Sri Lanka cease-fire ends
COLOMBO, Sri Lanka (AP) - January 16, 2008 The attack stoked fears that the official end of the
six-year-old truce - largely ignored in recent years - would lead
to even worse violence.
President Mahinda Rajapaksa said although Wednesday's violence
was timed to coincide with the government's official withdrawal
from the cease-fire, it simply mirrored other attacks by the
separatist group in recent months.
"This is a brazen demonstration to the whole world of its
unchanged commitment to terrorism and the absolute rejection of
democracy and all norms of civilized behavior in the pursuit of its
unacceptable goal of separation," he said in a statement.
The U.S. Embassy condemned the bus attack, saying "it bears all
the hallmarks" of the rebels.
Spokesmen for the rebels could not immediately be reached for
comment. But the group, listed as a terror organization by the U.S.
and European Union, routinely denies responsibility for such
attacks.
The Tamil Tigers have been fighting since 1983 for an
independent state for Sri Lanka's ethnic Tamil minority in the
north and east after decades of being marginalized by
Sinhalese-dominated governments. The fighting has killed more than
70,000 people.
Senior government officials have vowed to destroy the rebel
group by the end of the year, and fighting has raged for months
across the front lines along the frontiers of its de facto state in
the north.
The attackers struck about 7:30 a.m. when they detonated a
45-pound roadside bomb alongside a passenger bus as it traveled
through the remote town of Buttala, about 150 miles southeast of
Colombo.
Gunmen then shot the panicked passengers as they tried to flee,
witnesses said.
"Everyone that got out through the doors, they shot and
killed," said a 25-year-old passenger who gave his name as
Sampath. "I jumped from the window and just escaped."
The windows of the red bus were shattered by the bomb and bullet
holes riddled the sides.
The attack killed 26 people - most of them from gunshots - and
wounded 62 others, military spokesman Brig. Udaya Nanayakkara said.
The assailants retreated into the bush, shooting and killing five
farmers they met along the way and wounding two others, he said.
Soon after the attack, a second roadside bomb struck an armored
military vehicle in the same region, wounding three soldiers,
Nanayakkara said.
The bombings came on the final day of the cease-fire, which had
largely broken down over the past two years amid renewed fighting
that killed 5,000 people.
Though scrapping the truce has little direct impact on the
raging war, the Cabinet's unanimous decision two weeks ago to annul
the deal was criticized by peace mediators and foreign governments,
who worried it would make it even more difficult to end the
decades-old conflict.
Since that decision, nearly 400 people have been killed in
attacks, according to the military.
Amnesty International called for both sides to return to the
truce, saying the end of the agreement will increase indiscriminate
attacks against the civilian population.
The most immediate effect of the end of the cease-fire was the
dissolution of the Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission, one of the few
independent groups with access to both sides.
At a final news conference, the head of the mission, Lars Johan
Solvberg, said the number of cease-fire violations had grown so
large by last year the mission was no longer able to track them,
and he worried the situation could worsen once his team leaves.
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Associated Press writers Jay Palipane in Buttala and Bharatha
Mallawarachi in Colombo contributed to this report.