Functioning democracy could bring Islamists to power in Pak: Report

WASHINGTON, April 28: The US Congress has been told that the country’s security interests in South Asia would not be served by working system of democracy in Pakistan that could bring to power Islamist parties.

In its latest report on Pakistan, the Congressional Research Service (CRS), the research wing of Congress, acknowledged that a sustainable and working system of democracy in that country could serve broader US interests and future regional stability despite the risk that it could bring to power "elements that do not fully countenance US policies."

"The anti-terrorism security interests of the United States may, however, outweigh such considerations," the report commissioned by Congress said.

Leading members of Pakistan’s Islamist coalition have been vocal antagonists of the Musharraf Government and critical of its alliance with the US, the Report pointed out.

Many of them have demanded an end to US military and law enforcement efforts on Pakistan soil.

The MMA has based its election campaign on a largely anti-American stance, it said, and MMA leaders could bring about the "Re-Talibanization" of Western Pakistan.

Referring to the huge demonstrations that the Islamists had organized against the US military action in Iraq, the report cautioned that these Islamist-organized marches could strengthen Islamic radicalism across South Asia.

"There also exist concerns about possible links between Al Qaeda, the Taliban, Pakistani Islamist Parties, and Pakistani Intelligence Agencies," the Report added.

But comfort could be taken by Islamabad’s stance thus far that its foreign policy orientation would remain unchanged, the report said. That claim, it said, has been bolstered by the Islamist’s current status outside the ruling coalition.

"Reports indicate that the military continues to dominate the country’s centralized decision making process," the CRS Report said.

Laying out policy issues facing Congress this year relating to Pakistan, the Report pointed out that the Legislature will have to deal with a bill that would remove the US President’s waiver authority with regard to democracy-related sanctions on Pakistan.

Congress faces other foreign policy issues with regard to Pakistan, including determination of satisfactory levels of Democratic Governance, levels of transparency in Pakistan’s aid expenditures and the provision of continued security assistance in the face of the ongoing and potentially destabilizing bilateral conflict between Pakistan and India.

There was also the question of Reported Pakistani assistance to North Korea’s covert nuclear weapons program as recently as July 2002, the Report said.

"If such assistance is confirmed by President Bush, all non-humanitarian US aid to Pakistan may be suspended, although the President has the authority to waive any sanctions that he determines would jeopardize US national security." (UNI)

Maoist-Govt peace talks begin on a positive note

KATHMANDU, Apr 28: In a positive start to the peace process, Nepal Government and Maoists have expressed satisfaction over the first round of talks during which the rebels demanded immediate release of all their imprisoned activists and recall of the army within a week.

The ultras also want an interim Government to be formed and a special Assembly elected to draft a new constitution before the end of this year.

"We have made four major demands including that the army return to barracks and all Maoist prisoners be released within 15 days", Chief Maoist negotiator Baburam Bhattarai told reporters last night after five hours of closed-door talks with the Government side led by Deputy Prime Minister B P Mandal.

Bhattarai also asked the Government to make public the wherabouts of Maoist activists who have disappeared, and scrapping of the anti-terrorism law introduced last year.

Nepal Minister for Communication Ramesh Nath Pandey said "the talks were very satisfactory and we are very much encouraged of a successful conclusion."

He said after having listened to the Maoists’ agenda, the Government will be formulating a stand after holding discussions within the Cabinet.

Both sides have also decided to form a two-member committee to monitor the ongoing cease-fire and disuss the next course of action.

As the meeting began, both sides greeted each other cheerfully and shook hands as they sat down for talks, the first in about two years. No date has been set for the next round of negotiations.

The spokesperson of the five-member Maoist talks team Krishna Bahadur Mahara told PTI that though the talks were normally good and would conclude in the larger interest of the Nepalese people, the Government side lacked proper homework while participating in the peace talks.

Presenting their political, social and economic agenda during the talks, the Maoists team claimed for the leadership of the new interim Government.

"It is the legitimate right of the revolutionary forces which took part in the movement to head the interim Government," Mahara said.

The Maoists have presented their three major demands including a round table conference, interim government and constituent Assembly election.

