Sri Lanka defense secretary escapes suicide attack; three dead, 14 wounded

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Associated Press, Fri December 1, 2006 06:41 EST COLOMBO, Sri Lanka (AP) - A suicide bomber targeted a convoy of vehicles carrying Sri Lanka's defence secretary and other security officials in the capital Friday, killing himself, two soldiers and wounding 14 others, the military said.

Soon after the blast, police and other security men opened fire. The body of an unidentified man lay at the scene with gunshot wounds. A car caught fire as a result of the blast, an AP photographer at the scene said.

The government blamed the separatist Tamil Tiger rebels for the attack which appeared to target the island's defence secretary, who is also the president's brother, and who escaped unhurt.

"Sri Lanka's Defence Secretary Gotabhaya Rajapakse escaped unharmed when an LTTE suicide killer, targeted the convoy of vehicles in which he was travelling," a government statement said, using the acronym for the rebels' official name, the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam.

Military spokesman Brig. Prasad Samarasinghe said the bomber triggered the explosives as the five-car convoy of vehicles was passing. Samarasinghe confirmed that Rajapakse, who is the younger brother of President Mahinda Rajapakse, was in one of the cars.

"He is safe, no harm has come to him," Samarasinghe said. Minutes after the blast, the government released photographs of the president hugging his brother, who in another photo showed photographers the blood spatters on his white shirt.

Military said two soldiers died while nine others and five civilians were hospitalized with varying degree of injuries.

The suicide bomber apparently approached on a motorized rickshaw from the opposite direction and targeted the convoy, said Deputy Inspector General of Police, Jayantha Wickremeratne.

Rajapakse, a retired military colonel, was in a bulletproof car, which was flanked by two motorcycle escorts.

At the blast site, a popular thoroughfare, there was the stench of human flesh and blood was splattered over the area, suggesting some of the wounded may have been badly hurt.

Meanwhile, the United States condemned Friday's blast, which it said bore "all the hallmarks" of the Tamil Tiger rebels.

"We once again call on the LTTE to renounce terrorism, to give up violence and to join in negotiating a peaceful solution to Sri Lankas conflict," the U.S. Embassy said in a statement.

Colombo has been under tight security for several months over fears of possible attacks by the separatist Tamil Tiger rebels.

Separately, a roadside bomb blast killed two police in northern Jaffna peninsula, an official at the Media Centre for National Security said.

President Rajapakse appointed his brother to the post after coming to power last year.

Secretary Rajapakse provided the Sri Lankan army with new weapons to help their fight against the Tamil Tiger rebels.

Suicide bombings are a hallmark of the Tamil Tiger rebels, who say they are fighting to create a separate homeland for Sri Lanka's 3.1 million ethnic Tamil minority.

The Tigers have been fighting for over 20 years, citing decades of discrimination by the majority Sinhalese.

The government says it is willing to give autonomy to areas where Tamils are in the majority, but the rebels insist on sweeping changes that the government says will infringe on the country's sovereignty.

The latest round of peace talks held in Switzerland in October failed to make any progress in resolving the issue and relations between the two sides have since deteriorated.

A sharp spike in violence this year has killed at least 3,500 fighters and civilians, imperiled a 2002 ceasefire and threatened to return the country to all-out war.

The Tiger's top leader earlier this week called the Oslo-brokered ceasefire "defunct," but the rebels later clarified they would abide by the truce.



 

Sri Lanka on brim of full-scale civil war

With the independence call of Sri Lanka's Tamil Tiger leader and high-profile assassination attempt on a key governmental security official, the island country is on the brim of resuming full-scale civil war.

Velupillai Prabakaran, the leader of the rebel LTTE (Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam) said Monday that it will resume its struggle for independence for Sri Lanka's 2.5 million Tamil minority abandoning six years of negotiations to end the conflict.

In his annual Heros Day speech, Prabakaran said "the uncompromising stance of Sinhala chauvinism has left us with no other option but an independent state for the people of Tamil Eelam (separate Tamil homeland)."

Commenting on the February 2002 ceasefire backed by the Norwegian facilitators, the Tiger leader said it has now become defunct as the new government "hopes to decide the fate of the Tamil nation using its military power."

Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa has played down the rebel leader's independence call, saying that his government will not in any way deviate from a negotiated political settlement for permanent peace in the country.

"For me, the LTTE and Prabakaran and the whole Tamil people in Sri Lanka are different. Their views are different. We always believe that we stand for the rights of all, whether Sinhalese, Tamils or Muslims," Rajapaksa said.

The president said that he has always urged the LTTE leader to come to the negotiating table and discuss with him directly without the participation of outsiders.

The United States, which is one of four co-chairs of Sri Lanka's peace process, has urged the LTTE to go back to talks.

Robert Blake, U.S. Ambassador to Sri Lanka, was quoted by a local newspaper as saying that the United States would take a strong stand against any LTTE bid to go for a separate state.

"We believe that the government and the LTTE should sit down and discuss a peaceful solution through sharing of power," Blake said.

Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has also told President Rajapaksa that India supports Sri Lanka's territorial unity and a negotiated settlement to the conflict.

Meanwhile, the Norwegian special peace envoy Jon Hanssen-Bauer has come to Sri Lanka for a fresh bid to bring the two warring parties to the negotiating table.

The Norwegian effort beginning in 2000 saw the LTTE and the government meeting face to face eight times for negotiations since 2002 when the two parties signed the current ceasefire agreement.

Even as Norway's peace effort is going on, suspected LTTE members on Friday made an assassination attempt on Gotabhaya Rajapaksa, the defense ministry secretary of the island country and the younger brother of President Rajapakse.

Gotabhaya was unhurt but two persons were killed, eight soldiers and five civilians were injured and the vehicle of the defense secretary was badly damaged, said the Department of Government Information in a statement.

In condemning "this dastardly attack," the government said it is "totally committed to peace," but "would not hesitate to take appropriate action to safeguard the people and the sovereignty of the state."

An article carried Wednesday in the official newspaper Daily News even proposed a "total war" against the LTTE in response to the rebel leader's independence call.

Over 60,000 were killed in Sri Lanka's ethnic conflict between the 1980s and 2002 when the Norwegians brokered a ceasefire.

Violence between the two parties has been escalating from December 2005 with more than 3,500 people being killed in the island country.

President Rajapaksa said Sri Lanka's major political parties would make a collective decision on a solution to the ethnic conflict probably by December end.

It is not immediately known whether the LTTE will accept the proposed solution and what will be the government's reaction if the solution is refused by the LTTE.