Deutsche Welle
English Service News
August 4th, 2001, 16:00 UTC
Israel has launched more missile attacks against Palestianian
activists. On Saturday two missiles were fired at a convoy of cars
carrying a senior leader of Palestinian President Yasser Arafat's
Fatah faction. Nobody was killed in the attack. West Bank Fatah
leader Marwan Barghouthi said missiles were fired at two cars
outside Ramallah, but they did not hit his vehicle. He denounced
the attack as a failed assassination attempt and said it would
increase tensions in the region. Barghouthi is an influential
figure in the 10-month-old Palestinian uprising against Israeli
occupation. The Israeli army declined to comment officially, but a
military source denied that Barghouthi was the intended target. An
Israeli security source said the target had been the car carrying a
member of Arafat's Force-17 presidential bodyguard. Israel's policy
of selected targeting of Palestinian militants has drawn widespread
international criticism, but the Jewish state defends the policy as
"active self-defence" against those planning attacks on Israelis.
Two Serb policemen have been killed and two wounded in what police
believe was an attack by ethnic Albanian guerrillas in southern
Serbia. The attack came after months of relative calm. Until now
there have been no serious incidents of violence in the remote and
hilly Serb region east of Kosovo, where the 16-month-long local
Albanian guerrilla insurgency ended in May.
In India's Jammu and Kashmir state, suspected separatist Muslim
guerrillas are believed to have killed 17 Hindu villagers, according
to police sources. In Pakistan, however, two Kashmiri militant
groups condemned the killings and accused Indian security forces of
being behind the attack. Police said the villagers had gone to buy
provisions for the coming winter when they were attacked, taken
hostage and killed. An indefinite curfew has been imposed in the
area because of tension after the killings. Police said so far no
group had claimed responsibility. Violence has escalated in the
Himalayan region since a summit last month between India and
Pakistan failed to produce concrete results. Nearly 150 people,
mostly rebels, have been killed since the summit ended.
Russia and North Korea have said they opposed a U.S. plan to build a
missile defence shield, saying Washington's fears were groundless.
On his visit to Moscow, North Korean Leader Kim Jong-il also told
Russian President Vladimir Putin on Saturday that Pyongyang would
stick to a moratorium on missile launches until 2003. Putin's top
foreign policy adviser said the assurance had been given during
talks and the signing of a declaration stating that Pyongyang's
missile programme was not intended to threaten the security of other
nations. The United States says it intends to build a missile
defence shield to protect it from attacks from "rogue states" like
North Korea. Russia and China are key opponents of the plan, saying
it could lead to a new arms race.
Muslim rebels in the Philippines have beheaded four more hostages
believed to be among more than 30 villagers kidnapped on the
southern island of Basilan, a military official said on Saturday.
The latest killing brings to nine the number of Christian hostages
executed by the Abu Sayyaf militia since Thursday's raid on a
village in Basilan, 900 km south of the capital Manila. The
self-styled Abu Sayyaf rebels claim to be fighting for an
independent Islamic state in the south of the mainly Catholic
Philippines, but their main activity is kidnapping for ransom.
European Union foreign policy chief Javier Solana is due to visit
Macedonia on Sunday. On his one-day visit, Solana is expected to
meet with Macedonian President Boris Trajkovski and as well as with
the parties involved in the current peace talks. Solana has visited
Macedonia several times over the past few months in an attempt to
push forward negotiations on improving ethnic Albanian rights which
could persuade the rebels to disarm. Solana's spokeswoman said his
visit was a signal of support for peace dialogue and a message that
the EU would like to have a final deal as soon as possible.
Three senior Bosnian Muslim army officers charged with war crimes
against Bosnian Croats are in custody in The Hague. The tribunal
said the indictment against two retired army generals and an active
brigadier covered crimes committed in 1993-94 during a period of
vicious fighting between Muslims and Croats. The three were
detained on Thursday by police from Bosnia's Muslim-Croat federation
and transferred by plane to the Netherlands with the help of
NATO-led peacekeeping troops. They are the most senior Bosnian
Muslims yet to be charged with war crimes by the U.N. court.
Britain's Queen Mother is celebrating her 101st birthday today, just
days after being treated in the hospital for anaemia. She showed
little sign of ill health as she appeared before thousands of
well-wishers outside of her central London residence. The Queen
Mother is still seen as a symbol of wartime resistance to Nazi
Germany. Her daughter is the reigning Queen Elizabeth.
Serbian News Network - SNN
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