AirLanka has increased air fares to India by 30 per cent, officials said.
They said the hike would apply to fares to all Indian cities and India's regional carrier, Indian Airlines had also increased fares.
For the Muslims in the Ampara District economic recovery was relatively easy. The LTTE is present but not in control, and neither the security forces nor the LTTE has obstructed cultivation in the proximity of Muslim areas. Tamil paddy land owners around Muslim or mixed villages (eg: Akkaraipattu and Sammanthurai) too have benefited from being able to cultivate and harvest their fields. Tamil laborers too have benefited from employment. At present the ripening rice fields bear the color of joyous green as far as the eye could see. Yet Muslim traders, particularly those catering to Tamil customers, such as those in Akkaraipattu, Kalmunai and Batticaloa bazaars, feel the pinch of falling incomes resulting from the general impoverishment of the Tamil population in particular.
The hardest hit were Muslims in the Batticaloa district who had lost the use of their fields in areas under LTTE control. Several of them receive a small rent for their fields from Tamil cultivators, since the latter had also to pay the LTTE a land tax in fields west of the lagoon. Eravur, for example, is a Muslim village that depended mostly on agriculture.
In the Muslim villages of Eravur and Oddaimavady, many of their tractors and boats used for fishing have been taken by the LTTE. Only 3 tractors are now owned by Eravur folk that are currently employed in the Polonnaurwa District.
But through sheer determination and a willingness to adapt, Eravur has been making a slow recovery. A number of Muslim paddy land owners or Podiars now work as seasonal laborers in Akkaraipattu and Sammanthurai and also in Polonnaruwa District where lands are owned mostly by Sinhalese.
As communal tensions with Tamils, which reached a peak in 1990, eased milling activity in Eravur has recovered. An estimated 75% of the paddy cultivated in the surrounding area is brought to Eravur by Tamil cultivators for milling.
Several more have also taken to the traditional pursuit of tobacco cultivation which was pursued along the banks of the Mahaveli and in the less accessible parts of Polonnaruwa District (earlier known as Tamankaduwa Division) at least as far back as the 19th century when the majority population in the district was Muslim. During 1993 a police party from Anuradhapura raided tobacco plots along the Mahaveli close to the Mannampitiya security post. The crop was destroyed, the pumps and other equipment were severely damaged and several hundred cultivators were remanded for a time at Anuradhapura. The reason given was that the land concerned was protected as a forest or wild life reserve.
Asked for his observations, a conservationist said that the police action is probably defensible under the law. 'But, he added, there is a broad shaded region between what is a legitimate traditional pursuit or is permissible, and what is clearly not.
Now take the Sinhalese peasants who have been planted on the borders of forest reserves in the Mahaveli region [eg; Dimbulagala] and in the Trincomalaee district [ eg; Tamplakamam] with influential backing. That in itself may not violate the reservations. But in the absence of a viable economic life you know for sure that they would make a living off the forest by becoming party to timber rackets. Then the question of taking action to protect the forest becomes also a political decision, and you know what politics in this country is about.
There have also been allegations by the security forces that the LTTE obtains food from Muslims in the tobacco 'Wadis'. But life in the East is such that it is difficult to draw lines. There is no separation between the LTTE's economy and the 'legal' economy.
As we have pointed out in earlier reports, the inescapable interdependence of the Muslim and Tamil communities stands in sharp contrast to the drift towards separate schools, hospitals, AGA divisions and even separate universities:
Tamil rice cultivators traditionally obtain advances from Muslim rice merchants (eg. in Eravur) and pay these back at harvest time.
Muslim tobacco cultivators obtain advances from tobacco merchants from Jaffna's offshore islands who have been prominent in the trade from the last century.
Tamil migrant labor from the Batticaloa District have found regular and lucrative employment in harvesting the rice fields of Muslims in the Ampara District.
Akkaraipattu provides a stark illustration of how the economy falls apart if the two communities do not get on. Of the 4900 families in the Akkaraipattu Tamil Division, 2000 persons go daily into the Muslim area to work as laborers ( Rs 150 per day), masons (Rs 250 per day) and carpenters ( Rs 500 per day). Another 800 to 1000 Tamils work as agricultural laborers in more than 10,000 acres of rice fields owned by Muslims in Tamil areas. It has been said that when there is communal tension and life comes to a standstill, there is no food in Tamil houses. Although there appear to have been cases of isolated threats in times of tension, senior members of both communities have been at pains to insist that communal relations are good.
