Category: Politics

April 18, 2007 (AFP) – Sri Lankan authorities have issued a thinly veiled death threat against a newspaper editor for reporting on military excesses and human rights abuses, a media rights group said Wednesday.Although there is no formal censorship imposed, Sri Lankan authorities prevent journalists from travelling to areas held by rebels, who are waging […]

April 18, 2007 (AFP) – Sri Lanka warned Wednesday it may expel foreign diplomats who meddle in the island’s internal affairs and said at least one unnamed envoy was being investigated. The threat comes amid growing international criticism of Sri Lanka’s human rights record and Colombo’s resistance to suggestions that United Nations monitors should be […]

COLOMBO, April 18, 2007 (AFP) – Sri Lankan authorities have issued a death threat against a newspaper editor for reporting on military excesses and human rights abuses, journalists and a media rights group said Wednesday. The editor of Colombo’s Daily Mirror, Champika Liyanaarachchi, said defence secretary Gotabhaya Rajapakse, the younger brother of President Mahinda Rajapakse, […]

COLOMBO, April 17, 2007 (AFP) – Suspected Tamil Tiger rebels gunned down four people in Sri Lanka’s north and eastern regions as violence continued during traditional New Year celebrations, the military said Tuesday.The conflict has claimed more than 60,000 lives since 1972.Two men were shot dead early Tuesday in Batticaloa district, 300 kilometres (190 miles) […]

by Stefan Smith COLOMBO, April 15, 2007 (AFP) – Sri Lanka’s peace process is in tatters with both the government and Tamil Tigers once again pushing for a military solution, according to diplomats close to efforts to end the conflict. “This is not something that can be tackled only through military means,” Boteju said.“There must […]

COLOMBO, April 15, 2007 (AFP) – Sri Lanka’s peace process is in tatters with both the government and Tamil Tigers once again pushing for a military solution, according to diplomats close to efforts to end the conflict. International sponsors of the peace process are also resigned to Asia’s longest-running civil war dragging on for years […]

April 15, 2007 (AFP) – Suspected Tamil Tiger rebels shot dead a member of a breakaway group in eastern Sri Lanka as the country marked the start of the traditional New Year, the defence ministry said Sunday.The victim, identified as a member of a Tamil faction known as the “Karuna Group” believed allied with government […]

COLOMBO, April 14, 2007 (AFP) – Suspected Tamil Tiger rebels shot dead five people in eastern Sri Lanka on Saturday, the military said, as the country marked the traditional New Year and the president appealed for national unity.Gunmen from the rebel Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) ordered a family out of their home in […]

COLOMBO, April 13, 2007 (AFP) – The Tamil Tigers vowed Friday to hit back against an advance by government troops in the east of Sri Lanka, accusing the military of “genocidal activities” there.The rebels denied military claims they were retreating in the face of an onslaught in the Eastern Province, where they were ejected from […]

COLOMBO, April 13, 2007 (AFP) – Sri Lanka’s Tamil Tiger rebels on Friday rejected allegations that they were illegally using a commercial satellite to broadcast overseas.“We are accessing it legally and there is no signal piracy,” a spokesman for the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), Rasiah Ilanthiriyan, said by telephone from the rebel-held northern […]

WASHINGTON, April 11, 2007 (AFP) – Tamil Tiger rebels in Sri Lanka have been illegally using a satellite of US giant Intelsat to beam their radio and television broadcasts overseas, the company said Wednesday.The issue was also taken up by Sri Lanka at a meeting of the International Telecommunications Satellite Organization in Paris last month, […]

by Stefan Smith BATTICALOA, Sri Lanka, April 12, 2007 (AFP) – Tensions are running high in Sri Lanka’s east as government troops fight what they insist is the “climax” of a battle to clear vast jungle areas of Tamil Tiger rebels. Still trying to recover from the 2004 Asian tsunami, the eastern coastal town of […]