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Sri Lanka: Anuradhapura, Terrorism and Hillary Clinton

lingua → bn · es

On October 22, an air force base at Anuradhapura, Sri Lanka was attacked by a Tamil Tiger suicide squad. [News: BBC]. According to BBC, Tamil Tigers claimed to have destroyed eight aircraft including spy places while losing 21 of their fighters. According to the Sri Lankan Government just two helicopters and a training plane were damaged along with nine military personnel and four airmen. While there was conflicting information about the damage and loss suffered on both the sides, this did not cause any furor in Tamil blogosphere. What caused intense anger was the way the Sri Lankan Government treated the bodies of the dead Tamil Tigers. The bodies were stripped and were taken around Anuradhapura in an open cart.

According to Varavanaiyan, nakedness of the dead Tamil Tigers were more beautiful than the fully dressed observers surrounding them (as seen in the photos). Varavanaiyan also remembers a similar incident in 1995 where dead female Tamil Tigers' bodies were stripped and displayed in a similar fashion by the Sri Lankan Military.

Urupadathathu Narain titles his post ‘Abu Ghraib VS Anuradhapura'. In the discussions following the post bloggers compared American media and Indian (in particular Tamil Nadu) media. While the American media exposed the happenings in Abu Ghraib, the Tamil Nadu media, The Hindu in particular sided with the Sri Lankan Government on the Anuradhapura incident.

Osai Chella displays the photos of dead Tamil Tigers - both fully dressed and stripped down. He sarcastically demands if the editor of ‘The Hindu' Mr. Ram who was felicitated by the former regime with the title ‘Lanka Ratna' would write an editorial.

Julian compares two reports from India and wonders which one could have been the correct one. First report was from B.Raman of South Asia Analysis Group [link: Wikipedia]. Second from The Hindu. Julian has provided few sentences from both the reports with links.

Tamil Sasi also links to B.Raman's report and talks a bit about the past transgressions by the Sri Lankan Goverment. He compares the Anuradhapura incident with respect shown to the dead Sri Lankan military personnels' bodies by Tamil Tigers in the past.

While all this is going on, half way around the globe Hillary Clinton says ‘You can't lump all terrorists together' in an interview given to ‘The Guardian'. To a question whether terrorists have specific geopolitical objectives, she mentions Tamil Tigers of Sri Lanka along with the Basque separatists of Spain and the insurgents in al-Anbar province.

Tamil Sasi and Vetri Kandaswamy respectively translate the specific bit from the interview.

Side Note: Nakkiran an Indian blogging from California, USA was temporarily displaced due to the ongoing wildfire. According to him, his move from his rented apartment was only temporary. Amidst wondering if the building would be intact when he returns and whether his beloved possessions would be safe, he thought about the plight of Sri Lankan Tamils. He thought about them trying to save themselves and the lives of their beloved. About them leaving everything behind. And was able to connect with them for a few minutes.

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Syrian blogger Roukana Hamour has been Kidnapped

Sami Ben Gharbia · 14:14, October 26th, 2007 · Middle East & North Africa

lingua → pt · fr · ar · mg · es · de

Update: Last night (October 26), we've received a call from Rokana Hamour. She is fine. She has been interrogated by the Syrian Security Services about a comment left on her blog. Rokana was released three hours later.

We've received an email that appeared to come from someone who witnessed the kidnapping of the Syrian blogger Roukana Hamour, that took place yesterday, 25 October 2007. Roukana is believed to be kidnapped in front of her home, in Damascus, by six persons who brought her to an undisclosed location. Kidnapping of blogger Roukana Hamour is confirmed by the Organization for peace and liberty (OPL). This is the letter translated by my friend and colleague, the Syrian blogger, Golaniya:

خطفت اليوم ركانة حمور من أمام منزلها

لدى عودة ركانة حمور مع اطفالها ( خمس سنوات و سبعة سنوات و تسعة سنوات ) و لدى توقفها بسيارتها امام باب البناية و انزال اطفالها هجم عليها حوال ستة رجال قاموا بدفع أولادها عنها بوحشية و قاموا باغتصاب حريتها بقوة و دفعوها بعنف الى داخل سيارة مدنية ذات نمرة طرطوس و منعوا احدا من الاقتراب منها و انطلقت السيارة بسرعة دون التعريف عن مكان التوجه او مصدر الاشخاص و يذكر انها قد تلقت منذ يومين تقريبا تهديدا من قبل الامن السياسي الفرع الداخلي بدمشق انهم يريدون التحقيق معها و لما رفضت الذهاب الى التحقيق دون ان تتسلم بطاقة استدعاء قانونية و نظامية قاموا اليوم باختطافها باسلوب العصابات

Syria: Roukana Hamour has been Kidnapped!

