Sri Lanka: The war the world forgot

[The Independent] All but hidden from view of the outside world, a bitter and savage war being waged in the north of Sri Lanka is creating a humanitarian crisis in which hundreds of thousands of civilians are at risk. In what may be the final chapters of one of the world’s longest-running civil wars, Sri…

Read More

Official: 40 civilians die daily in Sri Lanka war

[AP] Artillery shelling and gunbattles between government forces and Tamil Tiger rebels are killing about 40 civilians every day and wounding more than 100 others inside Sri Lanka’s war zone, the top health official in the region said Friday. Aid groups have estimated more than 200,000 civilians were trapped in a tiny strip of land…

Read More

UK names former defence secretary as Sri Lanka envoy

[Reuters] Britain named a special envoy to Sri Lanka Thursday to try to ease hardship caused by the country’s long-running civil war and to help in the search for a political solution. Prime Minister Gordon Brown said the priorities were to achieve a cease-fire and to get a political settlement in Sri Lanka, where tens…

Read More

Tamil diaspora united in anger

[BBC] The bloody progress of the conflict in Sri Lanka has united many diaspora Tamils across the political spectrum. The Sri Lankan military has made major gains in its attempt to defeat Tamil Tiger rebels (LTTE) fighting for a separate homeland. But Tamils around the world have protested in their thousands about the fate of…

Read More