Chinese aid grew last year to nearly $1 billion, eclipsing Sri Lanka’s longtime biggest donor, Japan. India’s aid reached $500 million.

Britain will be pressing Sri Lanka’s hardline government for greater access for senior UN officials and would join European allies in taking a stronger position against Colombo over human rights abuses.

In a meeting with Tamil Diaspora representatives at the British Foreign Office on February 25, Foreign Minister Lord Malloch-Brown said he would personally be attending the UN Human Rights Council meeting in Geneva to press the point.

International Human Rights Monitoring Mission Urgently Needed

“They started beating Thiyagarajah. They took his T-shirt off and stuffed it into his mouth. The neighbors came out to help, but they pushed them away. His wife was crying and shouting, and they hit her with a gun butt. She was nine months pregnant. They were accusing Thiyagarajah of having bombs in the house, and forced him to dig the ground around the house. They searched the house, turning everything upside down, but didn’t find anything.

Amid numerous reports of small victories and LTTE casualties—all undoubtedly exaggerated—the military has failed to gain a great deal of ground.

Reacting to Kosovo's declaration of independence, Sri Lanka's Ambassador to the United Nations warns his government: never withdraw the armed forces from the Tamil areas and never permit a foreign presence in the country

Demands for self-rule and independence stem not from isolationist tendencies, but a desperation to escape state repression.

Imagine a country whose greatest asset truly is its people. A country in which over a third of its citizens speak fluently one or more of English, French, German, Spanish, Norwegian, Danish, Swedish, Dutch, Creole, Zulu and many more, in addition to speaking the worlds oldest living classical language, Tamil.

Based on field trip between 10 and 14 December 2007, the author continues to query the much heralded liberation of the East in this the second of a three part series.

A thematic history of the causes of the ethnic conflict in Sri Lankan was set out in the Appendix to the 2003  report on Sri Lanka by the World Bank. This is reproduced below.


Background

The third of a three-part series looking at a Tamil treasure.

The second of a three-part series looking at this Tamil treasure.

What has the international community been doing in Sri Lanka?

Allow space for the Tamil Diaspora to provide much needed humanitarian assistance to their people'