India, Rusia, China partnership a far-away goal

NEW DELHI, Oct 13: The partnership between India, Russia and China remains a far-away goal, according to a senior Russian foreign policy expert.

The climate is not yet ready for a tripartite partnership which remains a challenge, said Alexei Vassiliev, a member of the Russian council for foreign relations.

"The three countries can unite half of the world’s population. But if there is a partnership it will not be against the United States," Prof Vassiliev told UNI in an interview.

The partnership, however, remains a future option, he said while stressing that it would be only a partnership and not an alliance.

He said Sino-Russian relations had vastly improved and so were relations between India and China.

He said the world is becoming more dangerous. "A unipolar world can not be stable. The cold war had its own rules. Now there are no checks and balances against aggression."

He said India and Russia did not support a military strike against Iraq, instead favoured political and peaceful means to disarm Iraq. "In case of a war, we will be a great loser. For India, it means destabilisation of the whole region where it has vital interests."

Millions of Indians work in Iraq and other countries in the Gulf region. A war could force them to return to India precipitating an economic disaster.

Russia, he said, believed that any use of force against Iraq should have the consent of the UN Security Council. "Otherwise it will create a very dangerous precedent." Prof Vassiliev said he did not believe that Iraq possessed nuclear weapons. "You can not secretly produce nuclear bombs," he said.

He said he had not read "a single proven fact that links the Al-Qaeda with Iraq. "All that the United States produce are some words like possible cooperation and some information that they had bases there."

"By this American gesture, (Iraqi President) is gaining a lot of popularity in the Arab world," said Prof Vassiliev, who is also a member of the group of advisers for the committee of foreign relations of Russian Parliament, Duma.

He dismissed reports in the Western media that Russia would back strikes againt Iraq in return for the US taking a soft line on Chechenya. "The Chechen problem is an internal problem of Russia. There is a big difference between an internal problem and an international problem."

He said step by step there is improvement in the situation in Chechenya where Russian troops are fighting terrorists.

On trade between India and Russia, he said the commerical exchange did not correspond to the potential of the two countries. More efforts are needed to broaden the economic cooperation.

He said India was losing part of the tea market in Russia. There could be more joint ventures and exchanges in high technology, he said praising India’s growth in Information Technology.

"Russia has found in India a partner in whom we don’t have any contradictions. Our military exports to India is not for war, but to keep peace," he said. (UNI)

Gen Musharraf sees very healthy Govt

ISTANBUL, Oct 13: Pakistan’s President Pervez Musharraf today said he expected a post-election Government to be "very healthy" and that there would be no problems stemming from the success of Islamic parties.

"I think we had very transparent, very good elections, problem free, and we will probably have a very healthy Government in Pakistan," Musharraf told reporters on his arrival in Istanbul for a Regional Economic Summit.

The European Union, which observed the election, was highly critical of the military’s tactics, which it said included supporting the party closest to Musharraf.

A party loyal to Musharraf led the way but was well short of an overall majority in the election designed to restore civilian rule after a 1999 military coup.

Hardline Islamic parties opposed to the US role in Afghanistan made surprising gains in the election, potentially giving them the balance of power in any coalition.

Musharraf said religious parties had played a role in Pakistan politics for decades.

Asked whether religious parties would take part in the new Government or in the opposition, he said: "According to the laws, according to the seats, they will take part and no problem. In Pakistan we have always had the same religious parties in coalition in the Government."

Musharraf was in Istanbul to meet his counterparts from Turkey, Afghanistan, Iran, Azerbaijan and other Central Asian Republics at a summit of the Economic Cooperation Organisation tomorrow. (AGENCIES)

Failed Serbian Presidential poll becomes likelier

BELGRADE, Oct 13: The turnout in the second round of the Serbian Presidential election today remained low after the halfway mark and a failed election was becoming a more likely outcome by the hour.

Eight hours into the vote, just 21.7 per cent of the electorate had voted, 21.3 less than in the first round two weeks ago, said Zoran Lucic, an analyst with the independent monitoring organization Cesid.

According to Serbian law, the turnout in the decisive vote must be greater than 50 per cent for the election to be recognized. If the requirement is not met, the entire election must be repeated.

"If the trend from the first eight hours continues, the election will fail," Lucic told a press conference. The trend thus far was that one per cent less voters showed up each hour than two weeks earlier.

