Augusto Pinochet

SANTIAGO, Chile, Nov. 26--Gen. Augusto Pinochet took full responsibility for the first time for the actions of his 1973-90 dictatorship, which carried out thousands of political killings and is blamed for widespread torture and illegal imprisonment, AP said.
At a celebration of his 91st birthday on Saturday, Pinochet also defended the bloody military coup that toppled freely elected Marxist President Salvador Allende, in a statement read aloud by his wife as he sat by her side.
“Today, near the end of my days, I want to say that I harbor no rancor against anybody, that I love my fatherland above all and that I take political responsibility for everything that was done which had no other goal than making Chile greater and avoiding its disintegration,“ he said.
“I assume full political responsibility for what happened.“
According to an official report, 3,197 people were killed for political reasons under Pinochet, including more than 1,000 who were made to disappear. Thousands more were illegally imprisoned, tortured or forced into exile.
Pinochet rarely speaks in public and has not made such extensive comments for several years.
Ricardo Israel, a political scientist at the University of Chile, said Pinochet has never taken full responsibility for his regime’s actions, instead blaming abuses on subordinates.
In his statement, Pinochet claimed the military had to act against Allende’s government because the social and political convulsions at the time were threatening the country’s integrity.
He also sent “a message of support to my comrades in arms, many of whom are imprisoned, suffering persecution and revenge,“ in a clear reference to the scores of trials of military officers for rights abuses.

KABUL, Afghanistan, Nov. 26--Insurgents launched several attacks in volatile southern Afghanistan at the weekend, sparking a series of clashes in which a NATO soldier and about 55 rebels were killed, AFP quoted the NATO-led force as saying Sunday.
The battles on Friday and Saturday were in the province of Uruzgan and adjoining Kandahar, the birthplace of the extremist Taliban movement, which is waging an increasingly deadly insurgency for power.
The heaviest toll was in Uruzgan, where Dutch and Australian soldiers are based under NATO’s International Security Assistance Force (ISAF).
ISAF forces in the province were attacked by a “large number of insurgents“, the force said in a statement. ISAF soldiers returned fire and called in war planes.
“Initial battle damage assessment indicates that approximately 50 insurgents were killed in the attack. Regrettably, an ISAF soldier was also killed during the same incident,“ the statement said.
The force of 31,000 soldiers drawn from 37 nations does not release the nationalities of its casualties, leaving that to the home nation.
There were also several clashes in the Panjwayi district of Kandahar Friday and Saturday, with Afghan and ISAF soldiers coming under fire.
In one instance, “Close air support was requested and engaged the insurgents, killing approximately five of them. Three ISAF soldiers were also injured during the engagement.“
Afghanistan has this year gone through the bloodiest phase of an insurgency launched by the Taliban after the religious hardliners were driven from power by a US-led coalition in late 2001.
Around 3,700 people have been killed, four times the number last year. Most of the dead are insurgents but around 1,000 civilians are also estimated to have died.

MADRID, Spain,
Nov. 26--Victims of ETA violence joined by tens of thousands of supporters marched through Madrid on Saturday to protest against the government’s negotiations with the Basque separatist group.
According to AFP. the right wing opposition Popular Party (PP) joined the Association of Victims of Terrorism (AVT) in criticizing attempts by Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero’s government to engage in dialogue with ETA since their ceasefire started eight months ago.
The Madrid police said the demonstrators numbered less than 100,000, Radio Cadena Ser reported. The Madrid Council, presided by the PP’s Ezperanza Aguirre, put the figure at 1.3 million.
ETA is thought to have killed 850 people in 40 years of violence, but stopped in 2003.
The AVT, which is close to the opposition, calls for the government to suspend all negotiations until ETA has laid down its weapons and definitively renounced violence.
Marchers waving Spanish flags chanted “Zapatero out“ in their thousands, despite rain that soaked the parade.
Placards read “Zapatero, do not negotiate in my name with ETA murderers“.
PP leader Mariano Roy accused Zapatero of wanting to “please the terrorists“ more than “the overwhelming majority of Spanish people“.
He called on the prime minister to hear the “victims’ cries“ and not to “give in to the blackmail of a terrorist organization“.
Other banners read “who was behind 11-M“ in reference to an unproven theory of ETA involvement in the Islamic terrorist attacks that killed 191 on March 11 2004. The theory was entertained for a while in the conservative press, but was dismissed outright by the Spanish judiciary.
Former prime minister Jose Maria Aznar, who lost the elections immediately after the attacks, also took place in the demonstration.
The Basque peace process has been in deadlock since police announced they suspected ETA had stolen 350 hand guns from France on October 23.

