Paataali Makkal Katchi(PMK) on Monday, January 5 charged the Congress led union government of "humiliating" the government and people of Tamil Nadu state by not taking steps to ensure a ceasefire in Sri Lanka.

Tamil Nadu Assembly had passed two unanimous resolutions urging the Centre to press Sri Lankan government to enforce a ceasefire. "But the Centre had not taken any action on it," PMK founder S Ramadoss told reporters.

"By this, the Centre had humiliated the people of Tamil Nadu and the government here," he said.

"Sri Lankan government, with the help of arms from China and Pakistan and with technical support of Indian government was annihilating the Tamil race on the island," he charged.

Ramadoss, further said the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) was only a "liberation organisation like the PLO (Palestinian Liberation Organisation)".

Jan Jananayagam, an independent candidate contesting the European Parliament elections in London, secured over 50,000 votes, an unprecedented result, and a record for an independent candidate in an EU election.

Reporting on Jananayagam’s results, BBC said, Jananayagam gained more votes than some political parties in the London region and more than all the other independents in the UK put together.

Jananayagam gained 2.3% of the vote in the London region, where she was standing. That was more than established parties such as the English Democrats, the trade union-backed No2EU, the Socialist Labour Party, Libertas and Jury Team, a new umbrella group for Independents, all of which were running national campaigns and had the benefit of party political broadcasts, the BBC added.

Though Jananayagam failed to secure a seat, her campaign team said they were delighted with the results. Despite having decided to contest only days before voter registration closed and four weeks before the polls, the Tamil candidate had amassed more votes than some well-established small parties in Britain, and more than twice all other independent candidates combined, they said.

Apart from Tamil expatriates, her campaign, conducted by students and volunteers, had drawn support and donations from British voters and other minority communities.

Out of the eight London seats, the main opposition Conservative Party took three (and almost 480,000 votes) and the ruling Labour Party two (with almost 373,000 votes). One seat each went to the Liberal Democrats, the Green Party and the UK Independent Party.

The proportional representation system used to allocate MEP (Member of European Parliament) seats meant that in this election Jananayagam could have secured one with 100,000 votes, analysts felt.

Jananayagam, a Jaffna-born British citizen, had agreed to contest a few days before voter registration closed on May 19th. The UK polls were held on June 4.

“Unfortunately we were unable to get many Tamil voters registered in time. However, for four weeks of campaigning this is a great result,” a campaign leader told TamilNet.

"Also, we faced challenges in our door-to-door voter campaign as the attention of the Tamil community in London drawn to protests and to Colombo's slaughter of Tamils in Mullaiththeevu," he added.

The established parties had been campaigning for several months, sometimes years, using long-established campaign machines and with substantial budgets, he pointed out.

Candidates for the main parties, gathered with those of smaller parties and the independent candidates to hear the official announcement, expressed shock that an independent candidate could amass fifty thousand votes in London.

The next largest independent candidate was Steven Cheung, who campaigned mainly amongst London’s Chinese community and got a shade under five thousand votes.

Jananayagam had campaigned on a platform of getting the UK and EU to take action to stop genocide abroad and protect human rights and civil liberties, both at home and elsewhere. She is the UK representative for the pressure group Tamils Against Genocide (TAG).

Tamil activists said Jan’s election campaign had helped them reach out to other political forces and communities in Britain.

In the three weeks before the elections, students and volunteers campaigned door to door and also met with organisations and media from several other communities, including the Jewish, Kurdish and several Indian ones, they said.

“We were able to build strong networks with many British political groups and other communities in London, relationships that will strengthen our future advocacy work,” a student leader said.

The theme of ‘stopping genocide’ had struck a special cord with Jewish voters, some of whom also made welcome financial contributions towards the campaigns costs, he said.

Other minority communities had declared their support for Jananayagam and her campaign goals via their media, they said.

Jananayagam was not available for comment in the early hours of Monday, but a campaign representative spoke to reporters.

“Jan is grateful for the enthusiastic support extended by London’s Tamils, particularly at this crucial and difficult time for the Tamil people,” he said.

“She is especially grateful to the many, many volunteers who put so much time and energy into a campaign launched at the last minute and to everyone who spread the word through their social and professional networks.”

“She is also grateful to the many non-Tamil people who voted for her, recognizing that genocide is ongoing even in 2009, and the gap between international rhetoric and practice when it comes to human rights and civil liberties is alarmingly big. She will of course continue to campaign tirelessly on these fundamental issues.”

Government of Sri Lanka turned away the ship, MV Captain Ali, carrying relief supplies to the Tamils held in internment camps, after keeping the ship under Sri Lanka Navy (SLN) custody for nearly 4.5 days, and after admitting that the ship carried purely humanitarian supplies, a press release from the Mercy Mission Head Office in the UK said.

While the Government of Sri Lanka has been appealing for funds from the International Community to provide food and other assistance to the 300,000 Tamils being detained in the camps, it is surprising that Colombo would reject 800 tons of relief supplies, the Directors of the Mercy Mission said.

"This Mercy Mission ship, the product of the hard work of thousands of volunteers in the UK and Europe and donations from tens of thousands of Tamils throughout the world, could have been, and in fact, should have been, used by the GoSL as an opportunity to show it’s bona fides and engage with the Tamil Diaspora as a means to begin the process of reconciliation in, in the government’s words, “post-conflict” Sri Lanka," the press release said.

