Karzai urges Pakistan to reconsider Bonn boycott

KABUL: Afghan President Hamid Karzai telephoned Pakistan Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani on Tuesday to urge him to reconsider a boycott of the Bonn conference over a deadly Nato strike, officials in both countries said.

Karzai’s deputy spokesman Siamak Herawi told AFP that Pakistan was an important participant in the conference aimed at bridging peace after 10 years of war against the Taliban, and expressed hope that they would ultimately attend.

“President Hamid Karzai called Prime Minister Gilani and officially asked the Pakistan government to participate in the Bonn conference,” said Herawi.

“We regard Pakistan as an important country and are optimistic they will attend the Bonn conference.”

Pakistan said it would skip the conference on Afghanistan after a Nato strike on Saturday killed 24 Pakistani soldiers on the border.

Pakistan has already closed the Afghan border to Nato convoys, a lifeline for 140,000 foreign troops in Afghanistan, ordered American personnel to vacate an air base reportedly used by CIA drones and ordered a review of the alliance.

Gilani’s office issued a statement confirming that Karzai had asked the prime minister to reconsider, but gave no hint of an official rethink.

Gilani said that Pakistan had been extending complete cooperation for peace and stability in Afghanistan.

“However, he further added that how could a country whose own sovereignty and territorial integrity was violated from Afghan soil play such a constructive role?” Earlier, Afghanistan’s foreign ministry said it had not yet received an official confirmation that Pakistan would opt out of the meeting.

“Our Pakistani brothers should remember that Bonn is an Afghan conference, it will be chaired and led by Afghans,” said foreign ministry spokesman Janan Mosazai.

A Pakistani government official earlier told AFP on condition of anonymity that the cabinet had decided not to attend the event over the crisis.

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Merkel ‘very sorry’ about Pakistan boycott of Afghan meet

BERLIN: German Chancellor Angela Merkel said Tuesday she was “very sorry” about Pakistan’s announced boycott of a Bonn conference next week on the future of Afghanistan and would try to convince it to attend.

Merkel said Germany would “see what could be done to change” Islamabad’s decision to stay away from the meeting in the western German city, taken in protest at Nato air strikes which killed 24 Pakistani soldiers.

“We are both interested in constructive development of Afghanistan,”Merkel, who will open the Bonn conference, told reporters at a joint press conference with visiting King Abdullah II of Jordan.

“Which is why I consider the conference hosted by the (German) foreign minister to be very important. We always said that conflicts can only be resolved in the region and Pakistan is part of this region which is why we are very sorry that this cancellation came today.”

Merkel said that Berlin had not given up on convincing Islamabad to attend the Bonn meeting, which will bring together foreign ministers from around 100 countries to discuss commitments to the war-ravaged country after the withdrawal of Nato troops in 2014.

Among the invited guests is US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. “I understand Pakistan’s concern about the loss of human life due to Nato troops but this should not distract from the fact that this Afghanistan conference is a very, very important conference,” she said.

“There was a loya jirga (grand assembly) in Afghanistan and there is now a very, very good chance for a possible political process. On the one hand I can understand (the boycott) but on the other, we will see what still can be done.”Abdullah said Jordan supported all efforts to reach a political solution to the bloody strife in Afghanistan.

“Like Germany, Jordan has its commitments in Afghanistan but again the political process is what takes precedence now,” he said.

“We have a very strong relationship with Pakistan but we do hope that that situation will improve.”A Pakistani official told AFP earlier that Islamabad would boycott Monday’s conference in Bonn over the deadly Nato air strikes at the weekend.

US-led investigators have been given until December 23 to probe the attacks, threatening to prolong significantly Pakistan’s blockade on Nato supplies into Afghanistan implemented in retaliation for the killings.

Islamabad has vowed no more “business as usual” with Washington in the wake of the strikes. In addition to shutting its Afghan border, it ordered Americans to vacate an air base reportedly used by CIA drones and a review of the alliance.

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Seif now just a ‘helpless criminal’: Libya official

ZINTAN: Moamer Qadhafi’s once-powerful son Seif al-Islam is now just a “helpless criminal” in the Libyan hilltown of Zintan, where he can stay until he goes on trial, officials and town residents say.

