INDIA AND TANZANIA TO SHARE LOW COST HOUSING TECHNOLOGY AND WOMEN EMPOWERMENT STRATEGY NEW DELHI - July 3, 2003 India has offered assistance to Tanzania for training their people in low cost building technology using locally available raw materials and in programmes relating to empowerment of women. The offer was made during a meeting between the Union Minister of State for Urban Development and Poverty Alleviation, Shri Pon. Radhakrishnan and Mr. E.D. Maokola-Majogo, Minister of State for Poverty Alleviation in the Vice-President’s Office of Tanzania, here today. The visiting dignitary explained his country’s special poverty reduction strategy with focus on education, road construction, agriculture, good governance, fight against HIV/AIDS and sought India’s cooperation in the field of women empowerment, housing and slum development programmes. In his turn, Minister of State for Urban Development and Poverty Alleviation, Shri Pon. Radhakrishnan described various initiatives taken by the Ministry of Urban Development and Poverty Alleviation to reduce unemployment and improve housing stock as a means to address the problem of poverty reduction. He also explained efforts made by the Government to empower women, like 30% reservation of seats for them in Urban and Panchayat local bodies and formation of self –help groups under DWACRA. Shri Radhakrishnan explained various urban reform initiatives undertaken to remove infirmities in housing sector. Secretary, Department of Urban Employment and Poverty Alleviation, Shri L.M. Mehta and senior officials of the Ministry of Urban Development and Poverty Alleviation, HUDCO, BMTPC also attended the meeting. -keralamonitor.com USA: Six named under Military Order: Another backward step for human rights 4 July 2003 Yesterday's decision by President Bush to name six detainees under the Military Order he signed in November 2001 is another retrograde step for human rights in the US-led "war against terrorism" and will further undermine the USA's claims to be a country that champions the rule of law, Amnesty International said today. "The Military Order is a fundamentally flawed document and should be revoked", Amnesty International said. "We deeply regret that the President has taken his country one step closer to running trials that will flout basic standards of justice". The six detainees have been named as people suspected of being members of al-Qa'ida or "otherwise involved in terrorism directed against the United States", according to the Pentagon. This means that they can be held indefinitely without charge or trial under the Military Order or charged and tried in front of military commissions, executive bodies with the power to hand down death sentences. It now falls on the "appointing authority", currently Deputy Secretary of Defence Paul Wolfowitz, to determine whether or not to refer any charges that may be levelled against these six people to a military commission. The fundamental flaws of this process include: · The Military Order is discriminatory. US nationals will not be tried by military commission, even if accused of the same offence as a foreign national. Under the Order, selected foreign nationals will receive second-class justice, in violation of international law which prohibits discriminatory treatment, including on the basis of nationality. · The commissions would allow a lower standard of evidence than is admissible in the ordinary courts, including hearsay evidence. The Pentagon guidelines for the operation of the commissions do not expressly exclude statements extracted under coercive methods. · The military commissions would entirely lack independence from the executive. The President has given himself or Secretary of Defence Rumsfeld (who last week appointed his Deputy, Paul Wolfowitz, to this role) the power to name who will be tried by the commissions, to appoint or to remove the members of those commissions, to pick the panel that will review convictions and sentences, and to make the final decision in any case. · In violation of international law, there will be no right of appeal to an independent and impartial court established by law. Instead, there would be a review by a three-member panel appointed by the Deputy Secretary of Defence. "Any trial before these military commissions would be a travesty of justice", Amnesty International said. "We urge the US administration to rethink its strategy before it causes any further affront to international fair trial norms and any more damage to its own reputation". The authorities have not made public the names of the six detainees. At a Pentagon briefing yesterday, a senior Pentagon official acknowledged that the authorities may not identify the six named individuals, saying that there would only be "as much transparency as practicable". The Pentagon refused to say if the six detainees are among the more than 650 individuals currently held without charge or trial in its Naval Base in Guantánamo Bay. Many of these detainees have been held for well over a year in conditions the totality of which may amount to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment in violation of international law. None has had access to a court, to legal counsel, or to relatives. Most are held in tiny cells for up to 24 hours a day with minimal opportunity for out-of-cell exercise. Rooms are said to have been prepared at Guantánamo Bay in which to conduct military commissions, and the possibility of locating an execution chamber at the Naval Base have recently been discussed. Iran's successful missile Shihab-3 ground-to-ground missile test puts Israel within range Tehran - Iran has successfully tested a Shihab-3 missile, which has a range that can reach Israel. The launch last week was the most successful so far of the seven or eight tests of the missile over the last five years, and has increased worries in Washington - which spotted the test with its tracking mechanisms - and in Israel. The missile, which was launched from east to west, had an effective range beyond the 1,300-kilometer red line, meaning the range from western Iran to Israel, the Iranians could position the launching pads for the rocket deeper inside their country. The Iranian threat will be one of the subjects under discussion when Chief of Staff Moshe Ya'alon visits the Pentagon and U.S. armed forces bases next week. Ya'alon's itinerary is supposed to include the Florida headquarters of two key commands: Centcom and Special Operations at MacDill air force base. More data is now being collected and collated in the West about the missile test and about the progress being made in the Iranian missile program, which is based on North Korean missiles. In previous tests, when the rocket was powered by a North Korean engine, the tests were successful, but when the engines were Iranian-made, even with North Korean know-how, they tended to fail - despite statements by Iranian Defense Minister Ali Shakhmani in 2002 that Iran can "develop everything" and does not need help from foreign sources like China or Russia. The report of the Shihab-3 test is an incentive for Israel equipping itself with more Arrow missiles made by the Israel Aircrafts Industries and soon to go into a joint production process with Boeing. Western experts said that the 16-meter single-stage Shihab-3, which can carry up to a ton of explosives in its payload, is not very accurate, with the probability of hitting within three kilometers of any target it is launched at. But it is possible that has been improved over the past year. In any case, the missile range already includes Israel, Turkey, the Indian subcontinent and the American forces in the Gulf. Iran has plans for two longer-range missiles: a Shihab-4, with a 2,000-kilometer range and a Shihab-5, with a 5,500-kilometer range.