Category: Defense

Dec 25, 2010 (LBO) – A naval symposium to mark the Sri Lankan navy’s 60th anniversary has helped improve maritime security co-operation among navies to combat smuggling and poaching in the Indian Ocean, an official said. Samarasinghe said intelligence sharing among intelligence agencies and regional navies had also improved. Sri Lanka navy chief Vice Admiral […]

NEW DELHI, December 17, 2010 (AFP) – Sri Lanka’s government was complicit in the activities of paramilitary groups engaged in political killings, kidnappings, extortion and prostitution, a leaked US diplomatic cable suggested Friday. The 2007 cable, written by the then US ambassador to Sri Lanka, Robert Blake, cited evidence provided by “trusted embassy contacts” that […]

WASHINGTON, December 6, 2010 (AFP) – US diplomats play a major role in trying to prevent arms from reaching world hotspots, but cables released to The New York Times show an uphill battle against the likes of Iran, Syria and North Korea. In one cable given to the paper by WikiLeaks, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad […]

MADRID, December 3, 2010 (AFP) – A judge in Spain Friday remanded in custody three of seven people arrested in an operation against a gang suspected of forging passports for Al-Qaeda-linked groups, court sources said. These included the 2004 Madrid bombings, when blasts on packed commuter trains in a city suburb killed 191 people and […]

MADRID, December 3, 2010 (AFP) – Spanish and Thai police investigating a gang that supplied forged passports to Al-Qaeda linked groups have found new evidence of links to Sri Lanka’s defeated Tamil Tiger rebels, Spanish authorities said Friday. Spanish and Thai police are analysing material seized late on Tuesday in a joint operation in which […]

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 […]