Lanka to compile death toll of civil war

, Nov 27: Sri Lankan today announced that it will conduct a nation-wide survey from tomorrow to compile a death toll and assess property damage during the country's nearly three-decades-long civil war.

The census would be conducted by the state's statistics office "to assess the human and property damages occurred during nearly three-decades-long conflict," an official statement said. The census will start tomorrow with a six months deadline to report, officials said.

The census would seek detailed information on deaths, missing persons, injured or disabled persons and damages to property. It will cover the period between 1983 and May, 2009, and would include over 14,000 villages in the country. A government census limited to the former northern battle zones last year said that over 8,000 people were killed while another 6,350 had gone missing during the conflict.

The announcement of the census comes after British Prime Minister David Cameron said that he would press for an independent investigation into alleged war crimes during the final phase of the island's military campaign against the LTTE which ended four years ago.

The civil war, one of the longest-running and bloodiest in Asia, ended when LTTE leader Velupillai Prabhakaran was killed in his final stronghold.

PTI