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Scribes baton-charged in Nepal
Rangers, BSF to patrol border jointly
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China backs India’s claim on UN seat
Blast kills 4 soldiers; Geneva talks doubtful
Irish army march to mark Easter Rising anniversary
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Scribes baton-charged in Nepal
Kathmandu, April 15 The police indiscriminately baton-charged around 300 journalists at a rally organised by the Federation of Nepalese Journalists (FNJ) in the Gaushala area of the capital, leaving 12 of them injured, FNJ sources said. Six journalists, including FNJ general secretary Mahendra Bista, were seriously injured in the incident. The sources added that the police also arrested four scribes. In a separate incident, the police intervened in a meet-the-press programme organised on the street in front of the Reporters Club Nepal at Putalisadak. Nineteen journalists and artists taking part in the programme were arrested. Meanwhile, hundreds of Indian labourers have been forcibly evicted from Nepal following the growing unrest in the kingdom, provoking sharp criticism from India. Last week, labourers numbering between 150 and 200 working in factories in Birgunj town were beaten up, robbed and threatened by local people to leave. The frightened men, most them from Bihar, left en masse. After fleeing to Raxaul across the border, the angry labourers planned to attack a train, usually carrying Nepalese people, in revenge. However, alerted by the Indian authorities, the railway police swung into action and prevented the attack. Taking serious note of the incident, the Indian consulate in Birgunj has sent a note to Nepal’s Foreign Ministry, warning that if such an incident recurred, there would be far-reaching consequences for Nepal. —
PTI, IANS |
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Rangers, BSF to patrol border jointly
Islamabad, April 15 This announcement was made at a joint press conference by BSF Additional Director-General N.P.S. Aulakh, the head of an 18-member Indian delegation, and Major-General Hussain Mehdi, Director-General Pakistan Rangers (Punjab), in Lahore last evening. The decision of starting joint patrolling came after a three-day long negotiation between the officials of the two countries. Both sides, however, failed to give details of the procedure of the joint patrolling. During the negotiations, the officials also took some other important decisions. Maj-Gen Mehdi said Kashmir was the core issue for Pakistan and both countries had their own stance in this regard. ''We have developed a consensus regarding joint patrolling and many other issues like working boundary, search lights, firing exercises and combating smuggling,'' he said. Advance warning system will be introduced in certain areas before starting firing exercise, Maj-Gen Mehdi said, adding direction of the search lights installed by India was creating problems for Pakistan. ''We have brought the matter into the notice of Indian authorities who have assured us to settle the issue amicably.'' He said those who cross the border unintentionally would be sent back to the country concerned after proper verification within 72 hours. Maj-Gen Mehdi was of the view that though there were no prisoners of War (PoWs) in the jails of Pakistan but on the insistence of Indian authorities they would arrange another survey to validate the fact, and if any prisoner was found he would be handed over to the Indian authorities. ''More than 200 prisoners are currently in the Indian jails and Pakistan Rangers has handed over a list of their names in this regard to the Indian delegation,'' he said. Additional Director-Gen Aulakh said positive results of the steps taken regarding confidence building measures and boundary matters were coming out and Pakistan Rangers would visit India in coming September to talk further in this regard. —
UNI |
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China backs India’s claim on UN seat
New Delhi, April 15 Even on the Indo-US civil nuclear deal, China did not extend direct support saying that Beijing was not worried by the growing relations between New Delhi and Washington. “We need developing countries in the expanded Security Council and hope India would play a larger role in the international affairs, including the UN,” Chinese Ambassador Sun Yuxi said, emphasising that China was “not an obstacle” to New Delhi’s bid. China, which is known for its subtle diplomatic moves, is aiming at downsising Japan and breaking the unity among the G-4 countries, sources said. New Delhi is not particularly concerned at the Chinese move as Tokyo has been playing the US game, sources pointed out. The Ambassador admitted that China had worked against the G-4, comprising India, Brazil, Germany and Japan, because Tokyo was in the group. “We are opposed to Japan’s bid as it has not adopted the correct attitude to historic issues,” the envoy said while addressing a seminar on “Emerging trends in Sino-Indian relations” here.