As Rukana Hammour was parking the car in front of her place and helping her children (5 years, seven years and 9 years old) to step out, six men came out of nowhere and attacked her, violently pushed her children away from their mother, and aggressively pushed her into a car whose number tells it's a Tartossi car. The men prevented someone from approaching Hammour and rapidly ran away not knowing who they were or where they were taking her.

و معلوم ان ركانة حمور تتعرض للتهديد بسبب مطالبتها بحقوقها المالية التي سلبت بيد اشقائها و بالتعاون مع ضباط كبار و مسؤزلين حيث ان ثروة والدها المرحوم محمد مطيع حمور وكيل الخطوط الجوية السعودية تبلغ المليارات تبخرت كلها من المصارف السورية بواسطة التزوير

It is worth noting that Hammour received a call couple days ago from the Political Security Interior Branch in Damascus demanding her presence for interrogations. When she refused to go due to the lack of legal and systematic motion, they came today and kidnapped her like gangs do.

و يشار الى انها قد سبق و ان تلقت تلميحا بان يتم التحرش بها جنسيا و لربما الاعتداء عليها في سبيل ان يحصل المجرمون على توقيعها للتنازل عن حقوقها و عدم المطالبة بحقوقها خاصة و أنها قد ارسلت عدة مرات رسائل توضح فيها ما جرى و يجري من سرقات و اختلاسات تطال وكالة الخطوط الجوية السعودية الى سمو خادم الحرمين الشريفين الملك عبد الله بن عبد العزيز و كان اللصوص يخشون ان تصل هذه الملفات الى سمو الملك عبد الله بن عبد العزيز لانه لن يكون بامكانهم تخليص انفسهم بواسطة الرشوة كما يفعلون في سوريا حيث بامكانهم ان يشتروا اي فرع امني ليضغط على ركانة حمور للتنازل

و لا يزال مصيرها حتى الساعة مجهولا

من المعروف ان ركانة حمور من ابرز المدونين السوريين و الاحرار الذين يرفعون راسهم مصرين على كرامتهم و حقهم

دمشق في 25 / تشرين الثاني 2007

It is not a secret that Hammour is being threatened for demanding her financial rights which was stolen from her by her brothers in cooperation with high ranking Syrian officers and officials. Her late father, Mohammad Moti' Hamour, who was the deputy of Saudi Air Lines, had his fortune which reached milliards evaporate from Syrian banks by forgery.

Hammour had been threatened to be sexually assaulted or even to be raped if she doesn’t sign papers tells she will give up her rights especially that Hammour has sent letters to the Saudi King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz presenting the cases of robbery and thievery that reached the Saudi Air Lines. The thieves fear that these letters would arrive at King Abdullah’s desk, for they won’t manage to flee by bribery as they can buy the whole security branch in Syria to push Hammour to give up her rights.
It is well known that Rukana Hammour is one of the leading Syrian bloggers whose belief can only make her consistent on both of her human rights and dignity.

Damascus, 25 October, 2007.

Roukana Hamour has been kidnapped previously for blogging her experiences with the Syrian legal system, exposing administrative, banking and juristic corruption. On October 15, 2006, Roukana was taken from her home and dragged into the street after being threatened at gunpoint in front of her young children by members of the country’s Criminal Security forces.

A recent report from Human Rights Watch reveals that two persons are being held in incommunicado detention at an undisclosed location in Syria. Karim ‘Arbaji (29) and Tarek Biasi (22) were arrested in June 2007 by Syrian Military Intelligence for expressing online views critical of the Syrian government. A third person, Ali Zein al-’Abideen Mej’an, arrested for posting online comments attacking Saudi Arabia, was sentenced by the Supreme State Security Court to two years in prison.

