Sri Lanka rejected international calls to halt its final offensive against Tamil rebels on Thursday, hours after the UN Security Council called for civilian lives to be spared.
Human rights groups and foreign governments, including the US, have become increasingly vocal in their calls for a ceasefire to allow trapped noncombatants to escape, but Colombo remained unmoved.
“We are not going to succumb to international pressure to stop the offensive,” said Sri Lankan Media Minister Lakshman Yapa Abeywardena, who argued that Sri Lanka was being unfairly targeted.
“In Pakistan and Afghanistan there are similar conflicts but no one is asking them to have a peace agreement or a ceasefire,” Abeywardena told reporters.
“There is no international pressure there,” he added. “Why only target us?”
His comments followed a statement issued late on Wednesday by the UN Security Council urging both the government and the Tamil Tigers to “ensure the safety of civilians” and “respect their obligations under international humanitarian law.”
The Sri Lankan authorities estimate that up to 20,000 civilians are being held in the small northeastern pocket of coastal jungle where government troops have cornered the rump of the once-powerful Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE). The UN has said as many as 50,000 may be trapped — huddled under plastic sheeting, in shallow bunkers and with little food, water or medical facilities.
The statement agreed by the UN Security Council had been put forward by France, Britain and Austria, who had lobbied hard for the world body to address the “appalling” crisis in Sri Lanka.
The text is non-binding, but with China and Russia among others opposed to putting the Sri Lankan issue on the council agenda, diplomats said it was the best the European sponsors could hope for.
Former Nicaraguan president Violeta Chamorro, who brought peace to Nicaragua after years of war and was the first woman elected president in the Americas, died on Saturday at the age of 95, her family said. Chamorro, who ruled the poor Central American country from 1990 to 1997, “died in peace, surrounded by the affection and love of her children,” said a statement issued by her four children. As president, Chamorro ended a civil war that had raged for much of the 1980s as US-backed rebels known as the “Contras” fought the leftist Sandinista government. That conflict made Nicaragua one of
COMPETITION: The US and Russia make up about 90 percent of the world stockpile and are adding new versions, while China’s nuclear force is steadily rising, SIPRI said Most of the world’s nuclear-armed states continued to modernize their arsenals last year, setting the stage for a new nuclear arms race, the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) said yesterday. Nuclear powers including the US and Russia — which account for about 90 percent of the world’s stockpile — had spent time last year “upgrading existing weapons and adding newer versions,” researchers said. Since the end of the Cold War, old warheads have generally been dismantled quicker than new ones have been deployed, resulting in a decrease in the overall number of warheads. However, SIPRI said that the trend was likely
BOMBARDMENT: Moscow sent more than 440 drones and 32 missiles, Volodymyr Zelenskiy said, in ‘one of the most terrifying strikes’ on the capital in recent months A nighttime Russian missile and drone bombardment of Ukraine killed at least 15 people and injured 116 while they slept in their homes, local officials said yesterday, with the main barrage centering on the capital, Kyiv. Kyiv City Military Administration head Tymur Tkachenko said 14 people were killed and 99 were injured as explosions echoed across the city for hours during the night. The bombardment demolished a nine-story residential building, destroying dozens of apartments. Emergency workers were at the scene to rescue people from under the rubble. Russia flung more than 440 drones and 32 missiles at Ukraine, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy
Indonesia’s Mount Lewotobi Laki-Laki yesterday erupted again with giant ash and smoke plumes after forcing evacuations of villages and flight cancelations, including to and from the resort island of Bali. Several eruptions sent ash up to 5km into the sky on Tuesday evening to yesterday afternoon. An eruption on Tuesday afternoon sent thick, gray clouds 10km into the sky that expanded into a mushroom-shaped ash cloud visible as much as 150km kilometers away. The eruption alert was raised on Tuesday to the highest level and the danger zone where people are recommended to leave was expanded to 8km from the crater. Officers also
RSS