Cameron to hear pain of war on historic Jaffna visit

Surrounded by bullet holes and photos of bloodied reporters, newspaper editor M.V Kaanamylnathan readied Friday for an historic visit by British Prime Minister David Cameron to Sri Lanka's former war zone. Sitting in his home in Jaffna, Kaanamylnathan had a simple message for Cameron, who is leaving a Commonwealth summit and heading north to shine a spotlight on Colombo's alleged abuses against ethnic minority Tamils. "One, we are suffering as a press and the rights of our readers are still suffering even after the war," Kaanamylnathan said he would tell Cameron, as his staff posted photos of their reporters beaten by security forces over the years to the walls. "This needs to be told to the international world," the editor told AFP. "Everyone is pretending that everything is okay, that Tamils have equal rights, but it's not true." Cameron, who will become the first foreign leader to visit Jaffna since Sri Lanka won its independence from Britain in 1948, is to visit the Tamil newspaper's offices and the editor's home in the same compound. The newspaper Uthayan ("The Sun") has a long history of coming under deadly attack by security forces because of its reporting of alleged abuses during the war. The conflict, in which more than 100,000 people were killed, ended in May 2009 in an onslaught against the Tamil Tiger rebels on their last stronghold, but that did not signal an end to the paper's woes. As recently as April, its printing presses were torched while Kaanamylnathan himself was attacked in 2001. "We expect the prime minister's visit will not make a change to the government's and the paramilitaries' attitudes towards us," he said in his lounge room, which still has bullet holes from yet another attack. During his short visit, Cameron is also expected to meet the chief minister of Sri Lanka's northern province, a Tamil who won provincial elections earlier this year. A short distance from Jaffna's town library, where the meeting is set to take place, about 100 mainly women, whose relatives went missing during and after the war, are gathering to hold a peaceful protest. Among them is Subalashimi Tharshan, who hopes the prime minister's visit will force Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapakse's Sinhalese-majority government to finally tell the women the fate of their sons and fathers. "The government should be answerable for what they have done. International people coming here must pressure the president to tell us where they are," she told AFP clutching a large photo of her son Rajathurai. Tharshan, 48, travelled some 100 kilometres (62 miles) by private bus from Mannar in the north for Cameron's visit, while other women also came from neighbouring districts. She said her son was recruited as an 18-year-old to fight alongside the Tigers in 2007. He was held in a northern military-run camp after the rebels were defeated in 2009, but has not been seen or heard of since. She said she was not scared of retribution by the military which still has a large presence in the north four years after the end of the war, despite fears plain-clothed officers will be present at the protest. "We are not afraid. They have taken our children, what can they do?" she said, her voice breaking, as women sat nearby in the dirt outside a Hindu temple. Emmanuel Sebamali, a Catholic priest who has organised the protest, said he wanted Cameron to meet those still carrying the daily burden of the war's legacy. "We want David Cameron to see the suffering of our people, hear about the human rights violations ... and the killings," he told AFP.