Category: Politics

Mar 18, 2008 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s capacity to counter and investigate bomb blasts has been boosted with new equipment from the United States, the island’s police chief said Tuesday. “We were waiting for this type of post blast investigation equipment,” Inspector General of Police Victor Perera said after receiving a stock of hi-tech equipment […]

Mar 17, 2008 (LBO) – The United States Department of State’s Bureau of Diplomatic Security will donate 220,000 dollars worth of antiterrorism equipment to Sri Lanka’s national police, a U.S. embassy statement said Monday. . “The purpose of the equipment is to sustain and enhance the critical capabilities of the security forces of Sri Lanka […]

Mar 17, 2008 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s state-run Rupavahini television station was running with a skeleton staff Monday after the management declared a ‘holiday’ overnight to avert a strike, union workers said. Sri Lanka Rupavahini Workers Union, whose president Anurasiri Hettige was attacked by club-wielding thugs last week, said only a few selected workers were […]

COLOMBO, March 17, 2008 (AFP) – At least 31 Tamil Tiger rebels and two security personnel were killed in weekend clashes in Sri Lanka’s north, the defence ministry said Monday. Sri Lanka pulled out of a six-year truce with the LTTE in January, saying it had gained the upper hand militarily in the decades-long conflict. […]

March 16, 2008 (AFP) – At least one soldier was killed and four others wounded in a road side bomb attack in northern Sri Lanka Sunday, defence officials said. Suspected Tamil Tiger rebels set off the blast as troops drove in an autorickshaw in Vavuniya district, an area of ongoing heavy fighting between the government […]

Mar 16, 2008 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s former minister Anura Bandaranaike, a member of a powerful political family that has produced two prime ministers and a president, died Sunday at a private hospital, a senior ruling party official said. Anura Bandaranaike is the son of Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) founder and former prime minister […]

March 15, 2008 (AFP) – Sri Lankan government jets bombed a Tamil Tiger training base as fighting across the northern region claimed at least another 29 lives, the defence ministry said Saturday.Sri Lanka pulled out of a six-year-old truce with the LTTE in January, saying it had the upper hand to crush the rebels militarily. […]

COLOMBO, March 14, 2008 (AFP) – Heavy fighting between security forces and Tamil Tiger rebels in northern Sri Lanka has left at least 23 guerrillas dead and five government soldiers wounded, the defence ministry said Friday.Tens of thousands have been killed since the ethnic conflict erupted in 1972. Clashes erupted in the Wanni region as […]

Mar 14, 2008 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s state-run television service, Rupavahini, has suspended live programs other than news broadcasts in protest against an attack on one of their employees Friday morning, television workers said. Anurasiri Hettige, a trade union official, had been attacked with a metal bar in the Kottikawatte area of Sri Lanka’s capital […]

March 14, 2008 (AFP) – Sri Lanka on Friday announced plans to hold provincial council elections for the first time in two decades in a former stronghold of Tamil Tiger separatists. Commissioner of Elections Dayananda Dissanayake said he would receive nominations for the Eastern Provincial Council for a week from March 27. Voting was expected […]

March 14, 2008 (LBO) – The Sri Lankan government Friday said it had summoned the American envoy to protest against a critical U.S. human rights report but the US embassy said it was standing by the report. A Foreign Ministry statement said it “strongly protests” the U.S. State Department’s Human Rights Report which criticised Sri […]

Mar 12, 2008 (LBO) – An international media rights watchdog says it is troubled by the arrests of several Sri Lankan journalists, some of them from the ethnic Tamil minority and called on authorities to charge or release them immediately. Six people connected to Outreachsl.com, a news website was arrested by terror sleuths of which […]