Homeless tribals on Car Nicobar island in a makeshift camp
International aid agencies are urging the authorities in the tsunami-stricken Andaman and Nicobar Islands to let them join the relief effort there.
Much of the Andamans is off-limits to foreigners because of security concerns and to protect aboriginal tribes from outside influences.
A senior Oxfam official says the policy means that "valuable time" is being lost in the aid effort.
More than 6,000 people in the area are confirmed dead or missing.
But there is no confirmation of the fate of at least 10,000 others still unaccounted for.
'Accelerating miseries'
"This closed-door approach of not allowing [foreign aid agencies] is delaying relief efforts," Shaheen Nilofer, the head of Oxfam's operations in eastern India said, the Associated Press news agency reports.
ANDAMAN AND NICOBAR
About 400 islands, 38 inhabited
Islands are peaks of submerged mountain range
Indian territory, area of 8,249 sq km
Population around 370,000, about 100,000 in Port Blair
Number of tribes, including Jarawas, Onges and Shompens
"Valuable time has been lost because of this delay. [India is] accelerating the miseries of the poor people... Somewhere, someone has to be responsible."
Medecins Sans Frontieres was the first international aid agency to get relief supplies to the Andamans.
The BBC's Subir Bhaumik, in the capital Port Blair, says the supplies are still lying in the airport there.
MSF's head of operations in India, Stuart Zimble, told the BBC: "We remain optimistic the government will allow our team of doctors to get to the outlying islands and administer medical care."
Some 400,000 people live on the Andamans archipelago, which comprises more than 300 islands and islets and some 200 rocky outcrops.
The ban on foreigners visiting much of the Andamans is partly because India has an important military base on Car Nicobar island that was devastated by the tsunami, with heavy loss of life.
In addition the islands are home to a number of tribes who make up some of the most primitive peoples on the planet.
Foreigners are not allowed access to the areas where they live.
"We can understand the sensitivity of the Indian government, but we are prepared to work together with the administration," Stuart Zimble said.
"We want our doctors to team up with local doctors and spread out into the islands so that we can save a many people as possible."
Cholera fears
US officials say they will begin a major relief work "the moment we have permission".
The Indian military distributing aid on one of the islands
"We hope we will be allowed to join the relief effort," Souribh Sen of the US consulate in Calcutta told the BBC.
A team from the United Nations children's agency, Unicef, now in Port Blair, says the authorities asked them to bring supplies of oral saline and lactate, indicating fears of outbreaks of cholera.
The Indian army said on Sunday that planes had dropped food and water to tsunami survivors on all the inhabited islands in the Andamans and Nicobar chain.
Outbreaks of disease have been reported on remote southern islands.
Our correspondent says aid workers have been worried about possible outbreaks of water-borne diseases because the tsunami polluted wells and other sources of drinking water.
Difficult conditions
Earlier on Sunday, the military commander in charge of the relief effort said the most remote locations had now been reached.
More than 3,000 people were evacuated to the mainland and relief camps in Port Blair on Friday.
Relief efforts in the archipelago's 38 inhabited islands have been hampered by the destruction of most of the islands' jetties.
The island chain, close to the epicentre of last Sunday's earthquake, has also felt a number of aftershocks.
Easing compensation
On the Indian mainland, aid operations are stepping up in the south.
A mother in Tamil Nadu mourns for her lost daughter
The BBC's Daniel Lak in Tamil Nadu says the last remaining bodies of the estimated 10,000 from the region are being cremated or buried.
Clinics and vaccination centres are being set up while government officials say they will ease rules on compensation for people who have lost livelihoods or members of their families.
Our correspondent says that in the port town of Nagappattinam, one of the worst affected areas, much of the aid is arriving from informal sources such as businesses, community groups and individuals.
The death toll there is expected to climb as Indian navy vessels and scuba divers comb river and sea bottoms for missing fishermen who were at sea when the tsunamis hit.
One problem plaguing the aid effort, say relief workers, has been the number of official visits by dignitaries and high government people.
Each visit takes hundreds of police officers and workers to coordinate, people that might better be part of the direct relief effort.
New
Posts: 297
By: Pak Thunder
- 3rd January 2005 at 13:10Permalink- Edited 1st January 1970 at 01:00
Pakistani troops on their way to Indonesia and Sri Lanka
Attachments
New
Posts: 297
By: Pak Thunder
- 3rd January 2005 at 13:12Permalink- Edited 1st January 1970 at 01:00
loading the 6 C-130s to Indonesia
Attachments
New
Posts: 298
By: mavaustin
- 3rd January 2005 at 13:26Permalink- Edited 1st January 1970 at 01:00
Pak Thunder
you beat me to the pictures but I ended up posting them in PAF realted link.
