- January 3, 2002.
- New Members Take Seats in UN Security Council- Iraq, North Korea Talks Loom
- Kelkar report slap on our role in Indian economy: NRIs -Govt considers welfare fund for Indian maids in Saudi Arabia -African and Asian parliamentarians seek equality for women--scroll down for more stories.-Iran Prepares For Refugees
Swiss national shot dead in Somaliland
NAIROBI, 2 January (IRIN) - A Swiss national was killed by gunmen on
Monday night in Hargeysa, the capital of the self-declared republic of
Somaliland, northwestern Somalia, according to local sources. The 29-year-old man was identified as Yuti Martin, a Swiss businessman who was in Hargeysa to set up a poultry project with Somali business associates, the sources told IRIN on Thursday. He was killed when gunmen opened fire while he was standing in front of a restaurant. "A number of rounds were fired, but only three hit him in the chest," the source said. The motive for the killing is unknown, but six suspects are in police custody "helping police with their investigations", Abdullahi Muhammad Duale, the Somaliland information minister told IRIN on Thursday.The president of Somaliland, Dahir Riyale Kahin, had sent condolences to the family of the deceased and to the people of Switzerland, expressing deep regret "for this senseless act", Duale said. "The president instructed the security forces to conduct a through investigation, apprehend the culprits and bring them to book," he added. Duale said the six suspects being held, all men, "will hopefully provide the answers as to why he was killed". A comprehensive statement would be issued once the investigations were complete. Martin's body was sent home on Wednesday on a Somaliland chartered aircraft via Addis Ababa, where it was transferred to a Lufthansa flight to Switzerland, Duale told IRIN.- keralamonitor.com
Kelkar report slap on our role in Indian economy: NRIs
Dubai, January 2: A Gulf-based organisation of Indians has strongly opposed a proposal of Kelkar committee on tax reforms to do away with the Not Ordinarily Resident (NOR), saying it will deter NRI investments in India and also persuade them to park their funds abroad. In a memorandum to be submitted to Finance Minister Jaswant Singh during the 'pravasi Bharatiya divas' to be held in New Delhi to honour prominent NRIs in the second week of this month, the overseas Indians Economic Forum has appealed to the government to reject the recommendation which it described as a "slap" to the NRI participants at the function.
The proposal has already come under fire in Kerala where Chief Minister A K Antony said that he would urge the Centre to turn down the suggestion that will be detrimental to the finances of Kerala's economy dependent on NRI remittances. According to the current tax rules, a person who is not a resident of India in nine out of ten years is exempted from income tax on his global income as well as income from resident foreign currency account for a period of nine years, which the memorandum said was a "positive policy" and was responsible for the huge success of Resurgent India Bonds and Millenium Bonds in attracting substantial foreign currency investment from the NRIs.
The memorandum said that the removal of the NOR status would force the NRIs not only to keep their funds abroad but also not declare the same on their return to India. "The benefit of remittance of income on non-repatriable investment which NRIs and Overseas Corporate Bodies (OCBs) are currently entitled to, will also not be available to them once the NOR status is removed," it said.
Bharatbhai Shah, convenor of the Investors Liaison Committee of the forum, said the "bureaucrats in the finance ministry" had tried to take away the NOR status for the overseas Indians in 1999 in the FEMA provisions but thanks to persistent efforts by the NRIs and an understanding political leadership, the move did not bear fruit. Many NRIs setting up industries and business in India may become residents in India under FEMA provisions if their stay in India is in excess of the prescribed limit and that will persuade the NRIs to desist from doing business in India, the memorandum said.
Urging the Finance Minister not to accept the recommendation, the memorandum said if NOR status is dropped, the FCNR deposits would become taxable and such deposits perforce will have to be converted to Indian rupees under the RBI rules, Shah said. Besides OCBs owned by NRIs will also lose all benefits currently granted to them under NOR provision and any NRI who may have to stay in India for more than 183 days in India for whatever reason will be deemed resident Indian, which will make him liable to pay the taxes though he is an NRI, Shah said.
