IMRALI, Turkey, May 31 (AFP)
Kurdish rebel leader Abdullah Ocalan declared Monday he was willing to work for peace with the Turkish state, in remarks he made at the start of his trial for treason on the Turkish prison island of Imrali.
�I want to work for peace and brotherhood, to achieve this goal in the Turkish Republic,� Ocalan said in his opening remarks, made from his bullet-proof glass cage in the courtroom.
�That is why I want to live,� the leader of the Kurdistan Workers� Party (PKK) added.
�I will try to stop the bloodshed,� Ocalan said. �I promise that I will work for this. I want to be of service to the state.�
The PKK leader said he shared the pain of the families of Turkish soldiers slain by the PKK, present in the courtroom as co-plaintiffs, and apologized to them.
He also accused Greece, Russia and Italy of �violating international law� and added that he had not been submitted to any pressure after his capture in mid-February.
Gulbanu ABENOVA
ALMATY, May 31
(THE GLOBE)
�Despite the fact that the population has US$ 1 to 3 billion, we (the state) ask other countries and take their loans in amount of US$ 500 million,� the organisers of the 1st Congress of Financiers RK announced on May 31 in Almaty.
The President of Kazakhstan Nursultan Nazarbaev spoke at the Congress. The main theme discussed was the �Program of the defence and stimulation of savings�.
According to the organisers (�NSBK�, �Kazcommertsbank�, �TuranAlemBank�, �Bank CentreCredit�) an analysis of the population�s savings indicated, concealed unorganised savings are more than US$ 1 billion. This conclusion was based upon the data of the �import-export� balance of foreign currency, of net sales of cash foreign currency, as well as on a comparison of cash hard currency intended for savings and servicing of �import-resale� business and �grey� turnover of the markets. None of these amounts are used in the business turnover of the country. Let�s compare: the population�s deposits in the second level banks are 30 billion tenge. Thus, the volume of hidden savings of the population is at least 1.5 times more than the amount in the banking and accumulating pension systems.
Karim Maksimov, the chairman of the People�s Saving Bank said the other negative trend was aged depositors. More prosperous citizens (30 to 40 year-old) prefer to invest their money in property. If this trend is the same, in next ten years it may result in an abrupt reduction of the banking deposit base, he emphasised.
The organisers of the Congress announced that for the first time representatives of all the sectors of the financial market discussed the problems regarding the creation of wide investment conditions and financial instruments to settle the economic problems. The necessity of approving a Program to defend and stimulate savings, to introduce collective forms of investment, and to develop the insurance savings systems were also emphasised.
Azamat Dzholdasbekov, the chairman of the National Commission on securities asked the mass media to agitate people to take part in this process. �Let people feel their participation in events happening in their Motherland, let them help their State,� he stated.
Daulet Sembaev, the chairman of the Board of the JSC �Kazcommertsbank� who was elected at the Congress the chairman of the Association of Financiers added: �We request that you never use the phrase �it is the next deception of the people.�
MINSK, May 31 (AFP)
Fifty-four people were killed in a stampede in the Belarus capital as they ran for shelter from rain into an underground passageway after a rock concert.
Nearly all the casualties were teenagers under 18 years old who had been to a concert of the popular Russian group Mango Mango on Sunday. Forty-four of those killed were women.
Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko arrived at the central Minsk train station Nemiga late Sunday to comfort the terrified survivors.
�It is hard to describe what happened,� the Belarus president said. �This is a horrible tragedy.�
The nation�s television and radio cancelled all entertainment programs on Monday which was officially declared a day of mourning.
The death toll could rise as some of the injured were in serious condition, said Interior Minister Yury Sivakov.
�Most of the killed people were young,� Sivakov said on national television. �But among them were people who were there just by accident, walking out of the metro.�
The accident occurred during a sudden storm at around 9 p.m. (1800 GMT). The crowd of around 2,500 who had been at the open-air concert rushed for cover into a nearby passageway leading to an underground station
Sivakov said women wearing high heels slipped on the passageway�s stairs in the rain and were crushed by those behind them in the stampede.
He said many of the people at the show � billed as a �beer concert� � had been drunk.
Lukashenko however said heavy drinking had not been the cause of the accident.
All Over the Globe is published by IPA House.
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