An ex-Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission (SLMM) monitor, Mr. Kristjan Guðmundsson, from Iceland, doctors, and humanitarian workers have accompanied the humanitarian relief on board the ship.

The Captain Ali, a Syrian-registered ship, was seized as it entered Sri

Lankan waters on June 4 by the country's navy, who suspected it  contained logistical equipment for Tamil Tigers.

After escorting the ship to Colombo, Sri Lanka detained 13 crew members and 2 passengers – including one Briton – for questioning.

"The ship had tried to enter Sri Lankan waters without following the proper procedure," a military official told reporters in Colombo.

However, later Sri Lankan authorities admitted the ship only carried a cargo of food and medicine.

"We are extremely disappointed that the Sri Lankan government has turned away this mercy mission that was only carrying aid," said Arjunan Ethirveerasingam a spokesperson for Mercey Mission.

"There are 300,000 people in internment camps in the north of the island who desperately need this aid.”

"The ship is currently headed westerly away from Colombo. When it reaches international waters we will work out how we can get the food and aid into Sri Lanka. Whether we take it to another country and ship it in containers or work with a partner organisation, we will have to decide, but we will find a way of getting the food to the people who need it." Ethirveerasingam added.

Earlier, Mercy Mission made a public appeal to the Sri Lankan government, urging it to allow Tamil Diaspora relief to be distributed to the Tamils held in internment camps in northern Sri Lanka.

“Mercy Mission (UK) implores the Government of Sri Lanka to engage with the Mercy Mission in order to overcome any paperwork errors and ensure that the emergency humanitarian relief (food & medicine) donated by the Tamil Diaspora are delivered to the internally displaced persons (IDPs) in the camps.” The appeal said.

“To that end, Mercy Mission seeks the GoSL’s permission to allow the ship and her cargo to enter into Colombo Port, be cleared appropriately, and handed over the Government Agent - Vavuniya, a local NGO, or a GoSL Ministry for distribution to the IDPs.”

“The GoSL has itself repeatedly pleaded with the international community for assistance with the humanitarian catastrophe that has overwhelmed them. With the sole objective of providing this desperately needed emergency humanitarian relief to the 300,000 IDPs in the camps and in the spirit of “engaging”, “reconciling” and “building bridges” with the Tamil Diaspora, Mercy Mission (UK) appeals to the Government of Sri Lanka to please let this assistance reach those who are in such desperate need.” The statement further said.

The world welcomes the end of the civil war that has ravaged Sri Lanka for decades. Unfortunately, questions have emerged about how the conflict was brought to a close and whether war crimes were committed in the final bloody days of fighting. The Colombo government has dismissed the allegations as unfounded; the defeat of the Tamil Tigers has overshadowed charges that the guerrillas used civilians as human shields. An investigation is required: If war crimes were committed — no matter which side is responsible — perpetrators must be held accountable. No government or rebel group must believe it is immune from the rule of law.

The Sri Lankan conflict was a long civil war that claimed 80,000 to 100,000 lives. Both sides inflicted indiscriminate damage on civilian populations — the government by resorting to artillery and air power, the rebels by their suicide attacks. The guerrillas even used Tamil compatriots as human shields.

During the last weeks of the conflict, the number of civilian casualties increased as the Tigers retreated to an ever-shrinking area. Rebels claimed civilians joined them out of fear of government forces; the government countered that the refugees had been uprooted at gunpoint. The government said civilian-occupied areas were no-fire zones for heavy artillery; the rebels insisted that pledge was a sham, providing various pieces of evidence to support their allegations. No definitive proof was available as the fighting reached its conclusion; the government kept journalists and human rights groups from the war zone, and Tamil Tiger claims were viewed with suspicion and often dismissed as propaganda.

Since the fighting ended, however, independent observers have been able to examine the war zone and what they have found is disturbing. A strip of beach where thousands of civilians retreated was pockmarked by craters that, in the words of one expert, look to be the work of "a very large" shell.

The civilian casualty list is long and growing. The number of refugees exceeds 265,000; some say it tops 300,000. Equally troubling is the death toll. The government says civilian deaths were unavoidable, adding that the military did not use heavy artillery as alleged while the Tamil Tigers used civilians as shields and in some cases even killed civilians themselves.

Officially, the United Nations has estimated that 7,000 people were killed in the final offensive. Unofficially, however, it has been reported that the death toll for the last month of fighting could exceed 20,000 civilians. The discrepancy has prompted calls for an investigation into whether war crimes were committed. Ms. Navanethem Pillay, the U.N. high commissioner for human rights, rightly noted that "victims and the survivors have a right to justice and remedies." As she explained, "establishing the facts is crucial to set the record straight regarding the conduct of all parties in the conflict." The European Union's human rights commissioner agrees.

The Sri Lankan government has dismissed any criticism of its actions. Officials say they should be applauded, not censured, for ending one of the world's most vicious insurgencies. Mr. Palitha Kohona, the minister of foreign affairs, firmly rejected the allegations, arguing that "We would have finished this war months ago if we hadn't cared about hurting civilians." The local press was even more succinct: "The time has come to tell the salmon-eating international busybodies to go home."

The diplomatic response has been more restrained. When European governments brought a motion before the U.N. Human Rights Council, calling for an international investigation into whether war crimes had been committed by either side, the council instead passed a resolution commending the government's victory and urged it to protect minorities.