New
Posts: 298
By: mavaustin
- 3rd January 2005 at 13:29Permalink- Edited 1st January 1970 at 01:00
A good gesture indeed.
Pakistan offers relief and rescue aid to India after tsunami
Pakistan offered relief and rescue assistance to India after tidal waves killed thousands of people on its southern coast, as the nuclear-armed rivals began two-day peace talks Monday.
The two countries reported some progress in their yearlong peace process. India said it would grant visit visas at its land border to Pakistanis over age 65 and under 12, and let Pakistanis study in India.
On Tuesday, Pakistan's Foreign Secretary Riaz Khokhar and his Indian counterpart, Shyam Saran, will hold their first formal dialogue over the Himalayan region of Kashmir _ at the heart of their 57 years of hostility _ but no breakthrough appeared imminent.
Foreign Ministry spokesman Masood Khan said Pakistan opened the negotiations in Islamabad by extending sympathy for the "massive destruction in southern India caused by earthquake and tidal waves."
"Pakistan offered assistance in relief and rescue," Khan said at a news conference.
On Sunday, a huge undersea quake off Indonesia launched tidal waves that killed more than 21,000 people in Asia, including at least 3,000 in southern India, and reportedly thousands more on India's remote Car Nicobar island in the Bay of Bengal.
Pakistan is already planning to send supplies to Sri Lanka, and its navy ships and helicopters are helping in the Maldives.
Saran said that India appreciated Pakistan's expression of sympathy, and that he would forward the offer of help to his government.
The first day of talks touched on peace and security _ including proposals for confidence-building in nuclear and conventional arms _ as well as counter-narcotics efforts, border disputes, prisoners, a proposed cross-border bus service in Kashmir and other issues.
"While in some areas, especially in confidence-building, forward movement has been satisfactory, in others such as Jammu and Kashmir and peace and security, more efforts are required to find solutions," Khan said.
Both countries claim all of Kashmir, which is divided between them. They've fought two wars over the area since their independence from Britain in 1947.
Khan said he expected a "robust exchange of views" on Kashmir on Tuesday, but conceded it would be a "preliminary dialogue" to help understand each side's perspective.
A key stumbling block to serious negotiations has been India's allegations that Pakistan supports Islamic militants fighting in Indian-held Kashmir. Pakistan denies helping the rebels, but has vowed to stop their infiltration, and there has been a reported drop in the number of insurgents crossing the border in the past year.
Saran, however, told reporters that "much needs to be done because the phenomena of cross-border terrorism has not ceased."
Pakistan's President Gen. Pervez Musharraf has urged flexibility on Kashmir, suggesting power-sharing or placing some areas under U.N. administration, but India's Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has ruled out redrawing its boundary in the Himalayan region.
New
Posts: 298
By: mavaustin
- 3rd January 2005 at 13:35Permalink- Edited 1st January 1970 at 01:00
very interesting development.
Sri Lanka tsunami aid becomes geopolitical game
By Chaitanya Kalbag
COLOMBO, Jan 3 (Reuters) - Sri Lanka's tsunami devastation has drawn a huge international aid response, but a geopolitical game of influence between India and the United States is playing not too subtly in the background, analysts said on Monday.
"There is no innocence in the politics of humanitarian assistance," said Jayadeva Uyangoda, head of the department of political science at Colombo University.
Uyangoda said Washington's decision to send as many as 1,500 Marines and an amphibious assault ship to Sri Lanka was seen in New Delhi as not "merely humanitarian."
"It is a symbolic intrusion into India's sphere of influence," he said.
Nearly 30,000 Sri Lankans were killed by the Dec. 26 tsunami and nearly a million have been made homeless.
India, determined not to be seen as just a victim after losing more than 15,000 people in the disaster itself, moved quickly to send help to Sri Lanka and others.
Close to 1,000 Indian military personnel, five Navy vessels including a hospital ship, a field hospital, and six MI-17 Indian Air Force helicopters have been deployed to Sri Lanka by its giant northern neighbour.
The ships were moored off Trincomalee on the east coast and Galle in the south, said Nagma Mallick, spokeswoman at India's High Commission (embassy) in Colombo.
