Category: Politics

COLOMBO, August 8, 2013 (AFP) – A statue of Queen Victoria which was banished from Sri Lanka’s presidential palace amid fears it brought bad luck will now be spruced up for an upcoming Commonwealth summit.The 1897 statue of the former British monarch seated on a throne had been banished from the palace a few years […]

COLOMBO, August 7, 2013 (AFP) – The Roman Catholic church Wednesday slammed Sri Lanka’s army for storming a church and assaulting residents trying to escape soldiers firing on villagers protesting against contaminated water.The shootings came ahead of a visit to the island by United Nations rights chief Navi Pillay later this month. Pillay is due […]

COLOMBO, August 4, 2013 (AFP) – Police poured into a village near Sri Lanka’s capital ahead of the funeral Sunday of a teenager shot dead by troops during a protest against contaminated water, residents said. Criticism by the opposition and rights groups of the army’s use of force has mounted since the shootings.Private television networks […]

August 5, 2013 (AFP) – Several hundred anti-government supporters staged a rare protest Monday in Sri Lanka’s capital to denounce a deadly army crackdown on villagers who were demonstrating against contaminated water supplies.Sri Lanka has denied that its troops were responsible for killing civilians or committing any war crimes. Around 300 followers of the left-wing […]

COLOMBO, August 3, 2013 (AFP) – A second Sri Lankan protester died from wounds suffered when troops fired on villagers demonstrating against contaminated water supplies, police said Saturday, as tensions remained high in the area. Dipped Products Ltd, a publicly quoted company that maintains the manufacturing plant, said Friday it was confident the water issue […]

August 2, 2013 (AFP) – Sri Lankan security forces shot dead one protestor and wounded dozens more when they fired on villagers at a demonstration over contaminated drinking water, police and residents said Friday.Military spokesman Brigadier Ruwan Wanigasooriya said the army had been called in on Thursday night to assist the police when a mob […]

Aug 02, 2013 (LBO) – President Mahinda Rajapaksa had invited Pope Francis I, the head of the Roman Catholic Church to visit Sri Lanka, his media office said. “On behalf of the Government and the people of Sri Lanka, I consider it a great privilege and an honour to extend to Your Holiness an invitation […]

August 1, 2013 (AFP) – Residents of Sri Lanka’s former war zone will go to the polls in September in a regional election expected to hand limited autonomy to minority Tamils, it was announced Thursday.The voting will be held on September 21 during a nine-hour period, a spokesman for the Election Commissioner told AFP. It […]

July 24, 2013 (AFP) – Sri Lanka’s military said Wednesday it will dismantle over a dozen army camps in the former rebel stronghold of Jaffna, weeks ahead of key council elections in the embattled region.Sri Lanka adopted a de facto federal system in 1987 but never held elections in the Tamil-dominated north, which continued to […]

SYDNEY, July 20, 2013 (AFP) – Buildings were torched as hundreds of asylum-seekers escaped detention during riots at an Australian refugee facility on Nauru, witnesses said Saturday, following the unveiling of a hardline immigration policy.The programme was ramped up Friday with an announcement that Australia was effectively closed to asylum-seekers arriving by boat in a […]

COLOMBO, July 17, 2013 (AFP) – Hundreds of government supporters protested outside the French embassy in Colombo Wednesday over a film festival which included a local movie considered by Sri Lanka’s military to be insulting. Demonstrators chanted anti-French slogans, denouncing the Sinhalese-language movie “Flying Fish” and the embassy for showing it at the French film […]

July 9, 2013 (AFP) – India urged Sri Lanka Tuesday to honour international pledges and share political power with ethnic Tamils after Colombo signalled it will dilute an Indian-brokered devolution plan.India’s National Security Adviser Shivshankar Menon ended a two-day trip to Colombo urging an “early political settlement and national reconciliation”, the Indian High Commission (embassy) […]