Washington Report on Middle East Affairs, July/August 1999, pages 38-42

Issues in the News

Compiled by Delinda C. Hanley

ARABIAN PENINSULA

Islamic World Mourns Death of Saudi Arabia’s Grand Mufti:

Sheikh Abdul Aziz ibn Abdullah ibn Baz, the grand mufti of Saudi Arabia and one of the world’s leading Islamic scholars, died May 13 at the age of 89. He was the country’s leading mufti for 25 years and a staunch supporter of Islamic causes. Losing his eyesight at the age of 20, he nevertheless memorized the Holy Qur’an and went on to become a judge and teach Islamic theology. After his service as the deputy rector of the Islamic University in Madina, his dedication and piety earned him ever-increasing appointments until he was given the highest post of grand mufti of the Kingdom and president of the Religious Research and Ifta Administration in 1993. He will be remembered for his remarkable worldwide efforts to spread Islam and remove misconceptions about the religion. Sheikh Abdul Aziz Bin Abdullah Al-Sheikh has been appointed as the new grand mufti of the Kingdom.

Saudi Crown Prince Meets Pope:

Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Abdullah Bin Abdul Aziz met with Pope John Paul II at the Vatican May 25. They discussed the Middle East, occupied Arab lands and the Kosovo situation. The crown prince’s tour also took him to Morocco, Libya, Egypt, Syria and Jordan and came at a time, the Saudi Gazette notes, when the Arab region is passing through a crucial period.

Saudi Youths Break Stereotypes:

More and more young Saudis are choosing jobs as drivers, cashiers, mechanics, restaurant servers and managers instead of staying home idle and depending on their parents, the Saudi Gazette of Jeddah reports. Whether higher education is not an option due to grades or family responsibilities, or if the youths need to work to supplement government stipends while they attend university, Saudis are entering fields formerly held by expatriates and enjoying it. Saleh Bin Saeed, 25, from Jeddah, told the Saudi Gazette that he began buying and selling electrical appliances right after high school and his hard work has made his small business flourish. He advises today’s youth to not waste their time dreaming of a big desk in a managerial position. “They should utilize their time working because work is a great honor,” he said.

Five-and-Ten Riyal Shops Thriving:

Variety shops in Saudi Arabia selling goods at fixed rates of 2, 5 or 10 Saudi riyals (SR $3.75 = US $1) are thriving while there is a slump in demand for other, unfixed, higher-priced items. Low-priced items produce a smaller profit margin from each sale, but the large number of sales create a brisk business. Locally made products and items from China, Taiwan and Indonesia include gifts, household appliances, kitchenware, toys and accessories.

Bahrain Royal Burial Mound Found:

Archeologists in Bahrain hope to learn more about the Dilmun civilization, a powerful Gulf trading empire that flourished in the third millennium B.C., after the discovery of a large burial mound. Archeological team leader Khalil Faraj told the Gulf News of Dubai that the mound in the center of Bahrain’s main island at Hamad Town is probably the site of a royal grave, surrounded by protective walls and other smaller graves. He hopes to uncover a wealth of information about ancient Bahrain.

Dubai Zoo Saves Parakeets:

Some 900 baby rose-ringed parakeets that arrived without paperwork, return address or health documents were confiscated at the Dubai airport in April. The Dubai Zoo took the birds under its wing, the Khaleej Times of Dubai reports, and zookeepers took charge of hand-feeding the babies, which are so tiny that three can fit in a man’s palm. The birds are under observation to ensure they are free of disease, and isolated from the zoo’s 30 rose-winged legal residents. The new arrivals will be given to zoos in other countries.

Kuwait’s Parliament Dissolved:

Kuwait’s Emir Sheikh Jaber Al-Ahmad Al-Sabah dissolved Kuwait’s parliament May 4 after lawmakers demanded the dismissal of his Islamic affairs minister for typographical errors in 120,000 copies of the Qur’an. Various unintentional mistakes including missing or repeated verses infuriated lawmakers, who called for impeachment of the minister in charge. According to the Arab News of Jeddah, Kuwait’s deputy prime minister said the parliament “can fight over the economy or politics, but we should not fight over religion.” Elections for a new parliament will be held July 3.