Several prominent NRIs, however, welcomed some other recommendations of the Kelkar committee, saying they would make Indian industry more competitive. The chairman of the Indian business council H D Gardi welcomed the suggestion to exempt dividends fully from tax. Kamal Cachani, regional representative of electronics and computer software export promotion council, said the proposal to cut customs duties on life saving drugs and corporate tax rates were positive steps but the move to end NOR status was a step backwards. keralamonitor.com
Govt considers welfare fund for Indian maids in Saudi Arabia
New Delhi, December 4: Government is considering creating a welfare fund in Saudi Arabia for Indian women serving as maidservants, Minister of State for External Affairs Digvijay Singh said on Wednesday. While the Saudi government itself had created a housemaid welfare centre, India was considering setting up this fund to help Indian housemaids in case they experienced any kind of problems, Singh said during question hour. According to rough estimates, he said there were about 10,000 Indian women working as housemaids in that country. Only in cases of housemaids, there were a set of prescribed rules that had to be followed both by the employers and the employees.
To a question whether a large number of Indians who had gone to Saudi Arabia in search of jobs had been reported missing, he said in 2002-03 till November, there were 73 such cases. In 2000-01, the number of such cases reported was 101 and in 2001-02, it was 105, he said. There were about 14 lakh Indians working in Saudi Arabia and the percentage of those reported missing was miniscule, he said when members asked the government to take more care so that gullible job-hunters did not fall prey to fake or dubious job agencies. keralamonitor.com
African and Asian parliamentarians seek equality for women
Thursday, 2 January 2003: Parliamentarians from more than 20 African and Asian countries meeting recently in Bangkok, Thailand, called for stepped up efforts to adopt legislation and policies for equality between women and men, one of the Millennium Development Goals. Participants in the second Africa-Asia parliamentarian forum on the role of legislatures in human security and gender also advocated national budgets that support equity for women and agreed to set up knowledge networks among parliamentarians and to strengthen expertise on gender issues among lawmakers.
The event, together with the first such forum in Marrakech, Morocco last March, will provide input on gender issues for the Third Tokyo International Conference on African Development (TICAD III), scheduled for December. "I have been involved in politics for over two decades, battling military dictators and fighting to restore democracy to my country," said Hawa Yakubu, an MP from Ghana. "I have seen women live in insecurity, fear, deprivation and want. If human security is about providing the most basic of needs, then this is where we are failing," she said.
Prema Cariappa, Indian National Congress party MP, said gender discrimination is rampant in the country, including denial of education and women's share in family property, despite the accomplishments of the National Commission for Women. Globally, women make up half of humanity and contribute two-thirds of the world's work hours, Ms. Cariappa asserted, but they earn only a third of total income and own less than a tenth of world resources.
While there are increasing numbers of women in local government, noted Thelma Kay of the UN Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific, the challenge is to place more women in decision-making positions and gain a greater voice for women in all areas of governance.
The MPs urged countries that have not done so to implement the Convention on the Elimination of all forms of Discrimination against Women and encouraged the UN to provide technical, expert and financial support for achieving the Millennium Development Goals, along with facilitating South-South networking and cooperation. UNDP and the UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs organized the forum in cooperation with the Government of Thailand and the UN Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific, with support from the Japan Women in Development Fund.
Participants came from Algeria, Bangladesh, Burundi, Ghana, India, Iran, Kenya, Laos, Malaysia, Mauritius, Mongolia, Morocco, Namibia, Nepal, South Africa, Sri Lanka, Tanzania, Thailand, Uzbekistan and Viet Nam. Also represented were the Inter-Parliamentary Union, the Center for Asia-Pacific Women in Politics and the UN Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM). For further information please contact Dasa Silovic, UNDP Bureau for Development Policy, or Trygve Olfarnes, UNDP Communications Office. keralamonitor.com
New Members Take Seats in UN Security Council- Iraq, North Korea Talks Loom
As the U.N. Security Council prepares in the coming weeks to continue crucial discussions on Iraq and possibly to take up North Korea's nuclear weapons program, five new council members -- Germany, Spain, Pakistan, Chile and Angola -- took their seats yesterday, and permanent member France began a one-month term in the rotating council presidency.
