Mugabe to confront critics at Earth summit

Khaleej Times, 8/25/02

HARARE - Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe will attend the Earth Summit in neighbouring South Africa and is ready to confront British Prime Minister Tony Blair and other critics there, the official Sunday Mail newspaper said. It said Zimbabwe's delegation was braced for a "racist" anti-Mugabe crusade led by Britain, the United States, the European Union and the "white Commonwealth" on behalf of white commercial farmers in the country.

The government has not announced when Mugabe will travel to Johannesburg although up to 100 world leaders are scheduled to meet September 2-4. The Sunday Mail said Mugabe was preparing for former colonial power Britain's campaign to demonise him over his seizures of white-owned farms for landless blacks. It accused Britain of co-ordinating a Western onslaught on Mugabe, and working with international media and white farmers to try to make Zimbabwe's controversial land reform programme the focus and the story of the world summit.

"Mr Tony Blair believes he has now found the opportunity to save his face by humiliating President Mugabe at the summit," the newspaper said in an editorial. "But then history also tells us that it is at such summits that President Mugabe always shows his political acumen and embarasses the 'gangster' at Number 10 Downing Street in London," it said, referring to Blair's official residence. - Reuters

Philippine troops kill kidnap chief, free 2 hostages

Khaleej Times, 8/25/02

MANILA - Philippine troops shot dead a notorious leader of a gang of kidnappers on Sunday and rescued a four-year-old girl and her nanny from a week-long captivity, police said.

Three other suspected members of the "Pentagon" gang -- one of more than 30 groups on the US terror list -- were captured, while one policeman was injured in the gunbattle in Magallanes municipality in Cavite province, 65 km south of the capital Manila, a police announcement said.

Police dumped the bullet-riddled body of the slain kidnap leader Faisal Marohombsar in a wooden cart and showed the corpse to President Gloria Arroyo when she arrived later at a village near the battle scene to congratulate her troops.

"You cannot forever evade the long arm of the law. Our law enforcers will get you one way or the other," Arroyo said in a tough message to criminals. Arroyo has ordered a full-scale war on crime gangs to ease investor concerns about perceived lawlessness in the country.

Marohombsar has been hunted by police since he and two other gang members escaped from a Manila police detention centre in June. The three were captured in a Manila hotel in February. The rescued girl was identified by police sources as a niece of a prominent Filipino business executive. The gang had demanded a ransom of 100 million pesos ($1.9 million) for her and her nanny, sources said.

The girl was on her way to a school when she was abducted along with her nanny on August 19. Arroyo said on Sunday the girl's family had unwittingly employed one of the gang members as a driver.

The Pentagon gang -- which the United States lists as a foreign terrorist group -- is believed to be composed of renegade members of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), the biggest rebel group fighting for a separate state.

Police have blamed the Pentagon gang for the kidnapping of Italian priest Guiseppe Pierantoni, four Chinese engineers and a South Korean trader in separate incidents on the southern island of Mindanao in the past two years. - Reuters

Russia slams US warnings against trade with Iraq

Khaleej Times, 8/25/02

MOSCOW - Moscow angrily dismissed recent US warnings that Russian economic ties with the so-called rogue states may have a negative impact in the West, the foreign ministry said in a statement released overnight.

"It seems to us that US military leaders are forced to resort to this kind of statements for lack of serious arguments to defend use of force which causes great concern in the world," spokesman Boris Malakhov said.

Earlier this week, US Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld cautioned Russia against dealing with the states which Washington suspects of supporting terrorism, saying that Moscow's "close friendship with (Iraq's) Saddam Hussein, (North Korea's Kim Jong-Il or (Cuba's) Fidel Castro" could serve Russia a poor turn.

"As for economic ties with the states Rumsfeld mentioned, we are sure that Pentagon has information of other countries and companies, including US-based ones, that do business with them in strict accordance with international law," Malakhov pointed out. "Turning international trade into a point of ideology is reminiscent of the Cold War, which thanks to Russian and US efforts is now past, even if some people do not like it," he added. - AFP

Yemen confirms it bought Scuds from North Korea

Sanaa |By Nasser Arrabyee | Gulf News 25-08-2002

Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh yesterday confirmed that his country possessed Scud missiles bought from North Korea.

Addressing more than 60,000 members of his People's General Congress (PGC) at its annual meeting, President Saleh said: "We have bought those missiles and this is a legitimate right of Yemen."

He said the U.S. penalised North Korea but it has not imposed a military ban on Yemen as Sanaa was cooperating with Washington in its war against terrorism.

The New York Times quoted the U.S. officials last Friday as saying that the Bush administration has imposed sanctions on North Korea after being sure that the latter sold components of Scud missiles to Yemen before Bush took office.

Saleh criticised the U.S. campaign against Saudi Arabia as unjustified. "We declare our solidarity with Saudi Arabia," he said.

