Israelis, Palestinians talks to start within days

Israeli and Palestinian officials said on Sunday they expect to start indirect peace talks within days, following Arab endorsement of a US-brokered plan to end the impasse and US guarantees apparently persuaded the Palestinians to lift their objections.

The decision, which was welcomed by the Spanish EU presidency, would end more than a year without negotiations between the sides and at least one false start at getting them back to talks.

“From the very start we have been in favour of peace talks without preconditions and the objective is to start in the coming days, at the latest next week,” Israeli Deputy Foreign Minister Danny Ayalon told public radio.

“It is a positive development. The Arabs also want to break the deadlock,” Ayalon added of Saturday’s Arab League decision to back a US plan to mediate indirect talks as a prelude to direct negotiations. The key guarantee given by Washington to the Palestinians to persuade them to enter indirect talks with Israel was a halt to a controversial plan to build 1,600 new settler homes in annexed east Jerusalem, Arab League official Hisham Yusef said.

“We made a decision on March 2 to support the indirect talks, and then Israel made decisions we objected to. The Americans came back to us and said this will not happen,” he said in Cairo.

“The assurances take us back to the status quo ante before March 2,” Yusef added on Sunday, a day after the Arab League said it backed indirect talks with Israel after the Palestinians said they had received unspecified US guarantees.

Spain, which holds the rotating presidency of the European Union, welcomed the talks “with satisfaction,” an official source said.

“The EU supports all efforts to ensure that negotiations begin as soon as possible. It works and will work in this context with all players in the region.”

Israel has not publicly agreed to freeze construction in east Jerusalem, which it captured in the 1967 Six Day War and later annexed in a move not recognised internationally.

“On the ground, we will not prevent life from continuing because a question of principle, even of morals, is involved,” Ayalon said when asked if Israel would consider a freeze.

Amid a flurry of last-minute diplomacy ahead of the talks, US President Barack Obama’s Middle East envoy George Mitchell is due back in the region for another round of shuttle diplomacy this week.

“President Abbas will meet with Mitchell on Friday,” senior Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erakat told AFP.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office has so far not officially announced a Mitchell meeting, but media reports say the US envoy will see Israeli officials on Tuesday and Wednesday.

Abbas is in the United Arab Emirates on a tour of Arab countries that will take him on Tuesday to Saudi Arabia and Egypt on Wednesday, his spokesman Nabil Abu Rudeina told AFP.

In a newspaper interview on Sunday Abbas said that with the Arab League blessing and a similar endorsement expected from the Palestine Liberation Organisation’s executive committee this week, the talks could now proceed.

“They will begin immediately and last for four months,” he told the Palestinian daily Al-Ayyam, adding that he planned a visit to Washington this month to see Obama.

Netanyahu was meanwhile due in Egypt on Monday to consult President Hosni Mubarak on the latest peace moves.

Direct talks with the Palestinians collapsed when Israel launched a military offensive against the Islamist Hamas-ruled the Gaza Strip in December 2008.

In March, the Palestinians agreed to participate in US-mediated indirect talks for four months.

But those plans collapsed when Israel announced during a visit by US Vice President Joe Biden plans to build the new settler homes in the east Jerusalem neighbourhood of Ramat Shlomo.

That announcement infuriated both Washington and the international community.

Erakat said on Saturday that any Israeli construction in disputed east Jerusalem would halt the talks immediately. “If they build one unit out of the 1,600, we will not go to the talks,” he said.

Israeli Science and Technology Minister Daniel Hershkowitz told reporters that such comments were not “an encouraging sign.”

