08-13-2005, 10:54 PM
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->Kadirgamar's killing: Emergency imposed in Sri Lanka
Agencies / Colombo
Sri Lankan President Chandrika Kumaratunga has imposed a state of emergency in the country after Friday night's assassination of Foreign Minister Lakshman Kadirgamar.
The minister was shot in the head between 10 pm and 11 pm local time and succumbed to his injuries at 12.15 am.
According to reports, he was shot by a sniper from long distance at his highly guarded residence in Colombo.
The LTTE are the prime suspects in the assassination, but authorities say they are working with an open mind.
Defence Ministry spokesperson Daya Ratnayake asked Colombo residents to remain indoors today to allow a major search operation to go ahead.
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Fragile peace process
Kadirgamar's assassination has the potential to derail the three-year-old peace process in Sri Lanka and push the country back into civil war.
In an interview put on the LTTE's official website, the organisation's chief negotiator Anton Balasingham had warned of a return to armed confrontation if the Sri Lankan government did not stop its alleged support to rebel Tamil groups in the east.
The LTTE has always accused the government of supporting the breakaway rebel group headed by its former commander of the eastern areas, Vinayagamurthy Muralitharan, also known as Colonel Karuna.
Over the past few months, this breakaway faction of the LTTE is believed to be responsible for a spate of attacks on LTTE cadres and operatives in the Tamil majority eastern districts.
The LTTE claims that the breakaway group was operating with the full support of the Sri Lankan Army â a claim denied by the Sri Lankan government.
But as the attacks on the LTTE operatives mounted in the east, there were counter attacks targetting key military intelligence personnel, Sri Lankan soldiers and cadres of the breakaway group.
Stern warning
It is in this context that LTTE's chief negotiator issued his warning through an interview published on the outfit's official website.
"It is a well established fact that there are five Tamil para-military armed groups, including the Karuna group, who are paid and provided with logistic support by the Sri Lankan security forces in this covert military campaign to destabilise the eastern province and to paralyse the LTTE's political engagement in the region," Balasingham said.
"The Colombo regime is fully aware of the situation. Yet, the government attempts to distort this violent phenomenon as an internal conflict within the LTTE arising from the split by the Karuna group," he said further in his statement.
"It is deeply disappointing to note that President Kumaratunga's government, which claims serious commitment to peace and negotiated settlement to the ethnic conflict, has allowed its armed forces to support and sustain a shadow war of the Tamil para-militaries in grave violation of the truce agreement that could rekindle the civil war," he added.
'Govt under no obligation'
Chief of the Sri Lankan government's peace secretariat Jayantha Dhanapala and other top leaders have been denying these allegations and have called it a matter between two LTTE groups.
They have also said that the Sri Lankan government was under no obligation to disarm groups that came into the picture after the peace deal was signed three years ago.
Balasingam had this to say: "Karuna's group is not functioning from deep jungles of the east as Mr Dhanapala fantasizes. They are often operating from Sri Lanka military camps and their hideouts are well protected by the armed forces."
"By providing sanctuary and support to Karuna and his group, the Sri Lankan military should assume direct responsibility for the bloody internecine warfare that is threatening the current peace process," he added.
The peace talks brokered in 2002 by Norwegian negotiators have been stalled for about two years and the failure to implement the deal to share $3 billion in foreign aid for tsunami relief has also added to the friction.
Prime suspects
Sri Lankan police say they had arrested two LTTE cadres earlier this month from outside Kadirgamar's official residence while they were allegedly videotaping the area.
The minister's assassination at his private residence, just meters away from where these arrests were made, have made the LTTE the prime suspect.
LTTE however, has denied any involvement in the killing of Kadirgamar.
Radical right wing Sinhala groups can also not escape suspicion. They have been very aggressive about their opposition to the peace process with the LTTE and the recent tsunami aid sharing deal.
However, it is clear now that with this assassination, three years of fragile peace could very well come to an end. The tireless Norwegian mediators are the only hope and their diplomatic skills will be once again put to test.
