Category: Defense

June 9, 2009 (AFP) – Sri Lanka’s government on Tuesday extended tough anti-terror laws, arguing that remnants of the defeated Tamil Tiger rebels could still try to stage a comeback.Prime Minister Ratnasiri Wickremanayake told parliament that the government wanted to extend the state of emergency by a month despite last month’s defeat of the Liberation […]

June 7, 2009 (AFP) – Sri Lanka’s president on Sunday marked a key Buddhist celebration by granting a pardon to 585 jailed military deserters, officials said. In 2003, the government moved to legally discharge from the security forces 51,000 deserters. Tens of thousands were killed in Sri Lanka’s decades-old Tamil separatist conflict. The pardon applied […]

June 4, 2009 (AFP) – Sri Lanka’s navy Thursday seized a foreign-owned ship loaded with medical, food and other supplies for war-hit civilians, saying the vessel had entered its territorial waters illegally.The supplies, arranged by supporters of the Tamil rebel cause, were loaded onto a ship in the English port of Ipswich in April — […]

SINGAPORE, May 31, 2009 (AFP) – Sri Lanka appealed Sunday for international support in dismantling the global political network of the Tamil Tiger rebels after declaring a full military victory over the separatist movement. Foreign Minister Rohitha Bogollagama told a high-level security forum in Singapore that Colombo needed help in disabling the Tigers’ “powerful political […]

GENEVA, May 27, 2009 (AFP) – The UN Human Rights Council ended a special session on Sri Lanka’s conflict on Wednesday with diplomats failing to bridge an Asian-Western divide over whether to probe alleged abuses.“There is no reason for a probe.These are political statements made by various people. I don’t think we should get excited […]

May 24, 2009 (AFP) – Sri Lanka’s Tamil Tigers on Sunday admitted for the first time that their leader was killed by government forces a week ago as the UN demanded better access for civilians displaced in recent fighting. Almost a week after the government said its troops had killed Velupillai Prabhakaran, 54, in an […]

May 24, 2009 (AFP) – Sri Lanka said Sunday it would allow UN aid workers access to civilians who remain in camps after the defeat of the Tamil Tigers, but only once rebels hiding among the refugees had been weeded out.UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, on a visit to one camp housing 200,000 Tamils, had […]

May 24, 2009 (AFP) – Sri Lanka said Sunday it would not allow aid workers complete access to civilians who remain held in camps after the defeat of the Tamil Tigers until rebels hiding among the refugees had been weeded out.United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, on a visit to one camp housing 200,000 Tamils, […]

May 22, 2009 (AFP) – More than 6,200 Sri Lankan soldiers were killed and nearly 30,000 wounded in security forces’ final offensive to completely defeat Tamil Tiger separatists, state television reported Friday. Rajapakse, who is also President Mahinda Rajapakse’s brother, said a total of 23,790 military men and women had been killed since 1981. He […]

May 22, 2009 (AFP) – Sri Lanka’s President Mahinda Rajapakse on Friday brushed off calls for an investigation into alleged war crimes committed by government troops in their offensive against Tamil Tiger rebels.“There are some who tried to stop our military campaign by threatening to haul us before war crimes tribunals,” Rajapakse said in a […]

May 21, 2009 (LBO) – Indian Ocean navies need to co-operate better to ensure adequate responses to challenges ranging from terrorism to natural disasters, Sri Lankan navy commander Admiral Wasantha Karannagoda said.It would be based on a consensual and co-operative approach to find remedies for regional maritime security concerns. “This forum will be a springboard […]

May 20, 2009 (LBO) – The United States said a new power sharing deal and tolerance was required to achieve lasting peace in Sri Lanka and truly defeat terrorism.“The United States welcomes the cessation of fighting in Sri Lanka and the apparent conclusion to its long-running conflict,” a statement issued by the US embassy in […]