Kuwaiti Women Will Vote in 2003:

On May 16 Kuwaiti Emir Sheikh Jaber Al-Ahmad Al-Sabah took a final step toward fulfilling a promise made in his first speech after Kuwait’s 1991 liberation from Iraqi occupation when he announced that women would be allowed to vote and stand as candidates in parliamentary and municipal elections beginning in the year 2003. The emir recognized Kuwaiti women’s service to their country and their educational achievements. Kuwaiti women far outnumber men as teachers and students (over 70 percent of the 1997 graduates from Kuwait University were women). While women occupy many top business positions, according to the Arab News, women hold only 5 percent of senior government posts. One of the first tasks for Kuwait’s new parliament, to be elected in July, will be to approve women’s suffrage.

Qatar-Pakistan Gas Project:

Qatar and Pakistan are seeking private financing and speeding up plans for a $3 billion project to build a 1,000-mile gas pipeline between Qatar and Pakistan. A sub-committee on oil and gas will help push the project forward. Financing has been a problem, the Arab News reports, because the governments want the private sector to bid openly with no sovereign involvement.

Oman: The Ultimate Destination:

When a Swiss watch manufacturer asked top European journalists to help choose a unique location to launch its latest $10,000 diver’s watch, their choice was unanimous—Oman. The media men and women enjoyed a week-long trip to Oman, the Khaleej Times noted, culminating in a press conference to introduce “Deep Dive” at the Al Bustan Palace Hotel in Muscat.

Oman Hopes for WTO Membership:

The Sultanate of Oman is expecting to be granted membership in the World Trade Organization by the end of the year, according to the Saudi Gazette. Oman has met most of the requirements set out by trade partners, including lowering customs tariffs and committing itself to the General Agreement on Services.

Yemen Sentences Extremist Leader to Death:

The group behind the December 1998 kidnapping of Western tourists in Yemen, that turned deadly for four tourists, placed an anonymous call to the London-based daily Al-Hayat threatening to kill members of Yemen’s government if the group’s convicted leader, Abul Hassan, is executed. A London-based cleric, Abu Hamza Al-Masri, who is suspected of terrorist plots in Yemen, also has said the government risked being toppled if death sentences are carried out against three of the convicted kidnappers. Lawyers for the three sentenced to death are appealing. A fourth defendant was sentenced to 20 years in jail, and 10 others were acquitted.

Mideast Business Costs Surveyed:

A recent global survey ranked Tehran as the most expensive city in the Middle East in which to do business, with Abu Dhabi coming in second, followed by Amman, Riyadh, Kuwait City, Tel Aviv and Dubai. Abu Dhabi and New York are closely ranked in the worldwide index. The survey considers housing, food, clothing, utilities and transport in the assessment of costs. Nevertheless, the world’s five most expensive cities are in Asia—Tokyo, Hong Kong, Beijing, Osaka and Shanghai.

Valuable Arabic Manuscript Sold:

An 11th century copy of one of the most influential texts in the history of medicine was sold for $880,000 at Sotheby’s in London during a sale of arts of the Islamic world on April 22. An anonymous private collector bought the Arabic copy of the fifth and final volume of 10thcentury physician and philosopher Ibn Sina’s “Qanun fi’l-Tibb.”

FERTILE CRESCENT

Jordan’s King To Visit Kuwait:

King Abdullah of Jordan has accepted an invitation to visit Kuwait, signaling an end to nine years of hard feelings between the two countries. When Jordan did not join the U.S.-led coalition against Iraq in the 1991 Persian Gulf war, many Kuwaitis felt Jordan favored Iraq. Relations improved in 1996 when Jordan distanced itself from Iraqi President Saddam Hussain. Jordan’s embassy in Kuwait reopened in March 1999, but is headed by a chargé d’affaires, not an ambassador. King Abdullah’s wife, Queen Rania, grew up in Kuwait, where her father worked as a physician. Her Palestinian family left Kuwait after the 1990 Iraqi invasion

