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‘Difficult
period’ ahead WASHINGTON, Nov 21: With the US-led war on terrorism entering "a difficult period," President George W Bush will visit a Kentucky Army base.....more Malaysia
to mark king’s KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 21: Malaysia’s king, Sultan Salahuddin Abdul Aziz Shah, one of nine traditional rulers who take turns in the figurehead role, . .....more Canadian
Govt softens OTTAWA, Nov 21: The Canadian Government softened proposed anti-terrorism legislation, bowing at least partially to criticism that planned ......more Afghanistan
not a good LONDON, Nov 21: Afghanistan has not been a good war for the world’s armchair generals, as stark warnings about the perils of ......more |
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US in pursuit of WASHINGTON, Nov 21: An improved flow of intelligence information has shown marked results in Afghanistan, leading US officials to express .....more Pak
militant groups DUBAI, Nov 21: Pakistan-based Jihadi groups engaged in a ‘holy war’ in Kashmir have warned they will resist attempts by Islamabad to restrict their .......more Good
Muslims not SPIN BOLDAK, Nov 21: Osama Bin Laden did not have the capability to carry out the September 11 terrorist attacks in the .......more War takes the forefront, women — the backseat NEW DELHI, Nov 21: Women are the worst affected in a war, suffering rape and exploitation that leave them scarred for life and burdened with the task ........more |
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‘Difficult period’ ahead in anti-terror war: Bush WASHINGTON, Nov 21: With the US-led war on terrorism entering "a difficult period," President George W Bush will visit a Kentucky Army base today to boost morale and remind troops that they could be in Afghanistan for a while. As US bombers pounded the last Taliban strongholds in Afghanistan and the United Nations planned talks next week on crafting peace for the central Asian country, Bush would remind the military, and all Americans, that "there’s still more to be done," a senior administration official said. He will do that on a thanksgiving-eve visit to Fort Campbell, Kentucky, home to the Army’s 101st airborne, an air assault division known as the "screaming eagles." The base is the Army’s third largest with more than 40,000 military and support personnel. "The President will thank the troops at Fort Campbell for defending freedom and update them on the progress of the war against terrorism," the official said. "He will remind them that there’s still more to be done and the most difficult parts of the mission are ahead." With three-quarters of Afghanistan now in anti-Taliban hands, the United States has focused on hunting Osama bin Laden, increasing the bounty on his head to as much as 25 million in hopes that Afghans would scour their country’s vast network of caves and tunnels to flush him into the open. The Pentagon has moved hundreds of additional US marines aboard warships near Afghanistan for possible help in the American military hunt for Bin Laden, who is suspected of masterminding the Sept. 11 attacks on the United States that killed around 4,500 people. But officials refused to say whether Washington, with several hundred special operations troops now in Afghanistan, might soon mount a major military ground search for Bin Laden and leaders of his Al Qaeda guerrilla network. Bush appeared to be trying to dampen expectations on Tuesday that the recent successes on the ground in Afghanistan would bring a quick end to the anti-terror campaign. "I want people in America to understand that, first of all, the theater in Afghanistan is entering a difficult period of time," Bush said. "We could be there for quite a while, which is fine, because we’ve got an objective in mind, and we’ll stay there until we get our objective." During a meeting with President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo of the Philippines, who is battling Muslim militants in the southern part of her country, Bush reminded reporters that, despite the focus on Bin Laden, the anti-terror effort extended beyond Afghanistan. "Let me say something, just in general. Your question points up what I have been saying, that the front against terror is not just in Afghanistan, that we’re going to fight terror wherever it exists," he said. "And we will work with our allies and friends to use whatever resources we have to win the war against terror." Bush planned to deliver that same message at Fort Campbell, the official said. "Now is the time to make a stand against terrorist activity, whether it be in Afghanistan or in the philippines or anywhere else Al Qaeda exists," the President declared. "And so we are looking for opportunities to help friends and allies strike Al Qaeda wherever they exist." While Bush will thank the US military for their sacrifice, courage and determination in Afghanistan, he will caution that there are likely to be "other fronts in this theater ... Other places where we need to work to rout out Al Qaeda and other terrorist organizations." After the visit to Fort Campbell, Bush will head to the Camp David presidential retreat in the Maryland mountains where he will spend thanksgiving day tomorrow with his family. (REUTERS) |
