Sri Lanka - U.S. Ambassador "slightly wounded" in rebel attack - Italy's ambassador also injured

AFP via translation | February 27, 2007

[HAL9000]

Sri Lanka: ambassadors Italian and US wounded in a rebellious offensive

COLOMBO - The ambassadors American and Italian in Sri Lanka were wounded Tuesday in an offensive with artillery carried out by rebels tamouls supposed in the east of the island, indicated to AFP the minister human rights Mahinda Samarasinghe.

The ambassador Robert Blake and his Italian counterpart Prio Mariani were touched by glares of shells which struck the landing strip of the air base of Batticaloa at the time when the diplomats left a military helicopter, specified the Samarasinghe minister.

Mr. Mariani was touched with the head, without the gravity of his wounds being known, and was transported to the local hospital with eleven others wounded, indicated the director of the establishment Muruganathan Moorthy.

The American ambassador “is slightly wounded”, added the Samarasinghe minister.

[SevenofNine]

WOW Hal I didn't hear about this just broke off the wires

[HAL9000]

Reuters - Italian ambassador hurt in Sri Lanka rebel attack

[HAL9000]

RTT News - US, Italian Diplomats Injured By Rebel Mortar In Sri Lanka

[SevenofNine]

Well Sri Lanka did had their problem with radical muslums too

[HAL9000]

Associated Press - U.S., Italy ambassadors hurt in Sri Lanka

[jdm]

COLOMBO, Sri Lanka - The U.S. and Italian ambassadors to Sri Lanka were "slightly injured" when their helicopters were targeted by mortars fired by suspected Tamil Tiger rebels in the east on Tuesday, officials said.

The helicopters used by U.S. Ambassador Robert Blake and his Italian counterpart Pio Mariani had just landed in Batticaloa when several mortars landed close to the aircraft, said Sri Lankan government minister Mahinda Samarasinghe, who accompanied them.

"Both the ambassadors are fine and they have suffered slight injuries," Samarasinghe said.

Mariani needed medical care and was taken to the area's main hospital for treatment. The nature of his injuries was not immediately known.

The Sri Lankan Defense Ministry blamed the attack on separatist Tamil Tiger rebels, who are banned in the United States and in
European Union countries as a terrorist group.

There was no immediate comment from the rebels Tuesday.

The two ambassadors, accompanied by their staff and Sri Lankan officials, had traveled Tuesday morning to Batticaloa aboard two helicopters to attend a meeting about the development of the area, a hotbed of separatist violence.

"As their choppers landed mortars were fired by the Tigers," said Lt. Col. Upali Rajapakse, a senior officer the Defense Ministry's information section.

He said the diplomats already had gotten out of the helicopters when the mortars were fired. It was not immediately known how they sustained their injuries.

Seven Sri Lankan security personnel who were on the ground also were wounded, Rajapakse said.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070227/ap_on_re_as/sri_lanka_ambassadors_injured

[jdm]

The US ambassador to Sri Lanka Robert Blake was wounded Tuesday in an artillery attack by suspected Tamil Tiger rebels in eastern Sri Lanka, Human Rights Minister Mahinda Samarasinghe, who accompanied him told AFP.

[Cindy]

http://news.google.com/news?hl=en&q=Colombo&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&um=1&tab=wn&scoring=d

http://news.google.com/news?hl=en&q=Colombo&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&um=1&tab=wn&scoring=d

[Cindy]

http://travel.state.gov/travel/cis_pa_tw/tw/tw_3011.html

Travel Warning
United States Department of State
Bureau of Consular Affairs
Washington, DC 20520

This information is current as of today, Mon Feb 26 2007 22:05:10 GMT-0800.

SRI LANKA

October 23, 2006

[BullDog108]

The terrorists in Sri Lanka are Hindu, fighting for an independant state carved out of the north.

[Nathan Zachary]

These are Tamil Tigers, A rebel Independence group of Tamales. They can be Muslim, Hindu, or Sikhs, mostly Sikhs who think they are some kind of Islam. other Muslims dissagree however, but that's nothing new among Muslim. Any Muslim minority sec who isn't a Muslim of the regional majority sec is a lessor Muslim, an apostate in their eyes.

[SevenofNine]

OH OKAY but I know they do have Muslum community in Sri Lanka

[Cindy]

https://www.osac.gov/Regions/country.cfm?country=23

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http://www.gulf-times.com/site/topics/article.asp?cu_no=2&item_no=134928&version=1&template_id=44&pa

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http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/6387427.stm

===
===

Note: The following text is a quote:

http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3370228,00.html

US ambassador to Sri Lanka injured by rebel attack

Published: 02.27.07, 06:34 / Israel News

US ambassador to Sri Lanka Robert Blake was injured in an attack by Tamil rebels in eastern Sri Lanka.

