During the recent military campaign in Sri Lanka, this newspaper was broadly sympathetic to the Sri Lankan government's goal of confronting and subduing the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE, also known as the Tamil Tigers), the guerilla-cum-terrorist force seeking to carve out a Tamil homeland in the northern and eastern parts of Sri Lanka. As in any war, there were civilian casualties – but we urged our readers to keep in mind the fact that the LTTE was using hundreds of thousands of Tamil civilians as human shields, and so it – not the government – was primarily responsible for their deaths.

But the war in Sri Lanka is now over: The Tamil Tigers' last remaining forces were destroyed by the Sri Lankan military in May, and the group's leader, Velupillai Prabhakaran, was killed.

Sri Lanka is no longer a country under siege, as it had been since the rise of the Tigers in the 1980s. Rather, it is now becoming a "normal" country -- albeit one whose peace is fragile, and whose Tamil minority is restive.

This means that Sri Lanka must now be judged by the human-rights standards that typically govern developing countries. And by those standards, the country's recent conduct should be of great concern. According to UN figures, over 280,000 people -- about 10% of the country's Tamil population -- are still being detained in 30 military-guarded camps. While we do not believe the overheated theory currently making the rounds among Canadian Tamils that the Sri Lankan government is seeking to ethnically cleanse the nation, Colombo's actions have fed Tamil suspicions that they are destined to remain second-class citizens.

As journalists, we also are particularly appalled at the brutal treatment of reporters in Sri Lanka -- especially those who happen to critique the country's military. Over the last decade, about 20 journalists have been killed -- often by murderers linked to the government, the military or their supporters. In many cases, the murders were unsolved, and the government seems to have done precious little to unravel the crimes: Sri Lanka placed fifth on the recent Impunity Index circulated by the Committee to Protect Journalists. Only Iraq, Sierra Leone, Somalia and Colombia do less to track down those who murder journalists.

Even aside from these killings, there is little in the way of media freedom for critics of the government: Tamil activists and their allies have been threatened with prosecution under the country's "Prevention of Terrorism Act," or accused of the catch-all term of "treachery."

Sadly, most people in the West don't seem to care much about all this – even those activists who proclaim themselves up in arms over events in Honduras, western China and Iran. The silence from CUPE, left-wing churches, Naomi Klein, campus activists and all the other folks who boycott Israel at the first sound of gunfire in Lebanon or Gaza is especially puzzling: The human-rights abuses and overall death toll in Sri Lanka are orders of magnitude above those witnessed in the recent Sri Lanka fighting. Press freedom, moreover, is vigilantly protected in Israel, a country where the most vicious criticism of the state, and even of Zionism itself, routinely appears in the country's media.

So why is it that Israel is the world's bete noire while Sri Lanka was recently commended by the UN Human Rights Council following its victory over the LTTE? Apparently, some humans' human rights count for more than others.

Given its large Tamil population and commitment to human rights, Canada is the right country to ensure that the plight of Sri Lankan Tamils is on the world's radar screen. The war in that country is over. Colombo no longer has any excuse for its brutal policies.

The head of an all party panel set up by Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapakse to seek an ever elusive southern consensus on the Tamil national question and buy time to conduct war has said the panel has come up with a home grown solution with no absolute devolution.

Science and Technology Minister, Prof. Tissa Vitharana whos is also the chairman of the All Party Representative Committee (APRC) told local media "It is an indigenous method that would work out a solution for our country. However, there would not be absolute devolution of power"

Vitharana also announced that the panel’s proposals will not fall in line with the 13th Amendment to the Constitution, which is a result of the 1987 Indo-Lanka agreement and therefore not ‘home grown’.

Whilst many international actors including the United States see the 13^th amendment as a first step for Sri Lanka sharing power with the Tamils, the Rajapakse administration is not interested in the 13^th amendment which is already in the Sri Lankan constitution and requires only the implementation.

Rajapakse administration’s intentions on the 13^th amendment were made clear when it demerged the North-eastern province despite protests from India.

According to Vitharana, the APRC proposes the abolishing of the Executive Presidency and reverting to the Westminster system. It also proposes the setting up of a Commission that functions under the purview of the central government to determine and monitor policies with regard to land and water.

