Foreign Affairs
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Masked gunmen kill 21 Shiites in Iraq BAGHDAD, June 5: Masked gunmen stopped two minivans carrying students north of Baghdad Sunday, ordered the passengers off, separated Shiites from Sunni Arabs, and killed the 21 Shiites "in the name of Islam," a witness said. In predominantly Shiite southern Basra, police hunting for militants stormed a Sunni Arab mosque early Sunday, just hours after a car bombing. The ensuing firefight killed nine. The two attacks dealt a blow to Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki's pledge to curb sectarian violence. He again failed to reach consensus Sunday among Iraq's ethnic and sectarian parties on candidates for interior and defense minister - posts he must fill to implement his ambitious plan to take control of Iraq's security from US-led forces within 18 months. Violence linked to Shiite and Sunni Arab animosity has grown increasingly worse since February 22, when bombs ravaged the golden dome of a revered Shiite mosque in predominantly Sunni Arab Samarra. Sectarian tensions have run particularly high in Baghdad, Basra and Diyala province, a mixed Sunni Arab-Shiite region. And Sunday's attacks came just days after terrorist mastermind Abu Musab al-Zarqawi renewed his call for Sunni Arabs to take up arms against Shiites, whom he often vilifies as infidels. On Monday, gunmen in a car killed two Sunni brothers as they were driving to college in the religiously mixed neighborhood of Sadiyah in southwestern Baghdad, police Lt. Maitham Abdul Razzaq said. The victims, Ahmed and Arkan Sarhan, were in their early 20s. Iraqi police also found the blindfolded and bound body of a man who had been shot in the head and chest elsewhere in the capital, Razzaq said. In the minibus ambush Sunday, a car and an SUV stopped the vehicles near the town of Qara Tappah, about 75 miles northeast of Baghdad and near Diyala province, electrician Haqi Ismail said. Ismail said he had been driving his pickup truck behind the vans and was stopped, too. About 15 masked men wearing traditional robes known as a dishdashas forced everyone out of the vehicles, he said. "They asked us to show our IDs, and then instructed us to stand in a line, separating the Sunni from the Shiite due to the IDs and also due to the faces," said Ismail, a Shiite Kurd. He said the gunmen ordered the Shiites to lie down and before they opened fire and one shouted, "On behalf of Islam, today we will dig a mass grave for you. You are traitors." Ismail said he was injured but did not move. "One of the gunmen kicked me to be sure that I was dead," he said, speaking from his hospital bed in Sulaimaniyah, north of Qara Tappah. Two of the victims were high school students, ages 17 and 18, and nine were students at al-Yarmouk University in Baqouba, ages 21-22, said Qara Tappah's mayor, Serwan Shokir. The rest were men in their mid-to-late 30s, who worked as laborers or for the power company, the mayor said. The Basra violence - the car bomb Saturday and mosque raid early Sunday - came days after al-Maliki declared a state of emergency in the city, vowing to crack down with an "iron fist" on gangs fighting for power. Basra police surrounded the al-Arab mosque just after midnight Saturday, tipped off that militants holed up inside had opened fire. Also, Iraqi forces had found two vehicles packed with explosives near the mosque, similar to the car bomb used to attack a crowded market, killing 28 people and wounding 62. Police and gunmen exchanged fire, killing nine people. Police they arrested six terror suspects, adding that part of the mosque was damaged and burned. A hard-line Sunni organization in Basra, the influential Sunni Arab Association of Muslim Scholars, said the nine people killed had come to the mosque to protect it. Canada nabs 17 terror suspects in Toronto TORONTO, June 3: Canadian police foiled a homegrown terrorist attack by arresting 17 suspects, apparently inspired by al-Qaida, who obtained three times the amount of an explosive ingredient used in the Oklahoma City bombing, officials said Saturday. The FBI said the Canadian suspects may have had "limited contact" with two men recently arrested on terrorism charges in Georgia. About 400 regional police and federal agents participated in the arrests Friday and early Saturday. "These individuals were allegedly intent on committing acts of terrorism against their own country and their own people," Prime Minister Stephen Harper said in a statement. "As we have said on many occasions, Canada is not immune to the threat of terrorism." The Royal Canadian Mounted Police arrested 12 adult suspects, ages 43 to 19, and five suspects younger than 18 on terrorism charges including plotting attacks with explosives on Canadian targets. The suspects were either citizens or residents of Canada and had trained together, police said. The group acquired three tons of ammonium nitrate - three times the amount used to blow up the Murrah Federal Building on April 19, 1995, in Oklahoma City, killing 168 people and injured more than 800, said assistant Royal Canadian Mounted Police commissioner Mike McDonell. The fertilizer can be mixed with fuel oil or other ingredients to make a bomb. "This group posed a real and serious threat," McDonell said. "It had the capacity and intent to carry out these attacks." Luc Portelance, assistant director of operations with Canada's spy agency, CSIS, said the suspects "appeared to have become adherents of a violent ideology inspired by al-Qaida" but that investigators have yet to prove a link to the terror network. Five of the suspects were led in handcuffs Saturday to the Ontario Court of Justice, which was surrounded by snipers and bomb-sniffing dogs. A judge told the men not to communicate with one another and set their first bail hearing for Tuesday. Alvin
Chand, a brother of suspect Steven Vikash Chand,
said outside the courthouse that his brother was
innocent and authorities "just want to show
