By Ranga Sirilal COLOMBO, Feb 10 (Reuters) - Sri Lanka's government on Tuesday questioned the timing of U.N. criticism of the island nation's human rights situation and defended selective use of British Broadcasting Corp. (BBC) programming on state radio stations. On Monday, the BBC said it would no longer provide FM radio programming to Sri Lanka's state broadcaster [ID:nL9595891], and a panel of U.N. experts said journalists, rights defenders and lawyers in Sri Lanka lived in a "climate of fear". [ID:nL9567831] The dual criticisms came as the government has cornered Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) separatists in the Indian Ocean island nation's north and battles to finish a civil war that has raged off and on since 1983. And the criticisms came on a day when what the military said was a disguised LTTE suicide bomber exploded herself at a registration centre for refugees, killing 29 civilians and soldiers and wounding 90. Rajiva Wijesinhe, the secretary of Sri Lanka's human rights ministry, said the U.N.'s timing risked confusing issues relating to the conduct of the war with human rights matters the government was already working to fix. "Issues elsewhere, we have to address. But the two issues should not be confused," Wijesinhe told reporters on Tuesday. Critics say the government has used the war as an excuse to stifle opponents. The government says it defends free expression, but in a time of war matters of national security must take precedence. Sri Lanka has had a long history of censorship, and violence against critics and journalists that is rarely prosecuted. President Mahinda Rajapaksa has vowed to break that pattern and pledged full investigations into three attacks on the media which drew international condemnation this year. Hudson Samarasinghe, chairman of the state-owned Sri Lanka Broadcasting Corporation, said he had received no formal notice of the suspension, which the BBC said would remain until its programmes were aired without what it called interference. But he said SLBC had the right to do as it wished after paying for programming from outside sources. "This is the voice of the nation," Samarasinghe told Reuters. "I don't have the freedom to air the voice of Prabhakaran who wants to divide the country." He was referring to BBC broadcasts in November that included Tiger leader Vellupillai Prabhakaran's annual address, which state media are prohibited from broadcasting. (Writing by Bryson Hull; Editing by Jerry Norton)
Masked protesters look towards Jammu and Kashmir Police (JKP) personnel during a protest in Srinagar February 10, 2009. More than a dozen protesters and police personnel were injured when protesters started ...
