Annan asks SC to examine 19 questions posed by Iraq

UNITED NATIONS, Mar 21: Secretary-General Kofi Annan has asked the UN Security Council to examine 19 questions posed by Iraq ranging from the legality of US efforts to overthrow Saddam Hussein to the neutrality of US and British Weapons Inspectors, according to documents obtained.

The questions were given to Annan by Iraqi Foreign Minister Naji Sabri during talks earlier this month focussing on the return of weapons inspectors. The Secretary-General put them in categories and sent them to the Security Council on Tuesday with a letter asking for "any response" the Council might want to provide by April 10.

A second round of UN-Iraq talks is expected to be held around April 18, UN spokesman Farhan Haq said yesterday.

Annan said the initial meeting with Sabri had been "a good start." But it produced no sign Iraq would allow weapons inspectors to return - the first step toward lifting 11-year-old UN sanctions and a key demand of the United States and other Council members.

Inspectors left Baghdad before the US and Britain carried out airstrikes in December 1998 to punish Iraq for not cooperating with the inspection programme. Saddam Hussein’s Government has barred them from returning.

US President George W Bush has warned Saddam that he faces unspecified consequences if he fails to heed American demands that Inspectors be allowed into Iraq to verify whether it has dismantled its weapons of mass destruction.

Sabri’s questions did not rule out allowing the return of Weapons Inspectors but indicated that Iraq wants inspections to be conducted for a limited time period and lead to certification that the country is free of weapons of mass destruction - the key condition for sanctions to be lifted. Western officials, however, reject any conditions set by Iraq and demand unfettered access to suspected weapons sites.

The questions include the time needed to complete weapons inspections and certify that Iraq’s banned weapons programmes have been eliminated, the nature of the inspections, and the composition of inspection teams.

Chief UN Weapons Inspector Hans Blix told the Security Council that if Iraq gave a green light for Inspectors to return, he could recommend suspending sanctions in one year.

Iraq has accused some US and British Inspectors in the former UN inspection agency of spying for the west. Sabri asked whether the UN can guarantee that the new inspectors "are not spies and will not conduct spying tasks," and how US and British Inspectors could be neutral.

Blix has said he will fire anyone found to be working for a Government. He also said Iraq should not have a veto over the composition of inspection teams.

The Iraqi questions also focused on requests for compensation for losses sustained by Iraq since sanctions were imposed after its 1990 invasion of Kuwait, whether Iraq can acquire conventional weapons for self-defence, and a host of political questions aimed at the us.

Sabri asked how Iraq’s relationship with the security council could be normalised "under the present declared US policy, which aims at invading Iraq and overthrowing its national Government, by force" - and whether these threats violate international law. (AP)

Car bomb kills 7 near US Embassy in Lima

LIMA, PERU, Mar 21: At least seven people were killed yesterday when a car bomb exploded near the US Embassy in Lima three days before a visit by US President George W Bush, police said.

It was not immediately known who planted the bomb.

Police at the scene said seven people died in the blast, which occurred around 10:45 PM.

"At the moment, all we know is that it appears a car bomb exploded four blocks from the US Embassy," a bomb squad spokesman told newsmen.

Unconfirmed radio reports said one of the victims was a child wearing roller skates.

Television images showed scenes of chaos, with bodies covered in orange plastic sheets strewn amid broken glass, mangled metal and shattered tiles.

The car exploded outside a bank in a shopping centre near the US Embassy, which is a heavily secured fortress-style building in an upscale district of the capital.

Several nearby buildings were reportedly badly damaged and three cars were on fire.

Bush, who leaves today for a UN development summit in Monterrey, Mexico, was due in Lima on Saturday for his first visit to South America.

An Embassy spokesman had no immediate comment.

In Washington, a State Department spokeswoman said US officials were aware of the report but had no immediate comment.

Peru’s President Alejandro Toledo had already traveled to monterrey to attend the summit, but his Vice President and the Justice Minister went to the scene of the attack.

