Human Smuggling Canada: Tamils In Limbo After Canadian Crackdown On Human Smugglers In Thailand

BANGKOK - All wars cause collateral damage. Vashni is collateral damage in Canada's war on human smugglers.
The soft-spoken Tamil woman in her 30s lives one step ahead of the law in Thailand and longs to be reunited with her elderly parents in Toronto. But she would never consider resorting to using one of the notorious smugglers who operate out of Bangkok to make that happen.
"I don't want to take that risk to myself," she explains. "Why? It's too dangerous and not safe."
Vashni, whose identity is not being revealed to protect her safety, exists in stateless limbo. She and hundreds of other Sri Lankan Tamils are languishing in a shadowy netherworld within this teeming south Asian metropolis.
For the last two years, she's struggled to stay one step ahead of a Thai government that considers her an illegal migrant. If she's sent back to her native Sri Lanka, she faces torture, imprisonment and perhaps death.
Vashni has been swept up by the bitter aftermath of her homeland's 26-year-civil war that ended three years ago with the Singhalese majority crushing Tamil separatists. In the 1990s, she was conscripted — against her will she maintains —into the rebel Tamil Tigers, a group Canada considers a terrorist group.
She and hundreds of her fellow Sri Lankan Tamil migrants here in Thailand have also been swept up in another Canadian-led battle: the major international law enforcement offensive targeting Thailand-based human trafficking crime rings.
Canada launched the ambitious international effort to prevent smugglers from reaching our shores. In 2009, the MV Ocean Lady brought 76 Tamil migrants to British Columbia, and the MV Sun Sea brought 492 a year later. Prime Minister Stephen Harper gave Thailand another $12 million to combat the smugglers during a visit here last month and his government introduced a tough new immigration bill that targets the gangs.
The much-touted legislation passed in the House of Commons on Friday and now goes to the Senate for quick, final approval.
The co-ordinated policing and political effort involving Canadians, Thais, Australians and others across the globe appears to have prevented another Ocean Lady or Sun Sea from reaching Canada's west coast. Earlier this month, a Sri Lankan ringleader of the Bangkok smuggling network was arrested in France.
But there is a human cost associated with these law enforcement successes. Thailand doesn't recognize international refugee law — it considers people like Vashni to be illegal migrants.
So they must apply to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) for refugee status. If they are successful, then they wait for a third country to grant them residency — a process that can take years. If they are like Vashni, and have had their claims rejected by UNHCR, the waiting becomes interminable.
"Every month we go to the UNHCR to see the consultant. They say, you wait, you wait. How long do we have to wait without an answer?"
The latest UNHCR figures from March, obtained through a third party by The Canadian Press, show that 275 Sri Lankan Tamils have been granted refugee status, while another 142 have not. Aid agencies say more Tamils — nobody knows how many — haven't bothered approaching UNHCR.
Phil Robertson, the Bangkok-based deputy Asia director for Human Rights Watch, says many Tamils are being sent back to Sri Lanka where they face grave harm from the predominantly Singhalese government.
"That's what we're seeing now in Sri Lanka. People have been sent back from the U.K. and have been detained, interrogated and tortured," says Robertson, whose organization issued a public plea to Britain late last year to stop sending Tamils back to Sri Lanka.
"It's not as simple as: stop the boats from coming and that's that. There are consequences on the ground here in Thailand."
Alan Keenan, Sri Lanka analyst with the International Crisis Group, has documented abuses towards Tamils in the post-civil war period.
"There's some sufficient evidence that people who are failed asylum seekers are at significant risk of detention and torture."
Sri Lanka has been a politically charged issue for the Harper government. An estimated 300,000 Tamils in Canada represent their largest diaspora. They took to the streets in massive numbers in major cities to protest the government silence at what they saw as the slaughter of their people by Sri Lankan government forces in 2009.
The Conservatives recently changed course with a much harder stance towards the Sri Lankan government, criticizing the slow pace of reconciliation and the reluctance to address allegations of war crimes.