The APRC has looked at the formation of a village committee system and a second chamber consisting of representatives from the nine provinces, according got its chairman.

Vitharana explained that following a series of discussions, the APRC has prepared a draft of its final proposals that would be submitted for endorsement from the parties that were represented in the APRC.

The first copy of the draft is to be presented to Rajapakse, who is the head of the SLFP, for his observations.

"After the President is handed over the first draft, the other parties that were in the APRC would be given copies of the draft to receive the views

of their respective party leaders," Vitharana said.

Once the APRC receives the observations made by each party, it would be discussed and the final report would be prepared with the signatures of all member parties.

The APRC was appointed in 2006 to work out a power devolution formula to resolve the national question.

The APRC is attended by only two opposition political parties, the SLMC and the Democratic People’s Front from the opposition. The main opposition UNP, the JVP and the TNA do not attend the APRC sessions.

So far it had had over 100 deliberations with no significant progress.

Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapakse has appointed more military top brass to a number of top and strategic positions in the government and promoted more officers including three Brigadiers to the rank of Major Generals and 46 Colonels as Brigadiers.

As part of Government’s move to offer senior posts to military officials, Major General Asoka Thoradeniya of the Military Police has been appointed as Chairman of the Ceylon Petroleum Corporation, Major General A R A T Soysa has been appointed managing director of the Ceylon Petroluem Storage Terminals, Artillery General, V R Silva, has been appointed Commissioner General of Prisons and Brig Udaya Perera, former Director or Army Operations, has been made Deputy High Commissioner in Malaysia.

These latest appointments follows, the appointment of former navy chief, Admiral Wasantha Karannagoda, as Secretary of the Highways Ministry, Major General G A Chandrasiri, as Governor of the Northern Province and Major General Jagath Dias as Deputy High Commissioner to Germany.

The appointment of military men to top civil posts shows Rajapakse’s growing dependency on the military to run the country according to analysts.

In addition to military men being appointed top civil posts, there have also been numerous promotions since the end of war.

Former General Officer of Command (GOC) of the 55 Division, Brigadier Prasanna Silva, present 53 Division GOC, Brigadier Chagi Gallage and Director Operations of Army Head Quarters, Brigadier Shavendra Silva are the latest officers to be promoted as Major Generals, sources in Colombo said.

These officers had served in Vanni war front during the military operations against the Liberation Tigers.

45 year old Brigadier Shavendra Silva was the youngest military officer to be promoted to the rank of Major General. Meanwhile, 46 Colonels who served during the war at the front have been promoted to the rank of Brigadier.

A few weeks ago major changes took place in the SLA with the appointment of the new Army Commander.

Jaffna Commander Major General Mendaka Samarasinghe took over as Chief of Staff Army Headquarters.

Major General Jammika Liyanage took over as Commandant of SLA Volunteer Force while Major General Aruna Jayatilake assumed duties as Adjutant General Army Headquarters.

Major General Rajitha Silva took over as Commander Jaffna.

Sri Lanka's President and Commander-in-Chief of the armed forces, Mahinda Rajapaksa, on the occasion of Esala Perahera, the Sri Lankan Buddhist festival that commemorates the scared tooth of Buddha, has granted an special amnesty for 1,933 Sri Lanka Army (SLA) deserters including SLA officers released from several prisons, Sri Lankan police authorities said on Tuesday, July 28 .

270 SLA soldiers and 14 officers were released from Welikada. 3 officers and 30 soldiers from Boosa and 27 soldiers from Galle were released under the Perahera amnesty granted to them.

Meanwhile, the Sri Lankan military offered another amnesty to the tens of thousands deserters.

Brigadier Udaya Nanayakkara said troops who were absent without leave could report back to their units and be officially discharged without penalty.

"They must bring all their documents and return whatever is due to the army and then they will be granted an honourable discharge," Nanayakkara told AFP.

In 2001, the army had about 51,000 deserters on its books. According to a Sri Lankan Ministry of Justice and Law Reforms official, there are over  65,000 deserters at large.

