Category: Politics

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 […]

Apr. 27, 2006 (AFP) – At least five security personnel were killed in three separate Claymore mine attacks in northern Sri Lanka Thursday, the military said. Three soldiers were killed and two wounded in Mannar district while two sailors riding a motorcycle were blown up in the Kayts islet, a military official said. He said […]

SERUVILA, Sri Lanka, Apr. 27 (AFP) – The two men who came to kill her and her family wore masks and spoke Sinhalese, a wounded Josep Devi, wincing in pain, said from her hospital bed in this northeastern Sri Lankan town Thursday.“I managed to save my baby by rolling on her as I fell when […]

Apr. 26 (AFP) – Escalating violence between Sri Lankan forces and Tamil rebels left at least 15 civilians dead and 15,000 Tamil villagers fleeing for their lives, reports from both sides said Wednesday.Three people died and 13 were wounded when the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) fired mortar bombs against a naval detachment in […]

Apr. 26 (AFP) – Air strikes, mortar attacks, a suicide bombing in the heart of Colombo — while it may seem Tamil Tiger rebels and Sri Lanka’s government are beating war drums, they are in fact preparing to return to truce talks, some analysts said Wednesday. The fact that the government has recommitted itself to […]

Apr.26 (AFP) – “Black Tiger” suicide squads, secular Hindus driven by loyalty to the Tamil cause rather than religion, have been sowing terror in Sri Lanka for over two decades.The audacious bombing Tuesday inside Sri Lanka’s main military base, in which a female member of the Tamil Tigers feigning pregnancy blew herself up, was just […]