JM Exclusive

By Aruliniyan Mahalingam JAFFNA, Sri Lanka — It was around 4:15 in the afternoon of Aug. 4, 2006. The men who came through the gate asked in Sinhala what the aid workers were doing there when everyone else in the town had fled, according to an account assembled by the University Teachers for Human Rights (Jaffna) from police sources in Muttur. The staff answered that their office in Trincomalee had told them to stay and wait to be collected. A home guard interrupted and said they were Tamil Tig

COLOMBO, Sri Lanka — Twenty years after the execution-style killing of 17 humanitarian workers from the French aid organization Action Against Hunger (ACF) in the eastern town of Muttur, a broad coalition of international governments, United Nations agencies and human rights organizations has renewed calls for Sri Lanka to deliver justice, warning that the failure to prosecute those responsible continues to fuel impunity for attacks on humanitarian personnel worldwide. The appeals, issued aroun

COLOMBO, Sri Lanka — Indian Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri called on Sri Lanka's government Wednesday to hold provincial council elections “at the earliest” and to fully implement the island’s constitutional provisions for the Tamil minority, India’s Ministry of External Affairs said, during his first stand-alone visit to Colombo since taking up the post. He met President Anura Kumara Dissanayake, Prime Minister Harini Amarasuriya, Foreign Minister Vijitha Herath, and Foreign Secretary Aruni Ra