Last month, the Indian central government abruptly ended days of violent protests by carving out a federal state for the Telangana region of Andhra Pradesh. In an effort to end a five-decade-long internal conflict, the world’s largest democracy ceded a state for the greater good of stability and governance. India’s war-weary neighbor, Sri Lanka, would [...]
Tamil war refugees residing in camps in Vavuniya categorically denied that Sri Lankan troops guarding the camps had raped or indulged in any other form of sexual abuse as alleged by a former inmate in an interview to The Observer newspaper of London.“It’s a mischivous rumour,” Rasendran from Ponneryn, who had been living in the [...]
Thousands of ethnic Tamils displaced during Sri Lanka’s war have gone home again, but are finding basic services and infrastructure lacking despite a massive government post-war resettlement program. World The government has gradually been resettling around 300,000 ethnic minority Tamil people, most displaced in the final phase of the army offensive against the Liberation Tigers [...]
A three member high powered Sri Lankan delegation consisting of President’s Secretary Lalith Weeratunga, Defence Secretary Gotabhaya Rajapaksa and Senior Presidential Advisor, Basil Rajapaksa is visiting India beginning on Wednesday for consultations. The troika has been functioning as an informal group on behalf of President Mahinda Rajapaksa to inform and interact with all those who [...]
Tuesday, the United States expressed satisfaction with the Sri Lanka government’s efforts to resettle nearly 290,000 Tamil civilians displaced in the recently-concluded war with the vanquished Tamil Tigers. For the first time the numbers of Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) living in the Manik Farm relief center in Vavuniya have come down below 100,000. According to [...]
Sri Lanka has maintained its ban on journalists reporting the plight of war-displaced civilians who have been allowed out of their internment camps, officials said Friday. Foreign minister Rohitha Bogollagama declared in a BBC interview Tuesday that the media now had full access, prompting a flood of requests from reporters to travel to the former [...]
“You will only know how wonderful walking on the road like this feels if you have gone through what we have.” Dharmeshwaran, 30, was walking toward Vavuniya, a town in the north of Sri Lanka and a journey of about 18 miles (30km) from Menik Farm, the camp for displaced persons where he and his [...]
The UK will try to block Sri Lanka’s bid to host the next Commonwealth summit over its handling of the recent war, a UK government source has said. Sri Lanka could not be “rewarded” for actions that had a “huge impact on civilians”, the source said. The current Commonwealth summit is about to get under [...]
The Sri Lanka government will release 130,000 Tamil refugees from internment camps starting Dec. 1. Was the decision prompted by international pressure or domestic politics? Nearly six months after Sri Lanka’s 26-year civil war came to an end, the government has announced plans to finally close the controversial civilian internment camps. The detainees will be [...]
The Sri Lankan government has failed to make adequate welfare provision for the 136,000 Tamil civilians it plans to release from internment camps, rights activists and opposition parties said Sunday. Heeding international calls for the camps to be closed, the authorities said the remaining detainees — held since the military finally crushed the Tamil Tiger [...]
There seems no difference between the Colombo Hindu College Ratmalana and any other school, except for the armed police officers guarding the gate. The college in the Sri Lankan capital is a government rehabilitation center established exclusively for former child soldiers of the Tamil Tiger, a rebel group that was defeated by the government troops [...]
WASHINGTON, D.C. – The US Congress has urged the Sri Lankan Government to expedite rehabilitation of internally displaced Tamil civilians from military-guarded camps and begin the process of political reconciliation. Co-sponsored by 32 lawmakers, the House of Representatives resolution No 711, passed late Nov 4, urged Sri Lanka to guarantee the safety and release of [...]
TONY EASTLEY: Sri Lanka’s Government says it’s on track to have most of the Tamils living in its internal refugee camps back in their home villages by the start of next year. AM has gained rare access to Manik Farm, the main camp where more than 130,000 Tamils have been forced to live after the [...]
Sri Lanka said 164,000 civilians displaced by the civil war with Tamil Tiger rebels remain in camps in the north and the government intends to reduce the number to less than 50,000 by the end of January. “We are now moving with incremental swiftness” to settle people from the camps, Rajiva Wijesinha, the secretary at [...]
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