The latest amnesty offers comes 2 months after government forces ended the island's bloody civil war. Despite the end of the fighting, the military wants to recruit new troops to fill vacancies and to be deployed in areas of the north and east captured from the Tamil Tigers.

The New York-based group Human Rights Watch on Tuesday pressed for an international probe into the killings in Sri Lanka of 17 local employees of a French charity three years ago.

HRW marked the anniversary of the execution-style murders of the Action Against Hunger (ACF) workers in Sri Lanka's northeastern town of Muttur with a scathing attack on the country's leaders.

The group accused the government of grossly mishandling the investigation into the deaths of local employees of the Action Against Hunger group.

"Since the ACF massacre, the (President Mahinda) Rajapakse government has put on an elaborate song and dance to bedazzle the international community into believing justice is being done," said HRW director James Ross.

"It's time the UN and concerned governments say 'the show is over' and put into place a serious international inquiry."

"Instead of doing all it can to get justice for this horrific crime, the Sri Lankan government is further traumatising the victims' families by trying to shift the blame to others."

ACF itself has demanded an international investigation after a government probe failed to identify any suspects.

The call came last month after a Sri Lankan investigation cleared the military of killing the 17 employees of the charity, but ordered more compensation for the families of the victims.

HRW said that an international inquiry was needed into the murders. Sixteen of the victims were ethnic Tamils.

Thirteen men and four women who worked on water sanitation and farm projects for ACF were found shot dead in an area where government troops and the Liberation Tigers were fighting.

Nordic peace monitors at the time blamed the killings – the worst attack on aid workers since the bombing of the UN headquarters in Baghdad in August 2003 – on government forces.

The government has denied any role.

The commission blamed the killings on either the Tamil Tigers or auxiliary police known as home guards. Its full report to President Mahinda Rajapaksa remains unpublished.

But HRW says that this report was based primarily on "limited witness testimony" from people who said that the armed forces were not in the vicinity at the time.

Excerpts from the commission's final report posted on the Sri Lankan Ministry of Defense website sharply criticize the role of local organizations in the ACF inquiry.

These organizations provided legal support for witnesses and made a number of written submissions on the case, HRW noted in a press release.

The commission stated that the "main function" of seven named nongovernmental organizations was to "attempt to discredit every possible institution and authority of this country before the Commission, and attempt to hold one party responsible for the gruesome crime.... They appeared not to ascertain the truth but to engage in a fault finding exercise of the security forces of Sri Lanka."

The commission said the groups adopted "a suspiciously narrow outlook" and engaged in a "preconceived plan or conspiracy to discredit the Commission ... for the consumption of some of the international organizations."

Human Rights Watch said that such accusations, made in the current context of continuing threats and physical assaults against media and civil society groups labeled "traitorous" or otherwise anti-government, place individuals and organizations at serious risk.

Colombo appointed 11 foreign diplomats and dignitaries to supervise the probe, but they pulled out in April 2008 saying the investigation did not meet minimum international standards.

"On the third anniversary of the murder of 17 aid workers, the Sri Lankan government is no closer to uncovering the truth or prosecuting those responsible," said Ross.

"Instead, the government is using the atrocity to threaten local rights groups, intimidate the victims' families, and score political points against the French government."

The Sri Lankan government is putting pressure on the families of murdered aid workers to seek compensation from the charity that had employed the 17 individuals at the time of their murder.

The families were sent letters by the Sri Lankan government, which seek more compensation from Action Contra la Faim (ACF), reported the BBC.

The authorities deny the letters exist, but the BBC reports that it has seen copies of them.

The relatives have told the BBC that they do not want to press for more compensation from the French charity.

There was an outcry when the 17 aid workers were killed in 2006. The aid staff - all but one of them ethnic Tamils - were working on tsunami relief projects in the north-eastern town of Muttur when they were killed on 4 August 2006.

Critics say Sri Lanka has a long history of failing to prosecute rights abuses.

Nordic monitors overseeing a truce in the country's civil war at the time blamed security forces, who denied the charge.

Earlier this month, Sri Lanka's top human rights panel cleared the army, pinning the killings on Tamil Tiger (LTTE) or Muslim home guards.

