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http://www.aljazeerah.info October 26, 2002 News |
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Human Price of the Israeli Occupation of Palestine Israeli daily aggression on the Palestinian people Mission and meaning of Al-Jazeerah
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Russian special forces storm theater: Bloody ending of hostage crisis Ananova, 10/26/02
Russian special forces have freed all of the captives held at a Moscow theatre by Chechen rebels. At least 20 bodies were seen being taken from the theatre after a night of explosions and gunfire. Some of the bodies were hostages, Russian news agencies say. The leader of the rebels was also killed. A spokesman for the Federal Security Service says most of the hostage takers have been killed. He added that the operation to free the hostages began when the Chechen rebels began executing the captives. Russian authorities are searching for any hostage-takers who might be hiding in the building. Earlier, officials said two hostages were killed and two injured and that the hostage-takers had begun to kill their captives. Two women escaped as soldiers armed with assault rifles were seen moving towards the theatre, and two more ran from the building later. The hostage-takers had earlier threatened to begin killing their captives before sunrise. After the two deaths, officials reached the captors by phone but then quickly said their negotiations had failed. Movsar Barayev - a nephew of Arbi Barayev - led the group of as many as 50 heavily armed Chechen men and women into the theatre in a bold raid on Wednesday night. Russian Forces Control Theater Russian News Net, 10/26/02
MOSCOW (AP) -- Special forces troops stormed a Moscow theater before sunrise Saturday, freeing hundreds of hostages held by Chechen rebels and killing their leader in a bloody end to the three-day standoff. Dozens of bodies were seen being removed from the theater. Survivors were loaded onto buses, many in shock or unconscious. Deputy Interior Minister Vladimir Vasilyev said that about three dozen of the estimated 50 hostage-takers had been killed, but that some apparently had managed to escape. It was unclear how many of the more than 600 hostages were killed. He added that by storming the building, special forces avoided greater casualties and ``the death of most of the hostages, including children.'' The rescue raid was launched after the rebels began executing captives, said Sergei Ignatchenko, a spokesman for the Federal Security Service. The rebels, who stormed the building Wednesday and later said they would start executing hostages if Russia did not end its war in the republic of Chechnya, had reportedly mined the stage and aisles and placed a bomb in the center of the theater. Some rebels were seen in television footage wearing explosive belts and said they were ready for martyrdom. ``Those kamikazes who threatened to blow themselves up were unable to,'' Vasilyev said. President Vladimir Putin was informed and was following developments, Russian news agencies reported. The assault Saturday came after a night of heavy explosions and repeated bursts of gunfire. Earlier, officials said two hostages were killed and two injured before the special forces moved in. Two women escaped as soldiers armed with assault rifles were seen moving toward the theater, and two more ran from the building later while ambulances poured into the southeast Moscow neighborhood where the crisis began Wednesday evening. The hostage-takers had earlier threatened to begin killing their captives before sunrise Saturday. After the two deaths, officials reached the captors by phone but then quickly said their negotiations had failed. Late Friday, a mediator who met with the gunmen said they promised to release the hostages if Putin declared an end to the war in Chechnya and began withdrawing troops. The new demands were brought out of the theater just before midnight Friday by Anna Politkovskaya, a Russian journalist who is respected by Chechens for her reporting on the war and was called in by the rebels to mediate. Politkovskaya said the gunmen had told her they were ``going to wait only a little while'' before they started killing hostages. She listed rebel demands, and foremost among them were Putin's declaration of an end to the war and the start of a Russian withdrawal from one region anywhere in Chechnya to show good will. If verified, the rebels promised to free the hostages. She said the captors agreed to her suggestion that verification be done by Lord Judd, a member of the Council of Europe who has made many trips to investigate the human rights situation in Chechnya. The demand was the first time that the gunmen revealed specific conditions for freeing the hostages, estimated to number as many as 800 and include Americans, Britons, Dutch, Australians, Canadians, Austrians and Germans. Earlier, the captors demanded that Russia withdraw from Chechnya. Putin said Friday that ``the preservation of the lives of the people who remain in the theater building'' was his overriding concern. Federal Security Service chief Nikolai Patrushev said after meeting with Putin that the hostage-takers' lives would be guaranteed if they freed their captives. The heavily armed hostage-takers had said they were ready to die and take their hostages with them if their demands weren't met, and witnesses said they had wired the building and themselves with explosives.
