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US orders third wave of attacks on Iraq
WASHINGTON, Dec 18 (Reuters) - The United States ordered a third wave of air attacks on Iraq on Friday as partial assessments of the first strikes indicated that 'substantial damage' had been inflicted, senior US officials said.
Against the surreal backdrop of impeachment proceedings beginning in the House of Representatives against President Bill Clinton, the military offensive against Iraqi President Saddam Hussein continued uninterrupted.
A administration official said a third wave of attacks would begin later in the day. 'There will be another wave of attacks today,' the official said.
The official declined to say how long Washington was prepared to continue the air campaign against Iraq, brushing aside speculation that the Moslem religious observance of Ramadan Ñ which begins this weekend Ñ would force an end to the effort.
Administration officials have indicated that Operation Desert Fox would take several days to complete because of the large number of targets.
Officials said U.S military and intelligence experts were still conducting an assessment of the damage from the attacks, which were made primarily with long-distance cruise missiles.
Hundreds of cruise missiles were launched in the first two waves of attacks, followed up by bombing raids by attack planes.
White House National Security Adviser Sandy Berger told reporters, 'we will continue to proceed (with the campaign) until we believe we have done what we can with the targets.'
Saturday Commentary
Mr. T vs UNPBy Prasad Gunewardene
Government and other political parties have expressed surprise at the silence maintained by the United National Party in face of serious allegations levelled at it by the Ceylon Workers Congress leader,UNP National List MP and Cabinet Minister Saumyamoorthy Thondaman. Minister Thondaman and his UNP MPs have taken to the streets accusing the UNP of being communal since independence depriving the Indian origin workers of their legitimate rights. Since the defeat of Mr.Thondaman's ministry votes in Parliament,the state controlled electronic media had regularly reserved time to give prominence to the allegations made by Mr. Thondaman and his men.In 1994, Mr. Thondaman in consultation with the late Gamini Dissanayake decided to field his CWC candidates through the UNP ticket for the General Election though he distanced himself from the then UNP leader President D. B. Wijetunga over the latter's statement about 'creepers' which hurt Mr.Thondaman. The CWC leader was also annoyed with Wijetunga's statement that the country had no ethnic problem except for a terrorist problem. Mr. Dissanayake persuaded President Wijetunga to nominate Mr.Thondaman on the UNP National List though the former president had reservations about Dissanayake's request.A few days ago Mr. Thondaman hailed incumbent President Chandrika Kumaratunga as the only leader in the history of this country who had given priority to the needs of the estate sector.
Mr. Thondaman is now very critical of the UNP which had made him a Member of Parliament on the National List. Though he is a minister of the government by virtue of the independence granted to him by the agreement between the late Gamini Dissanayake in 1994, Mr.Thondaman yet remains a member of the opposition United National Party. The CWC strongman stood with the UNP until the demise of Mr.Dissanayake but shrewdly used the provision in the agreement to cross over to the PA thereafter much to the embarrassment of Mr.Ranil Wickremesinghe who succeded Mr. Dissanayake.
Having taken over the reins of the UNP from Mr.Dissanayake,the incumbent UNP leader reorganised the party structure which included a separate media unit at its headquarters to counter allegations made by the government and other political parties. This media unit was described as a vibrant one when it was established. However, party sources now say that this unit is working in a lethargic manner giving more time and opportunity to the challenger to perform his task by delaying to counter allegations spontaneously. This lethargic attitude has been visible during the past few months and partymen say that the unit is more interested in replying to challenges and allegations made on economic matters rather than political.They say that as a political party priority should be given to reply political allegations as the party had governed the nation for a continuous period of seventeen years.
Mr. Thondaman during the seventeen year rule of the UNP cannot forget how he hailed the late Presidents J.R.Jayewardene and Ranasinghe Premadasa when he was a minister in those cabinets. Once Mr. Thondaman fell out with the late State Minister Dr.Anandatissa De Alwis at cabinet and it was reported then that the issue and the words exchanged between Mr. Thondaman and Dr. De Alwis embarassed the President who was in the chair. Dr. De Alwis angered over the conduct of Mr. Thondaman decided to quit but the President persuaded him to stay on. Mr. Thondaman welcomed the President's intervention of the matter and stated that he had full faith in President Jayewardene who was keen to resolve problems of the minorities. When there were calls for the abolition of the Executive Presidency, Mr. Thondaman was one who stood by that system and the present Constitution which guaranteed minority representation in Parliament.
The UNP library at its party headquarters has many speeches and newspaper reports made by Mr. Thondaman congratulating the UNP and its leadership for the measures taken for the welfare of the Indian origin estate workers.'Siri Kotha' sources say that the UNP Media Unit should make use of those statements to counter the serious allegations that are now being levelled by Mr.Thondaman against the UNP which he represents even now. The CWC leader a fortnight ago boasted that he was the man who decides on which political party should rule this country. Similarly during the CWC sponsored protest march in the hill country where even PA supporters were present, Mr. Thondaman threw another challenge saying that he knew the way to get the money for his ministry where the UNP defeated him in parliament.
Mr. Thondaman accused certain politicians including those in the UNP making moves to eliminate him from the political scene and stated that none could do so. The UNP as an opposition political party performed its duty in parliament by defeating his votes and the government failed to protect Mr. Thondaman and a particular vote under its own budget. Plantations Minister Ratnasiri Wickremenayake,the cabinet rival of Mr.Thondaman wasted no time to tell the media that if he had suffered such a defeat he would not hesitate to resign from the cabinet.Minister Wickremenayake was quicker than the UNP in making such a brave statement inspite of being in the same cabinet.
