Category: Politics

March 9, 2008 (AFP) – At least 56 Tamil Tiger rebels and four government troops have been killed in heavy fighting across Sri Lanka’s embattled north over the weekend, the defence ministry said Sunday. Helicopter gunships were deployed against suspected Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) strongholds in the coastal district of Mannar on Saturday, […]

March 7, 2008 (AFP) – A Sri Lankan Tamil columnist was detained by police Friday while the authorities were also trying to arrest another media activist, a rights group said.J. S. Tissanayagam, columnist of the Sunday Times newspaper here, was taken in for questioning by police Friday after the arrest of two more journalists on […]

March 8, 2008 (AFP) – At least one soldier was killed and two others critically wounded in southern Sri Lanka Saturday when their vehicle was hit by a roadside blast, police said.The victims were being transported to hospital in the Moneragala district where several similar attacks have been reported in recent weeks, police said. There […]

COLOMBO, March 7, 2008 (AFP) – At least 42 Tiger rebels and five government troops were killed in fresh fighting across Sri Lanka’s embattled north, where a lawmaker was also killed in a blast, the defence ministry said on Friday.Sri Lanka has in the past accused international diplomats raising rights concerns as “terrorists” and supporters […]

March 5, 2008 (AFP) – Sri Lanka said Wednesday that 100 of its soldiers were killed and a further 800 wounded fighting the Tamil Tigers last month, showing the escalating conflict is bloodier than previously announced.The casualty figures were given in a statement to the national parliament by Health Minister Nimal Siripala de Silva, and […]

COLOMBO, March 6, 2008 (AFP) – Sri Lanka is one of the world’s worst perpetrators of “disappearances” and abductions, Human Rights Watch said Thursday, calling for a UN mission to monitor rights abuses on the island. At least 1,500 people “disappeared” in 2006 and 2007, mostly in the island’s restive north and east, with the […]

COLOMBO, March 6, 2008 (AFP) – A top foreign panel invited by Sri Lanka to observe investigations into human rights abuses announced Thursday it was quitting the island and accused Colombo of failing to tackle the issue. The International Independent Group of Eminent Persons (IIGEP), headed by India’s former chief justice P. N. Bhagwati, said […]

Mar 06, 2008 (LBO) – Sri Lankan troops have captured a Tamil Tiger held town in the northwestern Mannar area of the island as part of a bid to cut off a supply route to the guerilla stronghold from the coast, the military said. Parappakandal, around 20 kilometres to the east of Mannar town, is […]

March 6, 2008 (AFP) – A Sri Lankan Tamil lawmaker and his driver were killed Thursday in a roadside bomb attack that his party and Tamil Tiger rebels said was carried out by government forces. The vehicle of K. Sivanesan, a member of parliament for the pro-rebel Tamil National Alliance (TNA), was hit by a […]

Mar 05, 2008 (LBO) – A librarian working for a Sri Lanka state television station where a junior minister was held hostage after he stormed its newsroom had been knifed while travelling on a bus, an official said. .Updated Convenor of the Sri Lanka’s Free Media Movement (FMM) Sunanda Deshapriya said Ranjini Aluthge is being […]

March 05, 2008 (LBO) – Media rights group Reporters Without Borders has condemned attacks against Sri Lankan journalists who exposed by live broadcast an assault by a junior cabinet minister on a state TV station news director. It said in a statement that the authorities appeared more concerned with probing journalists who resisted the assault […]

Mar 05, 2008 (LBO) – Sri Lankan civil society groups Wednesday warned that the government’s contempt for the rule of law and the constitution was bringing the country into disrepute and could cause economic harm. The Organisation of Professional Associations said way President Mahinda Rajapakse and the government was ignoring established norms of good governance […]