Israeli troops take over Jenin
OCCUPIED JERUSALEM, 26 October — Israel took over the Palestinian
town of Jenin yesterday in one of the largest raids since the summer but
pulled some troops out of another West Bank town, Hebron. The Jenin raid
and the redeployment in Hebron came as a US envoy, Assistant Secretary of
State William Burns, wrapped up talks with skeptical Israelis and
Palestinians on a new Mideast peace plan that envisions a provisional
Palestinian state by 2003 and full independence by 2005. In a very public
snub of Yasser Arafat, Burns held talks with a Palestinian legislator only
a few yards from the Palestinian leader’s headquarters in the West Bank
town of Ramallah. The United States has been boycotting Arafat, saying he
has broken promises to rein in hard-liners. Arafat called the incursion a
"crime," and his aides said the United States must put a stop to
such strikes if it wants to be a credible mediator. Before dawn , hundreds
of soldiers, backed by tanks, entered Jenin and the adjacent refugee camp,
imposed a curfew and took over more than 30 buildings, residents said.
Russia, France float own UN
Iraq drafts UNITED NATIONS, 26 October — In a surprise move, Russia and France
yesterday began circulating proposals to significantly water-down a US
draft resolution on Iraq, removing language that could authorize military
force against Baghdad and limiting inspections on presidential sites. Both
Russia and France have strongly opposed elements of the US draft and six
weeks of negotiations failed to win them over. The introduction of rival proposals was seen as the opening salvo in a
new round of negotiations, which diplomats said are likely to continue
into next week. The United States countered by formally submitting its text to the
Security Council to ensure it was the basis for discussions. The French
and Russian proposals could also be introduced, but the US move meant its
resolution would likely be voted on first. The Russia text was more stridently opposed to the US draft resolution,
while diplomats close to the negotiations said the French paper tried to
bridge the American and Russian drafts in an effort to reach consensus
within the Security Council. "I think it shows that they’re genuinely trying to conduct a
negotiation," said Britain’s UN Ambassador Jeremy Greenstock. Both
the Russian and French texts eliminate references in the US draft to Iraq
being in "material breach" for violating UN resolutions, a
phrase some legal experts say could open the door for military action. The
Russian text also removes a US warning of "serious consequences"
if Iraq doesn’t comply with UN weapons inspections. The competing drafts were circulated to Security Council members ahead
of a new round of discussions at a closed Council meeting on the US text.
Council diplomats said the United States intended to collect views from
the 15 members and then look at the next steps, not negotiate. US President George W. Bush asked Chinese President Jiang Zemin to back
the US draft resolution. "China supports Iraq’s strict compliance
with UN Security Council resolutions," Bush told reporters after
meeting Jiang at his Texas ranch. "And today ... I urged President
Jiang to support a new Security Council resolution demanding Iraq fully
disarm itself of weapons of mass destruction." Bush said he would reject any resolution that curtails his ability to
take military action to disarm Iraq if the United Nations failed to do so.
"We won’t accept a resolution which prevents us from doing exactly
what I have told the American people is going to happen, and that is if
the UN won’t act, and if Saddam won’t disarm, we will lead a coalition
to disarm him." Iraqi Foreign Minister Naji Sabri on Thursday likened the US draft to a
declaration of war and said Iraq had worked in good faith and agreed to
let UN inspectors back without any conditions.
Islamists score victory in
Bahrain poll MANAMA, 26 October — Results from Bahrain’s first legislative
elections in nearly 30 years showed a mix of Islamist and secular
candidates winning seats, with two women securing places in run-off polls,
officials said yesterday. The election was a milestone for women as it marked the first time they
had been empowered to vote and run for national office in the Gulf region.
