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LTTE bomber kills 23, including minister

A Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam suicide bomber struck at a peace rally held on the occasion of War Heroes Day, killing Lankan Industrial Development Minister C V Gunaratne and a municipal mayor besides 21 others near Moratuwa, some 15 km south of Colombo on Wednesday afternoon.

Police said the suicide bomber struck when the minister and the others were waiting to join the peace rally at Moratuwa junction at about 1400 hours local time.

Preliminary reports said the minister joined the procession a little while before the bomber struck. Gunaratne and the mayor died on the spot while many others, who were seriously injured, were admitted to hospital.

The government had declared Wednesday as War Heroes Day and organised several functions to remember the soldiers who were killed in action in northern Jaffna. President Chandrika Kumaratunga attended the main ceremony at the presidential secretariat. Gunaratne too was present.

This is the first major attack in Colombo since the LTTE launched an offensive against security forces in northern Jaffna to capture the peninsula on March 26.

President Kumaratunga escaped with an eye injury when an LTTE woman suicide bomber triggered a bomb at an election rally at the Town Hall grounds on December 18 last year. At least 24 people were killed and more than 70 were injured in the blast.

On January 5 this year, another LTTE woman suicide bomber detonated a bomb near the prime minister's office on Flower Road, killing 14 people.

On March 10, a gang of suicide bombers struck again at Rajgiriya on Parliament Road, killing 29 people, including eight terrorists.

Meanwhile, Kumaratunga said she was ready for talks with the LTTE if it was prepared to give up violence and discuss devolution proposals.

The government has already discussed the proposals with all constituents of the ruling Peoples' Alliance and Tamil parties. She hoped the main opposition United National Party would also co-operate.

She said she did not want the war to drag on. She said that since she took over in 1994, she had been trying to solve the issue, but the LTTE was not interested in peace.

UNI

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