Sri Lanka
Flying Tigers
Mar 29th 2007 COLOMBO From The Economist print edition

The war takes a turn for the worse

PIONEERS of one lethal form of warfare—suicide-bombing—the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam have a new claim to fame: a rudimentary air force. On March 26th they used it to attack the main air-force base of the Sri Lankan government, with which they have been fighting for a quarter of a century to win an independent homeland for the Tamil minority. Tiger air power adds a dangerous new element to a war that is intensifying, despite a five-year old ceasefire that is still notionally in force.
As the Tigers tell it, two of their aircraft bombed the base, which is next to Colombo's international airport. The crew, who were photographed beaming beside their reclusive, brutal leader, Velupillai Prabhakaran, returned unscathed. Three people were killed in the raid. The two sides disputed how much damage was done to aircraft parked at the base.
There was outrage in the south, dominated by the Sinhalese majority, that slow-moving light aircraft could fly 400km (250 miles) up and down over government-held territory without being detected or challenged. Stung by the attack, the Sri Lankan army unleashed air raids on the Tamil-majority north-east. And, in a serious setback for the Tigers, the army on March 28th captured Kokkadicholai, its main base in the eastern district of Batticaloa. Even before the raid, Tiger-controlled areas there had suffered incessant shelling.
According to the United Nations, 155,000 civilians have been displaced in the past six weeks. The government hopes to free the entire east from the Tigers' clutches before Sri Lankan new year in April. It has also opened another front in the Tiger-controlled north. According to insiders, the main aim here is to capture the Catholic shrine at Madu, and win the support of the Christian minority.
Even now, government spokesmen mouth platitudes about the importance of a negotiated settlement. But officials also speak of victory within the next three years in a war that has claimed some 70,000 lives, including 4,000 since the end of 2005. The Tigers have always been hard to defeat, and able to fight on several fronts: as a guerrilla force in the east (including a little navy, “the Sea Tigers”); as a conventional army in the north; and as terrorists disrupting the Sinhalese south.
Their capacity to send aircraft undetected to the south on bombing sorties gives the Tigers another way of bringing the war home to the Sinhalese. This may undermine their support for the aggressive strategy adopted by Mahinda Rajapakse, the president, which so far seems popular among most of them.
The air raid also dashes any prospect—already faint—that the Tigers might return to the negotiating table in a more pliable state of mind. Nor do the government's hopes of a definitive military “solution” seem good. Regardless of the Tigers' fighting capabilities, they ignore the genuine Tamil grievances over discrimination by the Sinhalese majority, which the Tigers are masters at exploiting. In the past, army campaigns have served to drive more civilians into the Tigers' embrace.

Bonded to the sari loom

By Damian Grammaticas BBC News, Kanchipuram, southern India / 29.03.2007

Seated at old wooden weaving looms, workers are toiling away. The conditions in their huts are like something from mediaeval times. It is dark, dingy, everything operated by hand.

Stretched across the looms are lines of threads, bright pinks, reds, greens. The weavers are busy making beautiful, intricate silk saris.
But some of those weaving the fine, expensive cloth are modern-day slaves.
Ashok Kumar is one. He is a small, slim boy of 13, busy making delicate patterns in real gold thread along the borders of the sari.
Ashok says he has been weaving since he was nine. He sits working for 12 hours every day, seven days a week. He gets just one day off each month.
He is a bonded labourer, what is also known as a debt slave.
When Ashok's mother died, his father left home. The boy was abandoned with his grandmother. Desperate for money she took £12 ($25) from a loom owner and, in return, sold the boy's freedom.
Ashok is now bonded, forced to do this one job. He is not free to leave unless the debt is repaid. And he is paid just 15p (30 US cents) a day, so there is little hope he will ever do that.
Traded like a commodity
Ashok's boss, Muthu Pereumal, can sell the boy to another employer, trade him like a commodity.

"He will stay here until he is 20 or 22," the boss tells me, standing by Ashok's loom, "or until someone else comes to buy him from me. He will never do anything else but this."
Bonded labour has been illegal in India since 1976. But the laws are widely flouted.
"Because the families are so poor they will give me a child who will work for as long as I want," Muthu Pereumal says.
"In return, we give them an advance of up to £60 ($100). Adults cannot afford to work for such low pay. Without children working like this it would not be possible for our industry to survive."
Kanchipuram, Ashok's hometown in southern India, is built on the silk industry. Sixty thousand people work making the town's famous saris. The local labour union estimates 12,000, one in five, are bonded labourers.
They are also used in many other industries from leather-making to road-building, agricultural labour to silver work. Campaigners say there could be from 10-40m bonded labourers in India.
The government disputes that. In 2004-5 it identified and freed just 866 bonded labourers in the entire country, and claims there are few instances left.
"If any cases of this evil come to light, even a single episode of it, we are committed to eradicating it," says Sudha Pillai, labour secretary in India's government.
"The minute a case comes to light, the minute it is reported, it is investigated. And instances are coming down."
Bonded adults
In another courtyard in Kanchipuram, men stripped to the waist are plunging handfuls of raw, yellowish silk into vats of boiling liquid, dyeing the threads pink and green. It is hot, the air thick with vapour. Beads of sweat run down the men's faces. All are bonded.

