Category: Politics

November 13, 2009 (AFP) – Sri Lanka’s president has asked his military chief to step down immediately, rejecting his request to serve for another two weeks, an official said Friday.President Mahinda Rajapakse accepted General Sarath Fonseka’s resignation, tendered on Thursday, and wanted him to leave immediately, a government official said. “The president asked him to […]

November 12, 2009 (AFP) – Sri Lanka’s top general Sarath Fonseka, a war hero at home credited with crushing Tamil rebels, quit Thursday, heightening speculation he will enter politics to challenge President Mahinda Rajapakse.“I gave my resignation. I have submitted my retirement papers,” Fonseka told reporters at a Buddhist temple he visited after sending his […]

November 13, 2009 (AFP) – Sri Lanka’s government sidelined top general Sarath Fonseka because of fears he would launch a coup, he wrote in a bitter resignation letter ahead of an expected election battle with the president. The United Nations reported that more than 7,000 civilians may have perished in fighting this year, though this […]

KANDY, November 13, 2009 (AFP) – Myanmar junta leader General Than Shwe was treated for a mild stomach bug hours after his arrival in Sri Lanka, a doctor from the hospital that treated him said Friday.The reclusive junta leader complained of discomfort after his entourage had checked into a deluxe hotel in the central Buddhist […]

TANJUNG PINANG, November 13, 2009 (AFP) – A group of 22 Sri Lankan asylum seekers left an Australian customs ship to come ashore in Indonesia Friday, police said, partially easing a standoff which began last month.The group, who were among a total of 78 ethnic Tamils on the Oceanic Viking anchored off Bintan island near […]

November 11, 2009 (AFP) – Dissident Myanmar monks living in Colombo on Wednesday criticised the Sri Lankan government for inviting junta leader General Than Shwe for a state visit. The monks said Sri Lanka’s increasingly close relations with Myanmar’s military regime would further raise international concern over the island’s human rights record. They said President […]

JAKARTA, November 11, 2009 (AFP) – Indonesia has “no problems” with extending permission for an Australian customs ship loaded with 78 Sri Lankan asylum seekers to stay in the country, the foreign ministry said Wednesday.Indonesia will look at any request by Australia to extend the stay of the Oceanic Viking, which is anchored off Bintan […]

November 9, 2009 (AFP) – Sri Lanka pledged in talks with Australia Monday to step up intelligence sharing and arrest people traffickers, President Mahinda Rajapakse’s office said.Seventy-eight Sri Lankans were rescued from a sinking boat in Indonesian waters last month.They have insisted on remaining on the Australian customs ship that picked them up, refusing to […]

JAKARTA, November 6, 2009 (AFP) – Indonesia extended by a week on Friday a deadline for an Australian customs ship loaded with 78 protesting Sri Lankan asylum seekers to leave its territory.The extension would allow the Oceanic Viking, which has been moored on Bintan island since last month, to stay while a solution is found […]

GENEVA, November 6, 2009 (AFP) – About a third of those displaced during the conflict between Sri Lanka government and the Tamil Tigers have returned home over the past three months, the UN refugee agency said Friday.“Some 90,000 internally displaced people have returned to their villages in Sri Lanka’s north and east over the past […]

November 6, 2009 (AFP) – The leader of a boat of Sri Lankan asylum seekers held in Indonesia is a known people smuggler previously deported from Canada, the government said Friday, a charge he has strongly denied.Alex, who emerged as the spokesman for the 255 Sri Lankans whose boat was detained last month en route […]