Go to: [irish news]

Regret over refugee bombing but NATO air strikes continue

EVEN while expressing regret over what it called a tragic accident — the bombing of a convoy of refugees — NATO pressed ahead yesterday with its air campaign, hitting military barracks, TV transmitters and bridges across Yugoslavia.
Serb forces, meanwhile, lobbed artillery shells over the border into northern Albania in a running battle with the Kosovo Liberation Army. International observers said that five KLA fighters had been killed in the past 24 hours.
Some mortars landed close to Albania's border checkpoint at Morini, near to where international aid workers were operating and refugees passing by, said monitors from the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe, which watches the Balkans frontier.
Thousands of ethnic Albanians crossed over into Macedonia and Albania yesterday, fleeing what they described as a methodical push by the Serbs to empty towns and villages in Kosovo.
Yugoslavia renewed its denunciations of the attack on the convoy, which it said killed 75 people and injured 26 others. The figures, however, could not be independently confirmed.
''This is the worst picture of a humanitarian catastrophe brought on by the NATO bombings,'' said Yugoslav foreign ministry spokesman Nebojsa Vujovic.
The presence on Kosovo's roads of huge refugee columns, like the one hit on Wednesday, could signal a final push by Serb forces to rid the disputed province of its ethnic Albanian majority. Along the tense Albania-Yugoslav border, meanwhile, international observers reported a new round of Serb shelling.
OSCE spokesman Andrea Angeli, who reported the five KLA deaths, said there was machine gun and mortar fire near the border hamlets of Padesh and Kamenica. Witnesses reported shelling in the area as well.
Kamenica briefly fell into Serb hands earlier this week when light infantrymen pushed across the border.
In the latest wave of attacks by allied planes, NATO targeted military installations including barracks in the suburbs of Belgrade, along with transmitters carrying state-run TV and a series of bridges.
The state-run Tanjug news agency said ten towns or their wider areas were targeted overnight.
Despite the convoy disaster, new NATO strikes were also reported in and around Kosovo. The alliance has vowed to pound the Serb ground forces it says are responsible for atrocities against ethnic Albanian civilians in the province.
At around 10:00 GMT, three strong detonations were heard just Southeast of the Kosovo capital of Pristina, Tanjug said. Air raid alerts sounded in the city.
Later a NATO strike knocked out a major railway bridge over the river Lim, 125 miles Southwest of Belgrade. Another river bridge, over the Ibar river valley, near the village of Biljanovac, 87 miles south of Belgrade, was also hit, according to Tanjug.

