Thesun 2009-04-14 Page10 Somali Pirates Vow Revenge

10

theSun

| TUESDAY APRIL 14 2009

news without borders

Protesters rally in front of Admiralty House, the residence of Australia’s Governor General, in Sydney, yesterday.

Sri Lankan military begins two-day ceasefire COLOMBO: Sri Lankan security forces began a two-day ceasefire yesterday, as the government called for the Tamil Tiger rebels to allow trapped civilians to flee the conflict zone. The United Nations estimates that 100,000 people are packed into the small strip of coastline in the northeast that is the last remaining territory held by the rebel fighters, who have been pushed close to defeat. Troops halted their offensive on the orders of President Mahinda Rajapakse to mark the traditional Sinhala and Tamil New Year, military spokesman Udaya Nanayakkara said. “We are not conducting any offensive operations,” Nanayakkara said. “We have not fired and we have not received any fire so far from the other side.” He said that frontline troops had not reported any civilians leaving the rebel-held area since the ceasefire began. The Tigers, who are accused of holding the civilians hostage, have suffered months of battlefield setbacks that could finally end their campaign for an independent Tamil homeland after 37 years of violence. Rajapakse ordered the unilateral ceasefire after intense international pressure, including repeated calls from the United Nations and the US. UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon welcomed the halt in fighting but said it fell short of his expectations. “This is less than the full humanitarian pause of several days I had pressed for, but is nevertheless a useful first step and an opportunity to move to-

wards the peaceful and orderly end to the fighting now so badly needed,” he said. UN officials who visited some of the camps for people escaping the fighting earlier this month warned that thousands of noncombatants could get killed or wounded as the military moves to finish off the Tiger rebels. Some 2,800 civilians were killed during a two-month period earlier this year, according to UN figures which are discounted by Sri Lankan authorities. The rebels endured major losses last week when at least 550 were killed in four days of fighting to defend a village which eventually fell to government forces, officials said. Tamils around the world have stepped up protests demanding further international pressure on Colombo for a permanent end to the hostilities. Hundreds of Tamil protesters staged a rally outside Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd’s official Sydney residence yesterday, after some 100,000 demonstrators marched through central London. In Norway, a group of Tamils stormed the Sri Lankan embassy in Oslo on Sunday, smashing windows and furniture inside the building. Sri Lanka’s foreign secretary Palitha Kohona condemned Oslo’s failure to protect the building and alerted other Sri Lankan embassies to increase their security. There was no immediate comment from the Tigers on the ceasefire, but the pro-rebel Tamilnet website said troops had shelled the no-fire zone on Sunday and killed at least 31 civilians. – AFP

briefs More than 20 killed over cattle dispute BANGUI (Central African Republic): More than 20 people were killed on Sunday when farmers and traders fought over cattle at a livestock market near the capital of Central African Republic, a hospital official said. The dispute centred on the ownership of cattle stolen by highway robbers over a week ago but later recovered from the bandits and brought to the market just outside Bangui. “Twenty-two corpses have been brought to the morgue. This is only a provisional tally as the injured are still arriving,” said Joel Nganafei, an official at Bangui’s community hospital. Central African Republic is one of the poorest countries in the world despite its vast natural resources. It has

TOKYO: A Japanese opposition-backed candidate lost a closely watched local election at the weekend, results showed yesterday, which may add to pressure on the party’s scandal-hit leader to quit before a nationwide vote that must be held by October. The Democratic Party had looked poised to win the general election and topple Prime Minister Taro Aso’s Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) until an aide to its leader, Ichiro Ozawa, was arrested last month for illegal fundraising. An opposition victory in the general election would end over a half-century of nearly unbroken rule by the conservative LDP and bring to power a party vowing to stress worker and consumer rights over corporate interests while reducing

bureaucrats’ grip on policy decisions. Ozawa has stayed on as party leader despite public opinion polls showing a majority of voters would prefer him to step down. His party’s loss in the vote for governor of Akita prefecture in northern Japan follows a similar defeat last month near Tokyo, eroding Ozawa’s image as a skilled campaign strategist. Both votes were in focus for clues on how voters were responding to Ozawa’s troubles ahead of the general election. In another worrying sign for Ozawa, a public opinion poll by the Mainichi Shimbun daily showed on Sunday that more voters wanted Aso to be prime minister, the first time Aso has beaten his main rival in a Mainichi survey since a poll in

October. Around three-quarters of voters wanted Ozawa to quit as leader of the Democrats. But the same survey showed 42% of respondents wanted the Democrats to win the general election, while 32% wanted the LDP to win. “The situation is tough. It might be better if Ozawa quits,” said a Democratic Party assemblyman in Tokyo after the results of the Akita election were known. “But its’ a tough call.” Media quoted LDP Secretary-General Hiroyuki Hosoda as saying the election result was a sign that voters supported the party’s economic policies. The government last week proposed a record US$154 billion (RM577 billion) stimulus plan for the weak economy. – Reuters

