Category: Politics

JAFFNA, September 18, 2013 (AFP) – Foreign observers held talks with officials and candidates in Sri Lanka’s former war zone Wednesday to ensure the region’s first elections to choose a semi-autonomous council pass off peacefully, officials said. Some 906 candidates are contesting the 36 seats in the Northern council which is going to the polls […]

COLOMBO, September 12, 2013 (AFP) – Sri Lanka on Thursday released 736 convicts after they were given a presidential pardon to mark the country’s prisoner day, officials said. Convicts serving time for minor offences were granted the amnesty and walked free from 22 jails across the country, prisons department spokesman Gamini Kulatunga said. “The president […]

GENEVA, September 9, 2013 (AFP) – The UN rights chief Monday raised fresh concerns for the safety of Sri Lankan journalists and activists she said had been harassed by the authorities for meeting with her. Navi Pillay told the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva she was worried about those she met during her week-long […]

COLOMBO, September 6, 2013 (AFP) – Sri Lanka’s main Muslim political leader, who is also the justice minister, criticised his own government Friday for blaming religious tensions in the mainly Buddhist nation on Islamic fundamentalism.Rauf Hakeem said he had been “disturbed” by recent comments from the country’s defence secretary, Gotabhaya Rajapakse which warned of efforts […]

COLOMBO, September 2, 2013 (AFP) – A Catholic-run human rights group working in northeastern Sri Lanka said Monday it had been harassed by security personnel after meeting UN rights chief Navi Pillay last week.Pillay ended her first trip to the formerly war-ravaged country at the weekend with a stinging press conference in which she accused […]

COLOMBO, September 1, 2013 (AFP) – Sri Lanka’s state-run media Sunday accused UN human rights chief Navi Pillay of being “prejudiced”, a day after she warned that the island was becoming “increasingly authoritarian”.Pillay ended a fact-finding mission to the country to probe allegations of war crimes Saturday by saying Sri Lanka was a place where […]

August 30, 2013 (AFP) – Sri Lanka’s President Friday suggested UN human rights chief Navi Pillay had pre-judged his Indian Ocean island, according to a statement from his office, as the nation faces allegations of war crimes.President Mahinda Rajapakse, in face-to-face talks with Pillay, told her that Sri Lankans believe that the UN is biased, […]

COLOMBO, August 31, 2013 (AFP) – UN human rights chief Navi Pillay on Saturday accused Sri Lanka of becoming “increasingly authoritarian”, with activists facing growing military harassment four years after the end of a civil war.Rajapakse’s government has since been dogged by claims of indiscriminate killing of ethnic minority Tamils. Pillay charged that military officials […]

COLOMBO, August 29, 2013 (AFP) – Sri Lanka ratcheted up criticism of the UN human rights body on Thursday, accusing it of repeated “vicious and baseless” allegations, as its chief visited the island to probe alleged war crimes.Foreign Minister Gamini Lakshman Peiris told Navi Pillay that Sri Lanka “resents vicious and baseless positions which are […]

COLOMBO, August 28, 2013 (AFP) – Sri Lanka’s president has criticised the UN Human Rights Council as its top official toured the battle-scarred nation to probe alleged war crimes, according to state media Wednesday.President Mahinda Rajapakse, who is on a trip to Belarus, has told his counterpart Alexander Lukashenko that both nations are being targeted […]

Aug 27, 2013 (LBO)- Sri Lanka has signed a series of bilateral deals involving trade, taxation, tourism and defence co-operation following a visit by President Mahinda Rajapaksa to Belarus.Agreements on trade and economic co-operation, avoidance of double taxation and prevention of fiscal evasion, tourism and technical co-operation on military affairs had been signed, the media […]

COLOMBO, August 27, 2013 (AFP) – Sri Lanka’s cultural affairs ministry has taken strong exception to a mass “wedding” of police dogs, which used symbols of traditional Buddhist nuptials on the Indian Ocean island. Culture Minister T.B. Ekanayake demanded an explanation for Monday’s ceremony in central Sri Lanka, which was intended to promote a programme […]