The Conservatives also moved to prevent more boatloads of Tamils from arriving on Canada's western shores, dispatching RCMP officers to Thailand. The RCMP declined interview requests in Bangkok.
Harper pressed his then ambassador to Thailand Ron Hoffman to tackle the smuggling problem. Thai officials say Hoffman worked tirelessly in the last year-and-a-half on the issue. Harper also appointed Ward Elcock, the former CSIS spy master, to be his special adviser on human smuggling. Elcock, who has travelled widely throughout South Asia, declined to be interviewed.
Thai officials are effusive about their deepened co-operation with Canada.
Gen. Wichean Potephosree, now the Secretary General of Thailand's National Security Council, headed the Thai national police last year at the height of the crackdown.
"Sharing information and intelligence is the key," Wichean says. "We have discussed about, first, how to prevent Sri Lankans (from leaving) the country."
A Western diplomat, broadly experienced with the issue, says Canadians have been providing good training to their Thai counterparts in policing, border control and immigration.
That has created an inhospitable environment for the leaders of the human trafficking rings, making Thailand "a less attractive departure point" for their operations.
"The fact that there hasn't been another boat is evidence that something worked," the diplomat said.
Others see inadvertent damage to human rights.
Robertson, of Human Rights Watch, says Canada complained loudly to the Thais after the Sun Sea incident, and "marching orders went out from the prime minister" to locate and prevent the smugglers' from launching another ship.
"Within a week or so, you had major arrests of Sri Lankans. The problem has been that when you have that kind of order that comes from the top in Thailand, the police and the immigration snap-to," says Robertson.
Vashni, who shares a small apartment in Bangkok, has avoided arrest.
"In the last year, they arrested a lot of people because we don't have a visa. Last year, this government is very tough."
Vashni's parents arrived in Canada as refugees about a decade ago and settled in the Toronto area after gaining their citizenship. They live on social assistance and are not eligible to sponsor her.
Vashni has another big strike against her — she was once a member of the Tamil Tigers, the Sri Lankan rebel group that Canada considers a terrorist organization.
Vashni says she was forced to join the Tigers as a teenager because her older brother fled the country; in northern Sri Lanka, the Tigers had a rule that each family had to supply at least one member.
She says she was never trained as a fighter, and worked as a runner and intelligence gatherer. She managed to flee Sri Lanka in the 1990s. She returned a few years ago, hoping for a fresh start in the capital of Colombo.
But the army eventually caught up with her in the months following their May 2009 rout of the Tigers. She fled, eventually reaching Thailand 25 months ago.
She is certain she will be killed if she returns to Sri Lanka.
"Definitely when I reach the airport, they're going to arrest me. The first question they're going to ask me is: how you went out of this country? I have no answer."
Keenan says judging the validity of each Tamil refugee claimant is tricky.
It is true that the Tigers, also known as the LTTE, have "a long history of forced conscription. There was a requirement that one member of every family join the LTTE."
But Keenan says that can also be a story that an asylum seeker tells to win freedom in another country.
"I don't envy the job of immigration tribunals or departments around the world."
In the future, Thailand wants Canada to focus more on the root causes of migrant woes within Sri Lanka itself.
"The best way to solve this problem is to help the origin country to take care of their people," says Boinchart Bunnang, director of international strategy at the Thai National Security Council.
Wichean wants Canada to "assist Sri Lanka in social and economic development to lift up the standard of living of the people… Cracking down on the smuggling network is necessary. However, Canada should consider solving the problem at the root cause as well."
Keenan applauds the Canadian government's hard line towards Sri Lanka to clean up its rights record and resolve long-standing ethnic differences.
"Governments with lots of diasporas need to really be doing all they can to pressure Colombo to clean up its act."

