6A • THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
NEWS
TUESDAY,OCT.16,2001
Sharon coalition weakens
The Associated Press
JERUSALEM — Trying to keep his coalition from unraveling, Prime Minister Ariel Sharon warned ultranationalist defectors yesterday that if they brought him down, they would only help Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat.
"You made his (Arafat)'s day," an angry Sharon told his former allies in a speech on the opening of parliament's winter session.
The first crack in Sharon's broad-based government appeared yesterday, when the National Union party said it was leaving because of Israel's troop pullback from some Palestinian areas. It signaled a growing division about a U.S.-led push toward a return to peace talks with the Palestinians.
Sharon put together an eightparty coalition after his landslide election victory in February.
The departure of the National Union, which has seven seats in the 120-member parliament, did not rob Sharon of his majority — his coalition still controls 76 seats in the legislature. However, the defection served as a warning that Sharon's government could quickly unravel if he resumed peace talks with the Palestinians.
The National Union left after the government carried out one of its truce promises — a troop pullback yesterday from two Palestinian neighborhoods in the West Bank town of Hebron. Israel had seized the areas 10 days earlier to stop shootings on Jewish settler enclaves.
Party leaders said they also quit to protest perceived U.S. pressure on Israel to make concessions to the Palestinians.
Palestinian officials confirmed last week that the United States was working on a peace initiative that called for the establishment of a Palestinian state with a foothold in Jerusalem. U.S. officials have not commented on the details but have said the plan might be made public during the U.N. General Assembly in November.
The United States is trying to cultivate Arab support as it retaliates for Sept. 11 terror attacks on New York and Washington. Several Arab leaders have said it is important to them to see progress in resolving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
In his parliament speech,
Sharon tried to allay concerns of
his traditional right-wing constituency.
"I am not subject to any pressure, and I do not intend to make any compromise on issues that endanger Israel's security." Sharon said.
Sharon warned that twice in the past decade, the defections of hard-liners from right-wing governments had brought dovish parties to power — and led to Israeli concessions to the Palestinians.
"I ask you, my friends, what do you want?" he said. "A campaign against terror or an election campaign."
Turning to the National Union leaders, Sharon said: "You have caused me great distress. To Arafat, on the other hand, you have given great satisfaction ... You made his day."
However, one of the National Union's leaders, Tourism Minister Rehawan Zeevi, said Sharon
was going back on his promises. "We do not want to be in the Oslo government," Zeevi said, referring to the interim peace accords signed by Sharon's predecessors and named after the Norwegian capital.
A dispute also broke out between the military chief of staff, Lt. Gen. Shaul Mofaz, and his boss, Defense Minister Binyamin Ben-Eliezer — also against the backdrop of the Hebron pullback.
back.
On Sunday, Mofaz issued a statement saying he opposed the pullback because it might endanger the lives of Israeli civilians and soldiers. Army commanders are routinely consulted by the government about security matters but are not permitted to voice public criticism of Cabinet decisions.
On Sunday, Ben-Eliezer announced he had reprimanded Mofaz, who has nine months left of his four-year term.
Several newspaper commentators and dovish politicians, including Labor legislator Yossi Beilin, demanded that Mofaz resign.
resign.
Mofaz said yesterday he would not quit, despite the rebuke. He said the wording of his statement was unfortunate and that he had not intended to challenge government authority.
Mofaz has attracted criticism by dovish Israelis and many Arabs. They say the army has used excessive force against the Palestinians in the year-old Palestinian uprising.
India fires rockets at Pakistan
The Associated Press
India said the attacks were launched to punish Pakistan for aiding Islamic militants in the disputed province.
JAMMU, India — The Indian army fired mortar shells and rockets at Pakistani positions across the cease-fire line in Kashmir yesterday and said it had caused "widespread damage and destruction."
It was the heaviest fighting in 10 months along the volatile border. India's Defense Ministry said 12 guerrillas were killed in the fighting, while an army statement said 11 had died. Pakistan, in turn, said that Indian shelling had killed a woman and injured 25 other civilians. Claims by the two sides could not immediately be reconciled.