Away from his boss, Ashok is willing to talk about the awful conditions he endures.
"Because I work at the loom my hands hurt. Sitting for a long time gives me pains in my back," he says.
"Sometimes I get headaches and my eyes hurt. But I have to keep going until eight in the evening. Only after that can I go home and sleep."
His grandmother says she had no option but to sell the boy into debt slavery:
"He is working like a slave, but what can I do? Whether it is good or bad I don't know.
"Everyone who lives around here does the same. It doesn't matter whether you have a boy or a girl, we send the children to work. We have no other choice."
UK imports
Far from Kanchipuram, traffic rumbles along Tooting High Street in south London. Britain abolished the slave trade 200 years ago, but products from industries that use slave labour are still sold here.

In his shop, Raj Siva is unpacking Kanchipuram saris. South Indians prize the intricate handmade silks as wedding dresses. They fetch up to £900 each in the UK.
"Whether there are bonded labourers used we don't know," Raj admits.
"It's very hard to track down, India is a very big place, it could happen - we just don't know. We fly out to India twice a year, tell them what we want, and they send it to us."
Raj believes it should be up to India's government to eradicate debt slavery:
"The best thing is it has to come from the top, it has to come from the government, they have to set standards, rules, we are just outsiders we don't know how their practice works."
One boy freed
In Kanchipuram, we met the local Collector. He is the government administrator who runs the district, and who is obliged, by Indian law, to find and free bonded labourers.

The Collector said he knew of no bonded labour cases
"We have not come across any such case of bonded labour, it's a family industry," he told me. When I told him about Ashok's loom 500m away, he stuttered disbelievingly: "Oh no, I just don't, I just can't... we will have a check, we will definitely inquire into it."
So we took two of his labour enforcement officers to investigate Ashok's case. They had to be cajoled to do their job. First the officers sat refusing to leave their office. Then, as we approached Ashok's workplace, they dragged their feet.
Ashok had left his loom for five minutes. The labour officers could not be bothered to wait. They jumped in their car, and sped back to their office.
Many of the activists who campaign against bonded labour complain that indifference and apathy are the way many Indian bureaucrats respond when confronted by slavery.

Ashok Kumar has gone back to schoolFive minutes later Ashok turned up. So we took the boy to meet the Collector. Ashok explained his story, and the Collector ordered the boy be released from his bondage.
Ashok's debts have now been cancelled, he has just started school again, his childhood restored. But he is still waiting for the £250 ($500) compensation he is entitled to under Indian law.
While Ashok is free, thousands more still toil at Kanchipuram's looms, and probably millions bonded in other industries in India, modern-day slaves, in the 21st Century.

Sri Lanka: Karuna Group and LTTE Continue Abducting and Recruiting Children
Government Failing to Investigate or Stop Karuna Group
(New York, March 29, 2007) – Despite promises to investigate abductions of children by the pro-government Karuna group, Sri Lankan authorities have taken no effective action and abductions continue, Human Rights Watch said today. The armed opposition Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) also continue to recruit children in Sri Lanka and use them as soldiers.

