Category: Defense

November 12, 2010 (AFP) – Sri Lanka Friday rejected as “lies” new photographs broadcast by Al-Jazeera of piles of dead bodies and execution-style killings allegedly taken during the final stages of the island’s ethnic war. Media Minister Keheliya Rambukwella said that the Qatar-based television network had mixed images previously shown on a British television channel […]

October 27, 2010 (AFP) – Sri Lanka said Wednesday it would begin dismantling a dozen permanent military check points in the capital which are a legacy of decades of ethnic conflict on the island nation. Two permanent road blocks on the southwestern edge of Colombo will be removed Wednesday and 10 other similar points will […]

October 19, 2010 (AFP) – Sri Lanka announced Tuesday it would raise defence spending by six percent in 2011 — broadly in line with annual hikes announced during the government’s war with Tamil rebels. Sri Lanka’s fiscal deficit shot up to 9.7 percent of gross domestic product in 2009, exceeding the seven percent target set […]

MANNAR, October 5, 2010 (AFP) – Valmathi Jegadas is a different sort of mine clearer to the testosterone-fuelled explosives specialists portrayed in the 2008 Oscar-winning Hollywood hit, The Hurt Locker. A farmer’s wife in northern Sri Lanka, Jegadas, 37, earns 200 dollars a month risking her life, and she admits being scared each time she […]

BERLIN, August 31, 2010 (AFP) – German prosecutors said Tuesday they had charged three men suspected of fundraising and buying weapons for the Sri Lankan separatist group the Tamil Tigers. Sri Lankan national Vijikanendra V. S., 35, and German nationals Sasitharan M. , 33, and Koneswaran T., 39, were charged with belonging to a banned […]

August 17, 2010 (AFP) – Sri Lanka’s powerful defence chief Tuesday staunchly defended the government’s human rights record, saying troops suffered heavy losses to avoid civilian casualties during last year’s assault on Tamil Tiger rebels. Defence Secretary Gotabhaya Rajapakse said foreign diplomats and aid agencies had lauded his measures to protect civilians during the major […]

August 3, 2010 (AFP) – Sri Lankan troops arrested over 1,500 Tamil rebel suspects during July, more than a year after the separatist guerrilla group was crushed militarily, the prime minister said Tuesday. About half of the suspects were picked up at government-run shelters where they had taken refuge after the fighting ended in May […]

GENEVA, August 1, 2010 (AFP) – A landmark international treaty to ban cluster munitions took effect on Sunday, requiring signatories to stop the use, production and transfer of the deadly weapons. Pope Benedict XVI hailed the ban and joined calls for all countries to sign up to the deal that also obliges those that have […]

June 24, 2010 (AFP) – An explosion ripped through a commercial area of Sri Lanka’s capital Colombo on Thursday, wounding at least nine people, police said. The blast in the Pettah area was believed to have been caused by a hand grenade or an improvised explosive device, a police official said, adding that an investigation […]

June 11, 2010 (LBO) – Ways to counter terrorism and terrorist financing which is becoming increasingly sophisticated were discussed at a meeting of South Asian police and prosecutors in the Sri Lankan capital Colombo this week, officials said. Closer co-operation between police and prosecutors in convicting terrorists and recognizing evidence was also taken up at […]

June 8, 2010 (AFP) – Tamil Tiger rebels are re-emerging a year after their defeat, Sri Lanka’s prime minister said Tuesday, despite the once-powerful guerrilla force launching no attacks. D. M. Jayaratne told parliament that remnants of the separatist Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) were planning a comeback with financial backing from Tamils abroad. […]

June 7, 2010 (AFP) – Sri Lanka’s top defence official has threatened to hang the country’s former army chief if he cooperates with any investigation into war crimes during the civil war that ended one year ago. Rajapakse repeated a promise by the president that the authorities would not allow any international investigation into the […]