Category: Politics

Aug 27, 2006 (AFP) – The new head of Sri Lanka’s truce monitors takes over a team cut by nearly half this week amid warnings by his predecessor of “mission impossible” to satisfy both sides in the vicious separatist conflict. Former Norwegian army chief Lars Solvberg will run a 30-strong group after members from the […]

Aug 26, 2006 (AFP) – A bomb killed six Sri Lankan soldiers and wounded 11 Saturday as they cleared up after fierce fighting with Tamil Tiger rebels in the besieged northern Jaffna peninsula, a military source said. In some areas fuel was being sold at four times the normal price and piped water was available […]

26, 2006 (AFP) – A Sri Lankan policeman was released Saturday after being held for nearly a year by Tamil Tigers when he pursued a suspected British paedophile into rebel-held territory, ceasefire monitors said. The officer and two others were seized in September last year after they went into the jungle and crossed into the […]

Aug 25, 2006 (AFP) – The United Nations said Friday food was running out in strife-torn parts of Sri Lanka with the government stalling the entry of the organisation’s aid convoys into rebel-held areas.The UN World Food Programme (WFP) said it was unable to get to northern parts of the country held by the Liberation […]

Aug 25, 2006 (AFP) – A food relief ship began unloading in northern Sri Lanka Friday to lift a two-week siege of the Jaffna peninsula as fresh clashes left five rebels dead, the defence ministry said.Workers began the slow task of unloading 1,500 tonnes of food for the 350,000 civilians trapped by fierce fighting between […]

Aug 24, 2006 (AFP) – Sri Lankan warplanes bombed a suspected base used by seaborne Tamil Tigers on Thursday as aid groups were hit in continuing violence that left at least three dead, the military and charities said.A 29-year-old Sri Lankan working for a New Zealand agency involved in tsunami relief was abducted and shot […]

COLOMBO, Aug 24, 2006 (AFP) – The outgoing chief monitor of Sri Lanka’s crumbling ceasefire Thursday criticised the EU for banning the Tamil Tiger rebels and said his warnings of a violent “worst case scenario” had come true. Brigadier General Ulf Henricsson wrote a memo to the European Union more than a month before May’s […]

OTTAWA, Aug 24, 2006 (AFP) – Three Canadian residents accused of supporting Sri Lanka’s separatist Tamil Tiger rebels were arrested this week at the cusp of a joint Canada-US anti-terror sweep and face extradition to the United States, police said Thursday.Ottawa and Washington brand the movement a foreign terrorist organization. A total 11 suspects, including […]

Aug 23, 2006 (AFP) – Sri Lanka’s latest fighting could drag on despite international pressure as the government and Tiger rebels seek the military upper hand before entering peace talks, officials and analysts say.The bloodiest battles in four and a half years since a truce came into effect has claimed heavy losses on both sides, […]

Aug 23, 2006 (AFP) – A Sri Lankan cargo ship has finally started a delayed two-day voyage with food aid for thousands stranded by fighting in the embattled Jaffna peninsula, aid agencies said Wednesday.The ship left the port of Colombo late Tuesday under the Red Cross flag with aid for some 350,000 people cut off […]

Aug 23, 2006 (AFP) – Sri Lankan troops fired rockets and artillery at suspected Tamil Tiger positions in the island’s northeast Wednesday amid a lull in fighting in the northern peninsula of Jaffna, the military said.More than 60,000 people have been killed in the Tamil separatist conflict in the past three decades. Troops in the […]

Aug 23, 2006 (AFP) – A Catholic priest has gone missing after witnessing the deaths of 15 people sheltering in a church hit by shelling during fighting in northern Sri Lanka, a Tamil rights group said Wednesday.Parish priest Thiruchelvam Nihal Jim Brown, 34, helped the injured after the church was hit 10 days ago on […]