‘Stop artillery attacks on civilians’, HRW asks Sri Lanka

NEW YORK: A leading international watchdog has asked the Sri Lankan government to “immediately cease” its indiscriminate artillery attacks on civilians in the northern Vanni region and review its policy of detaining displaced persons in internment camps.

In a report released on Saturday, Human Rights Watch (HRW) said since early January 2009, civilian casualties have skyrocketed in the fighting between the Sri Lankan armed forces and the separatist Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE).

The 45-page report, HRW said, is based on a two-week fact-finding mission to Vanni region of northern Sri Lanka in February. The government has prohibited journalists and human rights monitors from going to the battle zone in the Vanni, making access to information difficult.

“This ‘war’ against civilians must stop,” said James Ross, legal and policy director at Human Rights Watch. “Sri Lankan forces are shelling hospitals and so-called safe zones and slaughtering the civilians there.”

Human Rights Watch also called on the LTTE to allow civilians to leave the war zone, stop shooting at those who try to flee to government-controlled territory, and cease deploying forces near populated areas.

Human Rights Watch said that both the Sri Lankan army and the LTTE were responsible for the dramatic increase in civilian casualties during the past month, approximately 2,000 killed and another 5,000 wounded, according to independent monitors on the ground.

source : jang.com.pk

Sri Lanka focused on Jayawardene farewell

KARACHI: Sri Lanka test regular Thilan Samaraweera wants to use the cricket tour to Pakistan as an opportunity to send outgoing captain Mahela Jayawardene off on a high note.

“Everyone knows his record as a captain, which is brilliant in both test cricket and one-day cricket,” Samaraweera said Monday. “I think we will give a good farewell to him as a captain.”

Jayawardene, 31, has announced he will quit as captain at the end of the second test at Lahore on March 5. The first test will be played at Karachi from Feb. 21. Jayawardene has struck 24 test centuries–11 as captain—and overall has scored 7,959 runs in 100 tests at an average of 52.36

Jayawardene announces to quit as Sri Lanka captain

COLOMBO: Mahela Jayawardene has announced here on Wednesday to resign as captain of the Sri Lanka's cricket team and said that the upcoming Test series in Pakistan would be his last series as captain.

The 31-year-old batsman said he has decided to resign in the best interest of the Sri Lankan cricket.

Jayawardene said that he has taken the decision after thoroughly considering it and it was the right time to leave the captaincy.

He said that the captaincy should be handed over to a young player for going into preparations for the 2011 World Cup.

Jayawardene said that the two-Test series in Pakistan would be his last series as captain.

Suicide blast kills 28 at Sri Lanka refugee camp

COLOMBO: A female Tamil Tiger suicide bomber killed 28 people on Monday at a camp for civilians who have fled Sri Lanka's ethnic war, the military said, as the rebels faced imminent defeat.

The bomber detonated her explosives as she was being searched by women soldiers outside the camp near Visuamadu, a northern area the military recently captured from the rebels, military spokesman Brigadier Udaya Nanayakkara said.

"Twenty soldiers including three women soldiers were killed," he said. "Another eight civilians were killed and 40 civilians were wounded." Dozens of injured troops were also rushed to hospital.

Nanayakkara blamed the attack on Tamil Tiger rebels, whose decades-long armed campaign for an independent homeland has recently suffered huge territorial losses as a result of a major army offensive.

"This attack is aimed at slowing down the army's advance," Nanayakkara told reporters here. He added that the Tigers were trying to discourage civilians from crossing over to government-held areas.

The United Nations and the US government condemned the attack. "Those killed had already been forced from their homes by fighting, and had endured terrible hardships," the UN said in a statement.

"The UN reiterates that civilians must be distinguished from combatants, and protected from the fighting. "It calls once again on the LTTE (Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam) to separate its forces from civilians under its control."