Albanian call to arms is reaching patriots with the will to fight

by Caroline O'Doherty, Durres, Albania
THE Kosovo Liberation Army's call to arms is being heard far beyond the boundaries of the tiny Balkan province.
It is crossing national borders and class distinctions, and reaching deep into the hearts of men who live geographically removed but spiritually close to their homeland.
A third of all adult Kosovar males moved to Western Europe to work even before the current crisis.
Emigration freed them from a life of poverty and injustice under opposing Serb rule. Now they want to return to free their country too.
Elmi Zequiraj runs a finger-tip over the embroidered military badge he keeps tucked away in his wallet, ready to be stitched on to his uniform.
The mythical black eagle, it bears is also the emblem of Albania, known in The Old Language as the Land of the Eagle. But the bold letters UCK on it (KLA in Albanian) give away Elmi's birthplace.
At 28 years old, with a new life in Italy and his Italian citizenship papers only a few months away, Elmi is coming home to fight.
He is armed with the few personal effects and documents that will show his value to the Liberation Army.
A battered school copybook holds his hand-written translations of key words and phrases in English, German, Italian, Serbo-Croat and Albanian.
He carries it only to refresh his memory as he speaks all five competently, a skill he believes will be valuable to the organisation and communication needs of the KLA.
Neatly folded among its pages the diploma he received in his home town close to Mitronica where he trained as a Teknik-Medecin, a grade of medic similar to a nurse which would have allowed him go to university in Pristina and become a doctor.
He was awarded the diploma at 19 and his results card shows he earned top marks in every subject from Physics to Paediatrics.
He was soon to put his skills to use, albeit reluctantly, when he was called up for military service and posted with the Yugoslav Army in Croatia, the scene of some of the bloodiest fighting of the Balkans conflict.
Elmi is reticent to describe what he saw. "It was cannibal," he says. "It was not normal."
Six months into his year-long draft, he deserted and for some months moved between the homes of relatives and friends while the Serb Army made attempts to arrest him.
He eventually escaped to Albania where he worked at a series of low-paid jobs in the capital, Tirana, and the coastal town of Durres.
In Durres he watched the ferries leave for the ports of Italy and after a year he was on one like the many Albanians
before him.
Settling in Italy was difficult at first as Elmi had neither the language, family contacts or knowledge of the country.
But Italy is home to immigrants and refugees from all over Europe as well as China, North Africa and Kurdistan, and a charitable organisation called CIR (Consilio Italiano Per Refugiat) has long been helping them find their feet.
CIR helped Elmi deal with the perplexing Italian bureaucracy that bound up in red tape his rights to travel, work and avail of social services and soon he was finding his way.
Now he is a night porter in a busy hotel in Rome, a job he enjoys in a city he has grown to love.
He has adapted well to the chaotically cosmopolitan lifestyle and even goes to the Irish Bar near the Spanish Steps to hear the music on Wednesday nights.
It was CIR who asked him to go to Albania to assess the needs of the 315,000 Kosovar refugees who have flooded into the country in the last three weeks.
Having toured around, visited the camps and spoken to local officials, he is now returning to Italy to spend a week launching fund-raising appeals for the organisation in the main cities.
But in another week he will be back in Albania with plans to help the refugees by another means.
During his fact-finding trip this last week, he travelled to a number of major refugee camps, including one at Shkodra in the North of the country, where, among the tired and bewildered people, he found his own mother.
She had come over the border with Elmi's sister-in-law and her two children. They had not been in immediate danger but feared for the safety of the youngsters if they had to flee in a hurry in future, as they were convinced they would.
Elmi's father, an architect, refused to leave, as did his two younger sisters, both of whom have chosen to stay in Kosovo with their husbands.
It was at that emotional reunion in Shkodra that Elmi revealed his plan to return home and join the KLA. "It was OK with her. She is very patriotic," he says of his mother's stoic acceptance of her son's decision.
"But she says if I don't like it, I must come back," he adds with a rare smile.
Elmi has thought about the prospects of not coming back — of being holed up for months in guerrilla camps in the desolate Kosovan mountains or of taking a Serbian bullet, but he insists he has no reservations about going.
"I have preparation. I was in the Yugoslav military and I know how they are. I have also been thinking, thinking, thinking of Kosovo for six years and now I want independence.
"Mama Mia," he says in exasperation that his motives could be questioned. "These are my people."
The suffering of Elmi's people began in earnest just over ten years ago when the president of their then largely autonomous province was arrested and local officials were sacked from their posts in the Yugoslav capital, Belgrade.
There followed a steady degradation of Ethnic Albanian's rights in the province. They were sacked from all civil service jobs and replaced with Serbs, and their academics were removed from the university. Teachers were forced to work without pay in order to keep the schools open, and the Albanian language newspaper and broadcasting services were banned.
"Kosovars are the best people in all Europe. They are very dynamic, they like to talk, to have music, to dance, to do sport, but these ten years, everything has changed."
Elmi deeply resents what he sees as a cynical attempt by the Serb administration to dress up greed in claims of emotional and cultural attachment to Kosovo.
"They do not want our culture or our people, only our minerals for their industry."
But he does not speak with venom of the enemy he is preparing to fight.
"I cannot speak about every Serb. Always there are good people and bad people."
Ideally, he would not have to fight at all. He believes an all-out NATO blitz on Serbia would end the crisis rather than the protracted and piecemeal bombing campaign currently underway.
"Clinton likes communication, but that is no good with Milosevic. With Milosevic there must be bombardation."
Elmi says there are many more young men planning to return to fight for Kosovo. He has met them in the refugee camps and in Italy and he will meet them again in a week's time when he takes the bus to Kukes to prepare for a nocturnal border crossing into the homeland.
Despite increasing tension in the region and the growing likelihood of a bloody outcome, Elmi is optimistic about the future. He plans to use his knowledge of Italy and its language to begin an import-export business between there and Kosovo once the fighting is over. But as far as Elmi is concerned, the fighting won't end until Kosovo has independence.
It was a cause he could not ignore and a plea he does not regret hearing but the call to arms for Kosovo may yet cost him dearly.

