முல்லைத்தீவு அழிவுகள் - BBC செய்தி

[Mathan]

<b>பல தரப்பட்ட மக்களின் கடுமையான விமரிசனத்திற்கு பின்பு சுனாமியில் வடக்கு, கிழக்கில் ஏற்பட்ட அழிவு குறித்த செய்திகளை பிரித்தானிய ஒலிபரப்பு கூட்டுத்தாபனம் இப்போது தான் வெளியிட ஆரம்பித்திருக்கின்றது.</b>

[Mathan]

இதோ முல்லைத்தீவு அழிவுகள் குறித்து BBC யில் வெளியான செய்தி ஒன்று ,,,

<b>Tamil Tigers grapple with disaster </b>

<i><b>By Jeremy Bowen
BBC News, Mullaitivu</b> </i>



<img src='http://newsimg.bbc.co.uk/media/images/40678000/jpg/_40678877_203pyre-afp.jpg' border='0' alt='user posted image'>

A Tamil Tiger walks away from a funeral pyre in Mullaitivu

<span style='color:red'><b>Little information has emerged from parts of Sri Lanka controlled by the rebel Tamil Tigers following Sunday's tsunami. </b>

The BBC gained access to the village of Mullaitivu in the north-east of the island.

Tamil Tiger rebels here say that more than 3,000 people died in Mullaitivu - that is out of a population of more than 5,000.

Buildings on the beach were completely flattened by the waves. There is almost nothing left standing.

The front of the church is still in place, but not the rest of it.

Tamil Tiger leaders here have organised groups of young rebels to pick up most of the bodies.

The bodies are rotting badly.

<b>Putrefying flesh</b>

They are locating corpses by smell and burning them on the spot.

We went at least one mile (1.6km) inland where we saw people taking bodies out of a paddy field, lining them up and then burning them.

By Thursday evening the sky above Mullaitivu was black with the smoke of funeral pyres.

The predominant smell was a mixture of wood smoke and putrefying burned flesh.

Survivors have been taken to camps in schools and other public buildings.

The local Roman Catholic priest, Father Anansha Kumar, told me that 95% of the people in this area are Catholics.


"Isn't it a shame they are not getting Christian burials?" I asked.

Reflecting on the fears for public health he replied: "I don't think the Lord is very fussy about this."

Father Anansha fears survivors will never return because of the trauma they have experienced.

<b>Organised operation </b>

The ruins in Mullaitivu are eerily empty, apart from the people collecting bodies.


Bodies have been found a mile inland

Packs of dogs run free as well as other domestic animals that survived the floods.

You get the impression that the clean-up operation is very organised.

The Tigers are planning to chlorinate wells and spray disinfectant around.

I also met the headman of another nearby village.

He said there were 2,012 people living in his village before Sunday. Of those about 1,100 had been killed by the waters he told me.

Freelance aid deliveries from well-wishers have been coming in.

One lorry-load of supplies came from beyond Tamil Tiger-controlled territory, from a Sinhala village in the south of the country. </span>

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/south_asi...sia/4137669.stm

[kavithan]

<span style='font-size:30pt;line-height:100%'>Largest Earthquake in 40 Years Hits Indonesia
Nearly 10,000 Dead</span>

<img src='http://a.abclocal.go.com/graphics/kabc/head_brand.jpg' border='0' alt='user posted image'>
...........................................................................................................
..<b>The worst known death toll so far was in Sri Lanka, where a million people were displaced from wrecked villages. Some 20,000 soldiers were deployed in relief and rescue and to help police maintain law and order. Police chief, Chandra Fernando said at least 3,000 people were dead in areas under government control.

An AP photographer saw two dozen bodies along a four-mile stretch of beach, some of children entangled in the wire mesh used to barricade seaside homes. Other bodies were brought up from the beach, wrapped in sarongs and laid on the road, while rows of men and women lined the roads asking if anyone had seen their relatives.

"It is a huge tragedy," said Lalith Weerathunga, secretary to the Sri Lankan prime minister. "The death toll is going up all the time." He said the government did not know what was happening in areas of the northeast controlled by Tamil Tiger rebels. ,p> The pro-rebel www.nitharsanam.com Web site reported about 1,500 bodies were brought from various parts of Sri Lanka's northeast to a hospital in Mullaithivu district, 170 miles northeast of the capital, Colombo.

