Bomb attack shows ferocity of rebellion

Press, 24 April 1987, Page 4

Bomb attack shows ferocity of rebellion

DALTON DE SILVA

By

NZPA-Reuter Colombo A. bomb blast in Colombo this week which may have killed 150 people underlines the ferocity of Sri Lanka’s Tamil rebellion which has claimed more than 5500 lives in the last four years. The Government said that two Tamil guerrilla groups, the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (L.T.T.E.) and its ally, Eelam Revolutionary Organisation of Students (E.R.0.5.), were responsible for the huge explosion which also wounded 200.

They are among five main guerrilla organisations fighting Government troops in the north and east of the island to set up an independent State for minority Tamils. The L.T.T.E., the largest guerrilla group, was blamed by the Government for two other massacres in the north and east in the last five days in which 142 people died. E.R.O.S. was blamed for at least three big bomb attacks in Colombo ‘ in May last year — at the airport, a telegraph office and a soft drinks factory — killing more than 50 people. Tamils, who form 13 per cent of the island’s 15 million people, want an independent homeland. They accuse the Government of discriminating against them in language, education, employment and land settlement

The Government has rejected the demand for separation but has said it is prepared to redress genuine Tamil grievances.

President Junius Jayewardene has offered to grant autonomy to Tamil areas in the north and east by setting up elected provincial councils.

India, acting as mediator, is trying to persuade Tamil leaders to join talks with the Colombo Govern-

ment to find a peaceful solution to the four-year guerrilla war.

India is interested in the island's ethnic problem because 50 million Tamils live in India's southern state of Tamil Nadu. South Indian Tamils have close religious and cultural links with the Sri Lankan Tamils and have been pressing the New Delhi Government to intervene to resolve the issue.

Leaders of the rebel groups and of the main Tamil political party have been living in the Tamil Nadu capital, Madras, in self-imposed exile since widespread ethnic violence flared in Sri Lanka in July, 1983.

The violence was sparked when 13

Sinhalese soldiers were killed by Tamil guerrillas in an ambush in the northern Tamil stronghold of Jaffna.

The ambush was led by VelupiUai Prabhakaran, leader of the Tigers, which has emerged as the strongest of 30 rebel groups fighting Jayewardene's Government

Prabhakaran, who returned to Jaffna from Madras last December to take personal control of the operations, claimed his group was the sole representative of the Tamils.

The Tigers have effectively eliminated the rival rebel groups and also warned the Tamil political party, the Tamil United Liberation Front not to continue its political campaign.

Prabhakaran has so far resisted pressure by India to join other Tamil groups for talks with the Colombo Government

The Tigers demanded creation of a single Tamil linguistic region by merging the Tamil-dominated Northern and Eastern .Provinces.

The Government opposed a merger of the provinces but agreed to link them in areas of common interest such as education.

The Government declared a unilateral 10-day cease-fire on April 11 to help India’s efforts for a peaceful solution. But on the seventh day the ceasefire was called off when rebels ambushed three buses and two lorries and massacred 126 civilians.