Lawmakers: Violence returns to northern Sri Lanka

[Jan 7, 2011, Washington Post]

Sri Lanka's former war zone is again seeing unexplained killings, abductions and rapes despite tight security in the region, lawmakers said Thursday. A group of ethnic Tamil lawmakers submitted to Parliament a list of 15 serious incidents that they say occurred in the northern Jaffna peninsula in the past two months. They asked the government to explain how such crimes could take place considering the area's security situation. The area is the cultural heartland of ethnic Tamils and was a stronghold of Tamil Tiger rebels before their 26 year campaign for an independent state was put down by the military in 2009. About 50,000 government troops have been stationed on the peninsula since. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2011/01/06/AR2011010600517.html