World Information Tuesday

Kashmir leader quits in row
over land to Hindus
Agence France-Presse . Srinagar


The chief minister of Indian Kashmir announced his resignation Monday in the wake of a wave of violent protests over his government’s decision to give land in the Muslim region to Hindu pilgrims. The government of Ghulam Nabi Azad lost its majority on June 28 when a key ally, the People’s Democratic Party, pulled out of his Congress-led ruling alliance.
The PDP withdrew after angry protests over the transfer of forest land to Shri Amarnathji Shrine Board – a trust that manages an annual Hindu pilgrimage to the mountain cave shrine of Amarnath Six people were killed and over 350 hurt in police firing and violent clashes in the Muslim-majority Kashmir valley, forcing Azad’s government to revoke the order, days after PDP ended its support.
The state governor had asked Azad to prove his majority in the house on Monday. But before the house could vote to ascertain whether Azad had the required members to rule the state, he decided to resign.




Myanmar PM promises better homes
for cyclone victims
Agence France-Presse . Yangon



Myanmar’s premier promised better housing for cyclone victims in the devastated Irrawaddy Delta, where many people have received only a plastic sheet to use for shelter, state media said Monday.
Cyclone Nargis left more than 138,000 people dead or missing when it struck Myanmar on May 2, washing away entire villages. Another 2.4 million people are in need of food, shelter, or other aid.
‘Plans are under way... to accommodate (the homeless) at better houses than the previous ones they lived (in),’ the prime minister, Thein Sein, said in the official New Light of Myanmar newspaper.
He also said the military government was working to restore the livelihoods of those in the delta, one of Myanmar’s most important farming regions.


Iran dismisses repetitive
nuclear demands
Agence France-Presse . Tehran

The president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, on Monday bluntly rejected as ‘repetitive’ calls for Iran to suspend uranium enrichment, as world powers reviewed its response to an offer to end the five-year nuclear crisis.
Ahmadinejad’s defiant remarks were the latest sign Tehran’s response contains no suggestion it is ready to suspend uranium enrichment activities, which world powers fear could be used to make a nuclear weapon.
‘It is a repetitive scenario,’ the state news agency IRNA quoted Ahmadinejad as saying in an interview with Malaysian television from Kuala Lumpur where he is to attend the summit of the D8 group of developing nations.
‘On one side world powers ask to negotiate and on the other they threaten and say that we must give in to their illegal demands and renounce our rights,’ he added.
His comments come days after Iran gave an undisclosed response to the package from six world powers to break the deadlock in the nuclear standoff, which has raised fears of regional conflict and sent oil prices spiralling.
The proposal from the world powers offers Iran technological incentives in exchange for suspending uranium enrichment, which the West fears could be used to make a nuclear weapon.
Meanwhile, EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana – who presented the offer last month – sought to quell speculation of an immediate breakthrough in the standoff.
‘I hope that we will be able to continue the dialogue in the coming weeks. We’ll see, but I don’t want to give the impression of being too optimistic,’ Solana told reporters in Paris. ‘It’s difficult.’
Some Iranian officials, including the foreign policy advisor to supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, last week gave a relatively upbeat assessment of the package.
Their comments helped ease oil prices, which had shot to record highs of over 145 dollars a barrel over fears the defiance of OPEC’s number two producer could lead to war.
But Ahmadinejad stuck to his habitual hard line.
‘We are in favour of dialogue but we will negotiate in a just atmosphere and on common subjects because negotiations in an unbalanced climate will have no result,’ he said.
The French foreign minister, Bernard Kouchner, said earlier that he did not think that Iran’s response to the package ‘provides great hope. But it gives a little bit of hope.’
Solana also said he hoped to meet later this month with Iran’s top nuclear negotiator Saeed Jalili. Solana refused to give details of the Iranian response, which was delivered in Brussels on Friday.


Mugabe president, Tsvangirai
PM in peace plan: report
Agence France-Presse . London


Robert Mugabe would remain Zimbabwe’s head of state but hand real power to opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai as prime minister under a plan proposed by the South African president, Thabo Mbeki, the Guardian reported Monday.
The president, Mugabe, would stay in place until a new constitution was negotiated and fresh elections were held, the paper said, quoting a senior source from Tsvangirai’s Movement for Democratic Change.
The source told the Guardian that the plan included recognition of the first round vote in March won by Tsvangirai and added that Mugabe staying in place was acceptable to the MDC if it paved the way for a new constitution and vote.
Mbeki, the chief mediator in the crisis, met Mugabe in Harare Saturday but Tsvangirai did not attend. Mugabe has said he will only enter talks if he is recognised as president but the MDC has dismissed this idea.
The MDC source told the Guardian that ‘all the basic
ideas of the MDC’ were in the proposals. ‘The important thing is that it recognises the outcome of the March 29 election and that any government will be transitional on the way to new elections,’ the source was quoted as saying.
The report did not state Mugabe’s response to the plan.
It came with G8 industrial powers gathering in Japan expected to take steps on Zimbabwe after presidential elections in which Mugabe was the sole candidate when Tsvangirai pulled out because of violence against supporters.
‘I think the G8 will strongly condemn what Mugabe has done. It will strongly question the legitimacy of his government,’ Dennis Wilder, the US National Security Council’s senior director for Asia affairs, said en route to Japan.
Meanwhile, the British foreign secretary, David Miliband, who is visiting South Africa, said on his arrival that the crisis was ‘infecting the whole of Southern Africa’ and said Mugabe’s rule lacked legitimacy.
But Mugabe’s regime warned the West on Monday to ‘stop meddling’ in Zimbabwe’s crisis as the veteran leader faced mounting pressure to cut a deal with the opposition after his one-man election.