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Glimmer of hope KARACHI, Apr 10: A Pakistan court ruling to set aside corruption convictions against former......more
EU says support rising for BRUSSELS, Apr 10: The European Union is gaining support from Russia, Asia and the developing.......more US spy plane crew while HAIKOU, CHINA, Apr 10: They relieve their boredom with crossword puzzles, novels and playing.....more |
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MQM charges ISI
with fomenting sectarian trouble in Pakistan LONDON, Apr 10: Altaf Hussain, chief of Muttahida Quami Movement (MQM), has blamed the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) for fomenting sectarian violence in Pakistan through "their hired assassins and so-called religious leaders"....more US spy planes not BEIJING, Apr 10: Even as US diplomats secured their fourth meeting with the 24-member crew of the spy plane, an official in the island province of Hainan asked America to stop snooping around China......more Pak for UN observer ISLAMABAD, Apr 10: Pakistan may ask for UN observers to be placed across its 2500 km boundary......more Exit route in US-China WASHINGTON, Apr 10: The tense dispute over 24 Americans and their spy plane held for nine days....more |
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Glimmer of hope for exiled Bhutto KARACHI, Apr 10: A Pakistan court ruling to set aside corruption convictions against former Premier Benazir Bhutto and her husband has offered a glimmer of hope for the exiled politician. But political analysts believe any Bhutto return to her homeland may still be some way off. While Bhutto may be dreaming of a triumphant return to lead her Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) and win a third term as Prime Minister, deep-seated opposition from within the ruling military remains a major hurdle, analysts told Reuters. "I’m absolutely convinced she’s not going to come back but she’s going to try and negotiate her way into the political mainstream while she sits outside," said Najam Sethi, editor of the influential Friday Times newspaper in the city of Lahore. Friday’s Supreme Court order for Bhutto and Asif Ali Zardari to be retired came after an appeal from the couple against 1999 corruption convictions handing them five years in jail, 8.6 million in fines for accepting kickbacks from a swiss firm and bans from holding public office. Zardari has been in jail since 1996 when Bhutto was last sacked by then President Farooq Leghari. Bhutto, who was abroad at the time of her 1999 conviction, has refused to return home on fears she would be arrested. Sethi added Bhutto would likely agree to stay out of politics for the next five years if her jailed husband was freed, she was allowed to fight criminal charges related to her years in power at her own pace and if there were assurances the PPP could freely contest elections. "If she were left alone I rather suspect she would cooperate with the Government if the Government would give her party an assurance it could contest the next elections without later hinderance," Sethi said. Military ruler General Pervez Musharraf, who ousted the Pakistan Muslim League (PML) Government of Nawaz Sharif in a bloodless coup on October 12, 1999, has been set a deadline by the Supreme Court to hold national elections by October 2002 and hand the reins of power back to a civilian Government. No role for Bhutto But Musharraf, in an interview last week with the Herald news magazine, said Bhutto and her arch rival and fellow exile Sharif had no future in Pakistani politics. Bhutto would be arrested if she returned, he said, while Sharif was warned to cease all political activities from Saudi Arabia, where he was exiled for 10 years in return for being pardoned on terrorism and hijacking charges. Both Bhutto’s Prime Ministerial spells in 1988-90 and 1993-96 ended with her being sacked over allegations of mass corruption, charges she and Zardari say were motivated by politics. Musharraf says he has no intention of starting a dialogue with Pakistan’s mainstream political parties and that he is considering amending the constitution to ensure future Governments would not undo reforms and other structural changes put in place by the military. Recently, he has also begun dropping heavy hints that one of the ways of ensuring continuity would be for himself to become President, most likely with certain executive powers that would enable the military to keep Governments in check. "Musharraf is very clear in his mind — he does not expect to be President and have Benazir or Sharif working with him," Sethi said. But he added Bhutto would continue to cast a shadow over Pakistani politics and Musharraf would have to agree a deal with the former premier over a future PPP leader. "It would have to be somebody nominated by Benazir, it would have to be somebody acceptable to Musharraf, and it would have to be somebody whose name would come up as part of a deal between Benazir and Musharraf," Sethi said. Split opposition? The military, following the exile of Sharif in December, has been accused of mounting bids to split the PML, moves analysts say have failed to strengthen Musharraf’s position and played into the hands of Bhutto and the PPP. Imran Aslam, contributing editor to the news newspaper, said Bhutto was unlikely to strike any deal with Musharraf. "There certainly is room for the People’s Party, which is making a bit of a comeback...