they're doing something." FBI Special Agent Richard Kolko said in Washington there may have been a connection between the Canadian suspects and a Georgia Tech student and another American who had traveled to Canada to meet with Islamic extremists to discuss locations for a terrorist strike. Syed Haris Ahmed and Ehsanul Islam Sadequee, U.S. citizens who grew up in the Atlanta area, were arrested in March. Officials at the news conference displayed purported bomb-making materials including a red cell phone wired to what appeared to be an explosives detonator inside a black toolbox. Also shown were a computer hard drive, camouflage uniforms, flashlights and walkie-talkies. A flimsy white door riddled with bullet holes was on display but no details about it were available. According to a report Saturday in The Toronto Star citing unidentified police sources, the suspects attended a terrorist training camp north of Toronto and had plotted to attack the Canadian spy agency's downtown Toronto office, among other targets in Ontario province. Authorities refused to confirm those reports. The suspects lived in either Toronto, Canada's financial capital and largest city, or the nearby cities of Mississauga or Kingston. Also at the court hearing was Aly Hindy, an imam of an Islamic center that houses a school and a mosque and has been monitored by security agencies for years. He said he knows nine of the suspects and that Muslims once again were being falsely accused. "It's not terrorism. It could be some criminal activity with a few guys, that's all," said Hindy. "We are the ones always accused. Somebody fakes a document and they are an international terrorist forging documents for al-Qaida." Galati, lawyer for two suspects from Mississauga, said his client Ahmad Ghany, 21, is a health sciences graduate from McMaster University in Hamilton. He was born in Canada, the son of a medical doctor who emigrated from Trinidad and Tobago. Shareef
Abdelhaleen, 30, is a computer programmer who
emigrated from Egypt 20 years ago with his father,
now an engineer with a nuclear utilities services
company, the lawyer said. Osama bin Laden named Canada as one of five "Christian" nations that should be terror targets. The other countries - the U.S., Britain, Spain and Australia - have all been targeted. Portelance, of Canada's spy agency, said it was the nation's largest counterterrorism operation since the adoption of the act and that more arrests were possible. The adult suspects from Toronto are Chand, alias Abdul Shakur, 25; Fahim Ahmad, 21; Jahmaal James, 23; and Asin Mohamed Durrani, 19. Those from Mississauga are Ghany; Abdelhaleen; Zakaria Amara, 20; Asad Ansari, 21; Saad Khalid, 19; and Qayyum Abdul Jamal, 43. Mohammed Dirie, 22, and Yasim Abdi Mohamed, 24, are from Kingston 6 nations agree on Iran incentives VIENNA, June 2: The U.S. and five other world powers have an offer they say Iran can't refuse - if it knows what's best for it. The six nations on Thursday came up with incentives they hope will persuade Tehran to stop suspect nuclear activities, but made it clear that Iran risks U.N. sanctions if it rejects the package. "There are two paths ahead," British Foreign Secretary Margaret Becket said in announcing the proposals put together by the United States, Britain, France, Germany, Russia and China. The package would be on the table for a proposed new round of bargaining with Tehran over what the West calls a rogue nuclear program that could produce a bomb. The US, in a major policy shift, agreed this week to join those talks under certain conditions. It would be the first major public negotiations between the adversaries in more than a quarter century. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice met with the foreign ministers from the European nations that led talks with Iran that stalled last year. Also present were representatives of Russia and China, which have been Tehran's trading partners and might join in any future talks with Iran. Since Russia and China hold vetoes in the UN Security Council, the US needs their cooperation to seek sanctions or other harsh measures by that body. "We are very satisfied by the results of today's meetings here in Vienna," U.S. Undersecretary of State Nicholas Burns told reporters. "We consider them a step forward in our quest to deny Iran nuclear weapons capability." A short statement issued by foreign ministers from the six powers and the European Union did not mention economic sanctions - the punishment or deterrent favored by the United States and that Iran has tried hard to avoid. The powers agreed privately, however, that Iran could face tough Security Council sanctions if it fails to give up the enrichment of uranium and other disputed nuclear activities, U.S. officials said. Diplomats feared Iran would immediately reject any invitation to bargain if the threat of sanctions was explicit, officials involved in the discussions said on condition of anonymity because the seven-party negotiations were private. The foreign ministers' statement threatens unspecified "further steps" in the Security Council. The group's statement also contained no details of the incentives to be offered to Iran in the coming days. Diplomats previously have said the package includes help developing legitimate nuclear power plants and various economic benefits. Relentless violence kills 54 in Iraq BAGHDAD, May 31: Car bombs targeting Shiite areas devastated a bustling outdoor market and an auto dealership Tuesday, part of a relentless onslaught that killed 54 people and prompted the United States to deploy more troops to combat insurgents in western Iraq. The bombs also wounded 120 people, officials said. The death toll made Tuesday one of the bloodiest days in Iraq this month, and lawmakers still had not agreed on who should lead the nation's army and police forces. Authorities
also captured a suspected terrorist who allegedly
confessed to beheading hundreds of people. The operation
by Iraqi forces also netted documents, cell phones
and computers containing information on other wanted
terrorists and Islamic extremist groups. The
worst bombing hit the outdoor market as Iraqis were
doing their evening shopping in Husseiniyah, about
60 miles north of Baghdad. At least 25 people were
killed and 65 were wounded, Interior Ministry spokesman
Lt. Col. Falah Al-Mohamedawi said. Hours
earlier, a car packed with explosives blew up at
a dealership in the largely Shiite city of Hillah,
about 60 miles south of Baghdad, killing at least
12 people and wounding 32, Capt. Muthana Khalid
said. A
bomb hidden in a plastic bag also detonated outside
a bakery in a religiously mixed neighborhood in
eastern Baghdad, killing at least nine people and
injuring 10, police Lt. Col. Falah al-Mohammedawi
said. Separately,
mortar rounds fired by remote control from a car
hit the third floor of the heavily guarded Interior
Ministry and a nearby park, killing two government
employees and wounding three other people. A
day earlier, 40 people were killed in various attacks,
including a car bombing in Baghdad that killed two
CBS News crewmen and seriously wounded network correspondent
Kimberly Dozier. She underwent two emergency surgeries
and was transferred to a U.S. military hospital
in Germany, where she was reported to be in critical
but stable condition. CBS
News reported that Dozier briefly regained consciousness
on the flight to Germany. Vice President Sandy Genelius
said Tuesday night that Dozier was expected to stay
at the Landstuhl Regional Medical Center for several
days. Before
Tuesday, at least 4,066 Iraqis had been killed in
war-related violence this year, and at least 4,469
had been wounded, based on Associated Press reports.
