[BBC]

One of Sri Lanka’s most controversial diplomats, an ex-army commander, has got a senior post advising the UN secretary general, the government says.

[Full Story]

[World Socialist]

Amid police and military threats, about 200 mothers, wives and other relatives of disappeared persons held a protest on December 10 in Jaffna, northern Sri Lanka, to demand information about their loved ones.

[Full Story]

[Human Rights Watch]

The report of the Sri Lankan government’s Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission (LLRC) disregards the worst abuses by government forces, rehashes longstanding recommendations, and fails to advance accountability for victims of Sri Lanka’s civil armed conflict, Human Rights Watch said today. The serious shortcomings of the 388-page report, which was posted on a government website on December 16, 2011, highlight the need for an international investigative mechanism into the conflict as recommended by the United Nations Secretary-General’s Panel of Experts in April.

[Full Story]

[BBC]

The armed forces in Sri Lanka are to take over maintenance of the country’s most prestigious cricket stadiums.

[Full Story]

[Al Jazeera]

Sri Lanka’s long-running conflict was brutal for its women. More than 80,000 are said to have been widowed in war-affected areas of the island nation.

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[Al Jazeera]

Two years after the end of Sri Lanka’s civil war, many minority Tamils in the north say the military retains too strong a hold over their daily lives.

[Full Story]

[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. So the shop owner paid a smuggler to get him out of Sri Lanka. As the government claims it is coming close to winning a quarter-century war with the Tamil Tiger separatists, many ordinary Tamils are giving up on their country.

[Full Story]

[BBC]

Medical staff in Sri Lanka say at least 18 civilians have been killed as the military continues its offensive on the northern bases of Tamil Tiger rebels. Hospital officials said the number killed in fighting around Kilinochchi and Mullaitivu could be much higher. The military said Mullaitivu - the last major rebel stronghold - was now surrounded, but it denied rebel claims that civilians came under attack. A military spokesman told the BBC that the allegation was propaganda.

[Full Story]

[Reuters]

Increasing numbers of refugees are fleeing Sri Lanka’s war zone, which is rapidly shrinking as the military bears down on the Tamil Tiger rebels’ last remaining territory, the military and the Red Cross said on Friday. “Families heading westward in search of safety are encountering other families moving eastward with the same aim,” ICRC’s Sri Lanka delegation head Paul Castella said.There has been no negotiation of safe passage between the army and Tigers in a week, which has put at risk the lives of patients who cannot receive proper treatment in rebel-held areas and need to go to a hospital in army territory, the ICRC said.

[Full Story]

[BBC]

The Sri Lankan military has secured a string of military successes over the LTTE [Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam] in recent months. As the army announces it has seized full control of the Jaffna peninsula in the north, people across the country give their views and experiences of the latest phase in the conflict.

Trincomalee - Anonymous Tamil Man, Office Worker, 50s:

“This is the time for the government to come with a proposal. A lot of people are suffering. But we can’t believe the government. They say they are fighting for the liberation of the Tamil people.

After the LTTE are destroyed, we don’t know how the government will really act. Most Tamil people want a settlement to this ethnic problem.

The government are celebrating in a big way. They have captured the same land they have had before. But it’s as if they have captured a different country. They are killing people of the same nationality. We are all Sri Lankan. Because of the way they are celebrating here, I don’t think most Tamils are comfortable.

What we want is peace. And after the assassination of the editor, [Lasantha Wickramatunga] everybody is scared to talk. Even this phone may be tapped.

In Sri Lanka it is now difficult to express alternative views and to do anything against the government. I keep my political views to myself.”