(to) take advantage of the complete confusion in the ranks of the other parties," he said. Iqbal Haider, a former Law Minister under Bhutto and a senator in the Upper House suspended by Musharraf after the coup, said the Supreme Court ruling had strengthened Bhutto’s hand. "There is no doubt that this is a major victory to vindicate her position that the (1999) trial was not fair, it was a miscarriage of justice," he told Reuters. But haider added that Bhutto was unlikely to be free to campaign in a 2002 election as she faced a long wait while it was decided how her retrial could be arranged and other outstanding legal procedures were addressed. Aslam said Bhutto should not be written off. "Benazir might be brought in at some stage to give credibility to a broad-based coalition national Government," he said. "(But) the perception (about Benazir) that something or the other was done which was illegal in its nature...Persists." (REUTERS) |
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EU says support rising for climate deal without US BRUSSELS, Apr 10: The European Union is gaining support from Russia, Asia and the developing world for pushing ahead with a 1997 deal on combating global warming that the united states has rejected, EU officials said today. A delegation from the 15-country European Bloc is in Japan on the last leg of a diplomatic tour to urge world powers to stick to the deal on cutting "greenhouse gases" that the White House threw out last month. A budget proposal for 2002 presented by President George W Bush to the US Congress on Monday would prohibit the Government from spending any money to implement the 1997 Kyoto Treaty. The proposal would cut some 2.3 billion dollars in federal funding for an array of US environmental programmes. Russia and China have said they want to press ahead with the deal, and talks with Iran — current chair of the g77 group of developing countries — were encouraging, EU officials told Reuters. But Japan, a key ally of Washington during the climate negotiations, has yet to say whether it will proceed without the United States. "Japan hasn’t pronounced on this subject. We will continue talking tomorrow," Belgian Energy Minister Olivier Deleuze told Reuters after meetings between the EU delegation and Japanese ministers. "Our Japanese partners insisted on the importance of the United States for the environmental integrity (of the deal). Both Japan and the European Union think it’s important that the United States should participate in the process," Deleuze said. With or without US. The Kyoto deal, named after the Japanese town in which it was agreed in 1997, commits industrialised countries to cut their greenhouse gas emissions by an average of five percent of 1990 levels by 2012. The United States rejected the deal on the grounds that it would hurt the US economy and was unfair because developing countries, including China and India, did not have to limit their growing emissions. The EU has said it will ratify the deal with or without the United States and is urging other countries to follow suit. (REUTERS) |
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US spy plane crew while away China detention HAIKOU, CHINA, Apr 10: They relieve their boredom with crossword puzzles, novels and playing cards. Lately, e-mails from loved ones have kept their spirits up. But there are few home comforts in the Haikou military guest house where 24 US air crew, three of them women, entered their ninth day in detention on Hainan Island yesterday. Small luxuries have been sent in from the outside —deodorants, cigarettes and nail clippers — along with items such as contact lens solution and shaving kits, all bought by US diplomats on shopping expeditions in Haikou. Catered meals have also found their way into the spartan military facility. US diplomats and Chinese officials have been at pains to portray the detained Americans as being well cared for — even cheerful. The crew have ditched their cumbersome flight-suits since receiving a batch of Guangzhou consulate polo shirts emblazoned with the American Eagle Insignia, enough for a clean change of clothes, a US official said. "They look real good," US embassy defence attache Brigadier-General Neal Sealock told President George W Bush by telephone after visting the crew last week. Sealock visited the crew again late on Monday. "We are glad to report they are in excellent health, their spirits are extremely high and we had a good conversation for about 40 minutes as a group," he told reporters. He said