[Independent UK]

In a set-back for Sri Lanka’s ruling party, the Tamil National Alliance has won a landslide victory in local elections, capturing 20 out of 25 seats it contested in areas formerly held by rebels of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam.

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[Time]

On June 14, the British television network Channel 4 broadcast a stunning hour-long documentary presenting footage of horrific abuses allegedly committed by Sri Lankan troops during the last months of the country’s war against the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam. The images are graphic and profoundly disturbing. They include the execution of naked, bound prisoners; soldiers laughing and making macabre sexual jokes about women who appear to have been raped before they were executed; and images of bodies in field hospitals and refugee camps, which eyewitnesses said had been deliberately shelled by the Army in violation of international norms. It also describes the utter failure of the United Nations to do anything about it; the UN’s decision to leave the war zone made it possible for the Sri Lankan Army to finish off the LTTE without any independent witnesses. Journalists, too, were banned from the area.

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[ABC News]

Produced by the Channel 4 in Britain, the program forensically investigates allegations that up to 40,000 Tamil civilians were killed as Sri Lankan Government forces moved in to destroy the Tamil Tiger army. The program provides evidence that while the ‘Tigers’ used civilians as human shields, the Government forces repeatedly shelled civilians who had been offered sanctuary in “no fire zones”. The Government of Sri Lanka denies this, questioning the numbers killed and the authenticity of the visual evidence. You can judge for yourself.

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[Reuters]

Sri Lanka on Tuesday argued that the spread of terrorist groups worldwide requires a revamping of the international laws of war, which put governments at a disadvantage against foes that do not have to follow them.

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[Reuters]

A U.N. envoy said on Tuesday the international community as well as Sri Lanka should further investigate horrific footage apparently showing summary executions of naked men and women during Sri Lanka’s civil war. He stopped short of saying there could be an international war crimes case, but his comments raised pressure on Colombo to submit to an international inquiry into charges that war crimes were committed at the end of its 25-year war with guerrillas of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE).

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[HRW News]

Governments should decline the invitation to attend a Sri Lankan military conference that seeks to legitimize the unlawful killing of thousands of civilians during the armed conflict with the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), Human Rights Watch said today. The Sri Lankan government has invited 54 countries to its “Seminar on Defeating Terrorism: The Sri Lankan Experience” from May 31 to June 2, 2011 in Colombo, the capital. The conference website says Sri Lankan military officials and panelists will “share their knowledge on Counter Insurgency and enumerate contributory factors in militarily defeating the LTTE.”

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[Reuters]

The United States and Britain urged a temporary cease-fire in Sri Lanka to evacuate casualties and allow relief into the war zone as the Island nation celebrates independence from colonial ruler Britain on Wednesday. President Mahinda Rajapaksa was due to preside at a parade of military might in the capital on Wednesday morning that will include fighter jets flying overhead and attack boats sailing by to mark the 61st independence anniversary. The military was on high alert as troops surround the rebel Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) in a 300-sq-km (115 sq- mile) slice of jungle in the Indian Ocean island’s northeast, aiming to end a war that started in 1983.

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