The commission of inquiry also said compensation already paid to victims' families of about 400,000 Sri Lanka rupees (about $3,480) was "totally inadequate".

A number of relatives of the murdered aid workers say they do not want to sign the government's letters, while others have refused to comment due to what their lawyers described as fear of intimidation, the BBC reported.

"Money will not help us. We cannot get our relatives back anyway," one family member of the victims told the BBC.

The BBC claimed to have seen three letters seeking more compensation from ACF, reporting that the letters were handed to the victims' families on 19 July at a government administration office in the eastern town of Trincomalee. They were due to be signed and handed back by Saturday 25 July.

One letter was addressed to the French ambassador in Sri Lanka, a second to the country's attorney general.

"We the heirs of the deceased are aware of the interest France and the French government has taken in human rights aspects especially in the... commission of inquiry into the killing in Muttur of 17 aid workers," the letter addressed to the French ambassador said.

"Therefore we trust that the French government will take necessary steps to oversee the payment of due compensation to the kinsmen/ women of the deceased."

A third letter seen by the BBC commended President Rajapaksa for investigating the killings.

"We are extremely grateful to Your Excellency for appointing a commission of inquiry and ensuring that justice prevailed," the letter said.

"We agree with the findings of the commission that the deaths were caused by the LTTE and the compensation as determined must be paid by ACF," it said.

A senior government official denied any knowledge of such letters being issued.

Rajiva Wijesinghe, secretary to the ministry of human rights and disaster management, told BBC Sinhala that ACF had done a "very bad thing" by "forcing" its staff to work close to the battlefield.

"Some workers were even denied leave by ACF. They were forced to go towards the battlefield while many other aid workers were leaving the area," he said.

He added that the compensation paid by ACF "for their own wrongdoing" was inadequate.

There was no immediate response from the charity, which has accused Sri Lanka's government of lacking the will to find those responsible for murdering its staff.

It is not clear whether any of the families has returned the signed documents to the authorities.

Sri Lanka will not allow reporters into Vavuniya and Jaffna to cover the local government elections to be held there on Saturday, the Associated Press reported. “The government did not give a reason for banning reporters, but it cites security reasons for denying entry to any outsider,” AP reported. The towns are accessible with Defence ministry permission and “even residents can't leave without permission,” AP report said. Meanwhile, an elections watchdog, PAFFREL (People’s Action for Free and Fair Elections) said there seemed to be little public interest in the polls as people were preoccupied with the plight of their relatives in government’s military-run internment camps.

The government has touted Saturday's polls in the two northern cities as the first sign of democracy taking root in an area ravaged by the decades long civil war that ended in May. The two cities are just outside the de facto state the LTTE ran in the north.

Both cities, where Tamils are the majority, remain surrounded by checkpoints and are accessible only with permission from the Defence Ministry, the AP reported.

Reporters will not be allowed into the cities to report on the elections - the first in the cities since 1998 - and will have to rely on government handouts, said Lakshman Hulugalle, the head of the government's security information centre.

However, despite the ban, ruling party officials have taken some journalists to the area to cover their campaign events.

Meanwhile, elections watchdog PAFFREL’s Executive Deputy Director, Rohan Hettiarachchi, told a media conference in Colombo Monday: "Our observation is that the people of both these areas do not have much interest on these elections."

Hettiarachchi said that people of Vavuniya local government area are more concerned about their relatives in welfare camps for the internally displaced people.

He said that people of Vavuniya local government area are more concerned about their relatives in welfare camps for the internally displaced people, The Island newspaper reported.

Of the 100,417 voters within Jaffna Municipality, about 40 per cent are living outside the area. Of those who are living outside the Municipal Council area, only 7,100 have made applications to cast their votes.

"When it comes to regional issues, Clinton should make the case that the expanding US-Indian relationship gives Indian leaders more strategic flexibility.
They can stop trying to match their Chinese counterparts in backing regimes, such as those in Burma and Sri Lanka, that have committed gross human-rights abuses against their own people. If a shared respect for democratic values forms the foundation for the burgeoning US-India partnership, Indian leaders should be able to heed any such counsel from Clinton," the Saturday July 18, editorial in Boston Globe said.

