Gareth Evans was in Geneva last week at the Geneva Center for Security Policy (GCSP) to launch his latest book entitled, 'Responsibility to Protect: Ending Mass Atrocity Crimes Once and for All.' The previous year he had been in Sri Lanka, at the invitation of a former alumnus of the GCSP, where he suggested that Sri Lanka should be considered as a potential case in which R2P could be invoked.

Mr. Evans opened his speech with an appeal that, whatever else was "messed up" in international relations, large scale humanitarian atrocities should not be allowed to occur. He believed the framework of R2P could assist the international community to develop a collective accountability for a reflexive response when alerted to violent situations that could become humanitarian catastrophes.

By Janaka Perera

Colombo, 15 December, (Asiantribune.com)

"BBC thinks that Sri Lanka is still a British colony."

This was Sri Lanka Broadcasting Chairman Hudson Samarasinghe's response to a complaint by BBC's South-East Asia Regional Head saying that the SLBC had violated the agreement with his organization by jamming the broadcast of LTTE 'Sun God' Prabhakaran's so-called Heroes Day speech, last month.

By C. Bryson Hull

COLOMBO, Dec 15 (Reuters) - Under unrelenting military pressure, Sri Lanka's separatist Tamil Tigers have increasingly subjugated Tamils with forced military service or labour and kept them trapped in the war zone, Human Rights Watch said on Monday.

Forced Recruitment, Restrictions on Movement Put Lives at Risk

December 15, 2008  (New York)

Sri Lanka's separatist Tamil Tigers are subjecting ethnic Tamils in their northern stronghold, the Vanni, to forced recruitment, abusive forced labor, and restrictions on movement that place their lives at risk, Human Rights Watch said in a report released today.

The 17-page report, "Trapped and Mistreated: LTTE Abuses against Civilians in the Vanni," details how the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), which have been fighting for an independent Tamil state for 25 years, are brutally abusing the Tamil population in areas under their control.