Syria Supplies Water to Jordan:

Syria began pumping 750 liters of water per second to its neighbor Jordan for the next four months on May 14. The water flows from the Basel Al-Assad dam, four miles north of Jordan, to the Yarmouk River, on to the Abdullah Canal and finally to Amman. Syrian President Hafez Al-Assad offered to donate a total of eight million cubic meters to his neighbor during Jordanian King Abdallah’s visit to Syria in April. The offer followed a declaration by Israel that it would cut the amount of water supplied to Jordan below the amount promised in their 1994 peace treaty. That treaty stipulated that Jordan and Israel would share sources in Lake Tiberias and the Yarmouk and Jordan rivers. Severe water shortages this summer are expected because poor winter rains failed to replenish resources.

Rare Mosaics Returned to Syria:

Canadian officials returned to Syria valuable ancient mosaics they had nabbed from illegal importers in April. Smugglers were caught with tiles stolen from the floors of religious buildings in northwestern Syria. A Syrian Embassy official thanked Canada and said, “These mosaic panels are indeed part of our national treasure and heritage.”

Lebanon’s Border With Israel:

Israel violated the cease-fire again with Lebanon in the first days of April, injuring nine civilians and damaging homes in the Lebanese villages of Habboush, Salim, and Yater. Israel also shelled Marj Al-Zouhour, the Lebanese site which was planned to shelter Lebanese expelled from Israel-occupied southern Lebanon.

Israel expelled 25 relatives of four militiamen who deserted from Israel’s proxy South Lebanon Army on April 8, adding more displaced Lebanese to those needing refuge. The women, children and elderly men were taken from their homes in the village of Shebaa inside Israel’s self-proclaimed security zone by SLA militiamen and Israeli soldiers and driven to the Zimraya passageway and deposited. They walked to the first Lebanese army checkpoint.

Israeli warplanes fired missiles near Tyre and Sidon on April 11 and 12. In apparent reprisal, Lebanese guerrillas fired dozens of rockets into northern Israel as it celebrated the defeat of Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu. In recent years Israel has steadily shifted its international border northward into Lebanon, claiming villages like Arnoun, springs, and hills with strategic views. Eleven Lebanese civilians have been killed and 37 injured in southern Lebanon in the first half of 1999.

Syria Helps Iraq Violate Sanctions:

Increasing numbers of Syrian oil tanker trucks ferry smuggled oil from Iraq to Syria and Lebanon, blatantly violating United Nations sanctions. Despite years of animosity between Syria and Iraq (Syria sided with Iran in the Iran-Iraq war, and Syrian troops were part of the coalition that drove Iraqi forces from Kuwait in 1991), relations between the two countries have recently thawed. Syria, often criticized by the West for the hard line it has taken regarding peace with Israel, has criticized American efforts to hurt Iraq.

IRAN/IRAQ

Trials for an Iranian Editor:

Editor Faezeh Hashemi of Iran’s daily Zan (Woman) has big problems. Her newspaper was closed and she was tried in court in April after publishing a Nowruz (Iranian New Year) greeting from the widow of Iran’s former shah. Her 17-year-old cartoonist may also be prosecuted for a cartoon showing a couple being held up in which the husband suggests the gunman shoot his wife instead of him since the bandit will have to pay less blood money for a woman’s death. Finally, the Saudi Gazette reported in May, the editor’s prominent father, former Iranian president and an architect of the Islamic revolution, Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, was targeted for assassination by a militant group called Mahdiyoun. The assassination attempt was “discovered and neutralized,” the Saudi Gazette reported.

Iran Works to Renew Relations:

Iranian President Mohammad Khatami visited Syria May 12 and went on to Qatar, the first visit to an Arab state in the Gulf by an Iranian president since Iran’s 1979 revolution. Britain and Iran recently exchanged ambassadors for the first time in 20 years.

