Category: Politics

March 10, 2008 (AFP) – Security forces armed with loud hailers were deployed in eastern Sri Lanka Monday to drive away wild elephants blocking access to polling booths, police said.Villagers in Wellaveli told the authorities that they were unable to vote at the first local elections in 14 years because a herd of elephants had […]

Mar 09, 2008 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s Free Media Movement (FMM) expressed concern over the arrest of several journalists connected to a news website and called on authorities to follow due process. “The right to retain lawyers at police stations while statements are being recorded and their right to inform family and colleagues as to […]

BATTICALOA, Sri Lanka, March 9, 2008 (AFP) – Sri Lanka’s restive east will hold local elections on Monday against a backdrop of fear, even though Tamil Tiger rebels were pushed out of the area months ago.The government has poured nearly 6,500 security personnel into the coastal district of Batticaloa, 300 kilometres (190 miles) from Colombo, […]

March 9, 2008 (AFP) – At least 56 Tamil Tiger rebels and four government troops have been killed in heavy fighting across Sri Lanka’s embattled north over the weekend, the defence ministry said Sunday. Helicopter gunships were deployed against suspected Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) strongholds in the coastal district of Mannar on Saturday, […]

March 7, 2008 (AFP) – A Sri Lankan Tamil columnist was detained by police Friday while the authorities were also trying to arrest another media activist, a rights group said.J. S. Tissanayagam, columnist of the Sunday Times newspaper here, was taken in for questioning by police Friday after the arrest of two more journalists on […]

March 8, 2008 (AFP) – At least one soldier was killed and two others critically wounded in southern Sri Lanka Saturday when their vehicle was hit by a roadside blast, police said.The victims were being transported to hospital in the Moneragala district where several similar attacks have been reported in recent weeks, police said. There […]

COLOMBO, March 7, 2008 (AFP) – At least 42 Tiger rebels and five government troops were killed in fresh fighting across Sri Lanka’s embattled north, where a lawmaker was also killed in a blast, the defence ministry said on Friday.Sri Lanka has in the past accused international diplomats raising rights concerns as “terrorists” and supporters […]

March 5, 2008 (AFP) – Sri Lanka said Wednesday that 100 of its soldiers were killed and a further 800 wounded fighting the Tamil Tigers last month, showing the escalating conflict is bloodier than previously announced.The casualty figures were given in a statement to the national parliament by Health Minister Nimal Siripala de Silva, and […]

COLOMBO, March 6, 2008 (AFP) – Sri Lanka is one of the world’s worst perpetrators of “disappearances” and abductions, Human Rights Watch said Thursday, calling for a UN mission to monitor rights abuses on the island. At least 1,500 people “disappeared” in 2006 and 2007, mostly in the island’s restive north and east, with the […]

COLOMBO, March 6, 2008 (AFP) – A top foreign panel invited by Sri Lanka to observe investigations into human rights abuses announced Thursday it was quitting the island and accused Colombo of failing to tackle the issue. The International Independent Group of Eminent Persons (IIGEP), headed by India’s former chief justice P. N. Bhagwati, said […]

Mar 06, 2008 (LBO) – Sri Lankan troops have captured a Tamil Tiger held town in the northwestern Mannar area of the island as part of a bid to cut off a supply route to the guerilla stronghold from the coast, the military said. Parappakandal, around 20 kilometres to the east of Mannar town, is […]

March 6, 2008 (AFP) – A Sri Lankan Tamil lawmaker and his driver were killed Thursday in a roadside bomb attack that his party and Tamil Tiger rebels said was carried out by government forces. The vehicle of K. Sivanesan, a member of parliament for the pro-rebel Tamil National Alliance (TNA), was hit by a […]