Sri Lanka

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  • Tamil refugees going home to an open prison

    Sep 29
    In villages in Mannar district, the government’s ‘Northern Reawakening’ programme has not brought promised changes. Homes are still broken; services are non-existent, and freedom of movement still limited by heavy military presence.
  • Army to play key role in Sri Lanka’s development
    After successfully defeating the LTTE, the Sri Lankan army is ready to play a significant role in the development of the country, Sri Lankan Army Chief of Staff Major General Mendaka Samarasinghe has said.
  • Sri Lanka asks UN not to interfere
    Sri Lanka has made it clear that it would not allow the United Nations to meddle in its post-conflict affairs.
  • Alston refutes ‘impartial’ investigation into footage
    Sri Lanka’s purported investigation into the footage of soldiers shooting unarmed, naked men is neither impartial nor reliable, a UN representative has said.
  • IMF issues warning to Sri Lanka
    The International Monetary Fund has issued a statement warning Sri Lanka from building up its foreign currency reserves by borrowing from overseas investors.
  • Army shoots civilians in internment camp
    Six civilians, including 2 women and 3 children, were wounded as the Sri Lankan Army opened fire on them at the Cheddikulam internment camp.
  • ‘Paranoid Colombo machinates IDP human shield’

    A whole world is duped in what Colombo is machinating in the name of resettlement of IDPs, Tamil circles in Jaffna commented, citing Sri Lanka Navy’s new internment camps around its installations in the island sector of Jaffna.

  • Great Expectations - Still
    Tamil anger is held in check by international commitments.
  • UN envoys fail as Sri Lanka rejects war crimes probe and refuses to release Tamils
    Two top UN officials who visited Sri Lanka in the space of one week aiming to press for a probe into rights abuses during the final stages of the military's victory over Tamil Tigers and to urge the government to resettle 300, 000 Tamils forcibly held in concentration camps in the Northeast, returned without securing any commitment from the Sri Lankan government on either issue.
  • IMF optimistic, but investors cautious
    The International Monetary Fund said it raised Sri Lanka’s growth target and is “cautiously positive” on prospects as it reviews the island’s economy for the release of a second payment in its $2.6 billion aid package.
  • Sinhala development model, western money but no political solution
    Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapakse has dismissed western models for development that give precedence to industrial growth and outlined a strong agriculture based development model influenced by traditional Sinhala Buddhist doctrine.

    “We must have a Sri Lankan model,” he told Forbes magazine in an interview on Friday, August 28.

    “I prefer it to be agriculturally based. If you can be self-sufficient in food, then the industries will come,” Rajapakse said.
  • Sri Lanka hits out at reports of GSP+ withdrawal
    Sri Lankan officials have responded angrily to reports that the European Union may withdraw the GSP+ concessions that Sri Lanka is currently entitled to.

    “Western countries should remember that economic power has shifted from the west to the east,” said Palita Kohona, Sri Lanka’s new ambassador to the UN.

    “New markets open up in the east. Our friends China, India, Japan, Korea, Iran … a whole range of countries [can help]," he was quoted as saying.
  • India uses arrests and visa refusal to suppress support for Eelam

    Seventeen lawyers and approximately 50 students were arrested for protesting against Congress party’s support for the Sri Lankan state and its failure to protect Tamil civilians in the neighbouring island.

    The arrests came as All India Congress Committee (AICC) general secretary Rahul Gandhi, toured major cities in Tamil Nadu to rejuvenate the party at the grass-roots level in the state.

  • India to share nuclear technology with Sri Lanka - report
    India is willing to share its nuclear technology with Sri Lanka for power generation using Thorium as the main source of energy according to Sri Lanka’s Science and Technology Minister Tissa Vitharana.
    The news of India’s willingness to share nuclear technology comes as both countries are in the process of finalising a joint venture to build coal power plant at Sampur in Trincomalee.
  • UN officials expelled by Sri Lanka
    Chief of Communications for UNICEF in Sri Lanka, James Elder's visa to continue to remain in Sri Lanka was refused earlier this month by Sri Lanka's Department of Immigration without giving any reasons.

    News of Elder’s eviction was followed by news of another senior UN diplomat expelled from Sri Lanka in July for providing details to the international community of mass killings of civilians during the final battles against the Tamil Tigers, also emerged.
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