In Sri Lanka’s eastern Batticaloa district, Human Rights Watch in February witnessed children clearly under the age of 17, some armed with assault rifles, performing guard duty at various offices of the Karuna group’s political party, the Thamil Makkal Viduthalai Pulikal (TMVP). Sri Lankan soldiers and police routinely walked and drove by the children without taking any visible action. Human Rights Watch saw a child with an assault rifle guarding the TMVP office in Kiran, home town of the group’s leader, V. Muralitharan, also known as Colonel Karuna. Other children, some of them armed, were seen in and around TMVP offices in the district, including in Valaichchenai and Morakkottanchenai, where the office is across the road from a Sri Lankan army base. “When government troops at a military base look across the street at children standing guard at a Karuna office and do nothing, it’s hard to believe the government is taking any meaningful steps to end this abuse,” said Brad Adams, Asia director at Human Rights Watch. “The Karuna group’s use of child soldiers with state complicity is more blatant today than ever before.” President Mahinda Rajapakse and other Sri Lankan officials have repeatedly said that the government would investigate the allegations of state complicity in Karuna abductions and hold accountable any member of the security forces found to have violated the law. To date, however, the government has taken no effective steps. According to UNICEF, there were 45 reported cases of Karuna child abductions in three months – 10 in December, 24 in January, and 11 in February. Among these were three children abducted by Karuna cadre from camps for internally displaced persons in Batticaloa district. The actual number is likely to be higher because many parents are afraid to report cases, and these numbers do not reflect the forced recruitment by the Karuna group of young men over 17. The Karuna group has released at least a dozen children since December. According to UNICEF, however, at least three of the released children were subsequently re-recruited. In February, parents of one abducted child and two abducted young men told Human Rights Watch how Karuna cadre had abducted their sons in recent weeks. In the first case, Karuna group members first abducted the child in July, allowed him home for a family visit, and about one week later came and took him back. In the second, Karuna cadre abducted two young men on the A11 road between Welikanda and Valaichchenai. When relatives of the two complained at the nearby Karuna camp in Karapola, Karuna cadre told them not to report the case – or to say the LTTE took their sons. At the same time, the LTTE has continued to abduct and forcibly recruit children and young adults, including women and girls, Human Rights Watch said. UNICEF documented 19 cases of LTTE child recruitment in January and nine in February. The LTTE has also abducted at least four people from camps for the internally displaced. Access to LTTE-controlled areas remains difficult, but credible reports indicate that the group is increasingly recruiting and deploying girls as frontline soldiers in the East. In the recent fighting in the Thoppigala region of Batticaloa district, at least three girls fighting with the LTTE were reportedly killed. Human Rights Watch has repeatedly documented and condemned the use of child soldiers by the LTTE, and it has called on the United Nations to impose targeted sanctions on the LTTE because of its long history of recruiting children in violation of international law. “The LTTE is a notorious repeat offender of child recruitment,” Adams said. “It’s a shame that government forces complicit with the Karuna group are now involved in the same ugly practice.” There is strong evidence that government forces are now openly cooperating with the Karuna group despite its illegal activities, Human Rights Watch said. Armed Karuna members regularly walk or ride throughout Batticaloa district in plain view of government forces. In February, Human Rights Watch saw a Karuna commander named Jeyam riding atop a Sri Lankan armored personnel vehicle outside Valaichchenai. In Batticaloa town, residents have seen Karuna cadre patrolling jointly with the police. The Karuna group maintains at least five camps in the jungle about 10 kilometers northwest of Welikanda town in the Polonnaruwa district, about 50 kilometers northwest of Batticaloa town. Welikanda is where the Sri Lankan Army’s 23rd division has its base. The area is firmly under government control, as is the main A11 road from the eastern districts to the Welikanda area. The Karuna camp at Mutugalla village is near a Sri Lankan army post. Independent sources have provided detailed information on abductions and recruitment of children by the Karuna group and the LTTE. In February the UN special advisor on children and armed conflict, Allan Rock, reported to the Security Council on Karuna abductions of children with state complicity and on child recruitment by the LTTE, based on his visit to Sri Lanka in November. Human Rights Watch has provided the government with its 100-page report on Karuna abductions, “Complicit in Crime: State Collusion in Abductions and Child Recruitment by the Karuna Group,” published in January. With case studies, maps and photographs, the report shows how Karuna cadres operate with impunity in government-controlled areas, abducting boys and young men, training them in camps, and deploying them for combat. “The government says it needs evidence to start an investigation, but it already has ample information,” Adams said. “In addition to UN documentation and testimonies in our report, many families have made formal complaints to the police.” Last year President Rajapakse created a one-man commission to look at abductions and enforced disappearances across the country. The commissioner came to Batticaloa in January, two months after canceling his first scheduled visit without warning. Families with abducted children were informed in a haphazard manner and then could not find the meeting place, which was changed at the last minute. Some of them did meet the commissioner, but his staff prevented others from providing information. In December the military summoned the mothers of some children abducted by the Karuna group to an army base and asked them to provide information about their cases. The military pressured the mothers to say that their children were taken by “an unidentified group.” Karuna has denied allegations that his forces are abducting or recruiting children. He told Human Rights Watch in a telephone communication on February 9 that his forces had no members under age 18, and that they would discipline any commander who tried to recruit a person under that age. In January the TMVP released regulations for its military wing, stating that 18 was the minimum age for recruitment, and specifying penalties for members who conscript children. Karuna said he was willing to discuss ways that the regulations could be improved, but said that unscheduled visits to his camps were not possible due to security concerns. On March 19, Human Rights Watch wrote to the TMVP, requesting a response to the recent allegations of continued child abductions in Batticaloa district. As of March 28, the TMVP had not replied. “The Karuna group is doing the government’s dirty work,” Adams said. “It’s time for authorities in Colombo to stop this group from using children in its forces.”

www.hrw.org

Lankan war has entered a new phase
B Raman /rediff.com
March 26, 2007
The Tamil Eelam Air Force of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, which has been in existence for at least nine years without the Sri Lankan intelligence having the least idea about its location and capability, went into action for the first time since its creation in the early hours of March 26. It was a conventional air attack and not a suicide mission.
Two aircraft of the TAF flew over the Sri Lankan Air Force base at Katunayake near Colombo and dropped four bombs. At least three SLAF personnel were killed and about 20 injured. Two helicopters, reportedly given by Pakistan, were badly damaged. There was also some damage to the Israeli aircraft of the Sri Lankan Air Force.
The LTTE has claimed that both its planes returned safely to base and has released a photograph of Prabakaran with the officers of the TAF. It is reported that the approach of an unidentified aircraft towards the base was detected by the Sri Lankan Air Force radar, but the anti-aircraft units at the base failed to go into action. The SLAF pilots' capability for night operations is poor and the Air Tigers took advantage of this to fly over the base unintercepted and bomb it.
The Sri Lankan authorities immediately closed the nearby civilian airport and diverted all incoming flights to Indian airports.
The LTTE has projected its air strike as in retaliation for the repeated bombing of civilian areas by the Sri Lankan Air Force, which has killed a large number of innocent Tamil civilians. Many of these air strikes of the SLAF were carried out by mercenary Ukrainian pilots.
It was not only a reprisal air strike, but also a pre-emptive air strike to prevent an offensive operation, which the Sri Lankan Armed Forces are planning to launch in the Northern Province in order to liberate the areas under the control of the LTTE there. A fresh team of Pakistani counter-insurgency experts and air force officers has recently arrived in Colombo to assist the Sri Lankan Armed Forces in their planned operations in the Northern Province.
Apprehending this offensive, the LTTE has stepped up its arms procurement efforts. As reported earlier, it has already managed to replenish its stocks of explosives. It had undertaken a detailed study of the Hizbollah operations against Israel in July last year in order to draw lessons from it. It was also trying to procure from the Hizbollah the surface-to-surface rockets, which it had used effectively against Israeli targets.
It is not yet known whether it has succeeded in procuring them. If it has, it may bring them into action against military and economic targets in Colombo.
The war against the LTTE started by President Mahinda Rajapakse after assuming office in November, 2005, with the help of Pakistan, has now entered a new phase.

