Category: Politics

GENEVA, Aug 8, 2006 (AFP) – The International Committee of the Red Cross is trying to negotiate urgent access to the area around the northeastern Sri Lankan town of Muttur, where at least 4,000 people are thought to be stranded by fighting, a spokeswoman said Tuesday.Shelter equipment and clothing for the displaced were being distributed […]

PARIS, Aug 8, 2006 (AFP) – Seventeen employees of a French charity found dead in northeastern Sri Lanka at the weekend were all executed by gunfire, the group confirmed Tuesday, demanding that those responsible be severely punished. Following the massacre, the charity suspended its local mission to Sri Lanka, whose 15 expatriate and 224 local […]

TRINCOMALEE, Sri Lanka, Aug 8, 2006 (AFP) – Relatives Tuesday sprinkled perfumed water and buried aid workers gunned down inside their office in strife-torn northeastern Sri Lanka, while police maintained tight security.“I just want to get his remains now and give him a decent burial. There is nothing more I can do.He is already dead.” […]

Aug 8, 2006 (AFP) – Tamil Tiger rebels lifted a water blockade Tuesday at the root of Sri Lanka’s latest bloodshed, which has officially claimed over 440 lives, as a car bomb killed three people in the capital.The fighting in the past fortnight has been the worst since the 2002 truce, which has been repeatedly […]

KALLAR, Sri Lanka, Aug 7, 2006 (AFP) – Tired and hungry aid workers labor ceaselessly in crowded refugee camps on the edge of Sri Lanka’s conflict zone amid the thundering sound of artillery.“We will not go to Muttur unless we deem it safe.” Their steely resolve gives hope to nearly 30,000 people displaced by heavy […]

Aug 7, 2006 (AFP) – A French aid agency said Monday it would review its presence in Sri Lanka after 15 of its workers were found shot dead in the worst attack since its inception 25 years ago.Paris-based Action Against Hunger, or ACF, said 11 men and four women, all Sri Lankans, had been killed […]

Aug 7, 2006 (AFP) – Sri Lanka will order a “clean and independent” investigation into the reported killing of 15 workers of a French charity during fighting in the northeast, the human rights minister told AFP Monday.The government will grant “very high priority” to probe charges that 11 men and four women, all locals employed […]

GENEVA, Aug 7, 2006 (AFP) – Evacuations of thousands of Asian and Ethiopian migrant workers trapped in war-torn Lebanon have resumed, the International Organisation for Migration said Monday. About 750 people a day are expected to travel to Syria in coach convoys over the next five days, unless the security situation deteriorates further, the IOM […]

Aug 7, 2006 (AFP) – The bodies of 16 slain aid workers were found in Sri Lanka on Monday as new fighting between security forces and Tamil Tiger rebels dashed hope of an immediate end to the violence in the troubled nation.The Tigers said meanwhile that at least 15 more civilians were killed in new […]

Aug 7, 2006 (AFP) – A senior police officer was killed and his driver critically wounded in a powerful mine explosion in central Sri Lanka Monday, police said, blaming Tamil Tiger rebels for the attack. The latest blast came as government forces and Tamil Tiger rebels were locked in a bitter battle over the control […]

Aug 7, 2006 (AFP) – A French aid agency said it was trying to find out who shot dead 15 of its employees in northern Sri Lanka but that government troops had sealed off the scene of the massacre.The military has also accused the Tiger rebels of killing 100 Muslim residents, a charge denied by […]

Aug 7, 2006 (AFP) – Sri Lanka’s chief truce monitor has criticised government troops for shelling Tamil rebels as they tried to reopen a bitterly contested waterway at the centre of the heaviest clashes in years.An estimated 60,000 people have been killed since the Tamil insurgency began around three decades ago. Ulf Henriksson, head of […]