World Briefs
April 8, 1996
Web posted at: 2:45 p.m. EDT (1845 GMT)Sri Lankan leader expands state of emergency
COLOMBO, Sri Lanka (CNN) -- With the government still engaged in a civil war with Tamil rebels, the president of Sri Lanka announced a nationwide state of emergency Monday.
The order by President Chandrika Kumaratunga gives the military wide powers to arrest and jail suspects, including separatists, and gives her the right to enact laws without parliament's approval.
Her staff said they had information that the guerrillas were "preparing to perpetrate acts of violence" during local elections in June.
The opposition criticized the move as an attempt to curb political activity, and predicted Kumaratunga will use the powers to postpone the elections. The government postponed them in 1995 for one year.
A state of emergency has remained in force in the entire country almost continuously since 1983 when the ethnic war broke out. Kumaratunga retained it only in Colombo and the war-torn north and east after she came to power in 1994. Her latest declaration reimposes it nationwide.
Related stories:
- Dozens dead in Sri Lanka suicide bomb blast
- Sri Lankan army hails capture of Jaffna
- Sri Lanka: Civil war in paradise
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Thousands flee fighting in Liberian capital
MONROVIA, Liberia (CNN) -- Clashes Monday between Liberian government troops and supporters of a rebel leader drove tens of thousands of terrorized people to seek refuge at the U.S. Embassy and other diplomatic compounds in the capital.
The fighting that broke out in Monrovia Saturday closed the country's only international airport; a tenuous cease-fire in Liberia's six-year civil war seems headed for collapse.
A U.S. military team from Europe was to arrive in Monrovia to determine whether some 470 Americans should be evacuated from the West African nation. Up to 15,000 Liberians took refuge at the compound where American embassy workers live.
Fighting broke out when government troops tried to force rebel leader Roosevelt Johnson from his home. Johnson, the recently sacked minister of rural development, is wanted on murder charges stemming from clashes that killed several people last week.
His Ulimo rebels were blamed for the deaths, and Johnson holed up in his house with armed supporters, refusing to surrender.
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