Those may not be complete, however. During
May, at least 871 Iraqis have been killed, surpassing
the 801 killed in April. The deadliest month this
year for Iraqis was March, when 1,038 were killed
and 1,155 were wounded. Amid
the surge in violence, Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki
held another day of meetings aimed at getting Iraq's
ethnic, sectarian and secular factions to agree
on new interior and defense ministers. But the key
security posts remained vacant 10 days after al-Maliki's
national unity government took office. The
Interior Ministry, which controls the police forces,
has been promised to the Shiites. Sunni Arabs are
to get the defense ministry, overseeing the army.
It is hoped the balance will enable al-Maliki to
move ahead with a plan for Iraqis to take over all
security duties over the next 18 months so U.S.-led
troops can begin withdrawing. Al-Maliki
told the British Broadcasting Corp. his government
had a better chance of suppressing the violence
than his predecessors because it is the nation's
first permanent government since Saddam Hussein
fell. "Previous
governments were either temporary or transitional.
They did not receive full backing from the Iraqi
people to deal with this issue," he told the
BBC. In
the meantime, U.S. military commanders have moved
about 1,500 combat troops from a reserve force in
Kuwait into the volatile Anbar province to help
authorities establish order in the insurgent hotbed
stretching from Baghdad west to Syria.
India
backs dialogue on Iran
Participating in a debate on Iran's controversial nuclear programme at a meeting of the NAM foreign ministers in the Malaysian city of Putrajaya, the Minister of State for External Affairs, Mr Anand Sharma, said that despite a lack of clear consensus on the Iranian issue, New Delhi was keen that it should be resolved within the ambit of IAEA without any Security Council action. Even
as the issue was vigorously debated and an effort
was made to find a consensus in the 114-nation grouping,
NAM chairman and Malaysian Premier Abdullah Ahmad
Badawi stressed that the movement would defend the
basic right of all signatories of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation
Treaty (NPT) to develop nuclear technology for peaceful
purposes. In his intervention at the general debate of the ministerial meeting of NAM, Mr Sharma called for rejuvenation of the grouping and reasserted the relevance of what was described as 'the largest peace movement in the world'. 'It
is only through such action that the NAM can be
revitalised and can thereby contribute in practice
to a more just international order,' he said. The
foreign ministers' meet comes ahead of the 14th
NAM summit in Havana in September this year. Arguing
for an expansion of the Security Council, Sharma
said the 'General Assembly revitalisation does not
mean leaving UN Security Council encroachment unchallenged
and untouched'. Making a case for the 'reform of
Bretton Woods Institutions and the World Trade Organization
(WTO),' Sharma said: 'This is a political task requiring
the solidarity in action of the NAM.' The two-day NAM ministerial meeting concluded on Tuesday evening with the delegates adopting four documents -- the final document, the Putrajaya declaration, and two separate statements on Iran's nuclear issues and Palestine. In the final document, ministers of the NAM countries expressed their views on topics ranging from global, regional and sub-regional political issues to development and human rights. Sections devoted to the issues of Palestine and West Sahara, which need further discussions and tuning-up, will be forwarded to the 14th conference of the heads of states of the NAM, said Malaysian Foreign Minister Syed Hamid Albar at a press conference after the closing ceremony. The
Putrajaya declaration called on the member countries
of the NAM to give high priority to human capital
development, stressing the importance of formulating
national policies in this area. On
Iran's nuclear issue, the ministers encouraged Iran
to 'urgently continue to cooperate actively and
fully with the IAEA' in order to resolve the outstanding
issue. Meanwhile,
the NAM ministers reaffirmed their stance that all
nations should have 'basic and inalienable rights'
to develop research, production and use atomic energy
for peaceful purposes, by saying that any attacks
or threat of attacks against peaceful nuclear facilities
pose a great danger to man and environment. About 90 members countries sent delegations, 74 of which at ministerial or deputy ministerial level, to attend the meeting in the Malaysian administrative centre of Putrajaya. With two new members, namely, Dominica and Antigua as well as Barbuda, accepted Monday, the 45-year-old movement now has 116 members. Egypt will host the 15th NAM Summit in the year 2009, said Syed at the news conference. Terrorism should not be justified on any ground: India By
Deepak Arora
"It
should be recognised that terrorism is a fundamental
and gross violation of human rights, in particular
the most fundamental right the right to life,"
according to Mr Anand Sharma, Minister of State
for External Affairs. Intervening
during a general debate at the Non-Aligned Movement
Ministerial meeting in Putrajaya, Malaysia, Mr Sharma
said it should be ensured that the global fight
against terrorism is not restricted to a group or
a region and that it is comprehensive and sustained.