The Financial Times reports that the new members are on the whole more powerful than outgoing members Colombia, Ireland, Mauritius, Singapore and Norway. The newspaper cites in particular Pakistan's nuclear weapons, oil-rich Angola's influence in African affairs and the presence of two European Union members -- Germany and Spain -- among the new Security Council members.
Talks on Iraq's weapons will now be influenced by the presence of Germany, which will take the council presidency next month and whose chancellor, Gerhard Schroeder, recently ran a successful electoral campaign by focusing on his opposition to a war with Iraq. Germany has indicated it will commit no troops to such a war (Mark Turner, Financial Times, Jan. 2).
The Washington Post reports that Schroeder's government -- perhaps in part because of ambitions to become a permanent council member -- has begun trying to bring Germany into line with its allies' views that war may be necessary in Iraq. Schroeder, who during his campaign said he would oppose a war even if the council voted for it, said Tuesday that Germany will not automatically vote against an Iraq war.
"We Germans know from our own experience that dictators sometimes can only be stopped with force," the chancellor said. "We also know what bombing, destruction and the loss of one's home mean for people." Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer told Der Spiegel over the weekend that "nobody can predict the German vote at the Security Council, because nobody knows how and under which circumstances the Security Council will deal with" Iraq.
Le Figaro reports that unity on the Iraq question among the council's EU members, which now number four, will be difficult to achieve, since new member Spain is aligned more with the United States and the United Kingdom than with France and Germany.
New council member Pakistan must account for domestic opinion when weighing its position on Iraq. "We are an Islamic country; you can't get away from the fact," said Pakistani U.N. Ambassador Munir Akram. "There is no sympathy for [Iraqi President] Saddam [Hussein], but (there is) empathy for Iraq. We hope (if) there is a necessity to consider enforcement action, that that would be done with the endorsement of the Security Council. We think with international legality, some of the repercussions of the conflict -- both domestic and international -- could be at least minimized"
The council is to receive inspectors' reports on Iraq Jan. 9 and Jan. 27, and other such reports could be added by U.N. Monitoring, Verification and Inspection Commission chief Hans Blix and International Atomic Energy Agency head Mohamed ElBaradei. According to Le Figaro, the perception that Jan. 27 is a deadline for war is erroneous but the United States will almost certainly invoke "material breach" clauses in U.N. resolutions -- a crucial step in justifying a war -- if Iraq does not elucidate the gaps in its weapons declarations by that date.
As for possible discussion of North Korea, Le Figaro reports that the IAEA board may on Monday transmit the country's dossier to the council. The Paris daily also reports that the council may take up the conflict in Ivory Coast during the French presidency (Turlin, Le Figaro).
The Financial Times reports that it is unclear how much overall influence the new members, which are among the 10 nonveto-holding, elected council members, will really wield. The newspaper cites the fact that Iraq's recent weapons declaration was at first made available only to permanent members. Global Policy Forum head James Paul said that the "capacity of the U.S. to bring to heel virtually any country in the world is unbelievable right now" . keralamonitor.com
CLIMATE CHANGE: Animals, Plants Moving Toward Poles, Studies Indicate
Two reports published yesterday in Nature indicate that global warming is causing the ranges of plants and animals to expand into higher latitudes. Researchers who surveyed almost 2,000 scientific findings said that many springtime phenomena now begin a few days earlier than before. One of the reports indicates animals migrate and plants bloom an average of 2.3 days earlier per decade, while many species of flora and fauna are found an average of 3.7 miles closer to the poles each decade. The scientists studied the effects of global warming on wildlife and natural vegetation, a subject Nature's editors called "one of the most divisive topics to face the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change."
UNICEF, Lawyers' Group Report On Crimes Against Pakistan Women
close window Madadgaar, a collaboration between UNICEF and Lawyers for Human Rights and Legal Aid, says reported cases of abuse of Pakistani women totaled 3,296 in 2002, up from 2,917 in 2001. Among the 2002 cases, 1,375 were murder and 90 were of women being deliberately burned alive. Most cases of violence against women were reported in Punjab province (Pakistan Press International, Dec. 31).Washington Calls for U.N. Probe of Rape Charges
The United States has urged the United Nations to pursue a more extensive investigation of the alleged rapes of at least 625 ethnic Shan women and girls by Myanmar troops, after reports by Shan human rights groups were corroborated by the U.S. State Department. Myanmar has denied the allegations U.N. rights rapporteur Paulo Sergio Pinheiro told the General Assembly last month Myanmar had given him "detailed briefings" on its own investigation of the rape charges, adding the military investigations "lacked the independence to be convincing and credible," and that an international probe was needed.
