[The Economist]

WHEN Shanthakumar Kamala fled the inferno of fighting in northern Sri Lanka in 2009, she was clutching a number of glossy photographs to her chest but little else. Mrs Shanthakumar holds out the pictures now—one of a smart lad in school uniform, one of him wearing a Boy Scout kit—and sobs that she wants her son, Thanuraj, back. Like hundreds of other children, he went missing in the harrowing final months of fighting between Sri Lanka’s military and the Tamil Tigers (known as the LTTE) in 2009. Inspired by a few children who have been found by their families, his mother continues her desperate search.

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[AFP]

A New York-based media rights organisation Tuesday called for an international inquiry into the death of a Sri Lankan television presenter who was allegedly executed by government forces.

A documentary by Britain’s Channel 4, “Sri Lanka’s Killing Fields”, contained footage of what it said were prisoner executions in the final days of fighting between government troops and separatist Tamil Tiger rebels in 2009.

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[AFP]

The United Nations evacuated hundreds of severely wounded civilians from behind rebel lines in Sri Lanka on Thursday as government troops fought to secure final victory over the Tamil Tigers. Human rights bodies have called for immediate steps by both the Colombo government and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) to save up to 250,000 civilians trapped in the combat zone in the northeast of the island. “About 350 critically wounded civilians, including 50 children, crossed the front lines,” UN spokesman Gordon Weiss said, adding that the evacuations were the result of lengthy negotiations with the rebels.

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[ BBC ]

Heavy monsoon rains were falling as we approached the outskirts of Mullaitivu in a Sri Lankan armoured personnel carrier. “We had to fight here for one week or so,” said Colonel Arun Aryasinghe, as he showed us a huge earthen defence line constructed by the Tamil Tigers. “It was a very hard battle.” Mullaitivu used to be one of the Tigers’ most important bases. Now the Sri Lankan flag flies overhead, and government troops are in complete control. But they have inherited a ghost town, full of broken buildings. Apart from men in uniform, a stray dog wandering through a burnt-out shop was one of the only signs of life.

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