NORTH AMERICA

ADL DISAPPOINTED BY U.N. HANDLING OF ZIEGLER

The National Director of the Anti-Defamation League, Abraham Foxman, said yesterday that he was disappointed that the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights, Louise Arbour, did not censure her colleague, Jean Ziegler, for an inflammatory comment he allegedly made against Israel.

A Swiss newspaper reported on July 6 that the special rapporteur on the right to food for the U.N. Commission on Human Rights, Mr. Ziegler, had made comments at a demonstration for the Caravan for Justice in Palestine in Geneva comparing the Gaza Strip to a concentration camp. On the basis of the Swiss news report, the spokesman for Secretary-General Annan called Mr. Ziegler’s remarks “irresponsible.” On June 11, Mr. Foxman wrote a letter urging Ms. Arbour to request Mr. Ziegler’s resignation.

Ms. Arbour responded in a letter to Mr. Foxman on Thursday, saying that Mr. Ziegler was appointed by the chairman of the Commission of Human Rights, and was “accountable only to the Commission.” She wrote that Mr. Ziegler had been attending the demonstration “solely in his personal capacity,” and that Mr. Ziegler had told her the inflammatory statement was a quote from an Israeli scholar. Ms. Arbour disassociated herself from “any reference to concentration camps in such circumstances as it is inevitably evocative of Nazi Germany, and in my view, inflammatory.”

In July of last year, a watchdog organization for the United Nations, U.N. Watch, submitted evidence to the U.N. Commission on Human Rights showing that Mr. Ziegler unfairly singled out Israel for condemnation on matters not concerning food, and requested that he be replaced. In October, Ms. Arbour disowned a letter Mr. Ziegler had written asking Caterpillar Inc. to boycott Israel.

On Friday, Mr. Foxman responded to Ms. Arbour’s letter, writing, “Not only does Mr. Ziegler’s obsession with attacking Israel compromise the U.N.’s role in the global effort for peace in the Middle East; it also means that countries suffering from genuine food emergencies do not have a voice to represent them in what is a vital international forum.”

– Special to the Sun

MIDDLE EAST

SURVEY FINDS PALESTINIAN SECURITY FORCES ARE DIVIDED AND WEAK

An independent survey of the Palestinian Authority’s security forces finds that they are weak, overstaffed, and under armed, the New York Times reported on its Web site last night.

The results of the survey, the first conducted since the death of Yasser Arafat, are due to be released tomorrow. The American-appointed coordinator to overhaul the security of the Palestinian Arabs, Lieutenant General William Ward, and the Palestinian Authority aided in the preparation of the report.

The report says that a major problem is that security forces were established on “an ad hoc basis without statutory support and in isolation of wider reforms,” the Times reported. It also said a greater emphasis should be placed on building institutions than personalities. The newspaper reported that senior American and Palestinian officials, including some in the office of Mahmoud Abbas, have reviewed the findings.

– Staff Reporter of the Sun

CENTRAL ASIA

AFGHAN OPERATION SAID STRONG EVEN WITHOUT UZBEK BASE

BISHKEK, Kyrgyzstan – The American military could sustain its operations in Afghanistan even if it lost access to a key air base in neighboring Uzbekistan, Defense Secretary Rumsfeld said yesterday at the outset of a three-day tour of the region.

Mr. Rumsfeld arrived here amid growing questions about the American government’s long-term intentions. The Uzbek government has raised doubt about continued American access to Karshi-Khanabad air base, which has been used as a staging point for operations in Afghanistan since October 2001.

In Bishkek, Mr. Rumsfeld was to meet today with newly elected President Bakiyev and his acting minister of defense, General Major Ismail Isakov.

Also, a regional organization led by Russia and China issued a statement calling for America to set a timetable for withdrawing its forces from Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan. The chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Richard Myers, said last week he thought that sounded like Russian and Chinese bullying tactics. Mr. Rumsfeld indicated that he agreed with General Myers’s assessment.

