The Hindu : International : U.S. asks Colombo, Tigers to halt violence

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Saturday, Jul 10, 2004

International

International

U.S. asks Colombo, Tigers to halt violence

By V.S. Sambandan

COLOMBO, JULY 9. The United States today "strongly condemned" Wednesday's suicide bombing in Colombo and described it as one that "bears the hallmark of an LTTE attack" and urged the Sri Lankan Government and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam "to take all possible steps to halt the recent violence in eastern Sri Lanka."

The U.S. embassy in Colombo, in a statement, termed the attack a "senseless one" and said that it had "consistently called on the Tigers to renounce terrorism and cease terrorist acts, including political assassinations, and to comply with the terms of the ceasefire agreement that they signed."

On the current situation, Washington said it was "encouraged that the ceasefire between the LTTE and the Government remains in effect" and that it would "continue to encourage the LTTE and the Government to follow through on their stated intention to reopen formal negotiations as soon as possible."

Two executed

The situation in eastern Sri Lanka, however, plunged further on Thursday with the LTTE executing two persons for "collaborating with military intelligence and Karuna."

Eastern LTTE officials were quoted as saying that the youth were "arrested recently" by the Tigers "with illegal weapons and other documents belonging to the Sri Lankan Government forces" and were executed today.

The executions, a day after Wednesday's failed suicide bomb attack on the Sri Lankan Cabinet Minister, Douglas Devananda, in Colombo were accompanied by a warning by the Tigers to the people in the two eastern districts — Batticaloa and Amparai — that they would "face dire consequences if anyone supported the enemies of the LTTE."

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