The ambassador was injured by a munitions shell during a tour of the eastern region with the Sri Lankan minister for human rights. (AFP)

[Nathan Zachary]

Depends on the region the tamel tiger group is from. Most of the Tamel "fighters" are children kidnapped from local villages.
Tamalese(?) are a regional culture of India and Sri lanka (and other places as well) , whose people can be members of any of the religions mentioned in my post above.

[Cindy]

http://www.satp.org
http://www.saag.org

===
===

http://www.saag.org/searchb10.asp?search=sri+lanka&searchtype=all&B1=Submit

http://www.saag.org/searchb10.asp?search=tamil+tigers&searchtype=all&B1=Submit


===
http://www.saag.org/notes4/note367.html

Note no 367

24.02.2007

"SRI LANKA: REVISITING LTTE'S OPTIONS Update No 114"
By Col R Hariharan (Retd.)

SNIPPET: "This may be read in continuation of SAAG Note No 357 dated January 11, 2007 "Sri Lanka 2006: LTTE's Unbalanced Scorecard Update No 111 available at http://www.saag.org/notes4/note357.html ]"

[BullDog108]

I would say that 90% are Hindu. Tamil Nadu is the extreme southern part of India. The Moghul invaders did not make much headway that far south.

[Nathan Zachary]

You weren't really wrong in your assumption.

[BullDog108]

From: WIKI

Ethnic cleansing

The LTTE has been blamed for forcibly removing (or "ethnically cleansing") Sinhalese and Muslim inhabitants from areas under its control, including the use of violence against those who refuse to leave. Most notably, the LTTE forcibly expelled the entire Muslim population of Jaffna on two hours notice in 1990.[45] The LTTE are also accused of organising massacres of Sinhala villagers who settled in the Northeast under the dry lands policy.[46]

The LTTE has apologized for the expulsion of Muslims and has blamed this event on the misconduct of one of its regional commanders. However these expulsions had taken place in Jaffna where the supreme leadership of the LTTE was based . It is therefore unlikely that these expulsions were planned at a local level. Furthermore no punitive action was taken against those who expelled the Muslims from Jaffna. The LTTE has taken the added step of encouraging Muslim civilians to return their homes and livelihoods and providing compensation. However very few Muslims have accepted this offer.

The LTTE feels the expulsion of Sinhalese civilian from the North East of Sri Lanka is a necessary step to safeguard the rights of the Tamil minority. The LTTE alleges that most of the North East lands were originally owned by Tamils, who were forcibly evicted to make way for government aided Sinhala colonization schemes. These schemes, they argue were created with the sole intent on making Tamil civilians a minority in their traditional homelands and hence a means to further deprive their rights under the present district based unitary political system.[47]. However Muslims and Sinhalese formed over half of the population of the East province throughout recent history. Furthermore the existence of archaeological evidence shows that the Sinhalese inhabited the Eastern province for thousands of years. Scholars acknowledge the existence of a Tamil kingdom in the Northern province but there is no evidence of a Tamil kingdom in the Eastern province[48]. Therefore the basis for the LTTE's claim of the Eastern province as a traditional homeland of the Tamils remains contentious[49].

[Nathan Zachary]

The region (India and Sri lanka) is 90% Tamelese . It's a blend of all those religions. The India part of it is majority Hindu, So you'd be correct that way. But we are talking about Sri Lanka, which although a sliver of the continent, doesn't share such a large majority of Hindu, but rather a more equal blend of Muslim, Siekh, and hindu.

As I mentioned, this rebel group is made up of kidnapped children from all of those, whatever they can grab from the local villages in the area.
It's not a Islamic cause they are fighting about, it's a Tamelese independance one, hence the name, Tamel Tigers

[Nathan Zachary]

And excuse my slight geographic inaccuracies, I'm relying on memory, not google.

The article you posted above is typical of what this rebel group does depending on the region it's in.
Because it's "cell" leaders can be any of the three religions and operate independently, This often leads to religious bigotry when they take over a village. The rebel group seems to have forgotten it's main cause in some instances, which was as mentioned, Tamale's Independence. Even that is a clouded issue, because it's also a blood line- or tribal if you wish- issue.

Stupid no matter how you look at it, but that seems to always be the case in less civilized parts of the world.

[Nathan Zachary]

"However Muslims and Sinhalese formed over half of the population of the East province throughout recent history".