As the constitution of the kingdom of Nepal 1990 has become "defunct" after the royal proclamtion of October 2002 the process of making new constitution should start soon, they maintained. They also demanded that the election to the constitutent assembly must be held within next six month to draft a new constititon.

The new constitution should include a provision that requires any treaty or agreement signed between two countries to be ratified by two third majority of the Parliament, they said.

Other important aspect of the new constitution would be to form a national army by integrating the Maoist militia in to the Royal Nepal Army and mobilization of the army under the elected body.

Free education and health facilities to all, rehabilitation and relief package for the victims of war and pro gressive land reforms are some of the highlights of the socio-economic maoist reform agenda.

The Maoist’s political agenda includes among other things scrapping of what they termed "un-equal" treaties including the Indo-Nepal peace and friendship treaty -1950, control and management of Indo-Nepal border, abolition of the Gorkha army recruitment system and introduction of work permit for foreigners seeking employement in Nepal.

On the question of monarchy and other forward-looking proposals, the political parties could go to the people with their own agenda and the latter’s verdict should be acceptable to all, the Maoist paper pointed out.

However, the Government side did not present their specific agenda during the talks.

The Government will thoroughly study the agenda presented by the Maoists and prepare for the next talks. They have also formed a four-member homework committee, which includes information minister Ramesh Nath Pandey and Minister for Physical Planning and Construction Narayansingh Pun.

The team will form a monitoring team to oversee the implementation of the code of conduct while the talks are in progress. The monitoring team will decide about the date and venue of the next round of talks. (PTI)

Rumsfeld fires barbs at critics of Iraq invasion

AS SAYLIYA CAMP, QATAR, Apr 28: US Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld congratulated top American military commanders of the Iraq war today and fired barbs at critics of the invasion that overthrew Saddam Hussein.

"There were a lot of hand-wringers around, weren’t there?" he said with a grin to cheers from military headquarters troops.

On a tour to thank Gulf leaders for support in the conflict and to discuss potential postwar changes in US forces in the region, Rumsfeld quoted Winston Churchill as he spoke to 1,000 American soldiers at the base from where the war was run.

Noting Churchill’s remark about the battle of Britain against Nazi Germany that "never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few", Rumsfeld said of critics of the war: "never have so many been so wrong about so much."

Standing beside General Tommy Franks, commander of the operation, he lauded senior officers and headquarters staff, saying the war was historic despite critics who said Iraq should not have been invaded or that too few troops were used, leading to violence and looting once Saddam was toppled.

Rumsfeld and Franks countered that the Iraqi people were now free from oppression and that the war was run with "compassion" for the civilian population.

They did not mention that US-led forces have so far not found any Iraqi chemical or biological weapons. Washington said a major reason for the invasion was to eliminate weapons of mass destruction that Iraq was alleged to possess.

"When the dust has settled in Iraq, military historians will study this war," Rumsfeld said.

"They will examine the unprecedented combination of power, precision, speed, flexibility — and i would add also compassion — that was employed." Today’s second leg of a Gulf tour that began in the United Arab Emirates, Rumsfeld was also holding talks with Qatar’s ruling Emir, Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al-Thani.

He was due to meet Australian Defence Minister Robert Hill later in the day. Australian troops are in Iraq along with US and British forces.

US defence officials have refused to say whether Rumsfeld will visit Iraq.

He is discussing with Gulf leaders a fresh Pentagon assessment of possible changes in its costly military presence in the Middle East, with the removal of Saddam seen as potentially allowing a reduction in the US presence in the politically sensitive region.

US defence officials say that Qatar is likely to remain a key centre of US military power in the Gulf.

This small and wealthy oil state of 800,000 people, a peninsula jutting into the Gulf along the Saudi Arabian coast, began allowing an increasing US military presence after the 1991 Gulf war.

US attack and other jets used Qatar’s big Al Udeid air base during the war and the modern command centre was built on sands not far from the capital, Doha, in a matter of months.

Military analysts say they expect the United States to sharply reduce its military presence in Saudi Arabia, a key ally for decades, and perhaps move some air power from there to Al Udeid. Washington also has a major military presence in Iraq’s southern neighbour, Kuwait.