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Malaysia to mark king’s death with week of mourning KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 21: Malaysia’s king, Sultan Salahuddin Abdul Aziz Shah, one of nine traditional rulers who take turns in the figurehead role, died today after never recovering fully from a heart operation two months ago. "With great sadness and grief, I announce that his royal highness Sultan Salahuddin Abdul Aziz Shah Al-Haj Ibni Almarhum Sultan Hishamuddin alam Shah Al-Haj passed away today," Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad said in a sombre televised address to the nation. He said the king’s funeral will take place tomorrow, when a holiday will be observed to start a week of national mourning. "I’m very saddened. We have been good friends. We are very close. I didn’t expect him go so soon. I would miss him a lot," a tearful Mahathir told reporters in a halting voice after the address. The Prime Minister, along with other political leaders, had earlier called at the hospital in a central Kuala Lumpur suburb where the 75-year-old monarch, who was also Sultan of the central state of Selangor, died shortly before noon. The popular king, the country’s 11th constitutional monarch since independence, was active in the movement that won Malaysia independence from Britain in 1957 and had won his subjects’ affection by his readiness to hear their problems. In his younger days he had cycled to Kampungs, or villages, to meet rural folk, and during his 40-year reign Selangor emerged as one of Malaysia’s most dynamic states. Hundreds of people thronged outside the hospital as eight uniformed pall bearers carried out the coffin, draped in a yellow cloth, the royal colour, bearing the motif of the Selangor sultanate. Queen Siti Aishah, the Sultan’s fourth wife, who had visited her husband earlier, was not among the red-eyed relatives who followed a royal hearse that carried Sultan Salahuddin’s body back to the royal palace. The Sultan had 10 children by his earlier marriages. He married Queen Siti Aisah in 1990, when she was 19. The king had returned from Singapore on Sunday, where he had a pacemaker implanted two months ago, but his condition deteriorated and he spent his final days on life support machines. His body will be taken to the national mosque tomorrow morning for prayers and then it will be laid in state at the Istana Negara for the public to pay their last respects. Sultan Salahuddin, who was noted for his blunt, outspoken ways, enjoyed good terms with Mahathir, who belongs to the same generation, despite some clashes in the early 1980s and 1990s. Mahathir, also 75, curtailed the constitutional powers of the malay rulers during the early years of his own 20-year rule. A new Sultan of Selangor will be declared tomorrow, but Mahathir said it will be four weeks before the nine malay rulers will meet to decide who among them will be next king. Meantime, Sultan Mizan Zainal Abidin of the east coast state of Terengganu will be the acting monarch. Malaysia’s hereditary rulers take turns every five years at being king under Malaysia’s unique rotating monarchy, which has mainly symbolic powers. News of the king’s death had been anticipated by financial markets, and trading in shares was subdued, with speculators closing out positions and the state run pension funds reducing activity. The Kuala Lumpur benchmark index was down 0.34 percent at 623.27 points in early afternoon trade. (REUTERS) |
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Canadian Govt softens proposed anti-terrorism legislation OTTAWA, Nov 21: The Canadian Government softened proposed anti-terrorism legislation, bowing at least partially to criticism that planned measures were too draconian and that they infringed on civil rights. Justice Minister Anne McLellan presented amendments to the Government bill yesterday, including sunset clauses under which two provisions — allowing for preventive arrests and judicial investigative hearings — would expire after five years. But she refused to put the whole bill under a sunset clause, which would require Parliament to re-enact it if it was still thought appropriate. "The threat of terrorism, the war against terrorism, is not going to be short term," McLellan told Parliament. "Our first obligation is to ensure the safety and security of Canadians." McLellan raced out with the legislation to meet the needs of various Government departments in the wake of the Sept. 11 strikes on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, It immediately ran up against criticism on various points from members of all parties, including the governing liberals. But both the liberals and the largest