Tag: lbo

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 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 […]

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 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 […]

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 […]

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 […]