Word: lankan
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...Lankan journalists have been permitted to report on these successes--or on their human toll. The war zone is all but off-limits to the media, one of the many security measures imposed by a government with little tolerance for dissent. "I ask this of all political parties, all media and all people's organizations," Rajapaksa said in a speech in 2006. "You decide whether you should be with a handful of terrorists or with the common man ... You must clearly choose between these two sides...
Lasantha Wickrematunge, one of Sri Lanka's leading journalists, a freelance reporter for TIME and an outspoken critic of the Sri Lankan government, was shot this morning as he drove to work in Colombo, his country's capital. He later died of his injuries...
...Leader was no-holds-barred, occasionally salacious stories alleging corruption and self-dealing among the powerful. No matter who the ruling party was, all officials were his potential targets. And Wickrematunge believed he had become theirs. His paper's stories and editorials about the administration of Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa have been particularly controversial. The newspaper is fighting a defamation lawsuit by Defense Secretary Gotabaya Rajapaksa, the President's brother, over a series of Leader articles alleging corruption. The Sri Lankan government has denied responsibility for the attack on Wickrematunge and has called for an investigation...
...During the first years of their existence, the Tigers were one of several resistance groups competing for support from the Sri Lankan Tamil population. But after a 1983 LTTE attack on Sri Lankan security forces sparked riots across the country that left hundreds of Tamils dead, they emerged as the dominate Tamil insurgent group. Since then, the Tigers have plotted many brutal attacks, including more than 200 by suicide bombers, according to the Council on Foreign Relations. Tens of thousands of Sri Lankans have been killed in the conflict and more have been displaced. The LTTE has bombed public buildings...
...most recent cease-fire agreement between the Tamil Tigers and the Sri Lankan government, brokered by Norway in 2002, was constantly broken and the government officially pulled out of it in January 2008. In the past year, the federal forces have tried to forcefully put down the Tigers, pushing into their strongholds and leading up to the January 2 capture of Kilinochchi. In a speech announcing the takeover, Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa called on the Tamil Tigers to surrender. Hours later, a suicide bomber struck the air force headquarters in the country's capital, Colombo, killing at least...