Street Children Find a Home:

Green House, a home for street children in northern Tehran, opened its doors in the beginning of April to children aged 11 to 19. According to Arab News nearly 20,000 children live on the streets of Iran’s larger cities, sleeping in abandoned cars and washing windshields at traffic signals or begging. Half of Iran’s population of 60 million is under the age of 20. Iran’s official unemployment rate is 14 percent because, despite the yearly creation of several thousand jobs, some 800,000 Iranians also join the workforce each year. Low oil revenues, remaining economic consequences from Iran’s 1980 to 1988 war with Iraq, earthquakes, an uncontrolled rural exodus, and two million Afghan and Iraqi refugees have created a large homeless population. Green House hopes to help some youngsters escape life on the street.

Air War Over Iraq Intensifies:

U.S. and British aircraft flying from Turkey and the Persian Gulf have intensified their attacks on Iraqi radar posts, air defenses and other military targets, destroying private property, killing at least 20 civilians and injuring many more. The North American Treaty Organization air strikes in Yugoslavia did not slow military aircraft patrols over Iraq. They just dropped out of the news. On April 29, 20 civilians were injured in the northern city of Mosul by a laser-guided bomb. The next day, a shepherd and six members of his family were killed in their tent near Mosul. On May 3 there were two more deaths and 12 injuries. An air strike occurs on an average of every third day, while economic sanctions continue to exact extreme suffering on the Iraqi people, with little effect on the regime. Various sources report that between 4,500 and 6,000 children die each month in Iraq from lack of food and medical care as a result of the U.N. sanctions, which are by now opposed by three permanent Security Council members—Russia, China and France.

Iraq’s Former Envoy Hospitalized:

Barzan Takriti, half-brother of Iraqi President Saddam Hussain and Iraq’s ambassador in Geneva until last December, was placed under house arrest after he returned to Iraq. He was recently interrogated over contacts with “an American figure,” London’s daily Al-Hayat reported April 11, and is now seriously ill in the hospital. Members of the security service led by Hussain’s younger son, Qusay, also have interrogated 20 of Takriti’s associates.

ISRAEL/PALESTINE

Israel Destroys Palestinian Reservoirs:

Israeli occupation authorities bulldozed Palestinian cisterns and reservoirs they said were built without permits in the divided West Bank city of Hebron on May 19. The reservoirs were built to collect rainwater to irrigate crops in times of severe drought, which is again expected to affect the area this summer.

Settlers Beat Arab Farmers:

Israeli settlers beat two Palestinian farmers with automatic rifle butts as the farmers were trying to harvest wheat on their land in May near the Jewish settlement of Yitzhar. Yitzhar settlers, some of the most radical in the West Bank, had put up a tent on the Palestinians’ land to try to prevent the men from harvesting the crops they had planted.

Israeli Shoots When Kids Won’t Play:

A game of football between a 13-year-old Palestinian boy, Jawad, his 6-year-old sister and their cousin, Shadi, ended in tragedy in Hebron near the Ibrahimi mosque when an Israeli border guard responsible for protecting settlers approached the children and asked for their ball. According to LAW, the Palestinian Society for the Protection of Human Rights, the children refused and ran home. Other soldiers joined the first, approached the house and demanded Jawad give the ball to the soldiers to play with. When he again refused, the soldier shot Jawad in the leg from less than two meters away. After shattering the boy’s leg, the bullet then hit his sister’s head. The version reported by the Israeli-owned Jerusalem Post was that the soldier was suspended from duty pending an investigation after he fired accidentally as he played with his weapon. Two days earlier a 4-year-old Palestinian girl playing in front of her house in Hebron suffered broken bones and a fractured skull after a brutal beating by settlers from Kiryat Arba.

World Bank Apologizes for Nazi Comparisons:

The World Bank representative in Israel, Joseph Saba, apologized for a statement in which he compared Israeli soldiers to Nazis, the Jerusalem Post reported. Israel’s Foreign Ministry lodged a complaint after Saba and a soldier argued over issuing a transit permit for a World Bank worker from the Gaza Strip. The Detroit Jewish News noted that Saba had complained, “You Jews treat the Palestinians like they were your pets.”

