Category: Politics

COLOMBO, Aug 8, 2007 (AFP) – Six people have been killed in clashes across Sri Lanka’s embattled regions as a top UN relief envoy visited, officials and rebels said Wednesday.Tamil rebels are seeking an independent homeland for the ethnic Tamil minority in the Sinhalese-majority nation.Warplanes also bombed rebel targets in northern Manner district, the defence […]

Aug 7, 2007 (AFP) – Sri Lankan troops killed six suspected Tamil Tiger rebels in overnight clashes in the north of the country ahead of a visit by a top UN rights envoy to the embattled region on Tuesday, officials said. Sri Lankan troops on foot patrol opened fire at the suspected rebels, killing six […]

NEW YORK, Aug 6, 2007 (AFP) – Unlawful killings, abductions and other violations by government forces in Sri Lanka have increased dramatically amid escalating conflict on the island, a human rights group said Monday.Victim and eyewitness accounts indicate a “shocking” rise in such abuses since 18 months ago, when major fighting between the military and […]

Aug 6, 2007 (AFP) – Sri Lanka said Monday there was no credible evidence for a rights group’s claim that government forces were responsible for intensifying abuses on the island, such as unlawful killings and abductions.“These allegations are not based on credible evidence,” Sri Lanka’s defence spokesman Keheliya Rambukwella said after the New York-based body […]

August 06, 2007 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s entry to the ASEAN at the formation of the regional grouping was opposed in 1967 by Singapore, a retired Thai diplomat has revealed in an interview. Sompong Sucharitkul was an aide to Thai foreign minister Thanat Khoman, who was a founder signatory of the Bangkok declaration that formed […]

Aug 5, 2007 (AFP) – A top UN official is scheduled to arrive in Sri Lanka this week to discuss the island’s deepening Tamil separatist conflict and the plight of civilians caught in the crossfire, officials said Sunday.John Holmes, the under-secretary-general for humanitarian affairs and emergency relief coordinator, will hold talks with Sri Lankan leaders […]

Aug 3, 2007 (AFP) – Sri Lanka on Friday rejected charges that it had tampered with evidence in the investigations into the massacre of 17 workers employed by a French charity.The fighting raged despite a Norwegian-arranged truce which is monitored by independent observers. The government said that an Australian expert who raised doubts about the […]

Aug 4, 2007 (AFP) – At least 32 Tamil civilians have been killed and another 24 “disappeared” last month in Tamil-dominated areas of Sri Lanka’s embattled northeast, the guerrillas said on Saturday.The rebel Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) blamed government forces for the killings as well as the disappearances from the Jaffna peninsula and […]

August 02, 2007 (LBO) – Sri Lanka has formally joined the ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF), a body that discusses security issues in which both Asia-Pacific nations as well as big powers outside the region are involved. Sri Lankan Minister of Foreign Rohitha Bogollagama signed the Instrument of Accession making Sri Lanka a member of the […]

MANILA, Aug 2, 2007 (AFP) – The international community must step up efforts to safeguard maritime security in the face of terrorist threats, Sri Lanka said here on Thursday. Sri Lanka faces its own sea-borne threat from the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, which is campaigning for a separate state for minority Tamils. Foreign Minister […]

August 02, 2007 (LBO) – Members of a Sri Lankan political party, Ceylon Workers Congress (CWC), that helps keep the ruling coalition in power submitted their resignations from the government Thursday. “We have decided to quit the government,” R Yogarajan, Vice President of the Ceylon Workers Congress told LBO. CWC leader Arumugam Thondaman, who is […]

August 01, 2007 (LBO) – Gunmen on a motorcycle shot and killed a journalist in Sri Lanka’s northern Jaffna peninsula Wednesday, the Free Media Movement (FMM), a media rights group, said. Nilakshan Sahapavan (22), a journalism student of the Jaffna Media Resource Training Centre (MRTC) and a part-time journalist, was shot around 4.00 a.m. during […]