'NATURAL' FOR INDIA TO EXERT INFLUENCE
Both Uyangoda and Kethesh Loganathan, an analyst at the Centre for Policy Alternatives, an independent think-tank, said it was natural for India, with its huge resources and regional ambitions, to come to the aid of its smaller neighbours.
Loganathan noted that in May 2003, when Sri Lanka's south was hit by heavy rain and flash flooding that displaced a quarter of a million people, India sent military personnel to help in the recovery effort.
"Over the past decade there has been a sea change in Indo-Lankan relations," he said.
India was seen as a party to the island's civil war when it exploded in 1983, he said. Egged on by its own Tamil population, India provided the rebel Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eeelam (LTTE) with training and materiel.
[/b]But an Indian "peace-keeping" foray into Sri Lanka's Tamil-held areas in 1987 quickly turned into open war with the LTTE until a humiliating Indian pullout in March 1990.[/b]
That debacle also helped restore India's credibility in the eyes of Sri Lanka's Sinhalese majority, Loganathan said.
"India has always been helpful," he said. "It does have the capacity and it is most natural for them to help us."
U.S. LIKELY TO STAY AWAY FROM TIGER TERRITORY
The United States has termed the LTTE a terrorist organisation and the Marines -- a few dozen of whom have already arrived by air -- are likely to stay well away from the north and east where the Tigers control large swathes of territory.
"Both New Delhi and Kilinochchi (the LTTE stronghold) might view the U.S. presence uncomfortably," Uyangoda said.
But Uyangoda said the U.S. offer of assistance would certainly have "raised eyebrows" in New Delhi.
"Are the Marines going to stay in Sri Lanka? Is this part of the U.S. global design? Is this an opportunity for (U.S. President George W.) Bush to get a foothold in Sri Lanka?" he asked rhetorically, adding: "Humanitarian is not purely humanitarian."
"India Furious!" said a banner headline in the Monday edition of the Sudar Oli (Beacon Light), a Tamil-language newspaper considered sympathetic to the LTTE published from Colombo.
The newspaper said India was upset that Sri Lanka had not given it proper warning that it would be welcoming U.S. Marines into its "neighbourhood."
But G. Parthasarthy, a former Indian ambassador to Pakistan, told Reuters by telephone from New Delhi that too much ado was being made of the aid effort.
"They love conspiracy theories in Colombo," he said.
Parthasarthy said it was clear the United States had got into the aid race rather late "after stringent domestic and international criticism."
For the present, he said -- "and please underline 'for the present"' -- the aid seemed to be just what it was, humanitarian and with no strings attached.
In contrast, India's polite refusal to accept any foreign aid recognised that "foreigners could come in the way of our own relief efforts," Parthasarthy said.
"Ten foreigners come and work two hours a day and the world's media think they've sorted out our problems tickety-boo," he said.
"We have the resources to manage our own situation."
By: GoldenDragon
- 4th January 2005 at 02:38Permalink- Edited 1st January 1970 at 01:00
The China Daily is reporting that Sri Lanka's international airport has received so many supply planes that its fuel supply has run out!
It's both a good and bad sign. Good because there is such a flood of needed supplies coming in, bad because it could mean a potential operational gridlock if more and more planes are left in the airport without means to refuel for return trips.
Sri Lanka airport runs out of fuel www.chinaview.cn 2005-01-04 08:37:22
By Renee Lawrence (China Daily)
BEIJING, Jan. 4 -- Sri Lanka's only international airport ran out of fuel on Monday as the South Asian island receives more aircraft carrying supplies of medicine, food and equipment to aid victims of the nation's worst natural disaster caused by giant waves linked to an earthquake near Indonesia.
"We ran out of fuel yesterday afternoon for a couple of hours because of the unexpected increase in the number of planes coming in," Ariyaratne Hewage, the top civil servant at the Ministry of Ports and Aviation, said in Colombo yesterday. "We are not equipped to deal with traffic of this magnitude, it's all been unexpected."
SriLankan Airlines, the island's biggest carrier, has been flying stranded overseas visitors back to their homes and bringing emergency aid workers and suppliers to Colombo, the island's capital.
Almost 30,000 Sri Lankans perished in the tsunamis that struck the island on December 26.
The international airport near Colombo, which gets about 18 flights on a normal day, now receives at least 20 daily, excluding commercial flights that are carrying relief supplies to the areas along the island's coastal region that were struck by the tsunami.