Israel Tallies Jewish Losses:

A campaign to identify and quantify lost Jewish property in Arab countries has been launched to counter Arab claims for restitution for property in Israel. The American Sephardi Federation, the World Jewish Congress and the Israeli government mailed 50,000 questionnaires to Sephardim living in Israel and other countries to help identify any personal property, businesses, or institutions left behind in Libya, Morocco, Iraq, Syria, Tunisia, Algeria, Egypt, Lebanon and Yemen when 800,000 Jews left those countries in or after 1948. The subject of abandoned property and restitution will arise in final peace negotiations when Palestinians demand the right of return or compensation for Palestinian refugees from Israel. “If claims to Arab property are raised, then obviously Israel will have to counter them with claims to property that is immeasurably greater,” David Bar-Illan told the Jerusalem Post May 14, adding it is impossible to calculate the value of property abandoned in Arab countries.

Non-Jews Who Marry Israeli Jews Aren’t Granted Citizenship:

Israel’s High Court of Justice ruled in May that Jews born in Israel and Jews who immigrate to Israel who marry non-Jews cannot “tow the right of return behind them” for their non-Jewish spouses, The Jewish Week of New York reports. Under this ruling, a Jew born and raised in Brooklyn, NY can buy a plane ticket, land in Tel Aviv, and automatically become an Israeli citizen. However a Christian or Muslim married to an Israeli must first receive permanent resident status, which may only be granted five years after application. Although this represents a setback for non-Jewish spouses of Israelis, there also was good news for them. A previous 1995 requirement that the non-Jew must leave the country before his or her residence application would even be considered has been ruled unreasonable.

Palestinians Rescue Settlement:

Israeli army liaison officers asked for help from Palestinian firefighters to put out a blaze that threatened the Jewish settlement of Elon Moreh in the West Bank, reports Israel’s daily Ha’aretz. Later Israeli air force helicopters helped put out a fire in the Palestinian refugee camp of Askar, near Nablus. More than 60 fires blazed across Israel due to a heat wave at the end of May.

Torture is Legal and Typical in Israel:

A Palestinian prisoner advocacy organization charged in a report published April 24 in the Palestinian daily Al-Ayam that members of the Islamic group Hamas were tortured to get information about terrorist incidents in which Americans have been killed in Israel. Head of the prisoner’s group Habeeb said that prisoners “were submitted to harsh interrogation by both Israeli and FBI officers and were badly tortured by hanging them from their hands for a long time.”

Hamdan, a mentally ill Palestinian arrested April 25 for trying to enter Jerusalem without a permit, said he was subjected to prolonged beating and torture by Israeli police. He was held for 11 days while police denied knowledge of his whereabouts to relatives, according to Agence France Press. Since Israeli military liaison officers finally handed him over to the Palestinian Red Crescent, he has remained hospitalized in serious condition, suffering from kidney failure and swelling of his bruised wrists and feet.

Court to Rule on El Khiam Prison:

Israel’s Supreme Court must decide who is responsible for inmates of El Khiam prison in Israel’s self-declared security zone in southern Lebanon. Saliman Ramadan from Baalbak has petitioned the court for clarification. He has been in prison for more than 14 years without a trial, according to Ha’aretz, and he has never been told why he was arrested, even though he was tortured “with electricity, whips and by being hung on a pole.” Part of his leg was amputated, and because of bad medical treatment the rest may have to go as well, Ha’aretz reported. The courts have been asked to decide in July who is responsible for Saliman and his fellow inmates—the Israel Defense Forces or their proxy South Lebanon Army.

Building More Facts on the Ground:

Settlement activity increased with an April 19 Israeli Ministerial Committee recommendation to build an additional 116,000 housing units for Jewish settlers in the next 20 years. Construction at Har Homa /Jebel Abu Ghneim between East Jerusalem and Bethlehem resumed the day before Israel’s May 17 national elections. Construction also began May 18 on 132 homes for Jews only financed by Florida millionaire Irving Mokowitz in Ras al-Amoud, next to Jerusalem’s Mount of Olives burial ground in East Jerusalem. Israel’s Peace Now organization says there now are 6,608 Israeli housing units under construction in the West Bank and Gaza, a 12 percent increase over last year, although out of 40,000 homes in 144 West Bank and Gaza settlements about 3,714 are empty.

