MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency
Commonwealth meeting in doubt.
The meeting next October of the Commonwealth Heads of Government to be held in Brisbane Australia, could be postponed because of the delicate international situation in the aftermath of the US terrorist bombings.
Australian Foreign Minister Alexander Downer made the announcement last Sunday arguing that , "I think there's a point where the meeting could be postponed if a large number of primer ministers decided they couldn't make it because of the war on terrorism". Following the attacks the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank have cancelled their annual meeting in Washington and the United Nations General Assembly indefinitely postponed its annual session in New York. British Commonwealth includes 54 countries, representing 1,7 billion people most of which are former British colonies. Queen Elizabeth and Prime Ministers from Britain, India, Canada, among others are scheduled to participate in the Brisbane meeting. Pakistan is also a member, but will not attend since the country has been officially suspended following the military coup that took the generals to power.
Bomb trial in Buenos AiresFifteen former policemen and five civilians accused of involvement in a bomb attack against a Jewish Association centre in Buenos Aires in 1994, killing 86 people and wounding hundreds, began this Monday in the Argentine capital. Over 350 journalists, most of them foreigners, have registered to follow the trial in a specially fortified court room that is expected to last nine to ten months and hear evidence from 1,460 witnesses. Although none of those on trial have been charged with carrying out the attack, Argentina, Israel and other countries believe Middle East guerrillas backed by Iran were responsible for the bombing. Particularly four policemen and a civilian are accused of supplying the van used in the attack. One of the former policemen involved had two million dollars in a bank account, which apparently were deposited some time before the bombing. If found guilty of supplying the vehicle, that was later loaded with explosives, the accused could face life imprisonment. However, the defendants, Iran and the Teheran linked Hezbollah reject the claims. The blast in July 1994 completely destroyed the seven-story building of the Argentine Israel Mutual Aid Association. In 1992, a similar attack occurred in the Israel Embassy in Buenos Aires.
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