Category: Politics

Nov 30, 2006 (AFP) – A top Norwegian peace broker arrived in Sri Lanka Thursday, a diplomat said, as Tamil Tiger separatists insisted government forces have killed off an Oslo-brokered ceasefire. Sri Lanka’s ethnic conflict has claimed at least 60,000 lives since it began in 1972. Envoy Jon Hanssen-Bauer was to hold separate talks with […]

Nov 29, 2006 (AFP) – The Tamil Tigers have renewed a campaign to partition Sri Lanka, but the guerrillas already have a surreal separate “state” of their own.The Tigers usually sign off their communications with “thirst of the Tigers is Tamil Eelam”. But a former Sri Lankan defence minister said it was not a state […]

Nov 29, 2006 (AFP) – A convoy of food on Wednesday reached 40,000 people trapped by weeks of heavy fighting in the island’s restive east as artillery exchanges died down, a relief official said. The first 20 trucks out of more than 100 vehicles arrived at the rebel-held town of Vakarai bringing food and medical […]

Nov 29, 2006 (AFP) – A rebel bid for an independent Tamil state in Sri Lanka has run into outright international rejection with the United States leading calls for new peace talks and an end to bloodshed. A second round of peace talks this year collapsed in Geneva last month over the government refusal to […]

HANOI, Nov 28, 2006 (AFP) – Sri Lanka’s prime minister Tuesday said peace talks with Tamil Tigers will go on and urged the guerrillas to stop “terrorism” a day after the rebel leader said the minority must have an independent state.“There is terrorism and there is negotiations,” said Prime Minister Ratnasiri Wickramanayaka, speaking during a […]

Nov 28, 2006 (AFP) – A solemn vow by the veteran Tamil rebel leader that his people will now pursue their own independent state has set the stage for a return to full-scale war in Sri Lanka, analysts said Tuesday.“He has gone for a declaration of war,” former Tamil separatist turned politician Dharmalingam Sithadthan told […]

OSLO, Nov 28, 2006 (AFP) – Norway on Tuesday said that while it did not see the need for new initiatives, it would remain in contact with both the Sri Lankan government and the Tamil Tigers following the rebel leader’s declaration that the peace process was defunct.“We are prepared to assist the parties, but we […]

Nov 28, 2006 (AFP) – The Sri Lankan government has written to peace broker Norway to ask if the island’s peace process is over after Tamil rebels declared it defunct, a spokesman said Tuesday.“We want a clarification from the Norwegians if the peace process is still on,” said defence spokesman Keheliya Rambukwella. The demand was […]

Nov 28, 2006 (AFP) – Tamil Tiger rebels stepped up artillery and mortar bomb attacks against military bases in the restive east Tuesday, a day after calling for their own independent state.The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) guerrillas fired at security forces in the district of Batticaloa, killing at least one soldier and wounding […]

Nov 28, 2006 (AFP) – Sri Lanka Tuesday offered fresh talks with Tamil Tigers to avert a return to all-out civil war as the top guerrilla leader wrote off the Norwegian-backed peace process.President Mahinda Rajapakse, currently visiting India, said he was ready to have direct talks with Velupillai Prabhakaran, the elusive leader of the Liberation […]

Nov 28, 2006 (AFP) – Sri Lanka must stop helping a pro-government Tamil rebel faction to recruit child soldiers, a human rights group warned Tuesday.The New York-based Human Rights Watch (HRW) renewed charges that government security forces were assisting the “Karuna” breakaway group to recruit boys and girls as combatants. HRW said its investigations supported […]

Nov 27, 2006 (AFP) – Sri Lanka’s navy Monday sank a suspected Tamil rebel trawler off the island’s northwest coast, killing at least four people on board, a defence ministry spokesman said.A patrolling “fast attack” naval craft came under fire from the vessel 50 nautical miles (92 kilometres) north of Udappuwa, he said. “We returned […]