SAARC summit starts

The 16th SAARC summit began in Thimphu on Wednesday with heads of eight South Asian countries seeking a joint initiative to tackle climate change threats and also boost trade and regional cooperation. The Thimphu summit which marks the 25th year of the regional grouping’s existence, kicked off at around 2:30pm (BdST) in this serene and pollution-free capital city of Bhutan, with outgoing SAARC chairperson Sri Lankan president Mahinda Rajapaksha opening the session. Rajapaksha is chairing the inaugural function. Seeking a fresh approach to global climate talks the SAARC leaders would pitch for observer status to the bloc at the Mexico conference on global warming later this year. The next global climate talks after Copenhagen in September last are likely to be held in Cancun in Mexico in December. The Thimphu summit marks the silver jubilee celebration of SAARC that was formed in Bangladesh in December 1985 with the aim of eradicating poverty and improving the living standard of 1.5 billion people of the region through mutual cooperation. Bangladesh prime minister Sheikh Hasina is scheduled to deliver her speech at 4:00pm. Indian prime minister Manmohan Singh will be the first to deliver his speech while Hasina the last speaker. Each of the top leaders will deliver speech for seven to 10 minutes.

Water Issue & SAARC Summit

the major regional issu16th SAARC summit is started at Thimpu, (the Capital of Bhutan) from April 28 -29, 2010. People of the participant countries are looking towards their leaders for establishment of regional peace in this highly adverse security environment. They feel that future of their new generation became highly insecure due to poverty, continuous deteriorating health, terrorism and major regional conflicts like border and water took the region at the brink of nuclear war. Let’s hope that this time our leaders find some solutions to resolve Kashmir issue, water issue, and Bangladesh border clash with India and Nepal Energy crises, Afghanistan problem and others bilateral matters for lessening our worries for the betterment of our future.

The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nation mentioned in his report that rural poverty and food insecurity has been intensified and is showing downward trend all over the world. Developing countries within the Asia-Pacific region represent more than half of the world population today (a total of 3.7 billion out of 6.3 billion people in 2000), which continued to grow at 1.4% per year (1990-2000) and slowing down to 0.7% per year in 2020-2025. The population in urban areas will increase from 37% to 51% during the same period. The report further reveals that majority of the worlds poor live in this region, about 829 million out of a world total of 1.2 billion, living on an average of just one dollar a day.

An alarming aspect of under discussion issue is that despite having maximum manpower, natural resources and all weather pieces of land, why Asian countries failed to bring Green Revolution. The answer is unequal distribution of manpower and ambitious desire of grabbing natural resources by the power greedy country India. New Delhi never realized that her wishful thinking of attaining supremacy and capturing natural resources is pushing the region into war. She has forgotten that hunger is the only factor which changes the human characteristics. It gave birth to the world terrorism too. Here, in Asia the ratio of poor people remained high as high Himalayan Mountain. Most of the governments in south Asian region cannot maintain even daily necessities of their nations. The countries like Pakistan, Bangladesh and Nepal botched to promote their agricultural sector because of presence of a water grabber country in their neighbourhood.

India has given a new turn to the philosophy of war while using water as an instrument of war. It is also worth mentioning here that India is the only country which is having conflicts with its neighbouring border countries. She is constructing more than 300 dams to interlink her rivers. Out of these 71 dams are being constructed in IOK,, which defiantly going to effect Pakistan. She has the intentions of converting her neighbours land into ruins and deserts through inundation and trickling of water. In this regard her actions speak that she is emerging as “World Water Terrorist Country”. New Delhi has planned number of barrages and dames by violating international water pacts. Now, it’s the talk of the region that future war would be on water issue because none of the country will like to become barren as result of Water terrorism. Therefore, it is evident from the prevailing environment that if world community failed to control water grabber then insecurity of food would be the core issue of future Asia and would prove fatal for the world peace.

It is further emphasized that Agriculture sector is expected to continue to play the central role in achieving sustainable food security and poverty alleviation through increasing the food production, improving productivity and quality, expanding non-farm employment and enhancing trade and overall capital formation. But, the increase in capital is only possible if water resources shall be available to the countries. But unfortunately the major supporting element of future development revolves around Water. Unavailability or shortage of water might lead into environmental degradation, erosion of top soils, and depletion of soil fertility, pollution, starvation and low production of food.