A new Israeli settlement at Jebel Haresheh, west of Ramallah in the heart of the West Bank, is supposedly an extension of the Talmon settlement half a mile away and one of four planned to surround the valley of olive groves cultivated by Palestinian farmers below.

In other settlement activity, settlers from Kiryat Sefer started a new settlement 50 meters from the West Bank village of Dir Kadis, which is several kilometers away from Kiryat Sefer. When the Palestinian villagers protested the settlers bulldozing their olive trees to prepare the new site, the Israeli army intervened, shooting tear gas into homes, and causing one resident, Sa’ida Hadad, to have a miscarriage. (The tear gas canisters were made in Saltsburg, PA.) Mobile homes guarded by Israeli troops were also placed on a nearby hilltop for a new settlement called Haresheh, which is one of 19 new outposts established since Israel signed the Wye accords in October 1998.

NORTH AFRICA

Subway Opens Under Nile:

A special phase of Cairo’s commuter railway, begun 10 years ago to relieve traffic snarls, was inaugurated April 18 by President Hosni Mubarak. The president pushed the button to start the first train through a 633-yard tunnel under the Nile, connecting the city’s university in Giza to downtown Cairo. The multimillion-dollar project will reach the Pyramids by 2000 and will be about 12 miles long. Four million people are now expected to use the metro.

Egypt Frees 1,000 Militants:

Egyptian Interior Minister Habib Al-Adli ordered the release of more than 1,000 militant prisoners, saying they had served their sentences. The militant Jamaa Islamiyya group renounced violence last month and their subsequent release from jail is hailed as the biggest conciliatory gesture since violence erupted in 1992, killing more than 1,300 people in seven years.

Egyptian Stars Stop Traffic:

Top Egyptian movie stars Yusra and Nabila Ebed and Jamil Rateb have taped special messages that will be activated when Cairo traffic lights switch from green to red to warn blind pedestrians when it is unsafe to cross the street. The talking traffic lights will be launched in Cairo’s main squares first, the Arab News reports, and then extended to other parts of the capital.

Morocco May Host 2006 World Cup:

Morocco announced May 25 its intention to construct 10 soccer stadiums, including one 100,000-seat stadium in Casablanca, in order to meet the requirements to host the 2006 World Cup finals. Upgrades are also planned for existing stadiums in Rabat, Casablanca and Oujda, according to the weekly U.S.-Arab Tradeline. Architects are invited to participate in a pre-qualification tender as soon as possible.

Libya’s Pariah Status Ending:

Libya ended its pariah status in the world in April by turning over for trial in the Netherlands two Libyans accused of bombing Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland in December 1988, killing 259 people on the plane and 11 on the ground.

Libya has 3 percent of the world’s known oil reserves (on a par with American reserves), but the U.N. sanctions have banned import of spare parts needed for maintenance of Libya’s aging oil well equipment. The country has lobbied hard for the return of the American oil companies that originally developed its fields. Libya hopes tourists will soon flock to its magnificent ruins and beaches and is building a tourist resort that should be ready in two years, around the time in 2001 that the unilateral sanctions law applying to Libya will run out.

Death by Crucifixion:

A Sudanese court has sentenced 10 people to death by crucifixion for their actions in tribal clashes February in western Sudan, in which more than 100 people were killed. The daily Akbar Al Youm said the Supreme Court has to approve the sentences.

Tunisia Hosts “Star Wars”:

Tunisia’s rich and varied landscapes provide the setting for the recent hit film “Star War Episode I: The Phantom Menace.” Director George Lucas, who has filmed each of his “Star Wars” films in Tunisia, told a Tunisian newspaper, “I found Tunisia the ideal country for filming, beautiful countryside, unique architecture and a very high level of technical sophistication.” The crew never missed a day of filming despite a spectacular sand- and rainstorm on the third day of filming which scattered podracer engines and droids and crumbled plaster buildings.

