Daily Excelsior... World

Taliban conscript
young men by force:
Refugees

AJEE MALA (AFGHANISTAN), Oct 29: When the Taliban tried to conscript his 15-year-old son, Alim Khan decided it was time for his family to leave their home in a Taliban-controlled area of Northern Afghanistan. They set out on foot on a dangerous three-day trek across mountains and then the front line, and headed for the. . ...more

Tony Blair tries to calm
nerves over Afghanistan

LONDON, Oct 29: Prime Minister Tony Blair will urge Britons this week to hold their nerve after a series of setbacks to the US-led campaign against Osama Bin . ..more

Israel pulls out, Bethlehem life back to normal

BETHLEHEM (WEST BANK), Oct 29: Palestinians in Bethlehem returned to work and school today after Israeli forces pulled out under heavy US pressure to end a 10-day re-occupation .....more

Japan ruling party regains lower house majority

TOKYO, Oct 29: Japan’s dominant ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) regained a majority in the lower house of Parliament for the first time in more than a year following victory in two by-elections. .....more

Pak nuke scientist "cleared" of Osama links, released

ISLAMABAD, Oct 29: Pakistan’s retired nuclear scientist Sultan Bashiruddin Mehmud, who was questioned by intelligence agencies for alleged links with Taliban militia and Osama Bin Laden, has been released after his . ...more

Germany tells India to
support fresh negotiations
at Doha summit

NEW DELHI, Oct 29: German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder today said his country favoured a fresh round of negotiations at next month’s World Trade Organisation (WTO) ministerial meeting at Doha.. ...more

Thousands pledge
Jihad at Pakistan rally

PESHAWAR, PAKISTAN, Oct 29: Hardline Islamic parties fired up thousands of young men in the Pakistani border city of peshawar today to join tribesmen trying to cross to Afghanistan ....more

Germany tells India to
support fresh negotiations
at Doha summit

Taliban conscript young men by force: Refugees

They set out on foot on a dangerous three-day trek across mountains and then the front line, and headed for the relative safety of a wind-blown camp of tents made from sticks and blankets in territory held by the opposition Northern Alliance.

Their tale of forced conscription by the Taliban is not the only trial ordinary Afghans face. Others speak of rapes and targeting of those from ethnic minorities not from the Pashtun group who mainly form the ruling Taliban.

Khan’s family of six have just spent a cold night under the shelter of a grey woollen blanket, but said they were glad they had left.

"The Taliban wanted to take the young men, give them guns and make them fight," said Khon. "The Taliban wanted to send my son to the front line but he escaped."

"Then they came and stole all my possessions and burnt the house. That’s when we ran."

Other new arrivals among the thousands of refugees in camps dotted around Northeastern Afghanistan tell similar stories.

Shar Narmata, 25, from the Taliban stronghold of Kunduz, said the hardline Islamic movement was recruiting soldiers to fight off a Northern Alliance offensive on the key northern town of Mazar-i-Sharif.

Despite some support from US bombers, ill-equipped opposition soldiers led by Uzbek Warlord General Dostum have so far failed to break through Taliban lines to capture the town.

"The Taliban wanted me to join the Army to fight the Americans in Mazar-i-Sharif," said Marmata.

"But we know how they treat people, in my village they took five girls away to their post. We saw that and we left."

The refugees, most of them ethnic Uzbeks and Tajiks, said they faced persecution from the Taliban, whose nerves have been frayed even in areas not targeted by three weeks of US-led air strikes on Afghanistan.

"The Taliban came and killed the non-Pashtun families and made the rest flee," said 65-year-old Asadullah, shaking his fist with emotion.

"We came here on foot and on donkeys. We had to travel only at night. If the Taliban saw us they would have shot us."

According to refugees, revenge attacks against civilians the Taliban see as opposition sympathisers have increased since the United States began its campaign to oust the fundamentalist movement it accuses of sheltering Osama Bin Laden, the prime suspect in last month’s attacks on New York and Washington.

