[Reuters]

Sri Lanka Monday rejected U.N. involvement in probing allegations of army atrocities in the long war against Tamil rebels that ended in 2009, saying U.N. calls to prosecute soldiers guilty of misconduct were “unwarranted incursions.”

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[Reuters]

The International Commission of Jurists’ (ICJ) Australian section has handed police direct and credible evidence of war crimes and crimes against humanity by the Sri Lanka Navy during the last stages of the bloody civil war against Tamil rebels in 2009, The Age newspaper said, citing unidentified sources.

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[AFP]

A British minister visiting Sri Lanka has repeated demands that the government must investigate war crimes alleged to have been committed during the island’s separatist conflict with Tamil rebels.

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[CPJ]

The U.K.’s Channel 4 has screened amateur footage of the body of Tamil news presenter Shoba, indicating that she was shot and killed during the government’s final military surge in the northeast. Shoba, who went by one name, also reported under the name Isaipriya or Isaippiriya for the media division of the secessionist Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), according to Channel 4 and the pro-LTTE TamilNet news website. “Her role was as a journalist rather than a direct fighter,” Channel 4 reported.

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[CNN]

A hospital caught in the middle of fierce fighting between government forces and Tamil rebels in northern Sri Lanka has been closed down after being shelled for a ninth time in four days. A U.N. official says the facility, the last functioning hospital in the area, was fully evacuated Wednesday morning in the midst of the onslaught. “Our staff has been dug down into bunkers for the past 18 hours under sustained artillery fire, which included cluster munitions this morning,” said U.N. spokesman Gordon Weiss. “We hold grave fears for the safety of these [workers]. It also includes 81 staff members who are dug down in these bunkers.”

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[ AFP ]

The government is “deeply concerned” by the ongoing unrest in northeast Sri Lanka, where Sri Lanka troops and Tamil rebels are locked in a fierce conflict, Foreign Minister Lawrence Cannon said. “Recent developments underline the urgent need for progress toward a meaningful and durable political solution,” said Cannon. After months of intense battles, government security forces have cornered the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) rebels, and according to the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) a major humanitarian crisis is unfolding. Some 250,000 people are trapped and hundreds have been reported killed, said the ICRC.

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[UCAN]

Catholic clergy and Religious, fearing a “great human tragedy” in northern Sri Lanka, have asked U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon to call on their government to stop the war and put an end to the suffering of civilians. In a letter titled “SOS - Agonizing Cry of the People of Vanni,” Father James Pathinathar called for U.N. intervention on behalf of civilians trapped in the government military offensive against Tamil rebels in the Vanni jungle region, 250 kilometers north of Colombo. Father Pathinathar, parish priest of St. Peter’s Church in Mullaithivu, has been forced to take refuge at another church due to the fighting. He appeals for negotiations and a humane, just and lasting political solution to the ethnic conflict in Sri Lanka.

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[AFP]
Sri Lanka’s government censured a senior international diplomat after he spoke at the funeral of a newspaper editor whose murder has been blamed on the island’s rulers, officials said Wednesday. German ambassador Jurgen Weerth was ordered to the Colombo foreign office and told of Sri Lanka’s anger over his graveside eulogy for Lasantha Wickrematunga, officials who declined to be named told AFP. Wickrematunga, who was shot by unknown gunmen as he drove to work, was the editor of the Sunday Leader and was fiercely critical of government policy, especially its bloody and costly war against Tamil rebels. “Weerth was summoned to the foreign ministry on Tuesday and the Foreign Secretary (Palitha Kohona) expressed Sri Lanka’s displeasure and concern over his remarks,” a source at the ministry said.

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[AFP]

Sri Lankan troops battling Tamil rebels on Monday captured a part of the highly strategic Elephant Pass, a causeway linking the northern Jaffna peninsula to the mainland, the military said. Military spokesman Udaya Nanayakkara said the southern part of the causeway fell to government troops advancing northwards from Kilinochchi, the political headquarters of the Tamil Tigers, which was captured by the army on Friday. “Troops are now consolidating in the southern part of Elephant Pass,” he said.

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