Tag: politics

August 9, 2009 (AFP) – A party that backs the defeated Tamil Tiger rebels won a council in elections near Sri Lanka’s former war zone, results showed Sunday, in a sign that separatists still attract popular support.Widespread international concern was voiced over the number of civilians killed during the fighting, while aid groups now fear […]

August 8, 2009 (AFP) – Voting for two local councils began Saturday near Sri Lanka’s former war zone, officials said, as independent media was denied access to the area. The voting is seen as a test of popularity of President Mahinda Rajapakse after his crushing victory over the separatist Tamil Tiger rebels. Election officials said […]

August 6, 2009 (AFP) – Global press freedom group Reporters Without Borders voiced outrage Thursday over Sri Lanka’s ban on independent media covering local polls just outside the island’s former war zone.The government claimed victory over the Tamil Tiger rebels in May after killing the top leadership of the separatist movement which had been fighting […]

August 6, 2009 (AFP) – Sri Lankan police arrested 32 men who were illegally trying to leave for New Zealand by boat, an official said Thursday.The men were taken into custody late Wednesday on the island’s western coast of Seeduwa from where they planned to set off for New Zealand in a fishing trawler, senior […]

August 4, 2009 (AFP) – The New York-based group Human Rights Watch on Tuesday pressed for an international probe into the killings in Sri Lanka of 17 local employees of a French charity three years ago.HRW marked the anniversary of the execution-style murders of the Action Against Hunger (ACF) workers in Sri Lanka’s northeastern town […]

July 30, 2009 (LBO) – “Ahasin Wetei” (Between two worlds), a film by Sri Lankan film maker Vimukthi Jayasundara will be among those competing for the Golden Lion award at this year’s Venice film festival, AFP quoted organisers as saying Thursday.Among the competitors is Michael Moore’s film on the financial crisis and the directorial debut […]

July 27, 2009 (AFP) – The United States was “deeply concerned” that tens of thousands of displaced people were still locked inside camps two months after Sri Lanka’s decades-long ethnic war had ended, a US envoy said Monday.Around 300,000 people displaced during the final stages of the war continue to live in temporary shelters run […]

GENEVA, July 23, 2009 (AFP) – Fifty-nine journalists have been killed around the world so far this year, in an alarming rise from 2008 that has become a “bloodbath” of the media, a watchdog said Thursday. Abdel Nabi said the UN Human Rights Council was “impotent” in protecting journalists. The PEC expressed concern about election […]

July 23, 2009 (AFP) – Human rights campaigners on Thursday described a 2.5 billion dollar loan to Sri Lanka by the International Monetary Fund as “a reward for bad behavior”.Human Rights Watch said the IMF should have set conditions on the loan, including demands that the Sri Lankan government help re-settle nearly 300,000 Tamil civilians […]

July 20, 2009 (AFP) – The Red Cross on Monday announced the closure of four offices in Sri Lanka following a government order to foreign aid agencies to scale down operations.The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said its four offices in the embattled eastern province were closed at the weekend. “The ICRC reaffirms […]

July 15, 2009 (LBO) – An Indian political activist has urged Sri Lankans to be more demanding of their right to information, saying that was how the public in India won greater access to information and more government accountability. “The right to information campaign started with a peasant movement asking for the Panchayati (village assembly) […]

July 12, 2009 (AFP) – Sri Lanka’s main moderate Tamil political group Sunday accused the government of holding some 300,000 war-displaced civilians in “open prisons” and demanded their immediate release. The New York-based Human Rights Watch said the squalid camps, which are ringed with barbed wire, were a “national disgrace” and violated international law. The […]