the fourth visit since the crew was detained on April 1 confirmed they were receiving e-mails, toiletries and other provisions and were living in facilities similar to officers’ quarters. "That includes air conditioning. It is very clean. It is a hotel environment," Sealock said. Hainan Cuisine It has been a terrifying and bewildering nine days for the Americans, who are based on the Japanese island of Okinawa. A mid-air collision with a Chinese fighter ripped off the nose cone of their EP-3 spy plane and buckled the propellers on the left wing. Experienced pilots say this would have produced a violent shuddering and deafening roar in the cabin. That was when the commander sent out a mayday call, and when the crew almost certainly sent up prayers. The pilot of the Chinese fighter jet, which crashed after the collision, is missing and presumed dead. Having nursed their crippled aircraft into Hainan for an emergency landing, the first Chinese the Americans encountered were People’s Liberation Army soldiers with rifles pointed at them. It is not clear whether the crew were whisked straight to Haikou, or if they stayed on the Lingshui air base where the spy plane is still parked. A 3-hour drive to Haikou would have taken them past lush rice paddies, water buffalo and palm trees. Haikou itself is dilapidated, a boom city that went bust in the mid 1990s and is now littered with half-completed skyscrapers and the concrete skeletons of department stores. A stopping off point for tourists on their way to southern beach resorts and golf courses, Haikou is filled with cheap bars and street-walkers. The humid, muggy climate of the tropical island — where temperatures can soar above 30 degrees celsius this time of year — is worlds apart from Washington state, which seven of the 24 crew call home. Since leaving the crisp air of Washington in early March for a three-month tour, the seven have had little time to acclimatise to the moist western pacific. Crew members who hail from small towns with names like Rock Creek, Ohio, and Ypsilanti, Michigan, are now having to get used to local Chinese cooking. The blander Hainanese cuisine is unlike the heavier, gravy-rich americanised cantonese food common in the United States. Letters from home The 21 men and three women have been forced by their Chinese military hosts to spend their days in near-total seclusion. There are reports that the commander has his own room while others are sharing. US and local Chinese officials are keeping a tight lid on the crew’s living conditions. "They are being very well-treated," Guangzhou Consular official Ted Gong told Reuters on Monday. The only picture of the crew released so far has been a grainy, washed-out image of them hunched over wooden desks in what looked like a classroom. Most crucially, the crew have been allowed to read letters from home, sent via e-mail to their military unit. While the communication remains one-way for now, US officials said the crew cherished the reminders of home. "They do offer that they very much appreciate the e-mails that they have received," Sealock told reporters. (REUTERS) |
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MQM charges ISI with fomenting
sectarian LONDON, Apr 10: Altaf Hussain, chief of Muttahida Quami Movement (MQM), has blamed the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) for fomenting sectarian violence in Pakistan through "their hired assassins and so-called religious leaders". Launching a scathing attack on the ISI, Hissain said he was firm in his conviction that "a very organised and powerful institution of the establishment, that is the ISI, is behind the conspiracy of rising sectarian violence in the country." "The ISI through their hired assassins and so-called religious scholars, carry out murders, organise armed attacks on mosques and Imam barahs, and then put the blame on foreign hands or the MQM," Hussain, who is in exile here, said in a message to the scholars in Karachi. Hussain, whose message was quoted in the MQM website, said "everyone is witness to the establishment of `Jihadi’ organisations in Karachi and the open display of arms by their members". Meanwhile in Geneva, MQM asked the UNHRC to urgently address the "systematic destruction" of Pakistani civil institutions, warning that an "unstructured" Pakistan with nuclear capability would "not take a second to push the nuclear button". In a memorandum to the UN body, MQM said unless UNHRC took immediate note and addressed this, "the day shall not be far when every edifice on which the Pakistani nation is based, goes up in smoke in a manner not dissimilar to the once towering Bamiyan Buddhas". The MQM sought urgent steps to meet the situation saying "you are aware of the potential consequences of a collapsing Pakistan or Pakistan in the clutches of the extremist and radical forces, whether civilian or military, who are gaining strength." Blaming the Pervez Musharraf regime for "systematic destruction" of Pakistani society and polity, it said the military regime was holding "Sham" local elections on non-party basis "to gain constituencies for itself with the view to subvert the democratic process and deny the people their right to franchise and choose their political party". Castigating the regime for its human rights record while referring to the prosecution, arrest and torture of political activists including those of the mqm, the memorandum said "sectarian violence has also become endemic while religious fanaticism is on the rise, adherently promoted by the Government". (PTI) |