He expressed his country's rejection of the U.S. threats against Iraq saying: "We totally refuse the threats against Iraq. It is a dangerous initiative that a state changes the system of another.

"This is an affair concerning only the people of that state, and interference in the internal affairs of any state is not at all acceptable.

"The region as a whole is passing through political turmoil, and all Arab states will meet the same fate. No Arab country should think it is safe from the U.S. threats," Saleh warned, adding what is happening to Iraq can happen to the neighbouring countries.

"We wish the Arab League and the Arab leadership achieve the minimum solidarity to confront the threats and challenges facing them," Saleh said.

Armitage urges Pakistan-India talks
Islamabad |From Shahid Hussain | Gulf News, 25-08-2002

U.S. Secretary of State Richard Armitage yesterday urged "face-to-face" dialogue between Pakistan and India to resolve the Kashmir crisis and said Washington would continue its efforts in that direction.

"We can offer assistance; we cannot impose a solution and should not impose a solution," he told reporters after an hour-long meeting with President General Pervez Musharraf a day after holding talks with Indian leaders in New Delhi.

The unabated eight-month military standoff and Thursday's alleged Indian attack on a high altitude Pakistani military post in northern Kashmir, which New Delhi has denied, figured during the talks.

Armitage also held separate talks with Minister for Foreign Affairs Inamul Haq and Interior Minister Moinuddin Haider.

Officials said Pakistan underscored that India continued to speak the language of force and was yet to respond to steps taken by Islamabad to defuse tensions.

"The U.S. is trying to bring about a situation where India and Pakistan could sit face to face to have dialogue to solve their problem," Armitage said.

"It is desirable for India and Pakistan to engage in dialogue. The responsibility is on the shoulders of the two countries. The U.S. is using and will continue to use its good offices for this purpose.

"We want most prosperous future for our friends here in Pakistan and in India. We are going to work as appropriate to bring about that."

Armitage acknowledged that little had changed in the tense standoff since his last visit in June when the two nuclear-armed nations stepped back from the brink of a war after Pakistan pledge to check flow of militants into Indian Kashmir.

He said there had been no shift from the assurances he got from Pakistan during his previous trip.

"There is some obvious infiltration across the LoC (line of control in Kashmir), but our friends in Pakistan have assured that this is not something sponsored by the government."

Asked about the alleged Indian attack Armitage only said he had heard about such reports, adding that any violence was "regrettable".

He thanked Musharraf for the continued help by the "excellent" army and police force of Pakistan in tracking Taliban and Al Qaida fugitives in difficult conditions along the Pakistan-Afghan border.

Armitage said the full length of Pak-U.S. ties came under discussion, indicating that the leaders of the two countries would meet during Musharraf's visit to New York for the UN General Assembly next month.

Hasina leads massive procession
Dhaka |From Nazmul Ashraf | Gulf News25-08-2002

Bangladesh opposition leader Sheikh Hasina yesterday led a massive anti-government demonstration in Dhaka and told the people that the present tyrannical and autocratic government had lost every right to stay in power.

She charged the coalition government of Prime Minister Khaleda Zia, which took over less than a year ago, with "misrule, corruption, terrorism and failure on all fronts".

"If the government does not stop killing, repression and extortion and fails to improve law and order, the people will be compelled to start an oust-government movement," the Awami League chief told a huge rally at the historic Paltan Maidan before the mass procession.

The opposition Awami League organised the procession as part of its demonstration-day programme with a host of demands, including the stoppage of killing, rape, extortion and repression, and control over law and order and rising prices of essentials.

This was the first ever street agitation by the opposition Awami League against the 10-month-old government that finally ended peacefully.

As the present government has imposed restrictions on street agitations, there had been growing apprehension that the procession could be obstructed, triggering violence in the city.

At the Paltan rally, the opposition leader announced that if the procession was intercepted, a strike would instantly be called for on August 29.

But the procession that traversed several kilometres did not face any obstruction from the police.

Police in riot gear were posted at different points along the route of the procession, while others guarded the marchers from the front and the rear, virtually containing the demonstrators within a cul-de-sac.

Processions of Awami League workers joined the Paltan rally chanting anti-government slogans, finally joining the big procession led by the party president.

Hasina joined the rally and delivered a 20-minute speech before leading the mass procession, sounding a note of warning that if the procession was obstructed, the home minister and the government would be held responsible.

She said her party believes in peaceful demonstrations, which is the constitutional right of the people. "If this right is curtailed, we'll be forced to announce a general strike and other programmes against this government."

The opposition leader observed that the people had already become intolerant of "the misrule, corruption, torture and terrorism sponsored by the ruling party".

"This government has failed to ensure minimum security of public life. Rather, it has created indiscipline in every sphere of life," she told her audience, adding that the people did not want to see this government in power any more.

In just ten months of rule, she alleged, the coalition government had created a total anarchic situation in the country. "It seems that there is no government in the country."

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