Category: Politics

March 5, 2008 (AFP) – Sri Lanka said Wednesday that 100 of its soldiers were killed and a further 800 wounded fighting the Tamil Tigers last month, showing the escalating conflict is bloodier than previously announced.The casualty figures were given in a statement to the national parliament by Health Minister Nimal Siripala de Silva, and […]

COLOMBO, March 6, 2008 (AFP) – Sri Lanka is one of the world’s worst perpetrators of “disappearances” and abductions, Human Rights Watch said Thursday, calling for a UN mission to monitor rights abuses on the island. At least 1,500 people “disappeared” in 2006 and 2007, mostly in the island’s restive north and east, with the […]

COLOMBO, March 6, 2008 (AFP) – A top foreign panel invited by Sri Lanka to observe investigations into human rights abuses announced Thursday it was quitting the island and accused Colombo of failing to tackle the issue. The International Independent Group of Eminent Persons (IIGEP), headed by India’s former chief justice P. N. Bhagwati, said […]

Mar 06, 2008 (LBO) – Sri Lankan troops have captured a Tamil Tiger held town in the northwestern Mannar area of the island as part of a bid to cut off a supply route to the guerilla stronghold from the coast, the military said. Parappakandal, around 20 kilometres to the east of Mannar town, is […]

March 6, 2008 (AFP) – A Sri Lankan Tamil lawmaker and his driver were killed Thursday in a roadside bomb attack that his party and Tamil Tiger rebels said was carried out by government forces. The vehicle of K. Sivanesan, a member of parliament for the pro-rebel Tamil National Alliance (TNA), was hit by a […]

March 05, 2008 (LBO) – Media rights group Reporters Without Borders has condemned attacks against Sri Lankan journalists who exposed by live broadcast an assault by a junior cabinet minister on a state TV station news director. It said in a statement that the authorities appeared more concerned with probing journalists who resisted the assault […]

Mar 05, 2008 (LBO) – Sri Lankan civil society groups Wednesday warned that the government’s contempt for the rule of law and the constitution was bringing the country into disrepute and could cause economic harm. The Organisation of Professional Associations said way President Mahinda Rajapakse and the government was ignoring established norms of good governance […]

Mar 05, 2008 (LBO) – A librarian working for a Sri Lanka state television station where a junior minister was held hostage after he stormed its newsroom had been knifed while travelling on a bus, an official said. .Updated Convenor of the Sri Lanka’s Free Media Movement (FMM) Sunanda Deshapriya said Ranjini Aluthge is being […]

March 4, 2008 (AFP) – Sri Lankan forces pushed deeper into Tamil Tiger territory in an offensive that has left at least 69 guerrillas and nine government soldiers over the weekend, the defence ministry said Tuesday.Sri Lanka plans to spend a record 1.57 billion dollars on defence in calendar 2008, up 20 percent from last […]

March 3, 2008 (AFP) – Artillery exchanges between Sri Lankan troops and Tamil Tiger separatists across the embattled tropical island’s north left at least 25 rebels and two soldiers dead, the defence ministry said Monday.Heavy fighting in Vavuniya and Weli Oya left 21 rebels dead on Sunday, the ministry said in a statement, putting government […]

March 03, 2008 (LBO) – Sri Lankan naval vessels have been deployed to intercept a suspicious vessel 150 nautical miles off the island’s eastern coast, the country’s security media centre said Monday.The suspicious ship had been detected yesterday. The Sri Lanka Navy has previously destroyed a series of ships which were believed to have been […]

COLOMBO, March 3, 2008 (AFP) – Sri Lanka’s navy on Monday rescued 71 Myanmar and Bangladeshi survivors adrift in the Indian Ocean after 20 people died aboard their wooden boat, a navy spokesman said.The survivors would be brought to the capital Colombo, navy officials said. The craft developed engine trouble and was towed to Sri […]