About 170 children at an orphanage were feared dead after tidal waves pounded it in Mullaithivu, the Web site said. No independent confirmation of the report was available, but TamilNet, another pro-rebel Web site, said some guerrilla territory was badly hit. "Many parts ... are still inaccessible and it was difficult to provide damage estimates or death tolls there," it said.</b>..................


<b>முழுமையான செய்திக்கு......</b>

[manimaran]

[size=18]Tamils fight for fair share of disaster aid
Sri Lanka's army accused of sabotage

Soldiers `confiscate' food shipments


MARTIN REGG COHN Toronto Star
ASIA BUREAU

BATTICALOA, Sri Lanka — Sectarian tensions are dragging down relief efforts in this strife-ridden corner of the country, according to Tamil aid workers, who are accusing the Sinhalese-dominated armed forces of blocking or diverting badly needed food shipments.

Top local officials of the Tamils Rehabilitation Organization — the aid wing of the rebel Tamil Tigers — offered detailed allegations yesterday of army interference and sabotage in this isolated eastern enclave.

"The army confiscates these things and brings them to Buddhist temples, or brings them to welfare (refugee) centres without co-ordinating with us," said Kirupa Sivam, TRO co-ordinator for Batticaloa city. "This is not only a natural disaster but a man-made disaster."

Despite desperate living conditions and shortages of basic necessities since the Asian tsunami that killed as many as 30,000 people in Sri Lanka — about half of them here in the northeast — the government is not distributing any aid at all to these Tamil-dominated areas, he added.

"The government has not issued anything, not even one rupee of food, even until now," Sivam asserted. "Everything we're giving out is from our own local fundraising and collections."

Tamil relief officials cited four separate episodes when government soldiers have stood in the way of relief efforts: Tamil Hindus working on tea plantations in Thambathamne and Thangamamy Estates were stopped when they tried to bring rice, vegetables and tea past a military checkpoint yesterday, and had to reclaim their goods when the army tried to divert them to a Buddhist temple, according to Sivam.

A team trying to deliver aid shipments to the hard-hit Ampara district was blocked at an army checkpoint, despite promises by top local government officials that clearance would be granted, said Sivam.

Three Tamil relief trucks heading to Kallar, southeast of Batticaloa, were stopped at the Chettipalayam checkpoint by elite soldiers from the Special Task Force who forcibly unloaded the relief supplies and took over distribution, according to Kurukulasingam Thevarajah, Batticaloa office director.

Another shipment was delayed at nearby Pillaiyarada checkpoint, Thevarajah added.

Apart from the relief organization's allegations, four trucks sent by the World Food Program to minority Tamil areas were blocked by Sinhalese mobs that diverted donations to their own majority communities, according to reports this week. The food program declined comment.

The allegations threaten to undermine the Sinhalese-dominated government's pronouncements that it is treating rival ethnic groups even-handedly after two decades of bloody civil war. Indeed, the incidents could damage Sri Lanka's credibility as it seeks more foreign aid from countries like Canada, which has sent a planeload of relief materials scheduled to land today in the capital, Colombo.

In Ottawa yesterday, Sri Lankan High Commissioner Geetha De Silva denied her government is discriminating against any ethnic minority, the Toronto Star's Tonda MacCharles reports.

"When this disaster hit, it did not go looking for people of one ethnic community or one religious group. It hit everybody equally, the Tamils, the Sinhalese and the Muslims in the country," De Silva told a news conference. "This is a national crisis and we are meeting it in a national capacity."

She said southern and eastern provinces are most affected by the disaster, but "the government has been sending relief assistance to all the provinces, all the districts in the provinces that are affected."

Some Toronto MPs have come under intense pressure from Canadians of Sri Lankan heritage to ensure aid to the politically divided country is distributed equally, sources told the Star's Les Whittington.

Human Resources Minister Joe Volpe insisted yesterday that "relief efforts are indeed getting into the northeast part of Sri Lanka.

"We are now told that the authorities on both sides in Sri Lanka are co-operating with us and other countries to get relief efforts and emergency goods to the places where people are most affected, irrespective of any political position that might be held in the area," Volpe said, after 30 Liberal MPs from the GTA held a conference call to discuss Canadian aid actions.

