India flays rich nations for giving less to eradicate poverty

UNITED NATIONS, Oct 31: Lashing out at the rich nations for not meeting their goal of contribution to the official development assistance for the poor, India has warned the affluent countries that poverty in one part could threaten prosperity elsewhere during globalisation.

Pointing out that almost half of the world’s six billion inhabitants live on less than two dollars a day, Indian delegate to the UN Jaipal Reddy criticised the rich nations for falling short of the goal of contribution of 0.22 per cent of their GDP for the Official Development Assistance (ODA).

"It is regrettable that ODA declined to 51.4 billion dollars 2001 from 53.7 billion dollars in 2000," he told a UN committee and called on the industrialised nations to reverse the trend.

Lauding the recommendation of the ‘high-level panel on financing for development’ that an additional 50 billion dollars be made available for ODA alone, Reddy said the inflow of funds to this extent was necessary for meeting the millennium summit’s goals.

Reddy urged the general assembly to take an early action to finalise modalities for the establishment of the world solidarity fund and appealed to the international community to contribute generously to it.

The fund is being established to assist developing nations in financing their community-based projects.

Reddy also called for a "fair, non-discriminatory and equitable" trading system and stability in international financial and monetary system to enable developing nations to take advantage of economic liberalisation policy as a part of their effort to eradicate poverty.

Poverty eradication cannot be treated as exclusive responsibility of individual nations, Reddy said, adding "it is a shared responsibility that requires global response."

Drawing attention to the findings that the world’s richest one per cent have as much income as poorest 57 per cent, he called for a coordinated international effort to free men, women and children from abject poverty and make right to development a reality.

In Asia 500 million people live on less than one dollar a day and hence eradication of poverty remains a major challenge for the region and India, he said.

India has evolved a natioements acceleration of economic growth with focus on provision of basic services for improving the quality of life of the poorest segments through specific and targeted poverty eradication programmes, Reddy said.

It has been successful in reducing poverty from 38.9 per cent in 1987 to 23.3 per cent in 2000 and aims at bringing it down to 20 per cent by 2007 and to 10 per cent by 2012, he said. (PTI)

Fight carefully then go, Iraq opposition urges US

LONDON/TEHRAN, Oct 31: Iraqi opposition leaders said today only US military might could oust President Saddam Hussein — but the less force they used and the sooner they let Iraqis run their country, the better.

In London and Tehran, they said that if Washington used too much firepower or tried to run Iraq for too long, the gratitude of ordinary Iraqis would soon turn into hostility.

"The opposition alone is not able to overthrow Saddam and needs international support," said Jalal Talabani, who heads the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) which controls part of a Kurdish enclave in Northern Iraq outside Baghdad’s control.

He was in Tehran for what he called fruitful talks with fellow opposition leader Ayatollah Mohammad-Baqir Hakim, head of the Iran-based Shi’ite Supreme Council of the Islamic Republic.

Opposition figures in London told newsmen they also had no doubt that nothing short of US firepower would be needed to remove the Iraqi President after more than 20 years in power.

But they urged the United States to show restraint, fearing a full-blown war would destabilise Iraq and undermine chances to recruit potentially rebellious army officers.

"This should not be treated as a war but as an organised regime change. Our concern is that the Americans will not differentiate between loyalist forces surrounding Saddam and others who may want to change sides," said Sharif Al Hussein, a senior member of Iraqi National Congress (INC).

"If the Americans wage a blanket campaign to destroy the Iraqi army they will be viewed as occupiers not liberators," he said on behalf of the main Iraqi opposition group.

Opposition figures said the key to US success would be to choose targets carefully to focus on the intelligence services, the 100,000-strong Special Republican Guard and the regular Republican guard who make up Saddam’s core defence units.

"The United States should attack the mechanism of oppression that holds back military units from attacking Saddam so that they will be able to rebel against the regime," Hussein said.

Current Chairman of the INC’s Leadership Council, he said the United States should give some officers in the elite guard guarantees they would not be attacked to entice them to rebel.