Colombo is no doubt aggrieved that its victory has been sullied. It is upset that Western governments, which demanded support in their war against terror while permitting the Tamil diaspora to fund the Tiger rebels, would demand that Sri Lanka be held to account. But the laws of war and the notion of crimes against humanity are premised on the belief that there are limits to how combatants conduct themselves in conflict.

If anything goes, then all conflicts could be ended much quicker. But we insist on standards to restrict the behavior of combatants, and it is only the prospect of their enforcement that gives them force and utility. Laws that are disregarded when they are needed most are worse than useless, because they endanger those who rely on them for protection.

If the government is telling the truth, it should have nothing to fear from an investigation. A complete, unvarnished international assessment of its conduct would vindicate its counterclaim that the Tamil rebels are the real criminals. Stepping forward would also demonstrate the government's readiness to reach out to its long-aggrieved Tamil community, a vital first step toward true reconciliation and enduring peace in Sri Lanka.

Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), a New York based media watchdog, in a special reported, said Sri Lanka topped the list of countries that drove the largest number of journalists into exile.

Even after the end of the decades long war, Sri Lankan state has continued to intimidate and attack journalists. Independent journalists in Sri Lanka say they still feel threatened and intimidated.

"At least 11 Sri Lankan journalists were driven into exile in the past 12 months amid an intensive government crackdown on critical reporters and editors," the report said, adding the number worldwide totalled 39.

Of these journalists, 29 were driven out of threat of violence, 7 threat of imprisonment, and 2 out of harassment, the report added.

"This is a sad reality in countries throughout the world where governments allow attacks on the press to go unpunished." Joel Simon, CPJ executive director said.

Sri Lankan journalists have faced severe retribution for producing critical coverage of government military operations against the Tamil Tigers.

Upali Tennakoon, editor of Sinhala-language weekly Rivira was driving to his office when four men on motorcycles smashed his car windows, beating him and his wife with metal bars.

Though his paper was pro-government, Tennakoon had criticized a high-ranking army official.

Following his release from the hospital, Tennakoon’s wife fielded a menacing phone call urging her husband to quit journalism.

Fearing for their safety, the couple left for California, where they had family to receive them.

Tennakoon has followed the investigation of his attack from afar, but no progress has been made.

“Without information about who did this and why, I don’t think it is safe to go back,” he told CPJ in a recent interview.

The Free Media Movement (FMM) says that the government should take responsibility for the recent spate of attacks on the media.

The group accuses the government of failing to take any concrete action against the killings, abductions and threats.

"We have to point the finger at the government as it has a huge responsibility to stop these attacks but has failed to do so," FMM Secretary Sunil Jayasekara told the BBC.

However, the government says it does not intervene in police investigations.

Media minister Lakshman Yapa Abeywardene admits the investigations over attacks on the media sometimes are lacking in progress and focus.

"As a person who is regularly in touch with journalists I am genuinely shocked," he told the BBC Sinhala service. "But it is up to the security services to investigate and we do not intervene."

At least nine Sri Lankan journalists have been murdered this decade without a single conviction being won against an assailant, according to CPJ research.

Following the end of the war, in a television discussion, Sri Lankan police Chief Jayantha Wickramaratne said there was evidence that some journalists, especially Sinhala nationals, were on the payroll of the Tamil Tigers.

"Although the police are aware of this treason I do not like to reveal the names as it might obstruct our investigations. They betrayed the noble profession and not only distorted and misreported against Sri Lanka but also worked for cash and other benefits," Wickramaratne said on 28 May.

Amid a growing state media campaign over the issue, Poddala Jayantha, a key activist of the Sri Lankan Working Journalists Association, was abducted and assaulted in Colombo.

He was a strong advocate of freedom of expression and a visible participant in protests against threats to media - but had avoided playing an active role in criticising the government over the past few months.

Jayantha was one of many journalists who fled the country following the killing of Sunday Leader Editor-in-Chief, Lasantha Wickramatunge in January 2009. However, he returned to the country after three weeks.

Many leading journalists are yet to return and the fear is such that many do not wish to speak even while living in exile. 

A 73-day protest involving thousands of people demonstrating over the plight of Tamils ended on Wednesday, June 17.

The protest featured hunger strikes, mass sit-ins blocking central London roads and people throwing themselves into the River Thames, reported the BBC

One of those involved, Ambi Seevaratnam said: "After 73 days, nothing has worked. The Tamils have been betrayed by the international community."

Participants had put up several tents in the centre of Parliament Square. The number of protesters varied over the 73 days from a handful to more than 15,000 as events in Sri Lanka drew varying numbers to the square. Surges in activity followed developments in Sri Lanka.

About 200,000 demonstrators joined a march and rally organised in early April and 100,000 again turned up for the march the Saturday following the end of the protest. The march on 20 June was organised by the British Tamils Forum.

The UN believes that nearly 7,000 civilians may have been killed and another 13,000 injured in the war since January, while other reports put the number killed in 2009 alone between 20,000 and 50,000. More than 300,000 people have been displaced from their homes in the north.

Suren Surendiran, of the British Tamil Forum, said: "I am pleased with how the protest has gone. It was an opportunity to make the British public aware of our concerns and despair.

"Previously people thought of Sri Lanka as a holiday destination or a place for cricket. Now they are aware of some criminal activities, including state-sponsored terrorism.

