Sri Lanka wants to be independent

A &to= english.pravda.ru/main/2002/12/05/40445.html ' target=_blank>Tamil Tiger rebel leader said Saturday that &to= english.pravda.ru/main/18/90/361/14814_.html ' target=_blank>Sri Lanka missed a chance to revive the peace process by giving too little assistance to rebel-held areas while channeling most international aid for tsunami relief to areas under its control. S.P. Thamilselvan, head of the political wing of the Tamil rebels, said the Sinhalese-dominated government had ruined the chance for peace. The rebels are fighting to establish an independent state on Sri Lanka. The government has denied charges it is preventing aid from reaching rebel areas, which are concentrated in the north and east of the country. U.N. and other international assistance, including dry rations, tarpaulins and generators, are reaching those areas, where years of war have shattered the infrastructure and stalled economic development. Later Saturday, Thamilselvan met Margareta Wahlstrom, the U.N. special coordinator for tsunami relief, and the U.N. coordinator for Sri Lanka, Miguel Bermeo. They traveled to Tamil Tiger areas to assess damage, more than a week after U.N. Secretary General &to= english.pravda.ru/main/2002/05/06/28300.html ' target=_blank>Kofi Annan toured devastated areas in Sri Lanka, reports the Seattle Post. Indonesia found almost 4,000 more bodies, taking the global death toll from the disaster to more than 162,000, with searches completed in areas most damaged by the December 26 tsunami. But life was starting to return to normal in some towns and villages on battered Indian Ocean coasts with markets reopening and fishermen casting their nets again. U.N. officials said the threat of disease to survivors had diminished but doctors reported children were dying from &to= english.pravda.ru/world/2003/04/09/45866.html ' target=_blank>pneumonia. Health workers said they remained on guard. Of those killed in the earthquake and tidal wave that swept through south Asia and northeast Africa, half were children, according to Jan Egeland, the U.N. emergency relief coordinator. A very large number of child survivors were believed to have been orphaned, but Bellamy said in New York that new data suggested those initial estimates had been exaggerated. As an example, she said preliminary data in Sri Lanka on 3,000 children showed that 836 had lost both parents but had an extended family, and 38 seemed to be totally unaccompanied, tells Reuters.

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