- Reaction score
- 0
- Points
- 410
read it for yourself...
personally, I think he might just be crushed for this:
http://www.canada.com/maritimes/story.html?id=ba534e8e-1402-4320-9506-8ade7ca3a588
Martin set for politically fraught meeting with Tamils in Colombo, Sri Lanka
Bruce Cheadle
Canadian Press
Sunday, January 16, 2005
COLOMBO, Sri Lanka (CP) - Prime Minister Paul Martin wades into Sri Lanka's murky domestic politics Monday when he meets with parliamentarians affiliated with the Tamil Tigers, a separatist insurgent group.
Martin will first pay a visit to Canada's Disaster Assistance Response Team, or DART, in Ampara, almost two hours up the coast by helicopter.
But navigation could be considerably more complicated in the capital, where Martin hopes to make good on a pledge to ensure equitable aid distribution throughout Sri Lanka in the wake of the devastating tsunamis three weeks ago.
Martin made the promise in Canada, catering to the 250,000-strong Tamil expatriot community - the largest in the world. Tamils are considered crucial to Liberal electoral prospects in about 10 Toronto-area ridings, but the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) organization has been declared a terrorist organization by the United Nations and several Canadian allies, including the United States, Great Britain and Australia.
Canada only went halfway in outlawing the fundraising activities of the Tigers or LTTE, but not the organization itself.
On Monday, Martin meets with three politicians of the Tamil National Alliance, which is not directly affiliated with the Tigers.
"However they very accurately reflect the views of the LTTE," a senior Canadian official said Sunday evening in Colombo.
Two of the three men Martin is to meet - Paraajasingham and Ponnambalam - were denied visas to Canada last year because of concerns they would engage in illegal LTTE fund-raising.
Martin's officials insisted there's nothing controversial about Monday's meeting, which will be followed by a talk with Sri Lankan President Chandrika Kumaratunga.
"To meet with the Tamil leadership, I don't think that poses a problem," said one official, speaking on background.
Martin's first stop Sunday on his nine-day Asian tour was less politically fraught but more emotionally draining.
Canadian volunteers in Phuket recounted their grim duties to the prime minister after he arrived in Thailand to assess the post-tsunami cleanup.
Martin said he was deeply moved after meeting with about a dozen Canadians who dropped vacations and job commitments to help in any way they could after the Dec. 26 disaster.
"To see how human beings are capable of turning towards each other in times of crisis is a wonderful thing," said Martin.
"To recognize in your own countrymen, your own countrywomen, that kind of desire makes us recognize there is a common humanity."
One volunteer, Greg Baytalan of Kelowna, B.C., said he's spent his time helping unload recovered corpses.
"I would need longtime, deep-depth Alzheimers before I would forget this," said the public health inspector, 46.
"I was slugging bodies up to the morgue . . . It was beyond all horror."
Baytalan was on vacation in Australia when the tsunami struck and felt compelled to offer help.
Greg Jones, a mall developer from St. Thomas, Ont., who now lives in Bangkok, was on holiday in Kamala on Phuket Island when the waves struck.
He raced away from the shore as he watched the tsunami in his car's rear-view mirror - then returned to help the survivors.
"I was lucky and you just want to help," he said.
Jones has spent his time collecting lost documents and combing area hospitals for Canadians.
Four of Canada's six confirmed dead perished in Thailand. There are still 29 Canadians officially listed as missing, all but one or two of them lost from Thailand's beaches.
One government official said families of the missing have all left the country, adding it has been a week since anyone held out hope of finding any of the 29 missing Canadians alive.
The prime minister met Sunday with Thailand's interior minister, who asked for Canadian expertise in reclaiming and rebuilding damaged shorelines. Martin also talked to the RCMP forensics team that is wrapping up the grisly task of collecting identifying markings - from DNA samples to fingerprints and dental moulds - from hundreds of recovered bodies.
A visit to a Buddhist temple at Kamala beach provided a sobering view of the tsunami's damage, while at the same time showcasing the remarkable Thai recovery just three weeks after the disaster. Three monks died at the temple, while three schoolchildren and a teacher perished in an adjoining school.
Evidence of the tsunami's fury was clear three metres up the freshly scarred trunks of massive pine trees along the beach front.
Yet cleanup efforts had already taken away most of the debris from the shattered school and dozens of wrecked restaurants and shops. Thai workers were busily rebuilding Sunday as the prime minister toured the area.
Martin said later the experience shows that a long-term rebuilding plan must be put in place, especially to restore Thailand's fishing industry, which lost some 4,500 boats to the tsunami.
