The newspaper staff and its owners has been subjected to immense harassment since the recent past after the newspaper wrote critical articles against the government and President Mahinda Rajapaksa and his brother Gotabhaya Rajapaksa who is also the defence secretary.

Meanwhile, the Free Media Movement (FMM) said today that it was disturbed to here that the bank accounts of the Mawbima have been sealed by the government. "Mawbima is a critical news paper and has a wide circulation among the Sinhala population. It is published by Standard Newspaper Private Limited. Mawbima newspaper has been under increasing pressure by the government over the last few months," the FMM said in a release.

According to the Mawbima editorial the government's decision to seal the media organization's accounts will effectively stop publishing the news paper.

"This is a very clear violation of freedom of Expression. Bank accounts of all other business establishments partly or fully owned by the Standard Newspaper Private Limited group owner Tiran Alles, too has been sealed. On March 8th and 9th the government sealed the accounts of reputed CBE group of companies, and on the 12th the accounts of the well established 'Gateway International School' was sealed which were owned by Tiran Alles's father R.I.T. Alles," the FMM noted.

The movement added that this action by the government clearly shows a pattern of systematic intimidation and suppression of a newspaper which is not following the 'government's' line in reporting the conflict and corruption.

"Free Media Movement strongly condemns these intimidating tactics of the government and urge media community to rally around to defend the rights of Mawbima newspaper in particular and against increasing autocratic tendencies in general," the release added.Discuss this story Published: Wed Mar 14 13:21:50 EDT 2007

More than 52,000 people left areas controlled by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam near the port of Batticaloa this month, Keheliya Rambukwella, the government's defense spokesman, said in Colombo yesterday, according to the Defense Ministry's Web site. Statements that between 100,000 and 200,000 people have been displaced are ``utterly false,'' he said.

``The government will do its utmost for the welfare of these innocent people by resettling them in their native places and providing them with basic facilities,'' the ministry said in a statement. The government is determined to solve the problem ``in a humane way.''

As many as 200,000 people have been forced from their homes in the past six months, as the South Asian island nation experiences the worst fighting between the army and the Tamil Tigers since a 2002 cease-fire, the United Nations said last week. The U.S.-based Human Rights Watch group two days ago appealed to the UN to send monitors to the country to protect civilians caught in the conflict.

Human Shields

The Tamil Tigers are using civilians as human shields near rebel gun posts and are forcing young men to join the group, the government said last week.

The army has placed some artillery posts near schools outside Batticaloa, the LTTE Peace Secretariat said in an e- mailed statement two days ago.

``This positioning of the artillery is using the schoolchildren as human shields,'' it said.

The LTTE, classified as a terrorist organization by the U.S., the European Union and India, last month marked the fifth anniversary of the cease-fire by saying the army's offensives will force Tamils to renew their campaign for self-determination. Tamils make up less than a fifth of the country's population. More... Published: Wed Mar 14 22:45:25 EDT 2007

Sri Lanka's military spokesman said Wednesday that over 60 Tamil Tiger rebels and 10 troops have been killed in clashes in the island's restive Northern and Eastern provinces over the last few days.

Brigadier Prasad Samarasinghe said some 10 members of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) were killed in air raids on Monday night at Thoppigala jungles in the eastern Batticaloa district while 47 of them had been killed in two separate locations in Eastern Province over the weekend.

"We have handed over seven bodies to the LTTE and some of the other bodies were in decomposed state," Samarasinghe told reporters. More...Discuss this story Published: Wed Mar 14 09:08:28 EDT 2007