theSun | WEDNESDAY APRIL 1 2009
news without borders
Pakistani Taliban
claims responsibility
for Lahore raid
PESHAWAR (Pakistan): Pakistani
Taliban chief Baitullah Mehsud,
who has a US$5 million (RM18.5
million) price on his head, yester-
day claimed responsibility for an
assault on a police academy in
Lahore and promised to unleash
further attacks.
“We claim responsibility for
the attack. This was in retaliation
for the ongoing drone attacks
in the tribal areas. There will be
more such attacks,” said Meh-
sud in a telephone conversation
from an unknown location.
Attackers armed with guns,
grenades and suicide vests
Monday stormed the training
centre near Pakistan’s cultural
capital Lahore, unleashing eight
hours of gun battles until they
were overpowered by security
forces.
Seven police cadets, a civilian
and four attackers died.
Mehsud is Pakistan’s most-
wanted militant and heads the
much-feared Tehreek-e-Taliban
Pakistan (TTP). The former gov-
ernment in Islamabad accused
him of masterminding the 2007
assassination of ex-premier
Benazir Bhutto.
The US State Department
has branded him a “key Al
Qaeda facilitator” in the semi-
autonomous South Waziristan
tribal area on the border with
Afghanistan.
Mehsud said he had set up
a council of mujahedeen (holy
warriors) bringing together dif-
ferent militant groups “to step up
attacks on US and Nato forces in
Afghanistan.” He dismissed the
US reward for his arrest.
“The maximum they can do
is martyr me,” he said. “We will
exact our revenge on them from
inside America.”
Mehsud also claimed re-
sponsibility for a suicide attack
outside a special branch police
office in Islamabad, which killed
one person on March 23, and a
recent assault on a police post in
Bannu in northwest Pakistan.
His group is influential in both
North and South Waziristan as
well as the Bajaur tribal district
to the north, which Pakistani
security forces said had been
effectively cleared last month
following a major offensive.
More than 30 US drone strikes
have killed over 330 people since
August 2008 in Pakistan, which
the United States has put at the
heart of its war against Al Qaeda
in a bid to turn around the flag-
ging war in Afghanistan.
The US military as a rule
does not confirm drone attacks
but the armed forces and the
Central Intelligence Agency (CIA)
operating in Afghanistan are the
only forces that deploy pilot-less
aircraft in the region. – AFP
Duch accepts blame
for Khmer Rouge deaths
PHNOM PENH: The prison chief
of Cambodia’s brutal Khmer
Rouge begged victims for forgive-
ness yesterday after dramatically
admitting responsibility for crimes
under the regime that killed two
million people.
Duch told a UN-backed court
that he was a scapegoat for senior
members of the ultra-communist
A man
movement and insisted that he fol-
watches the
lowed orders at the notorious jail
live TV feed
he ran to protect his own family.
of the trial
The 66-year-old faces trial on
of Duch in
charges of crimes against humanity
Phnom Penh
and war crimes over the extermi-
yesterday.
nation
9
of around 15,000 people between “In those times, I regarded the
1975 and 1979 at the feared Tuol life of my family as more impor-
Sleng jail, also known as S-21. tant than those detained at S21.
“I would like to emphasise that I Although I knew my orders were
am responsible for the crimes com- criminal, I never dared to chal-
mitted at S21, especially the torture lenge top authorities,” he said.
and execution of people there,” said Duch, who faces a possible life
Duch, who is also known as Kaing sentence, is the first and arguably
Guek Eav. the most junior of five Khmer
“May I be permitted to apologise Rouge leaders who are in the
to the survivors of the regime and custody of the court. The other
also the loved ones of those who four are due to go on trial later this
died brutally during the regime,” year.
he said, adding that he felt “regret Prosecutors earlier described
and heartfelt sorrow”. him as playing a central role in the
Duch, who became regime’s enforcement of its iron-
REUTERSPIX a born-again Chris- fisted rule as it tried to force Cam-
tian before his arrest bodia back to an agrarian “Year
in 1999, added: “My Zero” with disastrous results.
current plea is that “S21 formed an integral and
I would like you to indeed vital role in a widespread
please leave me an attack on the population of Cam-
open window to bodia. The accused’s crimes were
seek forgiveness.” part of this attack,” co-prosecutor
But the former Chea Leang told the court, as Duch
maths teacher de- jotted notes in the dock.
scribed himself as Inmates had toenails and
a “scapegoat”, say- fingernails pulled out, had plastic
ing had not held a bags tied over their heads, were
senior role in the stripped naked and had electric
brutal 1975-1979 shocks administered to their geni-
regime led by Pol tals, international co-prosecutor
Pot. Robert Petit said. – AFP