The Canadian aid is earmarked for the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, which will distribute it without going through official government or rebel channels. IFRC director Alasdair Gordon-Gibson said his organization has long experience in negotiating between the bitter rivals and crossing checkpoints, and doesn't anticipate problems in distributing the aid even-handedly.

Other senior aid officials interviewed earlier this week expressed the hope any blockages or diversions would be isolated incidents, and cited instances of co-operation and goodwill between the Sinhalese and Tamil communities, such as fundraising appeals at a time of crisis.

Local government officials could not be reached for comment last night on the specific claims of the Tamils Rehabilitation Organization, which is closely aligned with the rebel Tigers and is perhaps being targeted for increased scrutiny.

But Sri Lanka's top political leadership has publicly pledged a policy of "no discrimination" in aid distribution. In a televised address this week, President Chandrika Kumaratunga called on Sri Lankans to "act together if we are to emerge from the ashes of this destruction."

Her office also contacted the political wing of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, as the rebels are formally known, to offer full co-operation. But the government has strongly discouraged foreign governments from giving direct aid to the Tamil relief group, suggesting this would only politicize the relief effort.

Now, the TRO is calling on Canada and other countries to provide direct support to make up for the shortcomings in Colombo's relief effort.

"We would like funds to be given directly to us, and the Sri Lankan government could monitor it," Thevarajah said in an interview in the TRO's regional office here, where staff in grey vests lug sacks of flour and rice to waiting trucks. Problems at army roadblocks are not only delaying the distribution of aid, but possibly discouraging people from making donations to the Tamils, he complained.

In Ottawa, Da Silva said the Tamil request for direct support from Canada "is disturbing to us, and I would wish to tell the people of Canada the government of Sri Lanka is going all across the country to help the people."The Tamils' allegations come against a backdrop of continuing anxiety among the local population. Two decades of civil war culminated in a truce two years ago that has largely held, but checkpoints and sandbags are still in evidence along the A-5 highway that winds past rice paddies, coconut palms and mango trees toward the impoverished eastern regions.

The road alternates between army-controlled and rebel-held areas, each marked with rival flags and emblems. Roadside billboards warn of hidden landmines, a legacy of the brutal fighting. Indeed, Sivam, who also works on de-mining, said his team had retrieved about 15 landmines uprooted by the tidal waves and found floating above ground this week.

On the island's north coast yesterday, near Valvedditturai, hometown of Tamil rebel leader Vellupillai Prabhakaran, bodyguards had to whisk Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapakse from a meeting with Tamil victims, Associated Press reports.

Rajapakse was talking with the victims about their problems when an announcement was made over a loudspeaker urging people not to interact with him, said a government official.

After hearing the call, the agitated crowd shouted: "Get out ... We don't want your help." Some people picked up wooden poles and bashed journalists and a soldier. Rajapakse and his entourage were rushed to a nearby military base.

Another sign of the public's jitters came yesterday afternoon, when word spread of a government warning that another tsunami was imminent. Like much of the country, Batticaloa was panic-stricken. People fled on foot and in vehicles across bridges to the high ground.

A team from the World University Service of Canada was distributing food at a refugee camp in nearby Ampara district when thousands of people started fleeing for their lives. The stunned aid workers found themselves abandoned by people who only moments before had been beseeching them for aid, said University Service worker Odayan Arumugam.

People continue to be unnerved by episodes of looting in devastated areas. Army sentries and armed police have been deployed in key locations, but the problem persists.

At Navaladi, one of the worst-affected areas here, locals frustrated by the lack of a strong police presence have turned to cadres from the Tamil Tigers to patrol after nightfall.

The beachfront looks like a war zone. A Hindu temple that was once one of its most prominent has been devastated, with statues of the elephant god Ganesh buried in the sand.

The fallout from Navaladi's destruction is still being felt by survivors crowded into makeshift refugee centres.

