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| Serious
violence among Tamils in London These two murders came hard on the heels of a verdict given at London's Old Bailey sentencing one Tamil to two life terms for a double murder and three other Tamils for life for their part in the murder of an 18-year old youth who was wounded and then set on fire. Detective Chief Inspector Colin Sutton, the officer in charge of the recent double murder inquiry was quoted in The Independent newspaper as saying that "The level of violence in these cases was quite savage". The murders in which the killers bludgeoned two men to death in separate incidents happened several miles apart but within an hour of each other. In the first attack, Partheepan Balasingham, 23, of Wembley was killed in an apparently unprovoked assault outside the Palm Beach restaurant opposite which 18 year old Tamil Supenthar Ramachandran was attacked by the Tamil gang that was sentenced to life earlier this month. Mr. Balasingham who was drinking with friends outside a popular Sri Lankan restaurant in northwest London was attacked with swords, machetes and bottles by a gang that arrived in a car and fled after the attack. Mr. Balasingham was taken to hospital with serious head and neck injuries but died about a week later. Police believe the attackers were also Tamils who later drove to Essex. At about 2 am the same gang is believed to have confronted a group of six men at a bar in Ilford where, after an altercation, two men were abducted. About an hour later, one of the abducted men had walked into the Ilford police station with injuries on his face. The second man abducted, Kishokumar Balachandiran, 18, from Stanmore was attacked and dumped into a river. Passers-by who found Balachandiran about 10 hours later called the police. The victim who was suffering from severe shock and was semi conscious later died in the same hospital as Balasingham. Chief Inspector Sutton told the local newspaper that the police had received a positive response from the Tamil community and was thankful for it. "But we are anxious to speak to anyone with information about the murders." The police are still trying to establish a motive of the latest killings. Sithiravelu Karunanandarajah, coordinator of the Tamil Refugee Action Group was quoted as saying that while the majority of the Tamils were law abiding "a gang culture among the young was emerging". These groups of youth align themselves to their parent's villages and towns in Sri Lanka. The gangs include youth from Velvettithurai (VVT), Mannar and Ariyalai. "Drugs could also be a problem. Some young people have started to use them when they came to Britain," Karunanandarajah reportedly said. Police say there is also evidence emerging of these gangs being involved in fraud, especially credit card fraud, and human trafficking, smuggling Tamils and other asylum seekers into Britain. Patients
suffer as Ministries sit on key proposals In the aftermath of the latest doctor's strike which was one of the longest and most traumatic for thousands of patients it has been revealed that several years ago the Sri Lanka Medical Association - the oldest medical professional body - had made concrete proposals to prevent such strikes. An official of the SLMA's health management said that Dr. Ananda Samarasekera - former President of the GMOA and now Vice president of the Medical council - had submitted specific proposals for a process of compulsory arbitration to avert strikes by health sector staff. The official said the process of compulsory arbitration was widely used in the private sector and though it was not available in the public sector the SLMA felt legislation was needed to introduce such a process. He said the health care service could be the area where it starts because life and death matters were involved. Compulsory arbitration means disputes on salaries and other matters are put to an independent body preferably headed by a retired judicial officer. The arbitration committee would objectively study the different issues involved and give a ruling which would be binding on all parties. The SLMA official said they believed that trade unions representing doctors, nurses and other public health sector workers were generally agreeable to this process of arbitration which could prevent or minimize strike action. He said the proposal had been made to the Health Ministry several years ago and in view of the urgency now the SLMA was seeking a dialogue with the ministry to push the proposal. Dr. Athula Kahanda Liyanage, the Director General of Health Services said in a TV interview that the proposal for compulsory arbitration in the public health sector had been submitted to the Labour Ministry because any new legislation would involve amendments to trade union matters. A spokesman for the newly formed National Association for the Rights of Patients (NARP) said yesterday that as often happens the proposal for arbitration was probably lying in some bureaucratic muddle while tens of thousands of patients suffered. He said the Association was urging both Ministries to wake up to their responsibilities, have a dialogue with the SLMA and health sector trade unions with a view to introducing legislation for arbitration as soon as possible. Odds
and Ends What
a website An official from the Ministry says that the minister had abandoned this domain but had not informed the Internet Service Provider from whom the domain was acquired so that the domain could be made inactive. The official
adds the new domain used by the minister is www.milinda.org will
be operative soon. It is ironical that a Cabinet Minister's former
web site now provides advertising information, specially when the
subject of science and technology comes under him and promoting
computer technology is his responsibility. |
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