Somali pirates vow revenge BOSASSO: Somali pirates threatened revenge on Sunday after two separate hostage-rescue raids by foreign forces killed at least five comrades, raising fears of future bloodshed on the high seas. The latest raid by US forces on Sunday that saved an American hostage and one by France last week have upped the stakes in shipping lanes off the anarchic Horn of Africa nation where buccaneers have defied foreign naval patrols. “The French and the Americans will regret starting this killing. We do not kill, but take only ransom. We shall do something to anyone

we see as French or American from now,” Hussein, a pirate, told Reuters by satellite phone. “We cannot know how or whether our friends on the lifeboat died, but this will not stop us from hijacking,” he said. Sea gangs generally treat their captives well, hoping to fetch top dollar in ransoms. The worst violence has been an occasional beating. “We shall revenge,” said another pirate, Aden, in Eyl village, a pirate lair on Somalia’s eastern coast. Some fear the US and French operations may make the modernday pirates more like their more

Phillips (right) standing alongside Cmdr Frank Castellano, commanding officer of USS Bainbridge after being rescued by US Naval Forces off the coast of Somalia.

endured years of civil conflicts and banditry is rife. Fernand Koumanda, head of a cattle breeders’ association, said the fighting started when some traders at the market claimed that they owned 56 of the 174 beasts initially stolen, enraging some cattle farmers. – AFP

Taiwan man lobs RM110,000 from cars TAIPEI: Taiwan police have arrested a 55-year-old man for lobbing bank notes worth about T$1 million (RM110,000) from vehicles, causing disorder in the streets, an officer said yesterday. The man tossed the bills from a taxi in a crowded part of Taichung city on Sunday as people stopped to pick up the cash, Changhua police official Lin Shih-ming said. “He might have had a nervous condition, as his state of mind wasn’t normal,” Lin said. The man also burned about T$400,000 (RM34,000) and had two

REUTERSPIX

REUTERSPIX

Japan opposition leader under pressure after vote

more sacks of cash, apparently the proceeds of a property sale, Lin said. Some of the passers-by who picked up the bills turned the money over to police, while others pocketed it, he said. – Reuters

instantly, police said. She could not be identified as her body was charred beyond recognition. – dpa

Woman burnt alive for alleged kidnapping

SYDNEY: An Irishman brought home to die after being beaten senseless on a Sydney street in August has surprised his doctors and his family by coming back from the dead in a Cork hospital on St Patrick’s Day. David Keohane, 29, came out of a coma eight months after sustaining serious head injuries in the attack, news reports said yesterday. “He’s awake, he’s talking, he’s recognising everyone,” a family friend told Irish newspaper the Evening Herald. “He was looking at pictures and he could tell who everyone was, which was amazing.” Keohane’s family ascribe his miraculous recovery to daily prayers they offered to nun Mary MacKillop and said they would be writing to

KATHMANDU: A woman was burnt alive by a mob in southern Nepal after she was accused of trying to kidnap a toddler, Nepalese media reports said yesterday. The crime happened in Dhanusa district, about 250km south-east of the Nepalese capital Kathmandu, on Sunday, the independent Kantipur Television said. A crowd in Bharatpur village in Dhanusa district seized the woman, doused her with petrol and set her on fire after accusing her of trying to kidnap a baby from the village, the station quoted police as saying. The woman, about 35 years old, died

Man wakes from coma on St Patrick’s Day

fearsome forbearers. “The pirates will know from now that anything can happen. The French are doing this, the Americans are doing it. Things will be more violent from now on,” said Andrew Mwangura of the Kenyabased East African Seafarers Assistance Programme. “This is a big wake-up to the pirates. It raises the stakes.” Piracy is lucrative business in Somalia, where gangs have earned millions of dollars in ransoms, splashing it on wives, houses, cars and fancy goods. After a wane in business early this year, pirates have struck back. They presently hold more than a dozen vessels with about 260 hostages, of whom about 100 are Filipino. Eyl, Haradheere and other pirate havens along the Indian Ocean coastline have come back to life with the windfall of successful operations. Somalia’s anarchy – whose 18 years of civil war have given sea gangs assault rifles, grenade launchers and little central control – has long been ignored by world powers. The saga over the capture of cargo ship captain Richard Phillips has thrown international attention on the long-running piracy phenomenon that has hiked up insurance costs on strategic waterways where warships now patrol. “Killing three out of thousands of pirates will only escalate piracy,” said Sheikh Abdullahi Sheikh Abu Yusuf, spokesman of the moderate Islamist group Ahlu Sunna Waljamaca. – Reuters

Pope Benedict XVI to expedite her sainthood. – dpa

Jeweller hypnotised, diamonds stolen MUMBAI: Indian police are hunting a conman who hypnotised a Mumbai jewellery store worker before stealing US$160,000 (RM600,000) worth of diamond necklaces and bracelets. Katrina Sunil Purswami, who works at the Seres store in the upmarket Bandra West suburb, was told by the man on Saturday that he wanted to give the gems as a present and persuaded her to bring them to a nearby hotel. “When the employee went to the hotel, the accused acted like he was the owner,” senior police inspector Prakash George was quoted as saying. “As Purswami was showing him the sets, he asked her to write the details of the sets. He then hypnotised her and decamped with the ornaments. Purswami was left confused and could not understand what was going on.” – AFP