Refugees hit record numbers

The flow of refugees out of Kosovo has reached its highest level since the southern border was sealed by Serb troops last week, aid workers said yesterday.
More than 8,600 people — mainly women and children — arrived in Albania, Macedonia and Montenegro over the past 48 hours, indicating no let-up in the forced movement of people through the war-ravaged Balkan state.
A spokeswoman for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees in London said the weakest had died from exposure in the cold and wet of high mountain passes, although the number of dead is not known.
It is feared many more may still be on the move, with unconfirmed reports of 50,000 people having left their homes in Urosevac, 20 miles from the Macedonian border.
Some 3,000 exhausted refugees arrived in Macedonia on Wednesday while 3,600 turned up in neighbouring Albania which has already born the brunt of the 500,000-strong exodus.
A further 2,000 were received on the border of Montenegro on Tuesday, said Lyndall Sachs of the UNHCR, with reports of a possible 18,000 more on their way.
''It seems the Serbs are continuing their capricious policy of pushing people out of their homes. It is a very discouraging situation,'' she said.
''Those arriving in Macedonia had been made to walk from their homes in Prizren. They were bused towards the border and then made to walk for three or four days in terrible conditions.
''Women from Istoc have been forced to abandon their husbands in Prizren before crossing over the Morini border crossing,'' she added.
''These are the highest numbers we have had since the borders were sealed.''
Those arriving at Morini said before leaving they were living in the mountains of the central Drenica region, and had to sneak back to their homes.

Russia backs German plan for solution

RUSSIA has welcomed a German proposal offering a 24 hour halt to NATO air strikes if Yugoslav forces withdraw from Kosovo, saying ending the attacks was the key to a peaceful solution.
Viktor Chernomyrdin, the former premier named to head Russia's efforts to find a political solution, said he plans talks with Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic to press for a settlement. The German proposal could clear the way for progress.
''Only peaceful means to settle the conflict should be sought and Germany's proposal for a 24-hour halt to the bombing and a search for compromise deserves attention,'' Chernomyrdin said after meeting the German ambassador in Moscow.
Russia is eager to find a political solution, but it apparently lacks sufficient power or influence with either side to achieve a breakthrough. The US had hoped Russia could pressure its Yugoslav ally to accept a political solution.
Moscow's proposals so far have been based on first halting the air strikes and then resuming negotiations. NATO insists the air strikes will continue until Yugoslav forces pull out of Kosovo and meet other demands.
''I doubt that any agreement can be reached while NATO continues its air strikes against Yugoslavia,'' Chernomyrdin said.
Prime Minister Yevgeny Primakov sounded the same tune, telling visiting Czech Prime Minister Milos Zeman that Russia will keep pushing for an end to the raids.
''Russia continues to stand for exclusively political means of solving the conflict, and believes the reliance on force and ultimatums is a mistake,'' Primakov said.

Refugees watched their world explode

DIBRAN ASMANI (80) was riding the tractor convoy to deliverance, nearing Albania after three days on the road, when the world exploded in front of him. That was the last he saw of his family.
''Suddenly, there was a big blast, and I started running,'' he said, dazed and hunched over his cane. ''All I could think was, my God, NATO is bombing us. I ran through the field like a mouse. I'm ashamed, but I'm too old to lie about it.''
Like other refugees travelling in a convoy attacked from the air yesterday, he said he heard aircraft, and three bombs fell nearby. Two tractors towing wagons jammed with people were blown apart.
NATO yesterday acknowledged mistakenly bombing the convoy, but blamed the Serbs for putting the refugees in harm's way. Asmani's wife and daughter were in the convoy, along with his daughter-in-law and three children.
''I don't know what happened to them,'' he said, tears rolling down his craggy face. ''They might be dead. I don't know.''
Shaban Hasanaj (15) came along later in a column of thousands that fled toward the Albanian border on foot — three days and three nights, without food — and he saw the aftermath.
''I could see bodies without heads, tangled arms and legs,'' he said. ''Maybe there were ten bodies there.'' The two tractors were hit near the Serb army camp at Djakovica.
Witnesses spoke at a remote Albanian border crossing near Kukes against a backdrop of wailing and whimpering. Thousands of refugees, mostly women and children waited for trucks to carry them to a transit camp.
''Please let our husbands know we are safe,'' Hyrijae Aliu pleaded to anyone within earshot, but she only knew that he was fighting in the mountains near their lost home at Izbic.
It was in Izbic, she and other refugees said, that Serbs killed at least 150 men on March 27, one of several recent massacres being reported by refugees expelled from their homes in a stepped-up campaign to rid Kosovo of Albanian blood.
The latest refugee groups came from the Skenderaj region north of Pec, a Kosovo Liberation Army stronghold which had held out against the Serbs until recently when a fresh campaign of terror forced them to flee.
Remnants of the bombed convoy were followed over the border by a separate group of several thousand, also on tractors with a few old cars.
''I don't know how we made it,'' said Lavde Kajtazi (17), who walked out with her mother and grandmother after Serbs shot 37 men in their village of Klodernic. ''We had nothing to eat. It was freezing. But we are here.'' 