opposition party, the Canadian alliance, voiced broad satisfaction with the changes. In addition to the sunset clause for the two provisions, McLellan also proposed to clarify the definition of terrorist activity. The original bill did not target people engaging in "lawful advocacy, protest, dissent or stoppage of work." Unions and others said that meant that if people engaged in an illegal strike they could, in theory, be labeled terrorists. McLellan agreed to strike the word "lawful" so that illegal activity like wildcat strikes would not come under the new law. She also said she would require annual public reports on any investigative hearings and preventive arrests that have taken place under the legislation. But smaller parties continued to slam the bill, even after the amendments, which Michel Bellehumeur of the Bloc Quebecois dismissed as "a few cosmetic changes." "Who asked for a sunset clause just for two provisions?" demanded bellehumeur. "Our witnesses were asking for a comprehensive sunset clause." The Canadian alliance’s Vic Toews said McLellan had shown good faith in presenting the amendments, but he asked angrily why the bill would allow those convicted of terrorism to apply for parole after 25 years. "Why does this Government have so little demand for human life that mass murderers are free to kill as often as they choose without being denied parole eligibility? why are mass murderers eligible for discount on justice," Toews asked. He also said the Government should criminalize membership in groups labeled as terrorist groups — something that would go beyond US legislation. McLellan demurred, noting concerns that this could infringe on freedom of association. (REUTERS) |
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Afghanistan not a good war for armchair generals LONDON, Nov 21: Afghanistan has not been a good war for the world’s armchair generals, as stark warnings about the perils of doing battle in that country are swiftly overtaken by events on the ground. While the war is not yet be won — Osama bin Laden has proved elusive and the Taliban remain defiant in parts of the south — conventional wisdom is already taking some big knocks. It wasn’t very long ago that Afghanistan looked an easy battle to call. Bombing alone would never work, according to an Army of defence, political and diplomatic pundits. Yet another foreign interloper could fail on Afghan soil. The fiery Taliban would stand firm. How times change. The Taliban have folded much more quickly than the experts predicted, forced into hurried retreat by the devastating effects of American B-52 bombers. General Tommy Franks, the US military chief derided by the Washington Post for running an "unimaginative and plodding" campaign, appears vindicated, for now at least. As Northern Alliance forces consolidated positions this week, the knives came out for the "laptop bombardiers". "The Taliban have not shown the gritty determination...And those who said the Northern Alliance were a ragtag that would never move (into fresh territory) perhaps exaggerated," conceded William Hopkinson, a British Strategic analyst. But he noted that Bin Laden remained at large, the damage inflicted to his Al Qaeda network was unclear and the Taliban could yet conduct a classic guerrilla campaign. "The experts have certainly not been 100 per cent right, nor would you expect them to be. Warfare is not physics," Hopkinson said. Earlier this month, former British Defence Secretary Denis Healey drew a stark picture of the dangers of bombing. Civilians were dying, fundamentalists could seize Pakistan’s nuclear arsenal and the Saudi and Egyptian Governments could be overthrown in a Middle East flare-up. "The longer the bombing continues, the greater the danger, leaving Bin Laden untouched in his bomb-proof cave," Healey said in a letter to the times. Seasoned reporters in Northern Afghanistan had also talked up the dangers for Washington of a long, drawn-out war. But perhaps the truth was that in this war, large areas of the conflict were simply out of bounds to the media and pundits. The Taliban did not give front line access to foreign journalists and planners at the Pentagon took pains not to release too much information about their intentions. "If reporters on the spot were in the dark, it is hardly surprising that we armchair generals have been peering through the fog," wrote media commentator Stephen Glover in the spectator, a right-wing British political weekly. He also noted that some left-wing writers appeared guided by "a visceral anti-Americanism which assumes that any cause the United States embraces is bound to be wrong". (REUTERS) |