Sri Lanka's Tamil Tigers bomb base in first air raid

Mon Mar 26, 2007 7:48AM EDT
By Simon Gardner and Ranga Sirilal
COLOMBO (Reuters) - A Tamil Tiger light aircraft bombed a Sri Lankan air force base next to Colombo international airport before dawn on Monday, killing three airmen and wounding 16 in the first such air strike by the rebel group.
The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) said more such attacks by its air wing would follow, threatening to deepen renewed conflict in the island state off the toe of India.
Airline and government officials said the civilian airport, 23 miles north of the capital, was not damaged but was closed for several hours following the attack.
The military said the bombs hit a barracks, and none of its aircraft was damaged. Sri Lanka's stock market fell 1.3 percent on news of the attack. Nordic truce monitors said the air force responded with air strikes on Tiger terrain in the island's northwestern district of Mannar.
"A light Tiger aircraft flew over the air force base and dropped explosives. There have been two explosions. At the same time our air defenses activated and there is a search operation going on," said an air force spokesman, Group Captain Ajantha de Silva.
The government condemned what it called a "cowardly" attack, which followed weeks of air force raids on rebel targets in the north and east, and said security forces were on high alert.
"It's a threat to the entire region, not only to Sri Lanka ... especially India must be vigilant of this," Highways Minister Jeyaraj Fernandopulle told reporters
Heavily armed troops manning checkpoints between Colombo and the airport carried out stringent checks on vehicles.
The Tigers, who say they are fighting for an independent state for minority Tamils in the north and east, last attacked the airport in 2001, the year before a ceasefire deal which has since collapsed.
In that attack half of Sri Lankan Airlines' fleet of planes was destroyed. The rebels have since smuggled an estimated four light aircraft into the country in pieces and reassembled them.
Pro-rebel Web site www.tamilnet.com carried pictures of shadowy rebel leader Velupillai Prabhakaran, who lives in hiding in the rebel-held north, standing with Tiger pilots. It also showed a single-propeller two-seater plane painted in army camouflage colors with four bombs attached to its underside.
MORE ATTACKS THREATENED
"A couple of aircraft of Tamil Eelam Air Force have launched an attack on a Sri Lankan military airfield and hangars of military aircraft," rebel military spokesman Rasiah Ilanthiraiyan said by telephone.
He said the aircraft had flown back to the Tigers' northern stronghold after what he called a "successful mission". The Tigers also have a naval wing, the Sea Tigers.
"It is not only pre-emptive, it is a measure to protect Tamil civilians from the genocidal aerial bombardments by Sri Lankan armed forces," he told Reuters. "More attacks of the same nature will follow."
Peter Hill, Sri Lankan Airlines' chief executive officer, said all inbound and outbound commercial flights had been halted for several hours.
Sri Lankan Airlines resumed its services, but Cathay Pacfic Airways said it had suspended flights to and from Colombo, while Pakistan's PIA and Thai Airways had yet to decide whether to cancel flights scheduled for later in the week.
"It will take another 24-36 hours for us to get fully back together," Hill said. "The airlines and ourselves will be asking the government questions as to what they can do to prevent anything like this happening ever again ... as we asked back in 2001."
The civil war has killed around 68,000 people since 1983 and has forced hundreds of thousands from their homes, many of whom are now living in refugee camps.