Confusion in the skies over Yugoslavia

NATO acknowledged that three convoys on the ground were attacked during Tuesday's six strike missions against Serb targets in Kosovo.
But while the pilot's dramatic taped testimony gave details of two bombings, NATO officials were saying little about the other.
It started as another day of mixed military fortunes for NATO. Its aircraft seeking out Serb targets on the ground ran into ''significant'' anti-aircraft artillery in what NATO called the ''western war area.''
It was mid-morning, after having ''worked'' various targets with little success due to poor weather, that an American pilot spotted a convoy ''stacked up'' on the west side of the town of Djakovica in south-western Kosovo. It looked like a flood of refugees on the move.
As he flew across the landscape to the north, he found the reason — village after Kosovan village ablaze was ablaze below him.
Heading south, successive villages were on fire, each clearly a fresher blaze than the last.
The pilot's reasoning was simple — Yugoslav military and police forces were working methodically, north to south, torching villages and forcing the residents out.
He piloted his F-16 bomber back towards Djakovica, now finding that along one stretch of road to the south-east every single house was burning. And close to Dakova, civilian vehicles were flowing into the town, culminating in the logjam of more than sixty private cars carrying refugees.
Surveying the scene 15,000 feet below him, the pilot spotted one house which had just been set ablaze. Moving south-east one kilometre away from it was a three-vehicle convoy.
The pilot alerted his ''wing man'', flying alongside, to what he identified as three dark green vehicles — almost certainly troop carriers.
As the pilots manoeuvred, the picture seemed clearer and clearer — Yugoslav military and police teams were heading towards Dakova and the refugees, and preparing to set the next house on fire.
The pilot made several passes over the vehicles as he watched them come to a stop, assuring himself that they were indeed military vehicles.
The picture below him of ethnic cleansing had been unfolding for some 25 minutes.
Only then, relying not just on his sophisticated surveillance equipment but also his own observations from the cockpit as he flew lower, the pilot concluded that had in his sights perpetrators of the ethnic cleansing at the root of the Kosovo conflict.
It was the work of a moment to activate his missile systems and release laser-guided bombs at the lead vehicle.
He watched the impact and with his wing-man low on fuel, decided it was time to leave the area.
A second crew immediately headed for the target co-ordinates, spotting three large trucks in the middle of a housing estate not far from the scene of the previous attack. Another laser-guided bomb attack is enough to destroy the three trucks.
Yesterday it was still unclear that the three trucks in the second attack were military vehicles.
And there was confusion about reports of a third NATO air strike further south in the combat zone, on the road between Djakovica and Prizrin.
NATO officials were saying nothing about that, but expressed ''deep regret'' about a ''tragic accident'' in which Kosovan refugees were bombed by Allied planes.
How many, and exactly where, was unclear, except that the victims were unwittingly caught between the relentless ground advance of the Yugoslav forces and the air offensive of the allies trying to protect them.

UK Defence Secretary flies
to US for Kosovo talks

DEFENCE SECRETARY George Robertson last night flew to the United States to hold talks with his American counterpart about the Kosovo crisis.
Mr Robertson and US Defence Secretary Bill Cohen are scheduled to spend two days discussing the NATO military campaign in the Balkans.
The meeting comes just a week before the NATO Washington Summit.
During his visit, Mr Robertson will address Harvard's Kennedy School of Government on the Kosovo crisis.
He will also attend the launch of the USS Winston Churchill, an Arleigh Burke class destroyer.

