Category: Politics

COLOMBO, Feb 25, 2007 (AFP) – Sri Lankan troops seized at least four bases from Tamil Tiger strongholds in the northeast in the past week, the defence ministry said Sunday, in fighting that has forced thousands to flee.The LTTE has not commented on the military’s claim, but on Thursday night announced they were relaunching their […]

Feb 25, 2007 (AFP) – As thousands flee for their lives amid heavy weekend artillery fire in northern and eastern Sri Lanka, analysts say the government, Tamil rebels and Norway are clinging to a truce that is dead.The Oslo-backed peace process suffered yet another blow last week when the rebels vowed to resume their campaign […]

SYDNEY, Feb 24, 2007 (AFP) – Australia vowed Saturday not to send home a group of 85, mostly Sri Lankan boat people if it meant they would face persecution.The Australian government said the fate of the group, intercepted by a navy ship this week, was being discussed with both Jakarta and the tiny Pacific nation […]

COLOMBO, Feb 23, 2007 (AFP) – Sri Lanka and the rebel Tamil Tigers marked the fifth anniversary of their truce on Friday, hours after the guerrillas said the deal was all but dead and that they will press ahead for full statehood.The party of nationalist Buddhist monks argued that there was no need for the […]

COLOMBO, Feb 22, 2007 (AFP) – Three civilians were found shot dead in northern Sri Lanka and a soldier was killed in the country’s east Thursday, on the eve of the fifth anniversary of a failed truce agreement, police said. The bullet-riddled bodies of the civilians were found in three locations in the town of […]

COLOMBO, Feb 22, 2007 (AFP) – Norway’s top peace broker in Sri Lanka, Erik Solheim, Thursday offered to go the extra mile to revive the stalled process on the eve of the fifth anniversary of a moribund truce.Solheim, who is also Norway’s international development minister, expressed the hope that Sri Lanka’s government and the Liberation […]

February 22 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s sacked national heritage minister Anura Bandaranaike has been re-appointed to his former post Thursday, a spokesman from the presidential secretariat said. Bandaranaike was removed with former aviation minister Mangala Samaraweera and Sripathi Sooriyarachchi.

Feb 22, 2007 (AFP) – Sri Lanka’s navy sank two suspected Tamil Tiger boats off the island’s north-western coast Thursday, killing at least nine people, a military official said. Navy craft attacked the suspected rebel boats off the coast of Puttalam district, a navy spokesman said. “There were six men in one boat and three […]

COLOMBO, Feb 21, 2007 (AFP) – Sri Lankan government troops and Tamil Tiger rebels mark the fifth anniversary of their Norwegian-brokered truce this week but the fighting rages on, with nearly 4,000 people killed in the past year.The ceasefire, signed separately by the Tamil Tiger chieftain and Sri Lanka’s then premier, came into effect on […]

COLOMBO, Feb 21, 2007 (AFP) – Sri Lanka on Wednesday asked neighbouring India to intensify a crackdown on suspected Tamil rebel gun-running across the narrow strip of sea dividing the two South Asian countries.Sri Lanka’s defence spokesman Keheliya Rambukwella said the interception last week by the Indian coastguard of a boat loaded with weapons indicated […]

COLOMBO, Feb 21, 2007 (AFP) – At least three people, including a policeman, were killed and 16 wounded Wednesday in a mine attack in eastern Sri Lanka, police said.The road side blast targeting a police vehicle was caused by a Claymore-type bomb at Ottamawadi in the district of Batticaloa, a police official said by telephone. […]

COLOMBO, Feb 21, 2007 (AFP) – Norway Wednesday called for a fresh commitment from Sri Lanka’s warring parties to maintain its peace brokering efforts on the eve of the fifth anniversary of a truce that now holds only on paper. His remarks came amid calls by the government’s former Marxist ally, the JVP — or […]