Category: Politics

Nov 27, 2006 (AFP) – Unidentified gunmen shot dead three local employees of a Japanese cement company in north-eastern Sri Lanka on Monday as Tamil Tiger rebels and security forces traded artillery fire, police said.The ethnic separatist conflict has claimed at least 60,000 lives since it began in 1972.The three Tamils working for the Mitsui […]

Nov 27, 2006 (AFP) – Tamil Tiger supremo Velupillai Prabhakaran was to deliver a keenly-awaited address Monday to Sri Lanka’s embattled Tamil people that will help shape the course of the island’s troubled peace process.The defence ministry reports 2,018 Tiger rebels killed in the past year. His speech will come one year after he warned […]

Nov 27, 2006 (AFP) – The Tamil minority of Sri Lanka must have their own independent state, rebel chief Velupillai Prabhakaran declared Monday, effectively ending the island’s peace process.In his annual policy speech, delivered from a secret hideout, the Tamil Tiger leader accused the Colombo government of waging military and economic war against Tamils and […]

COLOMBO, Nov 26 (AFP) – Sri Lankan security forces went on high alert Sunday, officials said, as Tamil Tiger rebels remembered 18,742 comrades killed in their decades-long campaign for a separate homeland.More than 3,400 people have been killed in an upsurge in violence in the past year in Sri Lanka, where over 60,000 have died […]

COLOMBO, Nov 26 (AFP) – Sri Lanka’s elusive Tamil Tiger supremo marks his 52nd birthday Sunday with a self-imposed deadline to decide the course of Asia’s longest-running ethnic conflict.The TNA is the third largest group in the 225-member assembly and their votes would be crucial for any political deal to end separatist violence, which has […]

NEW DELHI, Nov 26, 2006 (AFP) – The visiting Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapakse Sunday sounded out India on joint patrolling of their maritime border in a bid to halt smuggling and cross-border terrorism.Rajapakse, who began a five-day working visit to India Sunday, told reporters he planned to talk to Indian leaders about strengthening patrols […]

SINGAPORE, Nov 25, 2006 (AFP) – Mediators who have tried to settle Asia’s most intractable conflicts will gather in Singapore Monday for a closed-door “retreat” to discuss peacemaking, organizers said. The Geneva-based Centre for Humanitarian Dialogue (HD Centre) will co-host the three-day meeting with Singapore’s Institute of Southeast Asian Studies (ISEAS), HD Centre said in […]

COLOMBO, Nov 24, 2006 (AFP) – A top Indian envoy left for home Friday after conveying New Delhi’s “deep concern” over escalating violence in Sri Lanka, as government troops and Tamil Tigers were locked in long-range attacks. Indian Foreign Secretary Shiv Shankar Menon left for New Delhi following meetings with top leaders, including President Mahinda […]

COLOMBO, Nov 24, 2006 (AFP) – Renewed fighting in Sri Lanka’s embattled northern and eastern regions has left at least 30 people dead, according to defence ministry figures Friday. The bitter ethnic conflict has claimed at least 60,000 lives since it began in 1972. Security forces killed 19 Tamil Tiger rebels in two clashes Thursday […]

COLOMBO, Nov 24, 2006 (AFP) – Sri Lanka will seek India’s help to step up patrols of their common maritime border to prevent drug and arms smuggling and cross-border terrorism, President Mahinda Rajapakse said Friday. Rajapakse said he was also keen to boost bilateral trade with India, currently running at an annual two billion dollars, […]

COLOMBO, Nov 24, 2006 (AFP) – Sri Lanka’s president on Friday asked foreign relief agencies to help supply food and other essentials to half a million civilians trapped in the embattled northern Jaffna peninsula. President Mahinda Rajapakse said essentials had been shipped to the peninsula, 400 kilometres (250 miles) north of the capital, but distribution […]

COLOMBO, Nov 23, 2006 (AFP) – Sri Lankan soldiers backed by tanks and artillery launched a fresh ground offensive Thursday into territory held by Tiger guerrillas in the east of the island, a rebel spokesman said. The bitter ethnic conflict has claimed at least 60,000 lives since it began in 1972. Troops were advancing into […]