IRAQ: Annan Says War Is Unjustified; Inspector Says No Illicit Material Found
U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan said that he does not currently see any justification for a war against Iraq, as the Iraqi government has not violated Security Council Resolution 1441 demanding weapons inspections. "Obviously they [U.N. weapons inspectors] are carrying out their work and in the meantime Iraq is cooperating, and they are able to their work in an unimpeded manner," Annan said in an interview with Israeli Army Radio. "Therefore I don't see an argument for a military action now." The U.N. chief also said the United States should wait for the inspectors' report to the Security Council before resorting to war (Associated Press/Yahoo! News, Dec. 31).
An Iraqi daily quoted that country's trade minister, Mohamed Mahdi al-Salih, as saying Iraq is ready for any U.S. military action. The nation "will fight much harder than it did in the 1991, U.S.-led aggression if the United States launches an attack. Whether we give our land or not, whether we give our future or not, whether we give our houses or not -- this is what we are fighting for," he said. Al-Salih added that in the event of war, "food will be available and guns will be available" and that foreign troops "will be repelled from our country if they dare to attack us."
Iraqi Foreign Minister Naji Sabri wrote a letter yesterday to Annan protesting the Dec. 26 U.S. airstrike in the country's south, which reportedly killed three Iraqis. Sabri said the action violated Security Council resolutions and represented "a barbaric and terrorist act, with a direct participation of the rulers of Kuwait."
Iraqi Deputy Prime Minister Tariq Aziz, meanwhile, met today with a delegation of 13 U.S. religious leaders, led by National Council of Churches General Secretary Bob Edgar. Aziz said he wished the delegation members were in charge of U.S. policy but added, "It's not in their hands. The situation is in the hands of the warmongers. We hope that they will listen to the voice of peace."
Inspections Continue
Inspectors from the U.N. Monitoring, Verification and Inspection Commission and the International Atomic Energy Agency continued their work today, visiting eight sites suspected of connection to weapons production. The sites included a state-owned engineering company, an oil research center, an electronics factory and a medical research center (G.G. LaBelle, AP/Yahoo! News, Dec. 31).
Yesterday, the inspectors visited various facilities which, like some of those toured today, are capable of producing "dual use" items. UNMOVIC missile experts also traveled to a previously inspected factory which produces components for Iraq's al-Samood missiles. Hiro Ueki, spokesman for the inspectors, said "the purpose of the visit was to conduct an accurate counting of missile engines" (U.N. release, Dec. 30).
An unnamed inspector quoted by the Los Angeles Times, however, says the UNMOVIC and IAEA teams have not found any evidence that Iraq has produced weapons in violation of the Security Council resolutions. "If our goal is to catch them with their pants down, we are definitely losing," the inspector said. "We haven't found an iota of concealed material yet. ... I must say that if we were to publish a report now, we would have zilch to put in it."
The only possible breaches so far are minor, involving the altering of aluminum tubes which could be used for enriching uranium and the purchase of replacement tubes without notifying the United Nations, the inspector said.
He added that the U.N. teams are careful not to provide Iraq with advanced knowledge of their itinerary, sometimes driving in circles before venturing out to the sites in order to confuse those trying to guess their destination. He said that Iraqi officials had been very cooperative so far. "Even private facilities which are not part of their state-run military industrial complex open up for us -- like magic," he said. "But even if they open all the doors in Iraq for us and keep them open 24 hours a day, we won't be able to find a black cat in a dark room, especially if it is not there. We need help. We need information. We need intelligence reports if they exist," the inspector said.
He added that while the United States has exerted pressure on the inspection teams to discover a breach of the U.N. resolution, it has yet to provide intelligence previously promised. "If the United States wants us to find something, they should open their intelligence file and share it with us so that we know where to go for it," he said.