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US spy planes not welcome: China BEIJING, Apr 10: Even as US diplomats secured their fourth meeting with the 24-member crew of the spy plane, an official in the island province of Hainan asked America to stop snooping around China. "US tourists are welcome to Hainan for site-seeing and vocations, but certainly US spy planes are not welcome here," Head of Foreign Affairs and Overseas Chinese Affairs Department of Hainan Province Chen Ci said. "It’s known to all that Hainan island is a pleasant tourist destination and local residents are used to living in peace and tranquility," Chen told reporters after last night’s meeting between the US officials and the detained crew. "However, frequent surveillance flights near the island by US military planes, and especially this collision caused by the US surveillance plane, have seriously affected normal life of local people and had a negative impact on the tourism industry of the island province," he said. Chinese President Jiang Zemin has already urged his US counterpart George W Bush to halt surveillance flights near China as part of the deal for the release of the crew which completed 10th day under Chinese detention. Echoing the Chinese Government’s stance, Chen said the local people demand that the US stop such surveillance activities and apologise to Chinese for the incident. US defence attache Brigadier General Neal Sealock and other US diplomats met the spy plane crew on April three, six and eight and have reported that the crew are in good health and in high spirits, US Embassy said in a release here. "Our goal is the release of the entire crew and recovery of our plane at the earliest possible time. We’re all working very hard towards that in Washington, and in Beijing and with the cooperation of our counterparts, here on Hainan island," Sealock said. The US spy plane landed at an airport in Hainan without permission after colliding with a Chinese jet fighter on April one. The Chinese jet fighter crashed in the South China sea, and the pilot is still missing. Meanwhile, China’s state media today reported that the hopes of finding missing pilot Wang Wei alive have become "dimmer" though Chinese ships and planes are continuing search efforts. Wang would have faced major challenges in the sea, including difficult weather, big waves and sharks. "Wang still has a slim chance to survive," said Liu Shi, Director of State Maritime Safety Administration. "We do expect a miracle to happen," Liu was quoted as saying by the official China daily newspaper. (PTI) |
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Pak for UN observer to oversee
its compliance ISLAMABAD, Apr 10: Pakistan may ask for UN observers to be placed across its 2500 km boundary with Afghanistan to oversee its compliance to UN sanctions against Taliban for countering the joint moves by Russia and France to press for similar sanctions against Islamabad for its continued support to Afghanistan’s ruling militia. As Pakistan diplomats, both in UN and several European capitals, geared up to counter the Russian and French attempts to bring about a UN Security Council resolution to impose sanctions against Pakistan, official sources here did not rule out Pakistan throwing open its Afghan border, known as Durand line, for an effective UN supervision. The Russian and French moves comes ahead of the scheduled Security Council review of the implementation of the UN sanctions against Taliban on Friday. Pakistan has already stated on eve of the implementation of the UN sanctions against Taliban, which came into effect on January 19 this year, that it would fully enforce sanctions and asked for UN monitoring mechanism to oversee the implementation. Meanwhile, according to media reports here Pakistan diplomats in the UN began hectic efforts to prevent the Russian and French efforts to gather any significant support. Pakistan’s permanent representative at UN, Shamshad Ahmad, addressed a press conference at New York yesterday to inform the world media that Islamabad has fully complied with the UN sanctions against Taliban and dismissed the report of providing support to them. Russian and French move to corner Pakistan was seen by the media here as an attempt by both the countries to bolster the anti-Taliban alliance of Ahmed Shah Masood. The Afghan leader returned to the centrestage of Afghan politics last year when he suddenly surfaced in Brussels