Five Kurdish rebels killed in clashes with army

DIYARBAKIR: Turkish armed forces killed five Kurdish rebels in clashes in Turkey”s southeast Batman province that also left two soldiers wounded, the provincial government said Monday.

The clashes between the army and members of the separatist Kurdistan Workers” Party (PKK) took place late Sunday near the town of Besiri in a rural area of Batman province, the local government”s statement said.

Among the rebels killed was a woman, it added.

Earlier on Sunday, a roadside bomb, planted by PKK rebels, killed three Turkish soldiers in the province of Mardin, which borders Batman.

Police in Diyarbakir, the main city in Turkey”s Kurdish majority southeast, also last week seized some 90 kilogrammes (198 pounds) of plastic explosives from the Kurdish rebels, local governor Mustafa Toprak announced Monday.

Toprak claimed the PKK wanted to commit “spectacular” attacks with the explosives which he said were capable of destroying a 10-storey building.

The PKK, listed as a terrorist group by Turkey and much of the international community, took up arms for self-rule in the Kurdish-majority southeast in 1984, sparking a conflict that has claimed around 45,000 lives.

The rebels have significantly stepped up attacks since their jailed leader Abdullah Ocalan declared in May that he was abandoning efforts to seek dialogue with Ankara and the PKK ended a unilateral ceasefire in June.

Spains Catalonia on verge of banning bullfighting

MADRID: Bullfighting in Spain could suffer its biggest setback to date on Wednesday when the local parliament in Catalonia votes on whether to ban the practice in the separatist-minded northeastern region.

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Spains Catalonia on verge of banning bullfighting

China Blasts Dalai Lama’s Speech

China lashed out at the Dalai Lama on Thursday after the exiled Tibetan spiritual leader gave a speech in which he said Buddhists were living in prison-like conditions and expressed sympathy with the people of Xinjiang.
The speech, given to mark the 51st anniversary of his flight from Tibet to India, drew official Chinese ire at a regular Foreign Ministry news briefing in Beijing.
“The Dalai Lama made another statement yesterday, this is nothing new. In the past few years, year on year, the Dalai Lama has distorted the true situation in Tibet, and attacked and insulted the central government’s policies in Tibet, to trumpet his separatist claims of independence or semi-independence,” Foreign Ministry spokesman Qin Gang told journalists. China calls the 1989 Nobel Peace Prize winner a dangerous separatist, pointing to his speech in which he referred to Xinjiang as “East Turkestan”, the name given to it by pro-independence exiles. The region is populated by the ethnic minority Uighurs, a Turkic-speaking largely Muslim people. Ethnic violence in Xinjiang last year between Uighurs and Han led to at least 200 deaths.
“Regarding his mentioning of his sympathy with East Turkestan, this exposes and proves his intent on splitting up China and wrecking ethnic unity,” Qin said. In his speech the Dalai Lama also said Beijing had put monks and nuns “in prison-like conditions”, making “monasteries function more like museums … to deliberately annihilate Buddhism”.

Back Channel Contacts for Pakistan and India Dialogue

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan: Back Channel Contacts for Pakistan and India Dialogue, Pakistan and India have been engaged in back channel diplomacy as Kashmiri leaders and interlocutors are in contact with Hurriyat.

The sources of Foreign Office in Islamabad have confirmed former foreign secretary Riaz Mohammed Khan has been engaged in dialogue with Indian representatives in Hong Kong.

The president had given responsibility of restoration of the track II dialogue to Riaz Mohammed Khan.
According to the sources, in the first phase the sides were focusing on restoration of the composite dialogue and back channel diplomacy to create a consensus over the mechanism.

In second phase Kashmiri leaders would also taken into the fold of the dialogue and a Hurriyat delegation led by Mirwaiz Umar Farooque will visit Pakistan after Eid ul Azha.

“We will be visiting Pakistan immediately after Eid ul Azha. We want the separatist leadership other than Hurriyat to join us as well. Pakistan wants to get input from Kashmiri leadership before entering into any sort of composite dialogue with New Delhi.

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Back Channel Contacts for Pakistan and India Dialogue was first posted on November 18, 2009 at 4:04 pm.

Canada Triples Aid to Sri Lanka

Canada has decided to triple its humanitarian aid to Sri Lanka to assist people displaced by the country’s conflict with Tamil separatists, Canada’s top development minister has said.

The move came after Minister of International Cooperation Beverley Oda spent three days visiting the island nation and will take Canada’s total aid contributions to Sri Lanka from 7.5 million to 22.5 million Canadian dollars (USD 20 million).

Oda on Friday visited a camp for displaced people in Vavuniya as part of her three-day official visit in the wake of Sri Lanka’s violent conflict with the separatist Tamil Tigers rebel group.

The lengthy government campaign against the rebel group effectively crushed the separatist movement, culminating in final brutal days of fighting in mid-May, but also resulted in massive displacement of the local civilian population.

“Canada is deeply concerned about the ongoing humanitarian situation in Sri Lanka,” Oda said yesterday. “During my visit to the displaced persons camp in Vavuniya, I witnessed the need of those who are living there.”

“I am pleased that Canada is increasing its support to our partners in their work to provide basic humanitarian support to meet the needs of people affected by the conflict.”

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Canada Triples Aid to Sri Lanka

Hurriyat Conference urges people in Kashmir to shun election

SRINAGAR: The All Parties Hurriyat Conference, India-held Kashmir’s main separatist alliance on Friday appealed to the people of the region to boycott India’s general election, prompting authorities to place two separatist leaders under house arrest.

The decision by the alliance, which bands nearly a dozen political, social and separatist groups, comes after United Jihad Council (UJC) asked the separatist alliance to support their call to shun the poll.

UJC is an amalgam of 13 groups fighting Indian troops in Jammu and Kashmir, the country’s only Muslim-majority state.

“Elections are no substitute for the aspirations of the Kashmiri people and for the resolution of the dispute,” Hurriyat Chairman Mirwaiz Umar Farooq said in a statement.

India’s general election began last week, but voting in the Kashmir valley has been split into three phases starting from April 30.

The staggered voting is to allow thousands of security forces to move around the troubled region.

Besides Congress and its main opposition Hindu-nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party, the regional National Conference and Peoples Democratic Party are also contesting in the Himalayan region.

“Elections in the presence of 700,000 Indian troops is itself a dispute. I appeal to people to stay away from polls,” Farooq said.

Hardline separatist Syed Ali Shah Geelani has already called for a boycott of the April-May election.

But another senior separatist leader, Sajjad Gani Lone, who walked out of Hurriyat in 2002, said this month that he would contest the poll and take his struggle to parliament in New Delhi.

On Friday morning Hurriyat’s Farooq and Geelani were placed under house arrest as they prepared to lead anti-poll rallies, police said.

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Hurriyat Conference urges people in Kashmir to shun election was first posted on April 24, 2009 at 9:24 pm.