“For Zintan he is just a helpless criminal. He is not a danger. We have no problem in keeping him here and we can hold him until his trial begins if it is better for Libya,” said Ibrahim Turki, the National Transitional Council’s health coordinator in Zintan.

“The Libyan authorities will decide his fate,” he said.

Residents of Zintan, a southern Libyan town now famous for its high-profile captive, told AFP that Seif was being moved regularly from one secret location to another to ensure his safety and protect him from the brutal end faced by his father.

On October 20, Qadhafi was lynched by his captors in Libya’s western city of Misrata.

Leaked footage of the deposed leader’s final moments showed his bloodied, limp body being hauled onto the back of a pick-up truck as dozens of frenzied gunmen fired in the air.

Qadhafi’s death triggered widespread global condemnation and forced Libya’s new rulers to launch an investigation into the circumstances of his killing.

Some Zintan residents said they initially believed Seif would also face a violent death, but are now confident he will likely live long enough to go on trial.

“We were initially worried that he may face the same fate as his father.

But he is in safe custody and poses no danger to Zintan or to Libya,” said Shaban al-Waer, 48, a self-employed resident of the town.

“He can be held here even for a year without any problem,” he said.

Seif’s location has remained a closely guarded secret, with residents saying there has been no sign of the captive since his initial arrest on November 19. NTC officials have only confirmed that Seif is still in Zintan.

“He is in a secured location,” Libya’s Deputy Prime Minister Mustafa Abu Shagur told reporters in Tripoli on Tuesday.

Shagur said Qadhafi’s son is being treated in accordance with international standards.

“Of course he has been and continues to be treated in accordance with international standards and not in the way he used to treat our prisoners,” he said.

In the days after Seif’s capture, media reports suggested that Zintan’s military council was refusing to hand him over to NTC officials unless the commander of the unit that captured him was named Libya’s defence minister.

Last week, the commander, Osama Juili, was given the defence minister’s post.

Seif al-Islam’s fate remains a challenge to the new Libyan leadership as it tries to balance demands for revenge against Qadhafi’s most prominent son and heir apparent, and calls by the international community to give Seif a fair trial.

The International Criminal Court, which wants to try him on charges of crimes against humanity, too has called on the Libyan leadership to ensure Seif is unharmed, and treated in accordance with international laws and norms.

In a statement Friday, the ICC chief prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo said the trial of Seif could be held in Libya under ICC auspices.

Shagur said Seif will get a fair trial.

“It (trial) will happen at the right time. He will be facing a fair and just trial,” he said when asked when could the trial commence.

Despite international fears that Seif’s safety is at risk, Zintan residents expressed their desire to see justice take its course, and prove once and for all, the new Libya will be lawful, not vengeful.

“He (Seif) deserves a fair trial and he will get one. I am sure,” said Salam Ali Ahmed, a shopkeeper in Zintan whose grocery shop overlooks the town’s main square, packed with pictures of citizens killed in the fight to overthrow the former regime.

For Waer, Qadhafi’s son will remain innocent until proven guilty.

“Only a fair trial can prove his doings. We need to find out whether he ordered the killing of Libyans during the revolt against his father,” he said.

“We need to find out whether he used Libyan money to kill Libyans … he may not be guilty” of these offences, he added.

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India’s Sonia Gandhi makes first speech since surgery

NEW DELHI: Sonia Gandhi, president of India’s ruling Congress party, returned to the political stage on Tuesday, making her first public speech since undergoing surgery in August.

Gandhi, 64, was greeted by huge cheers as she spoke to a Congress youth rally in New Delhi organised by her son, Rahul Gandhi, who is taking an increasingly prominent role in domestic politics.

Speculation over Sonia’s health and the future leadership of the Congress party has been mounting ever since she went to the United States in August to receive treatment for an undisclosed illness.

She looked tired but spoke in a firm voice for more than 10 minutes to thousands of young party members.

“You have the power to beat back the forces of oppression and injustice and to make a beautiful life for yourself and for others,” she said.

The Italian-born leader wields uncontested power in the Congress party and is seen as having a key influence over all major decisions taken by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s government.

Gandhi had been expected to signal her return to party business by addressing a political rally earlier this month but was forced to cancel after coming down with a virus.

After her operation, she appeared in public several times but did not deliver a speech. Her party has given no details about the nature of her illness or her treatment.

