Sri Lanka says finds rebel grenades, cyanide at Supporting Catholic church
Pastor Dale Morgan
*Sri Lanka says finds rebel grenades, cyanide at Supporting Catholic church*
21 Feb 2007 12:32:25 GMT
Source: Reuters
COLOMBO, Feb 21 (Reuters) - Sri Lankan troops have found Tamil Tiger
rebel grenades, cyanide capsules and communications equipment stored in
a Catholic church in the island's besieged far northern Jaffna
peninsula, the military said on Wednesday.
The find comes amid a rash of suspected rebel ambushes and bomb attacks
against the military in the peninsula, which is cut off from the rest of
Sri Lanka by Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) lines.
"It is clear that the LTTE terrorists will use every means ... using
even supporting places of worship, to continue their campaign of
terror," the Media Centre for National Security said of the find in a
closed room in St. Mary's Catholic Church in Jaffna on Tuesday.
The Tigers, who wear cyanide capsules around their neck to avoid being
captured alive and are fighting a new chapter of a two-decade civil war
with the state, deny any involvement.
The find comes as the foes fight artillery duels across a shared
"border" that separates government from rebel territory in the far
north, where analysts fear the conflict could flare after a series of
major land and sea battles in recent months.
Emboldened by the capture of a key eastern Tiger stronghold, the
government has vowed to wipe out the rebels, reigniting a civil war that
has killed more than 67,000 people since 1983 and an estimated 4,000
people in the past year alone.
The foes have ignored repeated pleas from the international community to
halt the conflict.
Thursday will be the fifth anniversary of a tattered 2002 ceasefire pact
which now exists only on paper.