Category: Politics

June 1, 2009 (AFP) – A Sri Lankan media rights activist was hospitalised Monday after being beaten by unidentified attackers near the capital Colombo, a doctor and journalists said.Poddala Jayantha, secretary of the Sri Lanka Working Journalists’ Association, was abducted near his home and was severely attacked with sticks and later dumped in a suburb […]

May 30, 2009 (AFP) – Amnesty International called Saturday for an independent probe into the number of civilians killed in the final weeks of Sri Lanka’s civil war and also urged the UN to reveal its own estimates. The call by the rights group followed a report in the Times of London newspaper on Friday […]

GENEVA, May 28, 2009 (AFP) – The UN human rights chief and campaign groups insisted Thursday that an independent probe should be held into violations in Sri Lanka although the UN’s top rights assembly turned down such calls UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay maintained her demand for an investigation into abuses allegedly […]

BRUSSELS, May 28, 2009 (AFP) – The European Union expressed regret Thursday at the failure to launch a probe into alleged war crimes committed by the Sri Lankan military during its offensive against Tamil Tiger rebels.On Wednesday, the UN Human Rights Council adopted a resolution proposed by Sri Lanka and non-aligned states that welcomed Colombo’s […]

WASHINGTON, May 28, 2009 (AFP) – President Barack Obama on Wednesday named US ambassadors to Japan, India and Sri Lanka, amid heightened tension in Asia over North Korea’s nuclear tests, unrest in Pakistan and ethnic tension in Sri Lanka. Obama named longtime technology-focused lawyer John Roos as US ambassador to Japan, and named Democratic former […]

May 28, 2009 (AFP) – Sri Lanka celebrated a major diplomatic victory Thursday after managing to torpedo Western demands for a probe into alleged war crimes committed during the offensive against Tamil Tiger rebels. A little more than a week after government troops defeated the separatist army, the island’s diplomats managed to lobby Asian support […]

GENEVA, May 26, 2009 (AFP) – UN human rights chief Navi Pillay on Tuesday called for an international investigation into attacks on civilians during the final stages of the civil war in Sri Lanka.“There are strong reasons to believe that both sides have grossly disregarded the fundamental principle of the inviolability of civilians,” Pillay told […]

May 27, 2009 (AFP) – Sri Lanka said Wednesday it was confident of averting an international probe into alleged war crimes committed during its offensive against the Tamil Tigers. At the council meeting, two draft resolutions have been put forward — each one at odds in their approach to the aftermath of the conflict. The […]

GENEVA, May 26, 2009 (AFP) – Asian and Western members of the UN Human Rights Council failed to find a common voice on the situation in Sri Lanka before they were due to hold a special session on the issue Tuesday. Switzerland, with the support of about 30 mainly Western states, has tabled a draft […]

May 25, 2009 (AFP) – Sri Lanka is to hold local elections later this year in parts of northern areas formerly held by the Tamil Tigers for the first time in 15 years, an official said Monday. A spokesman for the local government ministry said voting will be held between August 4 and 17 to […]

May 22, 2009 (AFP) – UN chief Ban Ki-moon arrived Friday in Sri Lanka to press for humanitarian access to civilians displaced by the separatist conflict, as the island’s president dismissed international concerns.Ban is the first world leader to visit since Colombo’s assertion earlier this week that the Tamil Tigers’ bloody decades-long crusade for an […]

May 23, 2009 (LBO) – The UN chief Ban Ki-moon who pressed for access to camps housing nearly 300,000 refugees in northern Sri Lanka says more help is needed to meet their needs while a longer term solution is needed to permanently solve the conflict. “If equality is not delivered history could repeat itself,” Ban […]