Category: Politics

Apr. 29 (AFP) – Sri Lanka is facing a propaganda war more dangerous than the recent violence in the country, the president said, as newspapers on Saturday accused foreign journalists of biased coverage. “Now we are confronted with a more dangerous war — that is the propaganda war,” President Mahinda Rajapakse told a meeting of […]

Apr. 29 (AFP) – Sri Lanka violated a ceasefire with Tamil Tiger rebels by launching air strikes this week, foreign truce monitors said Saturday, expressing fears government forces had also been involved in extrajudicial killings. The strikes conducted on Tiger targets in northeastern Trincomalee district on Tuesday and Wednesday “are a clear violation of the […]

TRINCOMALEE, Apr. 29 (AFP) – Community leaders met in this northeastern Sri Lankan port town Saturday in a bid to defuse tension and suspicion between Sinhalese and Tamils following the bombing of a busy market that killed 17 people. “Trincomalee has always been a power-game area,” he said. “Various groups play their power games here. […]

Apr. 28 (AFP) – The United Nations Friday urged both the Sri Lanka government and rebel Tamil Tigers to quickly end the political killings that have led to an upsurge in violence.“The dangerous escalation of the conflict in recent days is a direct consequence of killings being allowed to run unchecked,” said Philip Alston, UN’s […]

April 28, 2006 (AFP) – Sri Lankan police have found the mobile phone card used by a female suicide bomber who tried to assassinate the country’s army chief and hope it will lead them to other suspects, they said Friday.Officials said Friday that Foneska, who was critically injured, was out of danger and improving. Investigators […]

SAMPUR, Sri Lanka, Apr. 28 (AFP) – Houses in this rebel-held town were deserted and streets eerily empty Friday, three days after Sri Lanka’s military pounded it with a fiery blitz that a Tamil Tiger political officer said killed 15 people and injured 25. Foreign donors were to meet Friday in Oslo in a bid […]

MUTTUR, Sri Lanka, Apr. 28 (AFP) – Displaced by the war, displaced by the tsunami, now Kiyathupillai Mohideen is on the move again — this time after clashes between the Sri Lankan military and Tamil Tiger rebels killed three members of his family. The 66-year-old white-bearded devout Muslim is not the only one who has […]

OSLO, Apr. 28 (AFP) – Sri Lanka’s international donors meeting in Oslo on Friday pressed both rebels and the Sri Lankan government to return to negotiations to shore up the country’s faltering ceasefire.“We call upon both sides to put a stop to the violence.On this basis we call upon the two parties to come to […]

Apr. 28 (AFP) – Sri Lanka’s bloodiest bombings in four years have made investors jittery and led to the first-ever downgrade in the island’s sovereign ratings, industry officials said Friday. Three British nationals were wounded in a mine attack aimed at a naval bus in the island’s northeast this month, prompting Britain to issue a […]

HONG KONG, Apr. 27 (AFP) – Government air strikes in northeast Sri Lanka have caused thousands of people to flee their homes, the United Nations refugee agency said Thursday.UNHCR spokesman Lyndon Jeffels said UN staff could not confirm local government figures in the district of Trincomalee that 40,000 had been driven from their homes by […]

Apr. 27 (AFP) – Tamil Tiger rebels Thursday pleaded with the international community to pressure Sri Lanka’s government to prevent further air strikes against them and to save a ceasefire from complete collapse.The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) said they were “distressed” over the lack of foreign concern at the strikes carried out by […]

Apr. 27 (AFP) – Sri Lanka on Thursday set aside one million dollars in aid for thousands of people who fled their homes after an upsurge in violence in the northeast. President Mahinda Rajapakse named a retired naval officer to head a “Presidential Task Force” to allocate the relief money to displaced civilians, an official […]