"Whether people take sides or are aware of the details, I don't know. But they are aware something is happening there."

Protesters have at times clashed with police in Parliament Square.

Last month, a senior Metropolitan Police officer warned the long protest was diverting resources from other areas. Commissioner Sir Paul Stephenson said if it continued it would have a "long term" impact on crime. Police in London chose not to use force to clear the protesters, but maintained a 24-hour presence, with the cost of the operation exceeding £10m.

Sivendran Nadarajah, 20, from Mitcham in south London, told BBC Asian Network he thought the protests had been "worth it" because they had brought the truth about Sri Lanka to the fore.

He said protesters were sorry for the inconvenience caused when they blocked roads with the protest.

"We only did it for attention. We did a lot of protests calmly, peacefully, where thousands of people turned up. We couldn't get our message across. But when we blocked the road... I'm 100% sure people understand it was because of a crisis in Sri Lanka."

Ambi Seevaratnam, who was involved in talks between student organisers and police, said many people remained extremely angry about the fighting in the country.

She said students had decided to continue to put pressure on politicians and the media.

"To achieve this it is not enough to stand in Parliament Square and scream," she said.

"After 73 days, nothing has worked. We feel the Tamils have been betrayed by the international community."

A statement by a UK Tamil students group said on Wednesday a pledge would be made as the protest ended "to continue the struggle for self determination by other means".  

Over one hundred thousand expatriate Tamils in Britain marched Saturday, June 20, through central London to express their outrage at international inaction over Sri Lanka’s massacre of tens of thousands of Tamils and the suffering of hundreds of thousands more enduring starvation, disease, disappearance, rape and torture in Colombo’s internment camps.

Dressed in black, carrying placards and several hundred Tamil Eelam flags, the protesters marched from Hyde Park to rally at Embankment. The event was organised by the British Tamil Forum.

The protestors began forming up at midday and began their march at 2:00 p.m. By the time the lead protestors reached Haymarket, the hundred thousand-strong column stretched the mile-long length of Piccadilly and up Park Lane. The rally began at 5.30 p.m.

To facilitate the march, the Police closed off traffic in one direction along the three-lane Park Lane and Piccadilly roads and along Haymarket, past Parliament Square and one direction of the thoroughfare along the Embankment.

Hundreds of red and yellow Tamil Eelam flags fluttered in the summer breeze as the marchers chanted slogans, handed out leaflets to tourists and spectators crowding the pavements and balconies of central London. Several Union Jacks were carried by the protestors.

“The protests we have been doing [in the Diaspora centres], at last has opened the conscience of the Western world,” a BTF spokesman said. “For example, the mainstream media has begun to expose the scale of the tragedy suffered by our people.”

“Our struggle has now shifted to the hands of the Diaspora,” he said.

“We have gathered here today to begin the next chapter of our long struggle to come.”

Tamil expatriates were joined by delegations from Columbian, Kurdish, Palestinian and some Indian communities in Britain, as well civil liberties and social justice groups.

At the front of the protestors’ column were mobile street theatres depicting Sri Lanka’s militarized concentration camps where hundreds of thousands of Tamils are detained without access to sufficient food or medicine and suffering escalating abuse.

Groups of Tamil people, including – elderly, children, families, dressed in blood-stained clothing and bandages marched within squares of barbed wire bearing signs with names of known concentration camps. Other protestors dressed in military uniform threateningly wielded batons to symbolize the ongoing brutality.

Leaflets handed out set out the protestors’ demands about Sri Lanka’s abuses: “[1] Stop the disappearances, rapes and torture occurring daily at the internment camps, and find all those who have already gone missing [2] Free people from the camps immediately so that they can return to their normal way of life [3] Bring the perpetrators of the genocide against the Tamils to justice.”

Another leaflet stated: “The Tamil community, disappointed and embittered by the failure of the UK and other international powers to prevent the recent carnage despite constant and repeated warnings, are demanding that the international community must at least now act decisively to save the estimated 300,000 civilians in these camps, who remain in grave danger.”

The protestors gathered on Embankment by Blackfriars Bridge where a stage had been set up, decorated in Tamil colours of red and yellow and a banner demanding “Free Tamils from Nazi style concentration camps! Prosecute the war criminals of the Sri Lankan State!”

The rally was addressed by British political personalities, including Tony Benn, Simon Hughes MP and Jeremy Corbyn MP, as well as Tamil and British human rights and social justice activists.

Veteran politician Tony Benn condemned the Sri Lankan state’s violence against the Tamils as crimes against humanity in which Britain continues to play an unacceptable. He also criticised the British media for the woeful lack of coverage the conflict in Sri Lanka has received, compared to similar conflicts around the world.

Raji Nesaraja, representing the Tamil Youth Organisation (TYO), said the recent events in Sri Lanka were “nothing short of genocide”.

In a stirring speech that illustrated the strong feelings amongst young Tamils in the UK, she went on to say that, following repeated and desperate warnings of an impending bloodbath, young Tamils were left dumbfounded and disappointed by the UN’s complete lack of response.

She however expressed her optimism in the awakening of all sections of the British Tamil community in the past few months, and, observing that “we are witnessing a global uprising of Tamils,” vowed the Tamil struggle would be taken forward.

Jan Jananayagam, who stood as an independent candidate at the 4 June European election, winning a historic record of 50,000 votes for an independent, urged everyone to work tirelessly until the Tamils of Sri Lanka enjoy the same rights that Tamils take for granted in the UK.