Their claims could not be independently verified, but it seems that real fear had driven the families to flee to makeshift camps ahead of the bitter Afghan winter.

"They would come into the houses and rape the women," said one man in the Ajee Mala camp, six km (four miles) beyond the Taliban front line.

"They told us we could not close our doors at night and during the night they would come in and do these things." (REUTERS)

Tony Blair tries to calm nerves over Afghanistan

LONDON, Oct 29: Prime Minister Tony Blair will urge Britons this week to hold their nerve after a series of setbacks to the US-led campaign against Osama Bin Laden and the Taliban in Afghanistan, Blair’s spokeswoman has said.

He will seek to reassure the public that Britain was right to back Washington’s military strikes and that their combined action would overcome short-term difficulties as well as signs of muted but growing media scepticism.

The spokeswoman yesterday said officials had always expected "ups and downs" in the campaign, but believed it was important "to remember we’re doing this for the right reasons".

"Whatever faults we may have, Britain is a moral nation with a strong sense of right and wrong," she said Blair would say in a speech on Tuesday. "That moral fibre will defeat fanaticism, terrorists and their supporters."

Blair, who has stood shoulder to shoulder with US President George W Bush since the September 11 attacks on New York and Washington, had a 40-minute telephone conversation with Bush yesterday.

The spokeswoman said they discussed the military campaign, diplomatic developments including the importance of the Middle East peace process, and the humanitarian situation.

Blair’s comments come after Foreign Secretary Jack Straw warned that the three-week-old military action might grind on "indefinitely". British military chiefs have said the campaign could take years.

Their release more than two days before he was due to deliver them indicated a fresh urgency in Blair’s battle to shore up public support.

The spokeswoman said Blair thought it was important to keep reminding people of last month’s attacks on the United States, which killed thousands of people and which Washington and London accuse Bin Laden of masterminding.

Referring to the rising tide of media scepticism, she said: "There have been lots of stories in the last few days portraying every single setback as a major disaster."

Those setbacks include the capture and execution on Friday by Taliban of opposition commander Abdul Haq, who could have been a key figure in rebuilding a post-Taliban Afghanistan.

Military spokesmen in Washington and London have also been forced onto the defensive by misdirected US bombing of civilians and red cross aid warehouses in Afghanistan.

Those mistakes, and concern over the apparent lack of progress towards meeting campaign goals, led to calls for a strategy review from British newspapers that had earlier been broadly supportive. Britain has committed 200 commandos for action in Afghanistan and put 400 on "high readiness". British missile-launching submarines and specialised refuelling and reconnaissance aircraft have also been supporting the Americans.

But ministers have warned against instant results.

Defence Secretary Geoff Hoon said Afghanistan’s Taliban rulers could hold on into next year.

Straw told the BBC’s breakfast with frost programme: "When you’re dealing with military action...You cannot say for certain how long it will take."

He also accused British media critics of swiftly forgetting the September 11 attacks on New York and Washington.

"Three weeks into the war, it’s almost as if the media have lost the connection of why we are involved in this. So we have constantly to remind them," he said.

Straw said the campaign had been a "relative success" so far, pointing to what Britain says has been the destruction of nine training camps run by Bin Laden’s Al Qaeda network. (REUTERS)

Israel pulls out, Bethlehem life back to normal

BETHLEHEM (WEST BANK), Oct 29: Palestinians in Bethlehem returned to work and school today after Israeli forces pulled out under heavy US pressure to end a 10-day re-occupation of the traditional birthplace of Jesus.

Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon ordered the Army to leave the West Bank city on Sunday despite two Palestinian shooting attacks in which five people died in Israel.

The Army began its pullout from Bethlehem and the neighbouring town of Beit Jala under cover of darkness and said it had completed the withdrawal by early today morning.

"It’s much better now that they have gone, but it was still hard to sleep last night because I kept wondering will they or won’t they leave," said Manal Yamin, as she boarded a taxi to go to work in Jerusalem for the first time in more than a week.

"At least there were no sounds of shooting," she added.