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China: Official excess met with humor, scorn, death threats

John Kennedy · 08:20 · East Asia

lingua → pt · es

Bloggers for some reason kept mostly or dead quiet about the 17th Party Congress while it was being held during the third week of this month, and now that it's over, blog posts on the subject are being deleted even before they get published [zh].

A chance for bloggers to get a few words in popped up at ten a.m. on October 25 at the military.club.china.com forum in a thread showing the photos someone had taken when the Pizhou, Jiangsu Party secretary returned from Beijing, amassing over 800 comments by 3:30 in the afternoon, reactions to the red-carpet reception Party Congress delegate Li Lianyu received. By the evening, the thread had met the same fate as that of the other few related discussion spaces from the past few days.

Xiao Qiang at China Digital Times has posted on this here.

The introduction given to the photos at military.club:

太牛的场面让我呕吐了好久

It was too much to watch something like this, kept me vomiting for a long time

And a screenshot taken of the ratio of support votes (smaller section) given to the thread to the oppose votes (vast majority) and the bbs handles and IP addresses which cast them:

Selected comments:

* 作者:fucunfang 发表于:2007-10-25 10:33:29
21世纪的中国竟如此落后，这些欢迎群众的自主人格在哪里？！

21st century China could actually be this backwards; don't these crowds of welcomers have any independent personality at all?

* 作者:名字都被占了发表于:2007-10-25 10:33:33
你看这领导都是红光满面的呀。这日子过的。啧啧啧。。

Look how glowing red and full-faced this leader is. Good days. Hehehe..

* 作者:garyq 发表于:2007-10-25 10:34:05
嗨，终于知道当官有多好，我想当官！！！！！！！！！

Hey, finally I see how good it is to be a civil servant, I want to be one too!!!!!!!!!

* 作者:都是真的发表于:2007-10-25 10:36:57
一看就知道这SB是个作威作福的“土皇帝”，绝对不会亲民！！

One look and you can see this SOB is a “mud emperor” who rules roughly over his people; you won't see him kissing anyone!!

* 作者:木棉一号发表于:2007-10-25 10:37:15
我敢断言,这娃完了!!!

If I even dare leave a message, my whole clan will be goners!!!

* 作者:狼和小羊发表于:2007-10-25 10:37:36
顶上去！让更多的人看看！成何体统！

Nice! Let more people see this! How wrong it is!

* 作者:老希发表于:2007-10-25 10:38:15
能跟焦书记比吗?这些欢迎的人是怎么了?

Does he compare at all to [past] Secretary Jiao? And what's with all these welcomers?

* 作者:天马行发表于:2007-10-25 10:39:04
无语!

Speechless!

* 作者:*厅局级的享受* 发表于:2007-10-25 10:42:30
胡总看看吧！我们的公仆、我们的人民就是这样？！丢人！！！！！！！！！！！！！！！！

President Hu, are you seeing this? Is this how our civil servants, our people, really are? So embarrassing!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

* 作者:剑涵发表于:2007-10-25 10:44:00
这些人肯定是下级组织的,可见巴结拍马在那个地方已经相当流行!!
这些人肯定是下级组织的,可见巴结拍马在那个地方已经相当流行!!
还拿五星红旗!还有军队~~~~~~~~~靠!
一定要温总理看看~这个大书记!!

These people must be of lower rank in the Party organization, you can see how popular ass-kissing is in that place!!
These people must be of lower rank in the Party organization, you can see how popular ass-kissing is in that place!!
They even brought the five-star red flag! And there are soldiers there~~~~~~~~damn!
Premier Wen must see this, this great Party secretary!!

* 作者:dadada001 发表于:2007-10-25 10:45:21
浪费国家资源,该杀!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Wasting the nation's resources, […] deserves to be killed!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

* 作者:狼和小羊发表于:2007-10-25 10:46:45
再顶！顶到中央纪委去！查查这位“亲民”的书记是如何赢得老百姓的“爱戴”的！这次欢迎仪式用去多少纳税人的钱！那些政府机关的公务员、那么多单位的员工不上班引起的间接损失有多少！

Props to this! Prop it right to the Central Disciplinary committee! Find out just how this ‘love the people' secretary won the people's “love”! Find out how much of taxpayers' money this welcoming ceremony used up. Those government officials, so many office staff…how much was lost during the time they weren't at work!

