Tag: politics

December 28, 2009 (AFP) – Sri Lanka’s president has given legal experts four more months to study a US State Department report cataloging alleged war crimes on the island, the presidency said in a statement Monday.President Mahinda Rajapakse extended the December 31 deadline of the panel he appointed in November to formulate a response to […]

JAKARTA, December 27, 2009 (AFP) – The body of an asylum seeker who died of a suspected stomach infection in Indonesia will be returned to Sri Lanka this week, a foreign ministry official said Sunday. The man, identified by Indonesian authorities as Jacob Samuel Christian, 29, died last Wednesday in hospital. His body will be […]

December 20, 2009 (AFP) – A presidential election in Sri Lanka next month will see two former allies from the country’s bitter civil war slugging it out, but their record on corruption, not the battlefield, might swing the final vote.President Mahinda Rajapakse and his former army chief Sarath Fonseka are set to face each other […]

JAKARTA, December 20, 2009 (AFP) – Fifteen of the Sri Lankan asylum seekers who spent weeks refusing to get off the boat that rescued them near Indonesia have left the country, a foreign ministry official said Sunday.“They left Indonesia yesterday. Two were flown to Australia and the other 13 were taken to an evacuation centre […]

December 17, 2009 (AFP) – Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapakse and his main rival in elections next month, former army general Sarath Fonseka, handed in their poll nomination papers on Thursday.Rajapakse and Fonseka, both dressed in white national dress, were among 22 candidates whose papers were accepted by the national Election Commission. Rajapakse has called […]

BRUSSELS, December 16, 2009 (AFP) – The European Commission on Wednesday granted more aid for tens of thousands of people who fled fighting between Sri Lankan forces and Tamil fighters, voicing concern for their lack of protection.The commission is “concerned by the lack of protection for the internally displaced, especially for female-headed households and single […]

Dec 15, 2009 (LBO) – Famous, if fictional detective John Rebus, finely illustrated graphic novels and sensational pulp fiction are billed to make Sri Lanka’s next literary festival a tourist draw card. South Asian writers including Mohamed Hanif, (A Case of Exploding Mangoes), Rana Dasgupta (Tokyo Cancelled), Amit Varma (My Friend Sancho) will attend the […]

December 15, 2009 (AFP) – Sri Lanka’s recovery from its decades-long civil war has been marred by graft, violence and a culture of lawlessness, a global watchdog said Tuesday.Transparency International rapped the government — which crushed the Tamil Tiger separatist rebels in May — for a lack of democracy, accountability and transparency. “The latter half […]

December 8, 2009 (AFP) – Sri Lanka’s former military chief who led troops to victory over Tamil separatists in May said he fears fugitive rebels will try to assassinate him during his presidential election campaign.Sarath Fonseka, who is trying to unseat President Mahinda Rajapakse in the January 26 elections, told AFP that about 1,000 Tamil […]

WASHINGTON, December 7, 2009 (AFP) – A US Senate report warned Monday that Washington risked “losing” Sri Lanka as it recovers from war and called for more active engagement to stop the island drifting from the West.The Senate Foreign Relations Committee, in a bipartisan study, said the United States should be firm on human rights […]

December 4, 2009 (AFP) – Sri Lanka has maintained its ban on journalists reporting the plight of war-displaced civilians who have been allowed out of their internment camps, officials said Friday.Foreign minister Rohitha Bogollagama declared in a BBC interview Tuesday that the media now had full access, prompting a flood of requests from reporters to […]

WASHINGTON, December 4, 2009 (AFP) – A senior US envoy will head to Sri Lanka next week to encourage post-war reconciliation, days after the island nation allowed Tamil civilians to leave detention camps, officials said Friday.Robert Blake, the assistant secretary of state for South Asia, will visit Sri Lanka on Monday and Tuesday in the […]