The third word countries which are already suffering with depleted economies have to do something for their survival. The numbers of water issues of South Asian countries though have been taken up on various international fora but are still unresolved or pending due to disinclination attitude of India towards in execution of already concluded International Pacts. Indus Basin Water Treaty between India and Pakistan 1960, Indo-Bangladesh water dispute over the Farakka Barrage (The Ganges Water Treaty) and the Indo-Nepal dispute over the Mahakali River are the glaring ones and endangering to the regional peace. It is notable here that India always used water as tool against Pakistan Nepal and Bangladesh. The Indian rulers exploit this natural resource through blocking the flow of rivers which originate from the Indian controlled territories and claiming their rights of using Nepalese Origin Rivers too.

It is also notable here that major water issue between two nuclear powers (India and Pakistan) is directly linked with the territorial dispute too. Pakistan and India have fought four wars over Kashmir. The sources three major rivers are located in Indian Held Kashmir (IHK). India has started construction of dams and barrages over these rivers with the aim of destroying agriculture sector of Pakistan. According to the sources, India has also suggested Afghan government to construct dam over Kabul River which is the major water contributor to Indus. She has also offered her technical assistance to Afghanistan. Therefore it’s a proven fact now that India will never be our trust worthy friend because of her mean nature. Her only aim is to create instability, destruction of Pakistan. Her ingress in Afghanistan is again questionable. She is using Afghan soil for fomenting terrorism in Pakistan.

Pakistan, Bangladesh and Nepal have tried to resolve their water issue with India. These countries also used SAARC platform to settle these long outstanding issues but some how on one pretext or other New Delhi showed her unwillingness in resolving the issue. India straightaway refused to come on

SAARC forum while saying that water dispute will be solved with Bangladesh and Nepal through tri-partite dialogues. In fact India is not interested to resolve the issues at all and will keep on avoiding the situation. Same situation is prevailing between Pakistan and India over water problem.

The reluctance of India in resolving basic issues is further depleting the regional security. In his regard probably, the political and military leadership of India have either failed to comprehend the real threat or deliberately causing insecurity for the completion of their hegemonic design. The ruling party of India is trying to corner the lonely Islamic nuclear power without realizing that Pakistan can not afford anymore conventional war with India. She must know that Pakistani nuclear programme is though very safe but off course in strong hands too. According to A Q khan Pakistan Nuclear Programme is of latest version and has edge over Indian nuclear programme too.

Pakistan has sufficient nuclear arsenals too. Careful analysis of current political and security environment dictates that future nuclear war would be on water issue. India must know that Pakistan can go for nuclear strike first, since it’s the matter of her survival on the world map. To avoid this nuclear war, we have to establish, deliberate and redress the major water issues of Pakistan, India, Bangladesh and Nepal. Present SAARC Summit is again providing the chance and forum our leaders to resolve the major regional issues .es .

Hasina leaves for Bhutan today

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina leaves here for Bhutan this morning to attend the 16th South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) summit in Thimpu.

The two-day summit, with “Climate Change” as its theme, will begin on Wednesday. This is for the first time that the landlocked Bhutan is hosting the SAARC Summit.

With the holding of the summit, Bhutan will assume the chair of the eight-nation regional forum comprising Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Sri Lanka, Nepal, the Maldives and Pakistan.

Hasina will make a statement at the opening session of the summit to be held at the Grand Assembly Hall. Leaders of seven other SAARC countries will also make statements at the opening session.

After the opening session, the permanent secretariat of the SAARC Development Fund (SDF) will be inaugurated at the Grand Assembly Hall.

On the second day, the SAARC leaders will go for the Summit Retreat at Bhutan House, SAARC Village.

Later, the leaders will make joint royal audience with His Majesty the King of Bhutan.

On the sidelines of the summit, Hasina will hold bilateral meetings with South Asian leaders including Indian Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh.

