On International Women’s Day (March 8), the Global Tamil Women Forum (GTWF) appealed to international governments, parliamentarians, institutions and human rights defenders over the plight of Tamil women in Sri Lanka.

The appeal urged the international community to ensure:

“Our failure to acknowledge male rape leaves it in the shadows, compounding the humiliation that survivors experience. For instance, the majority of Tamil males in Sri Lanka who were sexually assaulted during that country’s long civil war did not report it to the authorities at the time, later explaining that they were simply too ashamed.

Amongst the changes to atttract foreign investment, Sri Lanka is to abolish its standard tool for this – long tax holidays for those prepared to invest.

Sarath Amunugama, senior minister for international monetary co-operation, says it’s his idea:

“The brutal attacks on fishermen who stray into Sri Lankan waters has given ordinary Indians a brief glimpse of the lack of accountability of Sri Lanka's security forces, and the unresponsiveness of the Rajapakse government to serious abuses.

Sri Lanka could be hauled before a war crimes tribunal over the killing of “many thousands of civilians” in the final months in 2009 of its armed conflict.

The warning by US Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asian Affairs, Robert Blake, came in an interview with AFP Monday.

The Tamil National Alliance (TNA) was quoted Sunday as saying the party was hopeful of reaching an understanding on power sharing with the Sri Lankan government at talks this week.

See the Sunday Times report here

See WSWS's photo gallery here, taken on the once heavily fought for A9 highway through Vanni to Jaffna.

Whilst Sri Lanka and its international allies labour to present an image of emerging 'post-conflict' normalcy - and even of 'reconciliation' in the offing - events in Jaffna this week made clear the country's future is exactly the reverse. The military's desecration of the ashes of LTTE leader Vellupillai Pirapaharan's mother, and its anxious, violent efforts in preceding days to prevent public mourning of her death underline not only the popular sentiment amongst Tamils, but the state's unshakable insecurity. In short, the seventy-year long antagonism between the Sinhala ethnocracy and the Tamil people will endure and grow. This is not a matter of ancient hatreds, but of state policy and the politics to come.

“Sixes hit (by Sri Lankans) shatter the roof of the English palace and things in it tumble.”

- verse from Sri Lanka’s official song for the cricket World Cup.

“In the one and a half year period [since the end of the war] there has not been evidence of higher foreign direct investment, in fact foreign direct investment has declined rather than increased.