[AP]

Nearly 18 months after Sri Lanka launched an independent investigation into a wave of civilian killings during its renewed civil war, not a single case has been resolved, and some human rights groups and lawyers fear no one will ever be held accountable.

A credible probe into the incidents, including the slaying of 17 aid workers blamed on security forces, will test the government’s will to pursue potentially embarrassing cases and strengthen its efforts to prevent the dispatch of a U.N. human rights monitoring mission.

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[Washington Post]

Rathana is a celebrated figure in this predominantly Buddhist nation, where monks are cherished for their spiritual guidance. But he is known for more than just his religious leadership. Dubbed the Parliament Monk and the War Monk by the Sri Lankan press, he is a legislator who has pushed for the use of military force to end this island nation’s 25-year civil war, which has left 70,000 dead and displaced nearly a half-million people at its height.

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[Reuters]

Relatives of 17 aid workers massacred in Sri Lanka said on Monday they did not expect justice as a heated human rights inquiry began into their execution-style murders more than a year ago. Ravi Shantha, the aunt of one of the Action Contre la Faim (ACF) aid workers killed in August 2006 in the northeastern town of Muttur, told a panel of judges appointed to investigate rights abuses in Sri Lanka that too much time had passed. “I don’t trust that I will be given justice in this case,” Shantha said to Reuters after giving evidence about the last known movements of her nephew Ambigavathy Jayaseelan.

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[Reuters]

The appointment of a retired general to help run a Sri Lankan state television station is a sign of media militarisation not seen for decades, rights watchdogs said on Thursday. The government, engaged in a long-running war with Tamil Tiger rebels in the north of the island, called the accusation a “fabricated lie” and said former army major-general Sunil Silva would help cure chronic management weaknesses at the station.

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[IRIN]

More than 50,000 people have been hit by flooding in northwestern Mannar District in Sri Lanka since 12 March, the government said. The area has witnessed intense clashes between government forces and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) during the last six months, restricting access to relief agencies. Flooding caused by torrential rains has affected 173,909 people in nine districts of the country, including 120,000 in the eastern Batticaloa District, and left five dead, the National Disaster Relief Services Centre (NDRSC) said on 19 March.

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[AFP]

The European Union threatened on Tuesday to withhold trade concessions from Sri Lanka due to the island’s worsening human rights record. Colombo has come under fire for its rights record, with Human Rights Watch saying recently at least 1,500 people “disappeared” between 2006 and 2007 — mostly ethnic Tamils living in the island’s restive north and east. The New York-based rights group said Sri Lanka was one of the world’s worst perpetrators of “disappearances” and abductions and described the situation as a “national crisis”.

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[Reuters]

Floods triggered by torrential rain have forced more than 7,000 people from their homes in eastern Sri Lanka, with some taking shelter in schools and mosques, officials said on Tuesday. Flooding and ensuing mass displacement are common in Sri Lanka, often fuelled by monsoon rains. The latest flood victims included families living in basic camps, who had already been displaced by renewed war between the state and Tamil Tiger rebels.

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[Mission Network News]

The volatile situation at Gospel for Asia’s Sri Lanka Bible College is escalating as a local elected official and a small group of Buddhist monks are falsely accusing the school of being a front for the Tamil Tigers. Founder and President of Gospel for Asia KP Yohannan describes what happened over the weekend. “One of the elected political officials who is very much anti-Christian came (to our campus) with a loaded gun, and a whole bunch of people with him threatened to kill our students and rape our female students, and they demanded our school be closed down.”

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[IRIN]

People receiving emergency relief rarely know exactly what is available for them, or how to access it. For many people escaping violence in Sri Lanka’s war zones and stuck in camps, information on basic services or job and education opportunities could be vital. Lifeline, a project administered by Internews Network, an international media development NGO, is trying to fill that gap by offering news and information to displaced people in Sri Lanka, including how to get the most from humanitarian and government agencies.

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[AP]

Sri Lanka summoned the U.S. ambassador on Friday to protest the latest U.S. State Department report on human rights, saying it presented a distorted and exaggerated view of the situation on the Indian Ocean island. The State Department’s 2007 Country Report on Human Rights Practices in Sri Lanka cited government abuses including unlawful killings, abductions, arbitrary arrests and the denial of fair public trials. “The government’s respect for human rights continued to decline due in part to the escalation of the armed conflict,” the report said, referring to hostilities between government forces and Tamil Tiger rebels.

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