| Sri Lanka rebels express 'deep regret' for attack on ambassadors - Govt put their life at risk |
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 Sri Lanka's Tamil Tiger rebels have expressed "deep regret" for an artillery attack which wounded three Western diplomats but accused the government of risking their lives by taking them to a war zone.The rebels said the Sri Lankan government and the diplomats had failed to inform them that they would be flying in two military helicopters into an area where only the air force operated.
The shelling reportedly stopped after a UN official contacted the rebels and said that diplomats were in the two helicopters. The Italian, German and US Ambassadors to Sri Lanka were slightly injured when rebels shelled a delegation of diplomats led by the island's human rights minister. Hospital officials in the eastern district of Batticaloa treated Italian Ambassador Pio Mariani and German envoy Jurgen Weerth, and said they were then evacuated to the capital Colombo. US Ambassador Robert Blake's arm was grazed either by shrapnel or a stone, the military said, but he was not taken to hospital and his embassy said he was fine and unharmed. The attack came as helicopters carrying Disaster Management and Human Rights Minister Mahinda Samarasinghe as well as ambassadors from the United States, European Union, Germany and France landed in Batticaloa on a goodwill mission. "Due to Tiger shelling, the two helicopters were slightly damaged. They took off, but the US, Italian and German ambassadors had already got off and received minor injuries," said Lieutenant-Colonel Upali Rajapaksa of the Media Centre for National Security. "The act of shelling this delegation is a very serious thing by the Tigers," he added. "It shows the Tigers' callous disregard for the betterment of civilians in the east." Mr Samarasinghe was taking the ambassadors to the area where security forces last month captured a key stronghold of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE). The attack came days after the fifth anniversary of a truce between troops and the rebels. The ceasefire is holding only on paper, according to Scandinavian truce monitors. The Oslo-backed peace process suffered yet another blow last week when the Tigers vowed to resume their campaign for independence and statehood, scrapping a 2002 pledge to agree to a federal solution to end decades of ethnic conflict. The US and the European Union have banned the rebels, but also called on the Colombo government to try and resume negotiations to peacefully end a conflict which has claimed more than 60,000 lives since 1972. Last month, US ambassador Blake warned Sri Lanka against a military solution and urged the government to share power with Tamil Tiger rebels and end decades of ethnic bloodshed. "We remain unwavering in our conviction that there can be no military solution to this terrible conflict," Mr Blake said at the opening of a two-day meeting to review foreign aid to the island. Courtesy: http://www.radioaustralia.net.au/news/stories/s1858679.htm |
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