18 - 24 January 2001
Issue No.517
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Al-Ahram Weekly On-line 18 - 24 January 2001 Issue No.517 |
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Hostile games
IRAN said on Monday that joint naval war games between the United States, Turkey and Israel which began this week are "unjustifiable" and "hostile," the official Iranian News Agency (IRNA) reported."Tehran believes that the marine manoeuvres are against the will of the Islamic world, which supports the cause of the defenceless Palestinians," Foreign Ministry spokesman Hamid-Reza Asefi said.
"While the Zionist regime is continuing its savage attacks against the innocent people of Palestine and at the same time intensifies its threats against regional states, launching such manoeuvres is unjustifiable," he said.
Similar manoeuvres were held in January 1998 and December 1999, drawing the ire of several Arab countries. Israel and Turkey signed a military cooperation agreement in February 1996. It was denounced by the majority of Arab countries and Iran as a threat directed against them.
USS Cole trial postponed
THE TRIAL of suspects in the bombing of USS Cole was postponed as Yemen and the United States disagreed on whether to try three of the suspects in absentia, or wait to hold any trial until it is clear whether they have fled the country, Yemeni sources said.Yemeni authorities, who have suspicions that the three suspects might have fled to Afghanistan, want the three tried in absentia. Yet, the American side want confirmation the suspects are not in the country before any trial is held, the sources, who are close to the investigation, said on condition of anonymity.
The three are in addition to up to eight Yemeni men in custody that Yemeni officials have formerly said they will try this month.
Meanwhile, suspects in custody in connection with the Cole bombing and six smaller explosions, including one at the British Embassy, that took place since 12 October, confessed this week that they tried to blow up the Yemeni interior minister's house in the capital last month. The explosives were found before they were detonated, Yemeni sources said on Monday.
Explosives were found on 23 December near the Sana'a home of Interior Minister Hussein Mohamed Arab, the sources said on condition of anonymity.
Democracy call
AN UNPRECEDENTED national debate over a return to democracy in Bahrain has led to public calls for a general amnesty for political prisoners and the exiled opposition.The calls from leading Bahraini figures were heard at a public debate on Sunday on a proposed national charter aimed at creating a constitutional monarchy and restoring parliament that will be put to a public referendum next month.
Along with debate on the charter, the participants urged the government to announce a general amnesty for all political prisoners and opposition members living in exile. They also demanded guarantees that would ensure freedom of the press and of expression.
A draft charter was handed to Bahrain's ruler, Sheikh Hamad Bin Issa Al-Khalifa, on 23 December by a group of public figures whom he appointed. The new charter would allow the restoration of an elected parliament in the Gulf island, 26 years after it was dissolved by Sheikh Hamad's late father.
The mainly Shi'ite Muslim opposition has campaigned for its restoration, sparking unrest that cost at least 38 lives between 1994 and 1999.
Two advisers to the Emir took part in the debate which also heard appeals in favour of the leading Shi'ite opposition figure in Bahrain, Sheikh Abdul-Amir Al-Jamri, who is under house arrest.
He was detained along with seven other Shi'ite leaders in January 1996.
Missing journalists
A DELEGATION from Paris-based Reporters Sans Frontieres (RSF), a non-governmental group concerned with freedom of the press worldwide, arrived on Sunday in Algiers to cast light on the fate of five missing Algerian journalists.Mohamed Hassaine, Kaddour Bouselham, Djamil Fahassi, Aziz Bouabdallah and Salah Kitouni went missing between 1994 and 1997, when political violence reached its peak in Algeria between the army and militant Islamic groups.
The RSF delegation requested meetings with officials at the Justice Ministry and other government institutions but said that they have not received an answer so far.
Algeria has been racked by violence for almost nine years, since the military-backed government cancelled a general election in which Muslim fundamentalists led by the Islamic Salvation Front (FIS) had taken a commanding lead.
Turkey's record scrutinised
TURKEY's human rights record came under the microscope again this week when the outlawed Islamist Welfare Party and former Prime Minister Necmettin Erbakan confronted the government at the European Court of human rights in Strasbourg.Erbakan and two former Welfare vice presidents are accusing Turkey of violating their right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion at a time when Ankara is trying to improve its image to join the European Union.
Welfare, locally known as Refah, was Turkey's most popular political party after parliamentary elections in 1995 and came to power as part of a conservative coalition in June the following year.
But the military, Turkey's self-appointed guards of secularism, began pressuring Erbakan, the Islamist Prime Minister, who was finally forced to resign after a year in office.
In January 1998, the country's constitutional court outlawed Welfare for "becoming the centre of activities against the principle of secularism" and its assets were given to the state treasury.
Fighting in southern Sudan
SUDANESE government troops killed 630 rebels and wounded 1,500 others in fighting over the last several days in southern Sudan, an official newspaper said on Monday.Rebels of the Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA) were routed in fighting in the Lol and Aweil areas of Bahr Al-Ghazal state over the past few days, the Al-Anbaa newspaper said.
Government troops also captured 450 Kalashnikov rifles as well as a large stash of other firearms, and forced the rebels to retreat to camps outside Bahr Al-Ghazal state.
The SPLA, which represents mainly Christians and animists in the south, has been waging a 17-year war against the government in Khartoum.
Compiled by Rasha Saad
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