The United States, which is seeking to calm a year of Israeli-Palestinian violence as it tries to bolster Arab support for its anti-terror coalition, mediated a withdrawal on Friday, but Israel suspended the move on Saturday citing violence.

But Israeli forces remain in and around five other Palestinian-ruled cities, seized after Palestinian radicals assassinated far-right Tourism Minister Rehavam Zeevi on October 17 to avenge Israel’s killing of their leader in August.

Foreign Minister Shimon Peres said Israel does not intend to stay in any Palestinian-ruled area.

"Every place where it is possible to reach a ceasefire agreement and the Palestinians are willing to take responsibility for quiet and security in the area, we pull out our forces," Peres told Israel channel two television.

"We tell the Palestinians that if the quiet is retained, we will be outside and life will return to normal."

Shooting attacks put pullout in doubt

In an attack on Sunday that had put the pullout in doubt, two Palestinians fired on passers-by and motorists in the Northern Israeli city of Hadera. They killed four women before police shot them dead.

The incident followed a shooting near the border with the West Bank in which an Israeli soldier was killed.

The Palestinian authority issued a statement condemning the Hadera attack, claimed by the radical Islamic Jihad group. The Israeli Army said the gunmen were members of the authority’s police force but acted on behalf of Islamic Jihad.

Keeping pressure on Sharon, White House Chief of Staff Andrew Card said on US television he was disappointed to learn of the latest Palestinian attacks but repeated the US call for Israeli forces to leave Palestinian-controlled areas.

The Army said the pullout went ahead after Israeli and Palestinian commanders met and agreed that the Palestinian authority would keep the peace in Bethlehem and Beit Jala.

A leader of Palestinian gunmen in Bethlehem said they would respect a truce if Israeli forces left.

Raising the spectre of Israeli retaliation for yesterday’s attacks, Sharon’s office said in a statement he had stressed in instructions to the Army "the importance of continuing to carry out operational activities" in the face of the strikes.

Israel radio said the Army was bolstering its forces near Tulkarm and Jenin, the two West Bank cities closest to the scenes of yesterday’s attacks.

Israel has said it does not want to keep its forces in Palestinian territory in the West Bank indefinitely, but no dates have been set for further pullbacks. Palestinian officials accused Sharon of trying to topple Arafat.

Israel calls bethlehem test case

Israel has called the Bethlehem pullback a test case for further pullouts which Israeli commentators said Sharon was likely to complete before a planned visit to the United States and possible talks with President George W Bush on November 11.

Commenting on the Hadera incident, Palestinian President Yasser Arafat told reporters in Gaza: "We are following this up to find out who’s behind this."

"There is a decision in the Palestinian leadership to stop these operations in spite of the continuing Israeli escalation."

Islamic Jihad said it carried out the Hadera shooting to protest against Israeli occupation of Palestinian land.

At least 680 Palestinians and 182 Israelis have been killed since a Palestinian uprising against Israeli occupation erupted in September 2000 after a deadlock in peace negotiations. (REUTERS)

Japan ruling party regains lower house majority

The wins, confirmed early today, restore the party of Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi to the position it enjoyed before a humiliating general election last year and could strengthen his hand in revitalising a flagging reform agenda.

"The results show clear support for the coalition Government," said Taku Yamasaki, Secretary General of the LDP, which dominates the nation’s tripartite coalition.

The LDP now has 241 of the 480 lower house seats.

Shintaro Ito, a University Professor, won election to a seat in northern Miyagi prefecture held by his father, a powerful LDP politician, until his death last month. The other win was claimed by Osamu Konishi in western Shiga prefecture, taking over the seat held by his late brother who died in July.

Both had strong support from the LDP and its coalition partners, with Koizumi even making a quick stumping trip to each constituency on Saturday.

Analysts said the results would give the already popular Koizumi a further shot of confidence. Recent opinion polls have shown his support holding steady at sky-high levels of between 70 and 80 percent.

"The LDP has verified the strength of their support base once again," said political commentator Harumi Arima. "This is likely to become increasingly significant as they start grappling with questions such as the budget later this year."

