Afghans threaten more abductions as hostages leave

KABUL, Nov 28: Two UN workers freed from weeks in captivity in Afghanistan left the country toay, while the group that said it held them threatened more abductions unless a promise to release taliban prisoners in exchange was fulfilled.

The group, the Jaish-e-Muslimeen, threatened to kidnap more foreigners if authorities did not release 24 members of the former Taliban regime now being held in jail. It said the prisoners were to have been released in exchange for the freedom of the three UN workers last week.

Annetta Flanigan from northern Ireland and Shqipe Hebibi from Kosovo left Kabul on a UN flight in the morning and would spend a few days on holiday before joining their families, UN spokesman Manoel De Almeida e Silva said.

A third hostage, Filipino diplomat Angelito Nayan who was freed with the women last Tuesday, returned to Manila last week.

None of the them has given details about their captivity or how they came to be freed.

Akbar Agha, head of the Taliban splinter faction that had claimed to hold the hostages, complained that 24 Taliban prisoners in return for the three foreigners had yet to be freed.

"Right now it appears we have been deceived and there is a 50 percent chance of the release of our prisoners," he told.

"If we are disappointed about the release of our prisoners, then, in 15 days, we will take some action that will compel the Afghan Government to release our prisoners.

"This includes kidnapping some foreigners," he said. "And to kidnap a foreigner is a very easy job because a large number of our colleagues are in Kabul and other cities across Afghanistan."

The three workers were abducted from a Kabul street on Oct 28 after helping run Presidential elections won by US-backed incumbent Hamid Karzai, raising fears among the foreign community in Afghanistan of a wave of Iraq-style kidnappings.

The Government says it does not believe the trio were ever held by Jaish, but the group may have hired a criminal gang that carried out the abductions.

On Friday, a former British journalist who runs a guest house in Kabul said he had helped negotiate the release of the hostages by passing on an offer of a 1.5 million dollars ransom to Jaish from Kosovan businessman Behgjet Pacolli via an intermediary.

However, the former journalist, Peter Jouvenal, said he did not think the money had been paid and Jaish has denied receiving any ransom, or demanding one. Pacolli has denied paying any ransom.

A Government official said last week he understood the hostages were freed after the payment of a ransom, but he did not know by whom it was paid or to whom.

The United States had warned against any compromise with the hostage takers, saying any deal would provoke more kidnappings. The Interior Ministry has denied that any deal was struck.

The Jaish leader Agha, whose group announced a breakaway from the mainstream Taliban earlier this year saying it no longer recognised the authority of Taliban leader Mullah Mohammad Omar, said there were no differences between them.

"The goals of our Mujahideen (holy warriors) are the same, only the organisations are different," he said. "Mulluh omar is a great Mujahid who has never compromised on Islamic principles."

However, he did say that a commander of Jaish, Mullah Sabir Momin, who had claimed to speak for the group during the hostage standoff, had been removed from the organisation by its Shura, or council, for secret relations with the US-backed Government.

"A decision against him was taken by the entire Shura because he used to get Taliban Mujahideen arrested," he said, without elaborating.

The mainstream Taliban loyal to Omar has denied any part in the kidnapping, saying holding women as hostages was un-Islamic. (AGENCIES)

Maoists reject Nepalese Govt’s talks deadline

KATHMANDU, Nov 28: Maoist rebels in Nepal have rejected the January 13 deadline set by Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba for holding peace talks even as the Government expressed the hope that the rebels would gradually adopt a flexible policy towards dialogue.

The deadline set by the Government was "abstract and full of threats," Maoist leader `Prachanda’ said in a statement yesterday.

Deuba had set the January 13 as the deadline for Maoists for coming to the negotiation table, saying the Government would go for general election if the rebels do not come for dialogue within the stipulated time frame.

The Government’s talks offer "has further derailed" the peace process, Prachanda said, alleging that it "will only give continuity to feudal regression, unbridled militarisation and the terrorist black ordinance (prevention of terrorist and disruptive activities ordinance) and would serve the regressive forces to consolidate their hold on power."

