Politicians often attempt to always score points whenever a catastrophe befalls their people. Apart from promising the masses the sun, moon and stars, some politicians, such as some of our ministers try to sound a bit more realistic and pledge to provide lunch packets in the thousands, but more than five days later after the pledge was made initially, no lunch packet let alone even a piece of stale bread has arrived.
When we contacted this minister to question him why he had not stuck to his promise of delivering 1000 lunch packets to the displaced he replied, "what nonsense! I initially promised 1000 packets but actually gave 20,000 lunch packets courtesy government money which cost Rs. 5 lakhs," he claimed.
Meanwhile, while the government claims that it has already dispatched 'more than enough' food items such as rice and dry rations, almost all the organizations currently actively engaging in relief work at camps in Kantale which according to estimates is housing about 40,000 displaced civilians, categorically refute such claims.
General Secretary of the Muslim Council of Sri Lanka M. D. M. Rizvi said that if the government had actually sent out the food items, and if the Kantale Government officer had received these items, why was he silent during a meeting presided over by presidential advisor Basil Rajapakse in Kantale mid this week, when organizations actively involved in providing relief to the displaced levelled charges that no government relief had been provided to the victims?.
"The rhetorical promises are continuing. Some politicians have come and promised 400 toilets to the displaced, some food items, while other political parties have put up notices on their websites requesting aid to help the victims, but these are only political ploys. Not a single promise has so far materialized," Mr. Rizvi, who represents MCSL, a network comprising more than 58 of Sri Lanka's largest and most influential Muslim civil organizations, said.Meanwhile, while acknowledging that there were shortcomings in the relief efforts launched by the government, Muslim Minister A.H.M. Fowzie categorically denied charges levelled against the government to the effect that 'no relief including food had reached the displaced.
"These are all lies. Food items have been dispatched already. Meanwhile, steps are also being taken to reconstruct the infrastructure such as the laying of fresh electricity and telephone lines, rebuilding of damaged houses and other buildings. Our aim is to create a good environment, better than before, so that this would attract the displaced to their original homes once again," Minister Fowzie claimed.
Shortage of proper health facilities and basic sanitation has meanwhile led to at least 50 of the displaced victims suffering from diahrroca, Muslim Aid country director Amjad Mohammed Saleem said. He also disclosed that due to the excess dusty conditions prevailing in the Kantale camps even aid workers and volunteers are beginning to fall sick with respiratory diseases.
Sri Lankans in
The escalation of tension between the LTTE and government security forces in recent months has led to an intensified drive by the Tigers to recruit children, which in turn is forcing hundreds of families to flee their homes.
Rallying under the banner of the local expatriate activist group 'Sri Lankan Patriots,' protesters called on UNICEF Director Ann M. Veneman to follow the United Nations' own resolutions and to invoke international laws such as the Rome Statute to bring the Tiger leaders before the International Criminal Court for conscripting children as combatants.
Spokesperson for the group Hassina Leelarathna said that as the world's leading children's organization UNICEF has failed in its attempts for over a decade to stop the recruitment of children in the island's north and east from the predominant Tamil militant group the LTTE. The UN agency is also accused of compromising the welfare of the children by cooperating with the LTTE - a view shared by the leading rights group Human Rights Watch.
"There is overwhelming evidence that the LTTE has conscripted children, some as young as ten, including tsunami victims, and we are demanding that UNICEF take the steps needed to bring the LTTE before the International Court, so similar punitive action may be taken against this group that has openly flouted international norms for the past twenty years," she said.
Buddhist monk Rev. Aparekke Punyasiri of the
Sri Lankan air force says rebel sea base destroyed, some rebels killed
August 19, 2006 02:37 EDT . BHARATHA MALLAWARACHI - Associated Press Writer - COLOMBO, Sri Lanka - (AP) Sri Lankan air force planes destroyed a strategic Tamil Tiger sea base in the north in overnight strikes, killing a number of insurgents, the military said Saturday.
Military spokesman Maj. Upali Rajapakse said separatist Tamil Tigers have been using the base to launch attacks on government positions in Jaffna Peninsula, which the Tigers claim as the cultural homeland of the country's 3.2 million ethnic Tamils.
About 800 rebels and security forces have been killed in fighting in
The strikes came as the country's president, in a phone call Friday to U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan, said the doors were still open for peace talks with the rebels, according to the government.
Rajapakse said the air force hit a ``key sea Tiger base,'' referring to the rebels' fierce naval wing that has carried out several suicide attacks against the navy.
He did not reveal how many insurgents were killed in the overnight attack.
Air Force Group Cap. Ajantha Silva said Friday that the strikes were called as the rebels were reinforcing their front defense line in the north, the de facto border that separates rebel and government-held territory.
A pro-rebel Web site, Tamilnet, said the air force dropped four bombs on a site used to build boats as part of a civilian tsunami reconstruction project, and that two workers were wounded in the attack.
Rajapakse denied this. ``The Tigers were using this base to train their cadres and build boats under the pretext of building fishing boats. We have been monitoring this base ... and it was clear that attacks against the navy were launched from this base over the last few months.''
It was not immediately possible to verify either side's claim as conflict areas in the north have been virtually cut off to outsiders.
The two sides routinely dispute claims and death tolls offered by the other.
Last Monday, the rebels said the air force struck a children's home deep inside their territory, killing dozens. The military countered that the strike targeted a rebel base and that the dead were in fact child soldiers.
Violence between government forces and separatist Tamil Tiger rebels has spiked in the past few weeks in the north and east, where the insurgents have been fighting for over two decades for a separate homeland.
Most of the fighting has been focused around the eastern
The United Nations' refugee agency estimates that about 170,000 people have fled their homes since April, when a rebel attack on soldiers in Trincomalee sparked ethnic clashes and fighting flared anew.
On Friday, the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees called on the government to reopen access roads to the north and east to allow vital aid to reach people there.
In his phone call with Kofi Annan, President Mahinda Rajapakse also assured the U.N. secretary-general that the government would ``provide all assistance to U.N. agencies to conduct their humanitarian relief work.''
On Saturday, the government said it is sending 3,800 tons of aid to
The Tamil Tigers have been fighting since 1983 for a separate homeland for the tropical island's ethnic Tamils, who suffered decades of discrimination by the country's majority Sinhalese.
A Norwegian-brokered cease-fire in 2002 was supposed to end the violence, in which as many as 65,000 people were killed, but with the recent escalation of fighting, the country appears to be spiraling back into all-out war.
Associated Press writer Cassie Biggs contributed to this report.
On the Net:
Pro-rebel Web site: www.tamilnet.com
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