Unrepentant Van Buitenen aims to fight for total vindication

PAUL VAN BUITENEN, the whistleblower credited by many with triggering the downfall of Jacques Santer and the entire European Commission, is back at a desk in the Brussels executive today, four months after being suspended on half pay.
But despite his claims of vindication following the damning Committee of Wise Men's report on fraud, nepotism and corruption in the Commission, which forced the mass resignation of all 20 commissioners on March 15, Mr van Buitenen has not got his old job back, and he is furious.
Instead of returning to his internal auditing job in the Commission's financial control unit, the 41-year-old Dutch accountant was told earlier this week a position had been found for him as an accountant in the Commission's personnel and administration division.
A Commission spokeswoman said under regulations, a temporary suspension could only last four months, so Mr van Buitenen is returning with the same pay, about £13,525 a month after tax, and conditions as before his suspension on December 16. He will also now receive his salary in full for the last four months.
But the spokeswoman stressed that disciplinary procedures against Mr van Buitenen had not been dropped, and he could not return to his old job because it would be very difficult to re-establish mutual confidence and working relations in the previous service.
"That's bullshit and you can quote me on that," Mr van Buitenen said. "I know my colleagues and immediate hierarchy have no problem with me - they agree with me."
The Commission says the accountant was suspended for the disclosure of "confidential documents which he was not always authorised to have in his possession and some of which form an integral part of sub judice procedures".
The documents in question were extracts and files and two complete dossiers which had aroused his suspicions and were leaked to the Greens group in the European Parliament and the President of the Court of Auditors, the EU's financial watchdog.
His allegations related to alleged misspending running into millions of pounds over several years and subsequent cover-ups in several Community budget areas including the Commission's tourism unit, nuclear safety programme, humanitarian aid department, and vocational training section.
Ultimately to prove most damning, Mr van Buitenen also claimed to have uncovered evidence that certain consultants, experts or cabinet members of Edith Cresson, the French commissioner in charge of the science, research and education portfolios, "appear to be involved in irregularities".
Mr van Buitenen had to endure a smear campaign in which he was dismissed as a "religious fanatic" and a non-graduate seeking revenge for having been frustrated in his career ambitions who suffered from "paranoid delusions."
Mr van Buitenen is initiating formal and legal moves to be re-instated. He insists he has done nothing wrong and only told the truth.
In the meantime, the cloud of disciplinary proceedings still hangs over the accountant. He faces a disciplinary hearing on 21 April, and then the Commission's director-general for personnel will decide his fate.
A Commission spokeswoman said that as in all internal disciplinary cases, "the whole variety of sanctions are applicable, including the sack", and the appropriate measure would be determined by the conclusions of the report.
Although it is hard to conceive of circumstances in which the Commission would now impose more than a token punishment on Mr van Buitenen, such has been the public outcry over his treatment, he is man who will settle for nothing less than total vindication and re-instatement.

