Category: Politics

May 3 (AFP) – Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapakse marked international press freedom day Wednesday vowing to punish killers of two newspaper workers at a pro-rebel Tamil daily.Gunmen stormed the offices of the Uthayan newspaper in Jaffna, 400 kilometres (250 miles) north of the capital Colombo, Tuesday night, killing a manager and another employee, journalists […]

May 03(AFP) – Gunmen stormed a Tamil newspaper office in Sri Lanka’s Jaffna peninsula killing two people and further raising the toll in the bloodiest month since a 2002 truce took effect, officials said Wednesday.More than 60,000 people have been killed in the island’s drawn out Tamil separatist conflict in the past three decades. -Ian […]

May 3 (AFP) – The bullet-riddled bodies of three men were found at a village in northern Sri Lanka Wednesday as tensions mount in the region, police said. The victims were dumped at Chettikulam in the Vavuniya district where government troops and Tamil Tiger rebels clashed in recent weeks. “We don’t know who these people […]

May 2 (AFP) – Sri Lanka has stepped up moves to revive talks with Tamil Tiger rebels as eight more guerrillas were reported killed Tuesday after the bloodiest month since a truce took effect in 2002, officials said.A breakaway faction of the Tamil Tigers attacked a base of the mainstream guerrillas in the northeastern port […]

May 2 (AFP) – Scandinavian truce monitors on Tuesday climbed down from an allegation that Sri Lankan government forces may have been responsible for extrajudicial killings. “The Sri Lankan government has conveyed to us that they are not aware of any such activities within their ranks,” the Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission (SLMM) said in a […]

May 1 (AFP) – At least 200 people have been killed in the bloodiest month in Sri Lanka since peacebroker Norway arranged a truce four years ago, but the warring parties say their ceasefire is still holding.Sri Lanka’s government said it was committed to upholding the hugely strained ceasefire even as seven more people were […]

May 1 (AFP) – Sri Lanka’s Tamil rebels have moved an unspecified number of fighters along the island’s northeastern coast in defiance of a ban on sea transport, a pro-rebel website reported Monday.The boats of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) were closely followed by naval craft and came under attack late Sunday from […]

TRINCOMALEE, May 1 (AFP) – There’s nothing quite like a bloody bombing followed by a strict night curfew to deliver the kiss of death to normal day-to-day life in a town, as residents of Trincomalee will testify.Although the curfew in the strategic northeastern Sri Lankan port town only begins at 10:00 pm, the streets empty […]

May 1 (AFP) – A Claymore mine exploded in Sri Lanka’s port town of Trincomalee on Monday, killing five people after political parties called off May Day rallies in fear of an attack, officials said.The dead included four civilians, local military officials in Trincomalee, 260 kilometres (160 miles) northeast of Colombo, said by telephone. The […]

Apr. 30 (AFP) – Sri Lanka’s main political parties have agreed to call off May Day rallies scheduled for Monday because of fears that large gatherings could attract suicide bombers, a government minister said.Plan Implementation Minister Keheliya Rambukwella said there was a consensus among political parties to avoid large meetings after a female suicide bomber […]

TRINCOMALEE, Apr. 30 (AFP) – The governor of Sri Lanka’s Northeast Province has played down civilian casualties inflicted during military strikes on Tamil Tiger areas, saying they were lower even than those caused by one recent Tiger bombing. “Considering the amount of firepower, the collateral damage is minimal,” Rear Admiral Mohan Wijewickrama said in an […]