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  • In Sri Lanka, fear of being ‘disappeared’

    Apr 08
    Under thick tropical rains on a rutted country road, a bus packed with ethnic Tamil families screeched to a stop here in eastern Sri Lanka. At a heavily fortified government checkpoint, the families were ordered off the bus.

    They were asked many questions. Where had they come from? Why? Whom did they visit? The experience, for many of them, was more than inconvenient. It was frightening. In places like this, they said, amid bungalows battered and burned by war, people go missing.
  • Number of missing Tamils increasing – rights groups
    As violence surges in Sri Lanka, so does the number of abductions and disappearance of mostly Tamil men. That is the assessment of human rights activists and international aid groups operating in the Indian Ocean nation.
  • Elections quicker than resettlement
    In the last one year Sri Lanka’s eastern Batticaloa district has seen two rounds of mass displacements as hundreds of thousands of people fled warfare between Tamil militants and the armed forces of the country.
    In late 2006 and early 2007, frightened civilians, mostly ethnic Tamils, fled their homes in areas held by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam as the Sri Lankan army fought its way in to dislodge the militants.
  • Hundreds of malnourished children in the North
    Humanitarian agencies say hundreds of children in the North are suffering from severe malnutrition, with essential supplies, including therapeutic food supplements given to severely malnourished children, yet to reach them.

    According to the Kilinochchi District Hospital, more than 500 children below the age of five in the Kilinochchi District, suffer from severe malnutrition.
  • The story of one Black Tiger
    I had a rare opportunity to come to know closely of the details of a Black Tiger Thurairathinam Kalairaj (Ilam Puli), who became a Martyr, when the Anuradhapura Air Base was attacked by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE).
  • The temporal and spiritual conquest of Tamils
    More than security concerns, the sentiments of Tamil Christians and their mistrust of Sri Lankan State seem to be the impelling force behind the decision of taking away Our Lady of Madu from her abode. Those who could look at how Kathirkaamam was confiscated from the predominance of Tamils and how the ancient temples behind the Tamil Saiva myth are inside ‘High Security Zones’, could understand the fear of Tamil Christians.
  • LTTE urges Norway to take steps to end military assault on Madu shrine
    Liberation Tigers Political Head B. Nadesan on April 7 sent an urgent letter to Norwegian International Development Minister Erik Solheim, placing a request to the Royal Norwegian Government to take steps to immediately end the military assault of the holy Madu shrine in Mannar district.
  • Sri Lanka's top monk shuns non-violence
    The leader of Sri Lanka's Buddhist monk political party is calling for a resolution to the country's 25-year war between government forces and Tamil militants. The monk, who heads a party in Sri Lanka's parliament, supports using the military to do it.
  • Iconic of the times
    The international rules of war decree that warring parties have an obligation to protect religious sites. However, in the context of the Sri Lanka’s majoritarian drive, non-Buddhist sites have in fact been the targets and objectives of military campaigns.
  • Another Time of Need
    As a humanitarian crisis unfolds, the Diaspora needs to help again.
  • International rights panel ends work in Sri Lanka
    An international panel invited by Sri Lanka to observe the government's probe into human rights abuses shut down operations on March 31, three weeks after accusing Colombo of failing to tackle the issue.

    The International Independent Group of Eminent Persons (IIGEP) was formed to observe an inquiry into 16 cases of serious rights violations, including the August 2006 massacre of 17 local employees of the French charity, Action Contra la Faim (ACF).
  • Family of ACF massacre victims doubt justice
    Relatives of seventeen aid workers massacred in Sri Lanka said they did not expect justice, as a heated human rights inquiry began on March 24 into their execution-style murders more than a year ago.

    Ravi Shantha, the aunt of one of the Action Contre la Faim (ACF) aid workers killed in August 2006 in the northeastern town of Muttur, told a panel of judges appointed to investigate rights abuses in Sri Lanka that too much time had passed.
  • Jeyaraj Fernandopulle killed in bomb blast
    Sri Lanka's Minister of Highways and Road Development, Jeyaraj Fernandopulle, was killed in a bomb blast at the public playground in Weliweraya, located in the Gampaha district of Western Province, around 8:00 a.m. April 6.

    Fourteen others were killed and 60 wounded in the attack that took place while the minister was waving a flag to start off a marathon race in connection with the Tamil and Sinhala New Year celebrations.
  • Our Lady of Madhu a refugee in her own land: Bishop
    The highly venerated statue of the Blessed Virgin Mary, also known as ‘Our Lady of Madhu’, was removed from one of Sri Lanka's most revered catholic shrines for the first time in more than four centuries because of intensifying fighting.

    Meanwhile the Sacred Heart Church in the Madhu Shrine complex was completely destroyed by Sri Lankan Army shelling.
  • EU, US condemn killing, urge political solution
    In the aftermath of Sunday’s attack which killed Minister Jeyaraj Fernandopulle and 14 others and injured more than 83, the International Community Monday reiterated the urgent need for a negotiated political solution to end the longstanding ethnic conflict in Sri Lanka.

    The European Union, the United States and Australia in separate statements called for an end to hostilities and the resumption of peace talks as the only way forward if peace was to return to Sri Lanka.
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