Bush was due to make a 17-hour visit to Lima, during which he is to hold talks with his counterparts from Peru, Colombia and Bolivia and the Vice President of Ecuador on regional trade issues and the wars on terror and drugs.

Peru was rocked by leftist rebel violence by the shining path and Tupac Amaru Revolutionary Movement, or MRTA, guerrilla groups in the 1980s and 1990s whose wars on the state cost 30,000 lives.

Peru said late last year it had foiled a shining path attack on the Embassy and other US missions in Lima. (AGENCIES)

Sri Lankan peace bid set to win poll endorsement

COLOMBO, Mar 21: Sri Lanka’s ruling party today looked set to sweep local council elections billed as a referendum on a Norwegian-brokered peace process aimed at ending a separatist war by minority Tamil rebels.

Election officials said yesterday’s vote was more peaceful than usual, but clashes killed three people and the opposition cried foul, setting the stage for a possible fresh showdown between the Government and a hostile President.

Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe’s United National Party, which called the election a de facto referendum on the peace process, won 97 of the 99 village and city councils in which official counts were completed.

"This is a mandate for peace, development and a civilised society," Energy Minister Karu Jayasuriya told state radio.

The other two councils were taken by President Chandrika Kumaratunga’s main opposition People’s Alliance, which had controlled most of the 222 city and village councils where voting was held yesterday.

There was no sign of significant gains by the Marxist People’s Liberation Front, whose implacable opposition to peace talks helped almost double its voter base at the parliamentary elections in December which brought Wickremesinghe to power.

Marxist protests against a truce signed last month between the Government and Tamil guerrillas turned the campaign spotlight away from garbage disposal and property tax issues to Norway’s efforts to end the 19-year ethnic war. "We are clearly unhappy about the the conduct of the election. Overall it was neither free or fair," presidential spokesman Harim Peiris told newsmen.

Kumaratunga has sweeping powers to suspend Parliament and sack the Government. She can also dissolve the Assembly at any time after December 5 — the anniversary of the last election.

Kumaratunga frequently locks horn with Wickremesinghe and has criticised the truce but says she supports the peace process.

Elections Commissioner Dayananda Dissanayake said the polls were much fairer than December’s parliamentary election in which some 60 people were killed.

"There were several incidents but this was the most peaceful election in recent times," Dissanayake told state television.

His views were largely echoed by the independent centre for monitoring election violence which, however, reported three deaths and said voting in some areas was seriously flawed.

Most of the island voted yesterday. The north and east, where rebel Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam fighters want an independent minority Tamil state, will vote on March 25.

Some areas including the capital Colombo will vote in April. (AGENCIES)

Gen Musharraf orders arrest of militants;
to revamp intelligence

ISLAMABAD, Mar 21: In an attempt to stem the growing tide of terrorist violence, Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf has ordered the revamping of intelligence agencies, formation of special terrorists cells and directed the security agencies to intensify crackdown on banned militant groups.

Musharraf took the decision during a series of meetings in the past three days following the attack on a church at diplomatic enclave here on March 17.

The President announced intensification of crackdown against militant groups which have stepped up attacks to retaliate against stern measures taken against them, media reported here.

A cabinet meeting, meanwhile, formally approved the draft of the controversial Police Ordinance-2002, which would replace the Police Act of 1961.

Musharraf in his meeting with top Army commanders and law and order officials asked them to revamp intelligence agencies to improve the information feedback on the terrorist groups.

He ordered the police and paramilitary forces to create special anti-terrorist units to intensify the campaign against militant groups.

In another move, the Government has decided to arrest anybody directly or indirectly involved in militant activities in the last decade, the daily ‘The News’ said.

The decision was taken at a meeting of provincial Governors and law enforcing agencies, presided over by Musharraf, following reports that police failed to arrest actual culprits involved in militant activities.

Many of the arrested militants were later released after "notable" citizens gave an undertaking, guaranteeing character of the released persons, the newspaper said.

It was reported that in pursuance of the directive from the Government, the provincial Punjab Government has decided to act more strictly towards militants by speeding up prosecution to dispose the cases pending with the special courts.

