Category: Politics

June 26, 2006 (AFP) – The assassination of a top army general Monday was aimed at sabotaging Sri Lanka’s peace process, President Mahinda Rajapakse said.Police have blamed the suicide bomb attack that killed Major General Parami Kulatunga and four other people, including the bomber, on the rebel Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE). Rajapakse said […]

June 26, 2006 (AFP) – Sri Lanka’s main hospital here received an anonymous warning phone call shortly before the assassination of a top army general Monday, a spokeswoman said. The caller, who spoke in halting Sinhalese, said hospital staff would carry out a “superior job” and that the hospital would have “more work than usual,” […]

June 26, 2006 (AFP) – Tamil Tiger guerrillas Monday warned that Sri Lanka would descend into full-scale war if peace broker Norway quit, as the killing of a top army general ended a week-long lull in violence. Tiger political wing leader S. P. Thamilselvan told the tamilnet.com website that war would be “unavoidable” if Norway […]

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 26, 2006 (AFP) – Sri Lanka’s military Monday announced it will bring back tighter security measures across the country following the assassination of a top army general by a suspected Tamil Tiger suicide bomber. Security forces will re-activate all measures that were in place before the February 2002 ceasefire between the government and the […]

June 26, 2006 (AFP) – Suspected Tamil Tiger rebels deployed a motorcycle riding suicide bomber to kill Sri Lanka’s number three army officer, Major General Parami Kulatunga, in a suburb of Colombo Monday.June 15, 2006: Blast rips through bus full of civilians, killing 64 and wounding 80. Tigers deny involvement. The Sri Lanka military responds […]

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 […]

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 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 […]

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 […]