The two-day NAM Ministerial Meeting is being held as a precursor to the NAM summit to be hosted by Cuba later this year. Malaysia is the current NAM chairman. "The fight must be directed not only against the terrorists, but also against those who sponsor, abet or support them," he said. Mr Sharma said that there was an urgent need for terrorism to be accorded high priority on the international agenda and for the members of the Movement to be at the forefront of combating this menace. "We should equip outselves to better address this threat. The Movement should ensure that terrorism is not condoned or justified on any ground whatsoever: political, religious, ethnic or any other." Meanwhile, Dominica and Antigua and Barbuda have been admitted as full members of the Non-Aligned Movement, taking the number of countries in the grouping to 116. Dominica's head of delegation Crispin S Gregoire said the acceptance into NAM was a great honour for it. "Even though we are only a small country, we have been in the United Nations since 1978, after our independence from Great Britain. Today, we join the world community, the committee of developing nations, which is a great honour for our country," he said. He
said Dominica, the largest and most mountainous
of the Windward Islands in the Caribbean archipelago,
submitted its application a few months ago to Malaysia,
the Chair of the NAM. I learnt about Kargil invasion from Vajpayee: Nawaz Sharif LONDON, May 29: Squarely blaming Gen Musharraf for the "misadventure" for which he would like the military ruler to be tried, former Pak Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif disclosed that it was from an urgent call from Vajpayee that he first learnt about the invasion of Kargil by Pakistani troops. "Mr Prime Minister, what is happening" in Kargil, an indignant Vajpayee asked him over telephone in May 1999, according to the 56-year-old Pakistani leader who said that he had got to know about the Kargil operation only then. While speaking to the news agency in London, Nawaz Sharif who is living abroad in exile for over six years said, almost all Pakistani Corps Commanders were also unaware of the "ill-conceived, ill-planned and ill-executed misadventure" of Musharraf and "just two or three of his cronies." The recent revelation came days after he and another former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto came together and pledged to topple Musharraf. Through the Kargil operation Musharraf, the then Chief of the Army Staff, had "sabotaged" the understanding reached by him with Vajpayee at Lahore to resolve all Indo-Pak problems including Kashmir, Sharif said. Earlier a 36-point Charter of Democracy signed on 14th May by Sharif and Bhutto for restoration of democracy in Pakistan includes a proposal to set up a Commission to fix responsibility for Kargil and identify causes that led to it. Those involved would have to be brought to book, Sharif asserted, after saying that a high-level Commission, "something higher than a Judicial Commission" would be set up by a democratic government to go into the Kargil episode. Does that mean that Musharraf could face trial? "It is very clear. The clause (in the Charter) says that the Commission will fix responsibility and then (those found guilty) would conceivably face trial", the former Pakistani Prime Minister said. Sharif cannot forgive Musharraf for Kargil because that had brought India and Pakistan very close to a war. "The Indians could have done anything at that time because they were attacked without any rhyme or reason", he said. Recalling his frantic 4th July 1999 meeting with President Bill Clinton in Washington, Sharif said he had sought the US leader's good offices to resolve the matter amicably. However he refused to say whether Musharraf had pleaded with him to rush to Washington as Indians were beating back the Pakistani intruders. Further Sharif sees Musharraf as a "very impulsive man, erratic in his behaviour and not a very stable person". Voicing his disgruntle over the current relations between the two countries, Sharif said, "India should not be doing business with any usurper or a military dictator... India should condemn such (military) takeovers whether in Pakistan or elsewhere." By inviting Musharraf to the Agra Summit India had conferred legitimacy on the General. "To me it amounted to recognising a military dictator although his rule is still unconstitutional, unlawful and immoral. Why should you talk to a man like that", the Pakistani leader asked. Nonetheless is he happy with the Indo-Pak peace process? "Well, the foundation of all these were laid when I was the Prime Minister. Mr Vajpayee was very kind to visit Pakistan and the foundation was laid then by us. Things started moving then. But, of course, the Kargil episode came in between", he replied. A very good opportunity for resolving Indo-Pak issues was thus missed, rues Sharif, describing the Lahore Declaration signed by Vajpayee and him as a "tremendous opportunity" which was sabotaged by Musharraf's Kargil misadventure. Asked if the General had done so because he did not support the Lahore Declaration, Sharif replied, "No. I think Musharraf and his cronies had some obsession about it (Kargil) for a long time". Dismissing the Musharraf's solutions to the Kashmir issue as "wild ideas" such as demilitarization and joint control Sharif said "Solutions are not given in Television interviews. Musharraf does not know what diplomacy means." Such ideas, he emphasized, are first discussed at proper forums. "You do not give wild ideas in the Press and say that you have given solutions and the other side is not responding", he said, adding that Musharraf was "immature". Sharif, who claims Kashmiri ancestry, said that while the Indo-Pak Confidence Building Measures (CBMs) were welcome, Kashmir also had to be resolved, to the satisfaction of India. Further Benazir Bhutto, Chairperson of the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) and Sharif, leader of the Pakistan Muslim League (N), have both announced that they will go to Pakistan to participate in the next year's National Assembly elections to which Musharraf responded by declaring that they would be arrested and tried. Rejecting these as "empty threats", Sharif said that they were not deterred or worried by what the General had stated. He described Musharraf as a "traitor" who had subverted the Constitution. Asked
about the reports that the General might get himself
re-elected as the President by the current National
Assembly, Sharif said that he was not eligible to
contest because he was still wearing the Army uniform.
