Extracts.
Anti-War Demonstrators March in Washington. A few thousand anti-war demonstrators marched through the nation's capital Saturday, some dressed as doves of peace and others waving signs with anti-war sentiments such as ''War will not bring our loved ones back.'' Much larger protests had been planned for this weekend to oppose policies of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund. But the financial meetings were canceled after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks and the protesters' anti-globalization cause was transformed into a call for peace. The protests were mainly peaceful, but police in riot gear used pepper spray on demonstrators at least once during a morning march led by an anarchist group. Police arrested some protesters at the skirmish, said a police spokeswoman, but she couldn't provide more details. In another incident, District of Columbia Assistant Police Chief Terrance Gainer was sprayed in the face with something that brought him to his knees. Two officers helped him behind police barricades and he later returned to work. Many protesters had canceled their trip to Washington after the attacks, but some groups just shifted to an anti-war theme. The protesters also condemned the backlash against Arabs and Muslims and say the Bush administration has used the attacks as an excuse to curtail civil liberties. Marching protesters chanted "no war" and occasionally ran through the streets, forcing scores of police in heavy body armor to keep up. The turnout on Saturday was smaller than organizers said they expected at the two separate demonstrations. The Washington Peace Center and other groups planned another march for Sunday. Some protesters were motivated by personal experiences with the attacks. **** White House Confirms US, British Special Forces Entering Afghanistan. White House Confirms US, British Special Forces Entering Afghanistan US and British special forces have conducted operations in Afghanistan and the Central Asian region, a senior White House official told CNN Friday. The military operations, described as routinely done to scout out the situation when forces are deployed to a region, were conducted "in the region" and "in country," meaning Afghanistan, said the official, who asked not to be identified. However, US Defense Department spokeswoman Victoria Clarke refused to comment on the US and British operations in Afghanistan. The Pentagon was not making any comment on operations, Clarke said. USA Today reported Friday that elite US and British commandos arrived in Pakistan <http://english.peopledaily.com.cn/data/pakistan.html> on September 13 -- two days after the terrorist attacks on New York and Washington, and began moving into Afghanistan with orders to capture or kill Saudi-born Islamic militant Osama bin Laden. The United States has singled out bin Laden as the prime suspect in last week's hijacked airliner attacks on the World Trade Center in New York and the Defense Department building in Washington that left more than 6,000 people dead or missing. USA Today quoted US and Pakistani officials as saying that teams of three to five US and British commandos backed by Black Hawk MH-60K helicopters have been searching for bin Laden in caves and bunkers in southwestern Afghanistan near Kandahar. The paper said several elite military units were involved in the effort to find bin Laden, including the US Army's Green Berets, Navy's SEALS and the British Army's Special Air Services. Bush Rules Out talks, Demands Osama. U.S. President George W Bush ruled out negotiations with the Taliban on Friday, demanding anew they turn over Osama bin Laden and his followers and destroy their "terrorist camps". Courting Islamic support for his "war on terrorism" during a meeting with Jordan's King Abdullah, the first Arab head of state to visit the White House since the September 11 attacks, Bush said Osama bin Laden and his al-Qaeda organisation "don't represent Islam ... they represent evil." "There is no negotiation with the Taliban," Bush told reporters before talks with Abdullah. "They heard what I said, now they can act." "It's not just Mr bin Laden that we expect to see and brought to justice. It's everybody associated with his organisation that's in Afghanistan <http://www.peopledaily.com.cn/english/data/afghanistan.html> and not only those directly associated with Mr bin Laden, but any terrorist that's housed and fed in Afghanistan needs to be handed over. And finally, we expect there to be complete destruction of terrorist camps. That's what I told them. That's what I mean," he said. Declining to respond to media reports that US special forces had been operating inside Afghanistan in the past few days or to discuss military operations in general, Bush said that he was aware of how hard it would be "to fight a guerrilla war with conventional forces". But he added: "Make no mistake