"We also have a team from Dubai here to help distribute the relief supplies along with SriLankan Airlines and our army forces," said Hewage. "We will make sure we have enough fuel to deal with the higher traffic," he said.
Ceypetco, the State-owned oil company, is boosting supplies to the airport to 1,000 metric tons daily, up from the usual 600 tons.
"We will see this week if we need to import more oil, we have placed our orders for oil shipments and we can advance those if we have to," said Sarath Kottahchchi, commercial manager at Ceypetco in Colombo. "We don't foresee any shortages."
SriLankan Airlines provided flights to transport aid workers and suppliers to remote parts of the island, the airline said in a statement. The airline is also working on clearing a backlog of cargoes destined for Sri Lanka from airports in Bangkok, Singapore, Dubai and London.
Jerusalem, January 4: An Israeli company said on Monday it planned to distribute free to Asian countries hit by last week's tsunami a device it says could save lives by warning holiday-makers directly that a tidal wave is coming.
The system developed by Israeli inventor Meir Gitelis uses land and water sensors, smaller than a shoe box and each costing $170, to measure seismic activity and wave motion.
Like other systems already in operation, the sensors can send alerts in seconds by satellite to governments anywhere in the world. Unlike others, this system can also relay warnings directly to private subscribers over cellphones, pagers or dedicated receivers, spreading the message more widely.
New
Posts: 218
By: Lava
- 5th January 2005 at 06:41Permalink- Edited 1st January 1970 at 01:00
By: crobato
- 6th January 2005 at 07:32Permalink- Edited 1st January 1970 at 01:00
Those who think it's a game will play it like a game. Those who don't will simply donate money, supplies and rescue personel.
The pledging game is notorious about pledges with little true will and action to back them up. During an earthquake disaster in Iran, countries pleged over 1 billion dollars in relief, but only less than 18 million were ever received.
By: Aurel
- 6th January 2005 at 11:58Permalink- Edited 1st January 1970 at 01:00
Only a small note. The money donated by my (German) government increased constantly from day to day. It started with one million € and is now as high as 500 million €. I'm pretty shure this is the case for other developed countries, too. Nobody could imagine how many people died or have lost their home, job and family shortly after the desaster. It simply took some time to realize the extend of the distruction.
Then there are the logistiks. It wouldn't have made that much sense to send masses of aid instantly, without the means to distribute it.
So please stop that bashing. It doesn't happen all the day that the international community is that close together.
New
Posts: 845
By: xanadu
- 6th January 2005 at 14:30Permalink- Edited 1st January 1970 at 01:00
#94 6th January 2005, 00:05
GoldenDragon
Fly GoldenDragon Airlines Join Date: Aug 2003
Posts: 2,755
Those who think it's a game will play it like a game. Those who don't will simply donate money, supplies and rescue personel.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Havent heard much of those supplies and rescue personel from the Chinese side.
New
Posts: 297
By: Pak Thunder
- 6th January 2005 at 14:46Permalink- Edited 1st January 1970 at 01:00
#94 6th January 2005, 00:05
GoldenDragon
Fly GoldenDragon Airlines Join Date: Aug 2003
Posts: 2,755
Those who think it's a game will play it like a game. Those who don't will simply donate money, supplies and rescue personel.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Havent heard much of those supplies and rescue personel from the Chinese side.
Thats because they gave money instead
Word contribution, Source: Reuters, United Nations
By: mavaustin
- 6th January 2005 at 15:24Permalink- Edited 1st January 1970 at 01:00
1. RAWALPINDI, PAKISTAN: Pakistani troops stand to attention before boarding a C-130 aircraft en route to Indonesia to help the tsunami disaster victims, from the Chaklala Air Base in Rawalpindi, 06 January 2004. The second batch of Pakistan Army troops comprising 70 engineers, doctors and paramedical staff left in two C-130 aircraft of the Pakistan Air Force (PAF) to form part of the task force for tsunami hit areas in Indonesia.
By: GoldenDragon
- 6th January 2005 at 16:06Permalink- Edited 1st January 1970 at 01:00
#94 6th January 2005, 00:05
GoldenDragon
Fly GoldenDragon Airlines Join Date: Aug 2003
Posts: 2,755
Those who think it's a game will play it like a game. Those who don't will simply donate money, supplies and rescue personel.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Havent heard much of those supplies and rescue personel from the Chinese side.
Just go to Yahoo news and do a search, my friend. I'm not going to do a Blackcat here.