Sri Lanka: Luftangriff tamilischer Rebellen

Colombo (dpa). 24 Jahre nach Beginn des Bürgerkriegs in Sri Lanka haben die Tamilen-Rebellen der LTTE erstmals einen Luftangriff auf Armeestellungen geflogen. Die Rebellen bombardierten am Montag eine Luftwaffenbasis neben dem internationalen Flughafen in der Hauptstadt Colombo.Nach Angaben des Militärs starben drei Soldaten, 17 wurden teils schwer verletzt. Der zivile Flugverkehr wurde sechs Stunden lang ausgesetzt, mehrere Flüge - darunter einer aus Frankfurt/Main - wurden umgeleitet. Die Befreiungstiger von Tamil Eelam (LTTE) kündigten weitere Angriffe auf militärische Ziele an. Nach LTTE-Angaben flogen zwei Leichtflugzeuge den Angriff, die Regierung sprach dagegen von einer Maschine. LTTE-"Militärsprecher" Rasaiah Illanthiriyan sagte, die Piloten seien nach dem Bombardement sicher im Rebellengebiet im Norden der Insel gelandet. Ziel seien Kfir- und MiG-27-Kampfflugzeuge gewesen, die auf dem Stützpunkt bei Colombo stationiert sind. Mit den Maschinen von Typ Kfir aus israelischer Produktion fliegt die Armee regelmäßig Einsätze gegen Orte in Rebellengebieten. Nach Militärangaben wurden weder Flugzeuge noch Infrastruktur bei dem LTTE-Angriff zerstört. Bei einem Angriff von LTTE-Kämpfern im Sommer 2001 auf den Flughafen in Colombo waren zahlreiche Flugzeuge zerstört worden, darunter auch sechs zivile Passagiermaschinen der Fluglinie "Sri Lankan". Bei dem Angriff kamen 22 Menschen ums Leben. Die Regierung verurteilte den Angriff vom Montag auf das Schärfste. Die Sicherheitskräfte seien in volle Alarmbereitschaft versetzt worden. Es sei die Verantwortung aller, politische Differenzen beiseite zu lassen und "die Bedrohung des Terrorismus' auszurotten". Die territoriale Integrität Sri Lankas sei unantastbar. Die LTTE kämpft für einen unabhängigen Staat der tamilischen Minderheit im Norden und Osten Sri Lankas. Die LTTE veröffentlichte nach dem Bombardement Bilder ihrer neuen Fliegereinheit. Die Fotos zeigen unter anderem ein zweisitziges Propellerflugzeug, an dessen Unterseite Bomben angebracht sind. LTTE-Chef Velupillai Prabhakaran ist auf den Fotos gemeinsam mit Rebellen zu sehen, die eine Art Luftwaffenuniform tragen. Die LTTE ist die weltweit einzige Rebellengruppe, die mit den "Sea Tigers" bereits über eine eigene marineähnliche Unterorganisation verfügt. Der 1983 begonnene Bürgerkrieg in Sri Lanka kostete bislang fast 70 000 Menschen das Leben. LTTE und Regierung schlossen vor fünf Jahren ein Waffenstillstandsabkommen. Keine der Konfliktparteien hat das Abkommen bislang aufgekündigt, de facto existiert es aber nur noch auf dem Papier. Seit Ende 2005 eskaliert die Gewalt in Sri Lanka. Mehr als 4000 Menschen wurden seitdem getötet.

fr-online.de

Markenschutz
Koka-Bauern machen Cola den Namen streitig

Coca-Cola ist weltweit bekannt und bringt dem Hersteller viel Geld. Bolivianische Ureinwohner wollen nun den Namen ihres heiligen Blattes schützen lassen.
VON KLAUS EHRINGFELD /FR 17.03.2007

Die bolivianischen Koka-Bauern legen sich mit einem der mächtigsten Konzerne der Welt an. Sie wollen dem Multi Coca-Cola den Gebrauch des Wortes "Coca" verbieten lassen und so verhindern, dass das Unternehmen weiter Geld mit dem Namen des "heiligen Blattes" verdient. Das beschloss am Donnerstag (Ortszeit) die so genannte Koka-Kommission, die Vorschläge für die neue bolivianische Verfassung berät.Mit ihrem Schritt wollen die Ureinwohner Boliviens erreichen, dass die Koka-Pflanze als "erneuerbarer, wirtschaftlicher und strategischer Rohstoff" im neuen Grundgesetz des Landes festgeschrieben wird, da der Strauch zum kulturellen Erbe der Indios gehöre. Der Vorschlag muss nun von der gesamten Versammlung beraten werden, die im Auftrag des linksgerichteten Präsidenten Evo Morales derzeit eine neue Verfassung erarbeitet.Aus der Pflanze, die in deutlich größeren Mengen auch noch in Peru und vor allem in Kolumbien angebaut wird, kann das Rauschgift Kokain hergestellt werden. Die USA versuchen deshalb, den Anbau in ganz Südamerika zu unterbinden und haben die Pflanze praktisch geächtet. Nach dem jüngsten Drogenbericht des US-Außenministeriums hat Bolivien im vergangenen Jahr kaum Fortschritte bei der Vernichtung der Koka-Anbauflächen erzielt. Das ist kein Wunder: Morales hatte bereits mehrfach angekündigt, der Anbau der Kokapflanze solle in diesem Jahr von 12 000 auf 20 000 Hektar ausgeweitet werden. Für den Präsidenten, früher Chef der Gewerkschaft der Kokabauern, ist der Kokainkonsum ein Problem der Industriestaaten, das auch dort gelöst werden müsse. "Für uns gehört Koka zur Kultur und zur nationalen Identität", rechtfertigte er die bolivianische Haltung.In der Tradition der Hochlandbewohner sind die Blätter des Kokastrauchs vor allem Medizin. Sie werden gekaut oder zu einem Tee verarbeitet und bei religiösen Zeremonien verwendet. "Wir dürfen unsere Blätter und unseren Kräutertee nicht vermarkten", klagte die Vorsitzende des Koka-Ausschusses, Margarita Teran. "Deshalb sollen weltweit tätige Unternehmen auch nicht den Namen unserer Pflanze nutzen dürfen." Die Ureinwohner wollen mit ihrer Initiative eine Art "Markenschutz" für ihre Pflanze erreichen. Andere Staaten wie etwa Mexiko hätten sich Bezeichnungen wie Tequila ebenfalls schützen lassen.Der US-Softdrinkhersteller hat schon reagiert. Der Name Coca-Cola, die "wertvollste Marke der Welt" mit dem höchsten Wiedererkennungswert, sei auch nach bolivianischem Recht geschützt. Nach Angaben bolivianischer Koka-Bauern kaufte das Unternehmen übrigens bis vor wenigen Jahren jährlich mehrere Tonnen Koka-Blätter. Allerdings macht Coca-Cola keine Angaben dazu, ob die Blätter in der Rezeptur des Getränks enthalten sind.