"I don't have anyone," said Sasiharan Thebchanamoorthy, 14, who returned home from a school vacation to find he'd lost his mother, father, two sisters and a brother to the tsunami.

http://www.thestar.com/NASApp/cs/ContentSe...ol=968350060724

[size=18]Sri Lankans in Canada at odds over uses of aid
Old tensions between Tamils, Sinhalese play out concerning who needs most help
By COLIN FREEZE
With a report from Caroline Alphonso
Thursday, December 30, 2004 - Page A13

Global Mail.
Sri Lankan groups in Canada are waging a public-relations war over aid money, proving that ethnic tensions and terrorism fears can survive a powerful force of nature that has wiped out tens of thousands of lives.

Many members of Toronto's large Tamil community are convinced that the island's separatist northeast has been hardest hit by the catastrophe, and believe that foreign aid won't reach their kin unless it is funnelled through on-the-ground organizations such as the Tamil Rehabilitation Organization.

Sources more sympathetic to the Sinhalese-dominated government in Colombo fear the TRO and other agencies are too cozy with Tamil rebel forces, and say funds would be better routed through government, or non-partisan relief agencies.

The tsunamis have killed at least 20,000 people and left one million homeless in Sri Lanka, while damaging the island's communications network. But the disaster has also thrown a wrench into the fragile ceasefire being observed by government forces and the rebel Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam after more than two decades of fighting.

Now the factions are on a war footing again, if only to ensure their share of aid. Reclusive LTTE leader Velupillai Prabhakaran made a rare direct appeal yesterday to the international community for its "magnanimous assistance."

The hot topic is where that magnanimity should be directed.

"The areas that are worst affected are in the south and the east," Geetha de Silva, Sri Lanka's high commissioner to Canada, said in an interview. "These two areas have both Tamils and Sinhalese."

She disputed assertions that the government is blocking aid to Tamil areas. "It's totally manufactured; it's a fabricated story," she said.

Speaking in Toronto yesterday, former defence minister David Pratt also tried to reassure Tamils that help is trickling into the north.

"The reports that we're getting are that the aid is getting through," said Mr. Pratt, now a special ambassador to the Canadian Red Cross.

But in Toronto, home to the largest population of Tamils outside Sri Lanka, many said they doubted that Colombo and the Red Cross can do the job. The TRO's Toronto arm insisted that it and similar groups can.

Raj Guna-Nathan, a TRO director, said the group has already received and forwarded at least $150,000 in aid. He complained that Tamil donors aren't even rewarded with tax exemptions for their efforts: Ottawa has long refused to grant his group official charitable status. "They said we are a front organization," he explained.

Mr. Guna-Nathan said that although his organization works with the Tigers at times, it is impossible not to do so in that region. Indeed, the Sri Lankan High Commissioner acknowledged that the Colombo government is negotiating with the Tigers to deliver aid to rebel-controlled areas itself.

The TRO is "totally independent" of the LTTE, Mr. Guna-Nathan insisted, contesting a 1999 report on the Canadian Security Intelligence Service's website claiming that TRO wings have acted as fronts for the rebels. TRO donations, which have reached $400,000 a year, "never, never, never" go to the Tigers, he said.

Neither CSIS nor the Canada Revenue Agency would discuss the TRO specifically yesterday. Although the U.S. government has deemed the LTTE a terrorist entity, Ottawa has not.



Tamil Tigers make tsunami appeal

Associated Press

[Nada]

தெரியாமல் ஆங்கில இணையத்துக்கு வந்துவிட்டேனா அல்லது யாழில்
ஏதாவது ஆங்கில இணையத்துக்கு இணைப்;பு கொடுத்துள்ளனரா? பொறுப்பாளர் ஏதாவது சொல்லுங்களேன்

[KULAKADDAN]

]<b>பல தரப்பட்ட மக்களின் கடுமையான விமரிசனத்திற்கு பின்பு சுனாமியில் வடக்கு, கிழக்கில் ஏற்பட்ட அழிவு குறித்த செய்திகளை பிரித்தானிய ஒலிபரப்பு கூட்டுத்தாபனம் இப்போது தான் வெளியிட ஆரம்பித்திருக்கின்றது.</b>[/quote]

´ôÒìÌ.....

