Tag: lbo

June 10, 2007 (AFP) – Sri Lanka’s prime minister on Sunday apologised to ethnic minority Tamils for evicting them from the capital, promising there would be no repeat of the controversial operation.“That is why I am expressing regret and apologising on behalf of the government.” “It was a big mistake,” Ratnasiri Wickremanayake told reporters here, […]

COLOMBO, June 8, 2007 (AFP) – Sri Lanka’s president Friday promised an investigation into police action that forced hundreds of ethnic Tamils from the capital at gunpoint in early morning raids condemned around the World. President Mahinda Rajapakse invited evicted people back to Colombo and ordered a disciplinary probe against the police chief responsible. Officers […]

June 9, 2007 (AFP) – Japan’s special envoy to Sri Lanka ended a four-day visit Saturday saying he was still hopeful that the island’s tattered peace process could be salvaged.The LTTE has been fighting for a separate homeland for minority Tamils in a 35-year old ethnic conflict that has claimed over 60,000 lives. Yasushi Akashi, […]

June 9, 2007 (AFP) – At least 30 Tamil Tiger rebels and one soldier were killed when Sri Lankan troops overran four guerrilla jungle bases, the defence ministry said Saturday.Soldiers captured the bases of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) during an offensive late Friday and early Saturday in the eastern Batticaloa district, the […]

GENEVA, June 7, 2007 (AFP) – The murder of two Red Cross workers in Sri Lanka appears to be part of a trend in which aid workers are deliberately targeted, two United Nations human rights experts said Thursday. Sri Lankan Red Cross workers Sinnarasa Shanmugalingam and Karthekesu Chandramohan were abducted in the capital Colombo last […]

June 8, 2007 (LBO) – The United States Friday condemned the eviction of ethnic Tamils without jobs from Colombo, and asked the government to reveal where they were taken. Sri Lanka’s police say the move was aimed at blocking Tamil Tiger guerillas from infiltrating the capital, setting off explosions and engaging in other subversive activities. […]

June 8, 2007 (AFP) – Sri Lanka’s president Friday criticised his police chief for evicting hundreds of minority Tamils from the capital and ordered them to be brought back immediately, an official said.Sri Lanka’s main opposition said the move was similar to what Hitler did to the Jews in the early days in Germany.President Mahinda […]

June 8, 2007 (AFP) – Human rights activists accused Sri Lanka’s government Friday of imposing a “collective punishment” on its minority Tamil community after forcing hundreds of them out of the capital. Activists and opposition politicians said the expulsions from Colombo, a measure the government said was to prevent Tiger terror attacks, had added to […]

June 6, 2007 (AFP) – Sri Lanka’s President Mahinda Rajapakse held talks in Colombo Wednesday with a top Japanese envoy on the future of the island’s peace process following bloody recent clashes, officials said.Rajapakse held closed-door talks with Japan’s Yasushi Akashi at the president’s tightly-guarded Temple Trees residence and the peace envoy later had discussions […]

June 7, 2007 (AFP) – A top Japanese envoy to Sri Lanka met with officials and aid workers in the island’s embattled eastern region Thursday following talks with President Mahinda Rajapakse on the tattered peace process.Yasushi Akashi’s visit to the lagoon district of Batticaloa came on the same day that two murdered Red Cross workers […]

June 6, 2007 (AFP) – A bomb exploded under a passenger train in Sri Lanka’s embattled east on Wednesday, wounding at least four people, military officials said.A mine buried along the track went off as the train was at Navaladi in the the coastal district of Batticaloa, a military official in the area said by […]