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‘Migrants’ scars back
Thai abuse claims’
IDI RAYEUK (Indonesia): Wounds
and welts on the bodies of nearly
200 Myanmar migrants plucked
from seas off Indonesia this week
support claims they were beaten
by the Thai military, health work-
ers said yesterday.
“The injuries we’ve seen on
them are consistent with their
claims that they had been abused
by the Thai military,” said Zulfikry
the head of the Idi State Hospital
in Aceh, where 68 of the migrants
are still being treated.
“There were several marks on
the skin which were likely the re-
sult of being hit with blunt objects
like sticks or rope. One of them
had scars from being whipped
with a rope on his body,” Zulfikry
said. A nurse at the hospital,
Herman, said separately: “Many
Girl, 4, dies in
freak accident
LOS ANGELES: A four-year-old
Californian girl who climbed into
a washing machine died after her
15-month-old brother turned it on
by accident, sheriff’s officials said
on Tuesday. Orange County sheriff’s
and coroner’s investigators said the
girl died from blunt force trauma af-
ter being thrown around inside the
front-loading machine for around
two minutes. Sheriff’s spokesman
EPAPIX
have scars from being caned at
the back, the wounds have dried
up and there are visible welts on
their skin.”
The 198 migrants from Myan-
mar’s Rohingya Muslim minor-
ity, who were rescued at sea off
Sumatra on Monday, have said
they were detained and beaten
before being set adrift with few
supplies by Thai soldiers after
washing up on the country’s
shores late last year.
The boat people are the lat-
est of hundreds of Rohingyas
of an estimated 1,000 who the
migrants have said were abused
by Thai soldiers. Rights groups
believe scores are still at sea,
feared dead. The scandal has
become a major embarrassment
to the Thai government. – AFP
Jim Amormino said the controls to
the machine were around 51cm off
the ground, close enough for the boy
to reach. – AFP
Kyrgyzstan moves to
close US airbase
BISHKEK: Kyrgyzstan began moves
yesterday to close a US military air
base in the former Soviet republic
which is vital for supplying US-led
troops fighting in Afghanistan. The
decision by a traditional Russian ally in
theSun | THURSDAY FEBRUARY 5 2009
250,000 civilians trapped
in S. Lanka combat zone
COLOMBO: Sri Lanka’s president Weiss said that at least 52 civilians international backers – the United
A refugee predicted yesterday the total defeat were killed in one shelling attack States, European Union, Japan
from of Tamil Tiger rebels within a few on Tuesday evening. and Norway – called on the rebels
Myanmar days, as the United Nations reported “We don’t know who is respon- to negotiate terms of surrender to
shows the 52 civilians had been killed in a sible or how many shells hit, but avoid a bloodbath.
wound on single shell attack. we have this report from our staff,” The quartet, known as “Co-
his back As many as 250,000 civilians he said. Chairs,” had backed Oslo-led peace
as others may be trapped in the combat zone, He added the region’s only hos- moves and in April 2003 co-hosted
receive
medical
treatment
according to UN agencies.
In a national day address, Presi-
dent Mahinda Rajapakse said the
pital was evacuated early yesterday
after 16 hours of shelling that in-
cluded a cluster bomb attack.
a donor conference that raised
US$4.5 billion (RM16.5 billion)
in support of efforts to end ethnic
in Idi Cut “shadows of terrorism have almost Foreign governments, including bloodletting in the South Asian
Hospital, been wiped out” with the last rem- the island’s key backers, said the nation.
West Aceh nants of the Liberation Tigers of bloodshed must end. “There remains probably only
yesterday. Tamil Eelam (LTTE) cornered in US Secretary of State Hillary a short period of time before the
the jungle. Clinton and her British counterpart LTTE loses control of all areas
“I am confident that the Tigers David Miliband called on Tuesday in the north,” they said in a state-
will be completely defeated in a for a “temporary no-fire period” to ment.
few days,” he said. evacuate casualties and allow relief “The LTTE and the government
A military offensive over the in. should recognise that further loss
past year has dismantled the “Both sides need to allow civil- of life of civilians and combatants
Tigers’ mini-state in northern Sri ians and wounded to leave the will serve no cause,” they added.
Lanka, where the rebels have lost conflict area and to grant access for There was no immediate reac-
98% of the territory once under humanitarian agencies,” they said tion from the Tigers and the quartet
their control. after meeting in Washington. said their efforts to persuade the
But amid continuing fierce The joint US-British statement LTTE to allow civilians to flee the
clashes, UN spokesman Gordon came after the quartet of Sri Lanka’s fighting had failed. – AFP
Vatican orders Holocaust row bishop to recant
ROME: Holocaust-denying bishop Richard Church, the Vatican said yesterday. political Tuesday when German Chancel-
Williamson must “unequivocally and pub- Marking a major U-turn for under-pres- lor Angela Merkel became the first world
licly” change his views before he can be sure Pope Benedict XVI, the Vatican state- leader to attack her compatriot’s handling
admitted to office in the Roman Catholic ment also said that Williamson’s remarks of the row.
were “not known” to the German pontiff Merkel said that the pope’s move could
“at the moment of lifting the excommunica- not be allowed to pass “without conse-
Central Asia sends a tough signal and
challenge to new US President Barack
tion” of the Englishman and three other quences” and called on the Vatican to “clarify
renegade bishops last month. unambiguously that there can be no denial”
Obama as he plans to send additional Williamson is on record as denying that that the Nazis killed six million Jews.
troops to Afghanistan. The base is an the Nazis used gas chambers to eliminate Merkel’s comments prompted the Vati-
important staging post for the US-led millions of Jews during World War II, saying can to deny any ambiguity in the pope’s
military campaign against the Taliban only 200,000-300,000 Jews were killed in stance, Vatican spokesman Federico Lom-
and its role has been heightened as concentration camps. bardi saying the pope’s condemnation of
Washington seeks to reinforce supply His remarks were made in an interview the bishop “could not have been clearer”.
routes that bypass Pakistan, where broadcast on Swedish television on Jan Lombardi said that “the pope’s thoughts
supply convoys face security risks. 22, the day after a papal decree lifted his on the subject of the Holocaust were ex-
Kyrgyz President Kurmanbek Bakiyev excommunication but two days before the pressed with great clarity in the Cologne
announced the base would be shut pope’s decision was made public. synagogue,” in August 2005, and “in the
after securing Russian financial aid at Growing pressure from Jewish and Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp
talks on Tuesday in Moscow. – Reuters Catholic organisations turned overtly on May, 28, 2006”. – AFP