Tensions in Washington’s relations with Kyrgyzstan and other Central Asian nations stem partly from an eruption of violence in mid-May in the Uzbek city of Andijan. The Uzbek government blamed terrorists and said about 175 people were killed, some by government forces. Others claimed that up to 1,500 had died at the hands of government troops, including innocent bystanders. When America urged the Uzbek government to allow an international fact-finding mission, President Karimov refused and imposed new limits on American use of Karshi-Khanabad air base.

– Associated Press

AFGHAN FIGHTING KILLS 11 REBELS, ONE AMERICAN

KABUL, Afghanistan – Militants attacked a patrol by American and Afghan troops in the country’s south yesterday, setting off a gunbattle that killed one American soldier, one Afghan soldier, and 11 of the rebels, the American military said.

The American military also said six American troops were wounded Sunday in a roadside bombing elsewhere in the country.

In yesterday’s deadly assault in a small village in Uruzgan province’s Dihrawud district, three American troops and an Afghan soldier were wounded, a military statement said. American fighter jets and attack helicopters responded to the assault and pounded militant positions, it said. Eight insurgents were captured and four rocket-propelled grenades and two assault rifles were seized.

In the Afghan capital of Kabul, a small bomb exploded yesterday at a police checkpoint, injuring two officers and a passer-by, police said.

– Associated Press

SOUTH ASIA

PAKISTAN DENIES AL QAEDA USED COUNTRY AS BASE

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan – Al Qaeda could not have used Pakistan as a base to orchestrate recent terrorist attacks in London, Egypt, or elsewhere because the group’s command and communication system has been eliminated, President Musharraf said yesterday.

His comments followed reports that Egyptian police are looking for six Pakistanis in connection with the deadly weekend bombings in the resort of Sharm el-Sheik. General Musharraf told journalists in the eastern city of Lahore that Al Qaeda “sanctuaries” in Pakistan’s rugged tribal regions have been overrun and security forces have captured 700 of its fighters. However, General Musharraf said small groups of Al Qaeda militants might still be hiding in the country’s rugged North and South Waziristan tribal regions, bordering Afghanistan. Military experts believe Osama bin Laden could be hiding in that area.

– Associated Press

CAUCASUS

FBI INVESTIGATES BUSH ATTACKER

TBILISI, Georgia – FBI agents hauled away boxes yesterday from the home of a man who has confessed to throwing a grenade at President Bush at a rally in Georgia’s capital in May.

Investigators have erected a tent outside Vladimir Arutyunian’s home, on the outskirts of Tbilisi, and appeared to be using special equipment to examine the evidence, according to footage shown by Georgian Rustavi-2 television.

No one was harmed in the incident, and Mr. Arutyunian has been charged with killing a police officer in a shootout during his arrest last week. He was shown on TV admitting to throwing the grenade, according to video broadcast Saturday, but authorities have not said yet if they plan to charge him in connection with that confession. Georgian authorities, working with the FBI, were still searching for a motive in the grenade attack.

FBI and Georgian agents were questioning Mr. Arutyunian’s mother, Angela. She said she had been told not to discuss details, but that she planned to visit her son today.

– Associated Press

WESTERN EUROPE

ITALY ISSUES ARREST WARRANTS FOR CIA OPERATIVES

ROME – In a further strain on Italian-American relations, an appeals court in Milan issued arrest warrants yesterday for six more purported CIA operatives accused of helping plan the 2003 kidnapping of a radical Egyptian Muslim cleric, a court official said.

Last month, a lower court issued warrants for 13 alleged CIA operatives but turned down requests to arrest another six. Prosecutor Armando Spataro appealed that ruling last week, and a three-judge panel in Milan overturned that decision yesterday, the court official said on condition of anonymity because the announcement usually comes from the court first.

Osama Moustafa Hassan Nasr, known as Abu Omar, was allegedly snatched from a Milan street on February 17, 2003; taken to a joint American-Italian air base in Aviano, and then flown to Ramstein Air Base in Germany and then to Egypt, where he reportedly was tortured.

The prosecutor’s request, obtained by the Associated Press, said the six accused CIA operatives were involved in studying the cleric’s habits and made nearly 100 inspections of the Milan area where he was seized.

– Associated Press