Five wounded, SLAF bombers attack again civilian targets in Paranthan
[TamilNet, Sunday, 09 November 2008, 12:48 GMT]

Two Sri Lanka Air Force (SLAF) bombers attacked Kumarapuram, a suburb of Paranthan, Sunday around 12:50 p.m., causing injuries to five civilians, including a 2-year-old boy. The day was turned into another disasterous day for the child, Manoharan Vithuran, as the family was preparing to observe the 31st day rituals for their mother, Mrs. Manhoharan, who was killed in the SLAF bombardment on the same locality, 30 days ago. He was rushed to the Ki'inochchi hospital functioning in Tharmapuram and admitted at the Intensive Care Unit, according to TamilNet correspondent who visited the bombed site and the hospital. [More.........]

Sri Lanka: UN food convoy to war-wracked north forced to turn back
[Displaced Sri Lankan families collect emergency shelter materials]  [Un News 16.10.2008]

Displaced Sri Lankan families collect emergency shelter materials
16 October 2008 – A major United Nations food convoy headed for northern Sri Lanka was today forced to turn back because of fresh fighting in the area between Government forces and the rebel Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE). [More......]

Medical, health crisis looms in Ki'linochchi
[TamilNet, Wednesday, 15 October 2008, 12:01 GMT]

120 refugees were admitted after snake-bite during the past 7 days alone in Ki'linochchi district's hospital functioning at Tharmapuram. One of the patients, a girl, has died and another, a 53-year-old woman, was being treated at the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) of the hospital, according to Dr. P. Brighton, the assistant Deputy Provincial Director of Health (DPDH) on Tuesday. He said three lorries with urgently needed medicines to treat snake-bite and diarrhea have not entered Vanni despite three repeated attempts to cross the entry/exit point at Oamanthai in Vavuniyaa. Meanwhile, ambulance-transport for patients in need of urgent medical treatment at Vavuniyaa hospital has become increasingly difficult. [More.........]

'Pain' of Sri Lanka aid pullout
[BBC 23 September 2008]
Fears of a humanitarian crisis are mounting in northern Sri Lanka as troops press ahead with an offensive to capture territory from Tamil rebels. A week ago the UN and other agencies pulled out of the area, where more than 200,000 people are displaced by fighting. Here one aid worker describes how hard it was to leave. [More.......]

                           Lest We Forget - Volume II
Introduction
This is an early version of Volume II of NESoHR publication, ‘Lest We Forget’. Volume I, published in 2007, covered the large scale massacres of Tamil civilians by the Sri Lanka military from 1970’s to 2001. This volume covers the period from 2002 until publication in August 2008. Neither the coverage in Volume I nor the coverage in this volume is complete. In both volumes, the incidents where NESoHR was able to collect at least some information are covered. [More.....]

South Asia Human Rights Violators Index 2008
Rank 1 : Sri Lanka

With 52 points, Sri Lanka ranks South Asia’s No.1 human rights violator. Sri Lanka’s human rights indicators must be considered within a context of very high levels of impunity which tend to suggest a worsening over the human rights picture over the long term. In 2007, President Mahinda Rajapaksa continued to attack political freedoms in Sri Lanka. Sri Lanka scored the highest negative points for the right to life, the rights of the child, attacks on human rights defenders and violations of the rights of the minorities.     To read the full report in PDF  format [Click here]

Sri Lanka's leader takes a step backward on human rights
Published in International Herald Tribune
[Authored by Charu Lata Hogg, South Asia researcher at Human Rights Watch]

In 1990, Mahinda Rajapaksa was arrested at Colombo airport trying to smuggle dossiers
on the "disappeared" out of Sri Lanka to the United Nations in Geneva. Rajapaksa, then
an rising politician from the country's south, worked to organize the mothers of the
"disappeared" during an insurrection of 1988-90, when more than 16,000 people went
missing.   [More.....]

North East Secretariat on Human Rights - NESOHR

     Mullaithivu hospital complex shelling

On 9 August 2008, at 1.00am, several shells fired by the Sri Lanka military exploded around the Mullaithivu district hospital surroundings (see map). One shell exploded 25 meters from the hospital electricity generator. This was just 50 meters from the main hospital building. Another shell exploded just seven meters from the residence of the Medical Superintend for the hospital, causing extensive damages to it. [More.....]