UN diplomat’s wife sparks off major controversy

COLOMBO, May 23: A UN diplomat’s wife has sparked off a major diplomatic row in Sri Lanka by posing for a photograph alongside a reclining statue of Lord Buddha at a pilgrimage centre in Southern Matale.

The Sri Lankan Government has taken strong exception to the sacrilegious act and threatened to initiate legal action against the woman as well as the Buddhist monk who allowed the pictures to be taken, media reports said here today.

This is a shameful act and an insult to our culture. We must take firm action, the reports quoted Cultural Affairs Minister Lakshman Jayakody as saying.

The Cultural Department Department has asked the Attorney General to initiate proceedings and would ask the Foreign Ministry to inform all diplomats here about proper conduct at places of worship, the reports said.

A photo taken by French UN diplomat G Bernard was first splashed by Sinhalese newspaper Diviana a month ago showing his wife reclining against a Buddha. It was followed by another on Friday.

It created a major stir with the right wing Mahajana Eksath Perumuna immediately staging noisy demonstrations in front of the Cultural Ministry demanding action against those responsible for the outrageous incident.

Under Sri Lankan law, a person who intentionally brings a place of worship into disrepute could be charged with a penalty or a year of imprisonment or both. (PTI)

Facing more visitors, US N-labs halt security checks

WASHINGTON, May 23: After President Bill Clinton took office, the Energy Department allowed two of its most sensitive nuclear weapons labs to halt background checks on foreign guests to cope with soaring numbers of visiting Chinese and Russian scientists. Officials now concede the move was a security blunder.

While direct evidence has not emerged of espionage by the visitors, Congressional investigators found at least 13 scientists with suspected foreign intelligence ties were allowed into the labs without proper CIA or FBI scrutiny.

Five of those scientists were allowed into the Sandia Lab at albuquerque, New Mexico, while eight visited the Los Alamos lab, also in New Mexico, that US officials believe has been a target of Chinese espionage for more than 20 years, Congressional investigators said.

Security checks, mandatory before 1994, were reinstated last November amid growing Clinton administration worries about Chinese espionage at the Government’s premier weapons labs.

While US officials have no evidence that nuclear secrets were lost to any of the 4,409 Russian and Chinese visitors between 1994 and late 1998, when background checks were reinstated, they have no guarantee information did not escape.

"As far as I am concerned, the exemptions (for background checks) should never have been given," said ED Curran, a veteran FBI official who last year took over counterintelligence at the Energy Department.

"You have to have the information to make a decision (on access). The lab director has to know who is on his site," Mr Curran said in an interview with the Associated Press.

The administration made it a priority after the cold war to open up the once highly secretive weapons labs and expand their nondefence research programmes. The surge in Russian visitors stemmed from an urgent need to help improve Russia’s safeguards on nuclear material to keep it from terrorists or antagonistic states.

The increase in Chinese visitors was attributed largely to the labs pushing to expand nonweapons research and broaden links to scientists not only in the United States but abroad.

According to Government officials and documents, the request to end security checks originated in the fall of 1993 from the labs, which at the time were inundated with visitors.

In 1994, the number of Chinese visitors to the Los Alamos and Sandia Labs more than doubled, from 146 to 329, according to Energy Department figures. The number of Russian visitors rose from 201 to 364.

"The number of foreign visitors was increasing, and in some cases it was taking months for the checks to get done," Energy official Joan Rohlfing said. "It was such an inefficient system that it simply was not enabling any of the programmes to move forward."

Energy officials agreed to the labs’ request to end the background checks. Mr Rohlfing said the exemption was supposed to be

only for visitors who were going to unclassified areas of the laboratory.

The General Accounting Office, the investigatory arm of Congress, first found problems with the termination of background checks in a 1997 report.

The GAO documented 13 instances where persons with suspected foreign intelligence connections were allowed access without background checks eight visitors went to los alamos and five went to Sandia.

"Available records also indicated that eight other persons with suspected connections to foreign intelligence services were approved for access to Sandia during the period however, DOE and Sandia lacked adequate records to confirm whether the persons actually accessed the facility," the GAO added.

Energy Secretary Bill Richardson reinstated the background checks in November as a Congressional Committee was finishing an investigation into reports of Chinese theft of US technology, including alleged espionage at the weapons labs.

Adding to the problem was little spending for counterintelligence.

In 1996, according to GAO, Los Alamos spent 100,000 dollars, or 111 dollars per Russian or Chinese visitor, to monitor possible espionage. That was less than one-fifth the amount spent by another lab, lawrence livermore, which had about half as many visitors.

In march, a longtime Los Alamos scientist, Wen Ho Lee, was fired and remains under suspicion of providing secrets to China. The FBI is investigating, but Lee denies any wrongdoing and has not been charged.

