Sri Lanka Update; August 8, 2007.

It is the irony of our times that 'R2P' should stand for the 'responsibility to protect', and not the 'right to protect', as should have been the case in the normal understanding of concepts such as 'State', its right and responsibilities.
N Sathiya Moorthy, Whose 'R2P' is it anyway? Daily Mirror, August 6, 2007.

Human Rights Watch Asia Director, Brad Adams, has said that "the Sri Lankan government has apparently given its security forces a green light to use 'dirty war' tactics," adding that "abuses by the LTTE are no excuse for the government's campaign of killings, 'disappearances' and forced returns of the displaced."
Michael Sung, Sri Lanka government rights abuses on the rise: HRW, Jurist, August 6, 2007.

Meanwhile Sri Lankan Government’s Peace Secretariat Head, Rajiva Wijesinha, has retorted stating that, the Human Rights Watch report on Sri Lanka is misleading, rife with contradictions and could be used by organizations like the LTTE to disrupt the democratically elected governments like Sri Lanka.
HRW report misleading says SL Peace Sec. Chief, Daily Mirror, August 8, 2007.

Human Rights Minister Mahinda Samarasinghe added that the international community should offer constructive help instead of making ‘sweeping and subjective’ statements.
Manjula Fernando, Global community should offer constructive help - Human Rights Minister, Daily News, August 8, 2007.

India has sent more radars to Sri Lanka to help it ward off the threat of airborne attacks by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE).

Sri Lanka is looking to bolster its military capabilities and the Air Force's share of this planned build up is worth nearly USD 300 million.
Iqbal Athas, Situation Report, Sunday Times, August 5, 2007.

"Sampur has been taken, Vakarai captured and the feather in the government’s cap, Thoppigala is ‘ours’ again. But elsewhere in this country, 17 families grieve for loved ones lost, for crimes gone unpunished, for disclosures never afforded to them. On behalf of my ‘elected representatives’, I hang my head in shame."
Dharisha Bastians, Have we no shame? Nation on Sunday, August 8, 2007.

Before taking the drastic step of stepping up the war in the north, the Rajapaksa government has a duty to present a reasonable political package that could be the basis for a just solution to the ethnic conflict, and is acceptable to moderate Tamil opinion. Only if such a political package is rejected by the LTTE should an offensive military campaign on the lines of the eastern campaign be contemplated for the north.
Jehan Perera, Pre-Condition for taking war from east to north, Daily Mirror, August 7, 2007.

President Rajpaksa has two options now to get out of the tight situation he is in parliament:
(1) he can mend his fences with the estranged Marxist and radical Sinhala JVP
(2) he could try and get three or four more defectors from the opposition UNP.
PK Balachandran, Indian Party's quitting puts Rajpaksa in a spot, Hindustan Times, August 3, 2007.

Five days after the government announced that Thoppigala, the last stronghold of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, had fallen and two days before Rajapaksa’s celebrations, the Eastern Province’s chief secretary, the topmost government official in the province, was shot dead. The crime sent a chilling message to the government that the battle was not over yet in the east.
Ameen Izzadeen, What does freedom really mean? Khaleej Times, July 24, 2007.