If he made any such move it would be gross violation
of the Constitution and political parties would
launch "a very effective movement" against
him. India, Pak fail to make breakthrough on Siachen By
Deepak Arora NEW DELHI, May 24: India and Pakistan have failed to reach any agreement on demilitarisation of the Siachen Glacier as 'differences' continued to persist on authentication of positions held by the armed forces of the two sides on the world's highest battlefield at 22,000 ft. "There
has been no breakthrough. We have agreed to continue
talking," Mr Pranab Mukherjee, Defence Minister,
told newsmen on the sidelines of a national seminar
on "Enhancing combat potential through indigenisation
and modernisation". India
and Pakistan on Tuesday began two days of Defence
Secretary level talks on demilitarisation of Siachen
Glacier, where the Indian and Pakistani armed forces
have been observing a ceasefire since 2003. The
Pakistani side "is not agreeing to the proposal
for authentication of positions (held by the Indian
and Pakistani forces) for quite some time and this
is the area of difference which can continue...In
this round of discussions, we could not make a breakthrough,"
said Mr Mukherjee. The
Indian side made it clear to their Pakistani counterparts
that New Delhi could not "risk disengagement"
unless there is acceptance of "the principle
of mutual authentication". Both
sides have, however, agreed that they will stay
engaged to end their over-two-decades-old conflict
over the 76-km long glacier. It was not just modalities
of withdrawal, there has so far been no mutual acceptance
of the process of disengagement itself. There are also differences over how both sides will affect their troop withdrawals, with both countries weighing what is strategically most advantageous to them. New Delhi has emphasised that ease of access should be considered while determining positions to withdraw troops from, particularly in the Saltoro range area. India also underlined the need for "well-laid out procedures for an effective and comprehensive" surveillance and monitoring mechanism that must accompany the disengagement process. The
Indian side for the 10th round of talks was led
by Mr Shekhar Dutt, Defence Secretary and included
Mr Shivshankar Menon, Indian High Commissioner to
Pakistan; Mr Akhil Kumar Jain, Additional Secretary,
Ministry of Defence; Lt Gen Madan Gopal, Director
General Military Operations, Army Headquarters;
Lt Gen Mohan Pandey, Director General Military Operations
(designate), Army Headquarters; Mr Bimal Julka,
Joint Secretary (G), Ministry of Defence; Mr Dilip
Sinha, Joint Secretary (PAI), Ministry of External
Affairs; Mr Debnath Shaw, Joint Secretary (Planning
and International Cooperation), Ministry of Defence,
Major Gen Mukesh Sabharwal, Additional Director
General Military Operations (A), Army Headquarters;
Maj Gen MJS Virk, Additional Director General Military
Survey, Army Headquarters and Brig Rajinder Singh,
Military Attache to Indian High Commissioner at
Islamabad. The
Pakistani side was be led by Lt Gen (Retd) Tariq
Waseem Ghazi, Secretary Defence; Mr Aziz Ahmad Khan,
High Commissioner of Pakistan in India; Maj Gen
(Retd) Muhammad Ashraf Chaudhry, Additional Secretary
Defence, Maj Gen Bilal Umar Khan, Joint Staff Officer
Headquarters; Maj Gen Ahmed Shuja Pasha, DGMO; Mr.
Afrasiab, Deputy High Commissioner, Pakistan High
Commission; Brig Javed Sultan Khan, Defence Attache,
Pakistan High Commission; Brig Nasir Khan Janjua,
DMO, Maj (Retd) Syed Haider Mehdi Jamal, Deputy
Surveyor General Mr. Zaheer A Janjua, Director (India),
Ministry of Foreign Affairs; Mr M Syrus Sajjad Qazi,
First Secretary, Pak High Commission, Maj Ejaz Ahmed,
Staff Officer to Secretary Defence and Mr Muhammad
Khalid Jamali, First Secretary, Pak High Commission.
Bin Laden claims lead role in 9/11 attacks AMMAN, May 24: Al-Qaeda terrorist network leader Osama bin Laden said in an audiotape broadcast by the Al Jazeera satellite channel that he himself had assigned 19 people for the September 11, 2001, attacks in the US. "In
fact, brother Zacarias Moussaoui has no connection
whatever with the September 11 operation,"
Osama bin Laden said in the audiotape that Al Jazeera
Tuesday reported was posted on a website. "I
am the man responsible for the recruitment of the
19 people who carried out the attacks, and I did
not assign any task to Moussaoui," he added. Moussaoui was recently sentenced to life in prison without possibility of parole, sparing him the death penalty by a US jury. Osama bin Laden contended that Moussaoui's confession to having a role in the September 11 attacks was "null and void, because it was extracted under pressure". "Moussaoui was arrested two weeks before the September events, and if he knew anything about (the operation), we should have told (9/11 ringleader) Mohammed Atta and his brothers to leave the US at once," the Al-Qaeda chief said. Bombings Near Baghdad Airport Kill 14 BAGHDAD, May 15: A pair of suicide car bombers killed 14 people Sunday in the biggest insurgent assault in months on the main road to Baghdad's airport, and other attacks killed a dozen more Iraqis and two American soldiers elsewhere in the capital. A weekend of stepped-up violence across Iraq, which included six attacks on small Shiite Muslim shrines and the bombing deaths of two British soldiers near recently restive Basra late Saturday, came as politicians again failed to agree on a new Cabinet. There had been hope that Prime Minister-designate Nouri al-Maliki would fill at least some Cabinet posts when parliament convened Sunday in Baghdad's heavily guarded Green Zone, perhaps even taking on for himself contentious roles such as the interior and defense ministries. Al-Maliki's mandate to form a Cabinet expires May 22. Should he fail to do so, President Jalal Talabani would have 15 days to name a new nominee to try to form a Cabinet. The constitution is unclear on whether he could pick al-Maliki again. Lawmakers have struggled since December 15 parliamentary elections to put together a national unity government, which many Iraqis and the U.S. government hope will lessen sectarian tensions and undermine support for the Sunni Arab-dominated insurgency. The