Impact on power balance unclear

But whether the wins have much of an impact on Japan’s political power balance, particularly the relationship between the LDP and its two coalition partners, remains to be seen.

While the LDP now holds a simple majority in the lower house, it still needs the support of the Buddhist-backed new Komeito Party and the tiny new conservative party to maintain a majority in the upper house.

As a result, the chance of significant change in Japan’s political structure at this point is slim.

"Koizumi is still trying to carry out his reform agenda, and he needs the numbers that the coalition, particularly the new Komeito, gives him," said political commentator Mineaki Yamamoto.

"While a lot of LDP members feel in their hearts that they would rather not be tied to the new Komeito, at this point their strength — and Koizumi’s popularity — depends on expectations they can achieve reforms. If they can’t, support will evaporate."

Despite his sustained popularity, Koizumi has made little headway with an ambitious agenda of painful but vital reforms to revitalise Japan’s troubled economy during the past six months.

Others, however, said Sunday’s results may well prove to be a blow to the new Komeito.

"Koizumi basically doesn’t really like working with them," said Banri Kaieda, a lower house lawmaker from the largest opposition Democratic Party. "He may become somewhat tougher on them from now on."

In a possible hint of this, Koizumi on Friday threw back to the ruling parties a proposal for reform of some lower house election districts after a broad agreement had been reached on the measure by the secretaries general of the three coalition parties, saying he felt there was room for improvement.

The plan is largely the brainchild of the new Komeito.

Increased confidence

The greatest long-term impact of Sunday’s wins, though, could well come from the boost they give Koizumi in terms of confidence.

"There’s no question he probably feels stronger and more secure as a result," said Arima.

"This could encourage him to take dramatic moves if he runs into opposition on his policies — even dissolving the lower house and calling a snap election." (REUTERS)

Pak nuke scientist "cleared" of Osama links, released

Mehmud, who was "nabbed" by an agency on October 24 for "interrogation" has been subsequently released after being "cleared by the security agencies," a media report said.

He was reported to have been picked up by Pakistan intelligence agencies at the instance of the American intelligence officials which suspected him of transferring nuclear technology to Bin Laden, the daily ‘Dawn’ said.

Mehmud along with Abdul Majeed, a former Chief Engineer of the PAEC were only questioned in connections with the NGO founded by them to fund welfare programmes in Afghanistan, a Pakistan official spokesman had said a few days ago and denied reports that the two were detained.

Today’s report, however, did not refer to Majeed, who was also taken in for questioning at the same time.

Mehmud was a "staunch supporter" of Taliban militia and resigned in protest few years ago as a senior nuclear scientist from Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission (PAEC), when the Nawaz Sharif Government considered a proposal to sign CTBT. (PTI)

Germany tells India to support fresh negotiations at Doha summit

NEW DELHI, Oct 29: German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder today said his country favoured a fresh round of negotiations at next month’s World Trade Organisation (WTO) ministerial meeting at Doha.

"We should not do a mistake" of waiting for the implementation of the earlier WTO decisions for the launch of a new round, Mr Schroeder said at a seminar on "Indo-German economic relations: Looking Ahead," organised jointly by the CII and FICCI.

Without referring to India’s opposition to a fresh round, the German Chancellor said India was in a position to influence other countries as it had clout among developing countries.

India should adopt a "constructive attitude" at the Doha meeting scheduled for early next month, he said in a reply to a question.

Germany was for removal of all trade barriers, he said but called for a political framework to secure an equitable international order.

There was a need for a political framework as free trade alone cannot ensure an equitable order, Mr Schroeder said in his address.

The German Chancellor also called for widening the scope of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) to address concerns of human rights and environment.

Referring to the terrorist attacks in the United States, he said these were aimed at shacking the confidence of investors, shareholders and other players of free economy.

Calling for thwarting such attempts, he said there was a need for deep international cooperation to prevent concern over the incidents from becoming fear, thereby blocking economic progress.

