Liberalism’s challenges in Sri Lanka.

July '83 may have been the 'start' of the war, but the freedom struggle and the oppression it resists pre-dates that moment.

Summary of incidents – apart from major clashes – since 25 June

There appears to be complete lack of progress in the investigation of cases of murdered and attacked journalists.'

There may have been evidence tampering in the investigation into the murder of seventeen aid workers killed in Sri Lanka, an international body observed last week.

Seventeen workers of Action Contre La Faim (Action Against Hunger) were murdered in Muttur in August last year, in the midst of heavy fighting between the Sri Lankan military and the Liberation Tigers.

The United Nations is accusing the Sri Lankan government of starving its humanitarian agencies of much-needed fuel to operate vehicles and also generators which power freezers storing life-saving vaccines and other medicines.

The continued power shortages, caused by lack of fuel, will soon affect the preservation of vaccines and essential medicines, the UN warned in a letter to Defence Secretary Gothabaya Rajapaksa.

Sri Lanka said in the same league as Darfur, Iraq, Afghanistan and Somalia.

While war preparations are widening, the ongoing undeclared war in between the government and the LTTE is taking an increasingly heavy toll on the truth, as casualty figures become part of the war effort, a Sri Lankan defence column reported last week.

New security restrictions would deny Tamils “their fundamental right to resettle on the lands owned and possessed by them", says MP.

Two Tamils in Britain were charged last Wednesday under the Terrorism Act 2000 with providing support to the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), which is proscribed in UK.

Arunachalam Chrishanthakumar, (also known as ‘AC Shanthan’), 50, and Goldan Lambert, 29 appeared at City of Westminster Magistrates Court last Thursday.

Sri Lanka’s main foreign donors last week declined to issue a statement, but also decided against sanctioning Sri Lanka for its human rights abuses.

Top diplomats from Japan, Norway, the United States and European Union - known collectively as the Co-Chairs - meet in Oslo Tuesday last week at a time when Sri Lanka's relations with the international community are increasingly strained.

Sri Lanka has to militarily defeat the Liberation Tigers to encourage the majority Sinhalese to accept a peace deal with the Tamils, says G.L Peiris.

Due to inefficiency, corruption, fall in income and the mounting expenditure on war, the Sri Lankan government is facing a financial crunch. This is likely to get worse in the future because of a planned rise in defence expenditure.

At last Wednesday's cabinet meeting, President Mahinda Rajapaksa had turned down requests from a number of ministers for more financial allocations, The Sunday Times reported.

President Mahinda Rajapaksa threatens to dissolve parliament and seek a fresh mandate.