Aside from balancing the interests of Iraq’s Kurds, the majority Shi’ites and Sunni Muslim minority who control Iraq, the United States must let the opposition play a big role in rebuilding after war, INC leaders said. "In the first few weeks the country will be full of euphoria, then daily reality dawns on people and they will need to see familiar faces," said Nabeel Musawi, a member of the INC and a political adviser to its effective leader, Ahmad Chalabi.

"It would be quite difficult for a (US) officer who has spent most of his life based in texas to deal with the civilian population in Iraq," he told newsmen.

The PUK’s Talabani said US troops should not stay behind.

"There is no need for american forces to remain in Iraq after the attack. The Iraqi opposition can control Iraq after the collapse of Saddam’s regime," he told reporters.

Regional Governments, particularly Iran, worry that a pro-Washington regime will be installed on their doorstep at a time of growing anti-US sentiment in the West Asia.

Talabani tried to allay such fears by saying a post-Saddam Government in Iraq would not simply dance to Washington’s tune.

"Iraq’s next Government will not be Washington’s enemy but that does not mean it would be America’s puppet," he said.

Holding the country together could be difficult. Kurds and Shi’ites have long memories of the Iraqi troops who crushed their uprisings after Iraq was defeated in the 1991 Gulf war.

Western critics have expressed concern that Iraq’s opposition is too fragmented to form an effective Government.

Around 200 officials from Iraq’s various opposition groups will meet in Brussels on November 15-22 to try to forge a common post-Saddam policy, fearing that the alternative to democracy could be a new, but more pro-American strongman.

Talabani said the opposition wants a democratic, pluralist and federal Iraq, he said, trying to allay outside fears — especially in Turkey and Iran — of a separate Kurdish state. (AGENCIES)

Russia says no talks, steps up force in Chechnya

MOSCOW, Oct 31: The Kremlin slammed the door on a peaceful answer to the decade-long Chechen conflict today, vowing to "wipe out" elected Chechen President Aslan Maskhadov, once seen as the only rebel leader Moscow could talk to.

In Chechnya, Russian forces stepped up "special operations", hunting rebels who could have links to last week’s 58-hour hijack of a Moscow theatre. Troops surrounded refugee camps in neighbouring ingushetia, along Chechnya’s western border.

"We have to wipe out the movement’s figureheads: Maskhadov, (Shamil) Basayev and (Ruslan) Gelayev," Sergei Yastrzhembsky, the Kremlin Chechnya spokesman, told a news conference.

Basayev and Gelayev are two top field commanders believed to be coordinating the bulk of action against Russian troops.

The war in Chechnya, long rumbling on away from the public eye, returned to the political centre stage last week after some 50 armed rebels seized a packed Moscow theatre, demanding Russia withdraw from the devastated region.

Following the theatre siege, in which at least 119 hostages and 50 rebels died when Russian troops stormed the building, France and other western states urged the Kremlin to talk with Chechen separatists and seek a peace deal similar to one that ended a 1994-96 war.

But echoing President Vladimir Putin’s long-standing rejection of any talks with "terrorists", Yastrzhembsky said: "Maskhadov can no longer be considered a legitimate representative of this resistance... From the chechen underground there is no one we are ready to talk to."

Maskhadov, elected head of the separatist region during a brief interlude in Russian rule in 1997, was long the point of contact between the Kremlin and the Chechen rebels, though the Kremlin ceased to recognise him as President when Russian troops returned to the region in 1999. In November 2001 his top Envoy Akhmed Zakayev was promised immunity in order to meet a Kremlin official in a Moscow airport — the two sides’ only formal encounter in the second campaign.

But since the theatre siege the Kremlin has repeatedly linked Maskhadov to "terrorist" movements.

"Maskhadov was entirely aware of the operation and the tragedy has dealt a hefty blow to his reputation," Yastrzhembsky said after playing recordings of telephone conversations allegedly linking Maskhadov to the Moscow siege.

Maskhadov has distanced himself from the attack, offering his condolences to the victims.

In another blow to Maskhadov’s capacity to hold peace talks, Moscow pressed Denmark to arrest and extradite Zakayev, in Copenhagen for a conference on Chechnya.

He was arrested yesterday after the meeting Moscow said was planned specifically to coincide with the theatre siege. Yastrzhembsky said Russia had already asked for his extradition.