With all these signs of steady improvement of their economic life, there is among Muslims an anxiety about the LTTE's unpredictable behavior. Further the feeling of powerlessness among Tamils has built up a dormant animosity against the Muslims. Moreover, leading Tamil politicians privately express the view that they are unable to concentrate on economic development because they have no control over the LTTE and its actions. Consequently they feel that the criticism directed against the Muslims politician is unfair. But, since they nor the Tamil intellectuals, could discuss these concerns in public and so exert pressure on the LTTE, they are unable to have any impact either on the Government or on Muslim politicians. This results in a very unhealthy environment and drives the people further into narrow ideologies.
Will Diana remarry; will Charles ever become king; does anyone really care about the future of the British monarchy?
These questions are fueling speculation around the world and no-one can really be sure of the answers - least of all the Queen of England.
She has watched three of her four children take their marriages from the altar to the divorce courts and knows that the British public has little respect left for its rulers.
But HRH Elizabeth II is standing firm - sharp contrast to her children who are crumbling.
Most Britons don't want Charles to rule the country - especially not with his old girlfriend cum new companion Camilla Parker Bowles in tow. They'd rather see young prince William, who has still got a clean public slate, to usurp his father and become King.
Diana was a bit of a darling in the eyes of the British public and gets the sympathy vote despite the fact she had an affair with Major James Hewitt. To women she was a fairy tale princess who grew up earning model status in the world's press and many men found the blonde-hired, blue-eyed lady beautiful.
Charles and Diana's very public divorce after 15 years comes as a relief following months of speculation over the settlement; one can only hope the British press let it lie.
No-one can expect people in the public eye to have any fewer foibles than ordinary folk, what they get up to is their business and most people could accept them for being human and having faults.
The problem here was they hung their dirty laundry out for the country to see and the mystique and majesty of the monarchy went up in smoke.
The reverence, respect and pride the country once held for the Royal Family had turned into international shame when Charles and Di took to publicly confessing their marriage failings in books and on television.
People are fed up with them, the sooner they are out of the limelight the better - nobody expected them to be perfect but everyone is sick and tired of the pantomime.
On his return to Israel from a brief visit to the United States, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had a characteristically arrogant and brief message: "We are here, we are hawks, get used to it". No doubt the message was meant for President Yasser Arafat, the Palestinian Authority and the Arab League which met in Cairo recently. But was it also addressed to President Bill Clinton?
President Clinton and his top negotiator, Mr. Warren Christopher, are firmly committed to a negotiated settlement based on the "land for peace" formula. Every report published after Mr. Netanyahu's talks in the White House confirmed the US government's unswerving commitment to a negotiated deal that would devolve greater power to the Palestinian Authority, this side of statehood.
Why then did Prime Minister Netanyahu cut loose? The most obvious answer is that the visiting Israeli leader found the Republican-dominated Congress far friendlier than the White House. And yet, Mr. Netanyahu surely knew what every voter in America knows, Mr. Clinton according to all the opinion polls, has a comfortable lead over his G.O.P. rival, Senator Bob Dole.
After Desert Storm, a scintillating military victory, President Bush, launched the Middle-east peace process. He could not complete it since the US voter had other ideas. The electorate responded to his rival's inspired slogan: "The Economy, stupid". As a young man, George Bush was associated with the multi-billion dollar oil business. He had close connections with the Saudi ruling family. Saudi Arabia was the staging post for Desert storm. Iraq had invaded oil-rich Kuwait, an invasion that had consequences as disastrous as Saddam Hussein's long, pointless war against Iran, a major oil producer which more recently has a stronger claim on world attention - the Islamic Revolution. The recent attack on a U.S. military establishment in staunchly pro-US Saudi Arabia suggests "Oil" is the name of the game.
But the fairly strong showing of the Islamists in the Turkish polls is a reminder to the US-led NATO that too close a relationship with the Jewish state may claim a price that the U.S. cannot afford. That message came loud and clear from Cairo when the President of the largest Arab state convened an Arab 'summit' attended by both Arab "conservatives" as well as radicals like Libya's Gaddafi. President Mubarak was in fact trying to pre-empt the Islamic radicals who are now seizing the initiative in the 50 year struggle against Israel.
And this explains Prime Minister Netanyahu's visit to Cairo. It was with Egypt that Israel signed the first peace treaty. President Sadat was the bold architect of that peace treaty. He paid for it with his life. However, the critical factor is the American intervention. With a few months more for the big battle for the White House, Mr. Clinton must consider the risks of alienating the Jewish voter and the powerful Jewish lobby. The fact that the Cold War is over is indeed an important consideration but the immediate political pressures do affect U.S. policy. The battle for a second term concentrates the mind.