[Mathan]

சன் டிவி குறித்த செய்தி ஒன்று .............

http://www.nitharsanam.com/?art=7892

[AJeevan]

<!--QuoteBegin-Nada+-->QUOTE(Nada)<!--QuoteEBegin-->தெரியாமல் ஆங்கில இணையத்துக்கு வந்துவிட்டேனா அல்லது யாழில்
ஏதாவது ஆங்கில இணையத்துக்கு இணைப்;பு கொடுத்துள்ளனரா? பொறுப்பாளர் ஏதாவது சொல்லுங்களேன்<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->

உலகம் நம்மைப் பார்க்வில்லை என்று நினைத்து
வருந்துகிறோம்.
உலகத்தின் பார்வையை முன் வைக்கும் போது
மகிழ்வாக இருக்கிறது.
அதை இந் நேரத்தில் தவறெனக் கருதக் கூடாது.
இணைத்தவர்களுக்கு நன்றி.
முடிந்தால் அதை தமிழாக்கமும் செய்து தந்தால்
பலருக்கு புரியும்.

[Mathan]

<!--QuoteBegin-Mathan+-->QUOTE(Mathan)<!--QuoteEBegin-->இதோ முல்லைத்தீவு அழிவுகள் குறித்து BBC யில் வெளியான செய்தி ஒன்று ,,,

<b>Tamil Tigers grapple with disaster </b>

<i><b>By Jeremy Bowen  
BBC News, Mullaitivu</b>  </i>
 


<img src='http://newsimg.bbc.co.uk/media/images/40678000/jpg/_40678877_203pyre-afp.jpg' border='0' alt='user posted image'>

A Tamil Tiger walks away from a funeral pyre in Mullaitivu  

<span style='color:red'><b>Little information has emerged from parts of Sri Lanka controlled by the rebel Tamil Tigers following Sunday's tsunami. </b>

The BBC gained access to the village of Mullaitivu in the north-east of the island.

Tamil Tiger rebels here say that more than 3,000 people died in Mullaitivu - that is out of a population of more than 5,000.  

Buildings on the beach were completely flattened by the waves. There is almost nothing left standing.  

The front of the church is still in place, but not the rest of it.

Tamil Tiger leaders here have organised groups of young rebels to pick up most of the bodies.  

The bodies are rotting badly.  

<b>Putrefying flesh</b>

They are locating corpses by smell and burning them on the spot.  

We went at least one mile (1.6km) inland where we saw people taking bodies out of a paddy field, lining them up and then burning them.

By Thursday evening the sky above Mullaitivu was black with the smoke of funeral pyres.  

The predominant smell was a mixture of wood smoke and putrefying burned flesh.

Survivors have been taken to camps in schools and other public buildings.

The local Roman Catholic priest, Father Anansha Kumar, told me that 95% of the people in this area are Catholics.


\"Isn't it a shame they are not getting Christian burials?\" I asked.  

Reflecting on the fears for public health he replied: \"I don't think the Lord is very fussy about this.\"  

Father Anansha fears survivors will never return because of the trauma they have experienced.  

<b>Organised operation </b>

The ruins in Mullaitivu are eerily empty, apart from the people collecting bodies.

 
Bodies have been found a mile inland  

Packs of dogs run free as well as other domestic animals that survived the floods.  

You get the impression that the clean-up operation is very organised.  

The Tigers are planning to chlorinate wells and spray disinfectant around.

I also met the headman of another nearby village.  

He said there were 2,012 people living in his village before Sunday. Of those about 1,100 had been killed by the waters he told me.  

Freelance aid deliveries from well-wishers have been coming in.  

One lorry-load of supplies came from beyond Tamil Tiger-controlled territory, from a Sinhala village in the south of the country. </span>
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/south_asia/4137669.stm<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->

மீட்பு நடவடிக்கைகளை புலிகள் மிகவும் திட்டமிட்டு முன்னெடுக்கிறார்கள்: பி.பி.சி சர்வதேச சேவை

[கொழும்பு நிருபர் சனிக்கிழமை 01 சனவரி 2005 18:09 ஈழம்]

நேற்றைய தினம் முல்லைத்தீவிற்கு விஐயம் செய்த பி.பி.சி.யின் சர்வதேசத் செய்தியாளர் ஒருவர்ää முல்லைத்தீவின் நிலமைகளை இன்று வெளியிட்டுள்ளார். இதேவேளை ஏனைய சர்வதேச ஊடகங்களும் முல்லைதீவு பற்றிய உண்மை நிலைகளைப் படம்பிடித்துக் காட்டியுள்ளன.

