Sri Lanka violence leaves one dead, three wounded

Suspected Tamil Tiger rebels attacked a passenger bus and clashed with security forces and civilians in the port town of Trincomalee today, leaving one person dead and three injured.

The violence came two days after a Tiger leader apparently threatened to revive fighting unless stalled peace talks quickly resume, raising fears for the truce that has temporarily halted the country’s brutal two-decade civil war.

Suspected rebels used hand grenades to attack a bus carrying civilians from Colombo to Trincomalee, said military spokesman Brigadier Daya Ratnayake. The attack left one dead and three wounded. All the victims were from the country’s ethnic Sinhalese majority.

In a separate incident, more violence broke out today after the ethnic minority Tamil guerrillas attacked Sinhalese civilians who tried to defy a strike called by the Tigers and their associates.

The strike was called to protest at alleged police and military harassment during celebrations on Saturday of Martyrs’ Day, an annual event commemorating some 18,000 rebel fighters killed in the conflict, which started in 1983 and has claimed about 65,000 lives.

Police have imposed a curfew in Trincomalee, and more troops were being deployed there as a precautionary measure, Ratnayake said. The town, 140 miles north-east of Colombo, has a naval base and natural harbour and is strategically important to government troops.

A Norway-brokered ceasefire with the government in February 2002 halted the Tigers’ struggle to carve out a Tamil homeland. But subsequent peace talks have been stalled since April 2003 due to differences over power-sharing arrangements.

On Saturday, the Tigers’ reclusive guerrilla leader, Vellupillai Prabhakaran, issued a message from Sri Lanka’s rebel-held north urging the government to unconditionally resume the peace process and give the Tamils greater autonomy in the north and north-east, where most of them live.

“If the government rejects our urgent appeal and adopts delaying tactics perpetuating the suffering of our people, we have no alternative other than to advance the freedom struggle of our nation,” Prabhakaran said.