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Bomb blast kills 64 villagers and catapults Sri Lanka toward war
A powerful landmine blast killed 64 passengers and injured at least 80 travelling on a bus to the town of Kebitigollewa in Sri Lanka’s north central province on Thursday morning. This criminal act is a deliberate provocation aimed at destroying what remains of the 2002 ceasefire and plunging the island back toward civil war. Whoever carried out the attack, there is no doubt that the Colombo government and its chauvinist allies are directly responsible for inflaming communal hatreds and creating the political climate in which such an atrocity can take place.
Most of the victims were impoverished Sinhalese farmers and their families, who were travelling to town from neighbouring villages. Among the dead were 15 children. The area, about 240 kilometres from Colombo, borders the war zones of the northern province, significant portions of which are under the control of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE).
The Sri Lankan government immediately blamed the LTTE for the bombing and used it as the pretext to order a series of air raids and artillery barrages on LTTE-controlled territory. While the military claimed the retaliation was a limited deterrent, the attacks began just three hours after mine explosion and continued yesterday.
In the northern province, air force warplanes bombed the outskirts of Kilinochchi, where the LTTE political headquarters is located, and a major LTTE base at Mulaithivu. The LTTE accused the military of targetting Selvapuram, a refugee camp for the victims of the 2004 tsunami disaster, near Mulaithivu. In the eastern province, the army launched a rocket barrage against an LTTE-held area at Muttur. No casualty figures have been given, but the LTTE claimed that houses in a number of villages were damaged.
Both sides recognise that all-out war is imminent. Head of the LTTE peace secretariat S. Pulidevan warned on Friday: “I think the Sri Lankan government by launching the air raids, is showing they are ready for war... Our central command is assessing the situation and our central command will take appropriate action.” For its part, the military has not declared when its “deterrent” attacks will stop.
It is unclear at this stage who carried out the Kebitigollewa atrocity. Both sides have blamed the other. The Sri Lankan Monitoring Mission (SLMM), which oversees the ceasefire, declared yesterday that it “could not determine who is behind this brutal act, nor what could be the motive for such a threat to humanity”.
The LTTE issued a statement on Thursday condemning the bombing, denying any involvement and accusing “armed elements” who have also been killing Tamil civilians. “The attack in Kebitigollewa, timed to occur immediately after the arrival of the LTTE delegation from Europe, is a reprehensible act of murder with the sole aim of blaming the LTTE for the attack,” it declared.
More
http://wsws.org/articles/2006/jun2006/sril-j17.shtml
The Sri Lankan government immediately blamed the LTTE for the bombing and used it as the pretext to order a series of air raids and artillery barrages on LTTE-controlled territory. While the military claimed the retaliation was a limited deterrent, the attacks began just three hours after mine explosion and continued yesterday.
In the northern province, air force warplanes bombed the outskirts of Kilinochchi, where the LTTE political headquarters is located, and a major LTTE base at Mulaithivu. The LTTE accused the military of targetting Selvapuram, a refugee camp for the victims of the 2004 tsunami disaster, near Mulaithivu. In the eastern province, the army launched a rocket barrage against an LTTE-held area at Muttur. No casualty figures have been given, but the LTTE claimed that houses in a number of villages were damaged.
Both sides recognise that all-out war is imminent. Head of the LTTE peace secretariat S. Pulidevan warned on Friday: “I think the Sri Lankan government by launching the air raids, is showing they are ready for war... Our central command is assessing the situation and our central command will take appropriate action.” For its part, the military has not declared when its “deterrent” attacks will stop.
It is unclear at this stage who carried out the Kebitigollewa atrocity. Both sides have blamed the other. The Sri Lankan Monitoring Mission (SLMM), which oversees the ceasefire, declared yesterday that it “could not determine who is behind this brutal act, nor what could be the motive for such a threat to humanity”.
The LTTE issued a statement on Thursday condemning the bombing, denying any involvement and accusing “armed elements” who have also been killing Tamil civilians. “The attack in Kebitigollewa, timed to occur immediately after the arrival of the LTTE delegation from Europe, is a reprehensible act of murder with the sole aim of blaming the LTTE for the attack,” it declared.
More
http://wsws.org/articles/2006/jun2006/sril-j17.shtml
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