முல்லைத்தீவில் தனியார்களும் நலன் விரும்பிகளுமே நிவாரண உதவிகளை கொண்டு வருவதில் ஈடுபட்டுள்ளதாகத் தெரிவித்துள்ள மேற்படி செய்தியாளர்ää தான் அங்கு நின்ற சமயம்ää தனியார்களின் நிவாரணங்களை சுமந்த ஒரேயொரு லொறியே அங்கு வந்ததாகக் குறிப்பிட்டார்.

மீட்பு நடவடிக்கைகளை மேற்கொள்வதுää அவ்விடங்களை சுத்திகரிப்புச் செய்வது என்பவற்றை புலிகள் மிகவும் திட்டமிட்ட முறையில் முன்னெடுக்கிறார்கள் என்பதைத் தான் கண்டு வியந்ததாகத் தெரிவித்துள்ள மேற்படி செய்தியாளர்ää தற்போது கிணறுகளிற்கு குளோரின் பிரயோகிக்கும் செயற்பாட்டிலும்ää அப்பிரதேசங்களிற்கு பக்கிறிரியா எதிர்ப்பு மருந்துக்களைப் பிரயோகிப்பதிலும் புலிகள் ஈடுபட்டுள்ளதாகவும் தெரிவித்துள்ளார்.

முல்லைத்தீவில் மரணமானவர்களில் 90 விழுக்காட்டினர் கத்தோலிக்கர் எனத் தெரிவித்துள்ள மேற்படி செய்தியாளர்ää மேற்படி சடலங்களின் நிலமை காரணமாக அவை கத்தோலிக்க முறைப்படி புதைக்கப்பட முடியாமல் எரிக்கப்படுவதாகவும்ää இது பற்றி தான் அங்குள்ள வணக்கத்துக்குரிய பிதாவிடம் வினவியபோது அவர்ää

|இவ்வாறானதொரு பாரிய துன்ப நேரத்தில் அவர்கள் எவ்வாறு அடக்கம் செய்யப்படுகிறார்கள் என்பதை ஆண்டவன் கருத்தில் கொள்ள மாட்டான் என்றும்ää தற்போது தப்பியிருப்போரின் சுகாதாரமே முக்கியம்| எனவும் தெரிவித்துள்ளார்.

http://www.eelampage.com/index.shtml?id=20...11809268767&in=

[Mathan]

இன்னொரு செய்தி .....

http://www.khaleejtimes.com/DisplayArticle...on=subcontinent

[KULAKADDAN]

இது வரை அரச தரப்பின் இருட்டடிப்பு. அனுமதியின்மை காரணமாக தான் சர்வதேச செயதியாளர்கள் வடகிழக்கு எனறும் பல்வேறு அழுத்தததின் பின்னரே அனுமதிகபட்டதாகவும் ஒரு தகவல்
உண்மையா

[manimaran]

<span style='font-size:25pt;line-height:100%'>World - Canadian Press


Relief work goes smoothly in areas of Sri Lanka controlled by Tamil rebels

Sun Jan 2, 6:03 PM ET

ARTHUR MAX

KILINOCHCHI, Sri Lanka (AP) - In times of crisis, envy the authoritarians. </span>

Veterans of a long guerrilla war, the Tamil rebels who control northern Sri Lanka moved with military precision to help victims of the Indian Ocean tsunami.


The speed and efficiency of the massive humanitarian operation showed an administrative capability that underscored the rebels' demand for Tamil independence from the Sinhalese-dominated southern part of Sri Lanka.


Within minutes of the disaster, soldiers of the Liberation Tigers for Tamil Eelam, or LTTE, were evacuating survivors and pulling bodies from the still-roiling water, villagers and aid workers said.


In a well-practised drill, squads set up roadblocks to control panic and prevent looting. Others requisitioned civilian vehicles to move the injured to hospitals. Many donated blood.


Teams with digital cameras and laptops moved into disaster zones to photograph the faces of the dead for later identification, then swiftly cremated or buried the corpses.


