Category: Politics

August 18, 2009 (AFP) – Heavy rains flooded nearly 2,000 makeshift shelters housing Sri Lankan Tamil war refugees detained by the government, the United Nations said Tuesday, raising concerns about their health. The strong rains last weekend lashed the northern Vavuniya district where over 250,000 people displaced during the final stages of the ethnic conflict […]

August 16, 2009 (AFP) – Heavy rains flooded camps housing some of Sri Lanka’s 300,000 war refugees, officials said Sunday, raising fears for the welfare of the detainees.She said a section of the Manik Farm camp was the worst hit by the floods as the drainage system was only half built. The privately-run Sunday Times […]

Aug 11, 2009 (LBO) – Sri Lanka should cap election spending to prevent honest politicians being crowded out and criminal elements entering the parliament, a breakaway ruling party politician has said. “One of the proposals I have submitted for consideration for the next manifesto is to have some form of a cap for election spending […]

Aug 10, 2009 (LBO) – The United States said it had donated another 15 million dollars of food to help resettle people displaced by Sri Lanka’s ethnic war whose early return to their homes Washington is pressing for. The US embassy said in a statement the aid through the US Agency for International Development (USAID), […]

August 9, 2009 (AFP) – A party that backs the defeated Tamil Tiger rebels won a council in elections near Sri Lanka’s former war zone, results showed Sunday, in a sign that separatists still attract popular support.Widespread international concern was voiced over the number of civilians killed during the fighting, while aid groups now fear […]

August 8, 2009 (AFP) – Voting for two local councils began Saturday near Sri Lanka’s former war zone, officials said, as independent media was denied access to the area. The voting is seen as a test of popularity of President Mahinda Rajapakse after his crushing victory over the separatist Tamil Tiger rebels. Election officials said […]

August 6, 2009 (AFP) – Global press freedom group Reporters Without Borders voiced outrage Thursday over Sri Lanka’s ban on independent media covering local polls just outside the island’s former war zone.The government claimed victory over the Tamil Tiger rebels in May after killing the top leadership of the separatist movement which had been fighting […]

August 6, 2009 (AFP) – Sri Lankan police arrested 32 men who were illegally trying to leave for New Zealand by boat, an official said Thursday.The men were taken into custody late Wednesday on the island’s western coast of Seeduwa from where they planned to set off for New Zealand in a fishing trawler, senior […]

August 4, 2009 (AFP) – The New York-based group Human Rights Watch on Tuesday pressed for an international probe into the killings in Sri Lanka of 17 local employees of a French charity three years ago.HRW marked the anniversary of the execution-style murders of the Action Against Hunger (ACF) workers in Sri Lanka’s northeastern town […]

July 30, 2009 (LBO) – “Ahasin Wetei” (Between two worlds), a film by Sri Lankan film maker Vimukthi Jayasundara will be among those competing for the Golden Lion award at this year’s Venice film festival, AFP quoted organisers as saying Thursday.Among the competitors is Michael Moore’s film on the financial crisis and the directorial debut […]

July 27, 2009 (AFP) – The United States was “deeply concerned” that tens of thousands of displaced people were still locked inside camps two months after Sri Lanka’s decades-long ethnic war had ended, a US envoy said Monday.Around 300,000 people displaced during the final stages of the war continue to live in temporary shelters run […]

GENEVA, July 23, 2009 (AFP) – Fifty-nine journalists have been killed around the world so far this year, in an alarming rise from 2008 that has become a “bloodbath” of the media, a watchdog said Thursday. Abdel Nabi said the UN Human Rights Council was “impotent” in protecting journalists. The PEC expressed concern about election […]