Tag: politics

COLOMBO, June 29, 2007 (AFP) – The United States has voiced concern about the fate of 355 Sri Lankans who “disappeared” in recent months amid an escalation of the island’s ethnic conflict, the government here said Friday.US ambassador Robert Blake gave a list of 355 names of people whose whereabouts were unknown, the foreign ministry […]

June 28, 2007 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s Free Media Movement (FMM) has expressed shock at attempts to bring back a repealed law which it said was used in the past to silence critical reportage and to persecute editors and journalists. An international media rights mission that was in Sri Lanka this month called on the […]

June 28, 2007 (AFP) – Some 430 Sri Lankans were slain during a five-month period, most of them minority Tamils, a commission said on Thursday, amid growing controversy over rights abuses in the conflict-hit island. The Special Presidential Commission on Disappearances said the killings were reported between September 2006 and February 2007 as the country […]

TOKYO, June 28, 2007 (AFP) – Sri Lanka’s Foreign Minister Rohitha Bogollagama said Thursday he was optimistic that a meeting of top donors this week would help to revive the island nation’s moribund peace process.Peace broker Norway is holding the crucial meeting of Sri Lanka’s top aid donors in a bid to halt a new […]

WASHINGTON, June 26, 2007 (AFP) – Sri Lanka told Western donor nations Tuesday that it would be a “tragic error” to cut aid to the island nation due to alleged human rights abuses linked to a longstanding ethnic conflict.Britain, Germany and the Netherlands have already slashed various forms of aid to Colombo due to human […]

TOKYO, June 27, 2007 (AFP) – Japan, the single largest donor to Sri Lanka, on Wednesday expressed concern about the human rights situation in the island nation during a visit by Colombo’s foreign minister, the government said. Japanese Foreign Minister Taro Aso raised “the Japanese public’s heightening concerns over the human rights situation in Sri […]

GENEVA, June 25, 2007 (AFP) – A bullet being used in an investigation into the killings in Sri Lanka of 17 aid workers last August may have been removed from evidence, an international legal watchdog said on Monday. The International Commission of Jurists said its observer on the probe, senior British lawyer Michael Birnbaum, found […]

June 25, 2007 (LBO) – Sri Lanka ruling party two-man rebel faction led by sacked former foreign minister Mangala Samaraweera has invited the Marxist-nationalist Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) for talks. The duo has accused the government of corruption, nepotism and autocratic rule and claimed the ruling Sri Lanka Freedom Party has no internal democracy. In […]

June 24, 2007 (AFP) – Sri Lanka’s peace broker Norway said here Sunday it will hold a meeting of the island’s key financial backers this week in a bid to stop the latest wave of bloodshed.Andreas Michaelis will represent the European Union Presidency and James Moran will represent the European Commission. The formal meeting on […]

June 24, 2007 (AFP) – Peace broker Norway is holding a crucial meeting with Sri Lanka’s top aid donors this week in a bid to halt a new wave of bloodshed, but analysts Sunday said they see little prospect of a breakthrough.The military maintained it was unsafe for diplomats to travel to the de facto […]

June 23, 2007 (AFP) – International donors will meet in Oslo next week to review Sri Lanka’s worsening bloodshed and look for a way to revive a moribund peace process.But even without international help, Sri Lanka earns 2.5 billion dollars annually from nationals employed abroad, helping to sustain high defence spending in a country where […]

June 22, 2007 (AFP) – At least two Tamil Tiger rebels were killed when they detonated their explosives-laden boat off Sri Lanka’s northeastern coast Friday, naval sources said.More than 60,000 people are reported to have been killed in the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam’s separatist campaign since 1972. A navy patrol was about to detain […]