Fight Against Breast Cancer

UK based NGO to provide special gloves to doctors, nurses
Moga,(India) April 29
Roko Cancer, a UK-based social organisation, has announced to launch an awareness drive among women in Punjab in the second week of May to help them detect breast cancer at an early stage.
Talking to The Tribune from Manchester (UK) on the phone, Kulwant Singh Dhaliwal, global ambassador of the organisation, said the growing number of breast cancer cases in the state was a matter of concern. The issue needed to be addressed by roping in the support of the Centre, the state government and social organisations.
Maintaining that early detection of breast cancer could help cure the disease, he said Roko Cancer had decided to distribute 10,000 specially designed gloves among women doctors and nurses for detecting breast lumps. “The glove costs around Rs 800 a pair but we will provide these free of cost to help save women in Punjab from this deadly disease,” he said.
“The gloves provide a safe and effective way for every woman to carry out breast self-examination.The gloves magnify the sense of human fingers allowing lumps of the size of a grain to be detected, which is not possible with bare hands,” Dhaliwal explained.
He said clinical trials of these gloves in several countries in Europe had proved its efficacy and these were widely used by women in the UK at home for self-examination.
He said Roko Cancer, which had been conducting mammography tests free of cost in collaboration with NRIs and the state Health Department for the past few years, had performed over 20,000 such tests in the state. “More than 1,000 cases of breast cancer have been confirmed. in the state and the results of another 2,000 are awaited”.
He said in the past couple of years, 200 women had been found suffering from breast cancer in Moga and Muktsar districts, 175 in Ferozepur district and 135 in Faridkot. There were hundreds of suspected cases in the Malwa belt.Stressing the need to make concerted efforts to spread awareness about breast cancer in Punjab, Dhaliwal said breast cancer was one of the leading causes of cancer deaths among women.
Roko (Stop) Cancer says...

200 women found suffering from breast cancer in Moga amd Muktsar districts

• 175 in Ferozepur district
• 135 in Faridkot district

Morinda bypass: Work on rail overbridge resumed

Chandigarh, April 29
A bypass started in the late 90s to facilitate smooth movement of traffic on the high-volume Chandigarh-Ludhiana road, that saw various obstacles, will at last be completed in a month or so.
Though the incomplete Morinda bypass, with only one of two rail over-bridges(ROBs) completed, was thrown open to traffic on August 1, 2006, work on the second ROB saw various hurdles.
A dispute between the Indian Railway and the civil contractor and delay in lowering the high-tension overhead power cable are the “official” causes for the delay in the completion of the second ROB. Some misunderstanding between the Punjab Government and the Railways rendered the approach ramps, completed in 2006, useless, wasting an investment of crores of rupees. So much so that columns on which the joining slab is now being laid were completed in 2008.
Section Engineer BK Narang admits delay in the completion of the second ROB. He cites many reasons. He says since the Chandigarh-Morinda rail track is electrified, lowering of the high-tension power cable proved to be a highly technical job.
“We tried constructing speed barriers and putting up steel barricades to prevent the movement of commercial vehicles, including trucks and buses, but without any success. Road users would dismantle all such structure, forcing us to delay the cable work.
“Finally we had to take police help. Now the police have put up check barriers on either side of the bypass 1.5 ft below the proposed joining slab. We brought down the high-tension (HT) cable in early April. Under safety rules, the HT cable has to be 1.5 ft below an overhead bridge and from the roof of the rail coach.
“We had a dispute with the earlier contractor. Now we have a new contractor. All the scaffoldings are new. Till the joining slab is laid, we are observing all safety norms, allowing trains to move at a speed of 20 km an hour,” says Narang, quoting from a survey conducted by the Railways that says 44,232 vehicles use the bypasss everyday.
Though work on laying the joining slab is in full swing, the Public Works Department and Infrastructure Development Board are yet to start work on joining the approach ramps with the Chandigarh-Ludhiana road.
Says PS Aujla, Principal Secretary, PWD, Punjab: “ Soon after taking over, I wanted this long-pending project to be taken up on a war footing. I have fixed May 30 as the deadline for the completion of the second ROB.”
Senior Railways and PWD officials have been visiting the site regularly to oversee the progress of work. The approach ramps, too, will need a fresh strip of premix. Even the stormwater drainage channels, now chocked, need to be cleared before the onset of the South-West Monsoon.

