Category: Politics

UNITED NATIONS, Nov 2, 2007 (AFP) – More than 110 Sri Lankan peacekeepers serving with the UN mission in Haiti are to be sent back home over charges that they paid for sex, the United Nations said Friday, in the latest such scandal to besmirch the world body. Most of the nearly 100,000 troops serving […]

Nov 3, 2007 (AFP) – The elusive leader of Sri Lanka’s Tamil Tiger rebels on Saturday paid his respects to his slain deputy and five others who died in a government air raid, as security was stepped up across the island.Velupillai Prabhakaran honoured S.P. Thamilselvan, head of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam’s (LTTE) political […]

Nov 2, 2007 (AFP) – Tamil Tiger guerrillas on Friday said they had beaten back two attacks by government forces in northern Sri Lanka with the loss of seven of their own fighters.The rebel Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) said there were two attempts by government forces to break into territory they hold and […]

COLOMBO, Nov 2, 2007 (AFP) – The political chief of Sri Lanka’s Tamil Tigers, the public face of the secretive rebel group, was killed in a government air strike on Friday, the guerrillas announced. S.P. Thamilselvan died with five others in an attack by the Sri Lankan air force on rebel-held territory, they said.The defence […]

Nov 02, 2007 (Vimasuma.com) Sri Lanka’s military would continue to target the Tamil Tiger leadership based on intelligence, a top defence official said, after the guerrillas’ political chief was killed in an air raid Friday. The Tamil Tigers said today its political head S P Thamilchelvan and five others were killed in a dawn air […]

Nov 2, 2007 (AFP) – The political head of Sri Lanka’s Tamil Tiger rebels who was killed in an air strike on Friday was the guerrillas’ public face for scores of visiting dignitaries and media personnel.“It is always wrong to place us on a par with international terrorist acts that bring harm to innocent civilians […]

Nov 1, 2007 (AFP) – Judging by Sri Lankan government accounts of Tamil Tiger dead after decades of fighting, there should hardly be any rebels left. Yet the guerrillas keep on fighting, and apparently dying in large numbers — pointing either to an unlimited pool of combatants or a government wish to boost morale by […]

GENEVA, Oct 30, 2007 (AFP) – The UN’s top torture expert, Manfred Nowak, said on Tuesday that torture — including beatings, asphyxiation and burning — was becoming “routine” during counter-terrorism operations in Sri Lanka.Violence has surged on the island since a Norwegian-arranged truce began unravelling in December 2005. Nowak said in statement on his mission […]

Oct 31, 2007 (LBO) – A media rights body has called for an open inquiry in to the shooting of an online journalist in Colombo, days after government withdrew the license of a radio station and politicians verbally attacked news websites.Although the Free Media Movement (FMM) does not have any evidence to blame any party […]

Oct 31, 2007 (AFP) – Sri Lanka imposed censorship on war reporting a week after Tamil Tiger rebels carried out a devastating attack on the country’s air force, a government notice showed Wednesday.President Mahinda Rajapakse used tough emergency laws to ban the publication of any information on military operations as well as procurements, a gazette […]

Oct 31, 2007 (AFP) – Sri Lanka has imposed blanket censorship on war reporting, officials said Wednesday, a week after a devastating attack on its air force, but is reconsidering the move following media protests.The government then came under fire from media rights groups after saying it would like to hire hackers to stop the […]

Oct 30, 2007 (AFP) – Sri Lankan security forces killed 13 more Tamil Tiger rebels in fresh clashes across the north of the island, the defence ministry said Tuesday. Troops killed 10 rebels during an overnight attack along the military defence lines in the Jaffna peninsula, the ministry said in a statement. It said one […]