Category: Politics

April 04, 2008 (LBO) – A split in Sri Lanka’s Marxist-nationalist Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) is emerging with moves to oust its firebrand spokesman Wimal Weerawansa, party insiders said Friday. But Weerawansa said he had not been informed of a decision to remove him, amid reports that the party’s central committee has voted to replace […]

April 03, 2008 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s main opposition United National Party says it is starting a protest campaign against rising prices after inflation in the country hit a new record. “The whole of 2007 we saw increases in prices. Daily the prices increased,” UNP leader Ranil Wickremesinghe told a meeting of the party’s women’s […]

April 3, 2008 (AFP) – Sri Lanka Thursday announced that key local government elections will be held next month in an area that was last year wrested from rebel control after months of heavy fighting.The elections commission said voting for the Eastern Provincial Council will be held on May 10. Security forces established control over […]

April 02, 2008 (LBO) – Three members of Sri Lanka Muslim Congress (SLMC), a minority Sri Lankan political party, have resigned their parliamentary seats to contest the forthcoming provincial council poll in the eastern province. . The party has a strong base in Eastern Sri Lanka where a sizable population of Muslims live. SLMC leader […]

April 1, 2008 (AFP) – Sri Lanka accused Tamil Tiger rebels of shelling a state-run hospital on Tuesday as fighting across the northern front lines reportedly left at least 35 rebels dead. The hospital in Mannar district was partially damaged by heavy artillery from the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), the defence ministry said, […]

April 1, 2008 (AFP) – At least four men were killed and another 56 injured Tuesday when lightening struck a military training facility in eastern Sri Lanka, police said.The victims were on a training exercise when they were struck in the district of Polonnaruwa, 216 kilometres (135 miles) east of here by road, police said. […]

April 1, 2008 (AFP) – Sri Lanka accused Tamil Tiger rebels of shelling a state-run hospital on Tuesday as fighting across the northern front lines reportedly left at least 35 rebels dead.The hospital in Mannar district was partially damaged by heavy artillery from the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), the defence ministry said, adding […]

CHENNAI, India, March 30, 2008 (AFP) – A Sri Lankan film-maker has ended up in hospital after making a damning film on the Tamil Tigers and trying to have it processed in a studio in a Tamil-majority region of neighbouring India.Thushara Peiris was set upon by a furious mob outside Gemini Studios in Chennai, capital […]

March 28, 2008 (AFP) – Sri Lanka Thursday launched a probe into a mystery poster campaign that is asking would-be Tamil Tiger suicide bombers to turn themselves in to government hands in return for cash.The campaign, run by an unknown pro-peace organisation, was urging extremists to change their minds in exchange for a new life […]

March 25, 2008 (LBO) – Sri Lanka is maintaining a diplomatic silence on the recent Chinese crackdown on protests in Buddhist Tibet as China is one of its main arms suppliers in the war against Tamil Tiger separatists, analysts say. “¦when the Buddhists in Tibet cry for their freedom, shouldn’t Sri Lanka, being a Buddhist […]

March 25, 2008 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s main opposition United National Party (UNP) and the minority Sri Lanka Muslim Congress (SLMC) have decided to contest the upcoming elections in the eastern province, party officials said. The UNP boycotted local government elections in the area earlier this month, in a move that proved controversial with some […]

March 24, 2008 (AFP) – Heavy fighting between Tamil Tiger rebels and Sri Lankan troops in the north of the island over the weekend has resulted in heavy casualties, both sides said Monday.According to the defence ministry, clashes on Saturday and Sunday in the districts of Mannar, Vavuniya and Weli Oya left at least 100 […]