Category: Politics

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 […]

April 12, 2007 (AFP) – Sri Lanka is using tough anti-terror laws to suppress democratic dissent and journalists who expose human rights abuses, the New York-based Human Rights Watch (HRW) charged Thursday. New measures introduced in December were being deployed against those who question the government’s handling of the separatist war with the rebel Liberation […]

COLOMBO, April 12, 2007 (AFP) – Suspected Tamil Tiger rebels Thursday shot dead seven villagers of the majority Sinhalese community in northern Sri Lanka on the eve of the traditional New Year, police said.Gunmen from the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) raided the village of Avarantalawa in the district of Vavuniya where heavy fighting […]

COLOMBO, April 12, 2007 (AFP) – Sri Lankan forces have captured a strategic highway in the island’s restive eastern province which was under Tamil Tiger control for 15 years, the defence ministry said Thursday.Troops took control Wednesday of the A-5 road linking the town of Chenkaladi and Badulla in the central part of the island, […]

COLOMBO, April 10, 2007 (AFP) – Tamil Tiger rebels Tuesday backed an Amnesty International campaign to shame Sri Lanka’s government during the cricket World Cup and said it should be extended to a full sporting boycott of the island.Sri Lanka are due to host a high-profile cricket series against England later this year.The London-based rights […]

April 10, 2007 (AFP) – At least 17 people died when a crowded bus and a truck transporting beer crashed head on in southern Sri Lanka Tuesday, police said.Most of the victims were trapped and burnt to death as the bus caught fire at Induruwa, about 70 kilometres (43 miles) south of Colombo, police said. […]

GENEVA, April 9, 2007 (AFP) – The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) voiced concern Monday about the worsening situation in Sri Lanka, urging all sides to respect humanitarian law.“The number of casualties caused by deliberate attacks on civilians has sharply increased in northern and eastern Sri Lanka,” the ICRC said in a press […]

COLOMBO, April 8, 2007 (AFP) – Sri Lankan stepped up security Sunday over fears of bomb attacks ahead of the traditional New Year festivities this week while the military said six rebels and a soldier were killed in fresh fighting. A government soldier was killed in a confrontation with Tamil Tiger rebels in the north […]

by Mel Gunasekera COLOMBO, April 7, 2007 (AFP) – Suspected Tamil Tiger rebels detonated a roadside bomb on Saturday, killing eight passengers on a bus and wounding 25, the Sri Lankan government said, marking the latest violence on the island. Security has also been intensified across the island’s northern and eastern regions in a bid […]

WASHINGTON, April 5, 2007 (AFP) – US authorities said Thursday they had busted an arms-trafficking gang, arresting six Asians who had been trying to smuggle weapons from the United States to Tamil Tiger rebels.Singapore man Haniffa Bin Osman, 55, was the latest person to plead guilty in the investigation which saw undercover agents track the […]