Sathinathan Senthan, the village mayor of Kallappadu, said boats of the elite Sea Tigers, the LTTE naval arm which had a base at the neighbouring town of Mullaitivu, arrived even as the tsunami floodwaters were receding. Other sailors arrived on bicycles, he said.


"Until now, they are still there," Senthan told a reporter in the refugee camp, where he was trying to hold the grieving survivors together. Half his village of 2,200 people was killed, he said, and not a building remained standing.


By the end of the first day, the first refugee centres were set up. Women in the Tigers' camouflage uniforms began registering the survivors and recording the relief items they received - ensuring no one got more than he should.


"They applied a very efficient military machine. All they had to do was give the command," said Reuben Thurairajah, a British doctor who watched in amazement.


Meanwhile, in the south, the government was struggling to cope while politicians argued over who was in charge. From the field came isolated reports of corruption and hijacking of relief trucks.


Thurairajah, a volunteer public health officer who was in the area several weeks before the tsunami, said the Tigers were scrupulous in ensuring equal distribution of aid.


"If they have 100 bars of soap and 800 people, they'd rather not give it to anyone," he said.


The tsunami brought an equal measure of tragedy to the Tamils of the north and the Sinhalese of the south. Nearly 30,000 people have been killed, a crushing toll for a country of only 19 million.


Yet that is less than half the number of casualties from this island's 20-year ethnic-based civil war.


Tamil nationalists have been fighting for independence for the north and east, where the minority group is concentrated, since 1983.


A shaky ceasefire has held since February 2002, but peace talks broke down more than a year ago over the Tiger's demand to have a recognized self-governing authority while a final settlement is negotiated.





"Both sides are acutely aware that the way the relief efforts are being handled can affect their political status," said Paikiasothy Saravanamuttu, head of the Centre for Policy Alternatives.

The Tigers are likely to showcase their smooth handling of aid as they argue for autonomous authority. Sri Lankan hardliners counter that only a central government with authority over the whole country can administer international donations.

The LTTE began as a ragged guerrilla force of 26 fighters in the early 1970s under Veluppelai Prabhakaran, a civil servant's son from a coastal village near the historic Tamil city of Jaffna.

Prabhakaran demanded absolute loyalty, dedication to the cause of Tamil independence, and strict adherence to a code of conduct.

The LTTE revived suicide as a weapon of war. In 1991, a woman detonated an explosive belt that killed former Indian Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi. Two years later, Sri Lankan President Ranasinghe Premadasa died in a suicide bomb.

Prabhakaran has never brooked dissent, and has ruthlessly eliminated rivals and rebels. He faced his biggest challenge in recent years last March when a top commander defected, and clashes still continue with the renegade group.

Both the LTTE and the government have signalled the tsunami could bring them closer together - "brothers in misery," as Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapakse put it - and help revive the peace process.

An exchange of conciliatory remarks and pledges to work together brought a sudden reversal in the gloomy political atmosphere.

"Before Dec. 26, we were closer to war than at any time since the ceasefire," said Saravanamuttu, speaking in Colombo. "Afterward, we are much further from war."

The hope is that joint relief efforts will break the cycle of distrust and build a level of confidence that would allow peace efforts to resume, he said.

But the co-operation in relief efforts began slowly and remains patchy, as the LTTE jealously guards its turf.

Relief operations in the rebel-controlled areas are guided by regional and local task forces comprising a government representative, an LTTE political officer, an aid official of the LTTE-financed Tamil Rehabilitation Organization, and a representative of an international charity group or UN body.

The system has worked surprisingly well, but with occasional glitches.

On Sunday, the Sri Lankan army accused the LTTE of blocking the disbursement of aid at a government school near the Tamil capital of Jaffna, apparently because they were sidelined in the distribution. The LTTE spokesman could not be reached for comment.

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=stor...=2149&ncid=2149

[Mathan]

Another news from BBC ...........

Search for corpses in ghost town

<b>By Frances Harrison
BBC News, Mullaitivu, north-east Sri Lanka</b>

<img src='http://newsimg.bbc.co.uk/media/images/40684000/jpg/_40684617_gloves.jpg' border='0' alt='user posted image'>

<i>Tigers say the people's suffering is far worse than the civil war</i>

<b>When the tsunami struck rebel-held northern Sri Lanka, fisherman Rajasingham in the town of Mullaitivu assumed the civil war had started again</b>.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/south_asi...sia/4142665.stm

[KULAKADDAN]

Sri Lankans struggle with new trauma
Children and adults already scarred by civil war are struggling to come to terms with the loss of their loved ones after the Asian tsunami, the BBC's Frances Harrison reports from Mullaitivu, in territory held by the Tamil Tiger rebels in north-eastern Sri Lanka.



