Holed up in the dark stinking hull of a wooden fishing boat, Amalan, a Sri Lankan Tamil refugee, made a "nightmare" voyage to Australia.

The 29-year-old had paid people-smugglers $15,000 (AU$16,600; £9,600) to help him escape his country’s brutal civil conflict.

The smugglers had promised him a short journey across the Indian Ocean. In the end he spent 30 days at sea.

Three people out of the 76 crammed on the rickety vessel died during the crossing.

"There were no facilities on board, [...]

The Sri Lankan foreign minister has said that a UN panel on human rights will not be allowed into the country.

GL Peiris said that there was "no need" for the panel to come to the country and they would not be allowed in.

The UN secretary general announced earlier this week that the panel will look into alleged human rights abuses.

The UN has described the move to prevent the panel from entering the country as "most unfortunate".

"Everybody loses out [...]

An earthquake of 7.5 magnitude has hit near India’s Nicobar Islands, in the Indian Ocean.

The US Geological Survey said it occurred about 150km (95 miles) west of the Nicobar Islands and 440km from Sumatra, Indonesia.

The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center initially issued a warning for the entire Indian Ocean region.

The agency later downgraded the warning to India only, before cancelling the alert altogether.

"Sea level readings indicate that a significant tsunami was not generated," the Hawaii-based centre said. [...]

Stephen Sackur looks at the Sri Lankan government’s child soldier rehabilitation programme. During Sri Lanka’s decades-long civil war, hundreds of children were conscripted and forced to fight for the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE). He talks to the programme director, teachers and to the teenagers themselves about their horrific experiences and new lives.

The programme poses a troubling question – should the victorious Sri Lankan military be responsible for the rehabilitation of traumatised and vulnerable Tamil teenagers?

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Sri Lanka is now at peace after decades of civil war. President Mahinda Rajapaksa has consolidated his power by winning both the presidential and parliamentary elections. However, there are serious questions about his government’s commitment to the rule of law and to human rights.

In the second of Hardtalk’s exclusive series of programmes in Sri Lanka, Stephen Sackur talks to journalists who live with the threat of intimidation and murder. He talks to the opposition presidential candidate, former General [...]

Hardtalk is on the road in Sri Lanka. In May 2009, after almost 30 years of civil war, Sri Lanka’s government announced its defeat of the separatist Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE). But with the government refusing to talk of autonomy for the Tamil people, is the current peace sustainable?

Hardtalk gains rare access to some of the north’s former conflict zones and reports on the still raw wounds of the people and the landscape of northern Sri Lanka. [...]

What happens to child soldiers when the army they are fighting for loses the war? In Sri Lanka, some teenagers who fought for the Tamil Tigers have gone back to school, to be rehabilitated by an officer from the victorious government forces.

Just before 7.30 in the morning a steady stream of teenagers heads across a courtyard in Colombo’s Hindu College.

The boys have neat haircuts and crisp white shirts. Some are sporting the sort of fluff on their upper lips [...]

Members of the Tamil film industry in India have boycotted a leading Indian film awards ceremony due to begin in the Sri Lankan capital, Colombo.

An industry spokesman said the boycott was in protest against the "killings" of Tamils in the Sri Lankan war.

Event organisers say the protesters are "politicising" the the International Indian Film Academy awards.

The awards began in 2000 when the first ceremony was held in London at the Millennium Dome.

The thriving Tamil film industry [...]

Sri Lanka’s government has stepped up diplomatic pressure against UN attempts to investigate its conduct in the against Tamil Tiger rebels.

But UN chief Ban Ki-moon says that he is still working on setting up a panel of experts to advise him on Sri Lanka’s human rights accountability.

Sri Lanka’s foreign minister has said it would have no "moral justification".

Meanwhile, in the north, relatives of people who disappeared during the war have staged a demonstration.

The message from Sri [...]

It is exactly a year since Sri Lanka declared victory in its decades-long war against Tamil Tiger separatists. It ended with the top Tiger leaders killed after being besieged with thousands of civilians they had herded into their final stronghold.

On the strength of that victory, President Mahinda Rajapaksa and his government won landslide elections. Charles Haviland reports from Colombo as Sri Lankans reflect on a remarkable anniversary.

By a grey sea, tanks rumble into motion. Massive vehicles mounted with mortars, [...]

The UN has warned that "donor fatigue" in Sri Lanka has meant that it has received only 24% of the donor funds it needs to help displaced Tamils.

It has warned that the needs of Tamils wanting to return to their homes are still huge a year after the war ended.

Meanwhile the government has not commented on a report by a leading think-tank which says more civilians were killed than previously thought.

And the army has had to postpone [...]

Defeated Sri Lankan presidential candidate Gen Sarath Fonseka has for the first time appeared before a civilian court to deny inciting unrest.

He is alleged to have said in a newspaper interview last year that the defence secretary ordered the killing of surrendering Tamil rebels.

The general appeared before Colombo magistrates to protest his innocence.

He said he had been misquoted by the newspaper and that the case was part of an attempt to silence him.

He is accused of [...]

The Sri Lankan government has announced the relaxation of some of the emergency regulations which have been in place for the past four years.

There will be no further restrictions on the right to hold meetings or distribute certain literature.

But other measures, like the right to detain suspects without trial, remain, officials said.

The prevention of terrorism act under which many people have been arrested, is also unaffected.

Emergency laws give the authorities powers to detain terror suspects indefinitely and [...]

In northern Sri Lanka, 80,000 war-displaced people still live in army-run camps, waiting while their devastated land is cleared of mines and jungle. Tens of thousands are now beginning to resettle near the homes they fled from, but it is not easy, says the BBC’s Charles Haviland.

It is early morning but sweat pours from the brows of labourers on a railway track north of Vavuniya.

With a roar of exertion, they heave a piece of rail into place with [...]

The north Sri Lankan ancestral home of Tamil Tiger rebel leader Velupillai Prabhakaran has been demolished by the Sri Lankan army, Tamil politicians say.

The house was situated in the Valvettithurai area of the northern Jaffna peninsula.

The army told the BBC it had not demolished the house.

The Tamil Tiger leader was killed and his rebel movement defeated after heavy fighting in the north last May brought nearly two decades of war to an end.

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"The Sri Lankan [...]