Military seizes power in Pakistan
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan (AP) - Pakistani
troops staged a coup against the democratically
elected government Tuesday, seizing state-run
media and confining the prime minister to his
home in a lightning move that raised tensions in
the world’s newest nuclear region.
In a televised address, Army Chief Gen.
Pervaiz Musharraf accused the democratically
elected government of “systematically destroy
ing” state institutions and driving the economy
toward collapse.
“You are all well aware of the kind of turmoil
and uncertainty that our country has gone through
in recent times,” Musharraf said. “Not only have
all the institutions been played around with and
systematically destroyed, the economy too is in a
state of collapse.”
Sharif was under apparent house arrest in
Islamabad hours after he tried to fire Musharraf
as army chief and replace him with his ally, Gen.
Zia Uddin, former head of Pakistan’s secret ser
vice.
Musharraf accused Sharif of imposing “self
serving policies ... that rocked the very founda
tion of the federation of Pakistan.”
Musharraf’s address to the nation was brief.
He said the army takeover was a response to pub
lic demand.
“The armed forces have been facing incessant
public clamor to remedy the fast declining situa
tion from all sides of the political divide,” he said.
As troops moved through the main cities,
many Pakistanis danced in the streets and waved
flags, celebrating the ouster of a prime minister
who has become increasingly unpopular.
Sharif has been accused of trying to consoli
date his power by weakening institutions like the
judiciary, provincial governments and the opposi
tion, and of using heavy-handed tactics to quell
opposition protests in recent weeks.
Word of the coup led the army of nuclear rival
India to go on high alert along the border between
the two countries, a senior officer in India’s north
ern command.in Kashmir said.
In New Delhi, Indian Prime Minister Atal
Bihari Vajpayee-held a crisis meeting with his top
security and foreign policy advisers.
The reports from Pakistan “are causing grave
concern,” said Vajpayee’s spokesman, Ashok
Tandon.
Tuesday’s developments followed reports in
recent weeks of a yawning rift between die mili
tary and the civilian government in this impover
ished and overwhelmingly Muslim country of
140 million people.
The army has ruled Pakistan for 25 of its 52
year history, and army takeovers have happened
repeatedly.
But democratically elected governments have
been in place since 1985.
Sharif fired Musharraf while the military
leader was on a visit to Sri Lanka. Musharraf flew
back to Pakistan and was met by a large contin
gent of soldiers at the airport in the southern city
of Karachi.
The conflict between the two men developed
this summer after the prime minister ordered mil
itants to withdraw from Indian territory in the
ft
Not only have all the
institutions been played
around with ... the economy
too is in a state of collapse”
Perviaz Musharraf
Army chief general
Kashmir region, ending two months of bitter
fighting with India.
Musharraf reportedly orchestrated the incur
sion into Kashmir, and the withdrawal of the mil
itants was considered humiliating to Pakistan’s
military.
President Clinton had negotiated the with
drawal with Sharif amid fears the border dispute
would escalate into an all-out war between the
world’s two newest nuclear powers.
Pakistan carried out its first nuclear tests in
May last year, and has insisted it will maintain a
nuclear arsenal to defend itself against India,
which also conducted its first nuclear tests last
year.
Asked if the situation in Islamabad had raised
concerns about control of nuclear weapons tech
nologies in Pakistan, White House spokesman
Joe Lockhart said: “No concern like that has been
raised to me.”
Court turns down
church-state issues
WASHINGTON (AP) - The
Supreme Court turned its back on
three church-state disputes Tuesday, a
triple dose of bad news for those who
favor more government help for reli
gious schools and enterprises.
Far from settling anything, the
rejected appeals are likely to fan the
national debate over tuition vouchers
and other financial help. One imme
diate result: Maine can continue sub
sidizing children who attend some
private schools while denying such
vouchers for those who go to reli
gious schools.
The justices also refused to let
Pennsylvania exempt religious publi
cations from sales taxes and rejected
New York’s effort to revive a public
school district in a community of
Hasidic Jews.
The court’s actions set no legal
precedent but drew immediate reac
tion from partisans.
“It certainly appears the justices
are in no mood to use the current term
to move the boundary markers on
> church-state separation,” said the
Rev. Barry Lynn of Americans
United for Separation of Church and
State.
Lynn said the court’s denial of
review in the Maine case pleased him
most.
The court’s signals to date have
been mixed. Just last week, the jus
tices let Arizona give tax credits to
people who donate money for schol
arships at religious schools. The court
previously had declined to strike
down a voucher program that aids
religious-school students in
Milwaukee.
* The justices have one church
state dispute on the 1999-2000 term’s
decision docket. They will decide,
sometime by late June, whether com
puters and other instructional materi
als paid for with taxpayer money can
be used by religious schools.
In the Maine case, the justices
rejected without comment an appeal
in which parents of religious-school
students said the state violates their
rights by refusing them the same
financial help given to parents whose
children attend private, nonreligious
schools.
Many of Maine’s public school
districts in sparsely populated areas
do not operate schools for all grades
but instead pay tuition to send some
children to nearby public or private
schools of their choice.