The New York Times reported today that the US military was transferring its major Middle East air operations centre from Saudi Arabia to Qatar this week.

"Whether we’ll stay there or not — not sure," the newspaper quoted franks as saying in the United Arab Emirates.

"But we do know that since we have it, we want to be able to run some operations out of it. So for the foreseeable future, and I don’t know how long that is, we’re going to move it over there and going to start running some air ops out of it." (AGENCIES)

India-Bangladesh decide to maintain
tranquility at borders

DHAKA, Apr 28: India and Bangladesh today expressed their firm commitment to maintain tranquility on the borders and resolve all outstanding issues pertaining to the vexed issue between them.

Leading a 16-member delegation of the Border Security Force for talks with Bangladesh Rifles, BSF Director General Ajai Raj Sharma stressed the need to maintain peace and expressed satisfaction after the first day of parleys.

Echoing similar sentiment, BDR chief Maj General Mohammed Jehangir Alam Chowdhury described the talks as "fruitful."

The visiting 16-member Indian delegation includes representatives from the Ministries of Home and External Affairs.

The top-level 3-day talks come after the issue of illegal immigrants threatened to snowball into a major standoff between the two countries in February.

Sharma later told reporters that killings were mainly aimed against smugglers and not against common people on either side of the divide.

Of the 27 people killed in recent times, he said, 15 were Bangladeshi nationals and 12 were Indian.

Over the next two days, the Indians are likely to raise the issue of large-scale infiltration of Bangladeshis into India and operation of insurgents camps in the Bangladeshi territory. New Delhi last year handed over to Dhaka a list of 99 insurgency camps operating from Bangladesh.

The two sides are also likely to discuss measures to check smuggling of arms, ammunition and drugs along the border and the demarcation of 6.5-km-long unmarked border. (PTI)

Landmines make spinsters of young Afghan girls

SHOMALI PLAIN, AFGHANISTAN, Apr 28: Ten-year-old Shakila may never marry.

Three years ago she walked out of her house on Afghanistan’s Shomali plain and stepped on a landmine that blew off her right leg.

Shakila is one of the tens of thousands of Afghans who have fallen victim to land mines, indiscriminate weapons that do not distinguish between combatants trying to defend turf and civilians trying to live their lives.

After 23 years of war, the countless numbers of mines that remain buried in Afghanistan still kill or maim more than 100 people every month. The injuries they cause are devastating for all victims, but especially so for women.

Workers at an International Committee of the Red Cross Orthopaedic Centre in Kabul say that while the injuries carry little social stigma for men, this is not true for women in a conservative Muslim country where females are expected to be perfect models of conformity.

Physiotherapist Rohafza Naudri lost a leg to a mine when she was 11. She said it is difficult for women with such injuries to find a husband.

"Nobody wants to marry them, they don’t have much of a chance," she said after fitting Shakila with a new prosthesis.

"People think they can’t work at home and they can’t look after the house. It’s also difficult for them to make friends, nobody really accepts them."

Asked if Shakila, a shy girl with a pretty smile and a cute orange dress, would be able to find a husband, she replied: "It’s very difficult."

Alberto Cairo, Italian head of the ICRC project, estimates there are as many as 40,000 war amputees in Afghanistan, nearly 30,000 of whom are treated at red cross centres which also help victims of polio and congenital deformities.

As well as being a place for treatment, the Kabul centre is a small factory where production lines churn out 350 state-of-the-art prostheses every month.

All the workers on the line are themselves disabled, though it is often difficult to tell.

The carefully fitted and moulded prostheses mean that with practice, most can walk with barely a trace of a limp.

In an irony that still amuses Cairo after 13 years on the job, the rubber used to make shock absorbers for the heels of the prostheses is recycled from Russian tank treads.

"It gives us some pleasure to take something meant for war and put it to peaceful use," he said. "It’s the best quality rubber -we are very grateful to the Russians"

Many of Afghanistan’s mine victims are wounded by weapons left over from the 10-year soviet occupation in the 1980s.