Full text of the editorial follows:

Clinton’s architectural plan

IF THERE is any part of the developing world that has bright prospects for stability and prosperity, it is southern and eastern Asia. Yet Asia also has the potential to become the battleground for a destructive confrontation between rising powers India and China. So Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s trip to India this weekend should allow her to gauge the chances for what she recently called a new “architecture of cooperation.’’

India presents both the most promising and the most challenging test case for cooperative relations with the emerging powers of the 21st century. The US-India nuclear deal negotiated by the Bush administration has provoked anxieties in some quarters about a dangerous precedent for nuclear proliferation, but the deal has indisputably cleared the way for a closer relationship between Washington and New Delhi.

Under the agreement, India can now buy nuclear fuel and technology from the United States for its 14 civilian reactors. Opponents have warned that the deal could enable India to divert domestically produced nuclear fuel to its eight military reactors. On the plus side, however, India must now allow intrusive IAEA inspections of its civilian nuclear facilities, continue observing its moratorium on the testing of nuclear weapons, enhance the security of its nuclear stockpile, and work with Washington to negotiate a Fissile Material Cutoff Treaty that would prohibit the production of fuel for nuclear weapons.

Now that the nuclear accord is a done deal and the Congress Party of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has won a smashing victory in recent parliamentary elections, Clinton can address other outstanding issues in US-Indian relations. These include pending defense agreements between the two nations’ militaries, cooperation in the fight against terrorism, more educational exchanges, more US visas for Indians with advanced skills, and, perhaps most important of all, a meeting of minds on the need for coordinated actions to reduce the danger of catastrophic climate change.

When it comes to regional issues, Clinton should make the case that the expanding US-Indian relationship gives Indian leaders more strategic flexibility. They can stop trying to match their Chinese counterparts in backing regimes, such as those in Burma and Sri Lanka, that have committed gross human-rights abuses against their own people. If a shared respect for democratic values forms the foundation for the burgeoning US-India partnership, Indian leaders should be able to heed any such counsel from Clinton.

She could tell her Indian interlocutors that friends don’t let friends become the enablers of abusive neighbors.

Sri Lanka is planning to boost its naval power with the introduction of a coast guard department, an air wing for the Navy and more ships with missile capabilities, according to Sri Lankan officials.

The announcement follows plans by Sri Lankan army to increase its troops numbers by 50% to 300,000.

Newly appointed Navy Commander Thisara Samarasinghe on Thursday July 16 said he expects to form a naval air wing for the Navy and also have more ships with missile capabilities.

“The naval air wing is not a dire necessity but it is a requirement in any future event,” Vice Admiral Samarasinghe who assumed duties as the 16th Navy Commander on Wednesday July 15 said in his inaugural news conference held at Navy Headquarters.

He further said the Navy had four war ships that could carry helicopters in each vessel.

“But we don’t have helicopters for these vessels, although we have vessels for the purpose.

Samarasinghe also said the Navy needed missile technologies for the naval ships.

“We have two war ships suitable for missile launching operations, but we don’t have that facility as those equipment are very expensive,” he said adding that “navies of other neighbouring countries possessed the missile technologies in their naval ships.”

Sri Lanka has asked aid agencies to scale down operations on the island. The government claims that now it has claimed victory over the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), there is no longer a need for agencies like the Red Cross. 

The move has raised concerns among aid groups about the care of the 300,000 Tamils who were uprooted during the last phase of the fighting that ended in May and are now being held in government-run concentration camps.

Although the government has announced its intention to dismantle the so-called "welfare villages" as soon as possible and plans to return the displaced in six months, aid workers are worried about Sri Lanka's treatment of its displaced, according to press reports.

These concerns include the lack of access to camps, continuing restrictions on aid going into the camps and the lack of movement to resettle the inmates of the camps.

Aid workers have complained about a lack of access to the camps which are run by the military. Sri Lanka’s military has already been accused by rights groups of abuses against the Tamil population, and are known for their poor record in dealing with civilian populations, both in Sri Lanka and overseas – Sri Lankan soldiers on a UN mission in Haiti were accused of rape and running prostitution rings, while Tamils have documented numerous instances of human rights abuses including rape, torture, disappearances and murder.