About the bridge

• Morinda bypass was inaugurated on August 1, 2006, by the then Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh with only one of two proposed rail over-bridges (ROBs) completed
• Work on the second ROB and approach roads, which was to be completed in May 2008, was held up for several reasons
• The completed Morinda bypass will now be commissioned by May-end or early June

Two-day Sarab Bharti Punjabi meet from today

Patiala, April 29
A two-day Sarab Bharti Punjabi Conference, dedicated to the golden jubilee year of Punjabi University, will get underway here tomorrow. Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal will be the chief guest, whereas delegates from various parts of the country will also attend the conference.
University Vice Chancellor Dr Jaspal Singh said with an aim to instill linguistic and cultural awareness among Punjabis living in states other than Punjab, the conference was started in 2008.

U.S. Special Forces Assist In Hunt For Joseph Kony

Joseph Kony, leader of the Lord's Resistance Army during a meeting with a delegation of 160 officials and lawmakers from northern Uganda and representatives of non-governmental organizations in this Monday, July 31, 2006 file picture in the Democratic Republic of Congo near the Sudan border.

Central African Republic -- Deep in the jungle, this small, remote Central African village is farther from the coast than any point on the continent. It's also where three international armies have zeroed in on Joseph Kony, one of the world's most wanted warlords.
Obo was the first place in the Central African Republic that Kony's Lord's Resistance Army attacked in 2008; today, it's one of four forward operating locations where U.S. special forces have paired up with local troops and Ugandan soldiers to seek out Kony, who is believed likely to be hiding out in the rugged terrain northwest of the town. For seven years he has been wanted by the International Criminal Court for war crimes and crimes against humanity after his forces cut a wide and bloody swath across several central African nations with rapes, abductions and killings.
Part of the LRA's success in eluding government forces has been its ability to slip back and forth over the porous borders of the Central African Republic, South Sudan and Congo. But since late last year, U.S. forces have been providing intelligence, looking at patterns of movement, and setting up better communications to link the countries' forces together so that they can better track the guerrilla force.
Sent by President Barack Obama at the end of 2011, the 100 U.S. soldiers are split up about 15 to 30 per base, bringing in American technology and experience to assist local forces.
Exact details on specific improvements that the American forces have brought to the table, however, are classified, to avoid giving Kony the ability to take countermeasures.
"We don't necessarily go and track into the bush but what we do is we incorporate our experiences with the partner nation's experiences to come up with the right solution to go out and hopefully solve this LRA problem," said Gregory, a 29-year-old captain from Texas, who would only give his first name in accordance with security guidelines.
The U.S. troops also receive reports from local hunters and others that they help analyze together with surveillance information.
"It's very easy to blame everything on the LRA but there are other players in the region – there are poachers, there are bandits, and we have to sift that to filter what is LRA," he said.
Central African Republic soldiers largely conduct security operations in and around the town, while Ugandan soldiers, who have been in the country since 2010, conduct longer-range patrols looking for Kony and his men.
Since January, they have killed seven LRA fighters in the area and captured one, while rescuing 15 people abducted by the group including five children, said their local commander, Col. Joseph Balikuddembe.
There has been no contact with the LRA since March, however, according to Ugandan Army spokesman Col. Felix Kulayigye, who said the LRA now is in survival mode. The LRA is thought to today number only around 150 to 300 die-hard fighters.
"They're hiding," he said. "They are not capable of doing."
But with Kony still around, there are wide ranging-fears that the LRA will be able to rebuild.
"There's periods of time when the LRA will lie low when the military pressure is too high or where there's a threat that they don't understand such as the American intervention," said Matthew Brubacher, a political affairs officer with the U.N.'s mission in Congo, who was also an International Criminal Court investigator on the Kony case for five years.
"But then after a while after they figure it out, if they have the opportunity they'll try to come back, so it's just a matter of time they'll try to come back. Kony always said `if I have only 10 men, I can always rebuild the force."
