Fire sets off internet opium

BEIJING, June 25: One week after a fire swept through an internet cafe in Beijing, killing 25 net surfers and cafe employees, industry observers and experts are still looking for its root causes.

The Haidain district in which the 45-minute conflagration took place is home to Zhongguancun, China’s equivalent of Silicon Valley, as well as the area where some of the most prestigious universities in the country are located. Nine of the fire victims were students from one school, Beijing Science and Technology University.

To the initial toll of 24 victims was added another on Friday, when China’s state-run media reported a man with the surname Zhang, who worked at Lanjisu cafe, died of organ failure in the hospital.

Local news sources contend the fire, which occurred at 0245 hrs on June 16, was the worst in Beijing since the communists took over the city and founded the People’s Republic in 1949.

Two boys, aged 13 and 14, have admitted to starting the fire at the unlicensed establishment as an act of revenge. Two weeks ago Lanjisu employees barred them from the ‘Wangba’, or literally net bar in Chinese.

Individuals frequenting these places are called Wangchong, a derogatory term meaning net insects.

United Press International contacted several industry experts and observers in China and abroad to learn more about wangba and wangchong, including what the fire and its aftermath portends for the internet’s future in China. When asked what function these cafes served in China, Mr Ted Dean, Managing Director of a Beijing-based telecoms and IT consultancy called BDA, first pointed out that it’s better to call most of these places computer rooms rather than internet cafes, since many people use the computers for networked games played on the LAN (Local Area Network), and not for internet access.

The main need these computer rooms fulfill is for access to a computer or the internet for people who do not have one, and as a gathering place for young people, he noted.

Wangba have been demonised as seedy, smoky lairs where China’s youth, predominantly males between 15 and 25, sit hunched over terminals wasting time playing games and surfing illegal web sites. Beijing’s Vice Mayor Liu Zhihua is on record damning cyber cafes as opium for children.

Mr Eric Harwit, Associate Professor of Asian Studies at the University of Hawaii, believes most young people use the cafes simply to play video games. He added for those with ulterior motives and a cafe that does not register names, however, there probably is more anonymity in the cafe setting.

In the aftermath of the fire, the Beijing Municipal Government ordered all commercial internet gathering spots closed for safety inspections. Some reports have portrayed the closure as a pretext to crackdown on access to information. (UPI)

Pak to lift ban on political activities from July 12

ISLAMABAD, June 25: Ahead of the general elections, Pakistan Government has said it will lift restrictions on outdoor political activities from July 12 and announce schedule for the polls the same day.

"The Government will announce schedule for general elections on July 12 with which the ban on political activities would go," Law Minister Khalid Ranjha told reporters in Rawalpindi yesterday.

Ranjha’s announcement follow the decision by the 15-party umbrella group Alliance for Restoration of Democracy (ARD) to defy the ban and hold outdoor political rallies from July 15. ARD announced that its first rally would be held in Queta on July 15 followed by Peshawar and other big towns.

The ban on outdoor political activities was imposed soon after the military coup in October 1999.

The political activities are expected to gather steam as and when exiled former Prime Ministers Benazir Bhutto and Nawaz Sharif return to contest the October elections. Both had said they would return to lead their parties during the polls.

Ranjha also said the Government would release the package of controversial constitutional amendments in the first week of July for debate, media reports here said.

The amendments, which were opposed by the country’s mainstream political parties, were aimed at strengthening the powers of the country’s president over the Parliament and the cabinet. The power to be vested on presidency included power to dismiss the elected Governments and inviting unelected persons to form the Governments with a provision to get elected later.

Pakistan Government has already banned the non-graduates from contesting the polls. The new rule was strongly opposed by the political parties.

The new constitutional amendments also empower the military-dominated National Security Council (NSC) to have a permanent role in decision making. Political parties said it paved the way for imposing a permanent military rule in Pakistan.

Replying to a question, Ranjha said anyone qualifying to fight elections would be allowed to contest and denied that some people were being deliberately kept out of the electoral process.

"Keeping someone out or allowing someone to contest will be a process of the law and no specific amendments are being planned to debar someone from running for the parliamentary elections," he said.

Qualifications and disqualifications for contesting parliamentary elections were clearly enunciated in the law and anyone desiring to contest would have to fulfill those conditions, he said.

Commenting on the condition of a graduate degree for the contestants, the minister said the Government is serious to persist with it. "In case it is challenged in the court, the Government will honour court’s decision," he said.

Ranjha said the decision to impose the education condition was based on the popular demand that the legislators should be educated and able to read and comment on the laws and rules they made. (PTI)

Over 100 men from banned sectarian outfits held

ISLAMABAD, June 25: Continuing crackdown on banned sectarian groups, Pakistan police in co-ordination with FBI officials have rounded up more than 100 activists, suspected to be aiding Al Qaeda and Tailban in carrying bomb attacks in the country.

The arrests were made yesterday in a joint operation carried out by the Punjab and Sindh Police, Pakistani daily ‘Dawn’ said today.

"The personnel of the American Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) are said to have supervised the crackdown," it quoted sources as saying.

But a senior Punjab Police officer, however, denied the FBI’s involvement or supervision, saying: "There is nothing like that. We acted upon our own information and took into custody some dozen people belonging to the banned Jehadi organisations."

The crackdown, launched on Sunday, was mainly aimed at two banned Sunni sectarian outfits, Sipha-e-Sehbha of Pakistan, (SSP) and its armed wing, Lashkar-e-Jhangvi which were believed to be close associates of Al Qaeda and Taliban.

Police said the raids were conducted on information gathered from some of the arrested leaders of the two outfits.

The men arrested in Karachi had reportedly told the investigators about the links between the banned Jihadi organisations and Al-Qaeda, the daily said.

