Chronicling the bitter end of civil war

摘要

More than five years after the brutal end to Sri Lanka's civil war, the Rajapaksa oligarchy has a firm grip on power. President Mahinda Rajapaksa has consolidated his power base both in the executive and the legislature and, of late, forcibly replaced the country's chief justice with a political ally, the judiciary. Australian journalist Trevor Grant's Sri Lanka's secrets: how the Rajapaksa regime gets away with murder is the latest in a line of publications attempting to chronicle the bitter end of Sri Lanka's civil war, and for this he must be commended. In the face of mounting prima facie evidence - from satellite images of a no-fire zone pockmarked with craters from government artillery to mobile phone footage of soldiers engaged in summary executions - there can be no argument over the need for an independent inquiry into war crimes allegations.