Colombo’s deputy police chief TN de Silva was killed by the bomb. Justice minister GL Peiris, Provincial Councils minister Alavi Moulana and Trade minister Kingsley Wickremaratne were among the wounded. At about the same time as the Town Hall incident, fifteen people, including former Army Commander Lucky Algama, died in an attack on the main opposition United National Party’s (UNP) election rally in Ja-Ela, 11 miles north of Colombo.
A woman suicide bomber of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) is believed to have carried out the Town Hall attack. The Police initially said that Leelaletchumy of Batticaloa was the suicide bomber and took into custody her mother K Marimuthu, 66, and sister Muthuletchumy, 30. Later reports have suggested that the bomber was Niro of Mullaitivu. She had entered the area with a ‘suicide kit’ containing some four kg explosives while there was heavy military presence and intense security checks were being carried out.
The attack on the head of state in the heart of the capital has caused considerable embarrassment to the island’s security authorities. In the last two months, the national intelligence agencies had been warning of an LTTE attempt on the President’s life. Colombo newspaper Sunday Times columnist Iqbal Athas says a foreign intelligence agency had also warned of Tiger death squad attacks. In addition to an investigation into the suicide attack, the police have initiated a probe into the lapses in security.
A third police team is investigating the Ja-Ela UNP meeting incident. The police claim that this attack was also carried out by a suicide bomber and say that the bomber’s head was later found on the roof of a building in the vicinity. But other reports say Lucky Algama had been targeted with a grenade.
The police were investigating Lucky Algama, who had become a high profile campaigner for the UNP. Government members accuse him of masterminding the military withdrawal in the Vanni in early November and facilitating the rapid advance of the LTTE forces. But reports say that a Court of Inquiry into the military debacle has not found any evidence to suggest that the Vanni defeat was the result of a political conspiracy.
The government also allege that UNP leader Ranil Wickremasinghe had agreed with the LTTE that the Tigers could administer the north-east region for two years if he was elected President of Sri Lanka. Sources say that in the light of Tiger insistence that peace talks cannot be held during war, Ranil may have agreed for such an arrangement to provide time to re-establish civil institutions to facilitate talks in a peaceful climate.
In an election marred by violence, Chandrika was re-elected President for another six-year term on 21 December, defeating Ranil by 709,000 votes. Chandrika took 51% of the 8,635,000 votes cast, while the UNP leader gained 42% winning in only 21 of the 160 electorates. Over 73% of the 11.7 million registered voters turned out to vote.
In the last presidential election in 1994, Chandrika won 62% of the votes. A large section of the Tamils supported her, placing their faith in her to bring the 17-year turmoil to an end. Observers say that her failure to achieve constitutional reform taking into consideration Tamil aspirations has forced many Tamils to look elsewhere for saviours.
In her inaugural speech on 22 December, President Chandrika invited the UNP to support the government in finding a solution to the Sri Lankan conflict and urged the Tamil people to reject the LTTE. Observers believe that in the absence of concerted and concrete efforts towards peace by all parties and the international community, violence and assassinations are likely to continue.
All Ceylon Tamil Congress (ACTC) leader and outspoken lawyer Kumar Ponnambalam, 61, was killed in Colombo on 5 January. The assassination took place only hours after another suspected LTTE woman suicide bomber killed 13 people, including four police constables and injured 25 others near the Prime Minister’s office on Flower road in Cinnamon Gardens suburb.
Mr Ponnambalam had been accompanied in his car from home by a Sinhalese man, known only as Shantha, who had become acquainted with him recently. The Tamil leader’s body was later found in the car on Ramakrishna Lane in Wellawatte suburb. Shantha has disappeared. A previously unknown group, the National Front Against Terrorism, has claimed responsibility.
Mr Ponnambalam was an ardent supporter of the LTTE and the Tamil cause. A strong critic of the government and President Chandrika, he was in the forefront of exposing human rights violations against the Tamils and handled many cases of Tamils detained in Colombo. His wife has accused elements within the government for the murder. Tamils in Colombo have expressed fear that military-backed death squads may have returned in the face of the continuing LTTE threat to the capital.