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EU expresses condolences over Nato strike in Pakistan

BRUSSELS: European Union chief diplomat Catherine Ashton expressed condolences to Pakistan on Tuesday over a Nato air strike that killed 24 Pakistani troops and voiced support for an investigation.

Ashton “is closely following reports of the incident,” her office said after Saturday’s raid near the Afghan border, which prompted a furious Islamabad to cut off alliance supply routes to Afghanistan.

“High Representative Catherine Ashton has offered her deepest condolences to the government and people of Pakistan for the loss of life and injuries resulting from the incident along the Afghan-Pakistani border at the weekend,” her office said in a statement.

The EU official “supports Pakistan and Nato efforts to conduct a full investigation,” it said.

Ashton “underlined the EU’s commitment to continue its engagement with Pakistan in pursuit of the shared goals of promoting peace, security and prosperity.”

Her office added: “Pakistan is a vital partner in the region and has an essential role to play in the resolution of the Afghan conflict.”

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ISAF to retrain troops on civilian casualties: Kabul

KABUL: Nato’s US-led force in Afghanistan will retrain its troops by December 5 on how to avoid civilian casualties, following fresh accusations of civilian killings President Hamid Karzai’s office said on Tuesday.

The move comes with Nato already facing uncomfortable fallout after an air strike killed 24 Pakistani troops near the Afghan border on Saturday.

Karzai’s office quoted a letter from Commander General John Allen as saying he had issued orders “for all units to conduct retraining on our methods of employing force against insurgents while protecting Afghan civilians.”

It added: “No later than 5 December, units will confirm to me that they have complied with these orders.”

The International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) could not immediately confirm the letter.

Pakistan has cut off crucial supply routes to ISAF forces in Afghanistan in retaliation for Saturday’s air strike killing troops across the border.

The issue of civilian casualties has long been highly sensitive in Afghanistan and has fuelled tensions between Karzai and his Western backers.

Karzai last week accused ISAF of killing seven people including six children in an air strike in Zhari district of the southern province of Kandahar.

On Sunday, in the same district three women died while one child and another woman were wounded when an ISAF mortar hit a civilian house, Kandahar governor’s spokesman Zalmai Ayoubi said.

ISAF said it did not have any immediate information on that incident.

Nato commanders say the Taliban and other insurgents frequently hide among the local population in a bid to protect themselves.

However, ISAF forces are supposed to take all possible steps to avoid civilian casualties.

Allen wrote in July that he expected “every member of ISAF to be seized with the intent to eliminate civilian casualties caused by ISAF.”

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Egypt hails election as successful ‘democracy test’

CAIRO: Egypt’s first post-revolution election entered its second day on Tuesday amid pride and triumphalism over the high turn-out and the orderly start to the country’s complex transition to democracy.

“The birth of the new Egypt,” declared the state-owned Al-Akhbar newspaper on Tuesday, hailing the “huge turnout, free voting in a secure atmosphere” witnessed on Monday.

“The people have passed the democracy test,” headlined the independent daily newspaper al-Shorouk on Tuesday. “On the road to democracy,” said English-language Egyptian Mail.

Egyptians in Cairo and the port city Alexandria waited in long queues on Monday to cast ballots for a new parliament – the start of multi-stage elections that are the first since the fall of Hosni Mubarak in February.

On Tuesday, polls opened again, but the volume of people was a trickle rather than the deluge seen the day before.

“I decided to come today to avoid the crowds,” 30-year-old Rafik told AFP in the Heliopolis area of Cairo. “It was important for me to vote because I feel it’s the first time that my opinion is taken into account.”

The formerly banned Muslim Brotherhood, a moderate Islamist group, is widely expected to emerge as the largest power, but without an outright majority, when results for the election are published on January 13.

The backdrop to the vote was ominous after a week of protests calling for the resignation of the interim military rulers who stepped in at the end of Mubarak’s 30-year rule. Forty-two were killed and more than 3,000 injured.

The largely successful first day will be seen by the interim military ruler Field Marshal Hussein Tantawi as vindicating his insistence that voting should go ahead on schedule despite calls for a delay.

Protesters had again occupied Tahrir Square in Cairo, the epicentre of protests against Mubarak, but this time they called for the resignation of Tantawi and his fellow generals.

The demonstrations stemmed from fears that the junta, initially welcomed as a source of stability in the days after Mubarak’s fall, was looking to consolidate its power and was mishandling the transition period.

