Category: Politics

CHENNAI, February 25, 2009 (AFP) – A Sri Lankan Tamil committed suicide by setting himself on fire to protest civilian casualties in Colombo’s military offensive against the Tamil Tiger rebels, Indian police said Wednesday.The Sri Lankan army claims to have driven back the rebels into less than 75 square kilometres (28 square miles) of jungle […]

February 25, 2009 (AFP) – Sri Lankan troops has opened the main highway to the northern Jaffna peninsula for the first time in nearly two decades after wresting the route from rebel control, the military said Wednesday.Government troops operated a food convoy Tuesday along the A-9 highway that had been under rebel control since 1990, […]

February 24, 2009 (AFP) – Sri Lanka’s military said Tuesday it was trying to establish how the Tamil Tigers managed to buy light planes abroad, smuggle them onto the island and establish a rebel air force.According to the island’s defence ministry, the raid was the last air attack likely to be carried out by the […]

February 24, 2009 (AFP) – Sri Lankan government troops were Tuesday advancing on the last urban area in the north of the island still in the hands of Tamil Tiger rebels, the military said.Brigadier Udaya Nanayakkara said soldiers were “on the fringes of Puthukkudirirppu,” a small town on a narrow strip of land in the […]

February 24, 2009 (AFP) – The elusive leader of Sri Lanka’s Tamil Tiger rebels is not expected to surrender despite losing his de facto state and may instead try to flee by boat, the country’s top defence official said Tuesday. Tiger chief Velupillai Prabhakaran, 54, could use a human smuggling ring to escape by boat, […]

CHENNAI, February 22, 2009 (AFP) – An ethnic Tamil activist committed suicide by setting himself on fire in protest against the war in Sri Lanka, Indian police said on Sunday. Siva Prakasam, 55, set himself ablaze during an anti-war rally on Saturday in Chennai, capital of the southern state of Tamil Nadu, a police spokesman […]

February 23, 2009 (AFP) – Sri Lanka’s Tamil Tiger rebels Monday said they were ready to comply with international calls for a ceasefire but would not lay down their arms.With rebel forces cornered in the northeast of the island by government troops, the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) appealed to foreign powers to step […]

February 23, 2009 (AFP) – Sri Lanka’s Tamil Tigers appealed Monday for international action to halt a major offensive against their shrinking fiefdom, but the island’s military rejected any talk of a truce. With rebel forces cornered in the northeast of the island by a massive attack by government forces, the Liberation Tigers of Tamil […]

BRUSSELS, February 23, 2009 (AFP) – European Union foreign ministers issued a joint call Monday for an immediate ceasefire between Sri Lankan security forces and Tamil Tiger rebels to allow aid in and civilians out of the conflict zone.“The EU is deeply concerned about the evolving humanitarian crisis and vast number of internally displaced people,” […]

February 21, 2009 (AFP) – Tamil Tiger rebels gunned down 10 civilians, including two children, and wounded five more in eastern Sri Lanka on Saturday, the defence ministry said. Gunmen from the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) overran the village of Kirimetiya on Saturday evening and began shooting at residents, the ministry said. “The […]

GENEVA, February 21, 2009 (AFP) – Nearly 1,000 demonstrators in the Swiss capital of Bern called Saturday for a ceasefire in the ongoing conflict in Sri Lanka and for Switzerland to do more to secure it, the ATS agency reported. The rally in front of Bern’s federal palace came one day after at least 14,000 […]

February 22, 2009 (AFP) – Sri Lankan security forces killed at least 65 Tamil Tigers in a week of intense fighting that further reduced the territory under rebel control, the military said on Sunday. The Tigers have been driven back into just 73 square kilometres (28 square miles) of jungle, military spokesman Udaya Nanayakkara said, […]