Many aid workers view the government's call for a scaling down of aid operations as a deliberate move to prevent outsiders from witnessing conditions inside the camps, saying that the lack of free movement for the displaced in the camps is tantamount to arbitrary detention.

Aid workers and rights groups are also concerned about violations such as abductions and disappearances that are reportedly taking place in the camps.

Separately, many aid workers say their ability to work continues to be hampered by the government denying visas to colleagues, interfering in recruitment and setting out rules that lead to a quick turnover of staff.

The restrictions on the types and quantity of goods that can enter the camps is an further hindrance they say.

According to a report in The Times, the government has imposed a 0.9 per cent tax on all funding for aid groups, saying the tax is designed to crack down on non-governmental organisations (NGOs) that abused Sri Lankan law and squandered their funds on their own staff after the tsunami.

Aid workers are also concerned the Colombo government intends to keep the camps running indefinitely despite its vow to resettle most of the displaced in six months.

They say the government has been pushing for semi-permanent structures to be built in the camps and are worried the government may use slow progress on de-mining as a pretext for stopping people from going back home.

Rights groups say the government needs to have a more comprehensive plan to return and resettle all internal refugees in the country, including those displaced in previous phases of the conflict.

Some aid workers have even questioned whether it is worth staying in Sri Lanka given the restrictions on their activities, saying Sri Lanka is not an aid dependent country. 

Hundreds of thousands of Tamils remain locked in camps almost entirely off-limits to journalists, human-rights investigators and political leaders. The Sri Lankan government says the civilians are a security risk because Tamil Tiger fighters are hiding among them.

But diplomats, analysts, aid workers and many Sri Lankans worry the chance to finally bring to a close one of the world's most enduring ethnic conflicts is slipping away, as the government curtails civil rights in its efforts to stamp out the last remnants of the Tigers.

"The government told these people it would look after them," said Veerasingham Anandasangaree, a prominent Tamil politician who has been a staunch supporter of the government's fight against the Tamil Tigers. "But instead they have locked them up like animals with no date certain of when they will be released. This is simply asking for another conflict later on down the road."

The Sri Lankan government has portrayed its final battle against the 26-year insurgency by the Tamil Tigers, which ended in late May with the killing of the group's leader, Velupillai Prabhakaran, as a rescue mission to liberate civilians held hostage by one of the world's richest and most ruthless armed groups, branded terrorists by governments around the globe.

"We can't say this was a war; it was a humanitarian operation to safeguard the people of the area," President Mahinda Rajapaksa said in an interview last week. "They knew we were not against the Tamil people, against the civilians. This was only against the terrorists."

Although many of the camps' residents are grateful to the government for freeing them from the rebels, frustration and anger are building as it becomes clear that reconciliation and finding a political solution to the grievances of the Tamils and other minority groups in Sri Lanka will have to wait.

Rajapaksa said the residents of the camps, which the government refers to as "welfare villages," must be confined because anyone could be a hidden rebel. The government says about 10,000 fighters have been identified so far, most because they turned themselves in.

Doctors treating displaced Tamils in the government-run camps in Sri Lanka's north have written a letter to Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapakse complaining about the inadequate facilities and shortage of medical staff.

"It is difficult to stay in these shelters. The doctors examine patients from 7 o'clock in the morning to 7 o'clock in the night (in the Menik camps in Vavuniya). They need a proper place to sleep. The doctors do night shift.

They are virtually alone there. There is no adequate nurse or staff members," a representative of the doctors told media persons in Colombo.

Spokesman for the Government Medical Officers Association Upul Gunasekara said that only 50 doctors were available for treating over 250,000 Tamils in these camps.

The doctors even had to perform the duties of nurses as there was a shortage of medical staff, he said.

Gunasekara said though the government has increased the number of camps to minimise the congestion, it was essential to have more medical officers.

"What plans does the health ministry have to provide doctors?" he asked.

Gunasakara said the GMOA had written to President Mahinda Rajapakse requesting him to appoint a high-level committee to manage the healthcare needs of the Internally Displaced Persons living in those camps.

