Category: Politics

June 26, 2006 (AFP) – The Roman Catholic church opened a meeting here Monday, calling for peace in embattled Sri Lanka hours after a suspected Tamil Tiger suicide bomber killed himself and four others, including a top army general.Caritas, the social development arm of the church, urged the government and Tiger rebels to honor their […]

OSLO, June 26, 2006 (AFP) – Norway is determined to continue its mediation efforts in Sri Lanka despite a flare-up in violence on the island and uncertainty about the role of Nordic peace observers, Norwegian officials said on Monday. “Norway remains committed to Sri Lanka, in good times and bad times,” Norway’s special envoy to […]

June 25, 2006 (AFP) – A tense calm has settled over Sri Lanka as the government and Tamil Tiger guerrillas await a decision from peace broker Norway that could make or break the fragile truce keeping the island from all-out war, analysts say. Norwegian diplomats who have struggled to bring the two sides together will […]

June 24, 2006 (AFP) – Sri Lanka on Saturday said the Tamil Tigers had laid down a “hostile deadline” after the rebels said European Union (EU) nations should quit the nation’s truce monitoring mission within one month.The rebel demand, made after the EU officially branded the Tigers a terrorist group, would force out 37 of […]

BANGALORE, India, June 24, 2006 (AFP) – Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh Saturday urged dialogue and cooperation for solving the ethnic conflict in Sri Lanka that has claimed more than 60,000 lives since 1972. “We are for the unity and integrity of Sri Lanka,” Singh, who was on a visit to this southern IT hub, […]

June 23, 2006 (AFP) – Sri Lanka’s capital Colombo was thrown into panic Friday after sonic booms caused by jet fighters were mistaken for bomb blasts off the coast, the military and police said.Defence Ministry spokesman Prasad Samarasinghe said Israeli-built Kfir jets were on a training mission and may have broken the sound barrier causing […]

June 22, 2006 (AFP) – Sri Lanka’s government Thursday remained non-committal to demands that a failing ceasefire agreement be amended so as not to restrict truce monitoring to Nordic nations.“There have been no discussions on this issue,” said Media Minister Anura Yapa, adding, though, that a request by the Tamil Tigers to remove monitors from […]

June 22, 2006 (AFP) – A breakaway faction of Tamil Tiger rebels has increased the recruiting of child soldiers, with 30 cases being reported in the past week alone, the UN Children’s Fund said Thursday.The agency called for the Sri Lankan government to take immediate action to halt the abduction and forced enlistment of children […]

June 22, 2006 (AFP) – Sri Lanka Thursday labelled as “impractical” a demand by Tamil Tiger rebels that European Union truce monitors on the troubled island be replaced within a month, saying more time was needed.“We are concerned that the LTTE has informed the Norwegian facilitator that the change…should be effected within one month, instead […]