Category: Politics

UNITED NATIONS, September 3, 2009 (AFP) – UN chief Ban Ki-moon met with a Sri Lankan minister in Geneva Thursday to discuss the plight of civilians displaced by the government defeat of the Tamil separatist insurgency earlier this year, his press office said. But she added that UN officials could not confirm its authenticity. The […]

Sept 04, 2009 (LBO) – The United Kingdom is giving 17 million rupees to support the rehabilitation of ex-combatants in Sri Lanka conflict by the island’s ministry of justic, the International Organization of Migration (IOM) said.Justice minister Milinda Moragoda has welcomed the support given for the rehabilitation efforts led by his ministry and Sri Lanka’s […]

September 1, 2009 (AFP) – Sri Lanka faced a barrage of criticism on Tuesday for sentencing a journalist to 20 years of hard labour, led by US condemnation and warnings about censorship from press freedom groups.Human Rights Watch urged Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapakse to overturn the Colombo High Court order that on Monday convicted […]

PARIS, September 1, 2009 (AFP) – France sharply rebuked the government of Sri Lanka on Tuesday after a court there sentenced a reporter to 20 years in prison on terrorism charges related to his alleged ties to Tamil rebels. “J.S. Tissainayagam was given this heavy sentence simply for carrying out his profession as a journalist,” […]

September 2, 2009 (AFP) – Sri Lanka on Wednesday rejected international criticism of the sentencing of a journalist to 20 years of hard labour over his alleged links to Tamil Tiger separatist rebels.The foreign ministry in Colombo said the widespread condemnation, led by the United States and media rights groups, was an attempt at “undermining […]

LONDON, August 31, 2009 (AFP) – More than 400 children were being held in British immigration detention centres with their families, a report said Monday, citing official figures. The Home Office said: “The UK Border Agency fully recognises its responsibilities towards children but these responsibilities have to be exercised alongside our duty to enforce the […]

August 26, 2009 (AFP) – Sri Lanka on Wednesday freed nearly 600 Hindu and Catholic priests who were held in internment camps with ethnic Tamils displaced by fighting between troops and separatist rebels, officials said.The clergy were allowed to leave the camps in the northern district of Vavuniya, where 300,000 inmates are detained under tight […]

August 24, 2009 (AFP) – A Sri Lankan magistrate on Monday bailed four doctors held for allegedly spreading rebel propaganda before the defeat of the Tamil Tigers. The doctors were arrested in May after they left an area where security forces fought the final battle against the separatist rebels. “They have been asked to post […]

August 23, 2009 (AFP) – Tamil civilians who lived through the vicious final battle of Sri Lanka’s separatist war are now locked in another struggle for survival with heavy rains bringing misery to the camps they call home.Nearly 300,000 people displaced by the fighting between government troops and Tamil Tiger rebels are held in what […]

WASHINGTON, August 19, 2009 (AFP) – The United States on Wednesday renewed its call for Sri Lanka to release more than 250,000 Tamil war refugees from their camps, warning of the potential for disease.Heavy rains this week flooded nearly 2,000 makeshift shelters in the camps, where people displaced by war have been detained since the […]

Aug 19, 2009 (LBO) – The United States said it is giving more aid to Sri Lanka to support civilians displaced by the ethnic war and to clear land mines so they could return home soon. The US embassy said in a statement it is giving two million dollars to support the needs of refugees […]

August 17, 2009 (AFP) – Sri Lanka risks further damage to its image by failing to improve conditions for tens of thousands of war-displaced people held in squalor, the island’s main opposition leader said on Monday.Opposition leader and former premier Ranil Wickremesinghe warned that the spread of diseases in the camps during the current rains […]