Note the journalists error in that statement. Islam is not a race of people, it's a religion. You must always be alert to this, as Muslims try make it a racial issue. To be "Muslim" is like being "Christian" It isn't based on your skin color, or the shape of your cranium. "Muslim' is simply what a believer of Islam is called, as "Christian" is what a follower of Christ is called.

[CarrotAndStick]

The LTTE are nominally Hindu...but mostly atheist-leaning. Theirs is not a religious war. They are ethnic Tamils, distinct from the Sinhala majority of Sri Lanka. Major bloody riots in the early 80s spurred the LTTE movement. They are somewhat akin to the IRA. Even the conflict bears resemblance to the conflict in Ireland.


India has long designated the LTTE as a terrorist organisation.

[BullDog108]

Thanks, C&S, you confirmed my experience. It's a shame, as Sri Lanka is an extremely beautiful country. And the Tigers are the only example of Hindu terrorists that I am aware of, as most Hindus (along with Buddhists) are a very peaceful people.

FRegards,
BullDog

[CarrotAndStick]

The Subcontinent is a strange place, and even stranger at its fringes. You have Christian groups committing atrocities rivaling the Islamists, sometimes, in India's far North-East, although lately, the violence is down after an Indian federal troop surge coupled with an on-going dialogue process.

The semblances of normalcy that has been forced there has lead to a rise in tourism over the years.

[BullDog108]

The Subcontinent is a strange place, and even stranger at its fringes.

Tell me about it, ;^)

I'm on my way to Kolkata in the morning . . .

[Nathan Zachary]

Exactly what I was saying. It's a Tamelese issue. Members of this "organization" can be Muslim, Hindu, Sikh, even Christian, although there aren't many Christians around there.
Because the movement spans so many religious boundaries, it does adopt a nonreligious creed. I wouldn't say "atheist" however. That, whether you agree or not, is a religion in itself, and members of the Tamil Tigers do not abandon their individual religious beliefs.

[Nathan Zachary]

I spent some time there years ago.
I wouldn't say Christians commit attrocities at any level approcing what the Muslims do. Christians are usually the victims of both the Muzzies AND the Hindu's.
If you call self defence in rare cases "atrocities", well...

Some of the most beautiful places in India are where there are small Christian and Hindu villages that live very peaceful lives near the lush forests in the north east, but far enough away from Muslim infested Bangladesh where the Muslims don't exist at all. it's only where you have mosks that you have problems with muslims going crazy from time to time after pray day on friday nights.

[Cindy]

UPDATE:

http://www.colombopage.com/archive_07/February2765906CH.html


Sri Lanka::

"* Tiger mortar attack in Sri Lanka wounds US and Italian ambassadors"
Tuesday, February 27, 2007, 6:59 GMT, ColomboPage News Desk, Sri Lanka.
Feb 27, Colombo:


ARTICLE SNIPPET: "US Ambassador in Sri Lanka Robert Blake and Italian Ambassador Prio Mariani were injured when shells fired by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam struck the helicopter which also carried the Minister for Disaster Management and Human Rights Mahinda Samarasinghe and several other officials from Italian Embassy, UNDP and the Ministry of Disaster Management.

Blake had minor injuries and was whisked away to a safer location while Mariani suffered shrapnel wounds and is taken to a hospital in Colombo, a military spokesman said. Minister Samarasinghe escaped unhurt. The attack was directed at the helicopter as it touched the Batticaloa Air Force camp while one more Air Force helicopter was about to land at the same venue. Both helicopters were carrying the officials for a meeting. The attack also injured four Police Constables, three Special Task Force (STF) personnel, one airman, and a student, military spokesman said."

[CarrotAndStick]

Well, the NLFT ran a very violent campaign in the North East, driving out most of the Hindus there.

http://www.satp.org/satporgtp/countries/india/states/tripura/terrorist_outfits/nlft.htm

[Michael81Dus]

And now that we are at it, the German Ambassador was also wounded.

[Michael81Dus]

I may have to correct myself. Althoigh several sources still claim that the German was wounded, too (http://www.forbes.com/business/feeds/afx/2007/02/27/afx3465080.html), more recent informations state that he was not hurt at all.

[sukhoi-30mki]

The LTTE is a semi-socialist organisation based on the personality cult of Vellupillai Prabhakaran,their enigmatic leadership-you could call their setup a subcontinental version of North Korea.Their religion being predominantly Hindu is a coincidence as it's never exhibited.There are numerous Christians in the movement too-The late Anton Balasingham,their main negotiator is an example.

[sukhoi-30mki]

The T-Ts don't have appear to have too many Muslims-they hate & have attacked the Sri-Lankan Muslims(descended from Arab traders-living in the north ) for allying with the Sinhalese.