International   

Arms still being seized, says Colombo

COLOMBO: The military on Sunday said troops engaged in search and combing operations in the north continue to recover large quantities of arms and ammunition left behind by the Tiger cadres.

The Defence Ministry said among the items recovered in the last 24 hours were 22 T-56 weapons, 11,013 rounds of T-56 ammunition, 35 T-56 magazines, 21 anti-personnel mines, 11,500 detonators, 1,270 rounds of 12.7 mm ammunition and 834 rounds of Multi Purpose Machine Gun (MPMG) ammunition.

Meanwhile, Sweden has decided to close its embassy here by March 2010 along with the consulates in Kaliningrad, Canton, Los Angeles and New York due to “budgetary constraints”.

Minister for Foreign Affairs Carl Bildt in a statement said in connection with the government’s review of development cooperation in 2007, a decision was made to end Sweden’s bilateral development assistance to Sri Lanka.

“Existing development cooperation agreements will be seen through to their conclusion. The aim is to be able to open an honorary consulate that, in cooperation with the embassy in New Delhi, can provide service to Swedish citizens and companies. Visa services will be managed within the framework of Schengen cooperation.”

The decision has attracted the attention of diplomatic and political circles here as Sri Lanka and Sweden were embroiled in a diplomatic row in April when Sri Lanka denied visa for Mr. Bildt who wanted to join British Foreign Secretary David Miliband and French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner in a visit to Colombo during the last stages of the military campaign against the LTTE.

Meanwhile, following President Mahinda Rajapaksa’s directive, Colombo Chief Magistrate Nishantha Hapuarachchi has ordered the Telecommunication Regulatory Commission (TRC) to restrain 12 websites which contained pornographic material. Mr. Rajapaksa had also instructed the Inspector-General of Police to take tangible and tough measures to curb child pornography.

The TamilNet in a report said the residents of Jaffna peninsula, following a media announcement that the Defence Ministry’s restrictions on obtaining CDMA telephones were lifted, had been given the phones .

“But, the phones have not been issued connection due to a new restriction imposed by the Defence Ministry, sources in Jaffna said. An official of the SLTC [Sri Lanka Tele Communication Ltd] said that the Defence Ministry has called for the full details of the applicants and the connections could be given only after obtaining ‘clearance’ from the Defence Ministry”.

Printer friendly page  
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Stories in this Section

Pro-Taliban cleric held in Pakistan
Arms still being seized, says Colombo
Anti-terror response honed: Chinese Army
Failure of collective imagination, Queen told
U.S. to shift Afghan narcotics strategy
Europe fast-tracking flu vaccine
Artificial intelligence systems may run amok

Copyright © 2009, The Hindu. Republication or redissemination of the contents of this screen are expressly prohibited without the written consent of The Hindu