Peace for the World World ! Your War Our Lives
The Dalai Lama
A Brief Colonial History Of Ceylon(SriLanka)
Sri Lanka: One Island Two Nations
A Brief Colonial History Of Ceylon(SriLanka)
Sri Lanka: One Island Two Nations
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Back to 500BC.
Monday, August 1, 2011
Sri Lanka admits for 1st time civilian deaths in final phase of war, calls them unavoidable
The Washington Post World
The government’s statement — issued a few months after a U.N. experts panel cited credible claims of human rights violations by both troops and the rebels — marks a reversal from its insistence that its troops adhered to a “zero civilian casualty policy.”
It also hopes the document will convince the world that it waged a just war.
A Defense Ministry report said “it was impossible” to avoid civilian deaths, despite the military’s best efforts, given the magnitude of the fighting and ruthlessness of the opponent.
The report analyzes the war’s events and denies allegations that troops committed rights violations and executed prisoners before the war ended in May 2009,
Tens of thousands of people were killed in the last months of the war, the United Nations panel said. The Defense Ministry report does not say, however, how many civilians may have been killed.
Sri Lanka's ethnic polarization persists strongly despite peace
The vancouver sun
Members of the Socialist Youth Union (SYU) shout slogans during a protest against the Sri Lankan government in Colombo July 28, 2011. Demonstrators demanded the release of Tamils who were arrested during the final stage of the 25-year-long war against the separatist Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE). The group also demanded the government search for the people missing since the war started.
JAFFNA, Sri Lanka - Sri Lanka's old war zone has been at peace for two years but the minority Tamils who populate it say they are hungry for jobs, despite the economic revival the government has offered instead of the political powers for which Tamils first took up arms.
In Sri Lanka's north and east, people last week voted for the first time in at least 12 years and as many as 29 to elect local councils, two years after the military wiped out the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) to end a 25-year war.