--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"We only recovered the body of my elder sister, not my two younger sisters," says Anthony David.

He was lucky to survive - compelled to go to work at the age of 13 to support his family, he was travelling back home to visit his mother on Boxing Day when the tsunami struck.


Children have suffered the double tragedy of war and the tsunami
He saw nine fishermen swept away and then watched helplessly as two men clinging to a coconut tree died as the tree smashed to the ground - all the time fearing his own family was dead.

Anthony David's mother did survive but he has not seen her because she was sent to Jaffna Hospital for treatment in government territory.

But this is not the first tragedy Anthony David has known. When he was five his father, a fisherman, set out to sea one night and never returned. He was shot by the Sri Lankan navy.

'The worst thing'

Like everyone else here, Anthony David has suffered the double tragedy of war and the tsunami. "Yes I have been through the war but this is worse," he says, "the army didn't kill everyone but the sea has wiped everybody out."

When I listen to them... I feel like crying

Sister Selvi, counsellor
Anthony David is part of a group of children in a welfare camp being counselled by Catholic nun Sister Selvi.

"When I listen to them... I feel like crying," she says. "I also think more than the war these waves have washed many people. This is the worst thing that happened for our people."

Sister Selvi listens to small children recounting stories of dead bodies in a matter of fact way.

Five-year-old Jerome gives a long and garbled account of how he survived the tsunami by holding on to a mango tree. He describes how the body of his brother Robin was brought on the back of a tractor and how it was badly decomposed. Something no five-year-old should see.

His friend Anthony Seeha says there is no way he is going back to the sea even though his father is a fisherman. "One day we will go and visit our home and see the area and then return to the camp," he says. Asked why, he says "what will we do if the sea comes again?".

Catholic priests organising the counselling say already some children are very silent. Others are enjoying having their friends to play with in the camp but when they go back home the problems may set in because dead siblings and friends will be really missed then.

'Like a dream'

Already counsellors are dealing with several men who want to commit suicide or are resorting to alcohol to deaden their pain. Thirty-year-old Anton lies on a bed - he was injured in the back but it is his mental anguish that is most noticeable. He has trouble talking - the words just do not seem to come out normally.


Mullaitivu has become like a ghost town since the tsunami
He used to transport fish and was doing his accounts at home when the tsunami struck. "I can't describe it - it was just like a dream," he says describing the advancing wave as like a cloud of black smoke.

He grabbed his children and started to run but they were dragged out to sea while he clung to a tree. Anton's children were five years old, three years old and a baby of just 14 days.

"The children used to sit on my lap and say daddy daddy daddy; they would ask me to get things for them," he says breaking down in tears. Anton also lost his wife, his father, a brother and a sister. Only two of the bodies were ever recovered.

Elsewhere in the camp, 25-year-old Vinsi is glued to a crackly Tamil radio station broadcasting from the capital. Her nine-year-old daughter is missing and a relative told her he heard on the radio she was alive but somewhere in a government-controlled town.

"My husband also died so I have to get back my child," she says, unable to travel so far on her own to a place she doesn't know - especially now that all her identity documents are lost in the tsunami.

Vinsi says she is sure her daughter Mary is alive - she saw her in a dream. We use a satellite telephone to contact the hospital where Vinsi thinks her daughter was taken. They have no record of her but she does not give up hope.


BBC
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/south_asi...sia/4147785.stm

[manimaran]

'BBC News Watch' இலங்கைச் செய்தி ஒளிபரப்பப்பட்ட விபரம் தொடர்பான விளக்கமும் இலங்கைத் தமிழர் ஒருவரின் பேட்டியும் ஒளிபரப்பாகியது. விபரமான செய்திக்கு கீழுள்ள இணைப்பில் சென்று ஒளிபரப்பை பார்க்கவும்
http://news.bbc.co.uk/newswatch/ukfs/hi/#