However, he said they would agree for the talks "under reliable international mediation", hinting at UN, and called for "defeating foreign reactionaries" and ending the process of "growing militarisation and civil war in the country."

He also stated rebels’ earlier key demand for holding the election to constituent Assembly to draft a new Constitution.

Reacting to Prachanda’s statement, Mohammad Mohsin, Minister for Information and Communication and a member of the high-level peace committee, said though the rebels , but they would gradually adopt a flexible policy as there is no other option than talks to resolve the present crisis.

The Government was open to discuss any agenda with the Maoists including the constituent Assembly, Mohsin said, adding the Government was ready to pursue any change that might be reached through a national consensus.

The Government has not taken the Maoists’ reaction in a serious way as they might have been shocked by the strategic loss they suffered in their stronghold in Kailali district and the spontaneous revolt by the locals of Dailekh against their working style and ideology, Mohsin said.

When the Maoists talk about un mediation, whey are they silent about the human rights convention mentioned in the un charter? The minister asked.

The Maoists might have felt the present time unfavourable for holding talks as they were in a very difficult situation, Mohsin said.(PTI)

Afghans block Pakistan road to protest US arrests

JALALABAD, AFGHANISTAN, Nov 28: Thousands of Afghans blocked a key road between Afghanistan and Pakistan today to demand the release of local people arrested by US forces in raids on suspected Al-Qaeda hideouts.

The protesters blocked a five km (three mile) stretch of the main road that leads from the eastern city of Jalalabad to the border crossing with Pakistan at Torkhum, provincial police chief Hazrat Ali told .

He said the protest was in the Bati Kot district of Nangarhar province, where the demonstrators complained that US forces arrested a group of locals, including a woman, a week earlier.

Ali estimated the number of demonstrators between 5,000 and 6,000 and said they were vowing to continue their protest until the locals were freed.

US-led forces mounted raids on suspected Al-Qaeda hideouts in Bati Kot a week ago and said several Arab fighters were among four militants killed and others captured.

The US military said the raids also led to the seizure of weapons, explosives, cash and other materials, but has not identified the Arab fighters.

Local officials said at the time that five people had been arrested, and identified them as a villager named Sayed Rahman and his sons.

US-led forces have been in Afghanistan since 2001 pursuing remnants of the former Taliban regime as well as their Arab Al-Qaeda allies, including Osama bin Laden, responsible for the September 11 attacks on the United States.

Bin Laden and Taliban leader Mullah Mohammad Omar remain at large and Arab Al-Qaeda fighters are still thought to be operating with local support from sanctuaries in the tribal border areas with Pakistan, where US officials believe the two leaders may be hiding. (AGENCIES)

Ukraine sees fresh rallies after Parliament vote

KIEV, Nov 28: Opposition supporters rallied Anew on the streets of the Ukrainian capital today, boosted by a Parliamentary vote declaring invalid a disputed Presidential poll handing victory to Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovich.

Eastern regions, where Moscow-backed Yanukovich has his power base, geared up for a rival day of protest on his behalf. Yanukovich flew to meet regional bosses and supporters north of the big mining centre of Donetsk.

Saturday’s vote in Parliament, which noted widespread fraud in the November. 21 run-off election, had no legal force as Parliament claims no jurisdiction over the validity of elections.

But it provided a further boost for liberal opposition candidate Viktor Yushchenko in his bid to overturn Yanukovich’s victory.

The declaration was issued ahead of a Supreme Court hearing on Monday to consider Yushchenko’s complaints of poll irregularities. The court has so far forbidden publication of the count handing victory to Yanukovich, thus blocking his inauguration.

No date for any new election was suggested in Parliament. Yushchenko, 50, has already said he stands for a new vote on December. 12, but Yanukovich, 54 and strongly backed by Russia, has yet to say whether he is ready for a re-run.

Western countries have called for a review of the results, with the European Union advocating a new election.

The crisis has dramatised a longstanding divide between Ukraine’s nationalist west, supporting Yushchenko, and the industrial Russian-speaking east solidly behind the premier.

It also has raised tensions between the west and Russia since Yushchenko calls for gradual integration with the west while Yanukovich sees closer ties with Russia as the key to prosperity.