It was also a defeat for a boycott campaign that had argued the political
reform process did not go far enough. The Justice Ministry said that 19 candidates had been elected to the
40-seat Parliament, including three who ran unopposed. The remaining 21
seats will be decided in run-off elections scheduled for Oct. 31. The elections themselves were celebrated as a major step toward
democracy in Bahrain. Hundreds of Bahrainis drove around the capital in
the early hours yesterday after Information Minister Nabil Al-Hamer said
the turnout was 53.2 percent, a slight improvement on the 51 percent
recorded in the municipal elections in May. The United States was quick to applaud Bahrain’s first legislative
elections since the 1975 dissolution of a parliament elected only two
years earlier. "We applaud Bahrain’s commitment to political reform
and we strongly encourage the Bahraini government to continue down this
path," State Department spokesman Gregg Sullivan said. Ali Salman, the leader of the Al-Wefaq National Islamic Society that
spearheaded the boycott call, conceded yesterday that the elections were
"fair overall." "I congratulate the king on this democratic initiative,"
Salman said, said on the phone from Qatar, where he flew yesterday morning
for a television broadcast. Salman, however, cast doubt on the accuracy of the 53.2 percent
turnout, saying he had expected a turnout of 25 percent and his group’s
monitors had estimated it to be about 40 percent. Salman said the electorate had been influenced by the king, who
appealed to citizens to vote in a televised address on Monday. He also
thought the turnout had been reinforced by "allowing the military to
participate and by stamping the passports of Bahrainis who voted." He said the stamping of passports, used as identification, had
"put psychological pressure on the citizens to participate." The authorities were jubilant over the perceived rebuff to the four
opposition groups which had called for the boycott. People took to the streets of Manama blaring car horns and waving
national flags and posters of the king, Sheikh Hamad ibn Issa Al-Khalifa. "This is a victory for our nation," said Hadi Al-Naem, a
pedestrian who cheered the passing cars. It was difficult to say whether secular or Islamist candidates were in
the majority of the 19 elected legislators as most are new faces whose
views are not known outside their districts. However, a leading analyst
and political columnist, Mahdi Rabe’a of Al-Ayam newspaper, said
yesterday that at least 10 of the winners were Islamists and the rest were
secular politicians. He said the Islamists belonged mainly to the groups Al-Asalah and Al-Menber
Al-Islami, which are Sunni-dominated. Sunnis form a slight minority of Bahrain’s 400,000 citizens and
include the royal family among their members. The fact that the boycott campaign was dominated by the majority
Shiites has impeded their representation in the new Parliament, Rabe’a
said. The winners and potential winners include the heads of three Sunni
political groups. Adel Adel Al-Muawda of Al-Asala and Salah Ali of the
National Islamic Forum were elected in the first round, while Al-Shoura
chief Abdul Rahman Abdul Salam seems assured of victory in the run-off.
Seventeen other Islamists have a good chance of coming out on top in a
runoff slated for Oct. 31. Most of them are well ahead of their nearest
rivals. The government has said it is not concerned about an Islamist victory.
"We are all Muslim so I am not afraid of that," said Bahrain’s
Crown Prince Sheikh Salman ibn Hamad Al-Khalifa. Analysts said the onus was now on the government and the opposition to
work together to ensure adequate representation for both main sects,
despite the lack of mainstream Shiite parties in Parliament. "The boycott weakened Parliament and was a golden opportunity for
inexperienced candidates," said Bahraini analyst Jassim Hussein.
"Now we have a house where 47 percent of the people are not
represented. This is a negative development." No woman won outright in Thursday’s polls, but two females are among
the 42 candidates who will contest the run-offs. The women who won places in the run-offs were Latifa Al-Qaoud, who
seeks to represent a southern province, and Fouzia Ahmed Ruwaie, from a
northern province. Al-Qaoud, 46, is a single woman who heads the planning and development
department in the Ministry of Finance. She holds an MBA degree from
Nottingham University in Britain and pledged to uplift the status of
Bahraini women. The new assembly, which has a four-year mandate, is expected to hold
its first session in December after the king appoints the 40-member upper
house.
