Tag: politics

April 29, 2010 (AFP) – The ancestral home of Sri Lanka’s slain Tamil Tiger rebel chief Velupillai Prabhakaran has been demolished as it was becoming a tourist attraction, a Tamil politician said Thursday. M. K. Sivajilingam, secretary of the Tamil National Liberation Alliance, accused security forces of destroying the house a year after Prabhakaran was […]

April 28, 2010 (AFP) – Sri Lanka’s ruling party will press ahead with constitutional reforms to allow President Mahinda Rajapakse to run for a third term in office, a press report said Wednesday. With the support of smaller parties and defectors, Rajapakse’s party could soon muster the six seats needed to have the two-thirds majority […]

GENEVA, April 27, 2010 (AFP) – More than 200,000 of some 280,000 mainly Tamil people displaced after the civil war in northern Sri Lanka have left their camps since last August, the UN refugee agency said Tuesday. A spokesman for the UN High Commissioner for Refugees said the government allowed returns to resume last week […]

KUALA LUMPUR, April 26, 2010 (AFP) – Malaysian police Monday said they have detained 75 Sri Lankan migrants who refused to get off a fishing trawler, after three days of talks to persuade them to leave the vessel broke down. The trawler was intercepted off northern Perak state on Friday but the group, including six […]

April 25, 2010 (AFP) – Sri Lanka may scrap the state of emergency laws that gave sweeping powers to police and troops during the island’s long ethnic conflict with Tamil rebels, a newly appointed minister said Sunday. Peiris, who was appointed on Friday after recent parliamentary elections, said he wanted to address concerns from the […]

Apr 23, 2010 (LBO) – Sri Lankan president Mahinda Rajapaksa retained the finance and defence portfolios in a new cabinet appointed after parliamentary polls and added the ministries of ports, aviation and highways seen as critical in a post-war revival. A government statement said the cabinet consists of 37 ministers and 39 deputies, much smaller […]

WASHINGTON, April 21, 2010 (AFP) – The United States called on Sri Lanka’s new government Wednesday to use its mandate to pursue a “healing process” as the island recovers from decades of war. Sri Lanka’s new parliament is set to convene Thursday after Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapakse’s allies won just short of a sweeping […]

April 22, 2010 (AFP) – Sri Lanka’s detained former army chief briefly emerged from custody Thursday to attend the opening of parliament and used the opportunity to launch an attack on President Mahinda Rajapakse. Sarath Fonseka last year led troops to victory over Tamil Tiger rebels after decades of ethnic conflict on the island, but […]

April 21, 2010 (AFP) – Sri Lanka’s ruling party on Wednesday named plantations minister D. M. Jayaratne, a close ally of President Mahinda Rajapakse, as prime minister of the new parliament. The job of prime minister is largely ceremonial in Sri Lanka but, in the event of the president’s death, the holder would be expected […]

Apr 21, 2010 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s ruling party named its most senior member Disanayaka Mudiyanselage Jayaratne as the prime minister amid speculation that a cabinet of ministers that is now taking shape will be re-shuffled by year-end. Rajapaksa has pledged to trim the cabinet to about 35 ministers after running his previous administration with […]

Apr 22, 2010 (LBO) – A senior lawyer, M A Sumanthiran, practising in Sri Lanka’s supreme court, court of appeal and commercial high court and district courts in a variety of civil litigation is entering parliament as an appointed legislator. Sumanthiran is coming as a ‘national list’ or as an appointed member representing the minority […]

April 20, 2010 (AFP) – Sri Lanka’s ruling party has won a near two-thirds majority in parliament at national polls, the elections commission said in final results announced Wednesday. The parliamentary election was held just two months after presidential polls in which more than 75 percent of the electorate cast their ballots. The two nationwide […]