Senate moves closer
to decision on delay
■ Leaders are working
toward a compromise on
the test ban treaty vote.
WASHINGTON (AP) -
Hopelessly outnumbered Senate sup
porters of a global ban on nuclear
testing moved closer to a deal with
Republican leaders Tuesday for a
face-saving postponement of a
planned vote.
Senate Majority Leader Trent
Lott, R-Miss., said details still need to
be worked out and put off a decision
until Wednesday.
Still, the two sides seemed closer
than at any previous point during the
contentious debate on the
Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty to
agreeing to put off a vote.
The apparent breakthrough came
as Senate Minority Leader Tom
Daschle, D-S.D., announced he was
ready to pledge - in writing and in
statements on the Senate floor - not
to press for a vote on the pact until
after a new president and a new
Congress take office in 2001.
Lott tentatively agreed to the
arrangement, both Republican and
Democratic participants in the talks
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said.
But conservatives who want to
see the treaty killed - including
Foreign Relations Committee
Chairman Jesse Helms, R-N.C., and
John Kyi, R-Ariz. - raised questions.
“They were not happy with the
language,” Lott told reporters
Tuesday evening. “There are 100 sen
ators. Daschle and I are only two,”
Leaders said both sides would
resume talks Wednesday about a pos
sible way out. The Senate adjourned
for the day without acting on the
treaty after a second day of debate.
“We... believe on seeking a delay.
We believe many colleagues are of a
like view, irrespective of how they
would vote at this point,” Sens.
Daniel Patrick Moynihan, D-N.Y.,
and John Warner, R-Va., said in a
joint letter to Lott.
The two senior senators -
Moynihan a supporter of the pact,
Warner an opponent - were leading
an effort to build bipartisan support
for a delay.
Republican leaders had wanted
President Clinton to pledge not to try
to bring up the treaty in the presiden
tial election season. But Daschle’s
offer to do it in his place appeared to
be winning favor.
under the proposed compro
mise, Lott and Daschle would jointly
make a motion for the Senate to
return the treaty to the Senate Foreign
Relations Committee, a motion
requiring a simple 51-vote majority,
said GOP and Democratic aides,
speaking on the condition of
anonymity.
Democrats had discussed offer
ing a motion that would force the
Senate out of its treaty-considering
mode, effectively postponing the
treaty indefinitely.
But at an afternoon party strategy
session, Republicans agreed among
themselves to oppose such a move as
undermining the calendar-setting
prerogatives of die majority, partici
pants said.
■ Miami
0. J. Simpson calls 911, asks
for assistance for drug user
MIAMI (AP) - O.J. Simpson called
911 Sunday night, saying he was trying
to get help for a woman he said had
been on a two-day cocaine binge with a
former baseball player.
The 52-year-old Simpson placed
the call from the townhouse of his 26
year-old girlfriend, Christie Prody, in
southwest Miami-Dade County. A
police report said Simpson told officers
who showed up at the house that he was
trying to get help for Prody.
A day later, the couple denied she
was on the drug binge Simpson
described to police. Simpson told The
Associated Press on Tuesday that he
was trying to get help for one of Prody’s
friends, whom he identified as “Pinky.”
■ South Korea
Riot police break up dispute
among monks; 10 injured
SEOUL (AP) - Monks brandished
sticks and smashed collapsible metal
chairs on the shaved heads of rival
monks Tuesday in a leadership dispute
within South Korea’s largest Buddhist
order. At least 10 monks and lay people
were injured.
Hundreds oi gray-rooed monks
from opposing factions of the Chogye
order wielded metal pipes, discharged
fire extinguishers and hurled stones
and glass bottles. At least two monks
bleeding in the face were dragged off
by rival monks.
The 30-minute fight ended only
after hundreds of riot police, armed
with clubs and shields, forcibly sepa
rated the two groups. Hundreds of dis
mayed lay people looked on.
■ South Africa
Details of apartheid deaths
may not be heard in court
PRETORIA (AP) - The man
accused of running apartheid South
Africa’s chemical and biological
weapons program won a legal victory
Tuesday when a judge dismissed
charges that involve more than 200
deaths abroad by poison.
The ruling in Pretoria High Court,
if it is not overturned, means that some
of the most chilling details of the
apartheid state’s alleged murder tech
niques will not be heard during the
trial of Dr. Wouter Basson, dubbed Dr.
Death by the local media.
Basson, 49, could be sentenced to
life in prison if convicted on the 61
remaining charges, which range from
drug dealing to murder.
■ Washington
Critics say Web system strips
away measure of anonymity
WASHINGTON (AP) - A propos
al to improve the way information
flows across the Internet is drawing
attention from privacy advocates, who
worry its design could be used to trace
a sender’s identity.
Engineers creating a new Internet
address system are proposing to
include a unique serial number from
each personal computer within every
parcel of data. That could vastly sim
plify the sometimes befuddling job of
setting up computers so they can talk
to each other on a network.
But critics warn that, if adopted, the
move could potentially strip away a
measure of anonymity and security
enjoyed by tens of millions of home
computer users who dial into America
Online Inc. and other Internet providers
over traditional telephone lines.