News vom 13.09.2005

srilanka1998

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I Played Chess with a 'Terrorist'
[ TamilCanadian ] [ 02:04 GMT, Sep. 13, 2005 ]

It does not make sense to me how the man who thousands of children, orphaned by the conflict, affectionately call 'Appah' (father) is also the same man who is hatefully deemed a terrorist in America. The leader of this freedom movement, Velupillai Pirabakaran, grew up with Tamil men and women crying to his mother while reliving stories of rape, torture and massacre by the Sri Lankan Army and the Indian Peace Keeping Force. After years of peaceful protesting, only to be urinated on, arrested, and abused, the Tamil people finally refused to accept further injustice. They decided to carry arms and defend themselves. Overcoming the obstacles involved in sparking a revolution, the LTTE could not have matured without the fierce support of its people. During war time, 70-year old grandmothers run in the streets carrying rifles in order to defend themselves from the Sri Lankan Army.


After tsunami blood-loss deaths, Jaffna hospital calls for mobile blood bank
[ World Vision ] [ 10:45 GMT, Sep. 13, 2005 ]

ACCIDENT victims in rural areas of Sri Lanka's northern districts are less likely to die from blood loss thanks to a new mobile blood bank. The blood bank, which is being equipped by World Vision, is a desperately needed piece of equipment that will be welcomed by hospitals in the north and the region's main blood bank in Jaffna. When the tsunami struck the northern coast, many people lost their lives due to excessive bleeding before they could be taken to hospital. Twenty years of civil war had meant health services in the north were in dire straits. Many hospitals were very short of funds 'some only having one oxygen cylinder each' so buying this kind of mobile blood bank was simply not an option.


Sri Lanka PM accused of betrayal, election rift widens
[ Reuters ] [ 10:48 GMT, Sep. 13, 2005 ]

A rift in Sri Lanka's ruling party widened on Tuesday when the foreign minister openly berated the prime minister, presidential candidate Mahinda Rajapaksa -- a public scolding analysts say could hurt his election bid. Foreign Minister Anura Bandaranaike distanced himself from Rajapaksa just three days after his sister, President Chandrika Kumaratunga, rapped the premier in a newspaper interview for forging a pact with hardline Marxists demanding a tough line on Tamil Tiger rebels. Rajapaksa, who is in full campaign swing and forged another pact with hardline Buddhist monks on Tuesday in the island's ancient hill capital of Kandy, declined to comment. Political analysts said Bandaranaike's comments could undermine Rajapaksa's campaign, saying a spat within Kumaratunga's Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) could scare off moderates ahead of the presidential poll expected in November.


On the Nitty-Gritty of 'Hit Lists'
[ Illangai Thamizh Sangam ] [ 10:55 GMT, Sep. 13, 2005 ]

The less comment on the burlesque theater run by a former cinema star for the entertainment of ill-fed masses, the better. For decades, Mahatma Gandhi has been weeping in his grave on the banal "celebrations" by the 'Z' category security-holding dimwits in the name of India's independence. But one might like to know that, in Indian bureaucratic lingo, Jayalalitha, holding the 'Z' category security, is not in the top-dog circle. There is a superior category called 'Z plus' as well. I'm not joking, but the hair-splitting difference between the 'Z' category and 'Z plus' category is distinguished only by the word 'very.' Whereas the 'Z' category security refers to "Very High threat", the 'Z plus' category security refers to "Very Very High threat."


Norway: Centre-left bloc wins Norway poll
[ BBC ] [ 11:03 GMT, Sep. 13, 2005 ]

The Norwegian prime minister has accepted the defeat of his centre-right government in parliamentary elections. Kjell Magne Bondevik lost to a Labour Party leader who had campaigned to spend more of Norway's huge oil wealth on the welfare state. With nearly all votes counted, Jens Stoltenberg's centre-left bloc was set to get 88 seats, ahead of Mr Bondevik's coalition with 81 seats. Norway is poised to have its first majority government for 20 years. Mr Stoltenberg won on promises to increase welfare spending while criticising the government for promising tax cuts for the rich. The big winner on the conservative side was the far-right Progress party.The current government has relied on their support in parliament for the past four years but have refused to include the populist and anti-immigration party in the government.


SLFP-JHU deal sealed
[ BBC ] [ 11:06 GMT, Sep. 13, 2005 ]

After exchanging copies of the agreement with the SLFP candidate co-signatory to the memorandum Ven. Ellawala Medhananda thero told gathering that the JHU is opposed to any federal setup that shares power with the Tamil Tigers. However, BBC correspondent Elmo Fernando who was at the religious ceremony that preceded the exchange in front of the Dalada Maligawa (Temple of the Sacred Tooth Relic) said that the electoral deal was not signed in public. The prime minister earlier entered into an electoral deal with the Sinhala Nationalist Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) that has come under attack from the Sri Lankan president's brother Anura Bandaranaike who is also the foreign minister. The foreign minister was quoted in the Daily Mirror published from Colombo saying that he and the president feels that a a major damage has been done to the party" by Mahinda Rajapaksa's actions.


Norway's new government offers to maintain Sri Lanka peace bid
[ AFP ] [ 12:49 GMT, Sep. 13, 2005 ]

Norway's government-elect will offer to keep up peace mediation efforts in Sri Lanka "in whatever manner the parties want," top peace envoy Erik Solheim told AFP. "After the new government is formed by mid-October, it will formally contact the Sri Lankan government and the Tamil Tigers offering to continue its services in whatever manner the parties want," Solheim said on Tuesday. An opposition coalition, comprising Labor, the Socialist Left Party and the agrarian Center Party, won a majority in Norway's parliamentary election Monday. Solheim who is expected to be part of the new government said the peace process will be continued by outgoing deputy foreign minister Vidar Helgesen and should continue under a new government.


An American opportunity
[ Monday Morning ] [ 14:54 GMT, Sep. 13, 2005 ]

The Dutch, almost half of whom live below sea-level, are thinking that they would never so neglect their dikes that a predictable storm would inundate one of their major cities. They also know that if such a calamity did occur, some individuals might be left behind to die -- no system is perfect -- but that no Dutch government would forget several hundred thousand of its own citizens who lacked the money and the transport to get themselves out of harm’s way. Similarly, Indians, Sri Lankans, Malaysians and Indonesians who bore the brunt of the Indian Ocean tsunami last December are thinking that they saw no scenes of violence and social breakdown like those that ravaged New Orleans last week. Even in areas like Northeast Sri Lanka and Indonesia’s Aceh region where there had been years of war between local insurgents and the government, social solidarity was the automatic response to natural disaster.


Sri Lanka ruling party sparks fly
[ BBC ] [ 19:31 GMT, Sep. 13, 2005 ]

Sri Lanka's foreign minister has launched a bitter attack on the prime minister, saying he has betrayed the principles of the ruling party. Foreign Minister Anura Bandaranaike said PM Mahinda Rajapakse had joined with "extremist forces" to try to win this year's presidential elections. Last week Mr Rajapakse signed a deal with the Sinhala nationalist JVP. Mr Bandaranaike, brother of President Chandrika Kumaratunga, said he "didn't care" about the poll outcome now.
 
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