to address the European Parliament on a special invitation. As if to counter this 12 member delegation of Taliban’s hardline Mullahs comprising of Afghanistan’s Chief Justice Mullah Noor Mohammad Saqib and Foreign Minister, Mullah Ahmmad Mutwakil received a sudden invitation from Qatar King Sheikh Aamid Al Kalifa Al Thani. Though Taliban claimed to be controlling over 95 per cent of the territory, it was so far recognised only by Paksitan, Saudi Arabia and UAE. Of the three Pakistan only extended diplomatic status to Taliban. The Qatari King, who is also the current chairman of the Organisation of Islamic Countries (OIC) sent a special plane to Afghanistan’s Kandahar town to pick up the Taliban delegation. Qatar managed to obtain UN permission before it sent its plane to Kandahar, media reports here said. Commenting on the visit, Pakistan daily, the news said that timing of the Taliban visit to Qatar coincided with Massod’s arrival in Europe could be incidental. Still it would provide the Taliban with a rare opportunity to travel abroad and explain their case at time when their isolation has become eve more pronounced and international opposition to their policies at its peak. (PTI) |
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Exit route in US-China standoff unclear WASHINGTON, Apr 10: The tense dispute over 24 Americans and their spy plane held for nine days in china approached what Americans hope will be its final phase today, with the exit route far from clear. As US officials accentuated the positive, such as a fresh meeting between the detained americans and US diplomats on Hainan island, President George W Bush said ties could suffer if the dispute dragged on. "Every day that goes by increases the potential that our relations with China could be damaged," Bush told reporters, reiterating an apparently hardening line taken Sunday by senior US officials. "And our hope is that this matter gets resolved quickly." Noting that "diplomacy takes time," Bush said Washington was continuing to negotiate with the Chinese to free the crew, held since their EP-3 surveillance plane made a forced landing on Hainan island after colliding with a Chinese fighter plane on April 1. But something must happen soon, he said. "All of us around this table understand diplomacy takes time," Bush said. "But there is a point, the longer it goes, there’s a point at which our relations with China could become damaged." Officials said the two sides were still talking, and State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said there had "continued to be movement" in the talks. But the basis for a solution was hard to see from public comments by the two sides, with Beijing continuing to demand a US apology and Washington refusing to go beyond stating its regret at the incident, in which the pilot of the Chinese fighter plane was presumed killed. In Beijing, US Ambassador Joseph Prueher told reporters earlier: "We are making progress and negotiating and working on the release of the air crew." he declined to elaborate. US officials visited the crew yesterday evening for only the fourth time, but there was no word on whether the daily access Washington seeks had been granted. "We are glad to report they are in excellent health, their spirits are extremely high and we had a good conversation for about 40 minutes as a group," US defence attache Brigadier-General Neal Sealock told reporters on Hainan. He said the crew were receiving e-mails, toiletries and other provisions and were living in facilities similar to officers’ quarters. "That includes air conditioning. It is very clean. It is a hotel environment," he said. But sealock made no reference to his statement earlier in the day that he hoped China would agree to "unfettered," twice-daily access from yesterday. White House spokesman Ari Fleischer repeated the United States had no intention of apologizing for the collision that triggered the incident, even if an investigation revealed US errors. "Secretary (of State Colin) Powell said yesterday, (National Security Adviser) Condoleezza Rice said yesterday. There will not be an apology," Fleischer said. Noting that Bush and Chinese Deputy Premier Qian Qichen had focused on the positive aspects of the countries’ relationship during an oval office meeting last month, Fleischer said that could change if the Chinese continued to hold the crew. "From the President’s point of view, if this continues, so much of the good they talked about can go wrong or will go wrong, and he wants to avoid that," he said. Powell said on Sunday the dispute risked inflicting long-term damage on Chinese-US relations, including trade. He said US business leaders voiced their concern to him. When asked if the United States would withdraw support for China’s accession to the World Trade Organization (WTO), Fleischer refused to speculate but said, "the longer this goes on, the more relevant those questions will become." (REUTERS) |
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