Douglas lives!
The Permanent Mission of Sri
Lanka to the United Nations Office at Geneva
28th November 2007
Female Tamil Tiger
Suicide Bomber Fails to Assassinate Minister Douglas Devananda
A disabled female Tamil Tiger suicide bomber with explosives
hidden in her bra blew herself up outside the office of Douglas Devananda
Minister for Social Service and Social Welfare on Wednesday, killing
an assistant, the military said.
Officials said they believed that the attack was the work of the Tamil
Tigers and aimed at Minister Douglas Devananda a Tamil Minister, who
has survived at least four previous attempts by the Tamil Tigers on
his life. The minister, who was inside meeting the public on an open
day, escaped unhurt, police added.
"At 8:05 am today (an) LTTE handicapped female suicide cadre exploded
herself at the office of minister Douglas Devananda," in the heart
of the Sri Lanka capital, the Defence Ministry said in a statement.
The Public Relations Officer of the Ministry Social Service and Social
Welfare Stephen Peries succumbed to his injuries while two men from
the Minister's security staff were also wounded in the blast, one seriously,
Colombo national hospital spokeswoman Pushpa Soysa said.
Devananda, a vocal opponent of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam
(LTTE), once fought alongside the guerrillas before turning to politics
in the 1980s.
The minister, leader of the Eelam People's Democratic Party (EPDP)
-- a key ally in President Mahinda Rajapaksa's ruling coalition - was
in the building but escaped unhurt, a party spokesman said.
"The minister generally meets the public on Wednesdays to look
into their grievances. The woman blew herself up when the minister's
security personnel carried out a routine body check on her," the
EPDP spokesman said.
Police investigators at the scene said the Tamil suicide bomber was
disabled with polio and appeared to have wired her bra to explode when
it was tampered with. She also died in the blast.
Tiger suicide bombers usually don jackets with a manual detonating
device around waist level, police said.
Devananda survived a similar "bra bomb" attack in 2004.Wednesday's
attack came one day after Tiger leader Velupillai Prabhakaran declared
that Sri Lankan peace efforts were a waste of time and vowed to strike
back at the island's "genocidal" government.
"Those who plan to destroy the Tamil nation will in the end be
forced to face their own destruction," he said delivering his annual
policy speech from a jungle hideout in his northern fiefdom.
A reclusive leader, Prabhakaran launched a furious assault on the island's
Sinhalese majority accusing "The Sinhala nation" of "trying
to destroy the Tamil nation."
"It is unleashing unthinkable violence against another people.
It only desires to find a solution to the Tamil question through military
might and oppression," he said.
On Monday the island's defence secretary, Gotabhaya Rajapakse, said
that his forces were now going all out to kill Prabhakaran and recapture
the north of the country.
The 35-year-old conflict, which has left tens of thousands dead, has
escalated since 2004 when a peace deal began to unravel.
The government has this year wrested control of the east from the LTTE,
sunk several LTTE gun-running ships and earlier this month killed the
LTTE's political chief in an air raid.
The LTTE commemorated in July the 20th anniversary of their first-ever
suicide bombing by honouring 322 fighters who have killed themselves
in attacks.
The pro-rebel Puthinam.com website said the "Black Tigers"
had deployed 61 suicide bombers in the past year alone, many of them
women.
http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5hypJWWD9ww4hQudZ5VyS1FeKWmhA
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