CENTRAL ASIA

Turkish Deputy Loses Citizenship After Headscarf Incident:

Turkish Virtue Party deputy Merve Kavakci arrived at the newly elected parliament’s first session to take her oath of office May 2 wearing a navy blue headscarf wrapped around her hair and neck. Democratic Left Party members, the biggest bloc in parliament and the prime minister’s party, rose to their feet and clapped in time while chanting, “Out, out,” and parliament was adjourned. While headscarves are not specifically barred in the chamber of the officially secularist country’s parliament, they are banned from Turkish schools, universities and public offices because the secular establishment regards them as symbols of Islam. Arab News reported May 16 that Kavakci’s Turkish citizenship had been revoked following the incident, but on the grounds that she took U.S. citizenship on March 5 before her election.

THE SUBCONTINENT

India Tests New Ballistic Missile:

India tested a nuclear delivery missile, the Agni II, on April 11, despite international requests to put its nuclear program on hold. Pakistan was given advance warning of the test, under the terms of a February India-Pakistan agreement, but nevertheless Pakistani Foreign Minister Sartaj Aziz declared, “We are disappointed and concerned.” The test comes at a time of political instability in India, with upcoming new elections called after the collapse of the coalition government led by the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

Rajiv Gandhi Killers Sentenced:

India’s Supreme Court confirmed death sentences for 4 of the 26 people accused of conspiring to murder former Indian Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi in 1991, commuted the sentences of three to life in prison, and allowed the rest to go free. A woman suicide bomber killed the prime minister at an election rally in 1991, nearly two years after he lost power in general elections. Two accomplices committed suicide as police surrounded their house three months after the murder.

Pakistanis Fight “Honor Killings”:

Lawyers and human rights activists in Pakistan called for an end to the practice of “honor killings,” where relatives kill a woman thought to have disgraced her family. The campaign was launched April 20 after a young woman was killed by a gunman brought by her parents into her lawyer’s office while she was seeking advice about divorce. The woman’s lawyer, Hina Jilani, a nationally known campaigner for women’s rights, said that last year more than 500 Pakistani women were killed by someone in their family. Jilani said their so-called offenses ranged from having an affair to saying a particular word, or wanting a divorce or not wanting to marry the man chosen by her parents. She said that courts must not condone honor killing and must hand down stricter punishments.

Pakistan Wins Its Opium War:

Pakistan has eliminated its poppy crop after a decade of working with U.N. drug control and crime prevention officials to rid the region of poppy production. The Dir region in the northwest was the last holdout, and anti-narcotics officials burned several thousand acres of poppy crops in March. U.N. programs have spent hundreds of thousands of dollars to build an infrastructure of roads, schools and some factories and to provide farmers with alternative crops.

India, Pakistan Clash In Kashmir:

India moved heavy weapons to Pakistan’s borders in Kashmir as Pakistani troops captured a frontier village in the Himalayan zone of Kashmir. Indian aircraft fired on separatist guerrillas in Kashmir on May 26, the first air strikes in years in the conflict. Two Indian planes were shot down and Pakistan threatened to retaliate, while U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan called on all parties to stop the fighting. This was the first major confrontation since the two neighbors conducted nuclear tests a year ago, though Indian and Pakistani soldiers frequently shoot across the disputed Kashmir frontier.

SOUTHEASTERN EUROPE

Kosovo Relief Airdrops Begin:

The first airdrops of humanitarian aid into Kosovo were launched June 2 to help ethnic Albanians who had been driven out of their homes but remained in the war-torn province, French officials said. The airdrops are being managed by the International Rescue Committee relief group, which has notified NATO and the Yugoslav authorities of its plans but will not seek any help. Pilots from the Slovak Republic will carry out the drops, so that no pilots from NATO countries will be involved, the officials said. To prepare for the airdrops, a Moldovan plane flew over parts of Kosovo dropping leaflets intended to inform displaced Albanians that white planes with orange stripes would be passing later on a humanitarian mission to drop food.