Category: Politics

April 3, 2010 (AFP) – A Sri Lankan woman taken into custody last month for writing books about her conversion to Islam for Buddhism is being investigated for possible links to Islamic extremists, police said Saturday. Last weekend, police said the woman, identified as Malini Perera, was taken into custody under tough emergency laws over […]

JAFFNA, April 1, 2010 (AFP) – Sri Lanka’s President Mahinda Rajapakse reached out on Thursday to the country’s ethnic minority Tamils as he made his first visit to their cultural heartland since his re-election. Rajapakse, on a trip to battle-scarred Jaffna, the former stronghold of separatist Tamil rebels in the island’s north, promised to work […]

March 29, 2010 (AFP) – The wife of Sri Lanka’s detained ex-army chief Monday accused authorities of preventing her husband from receiving vital medical treatment and said he could die in custody. Sarath Fonseka’s health had deteriorated since he was held at the naval headquarters in Colombo after his arrest on February 8 and was […]

SYDNEY, March 28, 2010 (AFP) – Australia said Sunday it had transferred 89 asylum seekers from a remote processing island to the mainland for security reasons after they failed to secure refugee status. The men from Sri Lanka, Afghanistan, Iraq and Iran had been held on the Indian Ocean outpost of Christmas Island but were […]

March 23, 2010 (AFP) – Sri Lanka Tuesday said it had refused US rap star Akon entry to the island following protests that a music video he produced was offensive to Buddhists. He said Colombo decided to stop the Grammy Award-nominated star’s concert planned for April 24 despite hopes from the official Tourism Promotion Bureau […]

March 22, 2010 (AFP) – Dozens of unidentified men pelted stones at the headquarters of a private television station in Sri Lanka’s capital Monday, causing damage to the building, police said. The latest attack came as Sri Lankan and foreign media rights groups accused the government of President Mahinda Rajapakse of cracking down on dissent, […]

March 18, 2010 (AFP) – Sri Lankan media groups Thursday protested against the arrest of a reporter close to Sarath Fonseka, the detained ex-army chief who tried to unseat the president in recent elections. The groups issued a joint statement demanding the release of Ruwan Weerakoon, a reporter with the Nation newspaper, who was arrested […]

SINGAPORE, March 18, 2010 (AFP) – Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapakse has ruled out an early pardon for his election rival Sarath Fonseka and dismissed the former army chief as a “fool” who was unprepared for politics. In an interview with Singapore’s Straits Times published Thursday, Rajapakse also spelled out his economic ambitions for post-war […]

March 17, 2010 (AFP) – The court martial of Sri Lanka’s former army chief was adjourned on Wednesday after judges said they could not hear both of the separate sets of charges against him, officials said. Sarath Fonseka, who led the military to victory over the Tamil Tiger rebels last year, fell out with President […]

March 16, 2010 (AFP) – Sri Lanka’s former army chief, now a sworn political enemy of President Mahinda Rajapakse, faced a military court Tuesday on controversial charges that could see him jailed for up to five years. Fonseka, a war hero last year after helping end the Indian Ocean nation’s 37-year civil war, stepped down […]

NEW DELHI, March 15, 2010 (AFP) – Sri Lanka’s former chief justice slammed the arrest of ex-army chief and opposition leader Sarath Fonseka on Monday on the eve of his court martial, saying there was “no democracy” in the country. Retired chief justice Sarath Silva criticised the treatment of Fonseka, who challenged President Mahinda Rajapakse […]

WASHINGTON, March 11, 2010 (AFP) – Sri Lanka violated human rights last year as it dealt a final blow to Tamil Tiger insurgents and clamped down on media freedom, the US State Department said Thursday. But the State Department also reported some improvements. It said that the number of disappearances went down with the end […]