After more than 35 years of civil war, the Sri Lankans elect their president in peace. Nearly 15 million voters are called to the polls. Two candidates present themselves to them. Former allies in the battle against the Tamil Tigers, President Mahinda Rajapakse and his former head of the Armies, ex General Sarath Fonseka. Mahinda…
The rebels proclaimed a unilateral ceasefire but in Colombo the capital, the defense secretary immediately rejected this initiative, saying that the separatist guerrillas had the choice only to surrender or be annihilated. The Tigers are cornered with thousands of civilians in a perimeter of ten square kilometers on the northwest coast of Sri Lanka. An…
The head of United Nations Humanitarian Affairs leaves Sri Lanka “disappointed”. John Holmes did not get a “green light” from the government to send a humanitarian team to the region where the Tamil Tigers are entrenched, surrounded by the army which intends to end a separatist rebellion that began in the 1970s. At least 50,000…
The Sri Lankan army today announced the end of its heavy military operations in the area of around ten km2 where rebels and thousands of civilians are entrenched. She also assured that she would endeavor to rescue civilians held hostage by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam. Yesterday the separatists unilaterally proclaimed a ceasefire which…
A symbolic gesture in Sri Lanka. President Mahinda Rajapakse has declared a ceasefire of at least 48 hours with the rebellion on the occasion of the Tamil New Year celebrations which begin tomorrow. In 2002, a similar truce was quickly shattered. This announcement comes as the government army has been trying for several months to…
The Tamil Tigers today accused the army of killing more than 2,000 civilians in bombings in the “last 24 hours”. Government forces quickly denied and labeled the accusations propaganda. The army also said today that it had discovered a device that could have served as an underwater cache for the leader of the Tamil Tigers….
British Prime Minister David Cameron visited northern Sri Lanka on Friday, the scene of decades of civil war. He is the first foreign leader to go there. Her convoy was briefly blocked by Tamil women who lost relatives during the conflict. They wanted to draw the attention of the head of the British government to…
The rebels, who have been fighting since 1972 for the independence of the north and east of the island, announced yesterday that they had stopped fighting the government army. Earlier today, this army claimed to have saved all of the 50,000 civilian hostages of the Tigers in their enclave. For the Norwegian Eric Solheim, ex-mediator…
The plight of civilians trapped in fighting in the northeast of Sri Lanka finally walked through the door of the Security Council of the UN . After further escalation of violence between government troops and the Tamil rebellion, its 15 permanent members adopted a joint declaration. “The members of the Security Council strongly condemn the…
Sri Lankan army soldiers relish their advance. This morning, and for the first time in 25 years of war, they took control of the entire coastline, according to military officials. They make it impossible for Tamil warriors to have any access to the sea, and now completely encircle the tiny territory of one square kilometer…
Civilians trapped in the conflict in Sri Lanka are at the center of the concerns of the UN Security Council. He demands their evacuation from the combat zones and asks the Tamil rebels to lay down their arms. The Sri Lankan army has launched a muscular offensive against the separatists who are cornered in an…