Asked recently whether foreign visitors posed a threat, John Browne, Director of the Los Alamos Lab, replied, yes, a potential threat. The potential is there. Still, he defended the visitor programme, saying it is important to interact with international scientists. (AP)

Ownership of Kohinoor diamond likely to be settled soon

LONDON, May 23: The mystery of the jewel in the British crown, the ownership of the world’s largest diamond, Kohinoor, may be settled this weekend with the opening of a plain safebox in a Swiss Bank Vault.

The vault is likely to be opened at the end of this month and may contain documents proving that Kohinoor diamond, centrepiece of Queen Mother’s state crown and the world’s most famous treasure, does not belong to Britain.

Beant Singh Sandhanwalia, the last recognised heir of late Maharaja Duleep Singh, who now lives in Amsterdam claimed the contents of the Swiss safe box would prove that the diamond belonged to him.

It is just a matter of time before I get the box, the Kohinoor and other sikh treasures belonging to my family and that were taken by British by force and trickery, he told Sunday Times.

The papers, believed to be in the Swiss Bank Valult, belonged to Catherine Duleep Singh, daughter of Maharaja Duleep Singh, the last ruler of Punjab, before it was annexed by the British in 1849. She placed the papers in the Swiss Vault before her death in Buckinghamshire in England in 1942.

I will ave them taken back to India and hand them over to Amritsar’s Golden Temple, the holiest shrine of the Sikhs, where they rightfully belong, Beant Singh said.

The Sunday Times report said the Swiss Bank Vault might also contain missing jewels from the Punjab royal treasury. It said the only people who were certain about the contents of the box were a small group of Basel bankers.

After Catherine’s death, when the bankers did not hear from her heirs for decades, they had opened the box and listed its contents and were waiting for a claimant to come forward.

Nothing happened till 1997, the daily said, when the Swiss Bankers Association published a list of dormant account holders numbering more than 5,700, mostly of Jewish World War II Holocaust victims.

The paper said now Sandhanwalia had come forward to lay his claim to ownership of the contents being held in the Swiss Vault. He argued that when the diamond was ceded to Queen Victoria as part of the Punjab Annexation Treaty, Duleep Singh was too young to sign a valid international document and was forced under duress.

The Kohinoor—the 105.6 carat diamond—was mined in the 16th century and many wars had been fought over it. It was once the eye of the peacock throne of the Mughal empire.

Times said if proved correct, Sandhanwalia claim would also raise the prospects of Britain having to return a wide range of treasures from India including another prized asset, the splended golden throne of Maharaja Ranjit Singh, now housed in Victoria museum.

Sandhanwalia plans to visit England shortly to present his case to Prime Minister Tony Blair and British officials. He has already sent appeals to the British queen, the Times said. (PTI)

Misadventure by India to be given befitting response: Pak

From Shahid Ahmed Khan

ISLAMABAD, May 23: Pakistan’s top political and military leadership has resolved to give India a befitting response in case of any misadventure across the Line of Control (LOC) during a strategic meeting even as a Pakistan based militant group confirmed that its activists are currently engaged in a battle with the Indian troops.

Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif held a strategic meeting with Army Chief and Chairman of Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee (JCSC) General Pervez Musharraf here yesterday to discuss the latest situation on the LOC in Kargil and Drass sectors which have witnessed heavy exchange of artillery firing between Indian and Pakistani troops for over a fortnight now.

The political and military leaderships have resolved to give a befitting response in case New Delhi launches any misadventure at the LOC, the News Daily said quoting official sources.

Meanwhile, Tehreek-e-Jehad, a militant group based in Pakistan Occupied Kashmir (POK), has claimed that a large number of its Mujahideens (militants) have infiltrated into Indian territory.

A spokesman of outfit told newsmen in Muzaffarabad (POK) yesterday that its militants had occupied strategic positions in Drass-Kargil sectors on May 13 and 14.

The claim confirmed India’s allegation that Pakistan was providing cover fire to militants in the Kargil and Drass sectors.

We have almost contained the movement of Indian forces in the area by blocking the Srinagar-Kargil road, the only land-link to forward posts manned by Indians in Drass-Kargil sectors, The Tehreek-e-Jehad spokesman was quoted as saying.

He further claimed that militants had taken position on top of mountains overlooking the road and they can easily hit anybody moving on the road. There was no loss of life on our side except one who died due to extremely cold temperature at high altitude, he said.

Meanwhile, during the meeting, attended by Defence Secretary Iftekhar Ali Khan, the Army Chief briefed Sharif about the Indian build up along the LOC and apprised him of the high operational preparedness of Pakistani Armed Forces, The News said.

The meeting once again demonstrates growing Pakistani concerns at the possibility of some tough action by India against the large number of militants who have been pushed into the Indian territory by the Pakistani Army and are currently engaged in exchange of fire with the Indian troops in the Kargil and Drass sectors.

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