Second UN official expelled from Sri Lanka

14 Sep 09 | Index Index, minipost, News and features

Days after the UN chief Ban Ki-Moon condemned the Sri Lankan government’s decision to expel Unicef’s communications officer from the country, new information has been reported in the Guardian that another UN official was expelled from the country.

Peter Mackay, an Australian citizen, worked as a field operative for Unops, the technical arm of the UN. He was tracking the number of civilians killed in the final months of the war. In July he received two weeks notice by government authorities to leave the country for “adverse activities had come to the notice of the intelligence services”. Mackay is the second UN worker to be expelled from the country over the past few weeks.
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Top Sri Lanka academic threatened

21 Aug 09 | Index Index, minipost

One of Sri Lanka’s most eminent academics has received an anonymous death threat, officials say. The threat in a letter was sent to the home of Paikiasothy Saravanamuttu, executive director of the Centre for Policy Alternatives (CPA). He is the latest in a long line of prominent people, mostly journalists, who have received death threats. Read more here

Death threats to Sri Lankan newspaper

01 Jul 09 | Index Index, minipost

An unknown group calling itself the Tamil United Force to Safeguard the Country has threatened to kill all the employees of the Tamil-language newspaper Uthayan, the leading newspaper in the Jaffna peninsula, if they have not resigned by the end of today. Read more here