Tamil Tiger rebels lifted a water blockade yesterday at the root of Sri Lanka's latest bloodshed, which has officially claimed over 440 lives, as a car bomb killed three people in the capital.
The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam said they had opened the sluice gates freeing water to some 15,000 farmer families following a request from Norway, which orchestrated the island's shaky 2002 ceasefire. Sri Lankan troops and Tamil Tigers have been fighting over the waterway for the past two weeks, with the fighting spreading across the north-eastern port district of Trincomalee.
Security was stepped up in Trincomalee as relatives buried 17 aid workers killed by unidentified gunmen during fierce battles between troops and the Tigers in the nearby town of Muttur over the weekend. Shelling was heard near Muttur yesterday as the bodies of the victims, all Sri Lankan employees of the French charity Action Against Hunger were taken to Trincomalee for autopsies and burials.
As the funerals were under way in Trincomalee, a powerful blast killed three people in the capital Colombo in an attack aimed at a politician opposed to the Tiger rebels, who have been fighting a separatist insurgency since 1972.
The blast in front of a girls' school in a crowded area of the city came a day after a Claymore mine attack that killed a top police commando and his driver in the central district of Kandy.
Seven people were hospitalised in the car bomb blast including the target of the attack, M Sivadasan, a former Tamil legislator from the Eelam People's Democratic Party, a constitutent of the ruling coalition.
The party fiercely opposes the separatist campaign of the LTTE, who police blamed for the attack.
Sivadasan was the top aide to EPDP leader Douglas Devananda, who is the Hindu Affairs Minister in the government. The bomb was thought to have been planted on the undercarriage of his mini-van, police officials said.
The latest violence came as the United States, a key backer of the island's faltering peace process, expressed serious concern over the escalating violence in the island.
US State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said Washington would reach out to its partners to try to see how to end the violence.
"We're going to do everything that we can, working with the other members of the international community that have been deeply involved in trying to help the Sri Lankan government bring peace to that troubled island," he said.
The Tigers said they ended the water dispute following a request from peace broker Norway, despite the Sri Lankan government maintainining that it would not allow the rebels to control the flow of water.
The defence ministry said the Tigers had opened the sluice gates because of the military pressure on them.
"The water is flowing because of the humanitarian operations conducted by us," ministry spokesman Upali Rajapakse said.
The fighting in the past fortnight has been the worst since the 2002 truce, which has been repeatedly broken, sparking fears that the conflict might re-ignite as an all-out war.
PHOTO CAPTION
Sri Lankan police stand gaurd at the site of an exploded van in Colombo. (AFP)