A senior U.S. administration quoted in the same news report, however, said yesterday that the inspectors "have gotten some intelligence, and they will get more" (Loiko/Farley, Los Angeles Times, Dec. 31).
Security Council Tightens Goods List
The Security Council voted yesterday to amend the Goods Review List, itemizing what Iraq is prohibited from importing under international sanctions. The U.S.-sponsored resolution adds restrictions on flight simulators, communications equipment and high-speed motorboats with potential military use.
The move came after U.S. lobbying, reportedly to amend the list before new members join the council at the turn of the year (Sydney Morning Herald, Jan. 1). It passed by a vote of 13-0, with Russia and Syria abstaining, went into effect as of 12:01 a.m. this morning and is set for implementation during the next phase of Iraq's U.N. "oil for food" program.
The resolution also calls on council members to expedite the issuing of export licenses for sales to Iraq and "to take all other appropriate measures within their competence in order to ensure that urgently needed humanitarian supplies reach the Iraqi population as rapidly as possible" (U.N. release II, Dec. 30).
Iraq Promises Cooperation On Missing Persons
Iraq's delegation to the Arab League has promised to be "very cooperative" in repatriating missing foreign nationals on its territory since the 1991 Gulf War. The message came in reference to a Jan. 8 meeting slated for Amman. TIRAQ: State Press Slams Security Council Over Import Restrictions
close windowIraq's state-run press criticized the U.N. Security Council in editorials today for tightening the Goods Review List of items allowed for import, blaming the move on U.S. "hegemony."
The government newspaper al-Jumhuriya called Resolution 1454, adopted Monday, "a bad resolution which would lead to inflicting a deliberate damage and harm to our people." It called on council members to "fulfill their responsibility, stand against the obvious U.S. domination of the council and ... foil the mad U.S. attempts to wage aggression on Iraq under the cover of the Security Council." The Iraqi daily Babel, owned by President Saddam Hussein's son Uday, presented similar criticism (Sameer Yacoub, Associated Press/Yahoo! News, Jan. 2). Health Minister Umid Midhat Mubarak said Tuesday that the U.N. sanctions had led to the deaths of 1.7 million Iraqis. Mubarak specifically blamed the United States and United Kingdom of "hampering contracts linked to medical equipment" (Agence France-Presse, Dec. 31).
Iran Prepares For Refugees
Iran's Interior Ministry said Tuesday that it has set up 19 refugee camps along its border with Iraq in preparation for an exodus of up to 1 million civilians if war breaks out. The ministry added, however, that it would not allow Iraqis fleeing conflict to pass beyond a buffer zone along the frontier.
"If war happens, with the assistance of international organizations we are ready to offer humanitarian aid at the border," said Interior Minister Javid Mahmoudi (AFP/ReliefWeb, Dec. 31). He added that Iran, which took in more than 2 million Afghan refugees with little international aid, "will keep all Iraqi refugees outside Iranian soil as we have no capacity for new refugees." "We will follow carefully all relevant developments but will probably close all our borders with Iraq, not only because of the refugee exodus but also for security reasons," Mahmoudi added (Deutsche resse-Agentur/ReliefWeb, Dec. 31). A ministry official in charge of humanitarian planning said the new camps for Iraqi refugees were located only a few yards inside Iran .
Allied Warplanes Strike Radar Site
U.S. and British warplanes yesterday attacked a mobile radar system near al-Qurnah in the southern "no fly" zone over Iraq, the U.S. military said in a statement. The site posed a threat to coalition aircraft, it said. The official Iraqi News Agency said the strike was directed against civilian installations and had killed one person and wounded two. Iraqi Deputy Prime Minister Tariq Aziz said today that the United States was making plans for war against his country without waiting for U.N. weapons inspectors to make their report. "Despite the presence of the inspectors, U.S. aircraft carriers are heading to the region and U.S. and British soldiers are arriving and making preparations," he said to a visiting Spanish delegation .The weapons inspectors continued their work today, visiting several sites, including a Baghdad printing house and the Ibn Firnas missile site in the town of Taji (Reuters/Yahoo! News, Jan. 2). Yesterday, the teams toured a missile maintenance workshop, a truck repair shop, a brewery and a 7-Up bottling plant. keralamonitor.com