Right now, expectations are high of the Americans serving in Obo and Djema in the Central African Republic, as well as those in Dungu in Congo and Nzara in South Sudan.
"For all the communities, the U.S. bases in Obo and Djema means one, Kony will be arrested, and two, there will be a lot of money for programs, humanitarian programs," said Sabine Jiekak of the Italian humanitarian aid agency Coopi.
Central African Republic Deputy Defense Minister Jean Francis Bozize said it's been difficult for the poor country's small military to deal with Kony in the southeast as well as several other militant groups in the north.
An African Union mission expected to begin later this year should help expedite the cross-border pursuit of the LRA.
In the meantime, Bozize said the American forces could make a big difference.
"The involvement of U.S. forces with their assistance in providing information and intelligence will allow for all forces to operate from the same base-level of intelligence ... (giving) better coordination with better results," he told reporters in the capital, Bangui.
But the military mission is not a simple one.
How do you find small groups of seasoned fighters hidden deep in the jungle, who have eluded authorities for decades? How do you prevent brutal reprisal attacks on civilians? How can you bring together several countries' troops to cooperate on cross-border pursuits?
The LRA usually attacks late at night, then melts back away into the jungle. Seasoned bush fighters, they employ many techniques to elude pursuit – walking along rocks or along streams to avoid leaving tracks, for example, and sometimes even marching backward to fool trackers.
Kony has reportedly stopped using radios and satellite phones for communications, instead relying on an elaborate system involving runners and multiple rendezvous points.
Key to his capture is good information from local residents – which they will only give when they can be sure of their own safety, according to American commanders.
"The population have to believe that they are secure and once they believe they are secure from the LRA, you start to deny the LRA the opportunity to attack villages to get people, to get food, to get medicine," Gen. Carter Ham, the head of U.S. Africa Command, told reporters in Stuttgart.
That may take some time in Obo, a town of some 15,000 where around 3,500 people have sought refuge to escape LRA violence in the area.
Rural farmers and others stick to within 5 kilometers (3 miles) of the village for safety – originally the area that Central African Republic soldiers were able to patrol but now more a rule of thumb followed by the locals.
They've started recently to venture out farther, emboldened by the presence of the Ugandans and Americans to help the government forces, but are too nervous to stray too wide from the safety of the village.
"They're still scared, they're still wary because Joseph Kony is still out there," said Mayor Joseph Kpioyssrani, looking at the jungle behind him.
Kony's LRA sprung up in 1986 as a rebel movement among the Acholi people in northern Uganda to fight against the Kampala government, but has for decades been leading its violent campaign without any clear political ideology.
Emmanuel Daba, 33, was one of 76 people abducted in the first LRA raid on Obo in 2008 and forced to fight for the guerrillas for two years before managing to escape.
"We were trained to kill – forced to kill – otherwise we'd be killed ourselves," he said outside the tiny radio station where he now works broadcasting messages to try and encourage others with the LRA to defect or escape. "I still have dreams – nightmares."
This year, the U.S. Defense Department is committing $35 million to efforts to find and fight Kony.
Since 2008, the U.S. State Department has sent some $50 million in funds to support the Ugandan military's logistics and non-lethal operations against the LRA, including contracting two transport helicopters to ferry troops and supplies. Another $500 million has been given over that time for the broader northern Uganda recovery effort in the aftermath of Kony's presence there.
In Stuttgart, Ham keeps a "Kony 2012" poster hanging on his office door.
Though he isn't committing to the goal of the viral YouTube campaign to see Kony neutralized by the end of the year, he does define success as either capturing or killing the LRA leader eventually.
"I'm confident that the mission will be successful, but I can't give you a timeline when that's going to occur..." Ham said. "It is one of those organizations that if you remove the senior leader and the small number of those who surround him, I believe this is one of those organizations that will not be able to regenerate."