About 52 men, a majority of them belonging to the banned SSP and LJ were arrested in raids on 64 places in Lahore alone. Of them, 32 were taken into custody from city division police.

The raids were conducted on seminaries, mosques, offices and residences of the activists and leaders of the banned militant groups.

Those arrested were shifted to unknown places for interrogation.

The Punjab Police and heads of some law enforcement agencies briefed the Army command about the operations at the corps headquarters in Lahore. However, no case has so far been registered against the arrested men, the paper said.

SSP, a Deobandi Sunni outfit, was also close to another banned outfit, Jaish-e-Muhammad. Inquiries by the local media at various mosques controlled by ssp confirmed that police conducted raids and arrested the activists.

According to the newspaper, some of the SSP men alleged that "the law enforcers desecrated the mosque by entering there with their shoes on and they also thrashed people present there without differentiating between the activists and the worshippers." (PTI)

Indian designer Sethi hits Pentagon snag

WASHINGTON, June 25: Celebrated Indian designer Rajeev Sethi was detained for two and half hours by the Pentagon security staff as he tried to see a memorial.

Sethi, who is getting rave reviews for his role in creating the six million dollar ‘Silk Road Exhibition’ structure here, was detained as calls were made to verify his identity and credibility, the Smithsonian Center said.

It happened 10 days ago when Sethi, who is designing a "Tree of Life" Memorial at the Smithsonian Folklife festival where people will be encouraged to leave their thoughts on life, death, happiness and other experiences and emotions, decided to see how Americans remember major events.

After a short field trip to the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, he went to the Pentagon to see the memorial to the September 11 terrorist victims.

He had seen on TV how people had left poems and messages around two trees near the damaged portion of the Pentagon building.

The research trip, as the Washington Post puts it, "ended up being a lesson in America’s new obsession with identification and security."

When the Indian designer, accompanied by another Smithsonian contractor, stopped in the Pentagon parking lot, Sethi asked a guard for directions to the memorial site.

Sethi produced his Smithsonian-issued identification. However, a call to the Smithsonian’s security office by the guard did not show him in the museum complex’s computer system. The guard then looked very suspicious. Sethi assured him that he had not brought a camera, which is forbidden on Pentagon grounds.

That did not help. "His identification was not registered," said Richard Kurin, Director of the Smithsonian’s Centre for Folklife and Cultural Heritage.

The festival organizers are bringing in about 400 people from more than 20 countries and the logistics of handling so many foreign citizens has proved cumbersome.

The guard, Kurin explained, "thought there was a problem." His suspicions increased when Smithsonian said over the phone that Sethi’s name was not in the computer.

Sethi was then detained. During the detention, lasting two and a half hours, calls were made to verify his identity and his credibility.

Kurin and former Senator and ex-Ambassador and friend of India Daniel Patrick Moynihan vouched for him, assuring the guard that he knew Sethi.

Cheryl Irwin, Public Affairs Officer for the Pentagon, would not confirm to the media Sethi’s account but Sethi said he received an e-mail from her which Kurin saw, apologizing for his detention within a couple of days of the incident.

At the time of the detention, Kurin told the Post, "Sethi was surprised and shaken. It is a hard experience."

However, Sethi said yesterday that he was not letting his derailed excursion bother him. "It was really nothing," he said. "It was an experience. And I am very happy it was sorted out and they were very apologetic. My faith in America was restored."

He finally got to see the Pentagon memorial the next day. "I drove by and I saw the two trees," he said. "It was universal, people all over the world use the same things."(PTI)

Asia’s longest-serving premier eases resignation anxiety

KUALA LUMPUR, June 25: Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad, Asia’s longest-serving leader, will remain in office until late 2003 under a long transition plan announced today aimed at calmin nerves shaken by his sudden attempt to resign last weekend.

Malaysia’s ruling party announced the plan four days after the 76-year-old leader shocked his countrymen - many of whom cannot imagine another leader - by saying at a nationally televised party conference that he wanted to retire.

Mahathir agreed to stay after party elders took him to a back room and begged him to stay. He left on a vacation to Italy on Sunday after compromising with a timeline balancing his desire to go while giving his deputy and heir, Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, time to start filling his shoes.

During 21 years in office, Mahathir has overseen the transformation of his country from a commodity-dependent backwater to one of Asia’s richest countries, with a strong electronics exports sector and the world’s tallest buildings.

Mahathir will hand over the leadership of the Government and the ruling party, the United Malays National Organization, to Abdullah some time after hosting an Islamic summit in October 2003.

The summit should cement Mahathir’s legacy as a moderate Muslim leader who has been a staunch supporter of the Palestinians while condemning acts of terror, including suicide bombings.

Mahathir has been a key US ally in the war against terrorism. Malaysia has locked up scores of suspected extremists, including one who allegedly hosted two of the Sept. 11 hijackers at an apartment in 2000.

In February, Mahathir will chair a summit of the Non-Aligned Movement, where he can be expected to characteristically bash globalization and what he sees as the West’s attempt to control poor countries.

During the news conference following the transition announcement, Trade Minister Rafidah Aziz said that Mahathir "feels it has been too long. Let us respect his decision."

The opposition Pan-Malaysian Islamic Party criticized the plan as "the longest resignation notice submitted by any leader in the world," said Kamaruddin Jaafar, a leading member.

The timeframe should increase the chances that Mahathir will heed appeals by loyalists to lead the party in early elections in 2003 in an attempt to reverse the gains made by the fundamentalists in 1999.

Abdullah told reporters that the ruling party had not discussed dates for the next general elections and dismissed speculation that Mahathir had become a lame duck.

"All this thinking of a lame duck is in your mind," Abdullah said. "We would still obey him. There is no question of me trying to upstage him."(AP)

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