The clashes took place while U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell was in Pakistan. He was scheduled to be in India today during his mission to the subcontinent, aimed in part at easing tensions between the two nuclear-armed South Asian neighbors. They have fought two wars about the divided Himalayan province in the past 50 years.
50 years. India's government is worried Washington overlooks its allegations that Pakistan supports terrorism. Islamabad says it offers the insurgents only moral aid in
their 12-year fight to separate Kashmir from India.
Washington, however, has praised Pakistan for its help in the campaign to force Afghanistan to turn over Osama bin Laden, accused in the Sept. 11 attacks, and relations between the countries have improved.
In Washington, President Bush said he was looking into the reports of fighting.
"I think it is very important that India and Pakistan stand down during our activities in Afghanistan,"Bush said.
Agents Powell's mission was "to talk to both sides about making sure that if there are tensions — and obviously there are — that they be reduced," Bush said.
In yesterday's operation, Indian forces used artillery, rockets, mortars, grenade launchers and machine guns after Pakistani soldiers sneaked into Indian territory in Akhnoor and damaged three power transformers, said Indian Brig. P.C. Das.
A statement from the Army Media Center said the Indian fire was partly in response to that attack.
The fighting was the most intense this year, and the first large-scale shooting across the frontier since mid-July, when both armies exchanged fire during the three-day summit
between Indian and Pakistani leaders. The summit ended in a deadlock, not knowing how to solve the half-century dispute about the divided Himalayan province.
A Pakistani army representative, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Pakistani paramilitary rangers responded to Indian shelling and "inflicted considerable damage" to Indian positions. He said the Indian fire killed a woman and 25 civilians, as well as damaging houses.
Gen. Rashid Quereshi, representative for Pakistan's military-led government, accused India of unprovoked firing on civilians, the state-run Associated Press of Pakistan reported.
Quereshi also questioned the timing of the attack, coming as Powell visits Pakistan. He implied it was part of an attempt by India to call attention to its allegations that Pakistan was implicated in terrorism.
After an Oct. 1 car bombing that killed 40 people at India's Jammu-Kashmir state legislature, An Indian official wrote to Bush saying Pakistan should understand there was a "limit to India's patience."
Airstrikes continue in Afghanistan
The Associated Press
KABUL, Afghanistan — Huge explosions shook the Afghan capital day and night yesterday, sending terrified residents scurrying for shelter, as U.S. jets pounded suspected weapons storage sites in Kabul and across the country.
the country. Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld, speaking at the Pentagon, suggested U.S. airstrikes could start focusing on Taliban front-line positions facing Afghan opposition fighters in the northeast of the country.
He said U.S. planes had so far avoided that because of incomplete targeting information. But he said that might soon change.
soon change.
The opposition alliance claimed yesterday it had advanced close to Mazar-e-Sharif, the largest city in the north and that some 4,000 Taliban troops defected during the
detection claim.
The attacks yesterday against Kabul started just before sunrise and continued into the night. Taliban gunners fired in vain at the attacking planes, some so high they could not be heard from the ground.
One bomb exploded near a U.N. World Food Program warehouse on the northern edge of Kabul, slightly injuring one Afghan employee, U.N. representative Khaled Mansour said in Pakistan.
weekend. The Taliban denied the defection claim.
In the Jalabad area of eastern Afghanistan, U.S. jets struck the regional military headquarters near the airport and Tora-Bora, a suspected terrorist training camp of Osama bin Laden.
In other developments yesterday:
Musharraf and discussed reopening military ties.
The U.S. military has paid millions to buy exclusive rights to some of the commercial sector's best satellite imagery of Afghanistan - aiming to prevent the Taliban from controlling it.
U. S. Secretary of State Colin Powell arrived in Pakistan and met with President Pervez
The Taliban Information Ministry claimed 12 people died yesterday during a raid in western Badgus province. The Taliban said some 200 civilians were killed Thursday when U.S. jets attacked the village of Karam in eastern Afghanistan.
eastern Afghanistan. In Washington, Rumsfeld said some of the Taliban casualty claims were "ridiculous." But he acknowledged that some Afghan civilians had been killed unintentionally, without offering specific numbers.
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