Benazir murder could have been prevented: UN

Pakistani authorities could have prevented the 2007 murder of ex-premier Benazir Bhutto and deliberately failed to properly investigate her death, a UN-appointed independent panel said.

“Ms Bhutto’s assassination could have been prevented if adequate security measures had been taken,” said a report out Thursday by a three-member panel headed by Chile’s UN ambassador Heraldo Munoz.

The panel, tasked with establishing the circumstances of the killing, said it believed the Pakistani police’s failure to effectively probe the slaying “was deliberate.”

The report also said the investigation was severely hampered by intelligence agencies and other officials who impeded “an unfettered search for the truth.”

The charismatic, Oxford-educated Bhutto, the first woman to become prime minister of a Muslim country, was killed on December 27, 2007 in a gun and suicide attack after addressing an election rally in Rawalpindi, a garrison city near the capital Islamabad.

Her death threw the world’s only nuclear-armed Islamic nation into chaos, sparking violence and months of political turmoil that ended in September 2008 when her widower, Asif Ali Zardari, claimed the presidency.

The Munoz-led panel said in its 65-page report that the federal government, the government of Punjab and the Rawalpindi district police were responsible for Bhutto’s security the day of her assassination.

“None of these entities took the necessary measures to respond to the extraordinary, fresh, urgent security risks that they knew she faced,” it added.

It noted that the Pakistani government failed to provide Bhutto with the same stringent and specific security measures it ordered on October 22, 2007 for two other former prime ministers belonging to the main political party supporting then-president Pervez Musharraf.

“This discriminatory treatment is profoundly troubling given the devastating attempt on her life only three days earlier and the specific threats against her which were being tracked” by Pakistani intelligence.

The report said the subsequent Pakistani probe “lacked direction, was ineffective and suffered from a lack of commitment to identify and bring all of the perpetrators to justice.”

It added that it was up to Pakistani authorities to carry out a “serious, credible criminal investigation that determines who conceived, ordered and executed this heinous crimet and brings those responsible to justice.”

Munoz told reporters that the UN probe, which began last July, was not a criminal investigation.

He said his panel conducted more than 250 interviews, meeting Pakistani officials and private citizens, foreign citizens with knowledge of the events, and members of Britain’s Scotland Yard who probed some aspects of the killing.

Bhutto’s supporters cast doubt on an initial Pakistani probe into her death, questioning whether she was killed by a gunshot or the blast and criticizing authorities for hosing down the scene of the attack within minutes.

According to Scotland Yard’s inquiry, Bhutto died from the force of a suicide bomb and not gunfire.

The UN report, which was requested by Zardari’s political party, was turned over to UN chief Ban Ki-moon earlier Thursday.

The panel-which also included Indonesian former attorney general Marzuki Darusman and Peter Fitzgerald, an Irish ex-police official-urged Pakistani authorities to make sure that further investigation into the Bhutto assassination “is fully empowered and resourced and is conducted expeditiously and comprehensively, at all levels, without hindrance.”

The UN report was unveiled following a two-week delay requested by Pakistani Interior Minister Rehman Malik, who wanted input from former US secretary of state Condoleezza Rice, Afghan President Hamid Karzai and Saudi Arabia included.

In Islamabad, a spokesman for president Zardari said Friday that the government will give its reaction after studying the report.

“We are reading the report and a detailed reaction would be given after it,” Farhatullah Babar told AFP.

State television quoted Babar as saying the government “is not oblivious to its duties and it is investigating the murder of Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto.”

Retired Lieutenant General Hamid Nawaz, interior minister when Bhutto was assassinated, refused to comment.

“I cannot comment on the UN report because the matter is sub-judice,” Nawaz told AFP.

