Category: Politics

October 8, 2011 (AFP) – Voters in Sri Lanka’s capital went to the polls Saturday to elect a local municipal council, in a contest widely seen as a mid-term test for President Mahinda Rajapakse. Rajapaksa’s ruling coalition, the United People’s Freedom Alliance, is fielding candidates for the prestigious Colombo municipality as well as 22 others, […]

October 6, 2011 (AFP) – Sri Lanka Thursday announced a new move to address human rights issues in the face of international pressure over war crimes allegations arising from the end of the island’s civil war. The government said it hoped to strengthen civil liberties and ensure better human rights compliance through the implementation of […]

September 29, 2011 (AFP) – Sri Lanka’s police detained 50 failed asylum seekers flown back to the country Thursday after being expelled from Britain, police said. Eight women and 42 men — mostly ethnic minority Tamils– were deported by Britain’s Border Agency, which chartered an aircraft to return them home after they failed in a […]

UNITED NATIONS, September 26, 2011 (AFP) – States and armed groups that refuse to stop recruiting child soldiers must be subject to tougher pressure in the form of sanctions, France’s ambassador for human rights has said. Francois Zimeray will make that case on Monday at a meeting at the United Nations on the sidelines of […]

UNITED NATIONS, September 24, 2011 (AFP) – Sri Lanka’s president on Friday condemned “tainted” international allegations of a military massacre of civilians during an assault to end a Tamil rebellion. Tamil community members earlier this year filed a lawsuit against Rajapakse when he paid a private visit to the United States. The Sri Lankan government […]

GENEVA, September 19, 2011 (AFP) – Tamils from across Europe demonstrated at the UN’s European headquarters on Monday, calling for a probe into alleged war crimes committed by Sri Lanka at the end of the country’s 2009 civil war. According to local police, around 1,000 protesters gathered in Geneva’s iconic Place des Nations, to urge […]

September 14, 2011 (AFP) – The United States on Wednesday urged Sri Lanka to deploy more minority Tamils to police the island’s former northern conflict zone to help “heal the wounds of war”. Tamils in the formerly embattled region feel intimidated by the presence of predominantly Sinhalese-speaking government forces and police, US Assistant Secretary of […]

PARIS, September 12, 2011 (AFP) – The main economies in the world are set for a general slowdown, the OECD said on Monday on the basis of its leading index of underlying signals in its member countries. The Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development, which already warned of potential pockets of recession last week, said […]

September 13, 2011 (AFP) – US Assistant Secretary of State Robert Blake toured Sri Lanka’s former war zone on Tuesday to meet students, community leaders and government officials two years after the island’s civil war ended. Blake, the top US diplomat for South and Central Asia, was in the northern Jaffna region to see development […]

September 12, 2011 (AFP) – US Assistant Secretary of State Robert Blake arrived in Colombo Monday for talks that coincide with a UN meeting in Geneva that is set to discuss alleged war crimes during Sri Lanka’s ethnic conflict. Blake, the top US diplomat for South and Central Asia, would raise the allegations with all […]

GENEVA, September 12, 2011 (AFP) – Sri Lanka on Monday took issue with a planned UN move to forward a damning report on the country to the Human Rights Council, complaining that Colombo was not notified about the action. Sri Lanka Minister of Plantation Industries Mahinda Samarasinghe claimed that at a briefing on September 9 […]

September 10, 2011 (AFP) – Sri Lanka said Saturday that Amnesty International comments on the island’s probe into its military victory over Tamil rebels, were an “interference” in the country’s sovereignty. Amnesty International on Wednesday said Sri Lanka’s inquiry panel was “flawed at every level” and no substitute for an international war crimes investigation. The […]