20,000 Tamil civilians killed in final weeks of Sri Lanka war: Report

September 23rd, 2009 NEW YORK - India has pressed for quicker rehabilitation and resettlement of some 300,000 Tamils displaced in Sri Lanka. External Affairs Minister S.M.

August 19th, 2009 LONDON - A report prepared by the Commons Committee on Arms Export Controls has revealed that British weapons may have been used against Tamil civilians in Sri Lanka, and now, this is prompting calls for a review of the arms trade. According to The Times, the committee has argued that all existing licenses to Sri Lanka should be investigated.

August 6th, 2009 CHENNAI - Tamil Nadu Government on Thursday sent the fourth installment of relief material worth Rs 15 crores for Tamil civilians in Sri Lanka, who are confined to displacement camps. More than 2,80,000 civilians are held in sprawling camps in the north since May, when government troops crushed the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) to end a 25-year-old war.

July 5th, 2009 COLOMBO - A lone Tamil rebel killed a soldier in eastern Sri Lanka and injured two in a shootout marking the first military casualties after the guerrilla leadership was crushed six weeks ago, a military spokesman said Sunday. The incident took place in Kirankulam, Batticaloa, 300 km east of the capital when soldiers attempted to ambush a rebel riding a canoe in a lagoon Saturday.

June 1st, 2009 NEW DELHI - A former major general of the Indian Peacekeeping Force (IPKF) that was sent to Sri Lanka to rein in the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Ealam in the middle 1980s, has accused the Indian Government of complicity in the killing of an estimated 20,000 civilians in the last stages of the Sri Lankan Army's offensive against the rebels. "We were complicit in this last phase of the offensive when a great number of civilians were killed.

May 31st, 2009 Sri Lanka says it's poised for economic takeoffSINGAPORE — Sri Lanka is poised for an "economic takeoff" now that its military has routed the Tamil Tiger rebels, the country's foreign minister said Sunday. Rohitha Bogollagama told a high-level security and defense conference that the government's priorities now are reconciliation with the Tamil minority in the Sinhalese-majority country, rehabilitation of Tamil civilians and holding free and fair elections.

May 30th, 2009 COLOMBO - The Government of Sri Lanka has denounced a report by The Times of London on Friday that said "more than 20,000 Tamil civilians were killed in the final throes of the Sri Lankan civil war, most as a result of government shelling." The English newspaper's estimate was based on an analysis of "aerial photographs, official documents, witness accounts and expert testimony," relied in part on an anonymous United Nations source and what the paper called "confidential United Nations documents." Sri Lankan officials, however, rejected the report and U.N. officials told The New York Times, The Guardian and The BBC that they have no good estimate of the number of civilians killed in the final weeks of fighting and questioned the methodology.

May 29th, 2009 COLOMBO - Over 20,000 Tamil civilians were killed in the final throes of the Sri Lankan civil war, most of them victims of indiscriminate government troop shelling, an investigation by The Times has revealed. The number of casualties is three times the official figure, the paper reports.

May 28th, 2009 COLOMBO - The parents of the now dead Tamil Tigers chief Velupillai Prabhakaran are in the "protective custody" of the Sri Lankan government, a media report said Thursday. Thiruvenkatam Velupillai (76) and his wife Parvathi (71) surrendered to the army several days ago, The Island newspaper quoted a government official as saying.

May 18th, 2009 COLOMBO - The Sri Lanka army has claimed to have killed three senior Tamil Tiger leaders, as its fight against the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam continued in the northern part of Sri Lanka on Monday. Sri Lanka's government said troops were engaged in "final brushing up" hours after a website linked to the rebels said the Tigers were laying down arms.

May 11th, 2009 LONDON - Traffic outside the British parliament in central London was brought to a standstill Monday after hundreds of Sri Lankan Tamils staged a sit-in to protest the reported massacre of more than 400 Tamil civilians in their homeland. Sri Lankan Tamils have been protesting outside the British parliament in Westminster for weeks, but have so far been confined to Parliament Square - a grassy patch across the road from the parliament buildings.

May 8th, 2009 LONDON - British-born Tamil singer M.I.A. wants US talk show host queen Oprah Winfrey to help her to highlight the attacks on civilians in Sri Lanka.

April 25th, 2009 Rebels warn of starvation in Sri LankaCOLOMBO, Sri Lanka — The Tamil Tiger rebels say that tens of thousands of civilians trapped in Sri Lanka's northern war zone are at imminent risk of starvation. The rebels said in a statement Saturday that food stocks in the northeastern war zone had dwindled and urged the international community to push the government to allow food shipments to enter.

April 22nd, 2009 New Zealand calls for halt to Sri Lanka fightingWELLINGTON, New Zealand — New Zealand on Wednesday joined international calls for Sri Lankan government forces and Tamil Tiger rebels to allow tens of thousands of trapped civilians to leave the conflict zone safely. Foreign Minister Murray McCully said civilians were caught in a "perilous" situation and must be allowed to escape.

April 20th, 2009 Sri Lanka army: 5,000 war zone civilians rescuedCOLOMBO, Sri Lanka — The military says troops have rescued more than 5,000 civilians from the small sliver of territory in northern Sri Lanka where remaining Tamil rebels are making their last stand. The military has designated the area a "no-fire" zone to protect what the United Nations estimates are 100,000 civilians trapped there.