Bomb kills Sri Lanka gov't minister
COLOMBO, Sri Lanka (AP) - January 8, 2008 President Mahinda Rajapaksa condemned the assassination as proof
of the rebel group's "continued commitment to terror and
violence," and hinted the government would strike back after the
insurgents' first successful assassination in 19 months.
"This sad event is a further reminder of the need to redouble
our efforts to rid our country of terrorism and the use of violence
to achieve political ends," he said in a statement.
Both sides in the fight routinely target the other's leaders. A
government airstrike in November killed the rebels' political
leader, S.P. Tamilselvan, and an attack Sunday killed a top rebel
intelligence officer, Shanmuganathan Ravishankar, also known as
Col. Charles.
Tuesday's bomb tore through the car carrying Nation Building
Minister D.M. Dassanayake as he traveled through the Ja-Ela area,
about 12 miles north of the capital, Colombo, said military
spokesman Brig. Udaya Nanayakkara.
Dassanayake, who was not a member of the Cabinet, suffered head
wounds and other injuries and was rushed into surgery before he
died, said Dr. Dharmawardena Guruge of Ragama Teaching Hospital.
The blast, which came days after the government officially
pulled out of a tattered cease-fire with the separatist rebels,
killed a second man and wounded 10 others, officials said.
"We are quite sure that it was done by the terrorists," Media
Minister Anura Yapa said, referring to the Tamil Tigers. Rebel
spokesman Rasiah Ilanthirayan did not answer calls seeking comment.
Dassanayake was coordinating efforts to rebuild Sri Lanka's
Eastern Province after government forces drove the rebels from the
area in July. Rajapaksa suggested Dassanayake was killed because
his work in the east angered the rebels.
The rebels have been blamed for a spate of assassination
attempts.
In November, a suicide bomber killed an aide to Social Services
Minister Douglas Devananda in a failed attack on the minister.
Bombing attacks in 2006 also failed to kill Lt. Gen. Sarath
Fonseka, the army commander, and Defense Secretary Gotabhaya
Rajapaksa, the president's brother.
The last successful assassination took place in June 2006, when
the rebels killed Maj. Gen. Parami Kulatunga, the country's
third-ranking military officer.
The rebels have also been blamed for a series of attacks in
Colombo, including a bombing last week on a bus transporting
wounded troops through the heart of the capital that killed a
soldier and three bystanders.
Soon after that attack, the Cabinet decided to officially
withdraw from a 2002 truce that had all but collapsed over the past
two years as escalating violence killed about 5,000 people. Senior
government officials have vowed to dismantle the rebels' de facto
state in parts of the north and to crush the Tamil Tigers.
Later Tuesday, another blast in a telephone booth shook Colombo,
but Nanayakkara said no one was wounded.
Fighting continued along the front lines in the north Tuesday,
with troops killing 10 rebels in two separate clashes in the
Vavuniya district, said a Defense Ministry statement. There was no
immediate comment from the rebels. Each side routinely exaggerates
the other's casualties and plays down its own.
Fighting in the north has killed 98 people - 94 rebels and four
soldiers - in the five days since the government pulled out of the
truce, according to the military.
More than 70,000 people have been killed since the rebels began
fighting in 1983 for an independent state for Sri Lanka's ethnic
Tamil minority, claiming discrimination by the Sinhalese majority.