Srilanka is on Red Alert
Rajkumar Subramaniam
Sri Lanka on red alert for Tiger bomb attacks
Thu 20 Nov 97 - 03:54 GMT
COLOMBO, Nov 20 (AFP) - The already tight security in Colombo was
stepped up Thursday amid fears
of suicide bombings as Tamil Tiger guerrillas began marking "heroes
week," officials said.
A key road near the main telecommunications centre was closed to
vehicles on suspicion the Liberation
Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) would strike to commemorate cadres
killed in the drawn out separatist
conflict.
"These measures are only precautions against a terrorist attack," a
defence official said as more road blocks
and check points sprang up in the capital where infiltrators staged
a bomb attack on a power station on
Friday.
During "heroes week" last year, an LTTE suicide bomber blew himself
up in front of a police vehicle in the
north-eastern port town of Trincomalee but failed to kill his
intended target, the area's top police officer.
The LTTE's heroes week involves religious services as well as a
speech by Tiger supremo Velupillai
Prabhakaran who turns 43 years on Wednesday.
Prabhakaran urged his followers last year to struggle despite
intense military pressure against them in the
north of the country where security forces are currently leading a
major offensive.
In a four-page speech, a copy of which was sent here by the LTTE's
London office, Prabhakaran ridiculed
President Chandrika Kumaratunga's offer of talks to end the war that
has claimed more than 50,000 lives
since 1972.
"While issuing statements that she is prepared for talks with the
LTTE through third party mediation, she also
laid down ridiculous conditions that we should surrender arms before
talks," Prabhakaran said in his address
last year.
"No liberation movement with self-respect could accept such
humiliating conditions.
"We cannot gain our rights by pleading with the (majority) Sinhala
rulers. History has not recorded any
liberation struggle that has won without fighting, without
bloodshed, without death and destruction, without
sacrifices.
"Therefore let us struggle. Let us struggle with unfailing
determination until we drive the occupation army
from our soil, until we achieve the liberation of our nation."
Prabhakaran admitted in his address marking the end of ceremonies to
commemorate thousands of LTTE
cadres killed in action, that his fighters had lost considerable
territory to advancing government forces and
called it a tactical withdrawal as part of their guerrilla strategy.
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"thamizh nAddil ayalavarukku enna vElai, thAvum pulikku nAy entha mUlai"
-ParathithAsan
body for tamil land, life for tamil and soul for tamil culture
udampu thamizh maNNukku, ujir thamizikku, uLLam thamizh paNpAddukku
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"tharAsai muthalil edai pOdu" ezhaththu kavi kasi ananthan
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- Winston Churchill (during WW2)
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