Salvaging operation of Lionair flight wreck yet to begin

1 November: Due to choppy sea and cyclonic condition prevailing in the country, Sri Lanka Navy has decided to postpone the commencement of salvaging operation of the underwater wreckage of Lionair flight, that was found near the Iranativu island, north of Mannar.

Earlier, Navy Spokesman Comm. Kosala Warnakulasuriya said that the Terrorist Investigation Division (TID) officials investigating the plane crash, have requested Sri Lanka Navy to salvage the underwater wreckage of the Lionair flight and it has been agreed to begin the salvage operation yesterday – 31 October.

Comm. Kosala Warnakulasuriya speaking to Asian Tribune said that the salvage operation has been postponed for ‘another day’ . He said at present the sea is very rough and diving operation cannot be done if the sea condition remains the same.

Asked when the Sri Lanka Navy will commence the salvage operation, Comm. Kosala Warnakulasuriya said that it all depends now again on the weather and also on an appropriate date for the Terrorist Investigation Division who has to be present when the operation commence along with Magistrate of Mannar.

The Lionair 602 which took off with 48 passengers, six crew members and two Ukranian pilots, from the Palali airport to Ratmalana, on September 29, 1998, went missing from the radar screen after 10 minutes.

Until April this year, when the TID officers apprehended a LTTE suspect who confessed to shooting down the airplane with a shoulder held missile, the disappearance of the plane remained a mystery.

Sivasubramaniam Thillaraj of the LTTE, confessed that an LTTE leader had ordered the shooting down, even though they were aware that it was carrying Tamil civilian passengers to Colombo.

The suspect in custody had identified the person who ordered the aircraft shooting down as one Gadafi, a close associate of LTTE leader Velupillai Prabhakaran. Gadafi was killed during the final phase of fighting on the Vanni east front in early 2009.

But according to a report from the University Teachers’ for Human Rights, it was a boy of 17 years who shot down the plane!” The people of the area have identified him as ‘Arul’ who is in charge of the Sea Tiger base at Nachchikudah, as having executed the order to bring down the aircraft.

In the meantime, according University Teachers’ for Human Rights Information Bulletin No. 19 of 16th October 1998, “Jaffna daily 'Uthayan' quoting officials in the Mannar Kachcheri said that fishermen from Pesalai who were in the area had reported seeing an aircraft fall into the sea near of Iranativu, which is 15 miles north of Mannar Island.

It further said that at the request of the parents of two passengers from Vankalai, their parish priest Fr.Thevasahayampillai, was going to the LTTE controlled area to find out what had happened. The two passengers were young women, one of whom was studying in the University of Jaffna.

The following day (Friday 2nd October) the result of Fr.Thevasahayampillai’s visit appeared in the Uthayan, and he was interviewed over BBC(Tamil Service) late in the evening. He had talked to fisherfolk and a government official. Two of them had seen the aircraft on fire, nose-diving into the sea near Iranativu, and had at first run, thinking it was a bomber.

In all six bodies had been recovered in a state of decay around Valappadu north-east of Iranativu, and had been buried. They also handed over to the priest the identity card of Coomarasamy Ragunathan, a passenger resident in Negombo.

Further reports said that one body was washed ashore in Jaffna and another 20 or so near Kalmunai Point, a promontory along the coast just before Jaffna lagoon and the peninsula. It was further said that all the bodies reaching the mainland shore were buried with the knowledge of the LTTE.

The Ukranian crew of the shot down Lionair consisted of Lysaivanov Siarhei (co-pilot), Kozlov Sergei (navigator) and Anapryienka Siarhei (flight engineer). The two Lion Air cabin crew were Dharshini Gunasekera (chief stewardess) and Chrishan Nelson (steward) and Vijitha (labourer).

Thursday 1 November 2012 http://www.asiantribune.com/news/2012/11/01/salvaging-operation-lionair-flight-wreck-yet-begin

In Mexico, the Day of the Dead brings memories of the thousands of missing

Maria Elena Salazar refuses to set out plates of her missing son's favorite foods or orange flowers as offerings for the deceased on Mexico's Day of the Dead, even though she hasn't seen him in three-and-a-half years.

The 50-year-old former teacher is convinced that Hugo Gonzalez Salazar, a university graduate in marketing who worked for a telephone company, is still alive and being forced to work for a drug cartel because of his skills.

