Colombo, Sri Lanka THE Sri Lankan government's defeat of the separatist Tamil Tigers in 2009 ended a three-decade war that took tens of thousands of lives. But only now is the government beginning to acknowledge its huge human cost. Two weeks ago, a government-appointed reconciliation commission released a long-awaited report, giving voice to the...
The former army chief Sarath Fonseka was sentenced Friday to three more years in prison for reportedly implicating the defense secretary in war crimes at the end of the country's civil war. Two judges of a three-member High Court ruled that his comments reported by a newspaper in 2009 breached the emergency laws. Mr. Fonseka said he had been...
Sri Lanka released about 1,800 former Tamil Tiger rebels on Friday who had been held since the nation's civil war ended more than two years ago. They were among about 11,000 rebels who surrendered at the end of the war in May 2009. Rights groups and other countries have urged the government to either charge the detainees or release them. The...
Sri Lanka er en stat i sydlige del af Asien, bestående af en større ø og et antal småøer, der ligger sydøst for Indien. Sri Lanka blev indtil 1972 kaldt Ceylon. Sri Lanka var et af de lande, der blev hårdt ramt af tsunamien som følge af Jordskælvet i det indiske ocean 2004 den 26. december 2004.
Landets historie er præget af en konflikt mellem den singalesiske majoritet og den tamilske minoritet. Singhaleserne udgør 74 % af landets befolkning, mens tamilerne udgør 26 %.
I 1983 forværredes konflikten og udviklede sig efterhånden til en regulær borgerkrig med hundredvis af dræbte og sårede, og 100.000 berørte civile. Mere end 40.000 tamiler fra Sri Lanka emigrerede til den indiske delstat Tamil Nadu, og et stort antal flygtninge fortsatte til Europa. Krigen sluttede den 19. maj 2009, og siden da har turister strømmet til Sri Lanka. I 2010 steg antallet af turister med 45% i forhold til året før. Fold ud