Camps full, Sri Lanka war refugees live under trees

13 Mar 2007 12:26:13 GMT13 Mar 2007 12:26:13 GMT
Updates with air raids in east)
By Simon Gardner

COLOMBO, March 13 (Reuters) - There is no room for thousands of new war-displaced in crammed refugee camps in Sri Lanka's east, so many are sheltering under trees or in schools and churches, aid workers said on Tuesday.
More than 40,000 people have fled rebel-held territory in the eastern district of Batticaloa over the past week as the military seeks to drive Tamil Tiger rebels from the area amid a new chapter in a two-decade civil war.
But the exodus comes on the heels of massive displacement earlier in January, when the army captured the former coastal rebel stronghold of Vakarai further north, and rudimentary camps are already overflowing with around 80,000 people, taking the overall number of displaced to well beyond 100,000.
"Most of them are under trees," said Basil Sylvester, district officer for the main aid agency umbrella group, the Consortium for Humanitarian Agencies in Batticaloa.
"When they get to Batticaloa, they don't know what to do. Some are in schools and churches. Many are staying with relations and friends."
The military fought sporadic artillery and mortar exchanges with Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) fighters who are holed up in pockets of jungle west of Batticaloa town, and refugees continued to trickle into Batticaloa from the south and west.
The air force launched air strikes for a second day running on a Tiger jungle bastion called Thoppigala, saying it had targeted a large camp the rebels were firing from. There were no immediate reports of casualties, but the military said an air raid in the area a day earlier killed eight Tigers.
SPORADIC FIGHTING
"We are still clearing the area west of Batticaloa (of Tigers)," said military spokesman Brigadier Prasad Samarasinghe. "When they fire mortars , we retaliate."
Samarasinghe said the government was seeking to resettle thousands of displaced in newly-captured Vakarai to make way for new arrivals, but there were only 35 buses to hand and it was a gradual process.
"They are trying to push them out to Vakarai to resettle them as soon as possible," he said. "Most of them want to go back to restart their work. But they can only move out around 500 people a day."
The rebels accuse the military of mounting offensives to capture territory that belongs to them under the terms of a tattered 2002 truce, and have warned of a bloodbath throughout the island. The army argues it is liberating civilians, accusing the Tigers of using them as human shields.
Both sides have repeatedly ignored calls from the international community to halt a war that has killed around 68,000 people since 1983 -- and around 4,000 in the past 15 months.
A host of aid organisations including United Nations agencies, the World Bank, Oxfam and Save the Children on Monday voiced alarm at the rising numbers of displaced, which the Red Cross says is a record for the area.
The Inter-Agency Standing Committee Country team called on both sides to safeguard civilians, who are caught in the crossfire and continue to pay a heavy price, with hundreds killed over the past year -- and comply with international law.
Rights groups are alarmed at a surge in abuses, kidnappings and extrajudicial killings blamed on both sides, and are lobbying the United Nations Human Rights Council for a human rights monitoring mission to be sent to the island.
The Tigers say they are fighting for an independent state for minority Tamils in north and east Sri Lanka, which President Mahinda Rajapakse has rejected out of hand, and analysts fear the war will deepen and scare off investment in the $23 billion economy.

Durch die Hintertür

Abkommen mit Sri Lanka sichert den USA verstärkte militärische Präsenz in Südasien und im Indischen Ozean
Von Hilmar König, Neu-Delhi
jungewelt/ 13.03.2007 / Ausland / Seite 7