"The government, the authorities, they know it, that the gangs took them away to use as forced labor," said Salazar of her then 24-year-old son, who disappeared in the northern city of Torreon in July 2009.

The Day of the Dead — when Mexicans traditionally visit the graves of dead relatives and leave offerings of flowers, food and candy skulls — is a difficult time for the families of the thousands of Mexicans who have disappeared amid a wave of drug-fueled violence.

With what activists call a mix of denial, hope and desperation, they refuse to dedicate altars on the Nov. 1-2 holiday to people often missing for years. They won't accept any but the most certain proof of death, and sometimes reject even that.

Numbers vary on just how many people have disappeared in recent years. Mexico's National Human Rights Commission says 24,000 people have been reported missing between 2000 and mid-2012, and that nearly 16,000 bodies remain unidentified.

But one thing is clear: just as there are households without Day of the Dead altars, there are thousands of graves of the unidentified dead scattered across the country, with no one to remember them.

An investigation conducted by the newspaper Milenio this week, involving hundreds of information requests to state and municipal governments, indicates that 24,102 unidentified bodies were buried in paupers' or common graves in Mexican cemeteries since 2006. The number is almost certainly incomplete, since some local governments refused to provide figures, Milenio reported.

And while the number of unidentified dead probably includes some indigents, Central American migrants or dead unrelated to the drug war, it is clear that cities worst hit by the drug conflict also usually showed a corresponding bulge in the number of unidentified cadavers. For example, Mexico City, which has been relatively unscathed by drug violence, listed about one-third as many unidentified burials as the city of Veracruz, despite the fact that Mexico City's population is about 15 times larger.

Consuelo Morales , who works with dozens of families of disappeared in the northern city of Monterrey, said that "holidays like this, that are family affairs and are very close to our culture, stir a lot of things up" for the families. But many refuse to accept the deaths of their loved ones, sometimes even after DNA testing confirms a match with a cadaver.

"They'll say to you, 'I'm not going to put up an altar, because they're not dead," Martinez noted. "Their thinking is that 'until they prove to me that my child is dead, he is alive."

Martinez says one family she works with at the Citizens in Support of Human Rights center had refused to accept their son was dead, even after three rounds of DNA testing and the exhumation of the remains.

"It was their son, he was very young, and he had been burned alive," Martinez said by way of explanation.

The refusal to accept what appears inevitable may be a matter of desperation. Martinez said some families in Monterrey also believe their missing relatives are being held as virtual slaves for the cartels, even though federal prosecutors say they have never uncovered any kind of drug cartel forced-labor camp, in the six years since Mexico launched an offensive against the cartels.

But many people like Salazar believe it must be true. "Organized crime is a business, but it can't advertise for employees openly, so it has to take them by force," Salazar said.

While she refuses to erect an altar-like offering for her son, she does perform other rituals that mirror the Day of the Dead customs, like the one that involves scattering a trail of flower petals to the doorsteps of houses to guide spirits of the departed back home once a year.

Salazar and her family still live in the same home in Torreon, though they'd like to move, in the hopes that Hugo will return there. They pray three times a day for God to guide him home.

"We live in the same place, and we try to do the same things we used to," said Salazar, "because he is going to come back to his place, his home, and we have to be waiting for him."

Mistrust of officials has risen to such a point that some families may never get an answer they'll accept.

The problem is that, with forensics procedures often sadly lacking in Mexican police forces, the dead my never be connected with the living, which is the whole point of the Mexican traditions.

"As long as the authorities don't prove the opposite, for us they're still alive," Salazar said. "Let them prove it, but let us have some certainty, not just the authorities saying 'here he is.' We don't the government to just give us bodies that aren't theirs, and that has happened."

Thursday 1 november 2012

Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/world/2012/10/31/in-mexico-day-dead-brings-memories-thousands-missing/#ixzz2AyvdLXNQ

Rwanda: Heavy Rains Kill Kigali Family

At least 15 people including a family of four were killed and property destroyed in Tuesday's heavy rains in different parts of the country, local authorities said.

Gikondo residents marvel at the house where four family members died.

In Gikondo, a suburb of Kigali City, a family of four perished after a neighbour's wall fence caved in and buried their small house.

The deceased were identified as Irene Mukeshimana 31, her children, Yves Ndayisenga 9, Yvonne Isingizwe 5, and Better Emelyse 1and half years.

