Category: Politics

February 2, 2009 (AFP) – Sri Lanka has heightened its usually tight security ahead of national day celebrations even though the rebel Tamil Tigers have been brought to their knees for the first time in decades. The island marks the 61st anniversary of independence from Britain Wednesday with a military parade while its security forces […]

OTTAWA, January 30, 2009 (AFP) – Hundreds of Tamils on Friday formed a human chain in downtown Toronto, Canada’s biggest city, to protest a Sri Lankan military push for victory against Tamil rebels. Toronto is home to the largest concentration of Tamils outside of Sri Lanka. Holding up banners decrying the Sri Lankan military’s latest […]

Jan 28, 2009 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s government and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) are to launch a programme to fight corruption, a UNDP statement said.The project, called ‘Support Efforts and Action against Corruption in Sri Lanka’ (SEAC) will be a three-year effort aimed at combating corruption and promoting accountability and transparency in public […]

NEW DELHI, January 27, 2009 (AFP) – India’s foreign minister was set to visit Sri Lanka Tuesday as the Tamil Tiger rebels struggled to defend their last remaining strongholds, the Press Trust of India reported.Pranab Mukherjee was expected to meet Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapakse to push for a lasting political solution to the long-running […]

January 25, 2009 (AFP) – Sri Lanka is in the grip of its biggest military offensive against Tamil Tiger rebels, but the country’s journalists are also facing an unprecedented battle of their own. Unidentified attackers stabbed weekly newspaper editor Upali Tennakoon and smashed his car as he drove to work Friday in the latest in […]

LONDON, January 23, 2009 (AFP) – Sri Lankan authorities must ensure that the island’s media can work freely and safely, Amnesty International said Friday, as a string of violent attacks against reporters escalated.“By threatening journalists with the risk of arrest, and failing to protect them from attack, the government is failing its citizens.” The London-based […]

January 24, 2009 (AFP) – Continuing attacks against journalists in Sri Lanka show the deteriorating conditions media workers face in the country, a statement released by the US embassy here said Saturday.In the statement, US State Department acting spokesman Robert A.Wood said the United States was appalled by ongoing physical attacks and threats against the […]

January 24, 2009 (AFP) – Continuing attacks against journalists in Sri Lanka show the deteriorating conditions media workers face in the country, a statement released by the US embassy here said Saturday.In the statement, US State Department acting spokesman Robert A. Wood said the United States was appalled by ongoing physical attacks and threats against […]

Jan 23, 2009 (LBO) – An editor of a Sri Lankan weekly newspaper and his wife had been have been assaulted, a staff member said, weeks after an editor of a newspaper critical of the government had been gunned down. Noyahr then left the country. The ownership of the newspaper firm then changed hands. The […]

Jan 22, 2009 (LBO) – Britain has urged the Sri Lankan government to take strong action to prevent human rights abuses and called on both sides to the ethnic conflict to ensure the safety of civilians. “Creating an environment in which people from all communities in Sri Lanka live without fear is essential to creating […]

January 14, 2009 (AFP) – Sri Lanka’s government censured a senior international diplomat after he spoke at the funeral of a newspaper editor whose murder has been blamed on the island’s rulers, officials said Wednesday.Sri Lanka’s opposition has demanded an international probe into the killing, which drew condemnation from the US, the European Union and […]

January 12, 2009 (AFP) – The funeral of a Sri Lankan newspaper editor and staunch critic of the war on Tamil rebels was held Monday with the island’s government facing allegations of being behind his execution-style murder.Security was tight as thousands of mourners attended a Christian service for Lasantha Wickrematunga at the Assembly of God […]