Category: Politics

UNITED NATIONS, June 14, 2010 (AFP) – UN chief Ban Ki-moon’s top political adviser will visit Sri Lanka this week to discuss political reconciliation, resettlement of minority Tamils displaced by ethnic strife and human rights, a spokesman said Monday. The world body estimates that up to 100,000 people died in Sri Lanka’s Tamil separatist conflict […]

June 11, 2010 (AFP) – Sri Lanka’s army chief on Friday called for a political settlement to the island’s decades-long ethnic strife, a year after the Tamil Tiger rebels were defeated in a major military offensive. Lieutenant General Jagath Jayasuriya warned that although the separatist Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) were crushed following the […]

June 11, 2010 (AFP) – The Sri Lankan government has approved lifting the two-term limit for presidents in a move that would allow incumbent Mahinda Rajapakse to run for office again, an official said Friday. Rajapakse, 64, came to power in 2005 and has increased his firm grip on power since defeating the separatist Tamil […]

June 7, 2010 (AFP) – Sri Lanka’s President Mahinda Rajapakse urged Tamil leaders on Monday to trust him and help resolve outstanding problems following the country’s civil war, warning he would not bow to terrorism. Rajapakse told the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) party, formerly a front for the defeated Tamil Tiger rebels, that he was […]

June 1, 2010 (AFP) – Bollywood actor Vivek Oberoi on Tuesday urged the Indian film fraternity to attend the annual awards festival in Sri Lanka despite protests from pro-Tamil rebel lobbies. “Come to Colombo. I don’t believe in boycotting the awards. Bollywood films are about building bridges, not putting up walls against people,” Oberoi told […]

MUMBAI, June 1, 2010 (AFP) – Bollywood goes to Sri Lanka later this week for its glitzy annual awards ceremony, but the decision to hold the event in the capital Colombo has sparked a backlash from minority Tamils in India. The International Indian Film Academy (IIFA), which has been held overseas every year since 2000, […]

GENEVA, May 31, 2010 (AFP) – The United Nations human rights chief maintained Monday that Sri Lanka needed an international probe into the government’s final offensive against Tamil Tiger rebels last year. Navi Pillay, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, noted that the Sri Lanka government had created a post-war reconciliation commission to look […]

WASHINGTON, May 28, 2010 (AFP) – US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said Friday the Sri Lankan postwar reconciliation panel “holds promise” as she pressed for it to have enough powers to pursue claims of wartime atrocities. “I think this commission holds promise and we hope and expect that it will fulfill that promise,” Clinton […]

May 28, 2010 (AFP) – Sri Lanka President Mahinda Rajapakse has rejected international calls for a war crimes probe into the final offensive against Tamil Tiger rebels last year. Sri Lanka has been under pressure to submit to an international investigation after the United Nations reported that at least 7,000 civilians perished in the final […]

WASHINGTON, May 26, 2010 (AFP) – New Sri Lankan Foreign Minister G. L. Peiris on Tuesday urged Washington to seize business and other opportunities in post-war Sri Lanka rather than focus only on alleged human rights abuses there. Visiting Washington after Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapakse’s party won parliamentary elections last month, Peiris parried criticism […]

May 24, 2010 (LBO) – Application fees for US non-immigrant visas will increase on June 4, 2010, the US embassy in Colombo said in a statement. Application fees for the business (B1), tourist (B2), student (F), and exchange visitor (J) visas, those most often applied for by travelers, will have a “modest increase” to 140 […]

May 21, 2010 (AFP) – A global human rights monitor said Friday it had fresh evidence of possible war crimes committed in Sri Lanka during the final phase of the government’s war against Tamil Tiger rebels. The New York-based Human Rights Watch (HRW) said it had examined over 200 photos taken on the front lines […]