about it, we're in hot pursuit." Jordan, one of Washington's strongest allies in the Middle East, has voiced caution in formulating a response and joined other Arab leaders in saying that an important component must be resolving the Arab-Israel <http://english.peopledaily.com.cn/data/israel.html> i conflict. "I have assured His Majesty that our war is against evil, not against Islam," Bush told reporters with Abdullah by his side in the Oval Office. "The al-Qaeda people don't represent Islam as far as America is concerned," Bush said. "They represent evil. They're evil people and that's not the Muslim faith that I know and understand, nor is it the Muslim faith of millions of Americans who are proud and devout Muslims." Abdullah assured Bush he had Jordan's "full, unequivocal support" and said most Arabs and Muslims would join the battle "to put an end to this horrible scourge of international terrorism." "As the president so well put it, what these people stand for is completely against all the principles that Arab Muslims believe in," he said. "And so, on those principles alone, I think it'll be very, very easy for people to stand together." **** Security Council Adopts Anti-Terror Resolution. The UN Security Council on Friday night voted 15-0 to adopt an anti-terror resolution, demanding that all nations freeze finances of suspected terrorists and crack down on groups that help them. The measure, backed by the threat of sanctions or military force, dramatically expands the U.N. role in the global war on terrorism. It also requires countries to deny "safe haven" to anyone responsible for, or supporting a terror attack, and criminalizes the financing of such attacks. The resolution was adopted as international law less than three weeks after terror attacks on the United States, in which more than 6,000 people are missing or killed. The resolution said that the 15-nation council slammed the September 11 attacks on New York and Washington as "a threat to international peace and security." U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan was present at the council chamber as the council members were convening an open meeting to vote on the draft resolution. Many of the provisions in the resolution are contained in treaties some countries have ratified or are expected to. But the new resolution, sponsored by the United States, was adopted under Chapter 7 of the U.N. Charter, which stipulates economic and diplomatic sanctions or the use of military force against countries which fail to comply with Security Council decisions. The main thrust of the resolution is on the financing of clandestine networks. It would freeze financial assets of people who have committed, or attempted to commit, terrorist acts or participated in groups owned or controlled directly or indirectly by such people. The resolution also set up a special Security Council committee and told all governments to report to it within 90 days on steps they had taken to carry out the resolution. Governments must also: -- Criminalize the wilful raising, directly or indirectly, of funds known to be used for terrorist acts; -- Freeze without delay financial assets and economic resources of people who have committed or attempted to commit terrorist acts; -- Prohibit their nationals or anyone on their territory from making funds or similar services available to terrorists; -- "Refrain from providing any form of support, including political or diplomatic, active or passive" to terrorists; -- "Deny safe haven to those who finance, plan, support or commit terrorist acts" and to those who harbor them; -- Ensure that terrorists are brought to justice and appropriately punished; -- Give each other "the greatest measure of assistance in connection with criminal investigations" into acts of terrorism; and -- Put effective controls on borders and passports and identity papers into place. The resolution does not define a terrorist and does not identify anyone suspected of the attacks on the United States. **** Russia, China Stress Anti-terror Operations Should Respect UN Charter. Top Russian and Chinese diplomats on Friday stressed that any anti-terror operation must be conducted under the United Nations Charter tenet and principles as well as norms of international law, and should help promote long-term peace and development of the world. Such a consensus was reached at a meeting between Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Losyukov and Chinese Assistant Foreign Minister Liu Guchang in Moscow. Relevant senior experts from the two countries took part in the talks. The two sides discussed the international situation, especially developments in Afghanistan and its neighboring states, after the September 11 terror attacks in the US. Both sides agreed that terrorism, regardless of its form, poses a serious threat and challenge to global peace and security, and that the