Others are hurt by mines laid during civil war in the 1990s, while the United Nations says at least 180 sites were "contaminated" by munitions, including thousands of deadly cluster bomblets, dropped during the US-led bombing that ousted the Taliban in 2001. Dan Kelly, head of the UN’s Afghan mine clearing operation, says an estimated 850 square km (320 square miles) of Afghanistan’s land is mined, denying land to returning refugees, for agriculture and vital infrastructure rebuilding projects.

The UN says it will take another five years to clear areas designated high priority and a further five years to finish the job to make life safe for children like Shakila.

It launched a mine awareness month on April 15, with the goal of encouraging both the Government and local factional commanders to start destroying stockpiles in accordance with Kabul’s accession last year to the global ban on landmines.

Kelly said that in the past 13 years, the Afghan programme, the biggest in the world with more than 7,000 employees, has cleared about 2.7 million items of ordnance, including a quarter of a million anti-personnel and 30,000 anti-tank mines.

It is a costly, dangerous and painstaking task and the UN programme this year will require 61 million. Although the project is seen as high priority by donor countries, only about 65 percent has so far been offered and there are concerns that demand for post-war Iraq could slow donations.

"Currently we have no actual stoppage of funds because of Iraq, but as happens throughout the world when there is an emergency, donor fundings do get diverted," Kelly said.

He said 75 deminers had been killed and 250 wounded in the past 13 years, but there is no shortage of recruits in Afghanistan, where demining is considered noble work.

Abdul Razaq, clearing part of the Shomali plain north of Kabul, said he would rather be doing the work than pursuing another calling for Afghan males - Jihad, or holy war in the name of Islam.

"I respect human life and it is a great honour for me to save the life of another by risking my own, especially as my fellow citizens are proud of me," he said.

Razaq said five people and eight farm animals had been killed by mines where he was working — part of the front line between Taliban and opposition forces from 1999.

"Recently, in this garden opposite me, a small boy lost his leg and four animals were killed by a mine," he said.

Razaq said mine clearance should by the highest priority in international assistance to Afghanistan.

"Every day we have one or two incidents here. As long as mines exist, nobody is able to do anything. Farmers cannot work their fields and there won’t be jobs for the people."

Razaq said the effort was also vital to the success of the Government’s faltering bid to disarm rival factional armies. "If a man gives up his gun to the Government, what can he do if he cannot work because there are mines everywhere?" (AGENCIES)

IRA willing to disarm, says Sinn Fein leader

BELFAST, Apr 28: The Irish Republican Army would be willing to disarm fully as part of a final peace deal in Northern Ireland, the leader of the guerrilla group’s political ally Sinn Fein said.

The peace process in the British-ruled province has been deadlocked since London and Dublin rejected a private offer delivered to them by the IRA as too vague, and challenged the group unambiguously to commit to renouncing violence for good.

But in a speech in Belfast, Sinn Fein leader Gerry Adams said the IRA had given the two Governments a clear statement of its commitment to peace and stood ready to resume disarming if there was a positive response to its offer.

"It (the statement) contains a number of highly significant and positive elements unparalleled in any previous statement by the IRA leadership," he said yesterday.

Speaking to supporters and journalists at Stormont, the seat of the suspended Northern Ireland Assembly, Adams said the IRA statement had laid out its willingness to disarm.

"Obviously this is not about putting some arms beyond use," he said. "It is about all arms."

Northern Ireland’s home-rule assembly, the centrepiece of the landmark 1998 good Friday peace agreement, has not sat since October when it was suspended amid allegations of IRA spying on British ministers. The Assembly, formed to share power between the province’s majority protestants and minority catholics, will be formally dissolved at midnight ahead of an election due on May 29.

With protestants refusing to re-enter Government with Sinn Fein until the IRA— on ceasefire since 1997 — declares its long war against British rule is over for good, there has been mounting media speculation the election could be postponed if a deal on re-establishing power-sharing is not struck very soon.

The IRA has twice destroyed an unspecified quantity of arms in secret, witnessed by international monitors. In his speech, Adams said the IRA leadership had authorised a third act of disarmament, if there was agreement on restoring home rule.