A Turkish woman brandishes her placards during an anti-Pope rally organized by Islam-based Welfare Party in Istanbul, Nov. 26. (Reuters Photo)

ISTANBUL, Turkey, Nov. 26--Crowds began converging in central Istanbul Sunday for a demonstration called by a small Islamist party against the visit to Turkey by Pope Benedict XVI, which starts on Tuesday, AFP said.
The demonstration, entitled “The pope is not welcome“, was scheduled to begin at 1000 GMT, but only about 600 people were in place shortly before time. However thousands more were advancing toward the square in the Caglayan district on the city’s European side, slowed down at police checkpoints.
The protest organizers, the Felicity Party (SP), which is not represented in parliament, predicted a turnout of one million, but other estimates were much lower, generally at or below the 300,000 mark.
Hundreds of security forces, including riot police, were on watch.
“We have infinite respect for all religions and their representatives, but we cannot remain silent in the face of declarations that go against our faith,“ Osman Yumakogullari, a senior SP official, said before of the demonstration.
“In September, Pope Benedict XVI insulted the Prophet Mohammed (PBUH) who, according to him, brought inhumane and satanic things to the world,“ he said.
Yumakogullari said the pontiff failed to apologize for his controversial remarks, which triggered outrage across the Muslim world.
The SP, which hired 2000 buses to bring people to the demonstration, had modified the rally’s title from “The sly and ignorant pope is not welcome,“ reportedly after the authorities warned them to avoid offensive slogans.
Some of the banners brandished by the crowd read: “No to the crusader’s alliance.“
Many Islamists and nationalists here believe the pope’s scheduled talks with Patriarch Bartholomew I, the Istanbul-based spiritual head of the world’s Orthodox Christians, is aimed not only at healing the centuries-old schism between the two churches, but at sealing a Christian alliance against Islam.
Under photographs of Iraq war victims, one banner asked: “Who did this?“
Another read: “Who is responsible for terrorism: the USA, Israel and the EU, or Iraq and the Palestinians?“ In anticipation of the demonstration, the pro-SP daily Milli Gazete headlined its front page Sunday with the words: “This is Istanbul, not Constantinople.“

GAZA CITY, Occupied Palestine, Nov. 26--A ceasefire came into effect in the Gaza Strip early Sunday, with the Israeli army saying it withdrew all its troops and Palestinian militant groups promising to halt all rocket fire against Israel, AFP said.
Under an accord reached late Saturday the soldiers, mostly deployed in the north of the Gaza Strip to prevent the firing of Palestinian rockets at southern Israel, “have pulled back,“ an army spokeswoman said in Beit-ul-Moqaddas.
No incident was reported since the ceasefire came into effect at 6 am, she added.
Palestinian militant groups were to halt all rocket fire from the Gaza Strip against Israel from dawn Sunday, with Israel promising to halt military operations and withdraw from the Palestinian territory.
Palestinian Authority “president (Mahmud) Abbas and prime minister Ismail Haniyeh agreed with all factions to establish calm and stop rockets being fired (against Israel) as of Sunday,“ Abbas spokesman Nabil Abu Rudeina told a press conference in Gaza City late Saturday.
“There was a telephone conversation between Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Abbas, who told him that the factions were willing“ to stop firing the rockets, he said.
“Ehud Olmert agrees to stop all military operations and begin withdrawing from the Gaza Strip at the same time,“ he added.
The United States welcomed the agreement as a step toward peace.
“We welcome the announcement and see this as a positive step forward,“ said White House spokesman Alex Conant.
“We hope that it leads to less violence for the Israeli and Palestinian people,“ he added.
Together with the Palestinian announcement, Israel said it “will respond favorably“ to the ceasefire proposal. “The prime minister spoke with top Israeli ministers and security officials and informed Abbas that Israel will respond favorably“ to the ceasefire, Olmert’s office said in a statement to AFP.