Mit dem in der vorigen Woche in Colombo unterzeichneten sogenannten logistischen Abkommen (ACSA) verstärkt das Pentagon seine Militärpräsenz in Süd­asien und im Indischen Ozean. Auch wenn es die gegenseitige »Bereitstellung von Waffensystemen und Munition« ausdrücklich verbietet, läßt sich der Eindruck nicht verwischen, daß es sich bei ACSA um einen kaschierten Militärpakt handelt. Sozusagen durch die Hintertür haben die USA nun ihren Willen durchgesetzt. Colombo gab nach der Unterzeichnung keine eigene Erklärung ab, sondern überließ das dem Seniorpartner. Die US-Botschaft in Sri Lanka veröffentlichte eine Stellungnahme. Botschafter Robert Blake führte vor Journalisten aus, das Abkommen schaffe einen Rahmen für »verstärkte Kooperation im Verteidigungssektor«. Immerhin arbeitete das Pentagon über etliche Jahre daran, Sri Lanka den Pakt schmackhaft zu machen. Erst jetzt unter veränderten geostrategischen Bedingungen kam es zu dem Deal. Eine wichtige Voraussetzung dafür war offensichtlich, daß von Indien, das ja mit Washington seit einigen Jahren eine strategische Partnerschaft pflegt, diesmal kein Einspruch zu erwarten war. In guter Erinnerung ist, daß Neu-Delhi zu Zeiten des Kalten Krieges den USA unmißverständlich sein Mißfallen bekundete, als diese auf srilankischem Gebiet in den 1980er Jahren eine Filiale von »Voice of America« für Südasien eröffneten und in der östlichen Hafenstadt Trincomalee riesige Öltanks für die Versorgung ihrer Flotten mieteten. Der nächste große US-Stützpunkt in diesem Raum befindet sich auf dem Korallenatoll von Diego Garcia. Die indische Tageszeitung The Hindu vermutete in diesem Zusammenhang, daß ACSA ein Militärdeal zugunsten Washingtons ist – der »Erwerb eines Stützpunktes im Indischen Ozean zu geringen oder gar keinen Kosten«.Das Abkommen, zunächst zehn Jahre gültig, legt den Austausch und Transfer von logistischen Lieferungen, gegenseitige Unterstützung und Auftank-Dienstleistungen während »Peacekeeping« oder humanitären Operationen sowie bei gemeinsamen Manövern fest. Es soll den »Austausch von nichttödlichen Ausrüstungen« fördern. Erlaubte Güter und Dienstleistungen sind u. a. Nahrungsmittel, Treibstoff und Transport. The Hindu sieht hier beträchtlichen Spielraum für trickreiche politische Interpretationen und fragt: »Sind die USA in Irak und Afghanistan mit Peacekeeping-Operationen befaßt oder führen sie einen Krieg? Die Antwort hängt davon ab, wer wem diese Frage stellt.« Und es gebe unzählige Beispiele dafür, fährt das Blatt fort, daß Lebensmittel und Treibstoff als Waffen eingesetzt worden sind. Steven Mann, im Weißen Haus für Süd- und Mittelasien zuständig, bezeichnete dieser Tage bei einem Besuch in Colombo ACSA als Routine und ein »sehr bescheidenes Abkommen«. Er betonte, es ziele nicht darauf, die Rolle der USA bei der Regelung innerer Probleme Sri Lankas zu verstärken. Obwohl Washington die rebellischen Tamiltiger (LTTE) als »Terroristen« registriert habe und das militärische Vorgehen gegen diese für richtig halte, wünsche es eine friedliche Lösung des ethnischen Konflikts. Allein am vergangenen Wochenende wurden 20 Rebellen und 15 Soldaten bei Gefechten getötet. Bemerkenswert ist, daß ACSA genau zu dem Zeitpunkt unterzeichnungsreif wurde, da Sri Lankas Armee im Osten und Norden in die Offensive gegen die Tamiltiger gegangen ist.

Spiegel für die Heuchler

China kontert Washingtons »Menschenrechtsreport« mit Bericht über die USA
Von Rainer Rupp
jungewelt /09.03.2007/Ausland/Seite 6

Der am 6. März vom US-Außenministerium veröffentliche »Menschenrechtsreport« hat auch dieses Jahr rund um die Welt Verärgerung ausgelöst, von Brasilien über Venezuela und Kuba bis hin nach Rußland, Indien und China. Während die Regierungen der meisten Länder sich mit Protesten begnügen, hält China seit einigen Jahren Washington mit einem eigenen Bericht über die Menschenrechtslage in den USA den Spiegel vor. Der jüngste Bericht, der am Donnerstag vom chinesischen Informationsbüro des Staatsrates herausgegeben wurde, hat erneut die selbsternannte oberste moralische Weltinstanz USA der Scheinheiligkeit überführt, weshalb er sich zunehmend internationaler Beliebtheit erfreut, selbst im bürgerlichen Lager. Trotz der schwerwiegenden Menschrechtsverstöße im eigenen Land und in Irak habe sich – so der Bericht einleitend – »das US-Außenministerium erneut als Weltmenschenrechtspolizei aufgespielt« und »mit dem Finger auf über 190 Länder gezeigt, einschließlich China«. Dabei bleibe die Menschenrechtssituation in den Vereinigten Staaten ausgespart. »Um den Völkern der Welt ein besseres Verständnis über die Lage in den USA zu vermitteln« und »um die Menschenrechte zu fördern« habe sich China entschlossen, diesen Bericht anzufertigen, heißt es weiter. Der umfangreiche, chinesische Report beleuchtet eine Reihe schwerwiegender Menschrechtsprobleme in den USA, u. a. die zunehmende Ausspitzelung der Privatsphäre der US-Bürger durch die 16 US-Geheimdienste, die mangelnde Demokratie im US-amerikanischen Alltag, Kinderarbeit, Rassismus, Mißhandlungen in zivilen US-Gefängnissen und die Diskriminierung der US-amerikanischen Frauen am Arbeitsplatz. Zugleich prangert der Report das Herrenmenschenauftreten der US-Besatzer in Irak an, die den massenhaften Tod irakischer Zivilisten bei sogenannten Sicherheitsoperationen billigend in Kauf nehmen. Als Quellenmaterial benutzt der Bericht hauptsächlich westliche Medienartikel, Statistiken der US-Regierung und Berichte von Menschenrechtsorganisationen. Die Vereinigten Staaten priesen sich selbst gerne als »Leuchtfeuer der Demokratie«, aber das US-System sei nur dem Namen nach eine Demokratie, denn dort zähle nur das Geld, heißt es in dem Bericht. Er bezieht sich in diesem Punkt auf eine Veröffentlichung des US-amerikanischen »Center for Responsive Politics« vom 29. Oktober 2006, wonach bei den US-Kongreßwahlen im Jahr 2004 nur die Kandidaten eine Chance hatten, gewählt zu werden, die zuvor mindestens eine Million US-Dollar Wahlspenden gesammelt hatten. So kostet ein Sitz im US-Senat durchschnittlich sieben Millionen Dollar. Für den Wahlkampf 2006 wurden insgesamt 2,4 Milliarden Dollars ausgegeben, was den bereits von Schriftsteller Greg Palast formulierten Schluß bestätigt, daß die USA »die beste Demokratie sind, die man sich für Geld kaufen kann«. Auch über die »schockierenden Ungerechtigkeiten« in US-Justizsystem wird berichtet, wie z. B. Menschen – in der Regel Arme – ohne faires Verfahren oder rechtskräftiges Urteil aus ihren Häusern geholt und ins Gefängnis geworfen werden. Dort – so der Bericht – erwarteten sie nicht selten Folter und Mißhandlungen, die laut UNO-Berichterstatter Manfred Nowak in US-Gefängnissen weit verbreitet sind. Der chinesische Bericht fordert »die US-Regierung dazu auf, ihre eigenen Menschenrechtsprobleme einzugestehen und damit aufzuhören, sich unter dem Vorwand der Menschenrechte in die inneren Angelegenheiten anderer Länder einzumischen«.

