Sri Lanka’s government signed a deal on Friday to share international tsunami aid with the Tamil Tiger rebels, officials said, despite bitter protests by critics who say it threatens the country’s sovereignty. The plan was promoted as an opportunity for the government to forge peace with the guerrillas as the country recovers from the December 26 tsunami.
International lenders have downgraded Sri Lanka’s economic growth forecasts for this year after tsunamis devastated its coastline, but the island is banking on a flood of foreign aid to keep its head above the water. ”The tsunami has certainly given the country a new lease of life,” said Alastair Corera, country head of Fitch Ratings.
The crisis engulfing Sri Lankan cricket deepened on Tuesday as police raided the offices of the suspended governing body and its chief handed in his resignation. Witnesses said armed police forced their way into the offices of Sri Lanka Cricket, whose official recognition is on hold amid allegations of financial irregularities.
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/ 19 January 2005
Last month’s tsunami inundated Sri Lanka’s water supplies and agricultural land with salt water. Despite concerns raised by United Nations officials, Sri Lankan authorities claim the island’s food security is not threatened. The tsunami waves contaminated water and damaged crops most heavily on Sri Lanka’s east coast, whose rice fields produce more than one-third of the country’s total harvest.
Sex between men is a criminal offence in Sri Lanka and lesbianism has been officially labelled ”sadism”, but the island’s gays believe their long fight for equality is picking up pace amid regional moves to legalise homosexuality. Sri Lanka’s penal code is a legacy from British colonial rulers.
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/ 16 December 2003
Sri Lanka’s tea, famed as among the world’s best for more than a century and still the country’s top export earner, now has keen competition from frothy cappuccinos, milky lattes and dark espressos.
There are some good deeds in this bad old world. There are some bitter enmities and bloody wars that can end in peace. There is always hope, practical hope — if only you want it enough. Which is where Sri Lanka and Northern Ireland come in.
The UN agency for children on Tuesday opened fresh talks with Tamil Tiger rebels on children affected by Sri Lanka’s drawn out ethnic conflict and efforts to demobilise child soldiers, officials said.
Most passengers on board an Air Seychelles flight from India’s commercial capital Bombay to the Maldives only realised they had escaped a mid-air drama when the plane landed safely.