Ronald Smith: Canadian On Death Row Expected To Plead For His Life In Montana

CALGARY - The lone Canadian on death row in the United States is expected to make a plea for his life at his clemency hearing in Montana this week.
Ronald Smith, 54, has been on death row since 1982 after he and an accomplice, both high on drugs, marched Thomas Running Rabbit and Harvey Mad Man Jr. into the woods near East Glacier, Mont., and shot both of them in the head.
It was a cold-blooded crime. They wanted to steal the men's car, but Smith also said he wanted to know what it was like to kill someone.
His is the final name on the list of 16 witnesses put forward by his attorneys for the two-day clemency hearing before the Montana Board of Pardons and Parole beginning Wednesday in Deer Lodge, Mont.
The hearing is being held near the federal penitentiary where Smith, originally from Red Deer, Alta., has spent the last three decades locked up.
"I've always wanted an opportunity to step outside of all of this and to be able to apologize to the family and explain to them just everything about me at that point in time. I was a completely different person," Smith said in an interview last month with The Canadian Press. "It's who I am, who I've become and what I've got going into the future."
The decision to speak at the hearing before the three-member panel was entirely up to Smith, said Don Vernay, co-counsel for Smith who works out of Albuquerque, N.M.
"What we want to do is wait until everything is done and then have the last word," he said. "He's got to speak to the board. These are the people who are going to decide if he lives or dies. He's going to express his remorse and his desire to live."
A flood of support has been flowing into the office of the Board of Pardons and Parole asking it to spare Smith's life.
"Our office has received and continues to receive a colossal amount of support for the commutation from around the world based on individuals' moral beliefs against the death penalty rather than a personal investment or opinion with this particular case," writes a board staffer in a leaked report obtained by The Canadian Press last month.
That report angered Smith's lawyers. It recommended that the panel deny the request clemency, leading his legal team to suggest that the decision might already be made.
One of the letters is from the Secretary-General of The Council of Europe, a 47-country organization that focuses on human rights and the protection of individuals. The letter argues Smith has expressed regret for his "deplorable" actions, has reformed his life and developed strong relationships with family members.
There is also a letter from the Canadian government, but it has been criticized for publicly lacking determination on the Smith file.
The Harper government initially refused to back Smith's calls for clemency, saying he was convicted in a democratic country. But the Federal Court ruled it must follow the long-standing practice of lobbying on behalf of Canadians sentenced to death in other countries and the letter was sent.
"The government of Canada does not sympathize with violent crime and this letter should not be construed as reflecting a judgment on Mr. Smith's conduct,'' says the Dec. 5 letter from Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird. "The government of Canada ... requests that you grant clemency to Mr. Smith on humanitarian grounds.''
Interim Liberal Leader Bob Rae has sent his own letter to the board and Montana Gov. Brian Schweitzer requesting clemency.
"It's well known that the Government of Canada right now is enormously ambivalent about this," Rae said in a telephone interview. "It's a case that calls out for clemency.
"There's no question he's accepted his responsibility for what happened and has shown a great deal of contrition and remorse about it."
Smith's daughter, who is now 35, will appear in person at the hearing.
"He did something bad. He screwed plenty of stuff up. But he didn't sit in there and let himself waste away, continue with the drugs and all that stuff," Carmen Blackburn told The Canadian Press. "He's a good man."
"How do you tell someone how much you love them and how much they mean to your family? It's a hard thing to describe because it's your heart and that's what he is — he's my heart," she added softly.
Jessica Crawford, Running Rabbit's daughter and Mad Man's cousin, could not be reached for comment.
But last December she told The Canadian Press that while her late grandparents wanted to see Smith put to death, she would rather see Smith spend the rest of his days behind bars.
Mark Warren, a spokesman for Amnesty International and a legal researcher specializing in the cases of foreign nationals sentenced to death in the United States, is also requesting clemency.
"I think at the very least this flood of letters tells the board that people worldwide are watching and waiting for a fair decision in Mr. Smith's case," Warren said.
"Montana is not exactly Texas when it comes to the death penalty. They've only carried out three executions in the past 40 years and they commuted one death sentence. There are only two prisoners on death row in Montana."
Once the parole board delivers its recommendation, Smith's fate will ultimately end up in the hands of Schweitzer, a Democrat whose term in office will run out in November.
Schweitzer won't comment during the clemency process, but talked about death penalty cases in an interview last year.
"You're not talking to a governor who is jubilant about these things,'' he said from his office in Helena. "It feels like you're carrying more than the weight of an Angus bull on your shoulders.''