Hillsborough dead honoured in service

CHANTS of ''justice'' carried across the Anfield home of Liverpool FC yesterday as people gathered to pay tribute to the men, women and children who died in the Hillsborough tragedy 10 ten years ago.
Up to 14,000 relatives, friends and supporters crowded on to The Kop for a 10th anniversary memorial service in honour of the 96 who lost their lives at the Sheffield Wednesday ground.
Spurred on by Hillsborough Family Support Group chairman Trevor Hicks, who urged people to ''sing like we have never sang before to show the faceless but powerful establishment that we do not forget the 96,'' they joined in a moving burst of Anfield hymn 'You'll Never Walk Alone'.
Many wept openly as they waved their club scarves in the air — one banner bearing the slogan: ''The Kop Remembers — 96 Reasons For Justice''.
Alan Hansen, BBC pundit and a member of the Liverpool team at the fateful FA Cup semi-final against Nottingham Forest 10 years ago, was among ex-players to attend.
John Aldridge, Ian Rush and Jan Molby filed onto The Kop followed by actor Christopher Ecclestone who portrayed Trevor Hicks in Jimmy McGovern's powerful 1996 drama-documentary Hillsborough.
Sports Minister Tony Banks, who had previously laid a wreath at the Hillsborough memorial outside the Anfield ground, was also amongst those paying tribute to the football fans who died 10 years ago.
The Liverpool board, members of the present day squad and French manager Gerard Houllier also took part in the service.
Houllier, who joined Liverpool last year, said he was working in Paris when news of the tragedy was announced on French television.
''It was a special news broadcast. Everyone was very upset.
''Working here now and knowing how close the fans are to this club, I know that it upsets the players.''
Walking out onto The Kop, the manager added: ''You look at the faces. Usually they are smiling but today they are very upset. It is something, unfortunately, that because of what happened will link the club and the fans forever,'' he added.
Striker Robbie Fowler, who was just 14 at the time of the tragedy, added: ''It has affected us for 10 years. It affected everyone.
"Obviously I was just a young lad at the time. It is still important even though the 10 years has gone. It shows from the amount of people at the service.
''It will be quite a sad occasion. It's something we'd rather not have to do.
''But the 10 years has gone and rightfully so we are all here to pay our respects again,'' the striker added.
The service was organised by Hillsborough Family Support Group vice-chairman Phil Hammond whose 14-year-old son Philip died at the Sheffield Wednesday ground.
The Joy and Love Gospel Choir opened the solemn service.
The Bishop of Liverpool, the Right Reverend James Jones told the hushed crowd how he received a call from Buckingham Palace and a message from the Queen prior to his arrival at Anfield yesterday.
''She has asked me to say this afternoon, her prayers are with us — with the people of Liverpool and especially with the families and friends of those who lost their lives.''
A silence descended on The Kop as the names of the 96 were read from the Book of Remembrance. Former Lord Mayor of Liverpool Dorothy Gavin and Hillsborough Family Support Group solicitor Ann Adlington walked to the side of the pitch to light a candle in memory of each victim.
Phil Hammond, his head bowed, movingly made the sign of the cross as the name of his son Philip, who went to Hillsborough with the Boys Brigade, echoed across Anfield.

Bhutto denies charges of corruption

BENAZIR Bhutto, Pakistan's first woman prime minister, was sentenced in absentia on Thursday to five years' jail for corruption. The sentence was passed by a special court she said was set up to end her political career.
In London, Bhutto said she hoped to return to Pakistan from Britain within the next month, and possibly as early as next week, to appeal her conviction.
The ruling sparked protests by Bhutto's Pakistan People's Party (PPP), which said it would also appeal to the Supreme Court in which Bhutto's flamboyant jailed husband, Asif Zardari, received the same sentence.
The couple was fined $8.6 million for allegedly receiving kickbacks from a Swiss firm.
"Proving innocence before a judge whose father hanged my father, before a judge who is a close family associate of (Prime Minister) Nawaz Sharif...no, that judge is not impartial, he's not fair, he's not doing justice," Bhutto told the BBC in London.
Witnesses said PPP followers held protests in several cities and blocked the main National Highway in Bhutto's native province of Sindh, where the party said it would call for a protest strike on Friday.
A statement by the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan called the sentence "a questionable exploitation of the accountability process for political ends".
PPP secretary general Ahmad Mukhtar told a news conference defence lawyers were planning to file an appeal before the Supreme court "in a couple of days" and also seek a relief against Bhutto's possible arrest on return home.
Senator Saifur Rehman told reporters he was happy with the conviction of "a mastermind of corruption".
Bhutto, twice elected prime minister and twice fired for corruption, was in London when the verdict was announced.
The judge said Bhutto, daughter of the executed former Prime Minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, was disqualified from holding any public office. Bhutto denies all charges that she and her husband stole up to $100 million during two spells in office and said that the trial masked a government attempt to end her political career.
Bhutto's defence said documents purporting to have been provided by Swiss investigators were false. The prosecution said the bribes were paid into Swiss bank accounts in Geneva.
The verdict was handed down in Rawalpindi, near the capital, Islamabad, by a two-judge Ehtesab, or accountability, bench.
Sharif and Bhutto, who have dominated Pakistan's turbulent politics for a decade, routinely accuse each other of corruption, tax evasion, graft and theft in a shrill and personal argument which has characterised all recent debate.
Sharif has a huge parliamentary majority but has acted to remove critical voices in the establishment and opposition. President Farooq Leghari, Chief Justice Sajaad Ali Shah and army chief Jehangir Karamat have all quit in the past 18 months.
A Sharif family friend, Rafiq Tarar, became president. "If they give the judgement quickly and we can go to the Supreme Court quickly then I'll probably go (back to Pakistan) next week," Bhutto said.
"Life is full of risks. Yes, I'm planning to go back. Not in the next few days, in the next month." The verdict was the first in a series of trials mounted under the Sharif government.
Zardari has been in jail since Bhutto's government was sacked in 1996, on charges including involvement in the murder of Bhutto's brother.
The Oxford-educated Bhutto, probably the best-known Pakistani internationally, has staunchly maintained her innocence and accused her accusers of gross corruption.
She was sacked in 1990 and 1996 by then presidents on disputed charges of corruption. The verdict was not entirely unexpected.

