Colombo, Apr. 27 : Sri Lankan armed forces have launched a new assault in the northern war zone despite the Tamil Tigers'' call for a cease-fire.
The rebel TamilNet web site said the military attacked an area in the northeast with heavy gunfire early on Monday even as international protests against the offensive mount, notably in in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu, where the chief minister has gone on an indefinite fast to save what he calls the lives of innocent Lankan Tamil civilians.
Colombo - Government forces have stepped up operations to capture the last rebel-held area in northern Sri Lanka after rejecting an unilateral ceasefire offered by the Tamil insurgents, a pro-rebel website said Monday.
Troops have launched operations from the north, west and south on Mullivaikkal area, a narrow strip on the coast area of the Mullativu district, 395 kilometres north-east of the capital Colombo, the Tamilnet website said.
Colombo - UN humanitarian chief John Holmes was scheduled to arrive in Sri Lanka Saturday as civilians remained the last rebel-held areas in the north-east, while thousands of others have fled to government-controlled areas, officials said. Holmes will meet with government and UN officials in Colombo where he is expected to discuss providing assistance to refugees, but has not sought permission to visit the conflict zone where fighting is in progress, UN spokesman in Colombo Gordon Wise said.
Colombo, Apr. 25 : The ethnic crisis in Sri Lanka requires a political not a military solution, says many observers.
"There has to be a political settlement, otherwise, there is always the danger that, having won some sort of respite from the rebels, there will be new support for them," the Christian Science Monitor quoted Paikiasothy Saravanamuttu, executive director of Colombo''s Center for Policy Alternatives and a leading Tamil intellectual, as saying.
Colombo - A provincial poll in Sri Lanka's Western Province which consists of the capital Colombo and two adjoining districts opened Saturday, election officials said, despite a deteriorating humanitarian situation in the north of the country as government forces keep up their campaign to crush Tamil rebels. Some 3.8 million voters in the Colombo, Kalutara and Gampaha districts started are registered to vote in the elections which commenced at 7 am (0130 GMT) and is scheduled to end at 4 pm.
Colombo - A journalist arrested on suspicion of helping Tamil rebels to carry out an air raid in Sri Lanka's capital Colombo was released by a court on Friday after the investigators failed to prove the allegations against him.
The editor of the Tamil daily Sudar Oli, N. Vithyatharan, who had been held by police since February 26, was accused of maintaining telephone links with the rebels who carried out a suicide attack by air in the capital on January 24.
Colombo, Apr. 27 : Sri Lankan armed forces have launched a new assault in the northern war zone despite the Tamil Tigers'' call for a cease-fire.
Colombo - Government forces have stepped up operations to capture the last rebel-held area in northern Sri Lanka after rejecting an unilateral ceasefire offered by the Tamil insurgents, a pro-rebel website said Monday.
Colombo - UN humanitarian chief John Holmes was scheduled to arrive in Sri Lanka Saturday as civilians remained the last rebel-held areas in the north-east, while thousands of others have fled to government-controlled areas, officials said. Holmes will meet with government and UN officials in Colombo where he is expected to discuss providing assistance to refugees, but has not sought permission to visit the conflict zone where fighting is in progress, UN spokesman in Colombo Gordon Wise said.
Colombo - A journalist arrested on suspicion of helping Tamil rebels to carry out an air raid in Sri Lanka's capital Colombo was released by a court on Friday after the investigators failed to prove the allegations against him.