* 作者:凌村发表于:2007-10-25 10:54:22
党旗拿去签名。。。。。。是不是违反了党章呀

Using the Party flag to gather signatures…….isn't that in violation of the Party constitution?

* 作者:kt520 发表于:2007-10-25 10:54:39
这样下去，我们的国家要完了！

If things keep going like this, our country is going to be done in for!

* 作者:要有志气发表于:2007-10-25 11:00:54
我决定每天都要回复一下，版主可千万别删，哪怕是胖子书记给你一百万也别删，一直回复到胡总一想到就恶心的那一天。

I've decided that I'm going to leave one reply here every day. Webmaster, please don't ever delete this, even if Fatty Secretary himself gives you a million yuan, don't ever delete this. I'm going to keep replying until the day President Hu feels disgusted by this.

It seems the Military.Club readers are generally full of anger and grief over this; from towards the end:

* 作者:闲云2004 发表于:2007-10-25 15:31:26
这就是一党制的弊端.缺失了监督和约束的权力是洪水,是猛兽.是中华民族的悲哀.

This is just the abuse that comes with a one-party system. Authority lacking oversight and restrictions is a flood, a beast, it's the sorry of the Chinese people.

* 作者:无聊的一代发表于:2007-10-25 15:32:02
明天我就撤了他!

Tomorrow I'm just going to take him out!

There's also a Baidu space set up as a sort of fanzine for Secretary Li, by someone claiming in large font themselves to be an interested rural youth motivated by what he sees as laziness among his peers. In what seems was sincere admiration for Secretary Li, on October 24 s/he posted the photos, which gathered its own set of comments, of a markedly different tone, and which were all removed sometime on the evening of the 25th.

The ‘Li Lianyu—model cadre of a new era' blog, October 25

The ‘Li Lianyu—model cadre of a new era' blog, October 26

And the photo post itself:

Comments (#s 1-70 and 72-99 of which seemed to have already been missing):

71
lilianyu0516
2007-10-25 15:51
友情提醒：欢迎各位朋友来到本博客空间，同时欢迎各位对邳州的发展提出好的意见和建议。但同时警告一部分人，不要在这里进行无礼的谩骂。如果不听劝阻，继续在这里肆意妄为，对我们的领导和邳州人民进行言语攻击，那么你将受到法律的严厉制裁。

Friendly reminder: Welcome all friends who visit this blog, at the same time welcome everyone to put forth suggestions and recommendations for the development of Pizhou. But at the same, warn some people not to issue impolite invective here. If the advice goes unheeded, and wanton disregard continues, of attacks against our leaders and the people of Pizhou, then you will be subject to severe legal sanctions.

100
匿名网友
2007-10-25 21:04
坚定不移地团结在以李书记为首的领导周围，坚定不移地走中国特色社会主义道路，以邓小平理论和“三个代表”重要思想为指导，贯彻落实科学发展观，谱写邳州人民美好生活的新篇章！！！

Unshakably group under Secretary Li's leadership, unshakably follow the path of socialism with Chinese characteristics, fully implement ‘scientific outlook on development‘ through the guidance of key ideas Deng Xiaoping Theory and Three Represents, and write a new chapter in the beautiful lives of the people of Pizhou!!!

102
网友:一位普通的上海市民
2007-10-25 21:34
李书记，人民的好书记，我太感动了！上海的习书记上调中央，我代表1800万上海市民欢迎李书记来上海当书记！

Secretary Li, the people's good secretary, I'm so moved! Shanghai's Xi Jinping has been transferred to the Central Government, so I represent the 18 million residents of Shanghai in welcoming Secretary Li to come be Shanghai's Party Secretary!