The only complaints reported by activists on Monday were administrative glitches which delayed the opening of some voting centres and minor violations of electoral law that saw campaigning at some poll booths.

Monday “might very well be seen as a positive step in Egypt’s transition,”wrote political commentator Issandr El-Amrani, referring to the “public buy-in” to democracy and “a symbolic shift” from the army to parliament.

He warned, however,” about the “incompetent” organisation of the election process, which could lead to frustration and violence, as well as the myriad of uncertainties surrounding the army’s role and the transition process.

Voting for the lower house of parliament takes place in three stages starting in Cairo, Alexandria and other areas. The rest of the country votes in December and in January.

Each stage will be followed by a run-off vote a week later.

Once results are published on January 13, the country will then head into another three rounds of voting to elect an upper house in a process widely criticised for it complexity.

Much also remains unclear about how the new parliament will function and whether it will be able to resolve a standoff with the armed forces over how much power they will retain under a new constitution to be written next year.

Ziad Bahaeddine, a columnist with the independent daily al-Shorouk, said that Egyptians still needed to continue demonstrating peacefully to keep pressure on the army to hand over power to civilian leaders.

“Why are we participating in elections taking place in these circumstances… to elect a parliament that will not have full powers according to the military rulers and whose term is unknown?” Bahaeddine wrote.

As well as the Muslim Brotherhood, hardline Islamists, secular parties and groups representing the interests of the former Mubarak regime are all expected to win seats, raising the prospect of a highly fragmented new parliament.

The stakes are high for Egypt, the cultural leader of the Arab world – and the conduct and results of the election will have repercussions for the entire Middle East at a time of wrenching change caused by the Arab Spring.

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Syrian forces killed, tortured 256 children: UN

BEIRUT: A UN investigation has concluded that Syrian forces committed crimes against humanity by killing and torturing hundreds of children, including a 2-year-old girl reportedly shot to death so she wouldn’t grow up to be a demonstrator.

The results of the inquiry, released on Monday, added to mounting international pressure on President Bashar Assad, a day after the Arab League approved sweeping sanctions to push his embattled regime to end the violence.

Syria’s foreign minister called the Arab move ”a declaration of economic war” and warned of retaliation.

The report by a UN Human Rights Council panel found that at least 256 children were killed by government forces between mid-March and early November, some of them tortured to death.

”Torture was applied equally to adults and children,” said the assessment, released in Geneva.

”Numerous testimonies indicated that boys were subjected to sexual torture in places of detention in front of adult men.”

The UN defines a child as anyone under the age of 18.

The report was compiled by a panel of independent experts who were not allowed into Syria.

However, the commission interviewed 223 victims and witnesses, including defectors from Syria’s military and security forces.

The panel said government forces were given ”shoot to kill” orders to crush demonstrations.

Some troops ”shot indiscriminately at unarmed protesters,” while snipers targeted others in the upper body or head, it said.

It quoted one former soldier who said he decided to defect after witnessing an officer shoot a 2-year-old girl in Latakia, then claim he killed her so she wouldn’t grow up to be a demonstrator.

The list of alleged crimes committed by Syrian forces ”include murder, torture, rape and other forms of sexual violence,” said the panel’s chairman, Paulo Sergio Pinheiro, a Brazilian professor. ”We have a very solid body of evidence.”

At least 3,500 people have been killed since March in Syria, according to the UN the bloodiest regime response against the Arab Spring protests sweeping the Middle East.

Deaths in Egypt, Tunisia and Yemen have numbered in the hundreds; while Libya’s toll is unknown and likely higher, the conflict there differs from Syria’s because it descended into outright civil war between two armed sides.

The UN investigation is the latest in a growing wave of international measures pressuring Damascus to end its crackdown, and comes on the heels of sweeping sanctions approved Sunday by the Arab League.

Syrian officials did not comment directly on the UN findings.

However, the regime reacted sharply to the Arab sanctions, betraying a deep concern over the economic impact and warning that Syria could strike back.

Foreign Minister Walid al-Moallem called the Arab League action ”a declaration of economic war” and said Syria had withdrawn 95 per cent of its assets in Arab countries.

Economy Minister Mohammed Nidal al-Shaar said ”sources of foreign currency would be affected” by the sanctions, reflecting concerns that Arab investment in Syria will fall off and transfers from Syrians living in other Arab countries will drop.

