospitals, schools and fire stations,” said a resident. “There are no police or National Guards anywhere. The insurgents are in charge of security (in those areas).” In districts where insurgents don’t have a strong presence, citizens have set up their own security watches, establishing roadblocks and overnight patrols to deter thieves and looters. The U.S. military has denied the city is out of Iraqi or U.S. control and said on Saturday the situation was calmer, with sporadic fighting in some areas. It said three of five bridges over the Tigris had been reopened. “There is no widespread fighting,” a spokeswoman said. Meanwhile, Iraq’s interim government extended on Saturday the closure of Baghdad international airport indefinitely under emergency rule imposed ahead of this week’s US-led offensive on Falluja. “It is closed until further notice,” an official in Prime Minister Iyad Allawi’s office said when asked about the
airport. — Reuters |
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Minister: 1,000 rebels dead
BAGHDAD: US and Iraqi forces have killed more than 1,000 insurgents in the battle to retake the Sunni Muslim city of Falluja, an Iraqi minister said today.
“More than 1,000 Saddamists and terrorists have been killed. Around 200 have been arrested,” said Mr Kasim Daoud, Minister of State for National Security Affairs, told a press conference.
— Reuters |
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US steering Indo-Pak relations
Islamabad, November 12 When asked about the striking resemblance in the US Mission Plan 2004 and the FY 2005 Plan for Regional Stability and the CBMs undertaken by India and Pakistan on Kashmir and nuclear issues, sources in Pakistan’s Foreign Office said any similarity might be ‘coincidental’. The US plan details some of the steps already taken by the two countries as part of the Composite Dialogue Process which, the document says, would advance “US national security interests through the resolution of regional instability”. The performance goals for “Resolution of regional conflicts” set new targets for the two countries in 2005, including new CBMs on nuclear and conventional weapons. According to the US plan, India and Pakistan would effectively implement existing nuclear and conventional CBMs and agree to implement new ones. The United States Agency for International Development’s Strategic Plan for Fiscal Years 2004-2009 mentions that the US would “encourage India and Pakistan to restrain their programmes, adopt measures designed to reduce nuclear risks, and bring their export control laws and practices in line with international standards”. About the means for achieving the FY 2005 targets, the US government’s action plan for Kashmir outlines continued maintenance of “pressure on Pakistan to prevent terrorist groups from rebuilding and infiltrating across the line of control (LoC)”. The US criterion for measuring performance goals to check the alleged cross-border infiltration mentions that “number of arrests is a direct but crude measure of the Pakistani government’s crackdown on terrorist groups. Overall frequency and level of dialogue, stringency of transportation controls, and implementation of CBMs best assess the state of bilateral relationship”. According to the US plan, not much progress is expected in 2005 on trade between India and Pakistan though “it (bilateral trade) is considered a good measure of economic cooperation”. Efforts would be made to conduct a poll in 2005 to determine “Kashmiris’ level of satisfaction with their everyday lives”. The US would continue to strengthen Pakistan’s counter-terror capability and its military cooperation and ties. The US government, according to the plan, would also “work to support India’s ability to monitor the border” and to deepen military cooperation and ties and to strengthen rule of law and counter-narcotics capability of New Delhi. The US government’s targets for FY 2005 include pilot programming in Kashmir with tangible benefits by fostering “cooperative and confidence building programmes in Kashmir in areas such as employment generation and civil society development and between India and Pakistan. in areas such as people-to-people contacts, economic cooperation and environmental protection”.
— By arrangement with The Dawn, Karachi. |
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Report shows Pak judiciary
in poor light
Islamabad, November 12 The report, launched simultaneously in Islamabad and Brussels, also asserts: “On the three occasions since independence when military coups have ended democratic rule in Pakistan, the judiciary not only failed to check extra-constitutional regime change, but also endorsed and abetted the consolidation of illegally gained power.” The report said Pakistan’s courts have followed the path of least resistance and least fidelity to constitutional principles and continued to play the role of military’s handmaiden from the times of Gen Ayub to that of the present military regime. “The Supreme Court not only ratified the October 12, 1999 coup and the suspension of the 1973 Constitution but also handed the military an unsought licence to amend the Constitution and then stood by while the procedures for presidential election were cast aside.” The report said that in keeping with its practice when confronted by military interventions in democratic politics in 1958 and 1977, the Supreme Court went out of its way, in the Zafar Ali Shah case, to endorse military rule and endow Gen Musharraf with the means to entrench his rule through extensive amendments to the 1973 Constitution. In the immediate aftermath of Gen Musharraf’s October 1999 coup, the ICG said, the judiciary was relieved of judges who might have opposed the military’s unconstitutional assumption of power. The report said rather than supporting the judiciary, Gen Musharraf’s government has sought aggressively to co-opt or disable the judiciary by removing independent judges, placing allies in key chief justice positions and rewarding judges who issue judgments favourable to the executive. The ICG report said deviations from the seniority rule began in February 2000 and were justified on the ground that the then chief justice of Pakistan did not approve the promotion of the most senior Lahore High Court judge, Justice Falak Sher, to the chief justice’s position. In September 2002, the report said, Justice Sher was elevated to the Supreme Court and Justice Iftikhar Hussain Chaudhry, brother of a former Punjab governor, took his place as chief justice of the Lahore High Court. In elevating Justice Chaudhry, a more senior judge, Justice Fakharun Nisa Khokar, who would have been the nation’s first woman chief justice, was passed over. To eliminate potential judicial challenges, the report said, the present military government, like the previous ones, devised ways to keep the judiciary weak. “In weakening the judiciary, General Musharraf has applied tactics tested by his military predecessors; particularly the use of a new oath to purge the benches of judges disinclined to toe the military line,” said the
report. — By arrangement with the Dawn, Karachi. |
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