It was on the lawns of the White House that the Israeli Prime Minister Shimon Peres and PLO Chairman (now President) shook hands as the mediator, Mr. Clinton, led the applause. He did not think that Israel's vibrant democracy would produce Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu nor Israeli society Yigal Amir, the assassin of the war hero Prime Minister (General) Yitzhak Rabin.
By bringing in Yitzhak Rabin and abandoning his own prime ministerial aspirations, Shimon Peres convinced the voter that in the hands of the respected war hero, Israeli "security" was safe. All went according to plan until Jewish extremism (fundamentalism) produced the young assassin Yigal Amir. Netanyahu would not have beaten General Yitzhak Rabin. His victory over Peres was far from convincing. And then we had Dhahran, the terrorist attack, a stunning military operation. What really was the target? The U.S. or the Saudi monarchy? Amos Perlmetter, professor of political science at American University, and editor of the journal of Strategic Studies, argues that "the terrorist attack on American forces was not intended as a direct attack on the United States. The real target was the Saudi regime. To the radical Islamic and revolutionary forces, the United States symbolizes a Satanic force that corrupts the traditional Islamic monarchy.
Thus the attack on American troops is an effort to persuade the dynasty to get rid of foreign troops and foreigners in general, which they feel pollute its ethics, values and traditions. The dynasty is seen as an instrument of the foreigners to impose secular and Christian values on a fundamentally Islamic society. The effort is to split American power from the dynasty".
The interpretation is fair, I think, though it may not be faultless. The word "fundamentally" does introduce a popular target of the western alliance - Khomeinism or Islamic fundamentalism as a substitute for Communism. And it is the mounting anxiety over the rise of Islam in their societies that prompted President Mubarak, a friend of the U.S. and the West, to convene an Arab summit. Mubarak knows what's going on in Sudan and Algeria, to mention just two Arab states, and the silent spread of revolutionary ideas in his own country. But the most vulnerable are the oil sheikdoms. Their great wealth of their countries, the Arab masses are increasingly convinced, has been stashed away in foreign banks or invested abroad, and not spent on health, education or social services or to improve the quality of life of the people. All over again, we observe the phenomenon of the Shah of Iran, the King of Kings, the Light of the Aryans but to Ayatollah Khomeini the "American Shah".
And what is Prime Minister Netanyahu's answer. The LIKUD leader has introduced General Ariel (Arik) Sharon, tough guy, as a super-minister.
Israeli President Ezer Weizman did not disappoint the 'hawks'. He blamed Iran for the Dhahran explosion. Iran was also accused of the Riyadh bombing. And yet a thorough internal investigation led to the arrest of four Saudi citizens who were duly beheaded. All four had confessed, the press was told. They were members of the Wahabi movement, a movement that played a leading role in creating the Saudi state!
The "Iranian menace" may also be a diversion, although Iran's radical Islam may have a special appeal to both the Saudi intelligentsia, radical youth and the poorest of the poor. But more crucially, Iran concerns Saudi security, and US regional and global strategy. NATO sees a new implacable foe. Instead of the Shahenshah, friend and ally, Islam is threatening the oil-rich neighbors. Prophet Mohammed on the march once more? To Bosnia? To the gates of Europe? "US officials regard Iran-sponsored radical Islamism as the main obstacle to the Middle-East peace process, President Clinton's main foreign policy success...." Fair enough, but. The US Seventh Fleet will bring together two nuclear - powered submarines, 15 ships, an aircraft carrier with 70 warplanes, and ten thousands sailors, reports the Guardian correspondent in Washington.
Last November, a car bomb destroyed a US staffed Saudi National Guard communications center in the Saudi capital. Who was responsible? "Young Islamic extremists who will attempt to strike again" answered Mr. Saad Al-Fagig, leader of the Saudi Islamist opposition in an interview in London with Roula Khalaf. "In many ways" he added "Saudi Arabia finds itself besieged by a monster it helped to create. The Saudi monarchy was once the main backer of opposition Islamic groups in Egypt and elsewhere in the Arab world"! Saudi Arabia helped finance and openly encouraged the mujahideen. 15,000 "volunteers" were sent to Afghanistan to fight the Soviet invaders in the holy war. Three of the four men who confessed they were involved in the November bomb outrage called themselves "Afghans", the common name for Arab 'volunteers' in Washinton's jihad against Communism and the Russia Orthodox Marxist-Leninist Church!
If Arafat's PLO is treated by the Likud hard-liners as a "bogus" a Palestinian spokesman said the radical Islamists will occupy the space.
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