international community should make firm and decisive measures to fight against this evil. However, all operations aimed to crack down on terrorism should not go beyond the spirit and principles of the UN Charter and basic norms of international law and must have specific targets and conclusive evidence. In such operations, it is necessary to avoid hurting innocent people as well as to boost global peace and development, the two sides emphasized. The diplomats expressed their countries' readiness to strengthen anti-terror cooperation, and reiterated the great importance of the relevant statements signed by prime ministers of the countries of the Shanghai <http://english.peopledaily.com.cn/data/province/Shanghai.html> Cooperation Organization (SCO) on September 14, vowing to boost the positive role of the SCO. The two sides agreed to hold the next round of consultations in Beijing in the near future. **** Taliban Agrees to Talk Again with Pakistan amid Pressure. Afghanistan's ruling Taliban have agreed to talk again with Pakistan officials as pressure mounted on the hardline Muslim puritans to hand over the world's most wanted man, Osama bin Laden, and avoid the wrath of the US military. Revered Pakistani Muslim clerics and the country's chief spymaster returned emptyhanded late on Friday after failing to persuade Afghanistan's ruling Taliban to hand over Osama bin Laden -- if in fact they discussed him at all. Under siege from the rest of the world over their hospitality to bin Laden, and under attack from opposition fighters within, the Taliban's position has never appeared more perilous since they seized control of the country five years ago. The clerics said their aim was not to discuss bin Laden, but to focus on talks on how to avoid war. However, Taliban officials themselves raised the issue of US demands for the surrender of the Saudi-born fugitive wanted by the United States <http://www.peopledaily.com.cn/english/data/usa.html> in connection with the devastating September 11 attacks on New York and Washington. "Discusion of Osama was not on our agenda," delegation member Mufti Mohammad Jameel said in Karachi on Saturday. "But the Afghan Foreign Minister and Deputy Foreign Minister themselves spoke about Osama and said the Taliban will not hand over Osama," he said. Washington has vowed to hunt down the Saudi-born fugitive and punish the Taliban for having protected him since 1996. The revered Islamic scholars from Pakistan, who were accompanied on Friday to the southern stronghold of the Taliban leader, Mullah Mohammad Omar, in Kandahar by Pakistan spymaster General Mahmood Ahmed, said their goal in the talks was peace and they had taken with them no agenda. The 10-member delegation came back saying both sides had signed a declaration that agreed to further talks. "The delegation talked to (Taliban leader) Mullah Mohammad Omar and with senior officials of the government," the Taliban's consul in Karachi, Rahmatullah Kakazada, said. "They decided on future delegations to discuss further cooperation," he said. The clerics are adherents to the Deobandi school of Islam from where the Taliban draw their strict interpretation of the Koran. Pakistan government officials had hoped they might persuade Omar of the gravity of his situation and had sent along General Mahmood Ahmed, head of the Inter-Services Intelligence agency, to Kandahar to present Islamabad's view. The 10-member delegation, over a lunch of boiled rice, meat, lassi (yoghurt drink) as well as grapes and pomegranates with Omar, agreed on the need for more such meetings, Jameel said. GUNFIRE IN THE HILLS In the hills around Kandahar, Taliban fighters were seen preparing their defences for a possble US attacks, some of Friday's visitors said. And indeed, as the team flew into Kandahar, residents of Kabul scurried for cover as the sound of anti-aircraft fire echoed around the hills surrounding the capital. It was just a test of the Taliban's defences, but highlighted the growing sense of insecurity among Afghanistan's people as a US attack loomed. The United States is preparing the groundwork to bomb military installations in Afghanistan, according to a television news report on Friday, which said US planes would also drop leaflets and food for the Afghan people. ABC News said on its "World News Tonight" broadcast that special forces already said to be on the ground in the landlocked central Asian nation were laying the groundwork for a campaign that would begin with the bombing of a number of strategic military installations of the ruling Taliban government, especially those related to air defence. Taliban officials said bin Laden was believed to have by now received a hand-delivered fatwa (edict) from 1,000 of Afghanistan's leading clerics issued on September 20. But no response had been received yet to the request for him to leave the country of his own free will and in his