negotiations have bogged down in squabbles over
the allocation of key Cabinet jobs, unable to bridge
sectarian and political divisions. As the 275-member
parliament convened, a party loyal to firebrand
Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr threatened to propose
its own Cabinet list if other groups did not scale
back their demands for roles in the new government. Legislator Bahaa al-Araji of the United Iraqi Alliance denounced what he called U.S. meddling in the talks and set a deadline of two days to settle the matter. But the Shiite bloc has only 130 parliament members, which isn't enough votes to seat a Cabinet. A coalition of three Sunni Arab parties holding 44 seats warned that it would withdraw from the political process if it did not get at least one key post such as the Defense Ministry. That threat came several days after Shiite party with 15 lawmakers pulled out of the Cabinet talks because it was not given the Oil Ministry. Iraq unity talks set back; 4 Marines die BAGHDAD, April 17: Efforts to form a unity government suffered a new setback Sunday when Iraqi leaders postponed a parliament session after failing to agree on a prime minister. Bombs targeted Shiites near a mosque and on a bus as attacks nationwide killed at least 35 people.Four more Marines were reported killed in fighting west of Baghdad, bringing the U.S. death toll for this month to 47 - compared with 31 for all of March. US
officials believe the best way to stem the violence
is for the Iraqis to establish a government comprising
Shiites, Sunnis and Kurds, paving the way for the
United States to start withdrawing its 133,000 troops.
But progress has stalled over Sunni and Kurdish opposition
to the Shiite choice of Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari
to head the new government. With al-Jaafari refusing
to step aside, acting speaker Adnan Pachachi called
a parliament session for Monday, hoping the full legislature
could agree on a new leadership after the politicians
failed. On the eve of the session, Pachachi announced a delay of "a few days" to give the religiously and ethnically based parties more time to agree on the new prime minister, president and five other top posts that require parliamentary approval. Before the announcement, Shiite official Hussain al-Shahristani told Sunni and Kurdish leaders that his bloc, which controls 130 of the 275 parliament seats, would decide what to do about al-Jaafari "within the coming two days," Kurdish lawmaker Mahmoud Othman said. Majority Shiites have been giving similar assurances for the past two weeks, and it was unclear how soon the issue could be settled. Voters
chose the new parliament on Dec. 15, but the legislature
met briefly only once last month. The bitter fight
over al-Jaafari has heightened friction among the
rival parties, raising the specter of deadlock over
other top jobs. Pressure has been mounting on the
Shiites to replace al-Jaafari, whom critics accuse
of failing to curb sectarian tension that has soared
since the Feb. 22 bombing of a Shiite shrine in Samarra,
which triggered a wave of reprisal attacks against
Sunnis. Shiite
politicians not affiliated with major parties have
proposed that al-Jaafari step aside in favor of another
candidate from his Dawa party. However, Dawa leaders
complained of interference by outsiders and insisted
they should decide al-Jaafari's fate, according to
several Shiite officials who spoke on condition of
anonymity because the negotiations were at a sensitive
stage. Nepal unrest leaves eight million students in the lurch KATHMANDU, April 17: Nearly eight million students are being held to ransom by a raging turmoil in Nepal that has shut down the kingdom - and 40,000 schools nationwide -for the last 12 days. Though the new school session in Nepal started Sunday, nearly 10,000 private and 30,000 government schools across the nation have remained closed. The anti-government protests that erupted on April 6 continue, shutting down transport, closing shops and markets and disrupting essential supplies. "The situation is extremely volatile," said Umesh Chandra Shrestha, president of PABSON (Private Association of Boarding Schools of Nepal). "There is no transport and there are no supplies. We have decided not to open schools and high schools till things return to normal." Besides the schools affiliated to the Nepali school board, the strike has also affected foreign schools following a different curriculum. These include India's Kendriya Vidyalaya, and the British, American and French schools in Kathmandu. Though Unicef last week issued an appeal, asking that students be enabled to go to school unhindered, it has fallen on deaf ears. Shrestha said he did not think normalcy would return soon. "It would take another 8 to 10 days," he said. "Either King Gyanendra would have to take stronger measures or bend and begin talks with the opposition parties." Though the feud between Nepal's royal family and political parties goes back to the 1950s, things took the worst turn ever after King Gyanendra assumed absolute power last year, sacking prime minister Sher Bahadur Deuba, jailing opposition leaders and imposing a state of emergency with the suspension of civil rights. Seven major parties allied to fight for the restoration of democracy. The battle gained momentum this month when they began a nationwide shutdown from April 6 with the ""moral support" of the Maoist insurgents, the third key political force in the kingdom. The parties have vowed to continue their shutdown till the king steps down as chairman of the council of ministers, a position not found in the constitution. "The king has to dissolve his cabinet first," said Gopal Man Shrestha, senior leader of Deuba's Nepali Congress-Democratic party. "Then either the House of Representatives (the lower house of parliament) has to be restored or an interim government formed. Only then will we consider withdrawing our agitation." Dozens of schooldays are lost in Nepal due to strikes and violence by Maoist guerrillas, who frequently force students to attend their indoctrination programmes and try to recruit them. Even when the opposition agitation ends, a second threat hangs over Nepal's schools. The Maoists have warned they would oppose the "nationalistic curriculum" being mulled by the royalist government. They allege it is a bid to brainwash youngsters into obeying the royal family blindly and want to implement their own "people's education". However, critics say that is a disguised recruitment bid. India, US push for democracy in Nepal By
