IN ANDIMUNAI, it feels that everybody wants to leave. The normal population of the sleepy fishing town on Sri Lanka's west coast is about 10,000. But locals say at least 2000 of them have gone overseas by boat. Another 1000 or so have returned after being deported from places including Europe, North America and Australia. Many of them will try another getaway.

The Sri Lankan government's proposal to create a committee of experts to examine allegations of laws-of-war violations during the conflict between the government and the separatist Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) is an attempt to avoid an independent international inquiry, Human Rights Watch said today.

SAMSUN Nihara's pain shows in her dark eyes. Her husband and son disappeared more than a year ago. Her nightmare began last September, when her 24-year-old son, John Reid, vanished. He and his fiancee were returning from a trip to a beach north of Colombo, when the van he was driving was blocked by four armed men on two motorcycles.

WHEN Muthu Kumaran returned to Sri Lanka in February 2007, he had hoped, even expected, that his Tamil people were about to win independence. An Australian citizen and civil engineer, he wanted to be there when a Tamil state was established, freed from majority Sinhalese rule, and he wanted to lend his expertise in water management, too.

Japan's new administration should publicly press the Sri Lankan government to end the illegal detention of approximately 250,000 Tamil civilians, six Japanese and international human rights organizations said in a joint letter to Foreign Minister Katsuya Okada, made public today. The new government should also urge Sri Lanka to ensure justice and accountability for serious violations of international humanitarian law committed by government forces and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), the letter said.

A US State Department report on possible violations of the laws of war in Sri Lanka made public on October 22, 2009 shows the need for an independent international investigation, Human Rights Watch said today. The report details violations of the laws of war committed by both government forces and the separatist Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) from January through May 2009.

Twenty-three years ago, Anandakumar Sothinathan was floating off the coast of Newfoundland with 154 other Tamil refugees in two overcrowded lifeboats. Instead of taking them to Canada, a smuggler had abandoned them in international waters with a compass and vague directions for finding freedom.

The Sri Lankan government's recent statements that it aims to return only 100,000 of the original 273,000 displaced civilians confined to camps by the end of 2009 breaks a promise to camp residents and the international community, Human Rights Watch said today. In May, the government announced that 80 percent of the displaced people would be able to return home by the end of the year.

Refugee in Paris this summer, Sriramanan Ratnasingam A former head of the secretariat of the north-East for Human Rights (Nesohr) at Sri Lanka Is not a witness as others in the war between the Colombo government and the separatist rebels of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE). Wounded by shrapnel when he was brought in April, on the forehead with an ambulance and a camera, he proposes, we are receiving, to show his wounds, traces of the conflict that has seen, on may , the defeat of the LTTE after thirty years of fighting.

The Sri Lankan government should immediately release the 250,000 displaced Tamils still held in detention camps, Human Rights Watch said today. Deteriorating conditions, including a shortage of water since October 5, 2009, combined with the prospect of flooding during the imminent monsoon season, have led to rising tensions among camp residents and clashes with the military.

An unfortunate incident that occurred  last week has  resulted in much attention being focused on the pathetic plight of  civilians held in camps for the displaced in Vavuniya and Cheddikulam. September 26, 2009 saw an altercation  erupting between Internally Displaced Persons (IDP) “detained” at the Menik Farm IDP  camp at Cheddikulam and members of the Sri Lanka Army deployed in the area.

KANCHANA asks to go by a false name, but seems self-assured for a teenager. And no wonder. Her experience of Sri Lanka’s civil war, which ended in May after a seaside slaughter of the leaders of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) and at least 8,000 people taken hostage by them, would put years on anyone.