Category: Politics

COLOMBO, July 28, 2014 (AFP) – The United States on Monday urged Sri Lanka to crack down on harassment of journalists and protect their rights after organisers of a US-funded media workshop for Tamils received death threats.The US embassy in Colombo said it had raised the issue with the Sri Lankan administration after pro-government protesters […]

COLOMBO, July 26, 2014 (AFP) – Dozens of pro-government activists blocked ethnic Tamil journalists from holding a training program in Sri Lanka on Saturday, marking the latest harassment of the minority community, a media rights group said.FMM’s Jayasekera said he also received death threats over the telephone for holding a press conference to denounce the […]

COLOMBO, July 22, 2014 (AFP) – A firebrand Sri Lankan monk on Tuesday criticised the Dalai Lama for urging the island’s Buddhists to halt violence against minority Muslims and rejected him as a global spiritual leader.Buddhist monk Galagodaatte Gnanasara said the Dalai Lama was ignorant of the “true situation in Sri Lanka” and accused the […]

COLOMBO, July 22, 2014 (AFP) – Sri Lanka President Mahinda Rajapakse will skip the Commonwealth Games starting this week in Glasgow despite being chair of the bloc, his office said Tuesday, after activists threatened to protest at his attendance.Rajapakse’s military crushed rebels fighting for a separate homeland for ethnic minority Tamils in 2009 following a […]

COLOMBO, July 16, 2014 (AFP) – The head of Sri Lanka’s bar association said on Wednesday he feared he might be killed after he described President Mahinda Rajapakse’s government as becoming more autocratic.“We observe that the post-war Sri Lankan polity has been in an acute and deepening crisis,” he said. Another legal group, the Lawyers […]

COLOMBO, July 9, 2014 (AFP) – Sri Lanka has banned non-government organisations from holding press conferences under a new order from the defence ministry seen by AFP on Wednesday, raising new fears for freedom of speech.The order, sent widely to civil society groups earlier this month, said all NGOs should refrain from “unauthorised activities with […]

SYDNEY, July 9, 2014 (AFP) – A dozen mothers in an asylum-seeker camp have reportedly attempted suicide so their children can be settled in Australia, piling pressure on Prime Minister Tony Abbott who said Wednesday he would not be morally blackmailed. The Sydney Morning Herald said the women tried to kill themselves this week after […]

SYDNEY, July 7, 2014 (AFP) – A High Court on Monday barred Australia from handing back a boat carrying 153 asylum-seekers to Sri Lanka, a day after Canberra returned another vessel to Colombo following a week of secrecy.The Tamil Refugee Council has claimed at least 11 of those on board have been tortured by Sri […]

SYDNEY, July 7, 2014 (AFP) – Canberra confirmed Monday a boat load of Sri Lankan asylum-seekers who attempted to reach Australia have been handed back to Colombo, sparking sharp criticism after a week of secrecy.“Australia’s international obligations are reliant upon a credible processing system and we have deep concerns about how that could have been […]

COLOMBO, July 6, 2014 (AFP) – Australia’s immigration minister will visit Colombo this week for talks on illegal immigration following international concern at his country’s handling of Sri Lankan asylum-seekers, it was announced Sunday.The US and European Union member states have said rights abuses against the ethnic Tamil minority continued even after the war’s end […]

COLOMBO, July 2, 2014 (AFP) – Sri Lankan police called in a militant Buddhist monk for questioning Wednesday after he was accused of instigating deadly anti-Muslim riots that heightened religious tensions in the ethnically divided nation.Galagodaatte Gnanasara was summoned to the Criminal Investigations Department over a speech he made two weeks ago in the resort […]

COLOMBO, July 1, 2014 (AFP) – A magistrate has postponed Tuesday’s scheduled start of an operation to exhume a suspected mass war grave on Sri Lanka’s east coast after police said they needed more preparation time, an official said.Authorities had been due to begin excavating part of a beach in Kalavanchikudy district after a resident […]