Foreign Desk

This article is from the archive of The New York Sun before the launch of its new website in 2022. The Sun has neither altered nor updated such articles but will seek to correct any errors, mis-categorizations or other problems introduced during transfer.

The New York Sun

SOUTH ASIA


HUNT FOR SRI LANKAN ASSASSIN INTENSIFIES


NEW DELHI, India – The hunt for the assassin of Sri Lanka’s foreign minister, shot by a suspected Tamil Tiger sniper Friday, intensified yesterday with the arrest of a dozen ethnic Tamils.


Lakshman Kadirgamar, 73, whose killing is being described as “a grave setback” to the island’s peace process, will be cremated today in the capital, Colombo.


International dignitaries, including Norway’s foreign minister, Jan Petersen, an architect of the cease-fire with the separatist Tamil Tigers brokered in 2002, will be there to pay their respects.


Secretary of State Rice, the British Foreign Secretary, Jack Straw, and the U.N. secretary-general, Kofi Annan, have already paid tribute to Mr. Kadirgamar.


More than 1,000 troops effectively cordoned off the city yesterday after President Kumaratunga declared a state of emergency giving sweeping powers of arrest to the police and military. Mrs. Kumaratunga, who lost an eye in a bomb attack blamed on Tamil Tigers in 1999, is reported to have wept as surgeons fought to save her foreign minister’s life after he was shot four times in the head, throat, and chest.


Investigators say they found spent ammunition from a sniper rifle and an abandoned grenade launcher near Mr. Kadirgamar’s home in Cinnamon Gardens, one of Colombo’s elegant diplomatic quarters. Initial reports said the gunmen had hidden upstairs in a house next door and shot the Oxford-educated minister just after he finished taking a swim. Mr. Kadirgamar, himself a Tamil, was regarded as a traitor by some Tamil hard-liners. A Tamil couple who own the property next door are under house arrest but have not been charged.


– The Daily Telegraph


EAST ASIA


N. KOREAN DELEGATION CELEBRATES JAPANESE LIBERATION IN SOUTH


SEOUL, South Korea – A North Korean delegation paid a first-ever visit to a cemetery in the South where Korean War dead are buried, as the two countries launched celebrations marking the 60th anniversary of the peninsula’s liberation from Japanese colonial rule.


Meanwhile, North Korea celebrated in Pyongyang with an event attended by senior party and military officials, where the no. 2 leader said the country seeks a peaceful solution to the international standoff over its nuclear weapons ambitions.


About 200 North Koreans arrived yesterday in Seoul for the joint events, set to begin in the evening with an opening ceremony and “reunification” soccer match between the two Koreas’ national teams. Liberation Day is today.


Ahead of the opening, about 30 North Koreans including delegation head Kim Ki Nam, vice chairman of North Korea’s Committee for the Peaceful Reunification of Fatherland, visited Seoul’s National Cemetery. The burial ground houses Korean War dead as well as independence fighters who died resisting Japan’s brutal 1910-45 colonization of the peninsula, said a Unification Ministry spokeswoman, Yang Jeong-hwa.


The North Koreans paid respects in silence at the cemetery for about five minutes. Meanwhile, a small group staged an anti-North Korea demonstration near the cemetery, demanding that Pyongyang apologize for launching the Korean War.


– Associated Press


EASTERN EUROPE


FIVE RUSSIAN SOLDIERS KILLED IN CHECHNYA


ROSTOV-ON-DON, Russia – A land mine exploded yesterday in Chechnya when Russia troops came to the aid of a local official whose home was under attack by rebels, killing a senior Russian military officer and four other soldiers, officials said.


The top officer in Chechnya’s southern Urus-Martan region, Colonel Alexander Kayak, and four other servicemen died when rebels detonated a radio-controlled land mine, a spokesman for the Interior Ministry’s branch in southern Russia, Roman Shchekotin, said. The blast wounded two other soldiers, Mr. Shchekotin said. It occurred in the village of Roshni-Chu, 15 miles southwest of the Chechen capital, Grozny.


Kayak had led a group of servicemen who rushed to Roshni-Chu after rebels had attacked a house belonging to the Moscow-backed civilian administrator. Rebels apparently had expected Russian soldiers to come to the administrator’s rescue and prepared an ambush, Mr. Shchekotin said.


The administrator’s house burned to the ground, but he wasn’t hurt, the Interfax news agency reported.


Russian troops re-entered Chechnya in 1999, three years after withdrawing at the end of a disastrous 20-month war with separatist forces that left the province de facto independent. Although Russia’s army and its local allies control most of the small Caucasus territory, rebels based in mountain hideouts mount regular hit-and-run attacks.


– Associated Press


CENTRAL ASIA


KYRGYZ PRESIDENT PROMISES INDEPENDENT FOREIGN POLICY


BISHKEK, Kyrgyzstan – Kyrgyzstan’s new president said yesterday that the Central Asian country will pursue an independent foreign policy, and will not be “a place for the fulfillment of someone else’s geopolitical interests.”


A former opposition leader who has been acting president since coming to power during a March 24 popular uprising, Kurmanbek Bakiyev won a landslide victory in a July 10 presidential election and was inaugurated yesterday to lead the former Soviet republic.


Kyrgyzstan hosts about 1,000 American-led troops to support combat operations in Afghanistan – a presence which became particularly important after neighboring Uzbekistan demanded the withdrawal of American troops within 180 days.


Mr. Bakiyev had said after his election that the necessity of the American base in his country should be discussed, but Defense Secretary Rumsfeld later won Kyrgyz assurances that American troops can stay in Kyrgyzstan as long as they are needed to bring stability to Afghanistan.


Kyrgyzstan also hosts a Russian military base 20 miles from the American base.


“Kyrgyzstan won’t become a place for the fulfillment of someone else’s geopolitical interests,” Mr. Bakiyev said in his inauguration speech. “We respect the interests of other nations, but the interests of our own people and state, freedom and independence of Kyrgyzstan are predominant for us.” He did not name any countries in particular.


– Associated Press


The New York Sun

© 2024 The New York Sun Company, LLC. All rights reserved.

Use of this site constitutes acceptance of our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. The material on this site is protected by copyright law and may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, cached or otherwise used.

The New York Sun

Sign in or  Create a free account

or
By continuing you agree to our Privacy Policy and Terms of Use