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UNICEF confirms tsunami child trafficking case
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Mega-tsunami for USA warned
US Congress team to visit Pakistan
US reward on Laden
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UNICEF confirms tsunami child trafficking case
Jakarta, January 7 Reports of children being taken away surfaced soon after the killer waves swamped 13 Indian Ocean nations, leaving more than a million people injured and homeless. But the UNICEF report is the first confirmed case. Birgithe Lund-Henriksen, chief of the child protection unit at UNICEF Indonesia, said it and the Indonesian police had confirmed a case of a four-year-old boy brought out of Banda Aceh, provincial capital of worst-hit Aceh province, by a couple claiming to be his parents. The local police was alerted after non-governmental organisations grew suspicious when the child was brought into a hospital in Medan, 450 km (280 miles) southeast of Banda Aceh, accompanied by the couple, she said. “NGOs grew suspicious when the couple were not consistent in their story,” she said. Lund-Henriksen said there were other reports of possible child trafficking cases. An NGO worker had about 100 seen infants being carried in a speed boat in the middle of the night in the Aceh province. “We’re absolutely concerned about trafficking. This is something that existed prior to the earthquake tsunami,” she said. “And with syndicates in place, it’s clear they will take advantage of the chaos thats going on now.” She said Medan had long been a departure point for smuggling children out of Indonesia for illegal adoption, forced labour, or work in the sex industry. Indonesian Social Welfare Minister Alwi Shihab said this week: “The government has decided that orphans should stay in Aceh to maintain their cultural heritage.” He said the process of counting orphans was under way. The UNICEF has set up a children’s centre in Aceh province and plans to set up 20 places to accommodate unaccompanied children and to prevent them from being taken away. Countries hit by the tsunami, including Indonesia and Sri Lanka, as well those outside the region such as the United States, have banned adoption of children orphaned by the disaster in a bid to prevent smugglers taking advantage of the system.
— Reuters |
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Annan visits Banda Aceh
Bainda Aceh, Indonesia, January 7 For many Muslims in this northern Indonesian province, the hardest hit by the tsunami with two-thirds of the 150,000 dead, the giant walls of water that crashed ashore were punishment. "This is a test from Allah so that people are aware that they're making a mistake. A handful of people did bad deeds and all of us suffer," said restaurant owner Muhammad Saman. A week ago the Grand Mosque Baiturrahman in Banda Aceh was full of dead bodies, a makeshift morgue, but later it became a refuge for the sick, injured and scared. When the imam calls people to pray, mosques across this city will swell with people desperately seeking answers to why this horror was inflicted on them and their families, how will they rebuild their shattered lives. "We are trying to recruit religious leaders to heal the psychological trauma," Indonesian Welfare Minister Alwi Shihab told Reuters. "The mental and physical trauma is immense." When Annan landed at Banda Aceh airport, its tarmac groaning with military planes disgorging emergency supplies, there was little sign of the horrific destruction, apart from refugees being loaded on military aircraft for flights to Medan.
— Reuters |
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Mega-tsunami for USA warned
Madrid, January 7 The report says an explosion of the Cumbre Vieja volcano on the island of La Palma could send a chunk of rock twice the size of the Isle of Wight into the Atlantic at up to 220 miles an hour. The dire prophecy by British and US academics predicts that a wall of water up to 55 yards high would crash into the Atlantic seaboard of the USA, flattening everything in its path.
— Prensa Latina |
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US Congress team to visit Pakistan
Washington, January 7 It is expected to meet President Pervez Musharraf, Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz, Speaker of the National Assembly and Chairman Senate among other legislators. They may also meet opposition leaders and discuss with them the dispute concerning President Musharraf's decision to retain his position in the army along with that of the head of state. The delegation includes Republican Congressmen John Paul Kline Jr. from Minnesota, John R. Carter and Michael Clifton Burgess from Texas and Democratic Congressmen James C. Marshall from Georgia and Kendrick Brett Meek from Florida. Congressman Kline is a member of the House Armed Services Committee and also serves on the House Education and Workforce Committee. Mr Carter serves on the House Education and the Workforce Committee and also on House Government Reform and House Judiciary Committees. Mr Burgess is a member of the House Science Committee and the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee. Mr Marshall serves on the House Agriculture Committee, the House Armed Services and the House Small Business Committees. Since three of the five members of the delegation are associated with the House Armed Services Committee, the talks are expected to focus on US defence ties with Pakistan. Observers hope that the inclusion of a member of the government reform committee in the delegation would allow Islamabad to explain its position on some issues like democracy, the role of the Pakistani military in the present setup and more power to elected representatives. |
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US reward on Laden
Islamabad, January 7 Bin Laden and his deputy Aiman al-Zawhri each carried a reward of USD 25 million while Taliban supremo Mullah Muhammad Omar had a USD 10 million price on his head, according to the half-page advertisement published in the Urdu daily “Jang”. “All information would be kept secret,” the advertisement issued by the US Justice Department said. The ad entitled “Rewards for the Arrest of the Most Wanted People” gives telephone numbers, one in Islamabad and the other in the US, as well as e-mail address of the Justice Department. — PTI |
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