Hoffnung für Waisenkinder

Sri Lanka leidet noch immer unter Tsunami-Folgen und dem Bürgerkrieg
Von Sivappirathipa Sivapatham, 17 Jahre, Tannenbusch-Gymnasium Bonn, Leistungskurs Sozialwissenschaften/Wirtschaft 12

Nach der verheerenden Tsunamikatastrophe im Dezember 2004 im Indischen Ozean und den seit sechsundzwanzig Jahren anhaltenden Bürgerkrieg zwischen Tamilen und Singalesen auf Sri Lanka, haben viele Menschen ihre Angehörigen verloren. Auch der Friedensvertrag aus dem Jahr 2001 linderte nicht die Situation. Im Gegenteil, es starben weiterhin Hunderte von Menschen. Dabei hinterließen viele Verstorbene ihre Kinder, die ohne Perspektive dastanden und auch keine Hoffnung mehr hatten.So zeigte ein Gespräch mit einem 12-Jährigen der durch den Tsunami seine Familie verlor, dass er keinen Sinn mehr in seinem Leben sieht. Während des Gespräches sagte er, dass er immer noch das Bild vor Augen hatte, wie seine Eltern von der Flut mitgerissen wurden. Er selbst konnte sich jedoch noch rechtzeitig auf einem Baum retten. "Ich hatte echt Angst, was aus meinem Leben werden sollte, jeden Tag hatte ich aufs neue gehofft etwas Essen zu finden".Es wurde deutlich, dass er sein traumatisches Erlebnis noch nicht verarbeitet hatte. Dieses Schicksal teilen viele Kinder in Sri Lanka. Um ihre Erlebnisse besser verarbeiten und ihnen eine bessere Zukunft und Bildung bieten zu können, haben einige im Ausland ansässige Hilfsorganisationen Projekte, wie Waisenhäuser eingerichtet. Eines der Waisenhäuser ist das "Happy Home" in Kotagala, nordwestlich von Colombo, das eine Aufnahmekapazität von zwanzig Kindern hat und von fünf Mitarbeitern betreut wird. Happy Home wurde vergangenes Jahr im November mit sieben Kindern im Alter von fünf bis zwölf Jahren eröffnet. Es wurde durch Spenden von Kirchenmitgliedern der Voice of Peace Missionary Church, Freunden und Verwandten finanziert. Zurzeit werden noch weitere Kinder erwartet, die jedoch derzeit wegen des Krieges nicht nach Kotagala gelangen können. Eines der sieben Kinder, die derzeitig dort leben, wurde von seiner Großmutter "abgegeben", da sie ihn aus finanziellen Gründen nicht mehr versorgen konnte. Seine damals 18-jährige Mutter ist bei der Geburt gestorben. Um weiteren Kindern die Chance einer Aufnahme zu ermöglichen, werden derzeit Sponsoren gesucht, die dabei helfen können, die Aufnahmekapazität zu erhöhen.
(Quelle: FR vom 07.02.2007)

Anti-terrorism laws abused in Sri Lanka - jurists
Fri Mar 2, 2007 5:17 PM IST

NEW DELHI (Reuters) - Anti-terrorism laws in Sri Lanka have led to widespread and systematic rights abuses, a panel of global jurists said on Friday, charging government forces of extra-judicial killings and torture.
The panel was appointed in 2005 by the Geneva-based International Commission of Jurists to investigate the impact of "terrorism" and counter-terrorism measures on the rule of law and human rights.
It concluded a visit to India on Friday where it met affected people, activists and government representatives from the region including Nepal, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and the Maldives. The experts are due to visit Pakistan separately.
"Sri Lanka is a country where there is, really, a full-scale armed confrontation, which has provoked very serious violations by the protagonists," Arthur Chaskalson, the head of the team, said.
A two-decade-old ethnic conflict between Colombo and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) rebels has escalated after the virtual collapse of a truce and about 4,000 people have been killed in the past 15 months alone.
Around 68,000 people have been killed over the past two decades.
The panel expressed concern over "extra-judicial killings, torture, enforced disappearances and arbitrary detentions" by troops in the Indian Ocean island nation.
It said the re-introduction of counter-terrorism measures and emergency laws, including a "wide arsenal of terrorism-related offences that can be used to criminalise anybody connected to any broadly defined terror suspect" had led to widespread and systematic rights abuses.
Chaskalson said the panel did not get an opportunity to meet Sri Lankan government officials.