Montreal Cab Hit-And-Run

A 23-year-old man was hospitalized after a cab struck him on Montreal's

on St. Laurent Blvd. early Sunday morning, the Montreal Gazette

reported.

      MONTREAL - Disturbing images are circulating on the Internet, showing a man apparently being run over by a taxi cab in Montreal.
A 23-year-old man was rushed to hospital pre-dawn Sunday with serious but non life-threatening injuries.
A 47-year-old taxi driver and some of his clients were being investigated, police said, with the possibility of criminal charges being laid. The incident occurred in a lively downtown district, filled with night stops and restaurants.
Const. Yannick Ouimet said it appeared the taxi driver was having an argument with three clients when he told them to get out. Things quickly degenerated at that point, Ouimet said.
"People were actually kicking the vehicle, causing some (damage) on the vehicle."
Images circulating on the Internet showed a taxi nearly hitting one man and then, moments later, rolling over him. Ouimet said police are aware of several videos circulating online and he said they are being used in the investigation.
"All those videos were looked at by investigators and should help them lay down accusations," he said.
One video posted to YouTube shows the conflict escalating, with a group of men kicking at a car and one man jumping on its roof. Moments later, the vehicle drives right over one of the men. The car then darts away, down the street.
"I told you guys to get out of there!" a man is heard in the video, yelling at the pedestrians involved in the altercation.

Sarabjit case: Indian advocates file mercy plea with Zardari

Amritsar, April 29
A delegation of Indian advocates has filed a mercy petition for Sarabjit Singh, lodged in Kot Lakhpat Rai jail, before Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari.
Talking to The Tribune, BM Vinayak, a member of the delegation, here today said they also met Sarabjit Singh and Interior Minister Rehman Malik.
Vinayak, a member of the Punjab and Haryana Bar Council, said Sarabjit was lodged in a solitary confinement cell number E-7. Sarabjit had grown his beard and was wearing a skullcap, he said. "He was happy to see us and expressed his desire to meet his daughters," said Vinayak.
He said, "We took up Sarabjit's case with Interior Minister Malik during a lunch hosted by him. He informed us that Presidential pardon is the only way now. We requested him to arrange a meeting with Sarabjit and he happily obliged us."
He said they wrote the mercy petition citing humanitarian grounds. "Sarabjit has served 22 years in jail. His family too has suffered a lot. Further, his confinement will serve no purpose. But the President can grant him a pardon as a good will gesture to built cordial relations," said Vinayak adding that Malik had promised to follow up the matter with President Zardari.
Vinayak claimed that 33 Indians, including three women, were lodged in Kot Lakhpat Jail. "Two more Indians, excluding Sarabjit, have been sentenced to death. We have confirmed that 17 more Indians are in other district jails," said Vinayak.
The Interior Minister has extended visa for a year to all the 15 members of the delegation.
A resident of Bhikhiwind in Tarn Taran district, Sarabjit was convicted for the 1990 serial bomb blasts in Lahore and Multan in which 14 people were killed. Sarabjit was to be hanged in 2008. His execution was put off indefinitely following intervention of Pakistan Prime Minster Yousuf Raza Gilani.
However, his family members, especially his sister Dalbir Kaur, said that Sarabjit was wrongly convicted and the case was that of a "mistaken identity".

