BBC banned from reporting for the 3rd time

BBC – Sri Lanka bans BBC again from war inquiry panel

The BBC has been banned for a third time from covering an official panel’s investigation into the final phase of the Sri Lankan civil war.

The panel visited Tamil prisoners at a top-security jail in Boosa in the south of the country.

But the BBC correspondent and a number of Sri Lankan journalists were turned away at the prison gates.

The 26-year conflict ended in May last year with victory for government forces over the Tamil Tiger separatists.

History repeats as Tamil is again forbidden

BBC (28/12) – Sri Lanka Tamil national anthem row reignites

Tamil politicians in Sri Lanka have criticised a decision to make school children in the northern town of Jaffna sing the national anthem in Sinhala.

They say it is “totally wrong” to make people sing in Sinhala when people in the north and east mostly speak Tamil.

Earlier this month, a Tamil minister in the Sri Lankan cabinet denied reports that the Tamil version of the anthem had been abolished.

SL claims it has resettled Tamils

AFP: Sri Lanka sends home displaced civilians, 23October 2009

Sri Lanka, under pressure to release 250,000 Tamil civilians displaced in the final defeat of Tamil Tiger rebels, has begun resettling some who fled their homes more than two years ago.

The top government administrator in the northern town of Vavuniya, PSM Charles, said 41,000 civilians were being released from camps and allowed to return home.

“Those released fled their homes when fighting broke out in their areas over two years ago. Some of them will stay in school buildings in their areas till they are able to renovate their houses,” Charles told AFP.

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SBS News: Tamil refugees resettled, 23 October 2009 – Click here to view news clip

ABC Radio AM Program: Sri Lanka releases Tamils from camps, 23 October 2009 

TONY EASTLEY: After the Sri Lankan military crushed the Tamil Tigers earlier this year, thousands of civilians wound up in Government run camps, largely closed off to humanitarian organisations and the media.

The bloody conflict between the government forces and the Tamil Tigers displaced hundreds of thousands of people and many had their homes and livelihoods destroyed. It led to an outflow of asylum seekers – many of whom have boarded boats in Indonesia bound for Australian territorial waters.

Now, for the first time Sri Lanka’s Government has announced it has released almost 6,000 refugees from the former Tamil Tiger controlled areas. The Government says a further 36,000 displaced people will be allowed out of the camps in the coming weeks.

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BBC: Thousands leave Sri Lankan Camp,

Anbarasan Ethirajan, 22 October 2009

Nearly 6,000 Tamil refugees have been released from Sri Lanka’s main camp for war-displaced people, officials say.

It is the first time refugees have been allowed to return to areas formerly controlled by the Tamil Tigers.

Those who left Menik Farm are among almost 40,000 people to be resettled over the next few weeks, officials say.

It would be the largest single batch freed since the Tamil Tigers were defeated in May. Some 250,000 civilians are housed in military-run camps.

The authorities have been criticised for the slow pace of resettlement.

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More on SL Camps: "Deeply Distressing"

Sri Lanka refugees plead for freedom

Rapidly built up for the Tamil refugee influx last spring, Menik Farm has pylons, banks, even cash machines – and thousands upon thousands of tents in the cleared arid lands west of Vavuniya in northern Sri Lanka.

Since my earlier visit in April, the camp has swollen to cover some 10 zones, the number of camp-dwellers has ballooned to a quarter of a million, while over 20,000 have been resettled or more informally released, the government says.

This was the BBC’s first chance to view all this infrastructure close-up.

Distressing conversations

A government intensely sensitive to outside criticism or suggestions, and wary of any outsider’s intentions in wanting to visit the camps, was now giving the BBC admittance, alongside the UK’s Development Minister, Mike Foster. That in itself seemed like notable progress.

And yet, just five minutes of conversation with the camp-dwellers was deeply distressing.

Starting by talking to us through our car-window, women, one after the other, piled on tales of hopelessness in the Tamil language.

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This article appeared in Sri Lankan media. Please note we cannot verify the independence of the information in this report.

Lanka News Web – Tamils make history at the UK Labour Party Conference

Tamils made history in the UK with a momentous passing of an emergency resolution on Sri Lanka at the Labour Party Conference on Thursday, 1 October 2009. The sitting government party passed a resolution condemning the treatment of Tamils in Sri Lanka by that government. Resolution was passed unanimously by thousands of delegates at the conference and in front of millions of live TV viewers. The notable resolution was delivered by Mr Paul Kenny, General Secretary of GMB, Britain’s general trade union, representing over 5 million members through its affiliate bodies. Delivering a bold, yet passionate speech, Mr Kenny was able to clearly articulate the desperate situation faced by Tamils locked up in ‘internment camps’ in Sri Lanka.

BBC : The end of the civil war in Sri Lanka?

BBC World Have Your Say : The end of the civil war in Sri Lanka?

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Gotabaya Rajapakse

For those who watched SBS Dateline today and are curious to see more of Gotabaya Rajapakse see below

Forum about SL held in London

Reactive Media Talk: Sri Lanka – a hollow victory?

Chaired by Priyath Liyanage (BBC) Frances Harrison (journalist) Charu Lata Hogg (Human Rights Watch) Pearl Thevanayagam (Tamil journalist) Raj Jayadevan (Alliance for Peace and Reconciliation in Sri Lanka) Lal Wickrematunge (Sunday Leader, Sri Lanka) by phone