CM for strengthening Pak-Bangladesh ties

Chief Minister Punjab Shahbaz Sharif has said the core of democracy is public service and solution to their problems therefore we must tend to this side by making our democratic institutions strong.
The chief minister was talking to a 10-member Bangladeshi media delegation, which called on Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif here Friday. The CM talking to the delegation said that people of Bangladesh and Pakistan have a common past and collective efforts are needed to cement bilateral relations and exchange of delegations is of vital importance in this regard.
The chief minister said in order to promote economic and trade relations, Pakistan and Bangladesh can launch joint ventures for mutual benefit. He said intelligentsia of both the countries should also find out ways and means for further strengthening of relations between both the countries. He said democracy aimed at public service, therefore, in addition to strengthening the democratic institutions, measures should also be taken for the solution of people’s problems.
He said Pakistan is facing the challenge of terrorism but the whole nation is united to root out this menace from the country.
He said peace will be restored in the country and it will embark on the road to progress and prosperity. He also expressed best wishes for the progress and development of Bangladeshi people. The chief minister also answered the queries of Bangladeshi journalists.
media delegation calls on Governor
A Bangladeshi media delegation called on Governor Punjab Salmaan Taseer at the Governor House on Thursday. They discussed the similarities in the politics of the two countries, ways to alleviate the current power crisis in Pakistan and Bangladesh’s exemplary position as a completely democratic nation.

Bangladesh navy to purchase survey ship from UK

Bangladesh has almost finalized a deal with the UK to buy an ocean survey ship for Tk 55 crore [one crore is 10 million] against the background of disputes over oil and gas exploration in the Bay of Bengal with India and Myanmar [Burma].

Officials of the finance ministry told the New Age last week that the Bangladesh Navy had sought Tk 55 crore, equivalent to five million pounds, to buy a hydrographic survey vessel from the Royal Navy of the UK, and they are dealing with the matter on a priority basis.

Bangladesh, an impoverished country which can meet only two- thirds of the demand for gas and electricity, needs to enhance the number of surveys and exploration activities in the Bay for its energy security.

Besides, Bangladesh needs sufficient data to establish its claim on the country’s maritime boundary it is sandwiched between India and Myanmar in the upper part of the Bay which is thought to have considerable deposits of hydrocarbon.

Bangladesh registered its objections with the United Nations to the claims of India and Myanmar in 2009 as it had disputes over territorial waters in the Bay with both the countries in two areas – natural prolongation of the continental shelf and the baseline.

At present, the country is carrying out a seismic survey in the Bay under the United Nations Convention of the Law of the Seas at a cost of more then Tk 50 crore.

The survey is being implanted by the foreign affairs ministry which is dealing with the case against India in the UN tribunal. Dhaka has already estimated that it would require Tk 80 crore to finance the legal battle against India in the UN in the next eight years.

The purchase of the hydrographic survey vessel is a part of the government’s mega-plan for making the Bangladesh Navy a ‘three- dimensional’ force which can operate underwater, on the surface and in the air.

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina last week, while adressing the officers and sailors at the Naval Headquarters, revealed that two more frigates would be added to the Navy soon.

Initiatives have taken to buy a hydrographic survey ship from the UK and to equip two large patrol boats with missiles made by China, she said, adding that agreements for the purchase of two helicopters and the same number of offshore patrol boats from the UK were in the final stage.

Polish funeral set to go ahead despite ash cloud

The Polish president’s funeral looks set to go ahead as planned on Sunday, at his family’s insistence, despite a cloud of volcanic ash that has shut Europe’s airports and may prevent world leaders attending.

US President Barack Obama is among dozens of leaders scheduled to travel to Krakow in southern Poland for Sunday’s funeral of President Lech Kaczynski and his wife Maria, killed with 94 others in a plane crash in Russia last Saturday.

Tens of thousands of mourners continued to file past the Kaczynskis’ coffins in Warsaw’s presidential palace on Friday.

Some had been waiting up to 18 hours to view the coffins, a measure of the grief felt by many Poles over the worst single disaster to strike their country since World War Two.

The heads of Poland’s armed forces, its central bank governor and opposition lawmakers also perished when the ageing Tupolev plane crashed in thick fog while trying to land near Smolensk in western Russia.

