Category: Politics
Protests at UN office in Sri Lanka over war panel
July 6, 2010 (AFP) – Protesters led by a Sri Lankan cabinet minister surrounded the United Nations office in Colombo on Tuesday to protest at a UN panel set up to probe war crimes allegations. Housing Minister Wimal Weerawansa shouted slogans as protesters broke through a police barricade guarding the office, witnesses said. “We will […]
Australia plans to ship asylum-seekers to Timor
SYDNEY, July 6, 2010 (AFP) – Australia’s new leader Julia Gillard Tuesday revealed surprise plans to ship asylum-seekers to impoverished East Timor, in a pre-election bid to deter migrants fleeing Asian trouble-spots. Gillard said a regional processing centre would “wreck” the people-smuggling trade that brings dozens of rickety boats to Australia’s north, but denied reviving […]
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SYDNEY, July 5, 2010 (AFP) – Human Rights Watch urged Australia’s new prime minister on Monday to lift a controversial freeze on Afghan and Sri Lankan asylum claims and end “refugee-bashing” ahead of elections. The New York-based group said Julia Gillard, who has signalled a tough approach on immigration, should resume processing Afghan and Sri […]
EU urges Sri Lanka to cooperate with UN war probe
BRUSSELS, July 1, 2010 (AFP) – The European Union urged Sri Lanka’s government on Thursday to cooperate with a UN panel probing alleged war crimes during the country’s civil war. “If the EU doesn’t want to give it, let them keep it. I don’t want it. We have gone and explained what we have done.” […]
Sri Lanka president defiant over war probe
NEW DELHI, June 28, 2010 (AFP) – Sri Lanka’s president vowed to resist international calls to investigate war crimes allegedly committed during the country’s civil war in an interview published Monday. President Mahinda Rajapakse told the Times of India he did not care about damage to the country’s image as a result of resisting pressure […]
Sri Lanka to block visits by UN panel probing war allegations
June 24, 2010 (AFP) – Sri Lanka will ban visits by the three-member United Nations panel investigating alleged human rights abuses in the final months of the island’s civil war, a senior minister said Thursday. Troops finally wiped out the separatist Tamil Tiger guerrillas in May last year after decades of ethnic bloodshed, and the […]
Sri Lanka increases taxes on sugar, alcohol, cigarettes
June 24, 2010 (LBO) – Sri Lanka has increased levies on sugar imports by five rupees, while a cigarette tax would go up by one rupee and taxes on a proof litre of spirits would rise by another 50 rupees, a senior treasury official said. Taxes on sugar imports have been increased as world prices […]
Sri Lanka blast wounds nine in capital: police
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 […]
Sri Lanka slams UN over war crimes probe
June 23, 2010 (AFP) – Sri Lanka accused the UN on Wednesday of a “hidden agenda” behind its plans to investigate alleged human rights abuses by soldiers in the final months of the island’s savage civil war. UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon’s appointment of a panel to advise on any violations of international human rights was […]
Sri Lanka war crimes probe set up by UN
UNITED NATIONS, June 22, 2010 (AFP) – UN chief Ban Ki-moon Tuesday set up a panel to investigate allegations of human rights abuses in the final months of the civil war in Sri Lanka, his spokesman said. Ban launched the investigation “to advise him on the issue of accountability with regards to any alleged violations […]
‘s Ban names war crimes panel
June 21, 2010 (AFP) – Sri Lanka is “deeply unhappy” at a move by UN chief Ban Ki-moon to name a panel to look into alleged war crimes committed during the final months of the island’s civil war, an official said Monday. Colombo repeated President Mahinda Rajapakse’s protest to Ban in March that the panel […]
” govt: report
June 20, 2010 (AFP) – A senior leader of Sri Lanka’s defeated Tamil Tiger rebels has agreed to help the government in its post-war reconstruction efforts, a state-run newspaper reported Sunday. The UN estimates that up to 100,000 people were killed in Sri Lanka’s ethnic conflict which began in the 1970s. The UN has also […]