Sri Lanka

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  • Fewer Western tourists visit

    Nov 14
    Holidaymakers to Sri Lanka fell 12.0 percent for the 12 months to October, the Sri Lanka Tourist Board said last, amidst soaring violence in the island’s North and East.

    Sri Lanka greeted 38,815 visitors in October, the largest monthly decline since December 2005.

    However, cumulative arrivals from Jan to Oct rose 7.4 percent to 482,787.
  • Driven away

    Tourists won’t put up with bombs and random violence.

    I am writing this on my laptop in the thatched dining area of our cabanas in Tangalle, Sri Lanka, safe in the knowledge that we are the only guests here.

    Given the rising level of violence, and the refusal of both sides to make concessions in peace talks, it is no surprise that tourists haven’t exactly been flocking to this fabled isle.

  • Violent roundup – week ending Nov. 5
    Summary of incidents - apart from major clashes - since October 30

    In the week to 5 November, 40 people killed, 19 injured and another 16 disappeared across all the districts of the NorthEast. Another 5 people were arrested during this time, mainly by paramilitary cadres working with the Sri Lanka Army.

    Of the 36 incidents during the week that resulted in a death, injury or disappearance, Jaffna was the most ‘active’, with 16 incidents reported.
  • Dozens killed in naval clashes
    A Sea Tiger flotilla clashed last Thursday with the Sri Lanka Navy off the coast of Jaffna, killing 25 SLN troopers, capturing 4 others alive and destroying two Dvora Fast Attack Crafts (FACs). A third Dvora FAC was damaged. 

    Five Sea Tigers were killed in the intense naval gun battle Thursday, the LTTE said. The body of a SLN trooper was also recovered by the Tigers.

    The SLN has listed dozens of sailors as missing.

  • Army shells monitors after SLMM rules on A9
    Norway reacted angrily last week to the Sri Lankan military’s provocative firing of heavy artillery the head of the international ceasefire monitors in Sri Lanka, but later toned down the criticism.

    Last Wednesday Sri Lanka shells exploded 50m from the Head of Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission (SLMM)), Major General Lars Johan Sølvberg, when he was an official visit to the Pooneryn area of LTTE-controlled Vanni.
  • Violence in NE – week ending Nov. 12
    Summary of incidents - apart from major clashes - since November 6

    The week to 12 November saw 27 people killed, 11 injured, 3 disappeared and 8 arrested. However, these figures do not include the major incidents of violence, which saw scores of civilians and combatants killed.
  • UN: Sri Lanka military ‘recruiting child soldiers’
    A United Nations official Monday accused Sri Lankan government security forces of recruiting child soldiers on behalf of an allied paramilitary group which is also fighting Tamil Tigers.

    The special advisor to the UN Representative for Children and Armed Conflict, Allan Rock, told reporters in Colombo that he had evidence of direct involvement of troops in forcibly enlisting children for the paramilitary group.
  • Sri Lanka rejects Tamils’ NE merger call

    TNA parliamentarians protested last week outside the UN offices in Colombo, condemning violence by the Sri Lankan government.

  • Slain aid workers mourned as probe drags
    "In this kind of situation we have to be very cautious because [the investigation] can be manipulated"
  • ‘They want to wipe us Tamils out’
    Thousands flee Sri Lanka on wave of terror.
  • Sri Lanka unmoved by international criticism
    Artillery pounds a refugee camp, killing 42 and wounding 100. But Colombo brushes off international concern.
  • Operation USA: GoSL ‘blocking aid’ to Jaffna, Vaharai
    Operation USA, a large American NGO, says it is “collecting funds and pushing the US Government and the UN to take firm action to help re-open humanitarian corridors” in Sri Lanka. Demanding access to internally displaced people (IDPs), the NGO said “a contributing factor to the current tension between the Sinhalese and Tamils is the inequitable distribution of tsunami relief aid by the Government of Sri Lanka.”
  • India trains Sri Lankan jet bomber support crews
    Colombo isgoing to purchase four more aircraft from Russia.
  • Death list
    Six TNA MPs and candidates have been killed by military intelligence and associated paramilitaries since the 2002 ceasefire was signed.
  • Raviraj receives Maamanithar award
    LTTE leader Vellupillai Pirapaharan’s statement conferring the LTTE’s highest civilian award.
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