• Listen to this segment

• Listen to the entire program

GUEST: Ahilan Kadirgamar, co-editor of Lines Magazine

A four year ceasefire in the South Asian island nation of Sri Lanka has recently ended, giving way to what monitors are calling “a low intensity war.” The LTTE, or Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam launched a suicide attack on a Navy gunboat last week that killed its 18-man crew. But according to one member of the LTTE or “Tamil Tigers”, “the government has started an unofficial war with the LTTE and we want to face them.” More than 270 people have died since early April in naval battles, ambushes, murders and air strikes. The Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission has recorded at least seven attacks in rebel areas, including several on civilians. They believe government military patrols are working alongside anti-Tiger Tamil armed groups. The Tamil Tigers have fought for two decades for a separate Tamil homeland, evolving from a small group of young men to one of the world’s most feared and heavily armed guerrilla armies.

Lines Magazine is online at: www.lines-magazine.org

Sri Lanka Democracy Forum: www.lankademocracyforum.org

University Teachers for Human Rights, Jaffna: www.uthr.org