"My understanding is that all of this is still doable at this time, if there is a positive response from the two (British and Irish) Governments and (the main protestant leader) David Trimble," he said.

The speech was billed by Republican sources as of major significance, but is unlikely to break the deadlock by itself, as Adams’s protestant opponents are likely to want to hear a commitment to ending violence from the IRA itself.

The Sinn Fein leader has always denied allegations he is a senior figure in the IRA, and insists his party does not speak for the guerrilla group. (AGENCIES)

Qatar keen on strengthening bilateral relation with Kerala

DUBAI, Apr 27: Qatar has evinced a keen interest in strengthening bilateral cooperation with Kerala, especially in the fields of health, tourism and education.

In a meeting with Kerala Minister for Non-Resident Keralite Affairs (NORKA) M M Hassan yesterday, Qatari Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Ahmed Bin Abdullah Al Mahmoud appreciated the contribution of Keralites to the country’s progress.

Mr Hassan thanked the Qatari minister on behalf of Keralites and expressed the hope that more of them would be able to participate in the ambitious plans to develop Qatar, according to Doha’s the Peninsula newspaper.

"Some Indian community members told me that there are difficulties in getting Indian visas. Mr Al Mahmoud however assured me that Qatar has adopted a balanced policy for different nationalities in issuing work permits," Mr Hassan said.

"The minister had a high opinion of Indian expatriates in general, and Keralites in particular who form the majority of the Indian community here. He appreciated the discipline and hard work of the community members and their contribution to the progress of the country," he added.

Mr Hassan said he briefed the Qatari Minister on potential areas of co-operation between Qatar and Kerala, with special focus on tourism, education and health.

"I invited Mr Al Mahmoud to visit Kerala to see the tourism potential of the state. I also apprised him of the expanding educational facilities in the state, with the setting up of several new engineering and medical colleges, and invited Qatari students to study in Kerala," Mr Hassan said.

During the meeting, the ministers also underlined the historical relations between Qatar and Kerala in areas of trade and culture. "Mr Al Mahmoud evinced a keen interest in strengthening bilateral cooperation especially in health, with the opening of several new medical facilities in Qatar," Mr Hassan said.

Director of the Asian and African Affairs Department in Qatari Foreign Ministry, Abdul Rahman Bin Mohammed, and Indian Ambassador to Qatar Ranjan Mathai were also present at the meeting.

Later in the evening, Mr Hassan also met Minister of State for Interior Sheikh Hamad Bin Nasser Bin Jassim Al Thani.

Meanwhile, Mr Hassan has named Abdulla Parakkal, General Secretary of the Kerala Muslim Cultural Centre (KMCC), as the NORKA’s representative in Qatar. NORKA will now have three representatives from Qatar besides K C Varghese and K P Abdul Hameed. (UNI)

India-Bangladesh decide to maintain tranquility at borders

DHAKA, Apr 28: India and Bangladesh today expressedtheir firm commitment to maintain tranquility on the borders and resolve all outstanding issues pertaining to the vexed issue between them.

Leading a 16-member delegation of the border security force for talks with Bangladesh rifles, BSF Director General Ajai Raj Sharma stressed the need to maintain peace and expressed satisfaction after the first day of parleys.

Echoing similar sentiment, BDR Chief Maj General Mohammed Jehangir Alam Chowdhury described the talks as "fruitful."

The visiting 16-member indian delegation includes representatives from the Ministries of Home and External Affairs.

The top-level 3-day talks come after the issue of illegal immigrants threatened to snowball into a major standoff between the two countries in February.

Sharma later told reporters that killings were mainly aimed against smugglers and not against common people on either side of the divide.

Of the 27 people killed in recent times, he said, 15 were Bagladeshi nationals and 12 were Indian.

Over the next two days, the Indians are likely to raise the issue of large-scale infiltration of Bangladeshis into India and operation of insurgents camps in the Bangladeshi territory. New Delhi last year handed over to Dhaka a list of 99 insurgency camps operating from Bangladesh.

The two sides are also likely to discuss measures to check smuggling of arms, ammunition and drugs along the border and the demarcation of 6.5-km-long unmarked border. (PTI)

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