Neighbours say they discovered the death at around 8.00 pm after the heavy rain which lasted over three hours.

According to Nathan Kanyesigye, the Executive Secretary of Gikondo sector the water meandered from Rebero hill and in other areas and destroyed the mad and wattle fence.

"It is evident the main cause was poor infrastructure. The fence was weak and the deceased's house was built close to it. The house failed to withstand the impact of the wall and the force of the water," Kanyesigye said.

Mourners accused Ezekiel Kalisa, the owner of the house whose fence came down, of ignoring advice against digging a pit near the destroyed house which had weakened his fence.

The bodies of the deceased were taken to Kanombe Military Hospital for post-mortem pending burial today at Gatenga cemetery.

Meanwhile, in Rusizi district, the heavy downpour claimed four lives and destroyed property worth of millions, local authorities have said.

Six others were by press time reportedly missing as efforts to find them were underway, according to the District Mayor Oscar Nzeyimana.

Three other residents were admitted at a local hospital and health centres, with one of them in critical condition, the official said in a phone interview.

The identities of the victims were not readily available by press time.

According to local sources, many houses collapsed during the heavy rains characterised by strong winds and lasted for about four hours while others were swept away by flooding rivers.

Also destroyed were several gardens of crops.

Bugarama and Muganza sector were the most affected in the district.

By press time, the extent of the damages was still being assessed but information filtering from local authorities and residents indicates that about 400 houses were destroyed in Bugarama sector alone.

It is not yet clear how many people were left homeless but the mayor told this paper that local leaders are working to establish the affected residents and destroyed properties to mobilise help for them.

The Bugarama-Cimerwa road was also affected, with the Cyagara Bridge swept away.

“We have sent our sincere condolences to those who lost their relatives and friends and consoled those whose property was destroyed. We are working with our partners and the concerned ministries to organise the support for the affected,” he added. The heavy rains also destroyed ten classrooms at Groupe Scolaire Murira in Muganza sector.

Obed Nkundumukiza, an official from Groupe Scolaire Murira told this paper that the school has been closed indefinitely.

He said that when the rain started, some students were still at school.

“Some had already gone home as they had finished their examinations. And those who were still at school started leaving as the rains intensified,” he said.

The Permanent secretary in the ministry of Disaster Management Antoine Ruvebana told this paper that his ministry has sent a team of officials to Rusizi to assess the extent of the damage caused by these torrential rains.

“After the assessment, that’s when we should know the needs and organise support accordingly”, Ruvebana said.

He, however, added that the ministry has set up districts’ “First Responders Team’ which acts to provide first aid to victims of disasters across the country.

Last month, a heavy downpour destroyed at least 88 houses in Bugarama sector, leaving so many families homeless.

Elsewhere, seven people were reported killed following the heavy downpour in Rubavu district.

One person was left dead in Rugerero sector of Rubavu district, Western Province, after a house collapsed on an entire family. Three other members of the family sustained injuries.

The deaths were due to heavy flooding of local rivers.

Meanwhile, a Cabinet meeting yesterday expressed condolences to the breaved families and called for speedy relief services, including sensitisation on disaster preparedness.

Thursday 1 November 2012

http://allafrica.com/stories/201211010030.html

32 fatalities from Hurrican Sandy in New York city, and still counting

At his Wednesday afternoon briefing, Mayor Michael Bloomberg put the number of fatalities from Hurricane Sandy in New York City at roughly 30.

Nobody doubts that number will rise, including the mayor, who said, "We may find a few more bodies."

A Daily News report, updated at 1:00 this morning, put the number at 32.

The number is unlikely to remain there, not only because the situation is still dynamic, but also because because the totals in large-scale disasters like this one can be calculated in different ways.

"If an elderly person survives the event itself, but they're displaced, they lose track of their medication, their displacement is stressful, they may have a heart condition, respiratory condition, if they die in the process of being displaced, do you count that as a disaster victim?" asks John Mutter, the professor in the Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences at Columbia University who compiled a death list for Hurricane Katrina. "Well I think you do. And there's a question of whether official numbers actually count that or not. There's no rules."

Another example of a death that might not be counted?

"If you were trying to evaccuate in the path of the storm and you had an accident and died, are you a storm victim?" he continued. "Well, probably. You wouldn't be doing that otherwise."