Israel predicts Mideast drought

Predicting a water shortage crisis in 10 years, Israel today urged Jordan, Syria, the Palestinians and the European Union to jointly develop and build four desalination plants.
Israeli Foreign Minister Ariel Sharon told a meeting of EU and Mediterranean-area foreign ministers in Stuttgart such co-operation would ensure ''we can all survive and develop in our arid region.''
He said building four plants, including one in the Gaza Strip, to turn sea water into fresh water would also serve the mission for Mideast peace.
Pointing to lack of rain, inadequate water storage capacity and a rising population, he said: ''A crisis of water scarcity will occur when the population between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean sea reaches 10 million.'' Currently, eight million people live in the area.
Sharon predicted a severe water crisis by 2010, if not sooner. He said building the desalination plants in stages would ease the crunch ''at an affordable cost,'' although he gave no cost estimates.
He spoke to a meeting of foreign ministers from the 15 EU nations and a dozen Mediterranean countries, including all of Israel's neighbours. Through the so-called Euro-Med forum, the EU seeks to shore up the US-dominated Mideast peace efforts with economic and financial support.

Britain approves Pinochet
extradition to Spain

BRITISH Home Secretary Jack Straw decided yesterday that extradition proceedings should go ahead against former Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet, who is wanted in Spain on torture and conspiracy charges.
"I have decided to issue an authority to proceed in respect of his extradition," Straw, said after the decision was announced by his office.
The decision crushed Pinochet supporter hopes that a recent dramatic reduction of Spain's case against the general by Britain's top court would convince Straw to lift the house arrest Pinochet has been under since last October and allow him to return to Chile.
A Home Office statement said while Straw was aware that the Law Lords effectively had reduced the charges against Pinochet, 83, to those occurring after December 1988, "the remaining offences...are serious." Pinochet ruled Chile from 1973-1990.
In a separate hearing, a London magistrate ordered Pinochet's bail conditions continued until April 30, meaning he has to stay at a house in an elegant neighbourhood outside London, and cannot leave except to go to the doctor or dentist.
A lawyer for Pinochet, Michael Caplan, would not comment to reporters on whether he would appeal Straw's decision to London's High Court, saying only that was one of the options. He said: "We would ask for time to consider the decision and it would be premature for us to say how we will proceed."
Straw's move "has extended indefinitely this damaging dispute between Britain and Chile," said Fernando Barros of the Chilean Reconciliation Movement, which supports freeing Pinochet. He said Straw "declared his contempt for Chilean sovereignty" and charged that the Spanish judge seeking Pinochet's extradition is "politically motivated".
But human rights supporters were delighted.
"After 25 years of impunity, this definitive decision means that Pinochet will finally have to answer for his terrible crimes," said Reed Brody of the New York-based Human Rights Watch, which made written submissions in the Pinochet case.
Straw's decision does not mean extradition hearings will start right away, nor did it mean they would result in Pinochet's extradition. Pinochet's lawyers could force a delay by appealing Straw's new ruling to London's High Court. The case has already gone through many legal twists and turns and the elderly Pinochet has told supporters he expects he may die in Britain while waiting for the outcome. He has denied what he calls "the lies of Spain."
Pinochet was arrested in London last October at the request of Spain, which wanted to try him in the murder and torture of thousands — including dozens of Spaniards — in Chile during witch hunts against leftists between 1973 and 1990.
Pinochet is under house arrest in a mansion west of London. 

© Examiner Publications Ltd, 1999