*** "Companies
invest where there are markets, and the US is one of the few places in the world where gun
ownership proliferates . . . When people talk about guns in America, they tend to talk
about patriotism and try to wrap it in the American flag."
(Executive of European gun manufacturing company explaining why
European exporters prefer the biggest and the least regulated gun market of the world, the
US)
*** "It was like a fish market, with passengers
pleading and running around like madmen trying to persuade airline officials to allow them
to fly with their baggage."
(An angry traveller who was forced to fly without baggage on
state-owned Pakistan International Airlines on its Dubai to Balochistan flight.
Balochistan bound expatriates were made to fly baggageless as poor runways forced the
Airline to use small aircraft)
*** "I think there was a measure of justification in
those allegations and Washington never denied it . . . That was worrisome because it not
only undermined Unscom but it could undermine future disarmament regimes. The suspicion
will always be there: ‘Are they coming to disarm or are they coming to
spy.’"
(UN Secretary General, Kofi Annan, saying that there was some evidence
that Iraq’s allegations of Unscom weapons inspectors spying for Washington were
justified)
*** "It is very difficult to avoid filming the
sleeping MPs because they are always in the background. They are representatives of
thousands of people so they should not go to parliament for a sleep. They should do it at
home."
(Reaction of a director of one of many local television networks whose
crews were banned by the Cambodian government to film snoozing MPs in the parliament)
*** "Kashmiris have the right to decide their own
fate. Give us the vote. End all fighting in our homeland."
(Shabbir Shah, president of Jammu and Kashmir Democratic Freedom Party,
leading a procession in Srinagar which demanded plebiscite for the independence of Indian
occupied Kashmir. He was later arrested by the police)
*** "I don’t want to be full of hate. I built a
wall around my heart when the Serbs were here, but what they did was stronger than my
wall."
(Aida, a 24-year old ethnic Albanian, recollecting atrocities committed
by the Serbs in Kosovo)
*** "We estimate that 50 per cent of the drugs coming
into Albania donated by non-medical organisations are inappropriate or useless."
(Indro Mattei, member of WHO’s audit team and humanitarian group,
Pharmacists Without Borders, on useless drugs flooding the Kosovar refugee camps)
*** "I don’t think they made an attempt on my
life."
(Uzbekistan president, Islam Karimov, regretting the death sentence
handed down by the Uzbek Supreme Court to six men for an alleged plot to assassinate him)
*** "People believe their eyes more than the
legalistic explanation. They are unable to understand how a lawyer in the employment of
the state is expected to prosecute those who belong to the party of his employer with
freedom and commitment required for that purpose."
(President of Supreme Court Bar Association, Abid Minto, saying that
the acquittal of the Supreme Court stormers belonging to the ruling Muslim League,
including members of the parliament, had not been well received by the people)
*** "We found Sudan’s foreign debts standing at
more than 20 billion US dollars. With God’s wish, everything is in order and the
country is now doing without any foreign assistance."
(Lt. Gen Omar Hassan al Bashir, president of Sudan, informing the
people that the country has freed itself from foreign aid during his address to the
nation)
*** "We will not accept any Indo-Pakistan secret
accord until Kashmiri political leadership and Mujahideen commanders are taken into
confidence."
(Syed Salahuddin Ahmed, chairman of United Jihad Council, rejecting any
withdrawal of mujahideen from positions in Kargil-Dras sector in Indian occupied Kashmir.
The council is an alliance of 14 Kashmiri freedom fighter groups)
