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Blast shatters 2 yrs of Lankan silence

5 killed, 11 hurt in suicide bombing

REUTERS, Colombo
Five people were killed and 11 wounded when a suspected Tamil Tiger suicide bomber blew herself up in a police station in the Sri Lankan capital yesterday, shattering more than two years of relative peace.
Police said the woman deto-
nated the bomb as she was being frisked, but the target was government minister Douglas Devananda, a Tamil who is a vocal opponent of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) rebels.
"A female has gone into the ministry of Douglas Devananda and wanted to meet him... Permission
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was not granted. People from ministerial security followed her and these officials took her into the police station. While they tried to search her she exploded herself," said police spokesman Rienzie Perera.
"It is obvious Douglas was the target," he said.
The bomber was among the five dead, police said.
Peace talks to end Sri Lanka's decades-long civil war have been on hold for more than a year but both sides have been observing a Norwegian-brokered truce signed in February 2002 that put an end to fighting that had killed 64,000.
No one claimed responsibility and the Tigers offered no immediate comment on the blast, which happened on Colombo's main thoroughfare, near the prime minister's official residence and across the road from the US and British embassies.
But police and army officials said they believed the Tigers, who began fighting for a separate state for the island's minority Tamils in 1983, were responsible.
"It is a total violation of the ceasefire agreement. There is not doubt this is the work of the LTTE but we do not yet have proof," Defense Secretary Cyril Herath told Reuters.
But he said the army would continue to observe the truce.
"The Sri Lankan government has over and over again assured that despite all these provocations they will maintain the cease-fire from their side," Herath said.
The Tigers terrorized the capital with numerous suicide bomb attacks during the war and on Monday they observed "Black Tiger Day," which commemorates their suicide bombers.
While they have mostly respected the Norwegian-brokered truce, human rights groups accuse them of targeting rival Tamil politicians, mostly in the island's east, where a split within the LTTE has complicated the peace bid.
Since the split, local media have said, Devananda had been in contact with Karuna, the commander of the renegade rebel faction.
The Tigers also accused the army of helping Karuna and his renegades. The army repeatedly denied the LTTE accusation but a government spokesman said recently elements of the military had indeed helped Karuna.
Police said apart from the bomber, all four dead were police officers, including two women. Broken glass and blood covered the floor of the police station, which was under heavy guard.
"I saw many people being pulled out with injuries, including one with no arm," said one witness.
Hector Weerasinghe, the director of Colombo's National Hospital, said 13 people had been brought in, of whom four had died. He said most of the wounded were police officers, and their conditions were not critical.
Witnesses said those in hospital were crying and in shock, surrounded by grieving police officers trying to offer comfort.
In Colombo, attention turned to the fate of the cease-fire, which has brought the island peace of mind, a rebounding economy and a capital largely free of checkpoints and roadblocks.
Monitors overseeing the truce and
a Norwegian official said they had had no comment from the Tigers regarding the truce.
But the rebels have stepped up their rhetoric against the army in the past week, accusing it of helping the breakaway faction to foment violence in the east, where gun attacks killed one Tiger member and wounded three on Monday.
Analysts said the truce would likely hold, but the Tigers were clearly unhappy with over the help for Karuna.
"I don't think this should be read as a signal the cease-fire agreement is going to be torn up and thrown away," said Paikiasothy Saravanamuttu, who heads the independent Center for Policy Alternatives.
"But it should be seen in the context of the accusations and counter-accusations over Karuna. They are saying, 'We cannot be hit with impunity'," he said.
The Colombo Stock Exchange, which closed about one hour after the blast, ended down 1.51 percent at 1,339.70, while the Sri Lankan rupee weakened about 15 cents to 102.70.
"I am worried to think what this might mean," said Janaka Dias, a 44-year-old shopkeeper. "I want peace. And I don't know if the situation will worsen and we will have war again."