Sri Lanka’s government said today it will not unilaterally violate a ceasefire with the Tamil Tiger rebels, but would do everything necessary to safeguard its citizens after the military accused the rebels of assassinating the country’s foreign minister.

Sri Lanka’s President Chandrika Kumaratunga declared a state of emergency today, hours after her foreign minister, an ethnic Tamil who led efforts to ban the Tamil Tiger rebels as a terrorist organisation, was assassinated at his home.