Ethnic Divide Worsens as Sri Lanka Conflict Escalates
March 8, 2008 7:37 am Tamil TigersEthnic Divide Worsens as Sri Lanka Conflict Escalates - New York Times, March 8, 2008
COLOMBO, Sri Lanka — There are no eyes on this war. A truce between the Sri Lankan government and the separatist Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam is over, and gone are the Nordic monitors who kept watch over it.
Security is tight, and tensions high, in Colombo. Some minority Tamils fear wrongly being arrested during checks like these.
The government has refused entry to United Nations human rights monitors. Independent journalists are not allowed anywhere near the front lines. Only occasionally does a glimpse of the war’s damage surface, as when the Red Cross confirmed that in the first six weeks of this year alone, 180 civilians had been killed, a toll it called “appalling.”