Russia recalls envoys, says end Iraq strikes
MOSCOW, Dec 18 (Reuters) - Russia recalled its ambassadors to Washington and London for consultations on Friday in protest at U.S. and British air strikes on Iraq and vowed to rethink its security strategy, including relations with NATO.
But the Kremlin, its hands tied by a deep economic crisis, said it would not sever relations with its Western partners and that it was vital to avoid all-out confrontation.
'Things must be called by their names. A military strike is a military strike. This is impermissible. They must be stopped,' Dmitry Yakushkin, President Boris Yeltsin's press secretary, told a news conference.
But he added: 'There can be no talk of a break in relations with Britain and the United States...We must not let things slide into confrontation.'
Russian politicians are for once united in opposition to the attacks and are furious that the United States bypassed the United Nations Security Council, giving Russia no chance to use its veto as one of the five permanent members.
But Moscow's ability to respond is limited. Its role on the world stage has declined since Soviet days and it is dependent on the International Monetary Fund (IMF), in which Washington is influential, for loans to help it through its economic crisis.
Damayanthi Darsha annexed the second gold yesterday at the Asian Games beating the Chinese favourite Le Xuemei in a record 22.48 seconds. On Wednesday Darsha won the 400m gold. She thus became the first Sri Lankan athlete to win two golds in an international meet.
Colombo University closed till Jan. 4
By Kalinga K. A. Weerakkody
University of Colombo was closed on Thursday (17) as a result of tension that prevailed following clashes between two rival students' organisations of the university.Several were admitted to the Colombo National Hospital with minor injuries following these clashes.
It all began after a clash between the two fractions at the 'freshers welcome party' two weeks ago and from that time there had been frequent clashes on and off.
On Thursday about 100 members of one of the students' organisation had come around with bicycle chains, sticks and bricks near the Students Council and had started to hurl bricks at the office of the rival union office and damaged the windows.
This had caused the students of the other union to hit back with missiles.
The Dean of the Arts Faculty and a number of lecturers intervened and brought the situation under control. According to the Kurunduwatta police both parties have lodged complaints regarding the incident.
UNP on why it voted against Head 510 of Livestock Ministry
Explaining why it voted against the Head 510 under the vote of the Ministry of Livestock Development and Estate Infrastructure in Parliament last Friday the UNP said yesterday that was because Minister Thondaman rejected the proposed amendment and failed to assure that he would oppose the sale or transfer of the J.E.D.B. estate to friends of the government outside tender procedure.
In a press statement the UNP says that it wishes to underline in this regard and also jog the memory of the CWC President and the rest of the CWC politicians that it was the Housing Ministry whose deputy minister Chandrasekaran that has allocated funds for many housing schemes for the estate workers and not Minister Thon-eman's Ministry.
The full text of the statement is as follows-
As a union which is involved in the Plantation Sector we cannot remain silent on the statements that are being made by the CWC leader and Minister Thondaman regarding the defeat of Head 510 as a result of Minister Thondaman not acce-pting the proposed amendment. A similar amendment was proposed when Minister Dharmasiri Senanayake's Ministry vote were discussed and the minister readlly accepted that amendment which resulted in the ministry vote being passed without a division. According to the statement made by the UNP they had voted against Head 510 because the minister rejected the proposed amendment and failed to give an assurance that he would oppose the sale/transfer of JEDB estates to friends of the government outside tender procedure.According to our own knowledge several estates are to be handed over to various individuals who are blissfully ignorant of the dire consequences they are going to face in the wake of their acceptance of these lands. There was a time when the JEDB and the SPC were prepared to release most of their estates but they found to their dismay that there were no takers. We, as a union in the plantations, are aware how Elkaduwa Plantations came into being comprising 20 such estates. Today workers employed on them are deprived of their statutory dues such as EPF, ETF and gratuity. The company itself finds it tough to manage the estate and offer the stipulated number of work-days to its workers. It is natural for a political party that has the welfare of the workers in mind, under the circumstances, to oppose insidious moves by individual ministers to sell public property to their kith and kin and friends for a bagatalle and a song. Several divisions of productive estates and also estates in their entirety in down south are being taken over by the government for village expansion resulting in many workers being thrown to the street.
But apparently there has not been a whisper of protest from that self-imposed saviour of the plantation workers Minister Thondaman. This silence begs the question as to why this particular minister and his colleagues in Parliament who are supposedly concerned about the welfare of the plantation workers do not take up this issue in Parliament and use their clout with President Chandrika Kumaratunga to obtain a reasonable compensation package to the workers for loss of employment, analogous to such packages offered by the CTB and the Mahaweli Authority.
We wish to point out that on the 16th of this month the CWC Provincial Councillors and some of its Members in Parliament strove tooth and nail to exhibit their strength in Agarapatana, Talawakelle and Hatton but ended in utter failure because the people were not pepared any longer to be taken for suckers by the so called politicions. The President of the CWC had pompously proclaimed that the monies allocated for a estate housing to his ministry would not be available now because of the action of the UNP. We wish to underline in this regard and also jog the memory of the CWC President and the rest of the CWC politicians that it was the Housing Ministry whose deputy Minister is Hon. Chandrasekeran that has allocated funds for many housing projects for the estate workers and not Minister Thondaman's Ministry. In the same breath it must be highlighted that during the past two decades the estate infrastructure was handled by like ministries such as Housing, Highways, Power & Energy etc.
Soththi Upali killers identified
'The definite identity of the killers of Soththi Upali is now known to us and they would be arrested at any moment' stated S.S.P. Padmasiri Liyanage, presently in charge of Mt. Lavinia police division. - NP