"Zakayev came to Moscow (in 2001) and we guaranteed his safety to begin contacts," Yastrzhembsky said.

"But these contacts yielded no constructive results." Yastrzhembsky spoke at a news conference with Moscow’s Mayor and security officials, intended to defend the decision to gas and then storm the theatre. Hundreds of explosives, grenades and bombs were displayed to illustrate fears the rebels could have blown up the theatre unless gassed to sleep before an attack.

An official from the FSB, the successor to the Soviet-era KGB, said the rebels held at least 110 kg of tnt equivalent —enough to kill all the hostages and bring down the building.

Officials said widescale operations would be carried out to root out those linked to the siege — including an alleged group of 100 suicide bombers armed with russian passports. (AGENCIES)

LTTE, Govt agree on measures to ensure
safety of Muslims

NAKHON PATHOM (THAILAND), Oct 31: Tamil tiger rebels and the Sri Lankan Government today reached an agreement on measures to ensure the safety of minority Muslims, who have also been affected by nearly two dacades of the ethnic conflict.

The agreement was reached on the first day of the second round of peace talks between the two sides, being held at a rose garden resort in this town about 50 kms outside Bangkok.

"We discussed a variety of new confidence building measures between Tamils and Muslims," Rauf Hakeem, a Sri Lankan Minister, said.

Stating that agreements were made during the first day of talks, he said "we agreed on certain measures all of which have to be manifested on ground."

Hakeem said today’s talks, spanning around three and a half hours, focussed on the Muslim issue. The island has 18 per cent of Tamils, mostly Hindus, and seven per cent of Muslims, mainly living in the east.

Meanwhile, Sri Lankan Constitutional Affairs Minister G L Peiris, who is leading the Government side at the four-day talks, said the Colombo High Court’s decision sentencing tiger chief V Prabhakaran to 200 years in jail will not affect the ongoing peace talks.

"I don’t want to comment on a judgement," he said.

Hakeem said the two sides agreed to strengthen the role of ceasefire monitors and wanted an increase in contacts between tigers and the Muslims in tackling contentious issues.

The LTTE side is being led by Anton Balasingham at the talks.

Hakeem quoted V Karuna, the tiger military commander who is part of the LTTE delegation to the talks, as saying that the LTTE was committed to bridging its differences with Muslims in line with the agreement signed between Hakeem and Prabhakaran earlier this year.

Tomorrow, the second day of the talks, will feature the setting up of joint task force for rehabilitation of areas hit by the 19 year war.

The two sides will also discuss forging a joint appeal for foreign aid to rebuild the war town island.

A donor conference has been organised by broker Norway in Oslo on November 25, where the LTTE and the Sri Lankan Government may issue a joint appeal for aid.

Issues like demining and resettling displaced persons are also likely to figure in the four-day talks.

The first round of talks was held at the Sattahip Naval base in Thailand in September where Balasingham announced that the LTTE wanted autonomy and not a separate state. (PTI)

100 Chechen suicide bombers were outside
theatre: Russia

MOSCOW, Oct 31: Chechen terrorists who took about 800 people hostage at a moscow theatre building last week, had about 100 suicide bombers outside the theatre, ready to ‘attack’ on receiving directions.

Disclosing this at a press conference, President Vladimir Putin’s special aide on Chechnya, Sergei Yastrzhembsky, today said the startling fact came to light after secret service sleuths intercepted a telephonic conversation to this effect during the seige of the theatre.

Recordings of three telephonic conversations, including one of terrorist mastermind Movsar Barayev and one of the separatist leaders Zelimkhan Yandarbiyev, were played at the press conference.

Yanderbiyev, ex-president of Chechnya, is currently living in Qatar and extradition proceedings against him are on to bring him to Russia for trial, while Barayev was killed in the ‘smoking operation’ by Russian forces.

Mr Yastrzhembsky also informed the media that all the terrorists of the suicide squad are legal holders of Russian passports and residence permits, and added that all the nearly 100 suicide bombers outside the theatre were ready to act after being signalled telephonically, if Russian authorities did not agree to negotiate.

The recordings also showed that separatist leader Aslan Maskhadov knew about the entire plan of hostage-taking in Moscow, Mr Yastrzhembsky said. (UNI)

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