Category: Politics

GENEVA, May 19, 2009 (AFP) – The UN human rights council will hold a special session next week on the situation in Sri Lanka after the end of Asia’s longest running civil war, a statement said Tuesday. “It is hoped that the holding of this special session will contribute towards the cause of peace”, said […]

May 19, 2009 (AFP) – Sri Lanka’s President Mahinda Rajapakse is to deliver a victory speech to parliament Tuesday following the bloody defeat of the Tamil Tigers and their decades-old war for an independent ethnic homeland. Government commandos on Monday stormed into the last tiny patch of jungle held by the guerrillas, killing Tamil Tiger […]

SYDNEY, May 18, 2009 (AFP) – A Sri Lankan student in Sydney had acid thrown in his face and was in an induced coma after a home invasion early Monday sparked by the conflict in his troubled homeland, police said.Police appealed for calm among the Sinhalese and Tamil communities in Australia’s largest city following the […]

NEW DELHI, May 18, 2009 (AFP) – India asked Sri Lanka on Monday to “address the root causes of the conflict” with ethnic Tamils and to provide aid to tens of thousands of civilians displaced in the last months of the war. India is home to millions of Tamils in the southern state of Tamil […]

NEW DELHI, May 18, 2009 (AFP) – India is to ask Sri Lanka for scientific confirmation of the death of the Tamil Tigers leader so it can close a case connected to the murder of former premier Rajiv Gandhi, police said Monday. Tamil Tiger leader Velupillai Prabhakaran, his intelligence chief Pottu Amman and rebel women’s […]

WASHINGTON, May 11, 2009 (AFP) – The United States is “deeply concerned” about civilian deaths in strife-torn Sri Lanka, a State Department spokesman said Monday, calling on the Colombo government and Tamil Tiger rebels to end their fighting.“We’re deeply concerned,” said State Department spokesman Ian Kelly, when asked to comment on reports that more than […]

LONDON, May 11, 2009 (AFP) – British police said they arrested 45 Tamil protestors Monday after they blocked traffic with a sit-down protest outside parliament in London, in response to the killing of civilians in Sri Lanka. The arrests were made as police tried to move protestors off the road at one of the British […]

CANBERRA, May 12, 2009 (AFP) – Australia on Tuesday announced what it called the largest surveillance operation in the country’s history to fight people-smuggling amid a surge in refugees making for its shores.Unveiling the annual budget, the government committed an extra 1.3 billion Australian dollars (990 million US) to strengthening border security, including two additional […]

May 11, 2009 (AFP) – Japan must “shoulder its responsibilities” and use its leverage to prevent a civilian bloodbath in Sri Lanka’s ethnic conflict, human rights and conflict prevention groups said Monday.Japan, which is Sri Lanka’s largest aid donor and holds two thirds of the island’s foreign debt, needs to “play a more active role” […]

May 6, 2009 (AFP) – Sri Lanka’s president has invited UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon to visit the island and assess first-hand the plight of civilians affected by fighting with Tamil rebels, his office said Wednesday.President Mahinda Rajapakse, under pressure over allegations that his troops have been shelling civilian areas, spoke to Ban on Tuesday […]

May 02, 2009 (LBO) – US President Barack Obama said he was concerned about threats against the media the world over, and mentioned the plight of Sri Lankan journalist J S Tissainayagam who has been detained for over a year.“In every corner of the globe, there are journalists in jail or being actively harassed: from […]

April 29, 2009 (AFP) – The foreign ministers of Britain and France, David Miliband and Bernard Kouchner, arrived Wednesday in Sri Lanka, officials said, looking to negotiate a humanitarian ceasefire in the island’s civil war. Amid mounting international concern about the plight of civilians caught up in the fighting between government troops and Tamil Tiger […]