Sri Lanka's recovery from the devastating tsunami of December 2004 has been uneven.

 

Rehabilitation work has notched up significant successes in the Sinhalese-dominated and more peaceful south, but it has suffered greatly in the war-torn northeast, which has a preponderance of the minority Tamils and Muslims.

The main opposition United National Party (UNP) last week accused the Sri Lankan government of the killing of Tamil parliamentarian Thiyagarajah Maheswaran on New Year’s day.

 

“The security of Mr. Maheswaran was withdrawn two weeks ago by the government despite repeated appeals that his life was in danger," UNP general secretary Tissa Attanayake said.

 

"Mr.

A Tamil parliamentarian from the main opposition United National Party (UNP), was assassinated by gunmen at the Ponnambala Vaaneasvarar temple at Kochchikkadai in Colombo on New Year’s day.

 

Colombo district parliamentarian Thiyagarajah Maheswaran, 41, was shot by gunmen while he was paying homage at the popular Siva temple in Colombo around 9.30 a.m. and succumbed to his injuries at the National Hospital in Colombo an hour later.

Kadatkaraichenai in Trincomalee was a thriving Tamil village less than a year ago.

Hundreds of people attended a ceremony Sunday at Puthukkudyrippu in Vanni to pay their respects to Colonel Charles, Head of Liberation Tigers’ Military Intelligence, who was killed Saturday evening in a random mine attack by Sri Lanka commandos in Mannaar district.

 

Col.

Human Rights Watch (HRW), the international rights watchdog, has called for a UN human rights monitoring mission in Sri Lanka in the wake of the Sri Lankan government quitting the 2002 ceasefire agreement with the Tamil Tigers.

 

The New York-based group said Thursday new monitors were needed to replace the Norwegian-led Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission (SLMM), hitherto tasked with supervising the truce and which is pulling out due to the abrogation of the c

A Sri Lankan government minister was killed this Tuesday in a powerful roadside bomb attack by suspected Tamil Tigers, followed hours later by a powerful blast in the heart of the capital Colombo, police said.

 

D. M.

Sri Lanka's president has repeated a vow to crush the Tamil Tigers before conducting “peace talks” to end Asia's longest-running ethnic conflict.

 

President Mahinda Rajapakse, addressing a public rally in this southern heartland of the majority Sinhalese on December 26, said the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) will not resume peace talks without first being militarily defeated.

 

"We are for a political settlement.

India is 'a major factor' in any resolution of the Sri Lankan ethnic conflict and Sri Lankans must realise this, says Defence Secretary Gotabhaya Rajapaksa.

 

Asked about India's role in finding a solution to the dragging conflict, Rajapaksa told the state-run Sunday Observer: 'India is a major factor and we have recognised it from the very beginning.

 

'Lots of people talk about the international community but we believe that India is t

The Sri Lankan government formally withdrew from the 2002 Ceasefire Agreement (CFA) with the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam on Wednesday, January 2, saying it now has the upper hand in the decades-old ethnic conflict.

 

Sri Lanka also signaled Friday it wanted to end Norway's position as the island's peace broker as international concern mounted over Colombo's decision to end the truce with the Tigers.

 

Norway was instrumental in pers