A party mood prevailed in Kiev’s independence square and its slush-filled main boulevard, khreshchatyk, today. Several thousand Yushchenko supporters milled around, brandishing flags and banners and sporting their trademark orange gear.

An orthodox priest read prayers in an open-air service on the steps of the Mayor’s office while 100 metres (yards) away a rock group belted out a number over a loudspeaker system. Brigades of women handed out hot drinks and snacks to those who had slept overnight in a tent encampment.

"People will not leave the street until a new commission names a new date for elections," said deputy Ivan Zayets, a Yushchenko ally, yesterday. "These decisions (of Parliament) do not solve the problem. They only point in the correct direction for an ultimate resolution."

There was a sharply contrasting picture in the Russian-speaking east where there has been talk of declarations of autonomy if the election of Yanukovich is overturned.

Correspondent Oliver Bullough said several thousand supporters were already out on the streets of Severodonetsk, near the border with Russia, ready to welcome Yanukovich.

Many wore the traditional uniforms of cossacks, representing the conservative values of old Russia.

In contrast to the orange-led street scenes in Kiev, crowds there waved blue flags and banners and chanted "Ya-Nu-Ko-Vich"

Valery Krasnachuk, a coal miner for 30 years, said: "We are not enemies of those people in Kiev. We are for unity. But we are against those who are trying to separate us like Yushchenko and his people.

"This is a mining and metal-producing region. We work in hard conditions and we need a man who knows how to work hard and does not change his mind. That man is Yanukovich."

Parliament also expressed no confidence in the Central Election Commission overseeing the election.

The rivals agreed at a meeting with mediators from Russia and the European Union to meet regularly to resolve differences.

"This was an extraordinarily difficult day," Parliament Speaker Volodymyr Lytvyn told interfax Ukraine news agency. "Political leaders will now have to objectively analyse the possibilities and limits of compromise."

Oleksander Moroz, a Yushchenko ally, said the opposition could try to censure Yanukovich’s Government next week, though that also would be symbolic. (AGENCIES)

Vatican returns saints’ relics to orthodox Church

VATICAN CITY, Nov 28: Pope John Paul, attempting to mend relations with orthodox Christians, returned the remains of two of their most prominent saints 800 years after crusaders snatched sacred relics from constantinople.

Flanked by Bartholomew I, the Patriarch of Constantinople and spiritual leader of the world’s 300 million orthodox Christians, the 84-year-old polish pontiff renewed calls for unity among the eastern and western branches of Christianity that split in the great schism of 1054.

"We see in the transfer of these sacred relics a blessed chance to purify our wounded memories, to affirm our path toward reconciliation", the Pope said yesterday.

Bartholomew, echoing the call for closer ties, praised the Pope for correcting an "ecclesiastic injustice".

"This brotherly gesture by the Church of old Rome confirms that there are no insurmountable problems in the Church of Christ," he said.

Since his election in 1978, the Pope has made reconciliation with orthodox Christians a priority of his reign.

During a visit to Athens in 2001, he asked God to forgive Roman Catholics for 1,000 years of sins against orthodox Christians. He has also apologised to Muslims for the crusades, which aimed to win the holy land back from them, and to Jews for centuries of anti-semitism.

"Pope John Paul’s overtures in recent years are the first effective actions in 500 years aimed at healing the rift," said historian Richard Wittmann.

"For centuries both sides never gave up hope. But the last serious attempt to unify the Church was right after the fall of constantinople (to the Ottomans) in 1453."

Some historical accounts say the remains of Nazianzen and Chrysostom were taken in 1204 during the sack of Constantinople, now Istanbul. But the Vatican’s chief spokesman said Nazianzen’s relics were moved to rome in the eighth century to protect them.

Bartholomew’s fresh trip to Rome could be significant in the Pope’s desire to visit Moscow, the seat of the powerful Russian orthodox Church.

But orthodox leaders there have accused the Roman Catholic Church of using its new-found freedoms in former Communist nations to "poach" their converts. The Catholic Church denies this. (AGENCIES)

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