|
Home>News Center>World | |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|
Sri Lanka assassination endangers peace
Hagrup Haukland, chief of a European truce monitoring team, called the killing a "barbaric act." "Such brutal violence creates fear, distrust and insecurity within society, and therefore represents a serious threat to the cease-fire," Haukland said. The slain minister, an Oxford-educated lawyer, had led an international campaign against the Tigers, who remain on terrorist lists in five countries, including the United States and Britain. A Web site sympathetic to the guerrillas said the minister had obstructed the rebels' cause. "In short Kadirgamar was responsible for our stagnated campaign in the international scene," the pro-rebel Nitharsanam Web site said. Rebel attacks against Sri Lankan political leaders were once common, and Kumaratunga was gravely wounded in a 1999 assassination attempt blamed on Tamil rebels. Such high-level attacks stopped after the February 2002 cease-fire, but tensions have recently increased between the government and the rebels. There has been a surge of attacks in the volatile eastern region, occasionally spilling into Colombo. Kadirgamar was appointed foreign minister in April 2004. He also held the position from 1994 to 2001.
Pro-rebel site: http://www.nitharsanam.com
|
|
|
|
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|
|
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