Edmonton City Bus service now links airport to LRT

This is one of the buses used on the new ETS route to Edmonton International Airport (EIA) at the Century Park Transit Centre in Edmonton on April 27, 2012.

EDMONTON -  Edmonton finally has a direct bus route to the airport.

The aptly named Route 747 will begin running on Sunday, offering service seven days a week between the Edmonton International Airport and the Century Park LRT station.

“Its time has come,” Mayor Stephen Mandel said of the route. 

The plan to start a three-year trial run of the route was recommended for funding by city council last fall. Sunday’s ferrying of the first passengers on the route will be a victory for the city, Mandel said.

Edmonton was the only city in Canada with a major airport that wasn’t served by public transit.

“It’s important for the future, to how our city’s perceived and the movement of people,” said Mandel.

Passengers can board at Century Park every half-hour during peak flying times from 5 a.m. to 9 a.m. and from 3 p.m. to 7 p.m.

Service will run every hour during the rest of the day. 

A one-way trip on the bus will cost $5 and take about 17 minutes. The fare is non-transferable, and those looking to take the LRT to Century Park to catch the bus or go elsewhere in the city will have to pay a regular ETS fare of $2.75 on top of it.

The majority of the route’s passengers are expected to be some of the nearly 5,000 people who work at the airport. ETS has partnered with the airport to offer employees a $100-monthly bus pass, said Myron Keehn of EIA.

“It’s a critical link for us,” Keehn said.

Tiffany Fuhr, who drives herself and two other airport workers to the airport every day, won’t be using the new service. Though the 5 a.m. start time is earlier than other city routes, it’s not early enough for her and her co-workers. “To be here by 4:30 a.m. to open, it doesn’t really work,” Fuhr said.

There are no plans to make the service start earlier, says Coun. Bill Henderson, but that is exactly the kind of information the three-year trial is intended to collect.

“If our system was running a little bit earlier, they could go earlier, but we’ll see, we’ve got to get this going,” Henderson said.

The same data could help extend the LRT further south, bypassing the need for a connecting bus.

“When we finish with the LRT to the west end and the north, I think we have to look at moving it south and then out to the airport,” Mandel said.

“Cities need to have transit out to the airport and this is the first step in the long term of getting real transit out there.”

ETS has allocated five buses to the route. The buses, which are postered with images of travel destinations such as Cancun and Houston, have added luggage racks.

The North Face | Ruchir Sharma

The northern states are pulling away as growth stutters in the once arrogant south. In this exclusive extract, the author posits the fresh challenges facing India in its bid to be a breakout nation


The North Face | Ruchir Sharma

Dalai Lama thanks Stephen Harper for meeting

 

The Dalai Lama on Saturday commended Prime Minister Stephen Harper for holding a private meeting with him one day earlier despite regular pressure from China on world leaders not to associate with the exiled Tibetan spiritual leader.

"He had the courage to meet me, so I very much appreciate that," the Dalai Lama said at a news conference following a speaking engagement in Ottawa attended by a reported 7,000 people.

Relations with the Dalai Lama is a touchy subject with China, a country the Harper government is eager to expand economic relationships with and which sees the Dalai Lama as a threat by encouraging the independence of Tibet from China.

The Dalai Lama has said before he is simply calling for enough au-tonomy for Tibet to allow its culture to survive, rather than outright independence.

At Saturday's news conference, he encouraged Canada to maintain its relationship with China.

The Dalai Lama hearkened back to the honorary Canadian citizenship given to him by Parliament in 2006, and he referred to Harper as "my prime minister."

The Dalai Lama said one of the things he did during the meeting with Harper was thank him for an agreement more than a year ago to accept 1,000 Tibetans into Canada from India over a five-year period.