The Economist

Stories from The Economist

Prabhakaran to Truck
The corpse of the Tigers
The Economist
Thursday, May 21st, 2009

When Sri Lanka’s president, Mahinda Rajapaksa, declared victory over the ruthless Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) in a speech to parliament on May 19th, he should have addressed a full house. In fact, over 20 opposition chairs in the 225-seat chamber were frostily vacant. Keeping away were members of the Tamil National Alliance, the largest group of parties representing the Tamil minority, elected in the north and east of the island.

Fleeing Civilians
In blood steeped
The Economist
Thursday, May 14th, 2009

It is too late to warn of a civilian slaughter in north-eastern Sri Lanka. The “bloodbath [predicted] has become a reality,” said the UN’s spokesman in Colombo on May 11th, as news of the latest atrocity emerged from the crowded beach where the army and Tamil Tiger rebels are fighting their last battle.

On May 9th and 10th 480 civilian refugees are reported to have been brought dead or dying to a makeshift hospital in the war-zone, victims of shellfire.

Woman in IDP Camp
Exodus of misery
The Economist
Thursday, April 30th, 2009

WITH loudhailers hitched to the tallest palmyrah trees, Tamil-speaking soldiers of the Sri Lanka army had for weeks been urging civilians inside a dwindling strip of territory held by the rebel Tamil Tigers to break through their cordon and flee.
Fleeing Refugees
Out of the Tigers' cage
The Economist
Wednesday, April 8th, 2009

AFTER a terrible battle on April 3rd-5th, Sri Lanka’s surviving Tamil Tigers withdrew to a government-designated “no-fire zone”—a narrow beach, packed with refugees, on the country’s north-eastern coast.
IDPs
Trading danger for captivity
The Economist
Thursday, March 5th, 2009

IT IS a staple of television reports on war or famine: a windblown correspondent stands in front of a bedraggled refugee camp. Misery and despair are etched on pinched faces. “And these”, he solemnly intones, “are the lucky ones.”

Lasantha Wickrematunge
Chronicle of a death foretold
The Economist
Thursday, January 15th, 2009

THE good that men do is not always interred with their bones. This week saw the publication of a remarkable posthumous column by Lasantha Wickrematunge, a Sri Lankan newspaper editor. He had written it in anticipation of his own murder.