"It's not just the pain and suffering you see, but its the pain and suffering you don't see that we've got to deal with," said Martin.
personally, I think he might just be crushed for this:
http://www.canada.com/maritimes/story.html?id=ba534e8e-1402-4320-9506-8ade7ca3a588
Martin set for politically fraught meeting with Tamils in Colombo, Sri Lanka
Bruce Cheadle
Canadian Press
Sunday, January 16, 2005
COLOMBO, Sri Lanka (CP) - Prime Minister Paul Martin wades into Sri Lanka's murky domestic politics Monday when he meets with parliamentarians affiliated with the Tamil Tigers, a separatist insurgent group.
Martin will first pay a visit to Canada's Disaster Assistance Response Team, or DART, in Ampara, almost two hours up the coast by helicopter.
But navigation could be considerably more complicated in the capital, where Martin hopes to make good on a pledge to ensure equitable aid distribution throughout Sri Lanka in the wake of the devastating tsunamis three weeks ago.
Martin made the promise in Canada, catering to the 250,000-strong Tamil expatriot community - the largest in the world. Tamils are considered crucial to Liberal electoral prospects in about 10 Toronto-area ridings, but the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) organization has been declared a terrorist organization by the United Nations and several Canadian allies, including the United States, Great Britain and Australia.
Canada only went halfway in outlawing the fundraising activities of the Tigers or LTTE, but not the organization itself.
On Monday, Martin meets with three politicians of the Tamil National Alliance, which is not directly affiliated with the Tigers.
"However they very accurately reflect the views of the LTTE," a senior Canadian official said Sunday evening in Colombo.
Two of the three men Martin is to meet - Paraajasingham and Ponnambalam - were denied visas to Canada last year because of concerns they would engage in illegal LTTE fund-raising.
Martin's officials insisted there's nothing controversial about Monday's meeting, which will be followed by a talk with Sri Lankan President Chandrika Kumaratunga.
"To meet with the Tamil leadership, I don't think that poses a problem," said one official, speaking on background.
Martin's first stop Sunday on his nine-day Asian tour was less politically fraught but more emotionally draining.
Canadian volunteers in Phuket recounted their grim duties to the prime minister after he arrived in Thailand to assess the post-tsunami cleanup.
Martin said he was deeply moved after meeting with about a dozen Canadians who dropped vacations and job commitments to help in any way they could after the Dec. 26 disaster.
"To see how human beings are capable of turning towards each other in times of crisis is a wonderful thing," said Martin.
"To recognize in your own countrymen, your own countrywomen, that kind of desire makes us recognize there is a common humanity."
One volunteer, Greg Baytalan of Kelowna, B.C., said he's spent his time helping unload recovered corpses.
"I would need longtime, deep-depth Alzheimers before I would forget this," said the public health inspector, 46.
"I was slugging bodies up to the morgue . . . It was beyond all horror."
Baytalan was on vacation in Australia when the tsunami struck and felt compelled to offer help.
Greg Jones, a mall developer from St. Thomas, Ont., who now lives in Bangkok, was on holiday in Kamala on Phuket Island when the waves struck.
He raced away from the shore as he watched the tsunami in his car's rear-view mirror - then returned to help the survivors.
"I was lucky and you just want to help," he said.
Jones has spent his time collecting lost documents and combing area hospitals for Canadians.
Four of Canada's six confirmed dead perished in Thailand. There are still 29 Canadians officially listed as missing, all but one or two of them lost from Thailand's beaches.
One government official said families of the missing have all left the country, adding it has been a week since anyone held out hope of finding any of the 29 missing Canadians alive.
The prime minister met Sunday with Thailand's interior minister, who asked for Canadian expertise in reclaiming and rebuilding damaged shorelines. Martin also talked to the RCMP forensics team that is wrapping up the grisly task of collecting identifying markings - from DNA samples to fingerprints and dental moulds - from hundreds of recovered bodies.
A visit to a Buddhist temple at Kamala beach provided a sobering view of the tsunami's damage, while at the same time showcasing the remarkable Thai recovery just three weeks after the disaster. Three monks died at the temple, while three schoolchildren and a teacher perished in an adjoining school.
Evidence of the tsunami's fury was clear three metres up the freshly scarred trunks of massive pine trees along the beach front.
Yet cleanup efforts had already taken away most of the debris from the shattered school and dozens of wrecked restaurants and shops. Thai workers were busily rebuilding Sunday as the prime minister toured the area.
Martin said later the experience shows that a long-term rebuilding plan must be put in place, especially to restore Thailand's fishing industry, which lost some 4,500 boats to the tsunami.
"It's not just the pain and suffering you see, but its the pain and suffering you don't see that we've got to deal with," said Martin.