She also reminded the crowd of the power of their vote in a genuine democracy, and urged them to ensure they make their individuals vote count during the next UK general election towards the cause of stopping Sri Lanka’s genocide..

Andy Higginbottom, secretary of the Columbia Solidarity campaign and lecturer in human rights at Kingston University, called claims that the LTTE used civilians as human shields during the conflict the “first lie of the international media” and the “first propaganda victory of the Sri Lankan government”. He went on to denounce the inaction of the UN during the conflict, and the pitiable resolution passed by the UN Human Rights Council following the conflict, an “absolute and utter disgrace”.

Simon Hughes MP, a senior Liberal Democrat and long-time supporter of the Tamils, praised the “fantastic courage and determination” that UK Tamils have shown in the past few months, and assured the crowd that there were many non-Tamils that supported them in their aspirations.

Cllr Julian Bell, leader of the Ealing Labour Party and researcher for the All Party Parliamentary Group for Tamils (APPG-T) admitted that members of the APPG-T share the Tamil community’s feelings of being let down by Britain’s Labour government.

He said the APPG-T were working hard to ensure that the food and medical aid that UK Tamils collected and sent to Sri Lanka on board the Mercy Mission ship, which was recently turned away by the Sri Lankan authorities, would still reach the desperate Tamil civilians there.

Dan Mayor, national organiser for the Socialist Worker Party, angrily dismissed complaints about the alleged police cost during the 73 day Tamil protest at Westminster, saying that the Britain had made much more money through the sale of military equipment to Sri Lanka.

He blamed the US/UK led ‘War on Terror’ for masking the political question in Sri Lanka and weakening the Tamils’ position and making possible Sri Lanka’s brazen onslaught against the Tamils.

Jeremy Corbyn MP, Labour politician and chairman of the human rights organisation Liberation, called for a complete economic boycott of Sri Lanka, saying “the tourism must stop, the arms must stop, the trade must stop”.

Tim Martin, former aid worker and director of the charity Act Now, was loudly cheered by the crowds as he thanked them for the huge support he received from UK Tamils during his recent 21-day hunger strike in Parliament Square. Revealing that Bob Geldoff and several other international celebrities have begun pledging their support for the Tamils struggle against Sinhala oppression, he urged UK Tamils to “keep on fighting” for the freedom of their people in Sri Lanka.

Police presence was light throughout the event. Officers closing off side roads, so protestors could pass and guiding tourists and others seeking to reach places on the other side of the column of marchers.

Officers worked with several hundred Tamil volunteers to keep the crowd moving steadily and there were no riot police, in contrast to some other major protests in London. Media helicopters and police chopper remained aloft for the duration.

“We are in an open jail,” Kumar whispers, his skinny shoulders shaking as he looks around to check who is watching “Help us, we want to be free.”

He is one of about 200,000 Tamil civilians being held against their will behind the razor-wire coils that surround Manik Farm, the largest displacement camp in Sri Lanka — one of the largest in the world.

Camp is not the word its inmates use for it. A prison and a concentration camp were two of the descriptions The Times heard on a rare visit to the camp on the sidelines of the visit by Ban Ki Moon, the United Nations Secretary-General.

Squalor is less the defining feature of Manik Farm than militarism. The presence of armed soldiers around the camp and its perimeter is overwhelming. New armoured patrol vehicles sit at the entrance to the side of a sandbagged bunker.

The entire camp is surrounded by seven-foot-high wooden posts, strung with barbed wire and wreathed with coils of razor wire.

Mechanical diggers have carved out a deep surrounding trench. “These people are not allowed to leave,” Gerson Brandao, a UN humanitarian co-ordinator said. “Civilians shouldn’t be behind barbed wire.”

Father Amalraj, a Catholic priest, was shocked by what he found on his arrival with his parishioners on a military bus (on 18 May).

“I read in a book on the Second World War about concentration camps,” he says. “I feel we are experiencing that now. The concentration camps of the Second World War are here in Sri Lanka.”

At Manik Farm, the boys – and some girls – of fighting age were separated for screening and have not been seen since. Many are under age and were never willing combatants – the Tigers were notorious for abducting children to fight and carry arms.

Father Amalraj’s parishioners clamour to tell of their missing offspring.

“When the children came out, the Government told them that, if they told the truth, they would be safe,” said Mahalam, whose 17-year-old daughter, Sathal, was taken from her seven days ago and has not been seen since.

The Government says it has taken suspected fighters for “rehabilitation” in special security camps and has refused to allow aid agencies access until the process – begun three weeks ago – is completed.

Mr Ban, who came to Sri Lanka to urge for that access, left without it. United Nations officials admit that they can barely keep up with the Sri Lankan zest for chopping down jungle and throwing up barbed-wire enclosures to house the Tamil civilians, let alone take control of it.

The lack of outside aid unnerves the inmates. “There is no people like you here,” Kumar whispers, hiding behind the crowds lined up for Mr Ban’s visit. “There is not enough food. There is not enough hospital here.”

How long does he think he will he be here for? “I don’t know. Maybe forever? We are afraid we will be killed. If I tell the truth, I will be killed.”

Father Amalraj says his parishioners have been beaten by the soldiers. The Government talks of reconciliation between Tamils and Sinhalese, but there is no sign of it here.

