Tigers’ terror strike seeks ethnic backlash
Colombo train bomb kills 62
AT LEAST 62 people were killed and 450 injured when two bombs exploded in a packed commuter train in the suburbs of Colombo on the 24th July.
Two compartments of the evening rush-hour Aluthgama train were blown apart after railway officials stopped the train at Wellawatte to unload a suspect package. Authorities blamed the LTTE who denied the bombing.
The explosion came 24 hours after the 13th anniversary of Black July when a Tiger ambush in Jaffna sparked a frenzy of government-inspired ethnic riots in Colombo and the south in 1983 that left hundreds of Tamils dead and 50,000 displaced.
In a nationwide TV address, President Chandrika Kumaratunge appealed for calm, saying there must be no backlash against the capital’s 350,000 Tamil community. Veteran journalist Lucien Rajakarunanayake told the BBC there was some looting and burning of Tamil shops in the Dehiwala suburbs but the situation was under control. Over 40 suspects have been arrested and the capital remains tense and volatile. "Sightings" of three suicide bombers in Nugegoda, Kohuwala and Kollupitiya the next day touched off a city-wide panic that prompted 200 arrests. Another 250 Tamils were arrested as major security sweeps continued in late July.
To recreate an ethnic backlash against Colombo’s Tamils through its suicide bomb attacks is a key Tiger strategy. Refugees from the north-east war are especially vulnerable since security chiefs believe the Tigers have secreted hundreds of undercover assassins among the 150,000 Tamils who have fled to Colombo.
Everyday around 200 Tamils are detained by security sweeps in the capital while their identities are checked. While most are released within 72 hours, one or two may fall into the hands of corrupt police officers who want to extort a bribe or torture a "confession" from them.
Tamil parties regularly protest over all treatment after arrest and TULF MP Joseph Pararajasingham is calling for Tamil-speaking officers in all Colombo police stations after frequent harassment of north-east Tamils who have to register with the capital’s police on arrival.
Justice secretary Dhara Wijayatilleke promised speedy action to try Tamil detainees after a hunger strike by 400 prisoners last month. Around 1,500 Tamils are said to be in custody, some held for four years without trial.
But the LTTE threat to Colombo remains all too real. Police recovered over 100 kgs of high explosives from three safe houses in Wellawatte, 12 days before the train bomb when a Tamil youth was arrested at a city road block. Another weapons haul was uncovered in a Tamil shop in Kotahena in early July.
Police detained Rasalingam Menaka, 19, at Nuwara Eliya bus station on 17th July alleging that she laid plans to blow up Navy headquarters when she stayed at three Colombo lodges. Another 38 north-east Tamils were arrested in the Hill Country capital, Kandy, in late July.
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