Sri Lanka Piece in NYTimes

Two Sri Lankas Struggle to Tell Their Tales

By Robert Mackey

Eranga Jayawardena/Associated Press Protesters outside the Norwegian Embassy in Colombo, Sri Lanka, on Monday demanded the expulsion of Norway’s diplomats. The protesters fault Norway for failing to prevent an attack on the Sri Lankan Embassy in Oslo last week by Tamil demonstrators.

As the world waits to find out what exactly is happening in the battle between Sri Lankan government forces and Tamil separatists now trapped on a narrow strip of land in the country’s northeast, supporters of both sides in the 25-year conflict continue to fight a global propaganda war on many fronts.

International reporters are still barred by Sri Lanka’s government from the war zone, so The Times, like the BBC and other news organizations, is forced to rely on the conflicting statements of spokesmen from the country’s ministry of defense and for the rebel force, the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, or L.T.T.E. on what is happening there. My colleagues Mark McDonald and Sharon Otterman report on Tuesday “the embattled rebels’ last remaining sanctuary,” is “a dwindling patch of lagoons, coconut groves and beachfront,” where “an estimated 60,000 civilians remain trapped,” along with what is left of the rebel force.

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To read more, visit: http://thelede.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/04/21/two-sri-lankas-struggle-to-tell-their-tales/?hp