By: GoldenDragon
- 6th January 2005 at 16:18Permalink- Edited 1st January 1970 at 01:00
Thats because they gave money instead
Actually, among the first and largest shipments of aid came in China Southern 747s to both Sri Lanka and Indonesia.
Xanadu wants to see the PLAN and PLAAF involved and that is something China doesn't want to do very often outside its borders. Not the least of it has to do with China's non-interference doctrine and partiallly because of American threat perceptions.
The US complained long and loud about 350 Chinese peacekeepers on Haiti so forget about Chinese warships streaming into the Indian Ocean which is basically an American lake that China had always avoided. They've enough trouble with Americans on the Chinese coastline.
Posts: 297
By: Pak Thunder - 3rd January 2005 at 13:05 Permalink - Edited 1st January 1970 at 01:00
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/south_asia/4142539.stm
Foreign NGOs seek Andamans access
Homeless tribals on Car Nicobar island in a makeshift camp
International aid agencies are urging the authorities in the tsunami-stricken Andaman and Nicobar Islands to let them join the relief effort there.
Much of the Andamans is off-limits to foreigners because of security concerns and to protect aboriginal tribes from outside influences.
A senior Oxfam official says the policy means that "valuable time" is being lost in the aid effort.
More than 6,000 people in the area are confirmed dead or missing.
But there is no confirmation of the fate of at least 10,000 others still unaccounted for.
'Accelerating miseries'
"This closed-door approach of not allowing [foreign aid agencies] is delaying relief efforts," Shaheen Nilofer, the head of Oxfam's operations in eastern India said, the Associated Press news agency reports.
ANDAMAN AND NICOBAR
About 400 islands, 38 inhabited
Islands are peaks of submerged mountain range
Indian territory, area of 8,249 sq km
Population around 370,000, about 100,000 in Port Blair
Number of tribes, including Jarawas, Onges and Shompens
"Valuable time has been lost because of this delay. [India is] accelerating the miseries of the poor people... Somewhere, someone has to be responsible."
Medecins Sans Frontieres was the first international aid agency to get relief supplies to the Andamans.
The BBC's Subir Bhaumik, in the capital Port Blair, says the supplies are still lying in the airport there.
MSF's head of operations in India, Stuart Zimble, told the BBC: "We remain optimistic the government will allow our team of doctors to get to the outlying islands and administer medical care."
Some 400,000 people live on the Andamans archipelago, which comprises more than 300 islands and islets and some 200 rocky outcrops.
The ban on foreigners visiting much of the Andamans is partly because India has an important military base on Car Nicobar island that was devastated by the tsunami, with heavy loss of life.
In addition the islands are home to a number of tribes who make up some of the most primitive peoples on the planet.
Foreigners are not allowed access to the areas where they live.
"We can understand the sensitivity of the Indian government, but we are prepared to work together with the administration," Stuart Zimble said.
"We want our doctors to team up with local doctors and spread out into the islands so that we can save a many people as possible."
Cholera fears
US officials say they will begin a major relief work "the moment we have permission".
The Indian military distributing aid on one of the islands
"We hope we will be allowed to join the relief effort," Souribh Sen of the US consulate in Calcutta told the BBC.
A team from the United Nations children's agency, Unicef, now in Port Blair, says the authorities asked them to bring supplies of oral saline and lactate, indicating fears of outbreaks of cholera.
The Indian army said on Sunday that planes had dropped food and water to tsunami survivors on all the inhabited islands in the Andamans and Nicobar chain.
Outbreaks of disease have been reported on remote southern islands.
Our correspondent says aid workers have been worried about possible outbreaks of water-borne diseases because the tsunami polluted wells and other sources of drinking water.
Difficult conditions
Earlier on Sunday, the military commander in charge of the relief effort said the most remote locations had now been reached.
More than 3,000 people were evacuated to the mainland and relief camps in Port Blair on Friday.
Relief efforts in the archipelago's 38 inhabited islands have been hampered by the destruction of most of the islands' jetties.
The island chain, close to the epicentre of last Sunday's earthquake, has also felt a number of aftershocks.
Easing compensation
On the Indian mainland, aid operations are stepping up in the south.
A mother in Tamil Nadu mourns for her lost daughter
The BBC's Daniel Lak in Tamil Nadu says the last remaining bodies of the estimated 10,000 from the region are being cremated or buried.
