Sri Lanka declared a state of emergency and soldiers searched homes and vehicles for suspects yesterday following the assassination of the country' foreign minister, which put the island's fragile peace process at risk. At least seven people were detained over the killing.
The government said yesterday it had not taken any action that would violate the ceasefire with the Tamil Tiger rebels, whom the military blames for the fatal attack on Foreign Minister Lakshman Kadirgamar, 73. The Tigers deny any role in the killing.
Kadirgamar, an ethnic Tamil who led efforts to ban the Tigers as a terrorist organization but later backed peace efforts, was shot in the head and chest at about 11pm on Friday and died in the National Hospital after midnight.
President Chandrika Kumaratunga declared a state of emergency after the attack, empowering authorities to detain without charge anyone suspected of taking part in terrorist activities and to search and demolish buildings.
She appealed to Sri Lankans "for calm and restraint in the face of this grave and cowardly attack" on Kadirgamar.
Troops took up positions around the capital, Colombo, and military spokesman Brigadier Daya Ratnayake said the military was checking all vehicles coming in and out of the city.
Military aircraft patrolled over rebel-held territory, monitoring any movement by the insurgents, and navy patrol boats guarded the coastline, some of which is Tiger-controlled, the military said.
Ratnayake has blamed the rebels for the killing.
"We have reasons to believe that he was killed by the Liberation Tigers of Tamileelam," he said, using the Tigers' official name. "He was always under threat."
But the rebels denied involvement, claiming the military took part in the slaying to undermine the peace process.
"We also know that there are sections within the Sri Lankan Armed forces operating with a hidden agenda to sabotage the ceasefire agreement," said the Tigers' political chief, S.P. Tamilselvan.
He urged Colombo thoroughly investigate the killing.
India called the assassination a "terrorist crime" and reiterated its support for Sri Lanka's fight against forces seeking to undermine its unity.
US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice denounced the assassination as "a vicious act of terror, which the United States strongly condemns," and urged Sri Lankans not to let the incident lead to a resumption of civil war.
Elite soldiers and policemen late Friday cordoned off the area where the killing occurred and conducted house-to-house searches.
Police officer Nimal Lewke said Kadirgamar was killed by two snipers who hid in a building near his heavily guarded home in Colombo's diplomatic district and fired through a ventilation hole in an upper floor. He was shot while emerging from his swimming pool.
Police found cheese and chocolates the alleged snipers ate while waiting for their target, along with a grenade launcher, apparently intended as a backup weapon.
Kadirgamar, an Oxford-educated lawyer, had led an international campaign against the Tigers, who remain on terrorist lists in five countries, including the US and Britain.
Kadirgamar was appointed foreign minister in April last year. He also held the position from 1994 to 2001.
The Tigers began fighting in 1983 for a separate homeland for ethnic Tamils, claiming discrimination by the majority Sinhalese. The conflict killed nearly 65,000 people before a ceasefire was brokered by Norway in 2002.
US President Donald Trump yesterday announced sweeping "reciprocal tariffs" on US trading partners, including a 32 percent tax on goods from Taiwan that is set to take effect on Wednesday. At a Rose Garden event, Trump declared a 10 percent baseline tax on imports from all countries, with the White House saying it would take effect on Saturday. Countries with larger trade surpluses with the US would face higher duties beginning on Wednesday, including Taiwan (32 percent), China (34 percent), Japan (24 percent), South Korea (25 percent), Vietnam (46 percent) and Thailand (36 percent). Canada and Mexico, the two largest US trading
AIR SUPPORT: The Ministry of National Defense thanked the US for the delivery, adding that it was an indicator of the White House’s commitment to the Taiwan Relations Act Deputy Minister of National Defense Po Horng-huei (柏鴻輝) and Representative to the US Alexander Yui on Friday attended a delivery ceremony for the first of Taiwan’s long-awaited 66 F-16C/D Block 70 jets at a Lockheed Martin Corp factory in Greenville, South Carolina. “We are so proud to be the global home of the F-16 and to support Taiwan’s air defense capabilities,” US Representative William Timmons wrote on X, alongside a photograph of Taiwanese and US officials at the event. The F-16C/D Block 70 jets Taiwan ordered have the same capabilities as aircraft that had been upgraded to F-16Vs. The batch of Lockheed Martin
China's military today said it began joint army, navy and rocket force exercises around Taiwan to "serve as a stern warning and powerful deterrent against Taiwanese independence," calling President William Lai (賴清德) a "parasite." The exercises come after Lai called Beijing a "foreign hostile force" last month. More than 10 Chinese military ships approached close to Taiwan's 24 nautical mile (44.4km) contiguous zone this morning and Taiwan sent its own warships to respond, two senior Taiwanese officials said. Taiwan has not yet detected any live fire by the Chinese military so far, one of the officials said. The drills took place after US Secretary
THUGGISH BEHAVIOR: Encouraging people to report independence supporters is another intimidation tactic that threatens cross-strait peace, the state department said China setting up an online system for reporting “Taiwanese independence” advocates is an “irresponsible and reprehensible” act, a US government spokesperson said on Friday. “China’s call for private individuals to report on alleged ‘persecution or suppression’ by supposed ‘Taiwan independence henchmen and accomplices’ is irresponsible and reprehensible,” an unnamed US Department of State spokesperson told the Central News Agency in an e-mail. The move is part of Beijing’s “intimidation campaign” against Taiwan and its supporters, and is “threatening free speech around the world, destabilizing the Indo-Pacific region, and deliberately eroding the cross-strait status quo,” the spokesperson said. The Chinese Communist Party’s “threats
RSS