Sri Lanka

In a village deep in west Sri Lanka, one of the island's few remaining communities of African descent breaks into song -- a poignant elegy to a disappearing culture. The music starts with a slow, gentle rhythm played on a tambourine, spoons and coconut shells, before it builds to a climax with dancers swinging their hips, hands and feet wildly. The performance is a direct link back to the tiny minority's distant African past. "We are forgotten people," Peter Luis, 52, said. "We are losing our language and, having inter-married many times, our children are losing their African features." The population of African-Sri Lankans ... Read Full Story

A group of 22 Sri Lankan asylum seekers left an Australian customs ship to come ashore in Indonesia Friday, police said, partially easing a standoff which began last month. The group, who were among a total of 78 ethnic Tamils on the Oceanic Viking anchored off Bintan island near Singapore, left by ferry for immigration detention, local police intelligence chief Zainal Arifin told AFP. "At 3.15 pm (0815 GMT), 22 Sri Lankan migrants (all men) left the Oceanic Viking and were taken by Mutiari ferry to immigration detention at Tanjung Pinang," Arifin said by mobile phone text message. The migrants were part of a ... Read Full Story

For 50 young Sri Lankans who had paid up to 1,500 dollars each for the chance of a new life, a five-week voyage in the hold of a fishing boat ended in an Australian camp for illegal migrants. Their families had sold property and whatever other assets they had to fund the journey which was to have taken the men to New Zealand but nearly cost them their lives after their boat ran aground at Horn Island off the northern tip of Queensland. After being rescued, they were held for five months at Australia's main immigrant clearing centre on Christmas Island. Among them were ... Read Full Story

A top French envoy on Saturday asked Sri Lanka to end its state of emergency and probe war crimes ahead of a key European Union ruling on trade concessions to the troubled island. Ambassador for Human Rights, Francois Zimeray, said he hoped Colombo will signal the ending of its war with Tamil rebels in May by withdrawing emergency laws which allowed the detention of suspects for long periods without trial. "Ending of the emergency (in force since 1983) should have been the first consequence of ending the war (in May)," he said at the end of three-days of talks with key Sri Lankan leaders ... Read Full Story

The leader of a boat of Sri Lankan asylum seekers held in Indonesia is a known people smuggler previously deported from Canada, the government said Friday, a charge he has strongly denied. Alex, who emerged as the spokesman for the 255 Sri Lankans whose boat was detained last month en route to Australia, is Kulaendrarajah Sanjeev, a 28-year-old who worked out of a base in India, the foreign ministry said in a statement. The man, who led an abortive hunger strike demanding that those on board be granted refugee status, was expelled from Canada in 2003, the statement said. "Alex had been involved in ... Read Full Story