Al-Moallem said Syria had means to retaliate.

”Sanctions are a two-way street,” he warned in a televised news conference.

”We don’t want to threaten anyone, but we will defend the interests of our people,” he added, suggesting Syria might use its position as a geographical keystone in the heart of the Middle East to disrupt trade between Arab countries.

Chaos in Syria could send unsettling ripples across the region.

Syria borders five countries with which it shares religious and ethnic minorities.

As they struggled with ways to respond to Assad’s brutal crackdown, world leaders have been all too aware of the country’s web of allegiances, which extend to Lebanon’s powerful Hezbollah movement and Iran’s Shiite theocracy.

The latest sanctions include cutting off transactions with Syria’s central bank, and are expected to squeeze an ailing economy that already is under sanctions by the US and the European Union.

The net effect of the Arab sanctions could deal a crippling blow to Syria’s economy.

”We’ve always said that global sanctions, without Arab sanctions, will not be as effective,” said Said Hirsh, Mideast economist with Capital Economics in London.

Some 60 per cent of Syria’s exports go to Arab countries, and analysts concede the sanctions’ effectiveness will hinge largely on whether Arab countries enforce them.

Iraq and Lebanon, which abstained from the Arab League vote, may continue to be markets for Syrian goods, in defiance of the sanctions.

Syria shares long borders with both countries and moving goods in and out would be easy.

Still, there is no question the uprising is eviscerating Syria’s economy. Hirsh said forecasts indicate it will contract by 5 percent this year and could shrink by another 10 per cent in 2012 if sanctions are enforced and the Assad regime stays in power.

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US general to head probe into Nato strike

WASHINGTON: The US military on Monday named an Air Force general to lead an investigation into allied air strikes that left 24 Pakistani soldiers dead and provoked outrage in Islamabad.

Pakistan has reacted with fury and cut off crucial supply routes to Nato-led forces in Afghanistan after Saturday’s incident near a checkpoint in the eastern Afghan province of Kunar.

The chief of US Central Command appointed Brigadier General Stephen Clark, from Air Force Special Operations Command in Florida, as the investigating officer for the probe that will also include a Nato representative, officials said.

The governments of Afghanistan and Pakistan “will be invited to participate,” Central Command said in a statement.

Central Command, which oversees US forces in the Middle East and Afghanistan, wanted to “include these government representatives to the maximum extent possible to determine what happened and preclude it from happening again.” The Nato-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) sent an initial assessment team over the weekend to the border to look into the incident.

Pakistan has charged the air strikes were unprovoked, while Afghan and Western officials reportedly say Pakistani forces opened fire first.

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‘Fatal Nato raid likely case of mistaken ID’

WASHINGTON: A US military account of a Nato air strike that killed 24 Pakistani soldiers during the weekend suggests the deaths resulted from a case of mistaken identity, The Associated Press learned Monday.

The AP has learned details of the raid, which began when a joint US-Afghan special operations team was attacked by militants just inside Afghanistan.

It ended when Nato gunships and attack helicopters fired on two encampments they thought were used by militants but actually were Pakistan border posts, the military account said.

US officials say the account suggests that the Taliban may have deliberately tried to provoke a cross-border firefight that would set back fragile partnerships between the US and Nato forces and Pakistani soldiers at the ill-defined border.

According to the US military records described to the AP, the joint US and Afghan patrol requested backup after being hit by mortar and small arms fire by Taliban militants in the early hours Saturday.

Officials described the records on condition of anonymity to discuss classified matters.

Before responding, the joint US-Afghan patrol first checked with the Pakistani army, which reported it had no troops in the area, the military account said.

Some two hours later, still hunting the insurgents who had by now apparently fled in the direction of Pakistani border posts, the US commander spotted what he thought was a militant encampment, with heavy weapons mounted on tripods.

The exact location of the border is in dispute in several areas.

Then the joint patrol called for the air strikes which occurred at 2:21 a.m. Pakistani time, not realising the encampment was apparently the Pakistani border post.

Records show the aerial response included Apache attack helicopters and an AC-130 gunship.

US officials are working on the assumption the Taliban chose the location for the first attack, to create just such confusion, and draw US and Pakistani forces into firing on each other, according to US officials briefed on the operation.

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