QUITO, Ecuador,
Nov. 26--Voting was under way in volatile Ecuador’s run-off presidential battle Sunday, with leftist economist Rafael Correa, 43, ahead of conservative banana baron Alvaro Noboa, 56 in voter intention polls.
According to AFP, Correa, a friend of Venezuela’s anti-US President Hugo Chavez, held an eight-point advantage over his rival in intention polls just hours ahead of the election, though pollsters said 17 percent of the 9.2 million eligible voters were still undecided.
Both candidates fueled tension in the volatile South American country, with Noboa claiming a rival victory would lead to communist dictatorship and civil war, and Correa warning of the risk of electoral fraud.
A US- and European-educated leftist economist, Correa has stirred unease on financial markets with his calls to renegotiate the country’s debt and to revise foreign oil companies’ contracts in Ecuador.
His friendship with the Venezuelan leader and his determination not to renew a lease for a US military base in Ecuador also have caused concern in Washington.
Correa, who was four points behind his conservative rival in the October 15 first round of voting, climbed in opinion polls as he toned down his criticism of US President George W. Bush, whom he once called a dimwit.
He stressed on Saturday he wanted “the best possible“ relations with Washington.
He has also distanced himself from Chavez as the Venezuelan president, who himself faces the electorate on December 3, came under fire for allegedly meddling in the Ecuadoran election.
Noboa, a pro-market conservative who wants to strengthen ties with the United States, claims Chavez backed Correa in a bid to boost his regional influence in Latin America, where several leftist leaders have been elected to office over the past year.

KATHMANDU, Nepal, Nov. 26--Political parties in Nepal failed to form a new parliament Sunday as outlined in a landmark peace deal last week, with Maoists saying the government was not serious enough to meet the deadline, reported AFP.
The Maoists, who agreed to join the political system in a peace deal that ended a war that claimed at least 12,500 lives since 1996, blamed the government Sunday for not convening a new legislature.
“We have been raising our concerns with the government to meet the set deadline but the government has not been serious enough,“ said Dev Gurung, a member of the Maoist negotiating team.
Deputy Prime Minister Amik Sherchan denied the Maoist charge and said efforts were underway to implement the peace accord, but the details, such as placing rebel soldiers and arms under UN observation, would take more time.
“The government wants rebel arms and army to be confined in cantonments before they could the join the government. Once the issue of arms management is sorted out it will pave way for the finalizing of the interim constitution and formation of the interim government,“ Sherchan said.
The Maoists and government have set a tight timetable, with rebel fighters and the Nepal army agreeing to be confined to camps and barracks by November 21 to pave the way for a new government.
The three sides (the government, rebels and the UN representatives) however have not yet been able to finalize the plan.
“The longer the government delays, (the) more it will give room for suspicion and mistrust. The tendency of missing deadlines might affect the holding of constituent assembly elections,“ said Gurung.
Under the peace deal, the Maoists get 73 of the 330 seats in an interim parliament that would pave the way for fresh elections next year to a constituent assembly to rewrite the constitution and decide the fate of the 238-year-old monarchy.

LONDON, Nov. 26--Gordon Brown reiterated on Saturday his support for maintaining Britain’s nuclear deterrent as the government launches what is sure to be a heated debate on the future of its nuclear arsenal, Reuters said.
Speaking at Labour’s Scottish conference in Oban, the man seen as Prime Minister Tony Blair’s most likely successor warned against unilateral disarmament, given the stand-offs with North Korea and Iran on the issue of nuclear weapons, Reuters reported.
“If North Korea has got nuclear weapons, if there are other states threatening to have nuclear weapons, then it doesn’t make sense to take unilateral action when what we need is multilateral action using the weapons we have,“ the chancellor of the Exchequer said.
The government has promised a parliamentary vote on the issue early next year and the cabinet has held initial discussions on whether or how to replace Britain’s nuclear defense system.
Ministers say decisions must be taken now if Britain is to replace the system, consisting of Trident missiles carried aboard four Vanguard-class nuclear-powered submarines, that will reach the end of its life in about 2024.
The government has to choose between scrapping nuclear weapons, extending the life of the existing system, ordering a replacement for Trident or buying an entirely new system. Supporters of nuclear weapons say it is impossible to predict what security threats Britain could face in 20 years and point to North Korea’s nuclear test and Western suspicions that Iran is trying to develop nuclear weapons.
Iran says its nuclear program is solely to generate electricity to meet its growing energy demands.
Opponents say nuclear weapons are an unnecessary waste of money.