Occupation forces kill another child US envoy warns Palestinians no state without end to violence Jordan Times, 10/26/02 JERICHO (AFP) — US Middle East envoy William Burns on Thursday told the Palestinians they will only achieve statehood through ending “violence” and overhauling their administration, as Israeli occupation forces shot dead another Palestinian child in the West Bank. Ahmad Jafar, 13, died after being hit in the chest when a crowd of Palestinian youths pelted an Israeli armoured column with stones, as around 20 Israeli vehicles entered the northern town of Jenin, Palestinian officials said. Meanwhile Burns, on a Middle East tour to push an international peace “road map,” said Washington “wants to end the very real suffering and humiliation that the Palestinians experience every day.” But he stressed progress would only come if the Palestinian National Authority turned tough on resistance groups and carried out thorough reforms of its administration, accused of corruption and supporting militants. “I emphasise finally that it is only through the decisive action to end terror and violence, and decisive action on reform in preparation for Palestinian statehood that we will be able to move forward on a practical pathway to end the occupation and this terrible conflict,” he said. President Yasser Arafat was glaringly absent from the meeting, as part of US and Israeli efforts to sideline the Palestinian leader, viewed by both as an obstacle to peace. He is due to unveil a new cabinet next week, after parliament rejected his previous reshuffle, carried out under intense domestic and international pressure. Burns also held talks with Israeli Defence Minister Binyamin Ben-Eliezer and had a closed-door meeting with Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, who has given his plan a chilly reception. Right-wing Sharon said Israel would be asked “to concede too much” of occupied Palestinian lands with no guarantees that the Palestinians would “reciprocate”. The Palestinian delegation was led by chief negotiator Saeb Erekat, who said he himself would meet later in occupied Jerusalem with Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres to discuss relieving the situation of the Palestinian people. But Erekat appeared to also react coolly to the US envoy's visit, making clear he was not happy at the US boycott of Arafat. “The Americans have to see president Arafat, and this is a mistake, but president Arafat insists we have to give peace a chance,” he said. While refusing to comment directly on the US draft of the roadmap, he said: “I can see this plan is full of conditions.” He said Arafat and the Palestinian leadership would study it before giving any official reaction. Burns is trying to convince both sides to back a plan put together by the so-called Middle East quartet of Washington, the United Nations, European Union and Russia, which calls for an independent Palestinian state to be formed in three years. “This is just a draft and we will express our reservations on certain points,” said an official from the Israeli prime minister's office, who asked not to be named. He said “there is no question of the Israeli army making the least pullback (from Palestinian territories) as the plan sets out until the Palestinian Authority decided to fight terrorists from Islamic Jihad and Hamas (another Islamic resistance group fighting Israeli occupation) and we see some results on the ground.” He stressed that the timetable in the plan, for a Palestinian state without fixed borders by next year, “doesn't appear realistic, even supposing the Palestinians do decide to act immediately against terrorism, which they have not done until now.” The Israeli official also voiced serious doubts about “the credibility of proposed supervision of the implementation of the quartet plan.” “It is difficult to leave it up to the European Union when EU officials recently held contacts with Hamas and Islamic Jihad to end terrorism in Israel and not in Judea and Samaria (the West Bank) and Gaza, as though there was a legitimate form of terrorism,” he said. But in an apparent softening of its position, Islamic Jihad's head Ramadan Abdallah Shallah told the Arabic-language daily Al Hayat that his militants could cease attacks on civilians if Israel does so as well. “If they (Israelis) are ready to stop killing (Palestinian) civilians and to stop the massacres they commit, we are ready to revise our policy of Jihad,” or holy war, he said. “If they want this, they must take the initiative, but we are not going to beg them,” he said, in an interview given shortly after a car bomb attack claimed by Islamic Jihad on a bus in northern Israel on Monday killed at least 13 people, plus the two bombers. Shallah added that Islamic Jihad's “strategic objective is the total liberation of Palestine,” which includes the territories on which Israel was established in 1948.
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