Monthly archive

M.A. Qader-Asian Tribune Correspondent in Bangladesh

Bangladesh Law minister barrister Shafique Ahmed on Tuesday said the long-expected appointment of prosecutors and investigating officers to try the war criminals will be done by June 30. Talking to reporters at Secretariat the minister said the government is taking time for the war crime trial in order to ensure international standard so that no chance was left to doubt the fairness of the trial. Earlier, on April 20 the government postponed the scheduled announcement of the appointment of the war crime probe agency for which the government said the team for probe agency and prosecutors was not yet completed.

The United Nations and Government of Sri Lanka said today that an urgent appeal has been launched for $50 million to meet the most immediate humanitarian needs of civilians fleeing fighting in the country’s north. The appeal comes at a time when aid agencies and the Government of Sri Lanka are struggling to cope with a sudden rise in displaced crossing into government territory, and as fighting continues over the last pocket of land held by the LTTE.

By Farzana Shah-Asian Tribune Correspondent in Pakistan

At least seven people were killed in a suicide attack on a Frontier Corps convoy in Peshawar on Tuesday. The dead also include two school children and a Frontier Corps personal while twenty-five people including nine security men have also been wounded in the attack that occurred near Bara Qadim police checkpost on the border between Peshawar and the Khyber Agency. The checkpoint is jointly manned by police and Frontier Constabulary personnel and is located in limits of Sarband Police Station on main Peshawar-Bara Road, westward from Peshawar Cantonment. A suicide car bomber has rammed a Pakistani paramilitary vehicle on the edge of the northwest city of Peshawar

By Farzana Shah-Asian Tribune Correspondent in Pakistan

Pakistan has announced relief package for Sikh families who have been affected by ongoing militancy in North West Frontier Province. The package was announced by Federal Minister for Minorities Affairs Shahbaz Bhatti during his visit to Hasanabdal city. Addressing a press conference regarding non-Muslim displaced families in the wake of recent disturbances in Swat, Buner and Orakzai Agency, the minister said "The present government believes in the principles of tolerance, human equality and peaceful co-existence.".

Hilary Rajakarunanayake, Asian Tribune Editor in Sri Lanka

President Mahinda Rajapaksa has invited the UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon to Sri Lanka to see for himself and construe an independent assessment of the situation regarding the action for the accommodation and treatment of Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) who have recently come to government controlled areas in such large numbers, and surmise plans for their resettlement. A source from the Presidential Secretariat disclosed this to the Asian Tribune today.

Hilary Rajakarunanayake, Asian Tribune Editor in Sri Lanka

The Tamil National Alliance, better known as the mouthpiece in Parliament for the proscribed LTTE was conspicuous by its absence at a meeting of Tamil political parties convened yesterday by President Mahinda Rajapaksa to discuss the problems confronting the Internally Displaced Persons in North Sri Lanka, as a result of the mass exodus of Tamil civilians from the LTTE held areas in the North. At this meeting the Government decided to set up a committee comprising Tamil representatives to look into the grievances of the Tamil community.

By J.N. Raina - Syndicate Features

It is an opportune time for strife-torn Pakistan to roll-back its proxy war, intended to inflict a “thousand cuts” on India, and say ‘peccavi’ (we have sinned). It should windup its acts of terrorism in Kashmir and recall mercenaries, at least for its own survival. In fact, time is ripe for the people of Pakistan-Occupied Kashmir (POK) to rise up and agitate for the region’s merger with the state of Jammu and Kashmir. Instead of sponsoring open-ended terrorism, the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) must flog itself and accept its culpability for fomenting trouble in Kashmir and making Pakistan a ‘crucible’ of global terror.