Deepak Arora NEW
DELHI, April 13: Deeply concerned at the steady
escalation of violence and unrest in Nepal,
India and the United States have condemned repressive
measures against protesters and asked King Gyanendra
to restore democracy immediately and begin a
dialogue with Nepal's Constitutional political
parties. In
a clear indication that New Delhi is fast running
out of patience with the king's diversionary
tactics, a spokesman of the Ministry of External
Affairs, Mr Navtej Sarna said: "The resort
to repressive measures by the government in
Nepal can only undermine prospects for this
process of (dialogue and reconciliation). We
are deeply concerned over the turn of events
which have undermined political stability and
have also seriously affected the economy of
Nepal. The
spokesman hoped that in view of the seriousness
of the situation "a genuine effort will
be made by His Majesty's Government of Nepal
to initiate a dialogue with the political parties
at the earliest." A
spokesman of the US Department of State, Sean
Mccormack, called upon the King to restore democracy
immediately and to begin a dialogue with Nepal's
Constitutional political parties. "It is
time the King recognizes that this is the best
way to deal with the Maoist insurgency and to
return peace and prosperity to Nepal." Mccormack
said "As a friend of Nepal, we must state
that King Gyanendra's decision fourteen months
ago to impose direct palace rule in Nepal has
failed in every regard. The demonstrations,
deaths, arrests, and Maoist attacks in the past
few days have shown there is more insecurity,
not less. The King's continuing failure to bring
the parties back into a process to restore democracy
has compounded the problem." Underlining
the point that a "purely military solution"
to the current political crisis is not feasible,
New Delhi asked all parties concerned to "seek
a political solution which is based on the principle
of multi-party democracy". India also disapproved the violent methods used by the Maoists and asked them to work for a "political solution" to the crisis. "The Maoist movement must abandon the use of violence as a political instrument and commit itself to the principles of democracy thereby creating conditions for joining the political mainstream," Mr Sarna said in response to another question on the Maoist violence. Whatever backing the Nepalese monarchy may have enjoyed in the past in India is fast dwindling. The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) and even the Vishwa Hindu Parishad, which were known to oppose any drastic action against the King on the ground that the Nepalese King is the world's only Hindu monarch, are now having a rethink. Writing in the latest edition of the RSS mouthpiece The Organiser, Mr Brajesh Mishra, the former Indian national security adviser, said: "You're digging the grave of the monarchy. You need to step back for the sake of your heirs and for the sake of your country." In
a sign that across-the-party consensus is emerging
in the country on taking decisive action in
Nepal, the Communist Party of India-Marxist
leader, Mr Sitaram Yechury, met the Prime Minister,
Dr Manhohan Singh, on Tuesday and urged him
to use the government's "good offices to
ensure the early restoration of democracy in
Nepal". Karzai inaugurates 'Festival of Afghanistan' NEW
DELHI, April 11: Exquisite Afghan handicrafts,
stones and woodwork can be seen and the cuisine
of the country tasted here for six days, thanks
to the first ever Afghan festival which is being
held here. 'The
Festival of Afghanistan', showcasing the culture,
cuisine and handicrafts of the country, was
inaugurated by Afghan President Hamid Karzai
here on Tuesday. The
festival brings together under one roof specials
like Kandari and Ghazni stones, Aisha Aziz's
Afghan stones, silk Chapans (Afghan jackets),
clothings by Sara Afghan, Hanifa and Nasima's
silk scarves and pottery. Images of centuries
old Bamiyan Buddha, destroyed by the Taliban
regime in 2001, have also been showcased at
the festival as a reminder of the change in
the Afghan government's culture policy. Among
the delicacies on display are the famed baked
pastry and confectionaries. Afghan Foreign Minister
Abdullah Abdullah, Charge'd Affairs of Afghan
Embassy Abdul Hai Khurasani, Indian Council
for Cultural Relations Chairperson Karan Singh,
Minister in Waiting Suresh Pachauri and a number
of Afghans living here were present on the occasion.
A troupe of Afghan dancers performed the national
dance of the country as part of the festival.
Afghanistan's
Deputy Minister for Information, Culture and
Tourism Nasrullah Stanekzai welcomed the Afghan
artists and guests. Meanwhile, the Afghan President said even if the Kashmir problem is not solved, India and Pakistan should address other issues for the betterment of the region. Afghanistan wanted India and Pakistan to sort out their problems. "Even if the (Kashmir) problem is not solved, they should address other issues in a manner that will benefit the people of the region," Karzai said at a breakfast meeting with editors here. When
pointed out that Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf
has linked giving transit facility to India
for transporting goods to Afghanistan with resolution
of the Kashmir problem, he evaded a direct reply
saying it was an issue between India and Pakistan.
"People of Afghanistan desire that the
two countries get over their problems."
India has rejected linkage of resolution of the Kashmir problem with progress on other outstanding issues with Pakistan. The Afghan President, who is on a three-day visit to India, favoured a tripolar structure involving India and Pakistan for economic betterment and quicker progress of the region. "The
tripolar structure of cooperation among India,
Pakistan and Afghanistan would release the best
energy of this region and bring quicker progress
and economic betterment to it," he said.