I asked the mayor's spokesman how the city is counting fatalities but haven't received a response yet.

Even without including those arguably more tangential fatalities, Mutter, like the mayor, expects that the number of storm-related deaths will continue to rise before it crests and then, possibly, recedes.

"I think what you'll find is the count will go up in the next few days as they find people, as neighbors will say 'Gee what happened to Old Mary who lived down the street, we haven't seen her, is she all right?'" he said. "And progressively it will be discovered that there's more fatalities than you think.

The heartbreaking lead of that News report, for example:

Hurricane Sandy added seven bodies to its lethal legacy Wednesday, boosting the killer storm’s city death total to 32 as searchers scoured a Staten Island marsh for two toddlers swept from their helpless mother’s arms on a flooded street. Little Connor and Brandon Moore disappeared Monday in the floodwaters, leaving their terrified mom to swim for her life and pray for theirs. But two days later, there was still no sign of the pair despite an increasingly desperate hunt. More bodies were uncovered inside homes once the storm departed as the hurricane increased its body count long after the 90-mph winds and surging waters receded. An 87-year-old man, Hugo Senpo, was found face down in his flooded Coney Island living room -- and at least 10 other New Yorkers drowned inside their residences.

"There's dead and missing, and some of the missing are probably dead," Mutter said.

But some of them might also just be missing.

"What often happens in these big things is the numbers go up and up and up and up, and then they come back down, as some people who left town come back," he said. "You discover people in a shelter who you didn't know were there. It will peak at some number and then come back down."

Thursday 1 November 2012

http://www.capitalnewyork.com/article/politics/2012/11/6538894/32-fatalities-hurricane-sandy-new-york-city-and-still-counting

Fishermen search for bodies after Bangladesh sinking

Bangladeshi fishermen in the Bay of Bengal on Thursday searched for about 130 people missing after a boat sank while carrying Rohingya refugees heading for Malaysia.

The boat went down off the coast near Bangladesh’s border with Myanmar and about 13 passengers were reported to have survived, according to police and a Rohingya advocacy group.

Hundreds of thousands of Muslim Rohingya have fled Myanmar in past decades to escape persecution, and recent unrest has led to further exiles trying to reach Bangladesh and Malaysia.

“Thousands of boats go out to sea for fishing every day. We have asked them to watch out for bodies,” Lieutenant Badruddoza, a coastguard commander in Teknaf on the southeast tip of Bangladesh, told reporters.

“The desperate families of the missing passengers have also been searching for bodies,” he added.

Badruddoza, who only uses one name, said no sign of any wreckage or bodies had been found, and no coastguard rescue operation could be launched because the location of the sinking was not known.

One survivor being held by Bangladesh police told officers that the boat had 135 passengers on board and was heading south towards Malaysia.

Police said five other survivors had also been reported in Bangladesh, while The Arakan Project, a Bangkok-based Rohingya advocacy group, said seven survivors had reached Myanmar.

The UN refugee agency (UNHCR) expressed its dismay at the sinking and said people fleeing Myanmar and Bangladeshi migrant workers often paid smugglers for the chance of a better life in Southeast Asia.

“This is a tragedy,” said UNHCR co-ordinator James Lynch. “Unscrupulous smuggling networks are exploiting the desperation of people facing violence and poverty.”

The agency also appealed to Bangladesh and Malaysia to keep their borders open and accept refugees from the Rohingya minority trying to escape bloody communal violence in Myanmar.

At least 89 people have been killed and tens of thousands have fled their homes in a new wave of unrest sweeping Myanmar’s western Rakhine state, where violence between Rohingya and Buddhists in June left dozens dead.

Since the unrest erupted, Bangladesh has been turning away boatloads of fleeing Rohingya, saying it is already burdened with an estimated 300,000 of the minority group.

Accounts differed on the date of the sinking, with police saying the accident occurred on Sunday but The Arakan Project saying its sources reported it happened overnight Monday to Tuesday.

Myanmar’s 800,000 stateless Rohingya, described by the UN as among the world’s most persecuted minorities, are seen by the government as illegal immigrants from Bangladesh.

Human Rights Watch warned this week of a potential “dramatic increase in the number of Rohingya taking to the sea this year” in the wake of the conflict.

Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) Secretary-General Surin Pitsuwan said “the entire region could be destabilised” by the bloodshed in Myanmar.

