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‘Killing Fields’ lawyers clash over torture film
Pak may send probe team to India: Gilani
India to assist democracy in Nepal: Menon
Israel strikes two Gaza targets
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17,000 more US troops for Afghanistan
Geo TV scribe killed in Swat 53 LTTE rebels killed
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‘Killing Fields’ lawyers clash over torture film
Phnom Penh, February 18 Lawyers for Duch, chief of the S-21 interrogation centre in Phnom Peng where at least 14,000 “enemies of the revolution” were killed, said they were shocked at the prosecution’s last-minute bid to use the film as evidence against their client. “We absolutely object to the submission of the footage,” Duch’s Cambodian lawyer, Kar Savuth, told the court set up to prosecute those most responsible for the deaths of 1.7 million people during the 1975-79 Khmer Rouge era. The joint United Nations-Cambodian tribunal was adjourned after a two-day hearing dominated by procedural issues ahead of a full-blown trial in March. The seven-minute, black-and-white film shot by a Vietnamese army film crew days after their troops drove Pol Pot’s fighters from Phnom Penh shows the bodies of emaciated inmates, some of them still in chains. At a press conference on the eve of the trial on Monday, two members of the Vietnamese crew said they had also found five child survivors of S-21 hiding under piles of prisoners’ clothing. One child died soon after from malnutrition, they said. Kar Savuth questioned how the children could have escaped Duch’s order to kill everyone at S-21 as the Vietnamese marched on the capital. They said the film and potential new witnesses should have been vetted by investigating judges who spent a year preparing cases against Duch and four other senior Pol Pot cadres. They also opposed the submission of more than 50 new documents, including interrogation reports with Duch’s alleged handwritten notes ordering the individuals to be put to death. “This video is politically motivated to disguise the truth,” Kar Savuth said, adding that the Vietnamese cameramen should be called to testify at the trial. That could inflame passions in Cambodia, where the Vietnamese removal of Pol Pot is viewed by some as the start of a 10-year occupation by hated neighbours. Foreign co-prosecutor Robert Petit made an angry rebuttal of the defence accusations, saying the video and additional documents were vital evidence against Duch, who is charged with war crimes, crimes against humanity, torture and homicide. “The substance of this trial, indeed its foremost purpose, is to bring justice to those 14,000-plus victims at S-21,” he said, adding that Duch’s pre-trial admission of guilt was not enough. “No matter how inconvenient it might be to read 50 documents, it is an absolute must for this trial chamber to have all the relevant evidence before them.” Before facing the tribunal, Duch, now a born-again Christian, asked for forgiveness for the deaths. His lawyers have argued that he was only following orders and should not be made a scapegoat for the Khmer Rouge era. —
Reuters
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Pak may send probe team to India: Gilani
Islamabad, February 18 Gilani, who was in Lahore on an official visit, told reporters that the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) had sought permission for its team to visit India. The government is seriously considering sending the FIA team to India, he was quoted as saying by TV channels. He also said India is yet to reply to questions submitted by Pakistan along with its response to the Indian dossier on the Mumbai attacks. Pakistan had given India a set of 30 questions seeking more information on the November 26 Mumbai attacks along with its response, which was handed over on February 12. The FIA conducted a probe into the attacks after India gave its dossier to Pakistan on January 5. Pakistan has said it has filed formal charges against nine suspects linked to the Mumbai attacks, including Ajmal Amir
Kasab, the lone terrorist captured alive during the attacks by Indian authorities. — PTI
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India to assist democracy in Nepal: Menon
Visiting Indian Foreign Secretary Shivshankar Menon on Wednesday assured that India was committed to assist Nepal's democracy, stability and peace process.
Speaking at a press meet at the end of his visit to Nepal, Menon said he was fully satisfied with the progresses yielded by the joint-mechanisms set up by the government of Nepal and India a few months ago. “Though Nepal and India need to move forward for effective implementation of several past agreements reached between the two nations, we are happy with what we have achieved over the last few months,” he said. In September last, Nepal Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal had, during his tour to India, agreed with India Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh to reactivate the bilateral mechanism through joint efforts at the level of home, water resources and
commerce secretaries. “We discussed various matters of mutual interest and are happy to note that we are making steady progress on most of the issues,” Menon said. While expressing happiness over the progress made in plugging the breached embankment of Kosi river, he said the two countries needed to initiate long-term measures to lessen the excess silt in the river and find solutions to prevent such events
in future. To a query about the review of 1950's Nepal-India Peace and Friendship Treaty, Menon said India was ready to sit down with Nepal and review the treaty whenever the neighbouring nation wished. Regarding the Nepal government's proposal to build 207-MW Naumure hydro-power project in mid-western region, he said it was in the initial stage, hence they were yet to ascertain the goals of the project. And about the concern expressed by BJP leaders recently about the growing presence of foreign elements, mainly from China, in Nepal, Menon said Nepal was free to see its
relations with any other country in ways it desired.
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Israel strikes two Gaza targets
Gaza, February 18 Residents said one air strike targeted tunnels which run under the Egyptian border at the town of Rafah that militants use to smuggle arms into the Gaza Strip. Another hit an already bombed-out security compound in the town of Khan Younis. The strikes came in an apparent response to the firing of a mortar round by Gaza militants into Israel on Tuesday evening. Following Israel's 22-day offensive in the Gaza Strip that ended last month in a ceasefire, Israeli leaders said that they would respond very harshly to any firing of rockets or mortar bombs into the Jewish state. The air strikes were carried out as officials from Islamist Hamas and Israel were trying to cement an Egyptian-brokered deal for an extended ceasefire,
the opening of Gaza's border crossings and a prisoner swap between the parties. Israeli Prime Minister Ehud
Olmrt will convene his security cabinet later on Wednesday to discuss the outline of such a
deal and possibly vote on it. — Reuters
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17,000 more US troops for Afghanistan
Washington, February 18 "This increase is necessary to stabilise a deteriorating situation in Afghanistan, which has not received the strategic attention, direction and resources it urgently requires," Obama said in a statement as he approved his commander's request to send more troops to the war-torn country. Immediately, Secretary of Defence Robert Gates announced the deployment of more than 12,000 troops to Afghanistan. This includes 2nd Marine Expeditionary Brigade, consisting of 8,000 Marines and 5th Stryker Brigade of 4,000 soldiers. While the Marines would hit the ground late spring 2009, Stryker's are likely to be in Afghanistan in mid-summer. Deployment of another 5,000 additional troops to support these combat forces would be announced at a later date, the Pentagon said.
— PTI
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Colombo, February 18 Describing the pro-rebel Tamil National Alliance party’s demand for a ceasefire as “laughable”, Defence spokesman Keheliya Rambukwella said: “There will be no ceasefire with the LTTE”. Sri Lanka’s key global financial backers, including the US, European Union and Japan, had also appealed for a “no fire period” to allow civilians to get out of harm's way. Meanwhile, at least 53 LTTE rebels were killed in fierce clashes with the Sri Lankan security forces who seized huge cache of arms and ammunitions in the north of the island after capturing a strategic rebel area, the army said. After wresting control over the Puthukkudiyiruppu West, troops were now engaged in mop operations in the area, the Defence Ministry said. — PTI
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