Human Rights Watch called for the end to the illegal detention of nearly 300,000 ethnic Tamils displaced by the recently ended conflict.

For more than a year, the Sri Lankan government has detained virtually everyone - including entire families - displaced by the fighting in the north in military-run camps, in violation of international law.

While the government has said that most would be able to return home by the end of the year, past government practice and the absence of any concrete plans for their release raises serious concerns about indefinite confinement, said Human Rights Watch.

"Treating all these men, women, and children as if they were Tamil Tiger fighters is a national disgrace," said Brad Adams, Asia director at Human Rights Watch. "Displaced Tamil civilians have the same rights to liberty and freedom of movement as other Sri Lankans."

While the Sri Lankan authorities are expected to screen persons leaving the war zone to identify Tamil Tiger combatants, international law prohibits arbitrary detention and unnecessary restrictions on freedom of movement. This means that anyone taken into custody must be promptly brought before a judge and charged with a criminal offense or released.

Although human rights law permits restrictions on freedom of movement for security reasons, the restrictions must have a clear legal basis, be limited to what is necessary, and be proportionate to the threat.

Since March 2008, the government of Sri Lanka has detained virtually all civilians fleeing areas controlled by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam at so-called "welfare centers" and "transitional relief villages."

A small number of camp residents, mainly the elderly, have been released to host families and institutions for the elderly. The vast majority, however, remain in detention.

As of June 5, the United Nations reported that the authorities were keeping 278,263 people in detention in 40 camps in the four northern districts of Vavuniya, Mannar, Jaffna, and Trincomalee.

This is still tens of thousands short the initial figure of detainees – 300,000 – leading to concerns about killings and disappearance from within the internment camps.

"Many people are in the camps not because they have no other place to go," said Adams. "They are in the camps because the government does not allow them to leave."

Before the recent massive influx of displaced persons, the government proposed holding the displaced in camps for up to three years. After international protests, the government said that it would resettle 80 percent of the displaced by the end of 2009.

But the government's history of restricting the rights of displaced persons through rigid pass systems and strict restrictions on leaving the camps heightens concerns that they will be confined in camps much longer, possibly for years.

Conditions in the camps are inadequate. Virtually all camps are overcrowded, some holding twice the number recommended by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. Food distribution is chaotic, there are shortages of water, and sanitation facilities are inadequate. Camp residents do not have access to proper medical services and communicable diseases have broken out in the camps.

Since May 16, the military camp administration has imposed numerous restrictions on humanitarian organizations working in the camps, such as limiting the number of vehicles and staff members that can enter the camps, which has delayed the provision of much-needed aid.

The military does not allow organizations into the camps to conduct protection activities, and a ban on talking to the camp residents leaves them further isolated. The military has also barred journalists from entering the camps except on organized and supervised tours.

"The poor conditions in the camps may worsen with the monsoon rains," said Adams. "Holding civilians who wish to move in with relatives and friends is irresponsible as well as unlawful."

Sri Lanka is hoping the end of the decades long war will attract much needed foreign investment boosting the ailing economy.

"For a very long time, every time someone spoke about Sri Lanka's economy, they responded saying if not for this war things would be better. Now the war is over and we have a tremendous scope for economic development," Sri Lank’s Central bank Governer Ajith Nivard Cabraal said.

Hoping the post conflict scenario to introduce a fresh influx of investors to the island, the central bank plans to revise upwards the island's economic forecast for 2009 to between four to five percent, from 2.5 percent to 3.0 percent announced earlier this year.

Sri Lanka's economy posted 6.0 percent growth in 2008, down from 6.8 percent in 2007.

Speaking at a nationally televised ceremony in Colombo, Sri Lankan President, Mahinda Rajapakse, also shared the same view and said: "Reducing the budget deficit, investment promotion and economic development is possible after defeating terrorism".

Rajapakse said the military had unified the country at great human cost, and the entire country owned a debt to young people who sacrificed their lives and limbs and also their families.

The country has eliminated the 'border villages’, Rajapakse said in a reference to areas bordering Tamil Tiger controlled territory.

"Our challenge is to remove difficult villages now," he said.

"Like we defeated 30 years of war in 2.5 years we have to have a development drive".

"We will be not like any other country," President Rajapaksa said. "We, who were blessed by Asia when we defeated terrorism, must now be the pride of Asia." Rajapakse added.

Sri Lanka’s Board of Investments expects foreign direct investments to quadruple to $4 billion by 2012, led by investments in ports, tourism, telecommunication and textiles.

With the end of the war, Sri Lanka Tourism Promotion Bureau revised its projections and now aims to increase tourist arrivals by at least 20 percent each year, using a $20 million worldwide advertising campaign to promote the island’s attractions.

“The main task we have is that of image building,” Dileep Mudadeniya, managing director of the Sri Lanka Tourism Promotion Bureau said in an interview in the capital Colombo.

“We have an image that has been challenged by war and travel advisories.”

However, Jerome Auvity, general manager at Hilton Colombo casted doubts at the Sri Lankan officials optimistic view and said: “There is still this dark cloud, this debate and issue regarding the displaced people,”

“Give it another six months to see whether confidence returns to Sri Lanka’s leisure market.”

Meanwhile, British insurance underwriters have removed a war-risk surcharge on Sri Lanka's airspace after the island ended nearly four decades of ethnic conflict.

