Category: Politics

Feb 09, 2008 (LBO) – Sri Lankan rebel lawmaker Sripathi Sooriyaarachchi who broke away from the ruling party of President Mahinda Rajapakse last year, died in a car crash Saturday, police said. Police spokesman DIG NK Illangakoon said the car had crashed near the north-central town of Galgamuwa. His two police guards were also killed, […]

Feb 8, 2008 (AFP) – Sri Lankan troops smashed bunkers of Tamil Tiger rebels in the island’s embattled north and kept up attacks elsewhere leaving 39 guerrillas dead, the island’s defence ministry said Friday. In the clashes along the front lines in Vavuniya district, security forces killed 22 guerrillas while destroying three of their bunkers […]

SYDNEY, Feb 8, 2008 (AFP) – Australia’s widely criticised “Pacific Solution” policy of holding asylum seekers on remote islands ended Friday when the last detainees flew out of Nauru, the government said.The 21 Sri Lankans who had been held on the tiny island in the South Pacific for nearly a year would be resettled in […]

Feb 7, 2008 (AFP) – Sri Lanka’s former colonial ruler Britain has called for a “political process” to end Sri Lanka’s spiralling violence and condemned the latest wave of bombings against civilians.British Foreign Secretary David Miliband in a statement released here said that the Sri Lankan government’s unilateral withdrawal from a ceasefire with separatist rebels […]

Feb 7, 2008 (AFP) – Dozens of unsolved murders, abductions, and disappearances of journalists have cast a pall on open reporting in Sri Lanka as an ethnic civil war intensifies, a rights group said Thursday.At least 10 media workers have been killed over the past two years, while others have been abducted, tortured, or illegally […]

Feb 6, 2008 (AFP) – Sri Lankan war planes Wednesday bombed targets inside Tamil Tiger-held territory in the north as ground forces clashed with the rebels, leaving 37 guerrillas and five soldiers dead, the defence ministry said.War planes hit a location near Iranamadu on Wednesday morning after government forces destroyed some 30 bunkers of the […]

Feb 5, 2008 (AFP) – Seven Sri Lankan sailors and their craft were missing on Tuesday following a sea battle with suspected Tamil Tiger guerrillas off the island’s northwest coast, military officials said. The clashes erupted when two navy speedboats moved to push back a fleet of poaching fishermen from neighbouring India, a military official […]

Feb 5, 2008 (AFP) – Sri Lanka staged mass funerals for bomb blast victims on Tuesday after independence day festivities were marred by a string of attacks blamed on Tamil Tiger rebels.Scores of civilians have also died during the same period, according to both sides. No independent verification of the tolls is possible as the […]

Feb 4, 2008 (AFP) – A powerful roadside bomb killed at least one soldier and wounded three others in a town in southern Sri Lanka Monday as the country marked 60 years of independence, police said. The attack came as the country was on red alert for possible attacks by separatist Tamil Tiger guerrillas, who […]

Feb 4, 2008 (AFP) – A powerful roadside bomb killed at least 10 civilians and wounded several others Monday in northeastern Sri Lanka, the day’s second attack against a bus on the island, a military official said.Hours earlier, a similar mine attack against a military vehicle in the south left one soldier dead and three […]

Feb 4, 2008 (AFP) – Sri Lanka President Mahinda Rajapakse kicked off independence celebrations at a sea-front promenade in the capital Monday under tight security following a string of Tamil Tiger attacks. The president hoisted the national flag to signal the start of official ceremonies marking the island’s independence from Britain 60 years ago. Officials […]

Feb 3, 2008 (AFP) – A suicide bomber attacked a train at Colombo’s main railway station Sunday, killing at least 12 and injuring 100 others on the eve of Sri Lanka’s independence day celebrations, officials said. The blast near a suburban train as it arrived at the Fort terminal came just hours after six people […]