Category: Politics

COLOMBO, Oct 29, 2006 (AFP) – At least five people were killed in clashes in north and east Sri Lanka overnight, police and defence officials said Sunday, as the government and rebel Tamil Tigers held peace talks in Geneva.Two suspected rebels were found dead after police repulsed an attack on their patrol late Saturday, officials […]

COLOMBO, Oct 29, 2006 (AFP) – Sri Lankan government delegates in Geneva to negotiate peace with Tamil Tiger rebels were “under a lot of stress” and wanted journalists removed from their hotel, diplomats said Sunday. Sri Lanka’s ambassador to the United Nations in Geneva, Sarala Fernando, said she asked the Swiss authorities to evict all […]

GENEVA, Oct 29, 2006 (AFP) – The Sri Lankan government on Sunday accused the Tamil Tigers of spreading “disinformation” about humanitarian supplies for the northern Jaffna Peninsula while peace talks were underway in Geneva.Reto Meister, delegate general for Asia at the ICRC, told AFP on Thursday that the “lack of a mutually agreed safe access” […]

GENEVA, Oct 29, 2006 (AFP) – Peace talks on Sri Lanka collapsed Sunday after chief Norwegian peace broker Erik Solheim said the two warring sides had failed to agree on a date for the process to resume.Solheim, Norway’s international development minister, told reporters after two-days of talks between representatives of the government and the Liberation […]

GENEVA, Oct 28, 2006 (AFP) – Sri Lanka’s warring parties shook hands as they resumed face-to-face negotiations in Geneva on Saturday, after an eight month break and 3,000 deaths in fighting on the Indian Ocean island.Diplomats expect the meeting will simply buy time for more talks in December. Journalists witnessed representatives of the Sri Lankan […]

GENEVA, Oct 28, 2006 (AFP) – Sri Lanka’s Tiger rebels, who are in Geneva for peace talks Saturday, have been outlawed by the European Union, the United States and several other countries, but the international community still wants them at the negotiating table.The United States describes Sri Lanka’s Tamil Tigers as “reprehensible terrorists,” and the […]

COLOMBO, Oct 27, 2006 (AFP) – Sri Lanka’s navy fought a five-hour battle with Tamil Tiger gunboats amid fears the rebels were launching a major attack against the northern Jaffna peninsula, a pro-Tiger website reported Friday. Navy patrols attacked rebel craft early Thursday morning, the Tamilnet.com website said, adding that heavy artillery and mortar fire […]

GENEVA, Oct 26, 2006 (AFP) – The advocacy group Human Rights Watch on Thursday urged the Sri Lankan government and Tamil Tiger rebels to use their talks in Geneva to end “escalating” and “rampant” abuse of civilians.Nearly 3,000 people have been killed and some 217,000 have fled their homes since bitter fighting escalated earlier this […]

Oct 26, 2006 (AFP) – At least 30 people were killed or disappeared last week in the embattled Sri Lankan flashpoint town of Jaffna, Tamil rebels said Thursday, despite pledges to hold peace talks to end a bitter ethnic conflict.“The rate of killing and disappearance in Jaffna showed no sign of letting up,” the Tamil […]

VAVUNIYA, Sri Lanka, Oct 26, 2006 (AFP) – Vaithilingam Mahenthiran and two of his friends were gunned down on a Saturday afternoon earlier this month.The day before, two other young men were shot to death and dumped in a ditch on the roadside, their hands bound and heads hooded. Before the weekend was over, three […]

GENEVA, Oct 26, 2006 (AFP) – Sri Lanka’s warring parties arrived in Geneva Thursday for their first face-to-face meeting in eight months amid international pressure to halt ethnic bloodshed and save a crumbling ceasefire.The rebel Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) returned to the Swiss city after suicide bombings, conventional war and tit-for-tat killings that […]

TANDIKULAM CHECKPOINT, Sri Lanka, Oct 25, 2006 (AFP) – A long wooden pole laid across the road up ahead marks the start of Sri Lanka’s “Tigerland”.A colleague of his motioned to the field of vehicles and added: “After the peace talks, hopefully we won’t have to do this.” On this side of the pole lies […]