The London-based Joint Cargo Committee also lowered its risk status from " severe" to "high," said Lasinee Serasinhe, the director general of the Insurance Board of Sri Lanka.

"We were informed of the decision. However, the war risk premium for (sea) ports remain unchanged" and at the highest risk level, she said.

Calls for investigations into allegations of war crimes by the Sri Lankan government during the final stages of its military offensive against the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) appear to be gathering strength.

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon has called for an inquiry into these allegations, pointing out that “whenever and wherever there are credible allegations of violations of humanitarian law, there should be a proper investigation”, reported the Deccan Herald. 

Ban’s call comes close on the heels of international criticism of the UN’s silence on Sri Lanka’s conduct of the war, the paper said.

The UN secretary general, Ban Ki-moon, briefed Security Council members behind closed doors on Friday, telling journalists outside of the need for an “impartial and objective” investigation into wrongdoing by the Sri Lankan military and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE).

Activists now say the UN must go further and launch its own investigation into war crimes because neither the Sri Lankan government nor the world body’s Geneva-based Human Rights Council willing or able to shoulder the responsibility, reported The National newspaper.

“I think we need to have some very clear signal from the secretary general that we cannot simply put this behind us, thinking we can gain stability by closing the book on what happened,” the paper quoted Steve Crawshaw, a UN expert for Human Rights Watch, as saying.

“I hope Mr Ban will make explicit his backing for the creation of a commission of inquiry, and that the Security Council will wake up in a way that it has failed to wake up during the last three months.”

A special session of the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) recently passed a resolution on Sri Lanka that not only failed to call for independent investigations into violations of international human rights and humanitarian law by the armed forces but also, did not express concern for the plight of civilians facing indefinite detention in government camps. In fact, the resolution praised the government over its war against the LTTE.

At the height of the conflict, John Holmes, the UN’s humanitarian chief, described a “bloodbath on the beaches” with mass civilian casualties.

The UN has since proved reluctant to investigate the human tragedy and even stands accused of being complicit with the Sri Lankan government in obscuring the actual number of civilians killed.

The UN came under criticism for ‘deliberately underestimating’ the civilian death toll and for covering up the enormity of the crisis in Sri Lanka. Ban’s call appears to be an attempt to undo the mistakes the UN has made on the Sri Lankan war, the Deccan Herald said, before going on to call for investigations into all war crimes, including those committed in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The Security Council has been deadlocked on the issue, with roughly half the 15-nation membership arguing for Sri Lanka’s sovereign right to quash an insurgency within its own borders.

Members have only met “informally” at the UN, last month announcing “grave concern” over civilian deaths while also recognising the “legitimate right of the government of Sri Lanka to combat terrorism”.

Sir John Sawers, Britain’s ambassador to the UN, said pressuring other council members to shift their positions would be difficult and unlikely to yield “any real difference on the ground” in Sri Lanka.

After briefing the council on Friday, Mr Ban told reporters that he called on “the Sri Lankan government to recognise the international call for accountability and full transparency” and suggested a “proper investigation”.

Sri Lanka’s ambassador to the UN, Hewa MGS Palihakkara, said he would “follow up” on Mr Ban’s request, although the country’s president, Mahinda Rajapaksa, has openly rejected calls for a war-crimes investigation.

Rights watchdogs are not convinced that Sri Lankan officials will ever investigate the allegations fairly, with Mr Crawshaw, of the New York-based lobby group, calling on Mr Ban and the Security Council to step in.

“The government saying it will investigate doesn’t solve the problem, because the government has stated in advance that it has committed no crimes and they are only interested in investigating the crimes of the Tamil Tigers,” he said.

“We can’t have any more of everyone looking away, which is what the world seems depressingly eager to do at the moment.”

Amnesty International has likewise called for an “international, independent inquiry” established under the auspices of the Security Council or Mr Ban’s own mandate.

“According to testimonies, the LTTE was responsible for using civilians as human shields, but there is evidence that most civilians were killed as a result of shelling,” the advocacy group said.

“The Sri Lankan military continued to use heavy weapons despite promising on Feb 24 and again on April 27 that it would stop using them. The firing of artillery into an area with a high concentration of civilians violates international humanitarian law.”

Farhan Haq, a spokesman for Mr Ban, ruled out launching a UN Secretariat inquiry for the time being, saying the secretary general will monitor first whether the Sri Lankan government’s own investigation is sufficient.

Mr Ban “hopes that the Sri Lankan government will follow up to implement the promises that they have made. If they haven’t, he will review and act accordingly”, the spokesman said.

An independent international commission must be set up to investigate human rights violations in Sri Lanka over the last 20 years, as successive governments have failed to account for abuses such as torture, enforced disappearances and extrajudicial killings during its civil war, Amnesty International said.

According to a report published by the London-based human rights group, serious human rights violations have been occurring in the Indian Ocean Island for many years.

"As the Sri Lankan people contend with the most recent abuses committed by both sides of the recent conflict, particularly during the last few months of the fighting, the reality is that they have been haunted by injustice and impunity for years," said Sam Zarifi, Amnesty International's Asia-Pacific Director.

The report titled "Twenty Years of Make-Believe: Sri Lanka's Commissions of Inquiry" said that over the last 20 years, there have been assassinations of public figures, killings of aid workers and other civilians, and enforced disappearances.