Meanwhile, a Sri Lankan Health Ministry official assured that measures will be taken to provide facilities for the doctors with the support of the World Health Organisation and the state pharmaceutical corporation.

The ministry spokesperson said that construction work on the two official residences for doctors serving in the Menik welfare camp in Vavuniya is near completion.

However, Gunasekara said the lives of these IDPs at the camps in Vavuniya and Chettikulam (in Vavuniya district) were at risk as the health ministry had failed to deploy enough nurses, pharmacists, family health workers and midwives in the welfare centres.

Though services of 300 nurses were required for the camps, only five to 10 nurses had been deployed and that too without adequate pharmacists, he said.

Doctors serving in IDPs were taking high risks and some of them had contracted typhoid fever, chicken pox and some respiratory diseases, Gunasekera said.

Last week, around 5,000 IDPs were found to be suffering from chicken pox and doctors were treating them without assistance of adequate nurses, he added.

Strong support from India at the IMF board and the need to match China’s growing clout in the island nation have resulted in the US giving up its opposition to the international funding agency’s extending a $2.5 billion standby facility to Sri Lanka.

Sunday Island reported that IMF Executive Board would meet on July 24 to sanction the facility following the submission of a letter of intent by Sri Lanka agreeing to abide by certain conditions imposed by the funding agency.

On May 14, at the height of the war against the separatist Tamil Tigers, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton had said that it was not appropriate for the IMF to give a loan to Sri Lanka in the absence of a resolution of the conflict.

The US was leading a Western campaign to secure a ceasefire. But recently, after the war, a top US official met the Sri Lankan Foreign Secretary to say that his government had, at no stage, campaigned against the grant of the loan to Sri Lanka and that the IMF was guided by economic considerations alone.

According to Sunday Island reason for the softening of the US attitude was Sri Lanka’s apparent willingness to carry out some structural reforms in its financial system and its impeccable record in loan repayment.

However, some analysts feel that the US may be influenced by a Sino-Indian factor too. Sunday Island noted that the Indian member on the IMF board, who represents a group of countries including Sri Lanka, had been strongly advocating Sri Lanka’s case.

Then there is China’s increasing economic clout and a growing strategic interest in Sri Lanka, which has made Washington sit up. Like India, the US may be veering round to the view that the only way to prevent Sri Lanka from going wholly under Chinese influence is to meet Sri Lanka’s demands.

The paper pointed out that it was when the West was putting heavy pressure on Sri Lanka to give in to the LTTE’s demand for a ceasefire, that China signed an agreement to give Sri Lanka a $1.2 billion long term soft loan for a huge housing project. The Exim Bank of China issued a letter of interest in funding the Matara-Kataragama railway.

This railway would help build up the hinterland of the Chinese-built mega port at Humbantota in the deep south of the island.

Sri Lanka has cancelled a $200 million purchase of ammunition from Pakistan and China after the end of its war with the Tamil Tigers, the island nation's new top military commander said on Wednesday, July 15.

"We stopped the orders of $200 million worth of ammunition from China and Pakistan with the war's end," Fonseka said after assuming his new post.

The main component of the orders was for replenishment of large quantities of expendables like artillery shells, mortars, bombs and assorted varieties of ammunition. The order would have been enough ammunition to fire guns and heavy weapons at the rate seen during the climax of the war, which ended in mid May, according to Fonseka.

Fonseka said the Chinese order was cancelled because there was no need to stock ammunition for heavy guns after the victory over the LTTE.

Defence spending in 2009 was estimated at Sri Lanka Rs. 200 billion ($1.74 billion), accounting for 17 per cent of the country’s total expenditure.

The Sunday Times, a Colombo based newspaper commenting on the cancellation said t is clear that the Government did not expect the military defeat of the LTTE so early, certainly not just two months ago.

“Both defence and security officials had earlier set time frames of two and three years to defeat the LTTE. More proof came this week when the Government decided to cancel orders worth US$ 200 million for defence supplies both from China and Pakistan, which have been two of the largest suppliers.”

Sri Lanka's military and police, with a combined strength of 350,000, won one of the Asia's longest modern wars and declared victory over the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam in mid May.