Days before the Tamil Tigers were to sit down for talks with the Sri Lankan government, a suicide bomber rammed a truck laden with explosives into a bus convoy, killing at least 90 and injuring more than 100. The convoy was carrying sailors and a few civilians home from the troubled north of the island for vacation.
The Los Angeles Times reports that the suicide bombing was the deadliest to hit Sri Lanka since the signing of a 2002 truce between the government and the rebel group, which is considered a terrorist organization by the US.
The latest round of bloodshed came amid a flurry of diplomatic activity aimed at heading off a return to all-out civil war. A Japanese peace envoy is in Sri Lanka to push for a respite from the fighting, and Assistant US Secretary of State Richard Boucher is expected to arrive later this week for a brief visit, in anticipation of talks between the government and the rebels scheduled for Oct. 28 and 29 in Switzerland.
Fighting on the Jaffna peninsula in the north killed scores of combatants last week. Sunday, the Sri Lankan navy attacked a rebel boat suspected of smuggling weapons off the northwest coast. Monday's bombing was seen by some as retaliation for that incident.
Although the rebel group never takes credit for its suicide attacks, Agence France-Presse reports it bore all the tell-tale signs of the Tigers, the group that is thought to have invented the idea of using suicide attacks. AFP reports that the bomber drove into the middle of a circle of parked buses before detonating the vehicle.
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Reuters reports that the government said it would retaliate against the Tigers, but that it would also still attend peace talks scheduled for Oct. 28-29 in Geneva.
"No, there is no rethink," [Palitha Kohona, head of the government's Peace Secretariat] told Reuters. "The president has reaffirmed that we will go ahead with the talks whatever. We will continue retaliating, taking action against them but we will go to the talks."
The BBC reports that Norwegian special envoy Jon Hanssen-Bauer arrived in Sri Lanka Tuesday to discuss the forthcoming talks, but many observers say that despite the government's comments, the fresh violence could derail the process.
The convoy attack came shortly after Japan's peace envoy to Sri Lanka, Yasushi Akashi, met President Rajapakse in Colombo. Later in the week, he is due to meet senior Tamil Tigers in the north of the island and envoys from Norway and the US are scheduled to arrive.
The BBC's Dumeetha Luthra in Colombo says that given the climate of violence, there is little optimism about what is likely to be achieved in the Geneva talks. At least 2,000 people have been killed in violence this year in Sri Lanka, the military and cease-fire monitors say.
In an analysis for the BBC, correspondent Dumeetha Luthra writes that the bombing comes just after another military setback for the government, which saw 129 soldiers killed last Wednesday in a government-intitiated attack on Jaffna in the very north of the island. Luthra writes that the military had been pushing for a more aggressive strategy in the hopes that a series of victories might strenghen the government position at the peace talks. But that strategy seems to have backfired.
The heavy casualties the forces have suffered could prove an opening for the softer elements within the government to have their voice heard, a move away from the military solution. However it could also mean the government is now unwilling to come to the table from a position of perceived weakness. The hardliners may push for military successes to ensure their bargaining strength in Geneva is not weakened.
On the Tiger side, the fact they held their lines last week and have inflicted such losses on the government may result in a reluctance for immediate talks. They may want to regain the territory they lost. On the other hand they may feel that ... they have already regained the upper hand.
TamilNet, the official website of the group, said the Sri Lankan government Tuesday "destroyed the main broadcast tower of the Thamileelam Radio (Thamileelam Vanoli) that broadcasts three radios, two commercial radio broadcasts ... and the official broadcast of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), Voice of Tigers (VoT). " The Tamil Tigers also accused the government of bombing a rebel village, killing two children. The government said this attack was not in reponse to the suicide bombing, but was a response to rebel artillery fire into a military camp.
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Feedback appreciated. E-mail Tom Regan.
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