Sri Lanka news columns

NEW YORK (AFP) — US, European Union, Japanese and Norwegian envoys met here Wednesday to discuss the latest fighting in Sri Lanka, including the need for both sides to protect civilians, a US diplomat said. "The fighting has been expanding, heading toward the north," Richard Boucher, the assistant secretary for south Asian affairs, told reporters after attending the meeting at the US mission of the United Nations in New York. "We're placing a lot of emphasis right now on the protection of human rights for civilians who are caught in the fighting and the democratic government's responsibility for respecting and extending human rights protections to the people in the areas they take over," Boucher said. The participants in the meeting also discussed the need for both sides to make sure they are ensuring humanitarian deliveries to the people displaced by the fighting. These points are being made to Sri Lankan officials both at the UN General Assembly in New Yor...

Part 5 of our investigative series Stewart Bell, National Post Published: Tuesday, September 23, 2008 Hundreds of thousands have fled Sri Lanka's civil war, many of them to Canada. While the war zone has been off limits to journalists, the National Post's Stewart Bell recently toured the front lines just as the conflict appears headed for a decisive showdown. This is the fifth of a six-part series. WELIOYA, Sri Lanka -- Brigadier Mohan K. Jayawardena is sitting at his wooden desk, a framed portrait of the President on the wall behind him, when a loud boom rattles his office. He does not flinch. He is apparently used to the sound of 130-mm artillery guns firing off into the Mullattivu jungle, home of the Tamil Tigers guerrillas he has battled his entire military career. Brig. Jayawardena was an 18-year-old in basic training when the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam started fighting for independence for Sri Lanka's ethnic Tamil minority. Twenty-eight years later, he is still...

Part 4 of our investigative series Stewart Bell, National Post Published: Tuesday, September 23, 2008 Hundreds of thousands have fled Sri Lanka's civil war, many of them to Canada. While the war zone has been off limits to journalists, the National Post's Stewart Bell recently toured the front lines just as the conflict appears headed for a decisive showdown. This is the third of a six-part series. MAHDU, Sri Lanka -- The one-lane road through the thick Mannar jungle passes a "Dangerous Area Do Not Enter" sign and the remains of a Tamil Tigers camp with twisted metal and collapsed trenches. Beyond that, an improbable sight appears in a clearing: a large Catholic Church with bright stained glass windows, marble floors, Roman columns, arches and a rooftop cross that rises above the palm tree jungle. Madhu Church is the site of Sri Lanka's holiest Catholic shrine, and it lies right in the heart of the country's northern war zone - so close to the shifting front ...

By C. Bryson Hull COLOMBO, Sept 7 (Reuters) - Sri Lanka's advance into Tamil rebels' heartland has unleashed the bloodiest combat in a decade and opened a new phase of the 25-year-old conflict, but conventional military success won't mean an end to war. Over the past three weeks, the army has thrust into territory held by the separatist guerrillas and are within artillery range of Kilinochchi, the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam's (LTTE) administrative headquarters and symbolic prize for the government. The advance has provoked some critics to warn things could turn out like 1999, when the army pushed itself deep into Tiger territory only to be shoved back ferociously in a matter of days. Analysts say this time the military has the upper hand, fighting on four fronts to encircle the rebels while striking the LTTE's naval assets and hitting it with artillery, ground forces and air strikes. It does not, however, mean an easy road ahead. "They have achieved a sma...

This week saw one of the most ferocious battles since the security forces started their campaign to regain the Wanni around mid last year. The LTTE’s much anticipated counter strike was launched along their newly built trench line from the western coastal town Nachchikudah to the deep interior region Akkarayankulam, a fair distance of 18-20 km in length. This trench line, which is mainly an earth bund of around 7-15 feet at certain places, was built in recent times with heavy machinery cutting across shrub jungles. In a series of waves, the LTTE attacked personnel of the Army’s 58 and 57 Divisions last Wednesday in a battle that lasted 36 hours. The LTTE claimed to have killed up to 100 military personnel, while the military initially claimed that only nine soldiers were killed. However, with the LTTE claiming that they had recovered the bodies of 29 soldiers and posted pictures of the dead on pro-LTTE websites, the Army said that ...

Both parties suffer heavy casualties By Ranga Jayasuriya Guns roared in the Wanni front amidst heavy rain lashing the soggy wanni soil as the security forces and Tigers fought a bloody close quarter battle over a trench line. The military attempted to break through several identified positions at the 25 kilometre long massive earth bund running from Nachchukudah to Akkarayankulam. They captured some land but then the Tigers put up stiff resistance. Both parties emerged with a bloody nose, with dozens of men dead and some missing. This earth bund, on which many bunkers have been built, is the main defence of the Tigers against troops pushing towards Pooneryn and Kilinochchi. On Tuesday morning, troops of 4 Sinha Regiment, attached to 571 Brigade attacked the Tiger defence lines in Vannarikulam. Armed with light anti-tank weapons and high explosive RPGs, they delivered a swift attack. They dislodged the defending Tiger cadres, capturing 600 meters of the defence line. ...