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US in pursuit of Bin Laden in Afghanistan WASHINGTON, Nov 21: An improved flow of intelligence information has shown marked results in Afghanistan, leading US officials to express optimism that the man they blame for the Sept. 11 attacks could be captured. Hope grew that Bin Laden may ultimately be caught after Mohammed Atef, a senior member of his Al Qaeda network, was killed last week by US air strikes. US intelligence had not known Atef specifically would be at that location south of Kabul, but rather had got wind of a gathering Al Qaeda members. After the airstrikes it became clear Atef was killed when intelligence information showed Al Qaeda members mourning his death, the officials said on condition of anonymity. US officials, after trying to downplay the importance of capturing Bin Laden, now are more inclined to express optimism that the Saudi-born militant will come into US sights. "If we knew precisely where he was, he would be dead," one US official said yesterday on condition of anonymity. "He will eventually get caught." The chances of Bin Laden surrendering appeared slim, and the expectation was that either the united states would find his location and bomb it or he would be killed in a confrontation with US military forces. "He’s made it clear he doesn’t have any intentions of surrendering," the US official said. The Central Intelligence Agency has been using unmanned predator planes to scour the mountainous region of Afghanistan searching for senior Al Qaeda and Taliban officials. The plane, equipped with hellfire anti-tank missiles, has fired at targets where leaders were believed to have gathered. CIA operatives have also been bribing Afghans for information about the location of Bin Laden and other leaders, a US Government source said. And a small band of CIA paramilitary operatives from the "special activities division" have been working covertly to pave the way for US military special operations forces, the source said. Those operatives have been on the ground in civilian clothes introducing opposition leaders to US military special operations forces so they can work together to oust the Taliban and hunt for Al Qaeda members, the source added. It would not be unusual for those CIA operatives, who are mainly former military officers, to be in Afghan clothing with beards to better blend into the community. The US military has put more special operations teams on the ground in recent days hunting for Al Qaeda and Taliban leaders, the Pentagon said. The military is also broadcasting radio messages into Afghanistan on rewards of up to 25 million for information leading to the location of Bin Laden and other Al Qaeda leaders. Under the "rewards for justice" program, the United States has so far received more than 22,000 pieces of information since the Sept. 11 attacks, mostly through e-mail or telephone tips, State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said. A committee reviews the information that comes in and determines the amount of the reward "based in the relevance of the information, the amount of risk the person took in giving it to us, their cooperation and subsequent things like trials," he said. "We got 22,000 pieces of information. We pass those to the appropriate investigating agencies. But at this point, nobody has come back and said that we got the information that can lead to the capture. It hasn’t happened yet," Boucher said. The tip that puts bin laden into US sights may come from another country, with US intelligence agencies working with intelligence agencies of friendly Governments to roll up members of Al Qaeda in other countries who might in turn provide information on the location of key leaders of the network. (REUTERS) |
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Pak militant groups caution Govt against crackdown DUBAI, Nov 21: Pakistan-based Jihadi groups engaged in a ‘holy war’ in Kashmir have warned they will resist attempts by Islamabad to restrict their activities either under American pressure or for other reasons. "If there is an attempt to crack down on us, then we will resist and will stand by our position," Hafiz Saeed, leader of the Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT) told ‘Gulf News’. "If the Government moves against Islam, it will need to take US on first," he said adding that the real aim of the US was to occupy Pakistan and seize its nuclear devices. The new belligerence from Jihadi organisations indicates that not only are they angered by Pakistan’s pro-US policy on Afghanistan, but they also fear reprisals in the future. Leaders of the Harkat Ul Mujahideen, already banned by the US have said they would resist any curbs on their activities by Pakistan. The Government has imposed restrictions on major Jihadi groups like the Harkat and the Jaish-e-Mohammad. The LeT, like another militant organisation Badrul Mujahideen, is said to be close to the Government and has traditionally enjoyed its support. (UNI) |
