Posts by pearlaction
Sri Lanka: Views from the conflict
[BBC] The Sri Lankan military has secured a string of military successes over the LTTE [Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam] in recent months. As the army announces it has seized full control of the Jaffna peninsula in the north, people across the country give their views and experiences of the latest phase in the conflict.…
Read MoreMassive displacement of civilians amid escalating conflict
[ICRC] The ICRC has been helping them to maintain acceptable levels of hygiene, to keep in touch with relatives and to maintain hope. Fighting has prevented relief supplies from reaching the population in the Vanni for the past five days. “Civilians in the Vanni are weary from the conflict. Repeated displacements, often involving the loss…
Read MoreReporters Without Borders backs London demonstration in protest at murder of leading editor
[ RSF ] Reporters Without Borders today voiced its public support for a demonstration to be held in London on 15 January in protest at the killing of a prominent Sri Lankan editor. The demonstration will be the occasion for “a new strong condemnation of the murder” of Lasantha Wickrematunga of the Sunday Leader, the…
Read MoreJournos Vow to Carry on Slain Editor’s Legacy
[IPS] In Sri Lanka, strict compliance with international humanitarian law was all the more critical with the intensification of fighting in the Vanni region and reports of intermittent artillery fire in civilian populated areas in recent weeks. He said the scale of humanitarian needs was difficult to gauge, given restricted humanitarian access due to the…
Read MoreChronicle of a death foretold
[Economist] THE good that men do is not always interred with their bones. This week saw the publication of a remarkable posthumous column by Lasantha Wickrematunge, a Sri Lankan newspaper editor. He had written it in anticipation of his own murder. That duly came on January 8th, when gunmen on motorcycles shot him on his…
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