In Sri Lanka, a 'negative peace' prevails

AlJazeera English   

Kate Mayberry Last Modified: 29 Aug 2011

The civil war is over in Sri Lanka, but many men suspected of being Tamil Tiger fighters continue to be detained.

Sri Lankan soldiers celebrate the anniversary of the end of the civil war - but many suspected Tamil fighters still remain in custody [EPA]

Seriously injured in a shell attack, his Tamil Tiger comrades dead, Mano (pseudonym) tried to end his own life by biting on the cyanide pill that, like all hardened fighters, he wore around his neck. But an elderly woman nearby rushed to give him water and he survived. Alone, he languished on the sand for six days, surrounded by the bodies of his friends and the ruins of war.                Full Story>>>
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Robert Fisk: Prosecuting war crimes? Be sure to read the small print

Rogues' gallery: clockwise from top left, Hosni Mubarak, Slobodan Milosevic, Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, Joseph Stalin, Emperor Hirohito and Bashar al-Assad

Saturday, 27 August 2011

It's good to see bad guys behind bars.

Especially if they're convicted. Justice is better than revenge. And justice must be done for the relatives of the victims as well as for the dead. Part two of the Mubarak trial this month was a case in point. Egyptians want to know exactly who ordered the killing of innocent demonstrators. Who was to blame? And since the buck stops – or is meant to stop – at the president's desk, how can Mubarak ultimately escape his just deserts? The same will apply to Gaddafi when – if? – we get him.

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Middle East crisis: Tea trade in turmoil

Sunday August 28, 2011

Troubles in Libya and Syria send exports plunging

By Bandula Sirimanne

Continuing political turmoil in the Middle East has badly hit Sri Lanka’s tea exports. A whopping 78 per cent of Sri Lanka’s annual tea exports of 300 million kilos are sent to Iran, Iraq, Syria and Libya both in bulk and value-added form, but only 55 million kilos (or 30 per cent of the total exports) has been sent for the first six months of this year, tea export officials said. Malik Fernando, Director of a leading tea firm in Colombo, said yesterday that shipments had no access to ports in Libya and Syria – countries which were in turmoil. He said economic sanctions on Iran had also added to the crisis. “Exporters receive their payments from Iran through a different channel arranged by a local commercial bank,” he pointed out.

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