Many Sri Lankan Tamils giving up on country

[AP] The assailants broke in after the fighting between ethnic rebels and the military erupted again into full-scale war, storming through his family’s home and calling his name. Thanabalasingham Surendran, a member of Sri Lanka’s Tamil ethnic minority, fled to the capital, Colombo. But unknown “messengers from military intelligence” kept calling and demanding extortion money.…

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Tamil newspaper editor arrested in Colombo

[Reporters Without Borders] Reporters Without Borders is extremely shocked by today’s arrest of N. Vithyatharan, the editor of Sudar Oli, a Colombo-based Tamil daily that is part of the Uthayan press group. He was forcibly arrested while attending the funeral in Colombo of a relative of the group’s chairman. The media minister told the organisation…

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India-Sri Lanka accord sabotaged by governments in Colombo: Kumaratunga

[India eNews] Successive governments in Colombo have spiked the provisions of the 1987 India-Sri Lanka accord aimed at devolving powers to provinces in the island nation, former Sri Lankan president Chandrika Kumaratunga has said. Had the devolution of powers taken place earlier, Sri Lanka’s dragging ethnic conflict might have ended a long time ago, Kumaratunga…

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Sri Lanka’s Tamils face hard future

[ AFP ] Sri Lanka’s government says it is on the verge of defeating Tamil Tiger rebels and ushering in peace after decades of ethnic bloodshed, but the island’s main ethnic minority is as fearful as ever. Ethnic Tamil civilians reduced to submission by the feared Tamil Tiger rebels are equally apprehensive of government forces…

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