Clinics and vaccination centres are being set up while government officials say they will ease rules on compensation for people who have lost livelihoods or members of their families.
Our correspondent says that in the port town of Nagappattinam, one of the worst affected areas, much of the aid is arriving from informal sources such as businesses, community groups and individuals.
The death toll there is expected to climb as Indian navy vessels and scuba divers comb river and sea bottoms for missing fishermen who were at sea when the tsunamis hit.
One problem plaguing the aid effort, say relief workers, has been the number of official visits by dignitaries and high government people.
Each visit takes hundreds of police officers and workers to coordinate, people that might better be part of the direct relief effort.
Posts: 297
By: Pak Thunder - 3rd January 2005 at 13:10 Permalink - Edited 1st January 1970 at 01:00
Pakistani troops on their way to Indonesia and Sri Lanka
Posts: 297
By: Pak Thunder - 3rd January 2005 at 13:12 Permalink - Edited 1st January 1970 at 01:00
loading the 6 C-130s to Indonesia
Posts: 298
By: mavaustin - 3rd January 2005 at 13:26 Permalink - Edited 1st January 1970 at 01:00
Pak Thunder
you beat me to the pictures but I ended up posting them in PAF realted link.
Posts: 298
By: mavaustin - 3rd January 2005 at 13:29 Permalink - Edited 1st January 1970 at 01:00
A good gesture indeed.
Pakistan offers relief and rescue aid to India after tsunami
Pakistan offered relief and rescue assistance to India after tidal waves killed thousands of people on its southern coast, as the nuclear-armed rivals began two-day peace talks Monday.
The two countries reported some progress in their yearlong peace process. India said it would grant visit visas at its land border to Pakistanis over age 65 and under 12, and let Pakistanis study in India.
On Tuesday, Pakistan's Foreign Secretary Riaz Khokhar and his Indian counterpart, Shyam Saran, will hold their first formal dialogue over the Himalayan region of Kashmir _ at the heart of their 57 years of hostility _ but no breakthrough appeared imminent.
Foreign Ministry spokesman Masood Khan said Pakistan opened the negotiations in Islamabad by extending sympathy for the "massive destruction in southern India caused by earthquake and tidal waves."
"Pakistan offered assistance in relief and rescue," Khan said at a news conference.
On Sunday, a huge undersea quake off Indonesia launched tidal waves that killed more than 21,000 people in Asia, including at least 3,000 in southern India, and reportedly thousands more on India's remote Car Nicobar island in the Bay of Bengal.
Pakistan is already planning to send supplies to Sri Lanka, and its navy ships and helicopters are helping in the Maldives.
Saran said that India appreciated Pakistan's expression of sympathy, and that he would forward the offer of help to his government.
The first day of talks touched on peace and security _ including proposals for confidence-building in nuclear and conventional arms _ as well as counter-narcotics efforts, border disputes, prisoners, a proposed cross-border bus service in Kashmir and other issues.
"While in some areas, especially in confidence-building, forward movement has been satisfactory, in others such as Jammu and Kashmir and peace and security, more efforts are required to find solutions," Khan said.
Both countries claim all of Kashmir, which is divided between them. They've fought two wars over the area since their independence from Britain in 1947.
Khan said he expected a "robust exchange of views" on Kashmir on Tuesday, but conceded it would be a "preliminary dialogue" to help understand each side's perspective.
A key stumbling block to serious negotiations has been India's allegations that Pakistan supports Islamic militants fighting in Indian-held Kashmir. Pakistan denies helping the rebels, but has vowed to stop their infiltration, and there has been a reported drop in the number of insurgents crossing the border in the past year.
Saran, however, told reporters that "much needs to be done because the phenomena of cross-border terrorism has not ceased."
Pakistan's President Gen. Pervez Musharraf has urged flexibility on Kashmir, suggesting power-sharing or placing some areas under U.N. administration, but India's Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has ruled out redrawing its boundary in the Himalayan region.
Posts: 298
By: mavaustin - 3rd January 2005 at 13:35 Permalink - Edited 1st January 1970 at 01:00
very interesting development.
Sri Lanka tsunami aid becomes geopolitical game
By Chaitanya Kalbag
COLOMBO, Jan 3 (Reuters) - Sri Lanka's tsunami devastation has drawn a huge international aid response, but a geopolitical game of influence between India and the United States is playing not too subtly in the background, analysts said on Monday.
"There is no innocence in the politics of humanitarian assistance," said Jayadeva Uyangoda, head of the department of political science at Colombo University.