It cited various examples of violations including the massacre of 17 aid workers from Action Contre la Faim (ACF) in the town of Muttur in 2006. Fifteen bodies were discovered lying face-down on the front lawn of the charity's office, with bullet wounds to head and neck, indicating that they have been shot at close range, execution style. Two more staff members were found in a car nearby, possibly trying to escape.

The report also mentions the case of a lawyer tortured to death in police custody as well as the mass "disappearance" of 159 people from a camp for displaced people.

Ad hoc commissions of inquiry established by the government over the last two decades have lacked any real credibility and delayed criminal investigations, said the study.

Authorities had failed to protect victims and witnesses, said Amnesty, adding that state agents had even intervened directly in some cases to eliminate witnesses through bribes, threats, harassment, intimidation and violence, including murder, to discourage police investigations.

The study added that the country's "glacially slow" criminal justice system - which is subjected to political pressure - is so degraded that the vast majority of human rights violations over the past 20 years have never been investigated, let alone heard in court.

"The Sri Lankan authorities have had little success in providing accountability for abuses against civilians committed by the LTTE; they are even less likely to effectively investigate and prosecute their own forces for violations of human rights and humanitarian law," said Zarifi.

"Given the scale of the problem of impunity in Sri Lanka, accountability can only be achieved with the active commitment of the Sri Lankan government, supported by systematic and sustained international human rights monitoring and technical assistance."

However, Sri Lanka has repeatedly resisted calls for international scrutiny, on the basis that it would jeopardize the country's sovereignty.

"These things take time, and we can't allow any possibility of injustice to happen," Rajiva Wijesinha, secretary at the Ministry of Disaster Management and Human Rights said in Colombo.

The government's own commission into allegations of human rights abuses is proceeding, albeit slowly, he added.

All rights groups have been particularly critical of the last months of the war, where they say both the government and Tigers showed a wanton disregard for human life with between 10,000 and 20,000 people killed during this period alone.

The military has been accused of continuously using heavy artillery to shell a tiny strip of land where Tigers were trapped along with hundreds of thousands of civilians, while the LTTE were accused of holding civilians hostage and using them as human shields. Both parties have rejected the charges.

However, the government remains under pressure to recognize calls both domestically and internationally for accountability and transparency, with the U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon saying earlier this month that any credible accusation of human rights violations should be investigated.

A Tamil staff of United Nations Office for Project Services (UNOPS) and another Tamil staff of the UNHCR, both attached to the UN offices in Vavuniya, have been reported missing since Thursday June13 after being arrested by Sri Lankan authorities, the UN announced on Sunday June 21.

The UNOPS worker reported missing was known as Saunthi and the other was named Charles, according to the sources that alleged the abductions were carried out by the Sri Lankan Military Intelligence operatives at Temple Road in Kurumankaadu.

The two men, both ethnic Sri Lankan Tamils, were reported missing eight days ago and were subsequently discovered to have been taken into custody by Sri Lankan officials, the UN office in Colombo said in a statement.

"We are not aware which, if any, charges have been laid, and nor are we aware of the details of any accusations," the statement said.

The two men were working for the UN refugee agency and the UN office for Project Services in the northern region of Vavuniya

Sri Lanka will ‘never go after donor countries or agencies with a begging bowl’ for aid, the country’s Central Bank chief has declared  despite waiting for the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to approve a loan request for US $1.9 billion.

“We will never go after donors or lending agencies with a begging bowl. We are capable of standing on our own and raise funds through capital markets," Central Bank of Sri Lanka Governor, Nivard Cabraal, told AFP.

“We have the capability to stand on our own and necessary funds are available locally for the resettlement and reconstruction in the North. With our new found dignity and identity in the international community Sri Lanka does not want to go after anyone for aid with bended knees. But we accept whatever assistance offered without strings and with respect,” Cabral added.

Sri Lanka approached the IMF in March in a bid to stave off its first balance of payment deficit in four years after the island's foreign currency reserves fell to around six weeks worth of imports.

Commenting on the IMF loan Cabraal said: “No risk is involved in obtaining the IMF loan as it is entirely a non political transaction between the IMF and a member state. Besides, we have a right to seek IMF funds as a member and the IMF has an obligation to approve it in due course. The IMF has categorically said the loan will be approved,”

However, a decision on the loan has been put off due to political pressure from the US, Britain and other Western nations over Sri Lanka’s handling of the final stages of the battle against the Tamil Tigers and charges that thousands of civilians were intentionally killed by Sri Lankan security in the final months of the war.

Despite pressure from the West, Cabraal said he was confident the rescue package would be approved but added: "Little by little, the urgency of the IMF loan is easing. I am not saying that we don't need it. The threat of a downturn is receding and Sri Lanka is getting some inflows after the end of the war,"

According to IMF, the loan for Sri Lanka is still not ready for approval for its executive board.

IMF spokesperson Caroline Atkinson said Friday, June 19  "whenever there is final agreement, then a program would go to the Executive Board."

According to Cabraal the World Bank, ADB and several other friendly countries had responded positively for assistance for the reconstruction and resettlement process.

Cabraal added that foreign reserves have picked up in the past several weeks, with money coming from aid flows -- to meet the humanitarian needs of nearly 300,000 displaced people in the north -- remittances and foreign investments.

The central bank was also negotiating a 500 million dollar loan from Libya and another 500 million dollars from an unnamed "friendly country" to help with post-war reconstruction, he said.

"The future scenario is very comforting to our foreign exchange situation," he said.