Tag: politics

VANCOUVER, August 17, 2010 (AFP) – A Canadian tribunal on Tuesday ordered continued detention for the first person interviewed in a group of 492 Tamil asylum seekers that reached Vancouver last week aboard a battered cargo ship. Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper, citing sovereignty, “significant security concerns” and “increasing” human smuggling for financial gain, said […]

VANCOUVER, August 17, 2010 (AFP) – Canadian authorities are investigating whether Sri Lankan rebels financed the passage of nearly 500 Tamil refugees to Canada last week, officials said Monday before the start of detention hearings. Public Safety Minister Vic Toews, speaking to The Globe and Mail daily in an article Monday, said passengers were charged […]

August 15, 2010 (AFP) – Sri Lanka’s former army chief Sarath Fonseka will appeal against a court martial conviction that stripped him of his rank, pension and prestige, his political party announced Sunday. President Mahinda Rajapakse formally removed Fonseka’s rank and medals and stopped his pension on Saturday, a day after a court martial found […]

MONTREAL, August 15, 2010 (AFP) – A Tamil man who travelled with hundreds of other Sri Lankan migrants aboard a cargo ship bound for Canada died during the trip and was buried at sea, the Canadian Tamil Congress said Sunday. “A man indeed died. We don’t know what kind of sickness he died from, but […]

ESQUIMALT, August 14, 2010 (AFP) – Hundreds of Sri Lankan Tamil migrants who arrived aboard a rusty cargo ship were in good condition after their three-month voyage, Canadian officials said Saturday. The MV Sun Sea, a 59-metre Thai-registered ship reportedly carrying as many as 490 migrants, landed in Esquimalt, British Columbia on Friday, escorted by […]

VICTORIA, August 14, 2010 (AFP) – Hundreds of Tamils seeking asylum from Sri Lanka sailed into Canada on Friday under the scrutiny of authorities, who vowed to screen out Tiger rebels after charges that the country is too welcoming. After three months on the Pacific, a navy frigate escorted the shabby, Thai-flagged MV Sun Sea […]

August 14, 2010 (AFP) – Sri Lanka’s president has formally stripped former army chief Sarath Fonseka of his rank, medals and pension after his conviction by a court martial, officials said Saturday. President Mahinda Rajapakse ratified Friday’s verdict of the controversial tribunal, which found Fonseka guilty of dabbling in politics while heading the military last […]

VANCOUVER, August 12, 2010 (AFP) – The Canadian navy on Thursday intercepted a cargo ship carrying up to 500 Sri Lankan asylum seekers and prepared to screen them, fearing some belonged to the defeated and banned Tamil Tiger rebels. After days of tracking by Canadian and US authorities, the navy boarded the MV Sun Sea […]

August 13, 2010 (AFP) – A court martial convicted Sri Lanka’s former army chief Sarath Fonseka Friday of dabbling in politics and stripped him of his rank and medals, a senior military source said. “The guilty verdict was read out to General Fonseka at the court martial a short while ago,” the military source told […]

MONTREAL, August 11, 2010 (AFP) – A ship full of Sri Lankan refugees was less than 320 kilometers (200 miles) from Canada’s western shores and could be arriving late Thursday or Friday, local media said Wednesday. In May last year, capping a four-decade civil war, Sri Lankan government troops finally defeated the separatist Liberation Tigers […]

WASHINGTON, August 10, 2010 (AFP) – A group of US lawmakers is urging the Obama administration to push for an independent international investigation into alleged war crimes that occurred during Sri Lanka’s civil war. In a letter to US Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, the members of Congress called for such a probe saying […]

August 10, 2010 (AFP) – Sri Lanka’s president Tuesday sacked a maverick minister who had tied a state official to a tree as punishment for failing to control the spread of dengue fever in the country, an official said. Highways minister Mervyn Silva was dismissed and his ruling party membership suspended pending a disciplinary inquiry, […]