Category: Politics

WASHINGTON, November 4, 2009 (AFP) – The US House of Representatives urged Sri Lanka’s government Wednesday to guarantee the safety and quick release of some 300,000 Tamils and other war-displaced people currently held in camps.By an overwhelming 421-1 vote, lawmakers approved a non-binding resolution that calls on the authorities in Colombo to help the populations […]

November 3, 2009 (AFP) – Sri Lanka’s main opposition on Tuesday formed an alliance with minority Tamil and Muslim parties and a breakaway faction of the ruling coalition to contest possible snap elections.The next presidential poll, which was due by November 2011, will now be held before April 2010, according to the government. Opposition leader […]

SYDNEY, November 2, 2009 (AFP) – About 15 people were feared dead on Monday after a boat carrying 39 sank in rough seas far off northwest Australia despite frantic rescue attempts by a passing merchant ship and fishing vessel.Defence chief Angus Houston said the unidentified boat capsized and then sank after the LNG Pioneer ship […]

LUXEMBOURG, October 27, 2009 (AFP) – The European Union boosted pressure on Sri Lanka Tuesday over human rights and called for those committing abuses on the island to be investigated. Sri Lanka has said it needs to screen the civilians for former fighters. The EU statement comes a week after the bloc threatened to withdraw […]

October 27, 2009 (AFP) – Sri Lanka may consider joining the global treaty banning landmines following the government’s defeat of separatist Tamil Tiger rebels, the army chief said on Tuesday. Sri Lanka had previously refused to sign up to the 1997 Ottawa Convention against landmines, arguing that the military could not unilaterally abandon mines in […]

October 26, 2009 (AFP) – The Sri Lankan government on Monday said it would investigate war crimes allegations made against its troops in a US State Department report.Among the claims detailed in the report was the accusation that Tiger leaders reached a surrender agreement with government forces but were then executed.Human Rights Minister Mahinda Samarasinghe […]

SYDNEY, October 23, 2009 (AFP) – Australian border guards intercepted a boat carrying 29 suspected asylum-seekers off the country’s northwest on Friday, the home minister said, as debate raged over a sharp rise in arrivals. Home Minister Brendan O’Connor said the 29, along with four crew, were stopped near Ashmore Island, off Australia’s northwest coast. […]

October 22, 2009 (AFP) – Fear of persecution and a lack of jobs at home are driving thousands of Sri Lankans to risk perilous boat rides to developed countries, according to officials and politicians.Two separate boats carrying a total of over 300 illegal immigrants believed to be members of Sri Lanka’s minority Tamil community were […]

SYDNEY, October 22, 2009 (AFP) – Australia’s Prime Minister Kevin Rudd Thursday angrily denied extremists were among hundreds of asylum-seekers arriving in the country, as another two boats were stopped off the northern coast.Rudd demanded that opposition leader Malcolm Turnbull withdraw support for renegade backbencher Wilson Tuckey, who said there were “narrow odds” some of […]

VANCOUVER, October 21, 2009 (AFP) – Detention hearings began Tuesday for two of 76 migrants who were arrested Saturday on a mystery ship off Canada’s coast and are believed to be Tamils fleeing Sri Lanka, Immigration adjudicator Leeann King of Canada’s Immigration and Refugee Board ruled late Tuesday that the first two of the migrants […]

SYDNEY, October 16, 2009 (AFP) – Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd on Friday refused to be swayed by hundreds of Sri Lankan asylum-seekers who launched a hunger strike after their wooden boat was stopped in Indonesia.Rudd said the 255 people, who are refusing to leave their boat and earlier threatened to set it on fire, […]

October 16, 2009 (AFP) – Sri Lanka’s main water utility said Friday it had fined the US embassy in Colombo more than 3,000 dollars for illegally tapping supplies from the national network.The National Water Supply and Drainage Board said it found that the supply to US ambassador Patricia Butenis’ official residence in Colombo bypassed the […]