Home Secretary of the province Syed Ejaz Shah said orders have been issued to intensify the ongoing crackdown against "actual militant elements".

He said directions have been issued to the police that such elements wanted in different cases should be arrested on top priority and those who had no cases registered against them should be detained under Maintenance of Public Ordinance (MPO).

The newly-appointed Information Minister Nissar Memon has discounted the criticism that the new police ordinance would convert Pakistan into a police state.

"Making police state is one way to look at this draft police ordinance, though the public has a right to prefer its own suggestions, contrary to what is written in the draft law", he said.

The draft would be made available for public to take a view before the cabinet sits again to formally approve the draft ordinance, he said. (PTI)

US to question 3,000 foreigners on terrorism

WASHINGTON, Mar 21: The United States wants to question 3,000 more foreign nationals who recently came to this country, Attorney General John Ashcroft said even though a report on the first round of interviews found few had any information about the September 11 attacks.

At the US Attorney’s Office in Alexandria, Virginia, Ashcroft defended the initial questioning of several thousand foreign men, a program which critics denounced as racial profiling because it targeted young Arab and Muslim immigrant men.

Ashcroft said yesterday the interviewing ensured that "potential terrorists hiding in our communities knew that law enforcement was on the job in their neighbourhoods.

"Such a climate could cause would-be terrorists to scale back, delay or abandon their plans altogether," he said, adding that the US strategy "may well have contributed to the fact that we have not suffered a substantial terrorist attack since September 11th."

Under the program, the Justice Department came up with an initial list in November of about 5,000 men, aged 18 to 33, who entered the United States on non-immigrant visas after January 1, 2000, and have passports from countries where Osama bin Laden’s Al Qaeda network has been present or active.

Ashcroft said only about half of the foreign nationals on the list had been located and interviewed. He admitted "serious flaws" in the ability to locate visitors to the United States.

Congressman John Conyers, a democrat from Michigan who is a house judiciary committee member, said, "the suggestion that Arab and Muslim Americans appreciate being singled out and interrogated is a prime example of the Attorney General’s wartime propaganda machine in full swing."

James Zogby, president of the Washington-based Arab American Institute, said he was "stunned" by the announcement.

"It was a mistake the first time around and it compounds the mistake doing it yet another time," Zogby said in a telephone interview. "The Attorney General I think has misled the public by presenting the first round as a success ... In fact, law enforcement have told us it was not." Zogby said law enforcement personnel, from local police to FBI agents, have told the institute they are reluctant to undertake this program, as it diverts them from pursuing actual leads in the Septembers 11 attacks and erodes trust in communities that police have worked hard to build.

"FBI (agents) made it clear that they did not want to be involved in this, but they simply had to do it because it was coming from the political people at justice," Zogby said.

A Justice Department report on the initial round of questioning concluded that most of those interviewed had no information about the Sept. 11 attacks on the United States that killed more than 3,000 people.

It said some provided leads that may assist in the investigation into the hijacked plane attacks or other planned violence.

For example, one person interviewed recalled seeing one of the September 11 hijackers, the report said. Two other individuals identified acquaintances who had taken flight training. Examples in the publicly released report were heavily redacted.

Fewer than 20 individuals were taken into custody, most for immigration violations, the report said. Three were arrested on criminal charges, but none of the cases appeared to have any connection to terrorism, the report said.

Ashcroft said only a "very small number" refused to be interviewed in the initial round of questioning. "Many of those interviewed volunteered to provide information on an ongoing basis in the future," he said.

Ashcroft said 3,000 individuals who entered the United States more recently will be sought for voluntary questioning over the next 60 days.

"These visitors to our country have been selected for interviews because they fit the criteria of persons who might have knowledge of foreign-based terrorists," he said.

"We believe that these individuals might, either wittingly or unwittingly, be in the same circles, communities or social groups as those engaged in terrorist activities," he said, emphasizing that the 3,000 are not suspected of any criminal activity.

"We are merely seeking to solicit their assistance to obtain any information they may have regarding possible terrorists or potential terrorist acts," he told the Federal prosecutors. (AGENCIES)

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