103
网友:复旦学子
2007-10-25 21:39
欢迎李书记来复旦做演讲，复旦学子向勤劳勇敢的邳州人民致敬！向敬爱的李书记致敬！

Welcome Secretary Li to come to Fudan University to give a speech. A Fudan student praises the diligent and brave people of Pizhou! Praise to the beloved Secretary Li!

104
网友:一位普通的北京市民
2007-10-25 22:11
李书记，人民的好书记，我太感动了！我代表1800万上海市民欢迎李书记来北京当书记！

Secretary Li, The People's Good Secretary, I'm so moved! I represent the 18 million residents of Shanghai in welcoming Secretary Li to come be Beijing's Party Secretary!

105
网友:坐山雕
2007-10-25 22:14
李书记，怎么看着你就像金正日呢？人民的好书记啊好书记！！！

Secretary Li, why is it that I think you look like Kim Jong-il? The People's Good Secretary aaahh Good Secretary!!!

106
网友:一个普通深圳市民
2007-10-25 22:15
李书记，人民的好书记，我太感动了！我代表深圳市民欢迎李书记来深圳当书记！

Secretary Li, The People's Good Secretary, I'm so moved! I represent the residents of Shenzhen in welcoming Secretary Li to come be Shenzhen's Party Secretary!

107
网友:A
2007-10-25 22:16
如果不听劝阻，继续在这里肆意妄为，对我们的领导和邳州人民进行言语攻击，那么你将受到法律的严厉制裁。
____李书记能告诉我您将用什么法律严厉制裁吗？

“If the advice goes unheeded, and wanton disregard continues, of attacks against our leaders and the people of Pizhou, then you will be subject to severe legal sanctions.”
——Could Secretary Li please tell me what severe legal sanctions you are prepare to employ?

109
网友:你们
2007-10-25 22:23
我代表全世界人民欢迎李书记！

I represent all the people in the world in welcoming Secretary Li!

110
网友:中央领导
2007-10-25 22:43
中央热烈欢迎李书记来当中共中央总书记

The Central Government warmly welcomes Secretary to come be General Secretary of the Central Government of the Communist Party of China

pamiang
2007-10-25 22:51
我代表北京人民热烈欢迎李书记到上海做市委书记

I represent the residents of Beijing in warmly welcoming Secretary Li to go be Party Secretary in Shanghai!

115
网友:中国人民
2007-10-25 23:00
这么大的活动，经费是哪里来的?是谁组织的？那么多人停工，这些都需要向人民交代清楚。我们的公务员，纳税人养着你们，给你们的钱不是给你们来干这个的。

This activity, where did its funding come from? Who organized it? So many people off work, they need to justify themselves clearly to The People. Our civil servants, it's the taxpayers who support you; the money we give you isn't for you to be doing stuff like this.

116
网友:sara
2007-10-25 23:11
哈哈

Haha

117
网友:这是谁啊？
2007-10-25 23:13
书记，你是谁啊？
这待遇和小平同志、江主席、胡主席差不多吧？
胡主席去你们县也不会这样吧？
如有疑问请亲自问主席！

Secretary, who are you?!
This is about the same treatment that Comrade Xiaoping, Chairmans Jiang and Hu receive, right?
If Chairman Hu goes to your town, he'd get the same treatment, right?
If you have doubts you can ask the Chairman yourself!

119
匿名网友
2007-10-25 23:25
全心全意为人民的好书记，赫赫

不过乱删帖子就不好了

A good secretary, for the people with all his heart and all his mind. Hehe.
But really, randomly deleting comments is not good.

121
匿名网友
2007-10-26 00:06
李书记在邳州这么小的一块地方都有这架势
到了中央那还不直接压倒江书记？
他不是一个人的书记！他不是一个县的书记！他不是一个省的书记！
他是一个国家的书记！他是全世界人民的书记！他是银河系的书记！
支持李书记竞选宇宙书记！

If Secretary Li has such muster in such a small place as this
If he went to the Central Government, wouldn't he just push Secretary Jiang Zemin straight out?
He's not a People's Secretary! He's not a township Secretary! He's not a Provincial Secretary!
He's a National Secretary! He's Secretary for all people of the world! He's Secretary of the Milky Way!
I support Secretary Li in running for Secretary of the Universe!