Sri Lanka government stages sham local elections...

The Sri Lankan government is preparing to hold local council elections in Jaffna and Vavuniya, two towns in the island’s north where, until last month, the army was fighting a communal war against the separatist Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE).

Having destroyed the last pockets of LTTE resistance, President Mahinda Rajapakse has called the elections for August 8 to provide a democratic façade for a permanent military occupation and deflect criticism at home and internationally of his criminal war.

In the final months of the conflict, thousands of civilians were killed and tens of thousands were injured as the army indiscriminately bombarded the remaining LTTE-territory. Up to 300,000 Tamil civilians who fled the fighting are being held in detention centres. More...

See also:

1. Tamil journalist abducted and threatened in Sri Lanka...
2. Human Rights activist blasts Sri Lanka on the fate of Tamils in internment camps...
3. Tamil rights campaigner gets massive Euro vote boost...
4. Sri Lanka and the Tamil genocide...