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War could start again, says crisis group

Report slams president and his brothers and warns conflict could easily begin again
War could start again, says crisis group
Published: July 20, 2011 08:58 AM GMT
Updated: July 20, 2011 09:00 AM GMT

Renewed civil war is a real risk two years on from the defeat of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), according to a leading independent group. In a hard-hitting report published July 18, the International Crisis Group (ICG) said “Sri Lanka is further from reconciliation than ever” and claimed that because “power and wealth is concentrated in the Rajapaksa family (of the president), the risks of renewed conflict are growing again.” Acknowledging that “progress toward reconciliation in this environment was always going to be difficult”, the ICG said: “It has been made much more so by the post-war policies of President Rajapaksa and his powerful brothers.” The ICG criticised the retention of a state of emergency, violent repression of the media and political opponents and “manipulating elections and silencing civil society.” The report noted that the realities on the ground in the north and east are “ominous”, with aid controlled by the military and some 180,000 people still in temporary camps. The ICG said all communities were being marginalised, with disappearances of Tamils and Sinhalese unexplained and uncompensated. “Similarly, Muslims expelled from the north or relatives of those murdered in the east by the LTTE have seen little in the way of resettlement, compensation or justice.” The report called for a formal UN enquiry and access for impartial monitors as “aid money should not be delivered without firm knowledge of how it will be spent, which requires extensive monitoring.” Among other recommendations, the ICG said that Sri Lanka's partners, including India, Japan, the US, UK, UN and EU, should “highlight consistently the issues that affect all communities, including growing authoritarianism, militarisation, emergency laws, weak rule of law, impunity, corruption and repression of dissent.”

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