On bilateral relations, Mr Schroeder said there was a great scope for enhanced cooperation in all sectors, particularly the service and Information Technology (IT) sectors. Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) inflow from Germany into India had been low as India’s east Asian neighbours had integrated themselves with the global economy on a faster pace.

Referring to the terrorist attacks in the United States, he said these were aimed at shacking the confidence of investors, shareholders and other players of free economy.

German Economics and Technology Minister Werner Mueller said India should carry forward the reforms process at a faster pace in order to attract greater foreign investment.

Germany was willing to help India in power generation, transport and telecommunication, besides project financing in which it had expertise. "But the policy environment has to be right."

Addressing the seminar, Power Minister Suresh Prabhu said India had planned to ensure a massive investment of 200 billion dollars in the next ten to 12 years to create an additional power generation capacity of one lakh mega watt, about 20 per cent of which would be from renewable sources of energy.

Further, the ongoing modernisation of the existing power plants would yield an additional 20,000 mw.

Under power reforms, all the consumers would be provided with meters within about two years. Management Information Systems (MIS) would be installed at each and every distribution feeder.

Disinvestment Minister Arun Shourie said there was a need for cooperation to check terrorism, drug trafficking and money laundering.

CII president Sanjiv Goenka said its members had voted strongly that Germany was the preferred technology partner for India. This was readily accepted by the German side.

India and Germany can create win-win situations in business, science and technology, information and communications technology and life sciences, Mr Goenka said.

The two countries should work to double the volume of bilateral trade from the present level of DM eight million in five years. "simultaneously, let us at least double the rate of implementation of German investment proposals which have been cleared by India."

FICCI president Chirayu R Amin said Germany had capabilities in the areas of engineering, bio-technology, material sciences, research and development and infrastructure.

The bilateral relations must now be driven by human capital enriched with knowledge, and not just by traditional capital accumulation, but by the application of the human mind that would drive all levels of productivity, growth and change.(UNI)

Thousands pledge Jihad at Pakistan rally

PESHAWAR, PAKISTAN, Oct 29: Hardline Islamic parties fired up thousands of young men in the Pakistani border city of peshawar today to join tribesmen trying to cross to Afghanistan to fight the United States.

The youngsters were not armed unlike the thousands of Pakistanis and exiled Afghans waiting further north to join the Taliban militia in a Jihad or holy struggle to stop US bombing.

Hundreds of police with riot shields and batons stood by in the old quarter of the city where a street was blocked off for the rally which looked like a public relations exercise for the foreign media.

Signs were written in english calling for the United States to be crushed, hailing Osama Bin Laden and condemning Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf for cooperating with the US-led war on terrorism.

Foreigners are barred from the semi-autonomous tribal areas where the armed men are waiting for the outcome of talks between their clerics and the Taliban about whether they are needed.

Authorities in the area told reuters they had detained a Saudi national, Musa Bin Mazan Bin Salman Al Sufi, on suspicion he might have been trying to recruit fighters.

"We have one Saudi national and that is his name," said a spokesman for the Khyber agency political office. "It is an investigation and no other details can be given".

The Pakistan Government’s support for the US strikes on Afghanistan has divided opinion and led to almost daily demonstrations — mostly peaceful — against the United States.

Volunteers at the rally in Peshawar appeared confused about what they were signing up for.

"I am going to fight against the Northern Alliance," said Javed Manzoor, a teenager who said he had already learnt to shoot by playing computer games.

"I have the highest score among my friends. My skills will be needed," he said, as he added his name to a ledger containing a list of around 200 volunteers.

Another tougher-looking young man said he expected to fight against US soldiers if washington puts ground troops into Afghanistan.

"They don’t know the country and we will fix them there," he said.

Organisers said volunteers would be told to travel "by their own means" to the small village of lagharay in the tribal area of Bajaur, around six km (four miles) from the border.

"They should go one by one. If they go in big groups then perhaps the authority will try to stop them," said Ahmad Khesghi, an official with the volunteer group that radical Muslim leader Sufi Mohammed has organised.

"If they don’t have guns, they will be given on the other side," he said. (REUTERS)