Warsaw’s picturesque Old Town, where the palace is located, has been transformed into a shrine, festooned with flowers, candles, crucifixes and white and red national flags.

The president’s administration said some 1,500 people were paying their respects to the bodies every hour, while Warsaw authorities said they had already collected 330 tonnes of withered flowers and burned out candles since Saturday.

The uncertainty following the death of key figures from the opposition Law and Justice (PiS) has thrown the established patterns of support for Poland’s parties into confusion.

An opinion poll released late on Friday showed support for Poland’s ruling Civic Platform (PO) had fallen by 11 percentage points, while the number of Poles favouring the conservative PiS, led by Kaczynski’s twin brother Jaroslaw, stood flat at 25 percent.

Backed by PiS, Kaczynski was widely expected to seek another five-year term in a presidential vote originally due this autumn. The vote will now likely be held on June 20.

Public support for Kaczynski, a polarising nationalist and eurosceptic, had dwindled to just 20 percent before his death. Polls showed he would have lost to Bronislaw Komorowski, the candidate of Prime Minister Donald Tusk’s centrist PO.

Komorowski, who is also speaker of parliament, became acting president after Kaczynski’s death. It is unclear who his main rivals will be in the election as the candidate of the main leftist opposition party SLD also died in the crash.

FUNERAL

The funeral plans hit an unexpected snag on Friday when the volcanic ash cloud drifting over Europe from Iceland forced the closure of airports, including in Poland, stranding hundreds of thousands of travellers.

“I wish to say that the (Kaczynski) family’s will is that the date of the funeral should not be postponed under any circumstances,” presidential aide Jacek Sasin told reporters.

Poland’s meteorology institute said in a statement posted on its website on Friday evening that the ash cloud would cover Poland by midnight, and partially disperse by Saturday evening.

As well as Obama, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, French President Nicolas Sarkozy and Britain’s Prince Charles are among dignitaries from an estimated 96 countries expected to attend the funeral.

Krakow’s Balice airport, due to handle most arrivals, shut on Friday because of the ash cloud.

The decision to bury the Kaczynskis at Wawel, usually reserved for Poland’s kings and national heroes, was controversial. Some Poles believe Kaczynski does not deserve such an honour and have staged noisy protests against the move.

Kaczynski and his entourage had been travelling to mark the 70th anniversary of the massacre of some 22,000 Polish officers by Soviet forces in Katyn forest in western Russia — an enduring symbol for Poles of their country’s suffering.

The cause of the crash remains unclear, though Russian officials say the pilot ignored advice from air traffic controllers to divert to another airport because of the fog.

Palestinians call on Israel to probe prison death

The Palestinian Authority on Saturday called on Israel to investigate the death of a Palestinian prisoner in a jail in southern Israel.

Issa Qaraqi, minister of prisoner affairs in the Western-backed government of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, said 27 year-old Raed Abu Hammad died on Friday in solitary confinement.

An Israel Prison Service spokesman said Hammad, who was about half-way through a ten year sentence for attempted murder, was found dead on the floor of his cell. Hammad was suffering from medical conditions and the Prison Service was checking the cause of his death, the spokesman said.

“We are demanding an investigation and to perform an autopsy to find out why he died,” Qaraqi said. “Israel is fully responsible for the death of the prisoner because he was sick and Israel and the doctors in the prison authority knew that.”

About 7,000 Palestinians are held in Israeli jails. Qaraqi said 19 Palestinians have died in jail in the last decade.

Sudan poll fails to meet global standards: observers

Sudan’s first multi-party elections in 24 years failed to meet all international standards, European Union observers said on Saturday in the first official judgement on the poll.

Final results in the presidential and legislative elections are due out on Tuesday, although incumbent president Omar Hassan al-Bashir is widely expected to win after most of his rivals boycotted the proceedings, accusing his ruling party of fraud.

“These elections have struggled to reach international standards. They have not reached them all,” the head of the E.U. observer mission in Sudan Veronique de Keyser told reporters.