Tag: lbo

COLOMBO, Sept 25, 2006 (AFP) – Sri Lanka’s Tamil Tiger rebels Monday denied forcing minority Muslims to quit a coastal town where 17 aid workers of a French charity were massacred last month. The rebel Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) said they were not responsible for distributing leaflets among thousands of Muslims in the […]

NEW YORK, Sept 23, 2006 (AFP) – US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice urged her Sri Lankan counterpart here Saturday to make a concerted effort in planned peace talks with rebels from the country’s Tamil minority, a senior US official said.Meeting with Sri Lankan Foreign Minister Mangala Samaweera on the sidelines of the UN General […]

Sept 24 (AFP) – Tamil rebels and Sri Lankan troops waged artillery duels Sunday in the embattled east, the military said, in continued fighting despite a push by Norway to restore a ceasefire ahead of talks. The rebel Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) fired artillery and mortar bombs at the Kiran and Vavunathivu army […]

GENEVA, Sept 22 (AFP) – International and Sri Lankan human rights campaigners on Friday called for a United Nations inquiry into abuses against civilians by Tamil Tiger rebels and government forces on the strife-torn island.They urged the UN Human Rights Council, the world body’s top watchdog forum, to launch a probe as soon as possible […]

COLOMBO, Sept 22(AFP) – At least six civilians were killed in separate incidents across Sri lanka’s embattled northeast, the defence ministry here said Friday.Security forces found the bullet-riddled bodies of three men in the Jaffna peninsula where another man had been similarly shot dead by unidentified attackers on Thursday, the ministry said. It said a […]

LONDON, Sept 22, 2006 (AFP) – Britain’s foreign ministry tightened up its advice Friday to travellers in north and east Sri Lanka after at least six people were killed in the troubled area. In a review of its travel advice, the Foreign Office warned Britons not to travel to any part of the north or […]

COLOMBO, Sept 21, 2006 (AFP) – Sri Lankan troops were deployed at a Muslim town in the island’s east to quell rioting following the massacre of 10 residents, military officials said Thursday. Soldiers were deployed in the town of Pottuvil after residents clashed with local police, although an overnight curfew was eased early Thursday. “Soldiers […]

COLOMBO, Sept 20, 2006 (AFP) – The fear of bomb attacks in Sri Lanka following an upsurge in violence has spawned extra security checks, making daily life more difficult, but the hassle has also created unexpected marketing opportunities, according to advertising specialists. At road-blocks, for instance, prominent adverts for products such as the pain-killer “Panadol” […]

COLOMBO, Sept 20, 2006 (AFP) – Three people were shot dead by unidentified gunmen in northeast Sri Lanka, police said Wednesday, and a curfew was put in place in a nearby town following an earlier massacre of 10 Muslim men.Tamil rebels have waged a drawn-out insurgency for a separate ethnic homeland in Sri Lanka, a […]

POTTUVIL, Sept 18 (AFP) – The bodies of 10 Muslim men found hacked to death were buried in the farming village of Pottuvil on Monday as the Tamil Tiger rebels and Sri Lankan forces blamed each other for the massacre.The victims, mostly between 20 and 27 years old, were brought to the Jumma Mosque in […]