COLOMBO (IRIN) - Thousands of civilians escaped fighting in the north over the weekend, according to official sources, as the UN warned of deteriorating conditions for those still trapped in the combat zone.

By Scott McDonald  

COLOMBO, Sri Lanka – Sri Lanka's military on Tuesday accused "a vicious coalition" of international aid groups of harboring terrorists and seeking to prolong the island's civil war for economic gain. 

The military has come under increasing international criticism as it pushes to end the decades-old war with the Tamil Tiger rebels, who are pinned in a shrinking war zone in the island's northeast.

By Easwaran Rutnam  

Most member states at the United Nations are against any move which will give the LTTE a lifeline while it continues to hold civilians as human shields, diplomatic sources at the UN told Daily Mirror yesterday.

Sri Lanka will host an international telecom forum of network standardization in April together with the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) and the Commonwealth Telecommunications Union (CTO), Telecommunications Regulatory Commission director General said.

In 2006, a haughty LTTE turned its back on a delegation the government sent to Geneva to have talks with the outfit. A few months later, Prabhakaran resumed war by launching terror attacks on the armed forces personnel and the police and capturing the Mavil Aru anicut. In his heroes' day speech in November 2005, a few days after the installation of President Mahinda Rajapaksa, Prabhakaran had promised to plunge the country back into a bloodbath. He kept on claiming until a few months ago that he would turn the tables on the military and achieve his goal of separation in spite of a string of crushing defeats.

The Ambassador / Permanent Representative to the United Nations in Geneva Dr. Dayan Jayatilleka was unanimously chosen as the Coordinator of the Asian Group of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) today, taking over from Indonesia.

Chaminda Perera  

The Grama Niladhari of Oddusudan lost his life when he attempted to enter the cleared area along with his relatives and neighbours after LTTE terrorists started firing at them.

Secretary General, Secretariat for Coordinating the Peace Process in Sri Lanka and Secretary, Ministry of Human Rights and Disaster Management, Professor Rajiva Wijesinha in an interview with The Sunday Leader attempts to set the record straight in relation to Sri Lanka being accused of war crimes and other violations of human rights. Excerpts:

In a right of Reply exercised by Sri Lanka during the debate under item 4 on Human rights situations that require the Council’s attention at the 10^th Session of the Human Rights Council, on 23 April 2009, Mr. Yasantha Kodagoda, Deputy Solicitor-General, Attorney-General’s Department made  the following statement:

By Kelum Bandara 

The Resettlement and Disaster Relief Services Ministry is expected to sign a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with NGOs and INGOs to allow them access into welfare camps and villages in Vavuniya and implement humanitarian projects.

At present only UN agencies and the ICRC have been allowed access to these places without restriction.

Colombo (Asiantribune.com): Sri Lanka Government flatly rejected an appeal by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam for unconditional talks.

Earlier, B. Nadesan, the Political Commissar of the Tamil Tigers called for an urgent ceasefire, saying the Tigers would enter negotiations with the government "without pre-conditions". He has made this appeal in an interview with the Sunday Times published from the United Kingdom.

By Scott Mcdonald, Associated Press Writer

COLOMBO, Sri Lanka – Nearly 1,200 civilians have fled fierce fighting in northern Sri Lanka as government troops capture more territory from Tamil Tiger separatists, the military said Sunday. 

About 1,055 of the civilians, including 380 children, reached military-held areas over the last 24 hours near Puthkkudiyirippu, where battles between government troops and the rebels have been raging for weeks, military spokesman Udaya Nanayakkara said.

By Nirj Deva 

Three years ago, Sri Lanka elected Mahinda Rajapaksa as president because he pledged to take the offensive against the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, the guerrillas who have been fighting for 25 years to carve out an independent homeland for the country's Tamil minority. Many well-meaning people saw Rajapaksa's promise as warmongering, and, even as Sri Lanka's army has been pressing toward victory, urged him to negotiate with perhaps the world's most fanatical terror organization (the Tamil Tigers, it should be recalled, virtually invented the cult of the modern suicide bomber.)

I rarely watch television in Sri Lanka, but in the long lonely nights in Geneva, when I am too tired to write yet another critique of some silly assault on the Sri Lankan state, I find myself looking for English language programmes. Recently I have been struck by the number of British television dramas dealing with terrorism. Many of them feature police teams fighting for decency as well as the British way of life, sometimes battling politicians who are engaged in all sorts of wicked deals.

It seems as though every man and his dog is worried about Sri Lankan civilians. Opening a newspaper without running into a statement expressing concern at their fate is almost impossible now, and not only in this country. Our civilians are on the minds of the entire world community, apparently from Great Danes to Yorkshire Terriers, and words of concern just keep flooding out of their mouths.

by Jonathan Kay

Jonathan Kay

Yesterday, I put up a blog post (subsequently re-purposed into an editorial) denouncing the pro-Tamil-Tiger protestors who were part of the demonstration that paralyzed downtown Toronto on Monday.

The UN Headquarters on Wednesday (18) asserted that it did not have the exact information to be able to reach even an estimation of civilian casualties, when questioned about the controversy over the casualty figure in Sri Lanka. 

The number of civilians who crossed over to Government controlled area was 47,241 up to date, Disaster Management and Human Rights Minister Mahinda Samarasinghe said.

By Sunil Jayasiri and Sandun A Jayasekera

The government yesterday said it had taken note of the recommendations put forward by the United Nations Under-Secretary for Humanitarian Affairs, Sir John Holmes, on his recent visit to the island recently.