12-30-2004, 01:16 PM
An appeal to the international news media
Source: TCNR - December 29, 2004
The tsunami has devastated South Asia, with death tolls currently at 68,000 victims. The International Red Cross and the United Nations are also expressing grave concern about disease and illness, believing this will cause the same amount of deaths as the tsunami itself.
A large percentage of the deaths occurred in Sri Lanka: Current numbers are 21,715. Of these deaths in Sri Lanka, more than 3/4 of these deaths took place in the North East provinces of Sri Lanka. While the international news media from BBC to CNN to FOX has been fairly covering most of the areas of devastation: Indonesia, Thailand and India, when they cover Sri Lanka, they only report about Southern Sri Lanka: primarily Colombo and Galle. However, Southern Sri Lanka only makes up 1/4 of the 21,715 death tolls.
In term of relief efforts, this means the suffering people in the Northeast are virtually ignored, and are receiving no aid from the Sri Lankan government. Lalith Weerathunga, secretary to the Sri Lankan prime minister, said the government does not know even what was happening in areas of the Northeast, meaning they are not making any attempt to alleviate suffering there. The reason for this is the Sri Lankan government's long time apathy for the suffering of the Tamil people of the North East. This can be seen in the previous 10-year embargo against medicinal and nutritional supplies for the Northeast, which stunted the growth and development in these areas.
Thus, communication and transportation systems in the Northeast are lacking, making vital relief efforts more difficult. With the vast generosity in aid flowing from the international community, it is a tragedy that most of the money given to the Sri Lankan government will be used only in the south, and that the pennies actually given to the North East will be blocked somewhere through the vast corruption within the network of the Sri Lankan government, never helping the people who most need it.
Mr. Joseph Pararajasingham, a senior Tamil National Alliance Member of Parliament who took part in a conference Monday on urgent disaster management convened by Sri Lanka's Prime Minister stated,
"The devastation and destruction in the northeast was discussed for not more than five minutes during the two hour conference on the Tsunami disaster management for all Parliament parties called by the Prime Minister at his residence Monday. In fact the situation in the Northeast was taken up only after I raised the issue. They simply are not bothered about the plight of our people."
I am sending this email to request your news agency to investigate the consequences of the tsunami further, so proper aid is received by the North East as soon as possible.
Thus, news media must be contacted by everyone in hopes that they will fairly cover the North East and help victims receive aid.
CNN
CNN 1 http://www.cnn.com/feedback/forms/form11.html?1
CNN 2 http://www.cnn.com/feedback/forms/form6a.html?2
CNN 3 http://www.cnn.com/feedback/forms/form1.html?33
BBC
BBC 1
http://news.bbc.co.uk/newswatch/ukfs/hi/ne...600/4032695.stm
BBC 2
http://news.bbc.co.uk/newswatch/ukfs/hi/ne...900/3993927.stm
REUTERS
e-Mail: editor@reuters.com
ABC
e-Mail : comments@foxnews.com
MS-NBC
e-Mail: viewerservices@msnbc.com
In Canada: Canada MSNBC
http://www.cbc.ca/contact/index.jspCTV.ca
News Team: newsonline@ctv.ca
CTV News/Newsnet: news@ctv.ca
CANOE: Canoe News Group
http://rapids.canoe.ca/cgi-bin/reg/NR-cust...VICE&LOOK=CNEWS
Toronto Star:
e-Mail: ombud@thestar.ca
e-Mail: city@thestar.ca
UK:
The Guardian http://www.guardian.co.uk/v
AFP:
AFP http://www.afp.com/english/afp/?cat=contact
Thanks- Tamilcanadian.com
Source: TCNR - December 29, 2004
The tsunami has devastated South Asia, with death tolls currently at 68,000 victims. The International Red Cross and the United Nations are also expressing grave concern about disease and illness, believing this will cause the same amount of deaths as the tsunami itself.
A large percentage of the deaths occurred in Sri Lanka: Current numbers are 21,715. Of these deaths in Sri Lanka, more than 3/4 of these deaths took place in the North East provinces of Sri Lanka. While the international news media from BBC to CNN to FOX has been fairly covering most of the areas of devastation: Indonesia, Thailand and India, when they cover Sri Lanka, they only report about Southern Sri Lanka: primarily Colombo and Galle. However, Southern Sri Lanka only makes up 1/4 of the 21,715 death tolls.
In term of relief efforts, this means the suffering people in the Northeast are virtually ignored, and are receiving no aid from the Sri Lankan government. Lalith Weerathunga, secretary to the Sri Lankan prime minister, said the government does not know even what was happening in areas of the Northeast, meaning they are not making any attempt to alleviate suffering there. The reason for this is the Sri Lankan government's long time apathy for the suffering of the Tamil people of the North East. This can be seen in the previous 10-year embargo against medicinal and nutritional supplies for the Northeast, which stunted the growth and development in these areas.
Thus, communication and transportation systems in the Northeast are lacking, making vital relief efforts more difficult. With the vast generosity in aid flowing from the international community, it is a tragedy that most of the money given to the Sri Lankan government will be used only in the south, and that the pennies actually given to the North East will be blocked somewhere through the vast corruption within the network of the Sri Lankan government, never helping the people who most need it.
Mr. Joseph Pararajasingham, a senior Tamil National Alliance Member of Parliament who took part in a conference Monday on urgent disaster management convened by Sri Lanka's Prime Minister stated,
"The devastation and destruction in the northeast was discussed for not more than five minutes during the two hour conference on the Tsunami disaster management for all Parliament parties called by the Prime Minister at his residence Monday. In fact the situation in the Northeast was taken up only after I raised the issue. They simply are not bothered about the plight of our people."
I am sending this email to request your news agency to investigate the consequences of the tsunami further, so proper aid is received by the North East as soon as possible.
Thus, news media must be contacted by everyone in hopes that they will fairly cover the North East and help victims receive aid.
CNN
CNN 1 http://www.cnn.com/feedback/forms/form11.html?1
CNN 2 http://www.cnn.com/feedback/forms/form6a.html?2
CNN 3 http://www.cnn.com/feedback/forms/form1.html?33
BBC
BBC 1
http://news.bbc.co.uk/newswatch/ukfs/hi/ne...600/4032695.stm
BBC 2
http://news.bbc.co.uk/newswatch/ukfs/hi/ne...900/3993927.stm
REUTERS
e-Mail: editor@reuters.com
ABC
e-Mail : comments@foxnews.com
MS-NBC
e-Mail: viewerservices@msnbc.com
In Canada: Canada MSNBC
http://www.cbc.ca/contact/index.jspCTV.ca
News Team: newsonline@ctv.ca
CTV News/Newsnet: news@ctv.ca
CANOE: Canoe News Group
http://rapids.canoe.ca/cgi-bin/reg/NR-cust...VICE&LOOK=CNEWS
Toronto Star:
e-Mail: ombud@thestar.ca
e-Mail: city@thestar.ca
UK:
The Guardian http://www.guardian.co.uk/v
AFP:
AFP http://www.afp.com/english/afp/?cat=contact
Thanks- Tamilcanadian.com