Chris Brummitt
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/ 27 April 2006

Sri Lankan peace deal in danger

Mine attacks killed two navy sailors and wounded two commandos in northern Sri Lanka on Thursday in the latest in a barrage of violence that is posing the biggest danger yet to the country’s four-year-old ceasefire. The bloodshed threatens to wreck a 2002 truce that ended two decades of fighting between the government and rebels.

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/ 27 December 2005

Aceh rebels disband armed wing

Indonesia’s Aceh rebels formally disbanded their armed wing on Tuesday, fulfilling one of the most crucial elements of a tsunami-inspired peace plan to end one of Asia’s longest separatist conflicts. The move paves the way for the group to transform itself into a political party.

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/ 26 December 2005

‘All I could do was pray for help’

Masked, black-clad and brandishing machetes, the attackers sprang from behind a screen of tall grass and pounced on the four Christian girls as they walked to school. Within seconds, three of the teenagers were beheaded — fresh victims of violence that has turned the Indonesian island of Poso into yet another front in the terrorist wars.

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/ 1 December 2005

How many really died in the tsunami?

One year later, officials still aren’t exactly sure how many people died in the Indian Ocean tsunami, but a tally of conservative government figures puts the number of dead and missing at more than 216 000 in 11 countries. In Indonesia and Sri Lanka, different agencies within the same governments disagree about the numbers.

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/ 24 January 2005

Two strong quakes rattle nerves in Asia

Two magnitude-6,3 earthquakes in southern Asia struck eight hours apart on Monday, causing panic but little damage in a region still traumatised by last month’s quake-triggered tsunami that killed tens of thousands. Meanwhile, the number of relief camps in Indonesia’s Aceh province has dropped by about 75% in the past week.