own time. The Taliban earlier had said bin Laden was missing. That fatwa was endorsed by Omar, the Taliban's reclusive spiritual leader, and the message that bin Laden should voluntarily go was one of the themes of sermons at Friday prayers in the capital. But defiance was another, and preachers called on the population to fight if the United States does attack. "Jihad is the only way, and we will not sit quietly by if America attacks us," said a preacher at one of the city's main mosques. "All Muslims must defend their brothers and Osama in Afghanistan if that becomes the bottom line." LAST DIPLOMATIC CHANNEL Pakistan, which gave the Taliban key early backing and helped them to seize power, is now the only country with diplomatic relations with the Afghan leadership and the last conduit through which any attempt to avoid conflict can be channelled. On Friday, US civil rights leader Jesse Jackson said he was leaning against travelling to Afghanistan for discussions on bin Laden, but had made no final decision. Such a scenario is seen as unlikely since Jackson is a Christian minister and Omar has met only two non-Muslims in his life. Despite Omar's perilous position, he has responded defiantly so far by demanding evidence of bin Laden's involvement in the attacks on New York's World Trade Center and the Pentagon. The Taliban have refused to hand over bin Laden, citing a centuries-old Afghan tradition that insists on hospitality for all who request help + even at risk to the host's life. The normally reclusive Omar has been unusually vocal of late, suggesting his grip on the Taliban may not be as secure as it once was. He has ordered all Afghans to return to their homes after the United Nations reported millions of people on the move, either trying to flee the country or at least the cities for the safety of the countryside. And he has warned his people that anyone helping the United States would face the wrath of his holy warriors. **** Residency Reforms to Allow Better Flow of Labourers. One of the most powerful social controls in China will be relaxed significantly on Monday when new rules go into effect allowing tens of millions of rural residents to seek prosperity in small cities and towns. The changes in the rules governing residency permits, or hukou, represent a big step towards dismantling a system that for nearly 50 years has made, restricting the rural majority in free flow in some way. Under the rules, rural residents will be allowed to apply for permanent residence in small cities and towns if they have jobs and home addresses, according to the scmp.com. That freedom of movement will come amid the Government's push to accelerate urbanisation. More than 840 million of China's 1.27 billion citizens live in rural areas, even though the agricultural economy is weak and burdened by an estimated 160 million surplus workers who cannot earn a better living only on family farms. By permitting rural residents to move to cities, the Government hopes not only to relieve rural poverty, but also to ease social demands in poor rural areas. Urban residents generally have higher incomes and more access to social services. The easing of the permit is also aimed at helping the economy by allowing firms to recruit skilled workers more freely, according to Zeng Xiangquan, dean of the School of Labour Relations and Human Resources at Renmin University <http://www.ruc.edu.cn/> of China in Beijing <http://english.peopledaily.com.cn/data/province/beijing.html> . "Now that China is developing a market economy and is about to join the World Trade Organisation, it must make better use of its human resources, and to come up with a strategy of making good use of talented people." he said. A so-called floating population of perhaps 100 million rural residents has migrated to cities in recent years. Many have been granted temporary residency permits, but they live without the rights and privileges of those with urban hukou. **** US Citizen for Espionage Activities Expelled. A citizen of the United States named Wu Jianming Friday was expelled from China Friday by the state security department of south China's Guangdong Province. Sources at the Ministry of the State Security said that Wu was employed by the intelligence agency of Taiwan <http://english.peopledaily.com.cn/data/province/taiwan.html> , and conducted espionage activities on the Chinese mainland many times, seriously jeopardizing the national security of China. Because he confessed to his crimes and disclosed his accomplices' criminal activities, Wu received light punishment, and the Chinese state security department decided to expel him from China, sources noted. Wu, born in 1951 in North China's Hebei Province, went to the United States in 1989. He became a U.S. citizen in 1996. _________________________________________________ KOMINFORM P.O. 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