” military action against Tigers

Sept 17, 2007 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s top business chamber wants to create a lobby group to push for peace but at the same times has acknowledged the necessity for a limited military campaign against Tamil Tigers. Mahen Dayananda, Ceylon Chamber of Commerce chairman, said its leaders had recognized it was almost impossible to separate […]

Sri Lanka says military campaign needed for stability and investment

September 16, 2007 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s defence establishment has told the business community that it was working to a plan to defeat Tamil Tiger terrorism that would create the stability they needed for investment. “For you to do your business, first there must be a country,” Gothabhaya Rajapakse, Secretary to the Defence Ministry, was […]

Sri Lanka steps up search after 28 killed in fresh violence

COLOMBO, Sept 16, 2007 (AFP) – Sri Lankan troops stepped up search operations for Tamil rebels in the embattled north and east after 28 people were killed in a new wave of fighting at the weekend, officials said Sunday. More than 5,400 people have been killed in fighting in the past 21 months following the […]

Sri Lanka turns CID loose on reporter; rights body outraged

Sept 15, 2007 (LBO) – An international media rights body expressed outrage after police asked a journalist to reveal his sources over a story about a car allegedly imported by a ruling party politician’s son. “After last month’s death threats against investigative journalist Iqbal Athas, this new case shows that it is getting more and […]

Roadside bomb kills two Sri Lankan soldiers

Sept 15, 2007 (AFP) – A roadside bomb set off by suspected Tamil Tiger rebels killed at least two government soldiers and wounded seven others in northern Sri Lanka, the defence ministry said on Saturday.More than 5,400 people have been killed in fighting in the past 21 months following the breakdown of a Norwegian-brokered truce. […]

Fresh violence kills 26 in Sri Lanka

Sept 15, 2007 (AFP) – At least 26 people, including two security personnel, were killed in a fresh wave of violence in Sri Lanka’s embattled north, the defence ministry said on Saturday.More than 5,400 people have been killed in fighting in the past 21 months following the breakdown of a Norwegian-brokered truce. The two soldiers […]

Sri Lanka says Tiger flotilla suffers severe losses

Sept 13, 2007 (AFP) – Sri Lanka’s military Thursday said it caused “severe losses” in a combined sea and air attack against suspected Tamil Tiger boats off the island’s northeastern waters, but gave no details of casualties.More than 5,400 people have been killed in fighting in the past 21 months following the breakdown of a […]

Sri Lanka moves to avoid criticism over rights abuses

Sept 14, 2007 (AFP) – Sri Lanka said Friday it was ready to accept foreign scrutiny of its human rights record in a bid to head off formal United Nations criticism over a spate of killings and disappearances.At the same time the war-torn island’s government, locked in a decades-old war with Tamil Tiger separatists, also […]

Sri Lankan police want pet dogs to fight terror

Sept 13, 2007 (AFP) – Sri Lankan police on Thursday launched an appeal for the public to donate their pet dogs to help the fight terrorism and crime on the war-torn island.“Make your pet a hero… to curb terrorism and make our motherland Sri Lanka a country with a new facelift,” the police department said […]

Sri Lanka issues tsunami alert; no warning

Sept 13, 2007 (LBO) – Sri Lanka has issued a tsunami alert following an aftershock of a magnitude of 7.8 on the Richter scale in Indonesia at 05.19 am local time and asked people to await further instructions. Following are the message definitions used by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration of the United States […]

Sri Lanka calls for Red Cross escorts for food ships to Jaffna

Sept 13, 2007 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s Secretariat for Coordinating the Peace Process has urged the international Red Cross to resume escorting vessels taking supplies and passengers to the northern Jaffna peninsula by sea. It said in a statement that it was keen to reduce restrictions on movement between the north and south and to […]

Sri Lanka gets USAF help to mop up rotten teeth in newly captured areas

Sept 13, 2007 (LBO) – A team of U.S. Air Force medics has helped treat patients in territory recently captured from Tamil Tigers in Sri Lanka’s east, the United States embassy in Colombo Thursday. “A nine-person team of USAF medics recently completed a medical/dental humanitarian assistance mission that benefited civilians living in the recently-liberated eastern […]

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