Karzai said he had discussed this issue during
talks with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh who
"too is of the same view". "It is something that we really need. We should not see this as political one," Karzai said. Asked about Pakistan's response to the proposal, Karzai said it also "understands it very well". About the transit problem faced by India in reaching goods to Afghanistan via Pakistan, Karzai said he would pursue the matter with Islamabad. Asked if Pakistan is doing enough to combat terrorism, he said it was working together with the rest of the international community in this regard. He
also praised Pakistan for making efforts to
flush out Taliban elements from the restive
Waziristan tribal region bordering Afghanistan.
"What we want is more effective fight on
all sides. All the partners should carry more
effective fight against terrorism...With more
coordination and more exchange of information,
we will be making much more progress,"
he said. On
whether the most wanted international terrorist
Osama Bin Laden is in Pakistan, Karzai said
Islamabad was looking for him. "If they
find him there, I am sure they will hand him
over in a manner that is in keeping with our
fight against terrorism". He said intelligence
about the al Qaeda fugitive was "working
well" but contended that "so far,
luck is not on our side". About the Pakistan President being upset with him over reports from Kabul that Taliban and al Qaeda militants continued to operate from the Pakistani soil, he said "Musharraf and I have a very close relationship. We are friends and between friends at times there are moments when frank words are exchanged...I will give him a call within a few days." Osama, Mullah Omar all in Pak: Afghan Foreign Minister WASHINGTON, March 20: Afghanistan Foreign Minister Abdullah Abdullah has claimed that Al-Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden, his deputy Ayman Zawahiri and Taliban leader Mullah Omar are "all together" and "in Pakistan". In an interview to CNN, Abdullah said according to his country's intelligence, Laden was "outside Afghanistan and he might be in the same place where other members of Al-Qaeda have been arrested". He said Zawahiri too was with Laden, according to the Daily Times newspaper. Asked if the Al-Qaeda leader was in Pakistan, the Afghanistan Foreign Minister replied that it was "more likely". On the whereabouts of Mullah Omar, Abdullah said all these "friends" would be found together. Security experts believe that Adullah's word about their being "together" could be taken literally only if he was hinting at a conclave of the fugitive terrorists that does take place from time to time. Analysts pointed out that going by the way these militants operated, their being "together" would entail grave security risk to themselves. Analysts said Abdullah's statements appeared to be more a diplomatic offensive against Pakistan. Afghan President Hamid Karzai and his Pakistani counterpart Pervez Musharraf have been engaged in an angry blame-game over who is responsible for skirmishes on the Pakistan-Afghanistan border and who is sheltering and arming the Taliban elements responsible for persistent internal turmoil in Afghanistan. The
assessment of the US state department, as also
NATO that is doing peacekeeping in Afghanistan,
is that the threat from the Taliban to the Karzai
regime has been more serious than it has been
in his last four years in office. Abdullah
called for greater cooperation between the two
countries because they faced a common threat.
Asked to comment on Musharraf's harsh remarks
about Karzai in an earlier interview to CNN,
the Afghan minister replied that Pakistan and
Afghanistan have to work things out and added
that there were Taliban bases inside Pakistan. On whether that meant Pakistan was not doing enough to deal with the Taliban and other such elements in the tribal areas of Pakistan, he replied, "Yes of course they know about this." Asked "how bad" the relationship between the two countries was, the foreign minister said it was his hope that "we would put it behind us as soon as possible" and the two countries would deal with a common threat in a straightforward manner.
BAGHDAD, March 20: As the Iraq war entered its fourth year, nearly 1,500 US and Iraqi soldiers on Sunday sought to root out insurgents from farming villages an hour's drive north of the capital, and at least 35 people died in insurgent and sectarian violence nationwide. Iraqi
politicians still had not formed a government
more than three months after landmark elections
for the country's first permanent post-invasion
parliament, but they announced an agreement
on naming a Security Council to deal with key
matters while negotiations proceed. The
133,000 American troops on the ground inside
Iraq was nearly a third more than took part
in the campaign to oust Saddam Hussein that
began in the early hours of March 20, 2003. Returning to the White House after a weekend at the presidential retreat in Camp David, Md., Bush offered an upbeat assessment. "We are implementing a strategy that will lead to victory in Iraq. And a victory in Iraq will make this country more secure and will help lay the foundation of peace for generations to come," he said. Many politicians both inside and outside Iraq said the continuing violence could only be described as a civil war. "It is unfortunate that we are in civil war. We are losing each day as an average 50 to 60 people throughout the country, if not more," former interim Prime Minister Ayad Allawi told British Broadcasting Corp. "If this is not civil war, then God knows what civil war is." The Bush administration and U.S. military leaders disagreed. "Personally don't believe, one, that we're there now; two, that civil war is imminent; and, three, that it is inevitable that it will happen," Gen. George Casey, the U.S. commander in Iraq, said in an interview with Fox television. In
a sign of political progress, Iraq's top politicians
emerged from the fourth in a series of US-brokered
all-party meetings on forming a new government
and reported they had established an advisory,
19-member Security Council. The council, to be headed by President Jalal Talabani, was established as an interim measure as politicians struggle to agree on the makeup of a new government following the Dec. 15 parliamentary elections. |  
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||
NEW
DELHI, May 31: Calling for a 'revitalisation' of
the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM), India has stressed
on a resolution of Iran's nuclear row within the
ambit of the International Atomic Energy Agency
(IAEA) through dialogue and consensus. 
NEW
DELHI, May 30: Terming terrorism as a gross violation
of human rights, India has said that NAM should
ensure that the scourge is not condoned or justified
on any grounds - political, religious, ethnic or
any other. Aviation
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