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Good Muslims not tempted by Laden bounty: Taliban SPIN BOLDAK, Nov 21: Osama Bin Laden did not have the capability to carry out the September 11 terrorist attacks in the US and the 25 million dollar bounty will not lead to his capture, a Taliban official said today. Mohammed Saeed Haqqani, security chief at the border town of Spin Boldak in Kandahar, one of the last remaining provinces still in Taliban control, said the attacks on the World Trade Centre and the Pentagon were the work of Jews trying to blacken the name of Islam. "The US has not provided any information about his (Bin Laden’s) involvement in the attacks," Haqqani told reporters. "He has not the telecommunications means to conduct such activities. Being our guest we are duty bound to protect him" and not hand him over to the US authorities. "The Americans have offered 25 million dollars for Osama. We will give 50 million dollars for (US President George W) bush even though we are a poor country." US Secretary of State Colin Powell boosted the reward for Bin Laden from five million to 25 million dollars yesterday, with the bounty advertised in radio broadcasts to Afghanistan, and leaflets distributed on the ground. All good Muslims would reject the opportunity to cash in on the bounty for Bin Laden’s capture, Haqqani said. "Being good Muslims we have a strong faith, that’s why it is not tempting to us." Asked for proof of Jewish involvement in the September 11 strikes, Haqqani said 4,000 Jews had not gone to work at the World Trade Centre on the day. (AFP) |
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War takes the forefront, women — the backseat NEW DELHI, Nov 21: Women are the worst affected in a war, suffering rape and exploitation that leave them scarred for life and burdened with the task of running households, speakers at a human rights conference said. Following the September 11 Kamikaze strikes on the United States, the focus has shifted to war and issues related to women have taken the backseat. "Survival is now the primary occupation as war has seeped deeply into every conscience," said Dr Radhika Coomaraswamy, Director of the International Centre for Ethnic Studies. Addressing a recent conference of South Asians for Human Rights (SAHR) here, she said, "while war affects humanity as a whole, it is the women who are the worst sufferers, for it makes an adverse impact on them in more ways than one." "Be it Rwanda, Sri Lanka, East Timor or Afghanistan, it is the women who are raped, made sexual slaves and forced to render domestic services. Ironically, rape was not considered a war crime even under the geneva conventions for it was probably not a ‘grave violation’ of human rights," said the UN Rappoteur on Violence against Women. It was only the international court’s statute of 1997 that considered rape a crime against humanity, she said. "Women’s bodies symbolise the honour of men and rape is the way to humiliate the warring opposition. Women are even killed by family members to save their honour and the scenes witnessed during the partition of India in 1947 are replayed every time men decide to fight," she rued. In wars, women form the majority of refugees. Describing the condition in the refugee camps of Peshawar in 1999, she said that not only were they living in unhygienic conditions, they also faced increasing violence by own family members. "Women were also trafficked from the camps at night," said Dr Coomaraswamy. Women also bear the burden of running single parent-households after losing their husbands to war. Not only do they become war widows, some of them at a very young age, they have to struggle hard to make ends meet. "In West Lanka, it has almost become a tradition to be a war widow due to the 18-year-old militancy," the activist from Sri Lanka said. She said a new dimension of ‘war and women’ was coming to the fore with a large number of them being made combatants. "Be it the liberation tigers of Tamil Eelam or organisations in Latin America, women are being used to further war and again the geneva conventions are silent about ‘women combatants’," she added. Not only this, war also gives rise to ‘militarisation’, and national security becomes the operative word. The policy to ‘seize’ and ‘stifle’ every dissent is legitimised which makes people revengeful. This, she said, "creates groups carrying fire which increases crimes against women, especially domestic violence." She said ‘peace’ agreements also seem to exclude women by overlooking their rights. Even the return of peace is no guarantee, and in fact, it can create problems unless it is based on justice, she added. "Today, we have conflict-resolution strategies where deals are made without regard to people. We can have peace only if we have the rights that guarantee democracy," Dr Coomaraswamy said. The paradox is that men’s search for security leads to war. Osama bin Laden’s quest to make the world safe for Muslims and US attacks to ensure security of Americans have actually made more people unsafe than they intended to make secure, she added. "Men create war and women suffer its consequences. They are left behind to suffer. Wars scar the body but blooden the soul. At least for the sake of humanity, men should give up war," she urged. (UNI) |
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