Category: Politics

May 31, 2006 (AFP) – Sri Lanka’s media Wednesday reacted to the European ban on Tamil Tiger rebels largely along ethnic lines, but all agreed that the proscription should not lead to renewed war.Newspapers intended mainly for the island’s majority Sinhalese community welcomed the European Union ban Monday on the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam […]

KUALA LUMPUR, May 31, 2006 (AFP) – Sri Lanka’s Tamil Tiger rebels are believed to be channeling funds through Malaysia and Singapore to buy weapons in the region, Sri Lanka’s foreign minister said according to a report Wednesday. Mangala Samaraweera said in an interview with the New Straits Times that he had informed his Malaysian […]

May 31, 2006 (AFP) – Heavy artillery exchanges rocked northern Sri Lanka Wednesday, a day after the government ruled out military action to resolve a long-running ethnic conflict following a European ban on Tiger rebels.More than 600 people have been killed in Sri Lanka since December despite a truce arranged and put in place by […]

COLOMBO, May 31, 2006 (AFP) – The European Union, which earlier in the week banned Sri Lanka’s Tamil Tiger rebels, said Wednesday it was willing to take “further measures” to push the warring parties back to the negotiating table. A declaration by the EU presidency, currently held by Austria, said the ban on Tamil Tiger […]

May 30, 2006 (AFP) – Suspected Tamil Tiger rebels lined up and shot dead 12 construction workers in an execution style massacre in the island’s restive eastern province, the military said Tuesday.A total of 14 construction workers from the majority Sinhalese community had been taken away by suspected Tamil Tiger rebels on Monday, military spokesman […]

May 30, 2006 (AFP) – Sri Lanka’s president Tuesday ruled out military action against the Tamil Tigers as international donors warned the two sides to halt a slide back to war and police found the bodies of 12 victims of an execution-style massacre.In what Western diplomats here saw as a last ditch attempt to stall […]

BRUSSELS, May 30, 2006 (AFP) – The European Union put Sri Lanka’s Tamil Tigers on its list of terrorist groups on Monday, despite a warning from the rebels that the move could force them back to war.The EU ban, agreed in principle on May 18, was made official at a meeting of ministers from the […]

TOKYO, May 30, 2006 (AFP) – Sri Lanka’s key foreign aid donors warned the government and Tamil Tiger rebels Tuesday that they must take steps to end growing unrest or risk losing international support. Donors led by Japan pledged 4.5 billion dollars in 2003 as an incentive for the island to end three decades of […]

May 29, 2006 (AFP) – Sri Lanka was Monday banking on the European Union to ban Tamil Tiger rebels this week, but analysts and officials warned that proscription was unlikely to save a collapsing ceasefire at home. Norway’s International Development Minister Erik Solheim, who held talks with Sri Lankan leaders on Friday, warned that the […]

May 29, 2006 (AFP) – Sri Lanka Monday banked on the European Union to ban the Tamil Tigers even as the rebels said they would agree to more talks to shore up the implementation of a fragile ceasefire.The rebel Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) face the “terrorist” label across the 25-member European Union bloc […]

May 29, 2006 (AFP) – The United Nations agency for refugees warned Sri Lankans on Monday against fleeing troubled areas and making a “perilous journey” to neighbouring India. The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) said at least 10 people drowned while making a dangerous crossing in May of the Palk Straits, the narrow […]