Category: Politics

May 28, 2006 (AFP) – Sri Lankan authorities Sunday found the mutilated bodies of seven local tourists believed to have been killed by an explosion in a wildlife sanctuary near a conflict zone, police said.Five of the bodies could be identified — two women and three men — while the remains of two others were […]

May 28, 2006 (AFP) – Sri Lankan police Sunday detained the drivers of 18 vehicles trying to smuggle explosives across a de facto frontier post into the government-controlled part of the Jaffna peninsula, officials said.The private vehicles were stopped at the Muhamalai checkpoint after dogs sniffed out plastic explosives during a routine check, a military […]

May 28, 2006 (AFP) – Hopes of ending Sri Lanka’s ethnic bloodshed have hit rock bottom after peacebroker Norway failed to arrange talks on saving a collapsing ceasefire, diplomats and officials said Sunday.Oslo’s efforts were complicated by a looming European Union ban on the Tamil Tiger rebels, who threatened to respond by scrapping the truce […]

VIENNA, May 27, 2006 (AFP) – The European Union is expected to put Sri Lanka’s Tamil Tigers on its list of terrorist groups next week, a spokesman for the EU’s Austrian presidency said Saturday. The Palestinian group Hamas, the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) and the armed Basque separatist group ETA are on it.The EU move, […]

NEW DELHI, May 27, 2006 (AFP) – Norway’s top peace envoy to Sri Lanka, Eric Solheim, said Saturday a major crisis was brewing in the tropical island and that it could be headed back to full-scale civil war. Norway was committed to its role as facilitator despite the problems in the situation, he said. “We […]

May 27 (AFP) – Peace broker Norway Saturday asked Tamil rebels and the Sri Lankan government to attend a meeting next month to discuss the role of Scandinavian monitors observing a troubled ceasefire, rebel sources said.The SLMM last week asked for more monitors to boost its 60-member unarmed force. The rebel Liberation Tigers of Tamil […]

May 27, 2006 (AFP) – Sri Lanka could be heading back to all-out war, the top Norwegian envoy to the island warned Saturday, saying the peace process was more difficult than he had believed. Erik Solheim made the comments in New Delhi after his deputy, Jon Hanssen-Bauer, met the head of the rebel Tamil Tigers […]

May 26, 2006 (AFP) – Norway’s top peace envoy held lengthy talks with Sri Lanka’s President Mahinda Rajapakse Friday in a fresh bid to stop the island from drifting back to war, diplomats said.More than 60,000 people have been killed in the island’s Tamil separatist conflict since 1972.Oslo’s International Development Minister Erik Solheim arrived Friday […]

May 26, 2006 (AFP) – Sri Lanka’s Tamil Tigers have released 16 youths who lied about their age to join the guerrilla movement, the rebels said in a statement received Friday.The Tigers maintain that their fighters are volunteers.“During the period of April and May, LTTE released 16 youths aged 15, 16 and 17 back to […]