The UNHCR in Malaysia has registered some 24,000 Rohingyas as refugees but community leaders estimate actual numbers in the country could be double that.

Malaysia largely turns a blind eye, allowing them into the country but denying them any sort of legal status that would allow access to health care, education, jobs and other services, activists say.

Thursday 1 November 2012

http://www.scmp.com/news/asia/article/1074354/fishermen-search-bodies-after-bangladesh-sinking

Dead bodies floating in sea near Maungdaw south

Maungdaw, Arakan State: Dead bodies were floating in the sea near Udaung Village of Maungdaw south on October 28, at about 4:00 pm, according to a villager from Udaung, who denied to be named.

“Villagers believe that the dead bodies are probably from boat people who fled from Kyaukpru tried to enter and to land at Maungdaw south for shelter.”

“But, the authorities are not giving them to land and kept on the boat around three to four days. The boat load Rohingyas backed to the sea for save as they were not getting any foods, water and medicine. Even, they are not allowed to meet anylocal Rohingyas from Maungdaw south by Nasaka.”

“Maybe, on the way, one of the boats was sunk for the cause of bad weather or was sunk by the concerned authority,” said a fishing man from Maungdaw south.

According to fishermen, they saw many dead bodies were floating in the sea. There are many wounded people on the boats. The dead bodies that were died in the boats were also thrown into the sea.

Villagers informed to the local Nasaka camp about the dead bodies and a group of Nasaka went to the spot and asked the villagers to push the dead bodies into deep sea, said a local elder from the village.

The boat will be one of those which was attacked by Burmese Navy while they fleeing from Kyaukpru and trying to enter to the Akyab coastline, according to sources.

“Seven boats were seized by Burmese Navy and kept in their camp and released only four after keeping four boats.”

Similarly, a boat which had 130 people who are trying to go Malaysia from Shebrang village of Teknaf union, Bangladesh ,on 28 night which sank in the mount of Naf River for entering water in the boats, according to fisher men from Sharpordip.

“All the boat people are missing in the sea.”

“The people are from Bangladesh who tried to go Malaysia which organized by trafficker. The trafficker and boat people are taking advantage from clashing between Rohingya and Rakhine in Arakan. They all will be saying Rohingya, but only a few are Rohingya there and other all Bangladeshi.”

"The boat was heading to Malaysia illegally and we have spoken to families of missing passengers," said Mohamed Farhad, police inspector of Teknaf.

“A 24-year-old survivor was being held in custody and he does not know what happened to the others as it was dark and he was desperate to save his own life."

Thursday 1 November 2012

http://www.kaladanpress.org/v3/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=3940:dead-bodies-floating-in-sea-near-maungdaw-south-&catid=155:october-2012&Itemid=2

Fuel truck crash in Riyadh sparks explosion that destroys building

At least 10 people have been killed after a fuel truck crashed into a flyover in the Saudi capital, Riyadh, triggering an explosion that caused the collapse of an industrial building, witness and television reports say.

Al-Arabiya and al-Jazeera television stations reported that at least a further 50 people were injured. They said 10 were dead and a witness at the scene told Reuters he had seen that many bodies.

The building, several storeys high, was almost levelled by the blast, with only one corner left standing. Several adjacent buildings were damaged and nearby vehicles, including a minibus on the flyover, were set on fire, witnesses said.

Television footage of the disaster and pictures posted on social media showed a body lying by burnt-out vehicles, and at least two charred bodies seated in a car.

A civil defence official at the scene, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said a petrol tanker had crashed into a concrete flyover. He and other officials were unable to give further details of the incident.

"I was inside the building when the blast came. Then boom, the building collapsed. Furniture, chairs and cabinets blasted into the room I was in," said Kushnoo Akhtara, a 55-year-old Pakistani worker, who was covered in dirt and bleeding from multiple cuts over his body.

"My brother is still inside under the rubble. There are lots of people in there."

More than 100 emergency personnel were combing the wreckage on the flyover and searching for victims in the rubble of the building, which housed Zahid Tractor, a distributor of heavy machinery.

There was no immediate suspicion of terrorist links based on witness accounts, which suggested the fuel tanker exploded after striking part of a highway underpass.

Officials said rescue crews had not finished the search and the death toll was still not final.

All the officials and witnesses spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk to the media.

Thursday 1 November 2012

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/nov/01/fuel-truck-riyadh-explosion-building