AP News, February 4th, 2008
Sri Lanka celebrated its 60th independence anniversary Monday with a display of military might, but suspected rebels marred the holiday with their own show of power, killing 13 passengers in a bus bombing.
Tanks, jets, attack boats and thousands of troops paraded through the capital, Colombo, to mark the holiday as the quarter-century-old civil war raged on in this Indian Ocean island nation.
In a defiant speech, President Mahinda Rajapaksa railed against the Tamil Tigers and reiterated his vow to force the rebel group out of its northern stronghold and destroy it.
"Our defense forces have achieved victories that were never before seen. Terrorism is facing a defeat that it has never before faced," he said.
Senior government officials have said they hoped to rout the rebels and end the war this year. But fighting between government forces and the separatist guerrillas has exploded across the jungles of the north in recent months, with suspected rebels launching a wave of attacks against civilian and military targets deep inside government-controlled territory.
In an attempt to prevent violence from marring the nationally televised independence day celebrations in Colombo, troops sealed off roads across the capital and a major cell phone operator shut off its text-messaging service for six hours.
The festivities along Colombo's coastal road began with a 21-gun salute and a parade by hundreds of army, navy, air force and police officials, along with tanks, artillery guns and multi-barrel rocket launchers. Twelve naval gunships and fast-attack craft sailed off the coast, while 26 fighter jets and attack helicopters flew overhead.
Hours after the parade, a roadside bomb tore through a bus in the Welioya region, about 150 miles northeast of Colombo. The attack killed 13 people and wounded 16 others, said military spokesman Brig. Udaya Nanayakkara, blaming the rebels.
Rebel spokesman Rasiah Ilanthirayan did not answer calls seeking comment. The Tamil Tigers, listed as a terror group by the United States and European Union, routinely deny responsibility for such attacks.
Another roadside bombing in the southeastern town of Buttala killed one soldier and injured two others, the military said.
The bus attack came after a weekend of violence.
Fighting along the front lines in the north killed 36 rebels and one soldier Sunday, the military said Monday. The rebels were not available for comment, but the two sides routinely give widely differing death tolls.
Also over the weekend, a female suicide bomber killed 11 people at Colombo's main railway station and a bus bombing killed 18 people, mostly Buddhist pilgrims, in the central town of Dambulla.
European Union External Relations Commissioner Benita Ferrero-Waldner condemned the attacks and called for an immediate end to the fighting and the quick resumption of peace talks.
"The common objective should be to devise a lasting political solution that responds to the aspirations of Sri Lanka's communities and can relieve the Sri Lankan people from the ordeal of decades of persistent conflict," she said.
The Tamil Tigers have been fighting since 1983 for an independent homeland for ethnic minority Tamils after decades of marginalization by Sinhalese-dominated governments. More than 70,000 people have died in the fighting.
A 2002 cease-fire fostered hopes for a lasting peace, but the truce broke down as new fighting over the past two years killed 5,000 people. The government officially pulled out of the agreement last month.
Many had high hopes for the nation, formerly known as Ceylon, when it achieved independence from Britain in 1948, months after South Asian neighbors India and Pakistan became independent.
But tensions between the mainly Buddhist Sinhalese majority, who comprise about 74 percent of the nation's 20 million people, and the mainly Hindu Tamil community, who make up about 18 percent, quickly surfaced after independence.
Sinhalese-dominated governments, fearing local Tamils would work with Tamils in neighboring India to take over the nation, tried to marginalize the Tamil language and culture. At least two efforts to broker a compromise were retracted by the government amid protests by Sinhalese nationalists.
The ensuing civil war undermined the country's potential to become a regional economic power, said Paikiasothy Saravanamuttu, executive director of the Center for Policy Alternatives, a Colombo-based think tank.
"The development potential was huge, and it has been totally stymied by this war," he said.
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Associated Press writer Bharatha Mallawarachi contributed to this report.
