Yet another splendid example of the misuse of the English language emerged last week with an article in the Times headlined ‘Barbed wire villages raise fears of refugee concentration camps’. The first line of the article was in the passive voice – ‘Sri Lanka was accused yesterday of planning concentration camps to hold 200,000 ethnic Tamil refugees from its north-eastern conflict zone for up to three years — and seeking funding for the project from Britain.’

by Zacki Jabbar

The government yesterday claimed that only about 65,000 civilians remain in Mullaitivu and not 450,000, as stated by the LTTE.

Resettlement and Disaster Relief Services Minister Rishard Baduideen, addressing the Cabinet press briefing at the Information Department, said that the LTTE inflated the number of civilians under its control to 450,000 to obtain more supplies of food and medicine from the government. "In future, we will send supplies for about 100,000 people."

BY: Krishan Bulathsinghala, UK 

A mass demonstration organised by the Sri Lankans Against Terrorism (SLAT) in UK was held on the 14 of February 2009 opposite the British Prime Minister's residence No.10 Downing Street, London.

Dayan Jayatilleka

How do we describe our country, Sri Lanka, and how is our country described by others? As an island in the Indian Ocean, just south of or off the Southern shores of India. All descriptions of Sri Lanka are a variant of this because no other is possible. We are defined by our placing, and that placing is in relation to and proximate to India.

The unique importance of the Indian factor in Sri Lanka’s external relations is best evidenced in the fact that Sri Lanka is simply indescribable without reference to India.