Uyangoda said Washington's decision to send as many as 1,500 Marines and an amphibious assault ship to Sri Lanka was seen in New Delhi as not "merely humanitarian."
"It is a symbolic intrusion into India's sphere of influence," he said.
Nearly 30,000 Sri Lankans were killed by the Dec. 26 tsunami and nearly a million have been made homeless.
India, determined not to be seen as just a victim after losing more than 15,000 people in the disaster itself, moved quickly to send help to Sri Lanka and others.
Close to 1,000 Indian military personnel, five Navy vessels including a hospital ship, a field hospital, and six MI-17 Indian Air Force helicopters have been deployed to Sri Lanka by its giant northern neighbour.
The ships were moored off Trincomalee on the east coast and Galle in the south, said Nagma Mallick, spokeswoman at India's High Commission (embassy) in Colombo.
'NATURAL' FOR INDIA TO EXERT INFLUENCE
Both Uyangoda and Kethesh Loganathan, an analyst at the Centre for Policy Alternatives, an independent think-tank, said it was natural for India, with its huge resources and regional ambitions, to come to the aid of its smaller neighbours.
Loganathan noted that in May 2003, when Sri Lanka's south was hit by heavy rain and flash flooding that displaced a quarter of a million people, India sent military personnel to help in the recovery effort.
"Over the past decade there has been a sea change in Indo-Lankan relations," he said.
India was seen as a party to the island's civil war when it exploded in 1983, he said. Egged on by its own Tamil population, India provided the rebel Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eeelam (LTTE) with training and materiel.
[/b]But an Indian "peace-keeping" foray into Sri Lanka's Tamil-held areas in 1987 quickly turned into open war with the LTTE until a humiliating Indian pullout in March 1990.[/b]
That debacle also helped restore India's credibility in the eyes of Sri Lanka's Sinhalese majority, Loganathan said.
"India has always been helpful," he said. "It does have the capacity and it is most natural for them to help us."
U.S. LIKELY TO STAY AWAY FROM TIGER TERRITORY
The United States has termed the LTTE a terrorist organisation and the Marines -- a few dozen of whom have already arrived by air -- are likely to stay well away from the north and east where the Tigers control large swathes of territory.
"Both New Delhi and Kilinochchi (the LTTE stronghold) might view the U.S. presence uncomfortably," Uyangoda said.
But Uyangoda said the U.S. offer of assistance would certainly have "raised eyebrows" in New Delhi.
"Are the Marines going to stay in Sri Lanka? Is this part of the U.S. global design? Is this an opportunity for (U.S. President George W.) Bush to get a foothold in Sri Lanka?" he asked rhetorically, adding: "Humanitarian is not purely humanitarian."
"India Furious!" said a banner headline in the Monday edition of the Sudar Oli (Beacon Light), a Tamil-language newspaper considered sympathetic to the LTTE published from Colombo.
The newspaper said India was upset that Sri Lanka had not given it proper warning that it would be welcoming U.S. Marines into its "neighbourhood."
But G. Parthasarthy, a former Indian ambassador to Pakistan, told Reuters by telephone from New Delhi that too much ado was being made of the aid effort.
"They love conspiracy theories in Colombo," he said.
Parthasarthy said it was clear the United States had got into the aid race rather late "after stringent domestic and international criticism."
For the present, he said -- "and please underline 'for the present"' -- the aid seemed to be just what it was, humanitarian and with no strings attached.
In contrast, India's polite refusal to accept any foreign aid recognised that "foreigners could come in the way of our own relief efforts," Parthasarthy said.
"Ten foreigners come and work two hours a day and the world's media think they've sorted out our problems tickety-boo," he said.
"We have the resources to manage our own situation."
Posts: 3,854
By: GoldenDragon - 4th January 2005 at 02:38 Permalink - Edited 1st January 1970 at 01:00
The China Daily is reporting that Sri Lanka's international airport has received so many supply planes that its fuel supply has run out!
It's both a good and bad sign. Good because there is such a flood of needed supplies coming in, bad because it could mean a potential operational gridlock if more and more planes are left in the airport without means to refuel for return trips.