— TNS |
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Blast kills 4 soldiers; Geneva talks doubtful
Colombo, April 15 Four soldiers were killed and 12 others wounded when the landmine, planted in a two-wheel hand-tractor, exploded as a bus transporting troops went by at Mundimurippu in the northern district of Vavuniya. The attack came hours after troops detected four powerful Claymore mines at two locations. The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) scrapped an internal meeting protesting the presence of a Naval ship escorting their cadres who were going by sea to the northern stronghold of Kilinochi. The eight-day meeting between LTTE’s top leadership and field commanders was earlier described by the Tigers as crucial for the Geneva talks, which was rescheduled yesterday to April 24 by Norwegian peace brokers. Slamming the Tigers’s decision to pull out of the transport agreement, the head of government’s Secretariat for Co-ordinating the Peace Process Palitha Kohona said the Scandinavian mediators had planned to transport the field commanders in a ferry accompanied by Sri Lankan naval escorts, adding the government imposed no new conditions on them. But for their part, the LTTE said, “We wish to emphasise that today’s incident has put into question our decision and subsequent efforts to go to Geneva and that the actions of the government of Sri Lanka and Sri Lankan military is the reason for this unfortunate situation.” The Tigers said, “excessive interference” by Navy in their commanders’ transport was in total contradiction to prior agreement with truce monitors. “These have angered and disappointed our leadership and made it impossible for our leadership to meet and discuss issues prior to the Geneva talks,” they said.
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Muriel Spark dead
Rome, April 15 Her funeral will be held there on Saturday. Spark, born in February, 1918 in Edinburgh to a Jewish father and Anglican mother, died on Friday in a hospital in Florence after battling health problems. She wrote 24 novels, several short stories and three well-received biographies during her long career. But she is best known for her 1962 fictional work “The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie”, a tense novel about a young liberal teacher awakening thoughts of emancipation at an Edinburgh girls’ school in staid society between the two world wars. The book was made into a critically acclaimed film starring Maggie Smith in 1969. Twice nominated for the prestigious Booker Prize — in 1968 for “Public Image” and in 1981 for “Loitering with Intent” — Spark won the Bram Stoker prize in 1987 for her biography of “Mary Shelley”.
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Reuters |
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Irish army march to mark Easter Rising anniversary
In a milestone event replete with historical and political significance, the armed insurrection that triggered the ending of British rule. Thousands of members of the Irish army and other defence forces will mark the 90th anniversary of the 1916 Easter Rising by parading through Dublin while the Air Corps stages a fly-past on Monday.
The immediate significance of the event is that it has not been held in recent decades for fear of giving credence to the IRA campaign of violence. But, following the run-down of the Troubles, the Easter Rising has assumed an important new place, as Irish nationalism and republicanism undergo realignment. The conventional political parties are locked in controversy over who are the true heirs of the rebellion, attempting to wrest any sense of ownership of the violent event away from the IRA and Sinn Fein. President of Ireland Mary McAleese has pitched into the debate, praising “the sacrifices of the heroes of 1916” who rescued the country from being one of Britain’s “captured dominions”. The GPO, one of the most prominent buildings in O’Connell Street and the focus of the fighting in 1916, is to be transformed into a national monument. Monday’s march-past of the GPO is the revival of a practice that was abandoned in the early 1970s after the eruption of the Troubles. The Irish political establishment is embarking on a campaign to wrest the republican mantle back from Sinn Fein and the IRA, which have largely commandeered the term. The outcome of this new, unarmed, struggle is destined to have important effects on Irish politics. The six-day 1916 siege of the GPO arguably changed the course of Irish history, leading as it did to British withdrawal, the south’s independence and the creation of Northern Ireland. The rising began unpromisingly, with a confusion of orders and counter-orders, which meant that many potential rebels simply stayed home. Fewer than 2,000 turned out, taking over a number of buildings in central Dublin. Their headquarters was the GPO, which was barricaded by a few hundred volunteers who had marched to it in uniform. Chief of the insurgents Padraig Pearse stood on the GPO steps and solemnly proclaimed a Republic. The authorities were taken by surprise but reinforcements were quickly brought in and artillery was deployed. After six days Pearse signed a formal letter of surrender “in order to prevent further slaughter of the civil population”. Following the surrender, the whole episode seemed over, but unexpectedly a military fiasco was transformed into a political watershed. While Pearse and his men saw themselves as soldiers following the rules of war, British and Unionist opinion regarded the rebellion as treachery. The authorities imposed martial law, ordering thousands of arrests and transporting hundreds to a camp in Wales. Critically, 15 rebel leaders, including Pearse, were executed by firing squad, producing a wave of outrage. The modern Irish state thus had its origins in a tumultuous period which began with the seizure and siege of the GPO. —
The Independent |
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