By Amal Jayasinghe in Colombo April 11, 2006
SUSPECTED Tamil rebels blew up a bus full of sailors in northeastern Sri Lanka today killing 12 and further dimming hopes for a new round of peace talks next week, officials said.
The latest bombing, the second in as many days, was seen by officials involved in the Norwegian-backed peace bid as a blow to their efforts to get the parties to meet in Switzerland to discuss ways to save a faltering truce.
Today's bombing raised to 19 the number of people killed in the latest upsurge in violence against government forces.
The navy bus, the third in a convoy of seven transporting off-duty sailors, was travelling from the port city of Trincomalee to Kantale, the next main town in the region, when it was caught in the landmine blast, a police official said.
"Victims have been sent to three hospitals," the official said. He said the bus had hit an oncoming van just after the blast and four passengers, including three Britons, were also hurt.
A spokesman for the British High Commission here said none of the three had life threatening injuries. The Britons were from the eastern England city of Norwich, police said.
Among those killed was a civilian driver of the bus transporting the sailors returning home for the traditional Sinhala New Year on Thursday.
The latest attack was a copy of yesterday's ambush in the island's north where five soldiers and two civilians were killed. The government blamed the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) for the attack.
There was no formal reaction from the LTTE.
Shortly after the attack, police fired teargas at a stone-throwing Sinhalese mob in Trincomalee to save a Tamil legislator, officials said.
The Sinhalese put up white flags to mourn the death of sailors and tried to attack legislator Nadarajah Raviraj in retaliation for the bombing.
"The MP's vehicle was damaged and the police action was aimed at protecting him," a police official told AFP from the port town. Several men were also arrested.
The MP had just attended the funeral of Vanniasingham Vigneswaran, who spearheaded the Tamil Resurgence Movement, a known LTTE front organisation.
He was gunned down in Trincomalee Friday by suspected pro-government activists.
The upsurge in violence came as Sri Lanka's international donors urged the Tigers to attend the April 19-21 talks aimed at salvaging a Norwegian-brokered truce that held since February 2002.
Diplomats involved in the process have expressed fears that the talks may be delayed by the violence that followed a war of words between the two sides.
"We are getting close to the date (of talks), but some of the arrangements have not been completed because of the uncertainty," an official said referring to the increasingly tentative Swiss talks next week.
However, the international community was trying to nudge both sides back to the table.
The ambassadors of Norway, Japan and the EU - known as the "Co-Chairs" for their efforts to drum up aid in support of Sri Lanka's peace bid - travelled to Tiger territory yesterday to deliver a strong message.
"The LTTE was urged again to refrain from all violence and to engage in a discussion on a political outcome, ensuring the democratic rights of all people in Sri Lanka," they said.
Today's mine attack was the third against troops since the first round of truce talks held in February in Switzerland where both sides agreed to halt attacks that left at least 153 people dead in December and January.
The LTTE was also held responsible by the Government for a landmine attack on Saturday. The Tamil separatist conflict has claimed over 60,000 lives since 1972.