Category: Politics

Dec 9, 2007 (AFP) – Minority Tamils in Sri Lanka’s capital are running a gauntlet of arrest and intimidation as fighting escalates between government troops and Tiger rebels, community members and rights groups say. Harassed at security checkpoints and arbitrarily arrested from their homes and workplaces, Colombo’s Tamil’s are being subjected to what human rights […]

KUALA LUMPUR, Dec 8, 2007 (AFP) – Malaysian Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi has reportedly warned that ethnic Indian activists accused of having links with Sri Lanka’s Tamil Tigers could be held under internal security laws. Ethnic rights group Hindraf, which organised mass anti-discrimination protests in November that were broken up with tear gas and […]

COLOMBO, Dec 6, 2007 (AFP) – Sri Lanka Thursday warned of more Tamil Tiger attacks against civilians a day after the guerrillas were accused of being responsible for a roadside bomb blast that killed 16 bus passengers.A Norwegian-brokered 2002 truce began to unravel in December 2005.Media Minister Anura Yapa said Wednesday night’s bombing of a […]

Dec 06, 2007 (LBO) – Visa applicants to the United States will have to give prints of all ten fingers from next week, the US embassy in Colombo said. The embassy said the procedure, which was required by US Departments of State and Homeland Security, would be implemented world-wide from December 10. The US started […]

Dec 5, 2007 (AFP) – At least 15 passengers were killed and 38 wounded Wednesday in a roadside bomb attack on a crowded bus carrying civilians in Sri Lanka’s north-central region, police said. Security forces rushed to the area following the attack carried out by suspected Tamil Tiger rebels under the cover of darkness, a […]

COLOMBO, Dec 4, 2007 (AFP) – Sri Lankan rights groups Tuesday slammed the government arrest of nearly 2,200 minority ethnic Tamils after Tamil Tiger rebels were held responsible for two bomb attacks last week.The Free Media Movement, a press rights group, and the Centre for Policy Alternatives (CPA), a private think-tank, said they were considering […]

JAFFNA, Sri Lanka, Dec 2, 2007 (AFP) – The air force pilot takes no chances landing on the Jaffna peninsula, the northern tip of Sri Lanka held by the government but cut off from the south by Tamil Tiger rebel territory. . Descending fast from over the Indian Ocean, the Russian-made transport plane banks hard, […]

Dec 1, 2007 (AFP) – At least 27 people were killed in fresh fighting in Sri Lanka’s embattled northeast, the military said on Saturday, marking the latest violence in the long-running ethnic conflict.At least 11 Tamil Tiger rebels were killed and 49 injured in heavy clashes across northern defence lines in Mannar early on Saturday, […]

TOKYO, Nov 29, 2007 (AFP) – Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapakse has vowed to “wipe out terrorists” amid fears of a return to all-out war with the Tamil Tiger rebels, a newspaper said Thursday.“We put pressure on the group to give up its arms and enter the political mainstream. Terrorists must be wiped out from […]

UNITED NATIONS, Nov 28, 2007 (AFP) – UN chief Ban Ki-moon on Wednesday condemned the latest suicide bombing in Sri Lanka and called for an end to the violence, his press office said in a statement.Officials blamed both attacks on Tamil Tiger rebels, who have been fighting for an independent Tamil homeland for 35 years, […]

Nov 29, 2007 (AFP) – Sri Lankan forces threw a security blanket over the capital Colombo on Thursday and appealed for extra public vigilance a day after twin bomb attacks left 19 people dead and 45 injured, police said.“There is a general security alert across Colombo,” police spokesman Jayantha Wickremaratna said. Officials have blamed the […]

Nov 29, 2007 (LBO) – The European Union Thursday said it condemns the terrorist attacks in the Sri Lankan capital Colombo in which at least 18 people were killed. . But an EU statement released by the British High Commission did not name the perpetrators of the attacks whom the island government has identified as […]