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Agencies / Colombo
Sri Lankan President Chandrika Kumaratunga has imposed a state of emergency in the country after Friday night's assassination of Foreign Minister Lakshman Kadirgamar.
The minister was shot in the head between 10 pm and 11 pm local time and succumbed to his injuries at 12.15 am.
According to reports, he was shot by a sniper from long distance at his highly guarded residence in Colombo.
The LTTE are the prime suspects in the assassination, but authorities say they are working with an open mind.
Defence Ministry spokesperson Daya Ratnayake asked Colombo residents to remain indoors today to allow a major search operation to go ahead.
Â
Fragile peace process
Kadirgamar's assassination has the potential to derail the three-year-old peace process in Sri Lanka and push the country back into civil war.
In an interview put on the LTTE's official website, the organisation's chief negotiator Anton Balasingham had warned of a return to armed confrontation if the Sri Lankan government did not stop its alleged support to rebel Tamil groups in the east.
The LTTE has always accused the government of supporting the breakaway rebel group headed by its former commander of the eastern areas, Vinayagamurthy Muralitharan, also known as Colonel Karuna.
Over the past few months, this breakaway faction of the LTTE is believed to be responsible for a spate of attacks on LTTE cadres and operatives in the Tamil majority eastern districts.
The LTTE claims that the breakaway group was operating with the full support of the Sri Lankan Army â a claim denied by the Sri Lankan government.
But as the attacks on the LTTE operatives mounted in the east, there were counter attacks targetting key military intelligence personnel, Sri Lankan soldiers and cadres of the breakaway group.
Stern warning
It is in this context that LTTE's chief negotiator issued his warning through an interview published on the outfit's official website.
"It is a well established fact that there are five Tamil para-military armed groups, including the Karuna group, who are paid and provided with logistic support by the Sri Lankan security forces in this covert military campaign to destabilise the eastern province and to paralyse the LTTE's political engagement in the region," Balasingham said.
"The Colombo regime is fully aware of the situation. Yet, the government attempts to distort this violent phenomenon as an internal conflict within the LTTE arising from the split by the Karuna group," he said further in his statement.
"It is deeply disappointing to note that President Kumaratunga's government, which claims serious commitment to peace and negotiated settlement to the ethnic conflict, has allowed its armed forces to support and sustain a shadow war of the Tamil para-militaries in grave violation of the truce agreement that could rekindle the civil war," he added.
'Govt under no obligation'
Chief of the Sri Lankan government's peace secretariat Jayantha Dhanapala and other top leaders have been denying these allegations and have called it a matter between two LTTE groups.
They have also said that the Sri Lankan government was under no obligation to disarm groups that came into the picture after the peace deal was signed three years ago.
Balasingam had this to say: "Karuna's group is not functioning from deep jungles of the east as Mr Dhanapala fantasizes. They are often operating from Sri Lanka military camps and their hideouts are well protected by the armed forces."
"By providing sanctuary and support to Karuna and his group, the Sri Lankan military should assume direct responsibility for the bloody internecine warfare that is threatening the current peace process," he added.
The peace talks brokered in 2002 by Norwegian negotiators have been stalled for about two years and the failure to implement the deal to share $3 billion in foreign aid for tsunami relief has also added to the friction.
Prime suspects
Sri Lankan police say they had arrested two LTTE cadres earlier this month from outside Kadirgamar's official residence while they were allegedly videotaping the area.
The minister's assassination at his private residence, just meters away from where these arrests were made, have made the LTTE the prime suspect.
LTTE however, has denied any involvement in the killing of Kadirgamar.
Radical right wing Sinhala groups can also not escape suspicion. They have been very aggressive about their opposition to the peace process with the LTTE and the recent tsunami aid sharing deal.
However, it is clear now that with this assassination, three years of fragile peace could very well come to an end. The tireless Norwegian mediators are the only hope and their diplomatic skills will be once again put to test.
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