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2005-01/04/content_2412523.htm
Posts: 670
By: Jai - 4th January 2005 at 14:50 Permalink - Edited 1st January 1970 at 01:00
Israeli co offers free tsunami alert system
Posts: 218
By: Lava - 5th January 2005 at 06:41 Permalink - Edited 1st January 1970 at 01:00
IAF chopper in Sri Lanka
Posts: 670
By: Jai - 5th January 2005 at 15:01 Permalink - Edited 1st January 1970 at 01:00
Western, Asian militaries at the sharp end of relief efforts
Diego Garcia escaped tsunami’s wrath
Posts: 845
By: xanadu - 5th January 2005 at 20:58 Permalink - Edited 1st January 1970 at 01:00
Whats with China? Thought they would like to get into the game(sad to say it has become a game for the major powers) with its navy and armed forces.
Posts: 3,854
By: GoldenDragon - 6th January 2005 at 00:05 Permalink - Edited 1st January 1970 at 01:00
Those who think it's a game will play it like a game. Those who don't will simply donate money, supplies and rescue personel.
Posts: 1,404
By: Sauron - 6th January 2005 at 05:49 Permalink - Edited 1st January 1970 at 01:00
Are any countries in the Middle East making big cash contributions?
Sauron
Posts: 6,409
By: crobato - 6th January 2005 at 07:32 Permalink - Edited 1st January 1970 at 01:00
The pledging game is notorious about pledges with little true will and action to back them up. During an earthquake disaster in Iran, countries pleged over 1 billion dollars in relief, but only less than 18 million were ever received.
Posts: 1,050
By: Aurel - 6th January 2005 at 11:58 Permalink - Edited 1st January 1970 at 01:00
Only a small note. The money donated by my (German) government increased constantly from day to day. It started with one million € and is now as high as 500 million €. I'm pretty shure this is the case for other developed countries, too. Nobody could imagine how many people died or have lost their home, job and family shortly after the desaster. It simply took some time to realize the extend of the distruction.
Then there are the logistiks. It wouldn't have made that much sense to send masses of aid instantly, without the means to distribute it.
So please stop that bashing. It doesn't happen all the day that the international community is that close together.
Posts: 845
By: xanadu - 6th January 2005 at 14:30 Permalink - Edited 1st January 1970 at 01:00
#94 6th January 2005, 00:05
GoldenDragon
Fly GoldenDragon Airlines Join Date: Aug 2003
Posts: 2,755
Those who think it's a game will play it like a game. Those who don't will simply donate money, supplies and rescue personel.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Havent heard much of those supplies and rescue personel from the Chinese side.
Posts: 297
By: Pak Thunder - 6th January 2005 at 14:46 Permalink - Edited 1st January 1970 at 01:00
Thats because they gave money instead
Word contribution, Source: Reuters, United Nations
World Bank: $250m
UK: $96m
Sweden: $75m
Spain: $68m
China: $60m
France: $56m
EU $44m
Netherlands: $36m
US: $35m
Canada: $80m
Japan: $500m
Australia: $27m
Switzerland: $23m
Norway: $16.6m
Denmark: $15.6m
Saudi Arabia: $10m
Taiwan: $5.1m
Finland: $3.4m
Kuwait: $2.1m
UAE: $2m
Posts: 298
By: mavaustin - 6th January 2005 at 15:24 Permalink - Edited 1st January 1970 at 01:00
1. RAWALPINDI, PAKISTAN: Pakistani troops stand to attention before boarding a C-130 aircraft en route to Indonesia to help the tsunami disaster victims, from the Chaklala Air Base in Rawalpindi, 06 January 2004. The second batch of Pakistan Army troops comprising 70 engineers, doctors and paramedical staff left in two C-130 aircraft of the Pakistan Air Force (PAF) to form part of the task force for tsunami hit areas in Indonesia.
Posts: 3,854
By: GoldenDragon - 6th January 2005 at 16:06 Permalink - Edited 1st January 1970 at 01:00
Just go to Yahoo news and do a search, my friend. I'm not going to do a Blackcat here.
Posts: 3,854
By: GoldenDragon - 6th January 2005 at 16:18 Permalink - Edited 1st January 1970 at 01:00
Actually, among the first and largest shipments of aid came in China Southern 747s to both Sri Lanka and Indonesia.
Xanadu wants to see the PLAN and PLAAF involved and that is something China doesn't want to do very often outside its borders. Not the least of it has to do with China's non-interference doctrine and partiallly because of American threat perceptions.
The US complained long and loud about 350 Chinese peacekeepers on Haiti so forget about Chinese warships streaming into the Indian Ocean which is basically an American lake that China had always avoided. They've enough trouble with Americans on the Chinese coastline.