Category: Politics

July 1, 2007 (AFP) – Gunmen have shot dead two civilians in Sri Lanka’s northern Jaffna peninsula, officials said Sunday as the government and Tamil Tigers blamed each other for the latest in a string of such killings.The men were murdered Saturday in two separate incidents on the government-controlled peninsula, situated at the northern tip […]

June 30, 2007 (AFP) – Suspected rebels in Sri Lanka shot dead seven civilians and security forces discovered a truck packed with powerful explosives, the country’s defence ministry said on Saturday. Tamil Tiger rebels gunned down four farmers in the eastern town of Serunuwara late on Friday, the military said. Two Tamil civilians were shot […]

BAGHDAD, June 30, 2007 (AFP) – Following this week’s foiled car bombs in central London, the British media raised the spectre of “Iraq-style attacks”, but what exactly would be the hallmarks of such a campaign?On Friday, London police defused explosives in two Mercedes cars that had been loaded with gas canisters and nails and left […]

June 29, 2007 (AFP) – Sri Lanka plans to bring back a tough criminal defamation law that was scrapped five years ago, reports said on Friday, drawing fire from media rights activists.Under the earlier law, journalists could be sentenced to two years in jail, but it was scrapped after local and international pressure. The reports […]

June 29, 2007 (AFP) – Sri Lankan authorities Friday discovered a huge truck bomb in the north-eastern port district of Trincomalee, three days after finding a powerful mine in the capital, officials said.About 1,000 kilos (2,200 pounds) of explosives packed into a freezer truck was found at a fishing village in Trincomalee, 260 kilometres (160 […]

LONDON, June 28, 2007 (AFP) – Two men appeared in court in London Thursday accused of membership of Sri Lanka’s Tamil Tiger rebels, banned in Britain as a terrorist organisation. Arunachalam Chrishanthakumar, also known as AC Shanthan, 50, and Goldan Lambert, 29, appeared at Westminster Magistrates Court, central London, charged under the Terrorism Act 2000. […]

COLOMBO, June 29, 2007 (AFP) – At least seven people, including three soldiers, were wounded in two roadside bomb attacks in Sri Lanka’s north on Friday, officials said.Suspected Tamil Tiger rebels set off a Claymore mine at Cheddikulam in the district of Vavuniya as a civilian bus passed the area and wounded four civilian passengers […]

COLOMBO, June 29, 2007 (AFP) – The United States has voiced concern about the fate of 355 Sri Lankans who “disappeared” in recent months amid an escalation of the island’s ethnic conflict, the government here said Friday.US ambassador Robert Blake gave a list of 355 names of people whose whereabouts were unknown, the foreign ministry […]

June 28, 2007 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s Free Media Movement (FMM) has expressed shock at attempts to bring back a repealed law which it said was used in the past to silence critical reportage and to persecute editors and journalists. An international media rights mission that was in Sri Lanka this month called on the […]

June 28, 2007 (AFP) – Some 430 Sri Lankans were slain during a five-month period, most of them minority Tamils, a commission said on Thursday, amid growing controversy over rights abuses in the conflict-hit island. The Special Presidential Commission on Disappearances said the killings were reported between September 2006 and February 2007 as the country […]

TOKYO, June 28, 2007 (AFP) – Sri Lanka’s Foreign Minister Rohitha Bogollagama said Thursday he was optimistic that a meeting of top donors this week would help to revive the island nation’s moribund peace process.Peace broker Norway is holding the crucial meeting of Sri Lanka’s top aid donors in a bid to halt a new […]

WASHINGTON, June 26, 2007 (AFP) – Sri Lanka told Western donor nations Tuesday that it would be a “tragic error” to cut aid to the island nation due to alleged human rights abuses linked to a longstanding ethnic conflict.Britain, Germany and the Netherlands have already slashed various forms of aid to Colombo due to human […]