In the first round, 55.6 per cent of the electorate voted for a total of 11 candidates. Yugoslav President Vojislav Kostunica and the Federal Deputy Premier Miroljub Labus made it to the runoff, with about 31 and 28 per cent of the votes respectively.

"Those 5.6 per cent (above half) have already been spent," Lucic said, adding that the turnout in the final six hours of the vote would have to at least match that of two weeks earlier if the poll was to have any chance of success.

"I did everything to make the runoff work," Labus said Sunday after he cast his ballot in Belgrade. "I hope I persuaded those who were undecided to vote for a modern European Serbia."

Kostunica said he was sure that the election "will show real determination of the people for progress, to continue with real changes instead of stopping at an invented point in reforms".

But it appeared that the third placed candidate in the first round with about a fifth of all votes cast, the extreme nationalist leader Vojislav Seselj, would eventually seal the fate of the poll with his call for a boycott.

In Kosovo, Serbia’s southern province in which Seselj beat Kostunica and Labus two weeks ago, the turnout was halved, Lucic said. Serbian Prime Minister Zoran Djindjic also did little to fight apathy, though the election was originally seen as a key showdown in his power struggle with former Ally Kostunica.

Djindjic meanwhile visibly distanced himself from Labus, whom he initially supported as an independent candidate and a true proponent of tough economic reforms.

If the election fails, the law provides no concrete deadlines for a repeat election, said Marko Blagojevic, a Cesid spokesman.

It raises concern that Serbia could plunge into deeper political turmoil.

Djindjic’s coalition already stretched the fragile democracy to the limit this year when it ostracized Kostunica’s "uncooperative" deputies from the Serbian Parliament and assured itself a comfortable majority.

It is up to the parliamentary speaker, appointed by Djindjic’s majority, to determine the date of a new election and the speaker to schedule it.

"If there is goodwill, a solution can be found. If there is bad will, there can be many problems," Blagojevic told Deutsche Presse-Agentur, DPA.

It is also not fully clear when the five-year mandate of the current Serbian President, Milan Milutinovic, ends, Blagojevic said.

Milutinovic was elected on December 27, 1997 and sworn in on January 5, 1998. He was indicted by the United Nations war crimes tribunal over his role in the Kosovo conflict and his alleged responsibility for atrocities committed against civilians. (DPA)

Bush urges world to confront terror after Bali bombing

WASHINGTON, Oct 13: US President George W Bush today urged world leaders to confront the "global menace" of terrorism after a bomb on the Indonesian island of Bali killed more than 180 people, as Governments offered help to find those responsible.

Bush, whose administration has spearheaded a global anti-terror campaign since the September 11 attacks last year, condemned the attack as a "heinous" act of terrorism.

"At least 182 innocent men and women have been murdered and hundreds injured in a terrorist act designed to create terror and chaos," Bush said in a statement released by the White House.

"The world must confront this global menace — terrorism — we must challenge and defeat the idea that the wanton killing of innocents advances any cause or supports any aspirations. And we must call this despicable act by its rightful name — murder." (AFP)

Angolan troops in Ivory Coast to help Govt

ABIDJAN, Oct 13: Angolan troops flew into Ivory Coast today to help the embattled Government of President Laurent Gbagbo fight a rebellion, a senior Ivorian military source said.

The source told newsmen the Angolans arrived in two aircraft this morning and were equipped with two armoured vehicles. He said a total of 500 Angolan troops were expected. (AGENCIES)

140,000 Israeli workers launch strike

JERUSALEM, Oct 13: Some 140,000 Israeli workers launched an open-ended strike today, after talks between representatives of the trade unions and representatives of local authorities and the Government, aimed at preventing the sanctions, failed, Israeli media reported.

The main demand of the strikers, who come from the municipalities, local authorities, religious councils, and Government ministries and services, concerns cost-of-living increments to keep abreast of inflation.

The Chairman of the Israeli Merchants Association, meanwhile, warned over the weekend that militants could take advantage of the strike by municipal sanitation workers to plant bombs in garbage piles in crowded downtown areas. (DPA)

| home | state | national | business | editorial | advertisement | sports
| international | weather | mailbag | suggestions | search | subscribe | send mail |