Category: Politics

COLOMBO, June 11, 2014 (AFP) – Sri Lankan media rights activists Wednesday accused the government of a new crackdown against reporters as the country faced a UN-led international war crimes probe. Dozens of pro-government supporters threatened violence and broke up an investigative journalism training workshop at the weekend, said Transparency International Sri Lanka (TISL) which […]

The outcome of LokSabha (lower house of the Indian Parliament) elections on May 16th was unexpected and unprecedented over the last three decades. The trend towards more fractured and fragmented outcomes has been reversed decisively. The third benefit for Sri Lanka from a Modi government will emerge from India reverting back to a high growth […]

COLOMBO, June 3, 2014 (AFP) – Sri Lanka’s President Mahinda Rajapakse has ordered the release of 29 Indian fishermen held on poaching charges, officials said Tuesday, in a move to ease tensions over illegal fishing. Rajapakse on Tuesday asked for the latest batch of arrested fishermen to be released without trial although the navy had […]

MATARA, May 18, 2014 (AFP) – President Mahinda Rajapakse led celebrations at a major victory parade Sunday to mark the fifth anniversary of the end of Sri Lanka’s Tamil separatist war, after banning commemorations for its victims.As the envoys of Western nations stayed away from the parade, a defiant Rajapakse insisted he would not bow […]

MATARA, May 4, 2014 (AFP) – At a temple in the heart of Sri Lanka’s Sinhalese south, an unusual attempt at reconciliation is underway after decades of ethnic bloodshed, even as the government warns of fresh fighting.Such mythological stories about Sri Lanka’s history are common on the island, whose Sinhalese majority can trace their roots […]

COLOMBO, May 2, 2014 (AFP) – Sri Lanka’s Muslim legislators on Friday asked President Mahinda Rajapakse to protect their minority community from “Buddhist extremist elements” blamed for a recent spate of hate attacks. The country is emerging from nearly four decades of ethnic war which according to UN estimates claimed at least 100,000 lives between […]

WASHINGTON, May 1, 2014 (AFP) – World press freedom has hit its lowest level in a decade, amid regression in Egypt, Turkey and Ukraine, and US efforts to curb national security reporting, a survey showed Thursday.The report by Freedom House, which has been conducting annual surveys since 1980, found that the share of the world’s […]

Apr 29, 2014 (LBO) – Sri Lanka issued a stamp commemorating Ho Chi Minh, a revolutionary communist leader that led the country to independence from the French who is reputed to have visited the island several times. He had also travelled to Britain the US in the early 1900s and lived and worked in those […]

Apr 26, 2014 (LBO) – Sri Lanka should improve rights of citizens while resisting an international inquiry planned into alleged war crimes by UN’s Human Rights Council and also strengthen relations with India, a political analyst said.“The international inquiry has to be resisted because it has no precedent,” Dayan Jayatillaka, former diplomat and political analyst, […]

Apr 20, 2014 (LBO) – Operating profits at Sri Lanka’s Ports Authority fell 53.4 percent to 2.4 billion rupees in 2013 with revenues also down 2.3 percent to 37.2 billion rupees, despite an increase in container volumes at Colombo, official data showed. Expenditure had increased 5.8 percent to 34.8 billion rupees. Containers handled in Colombo […]