A candidate in Sri Lanka's parliamentary elections was shot dead yesterday in the first political killing in the run-up to next month's poll, police said, as the incident was blamed on Tamil rebels.
A political party expressed fears that the slaying of the ruling party candidate could herald more to come. At least 41 people were killed around the last parliamentary election in December 2001.
Two gunmen shot dead Sinnathamby Sunderapillai while he was in a hospital in the town of Batticaloa receiving treatment for a gunshot wound he suffered in an attack on Saturday, police said.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the killing, which came two days after the London-based human rights watchdog Amnesty International asked Tamil Tiger rebels not to kill opponents during the electoral campaign.
Local officials said they suspected Tamil Tiger rebels may have been involved in the killing. There was no immediate reaction from the rebel Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE).
"A police investigation is under way," spokesman for Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe's party, G.L. Peiris, told reporters in Colombo shortly after the slaying.
"We cannot at this stage speculate as to who was responsible," he said.
Sunderapillai, from the minority Tamil community, had sought to represent the prime minister's United National Party at the April 2 vote despite threats from pro-rebel groups for him to keep out of the contest.
The LTTE has its own political wing, but is not contesting the election, instead backing the moderate Tamil National Alliance (TNA) which includes guerrilla proxies.
Private election monitors said they have received complaints of widespread violence in the southern and north-central regions of the island and feared there could be an escalation of politically motivated attacks ahead of the poll.
Amnesty noted there were reports of more than 100 election-related incidents of violence, including 40 party activists who have been injured in clashes in southern and north-central regions, after the close of nominations last Tuesday.
Four people have also allegedly been abducted by the LTTE in the east of the island since the elections were announced, Amnesty said.
Buddhist monks contesting the elections said they feared more election-related killings, but were not taking extra precautions for their candidates despite the deteriorating security environment.
"This is just the first killing and unfortunately it won't be the last," monk Athuraliya Ratana said. "There is a already smear campaign against our candidates and they may want to eliminate us, but we pray for them too."
President Chandrika Kumaratunga called the election nearly four years ahead of schedule after accusing Wickremesinghe of making too many concessions to the Tigers in his bid to end an ethnic conflict which has claimed over 60,000 lives since 1972.
The election campaign for the December 2001 parliamentary election was marred by violence that left at least 41 people killed and over 700 wounded. Nine people were killed in a single incident on voting day.
Tens of thousands of Filipino Catholics yesterday twirled white cloths and chanted “Viva, viva,” as a centuries-old statue of Jesus Christ was paraded through the streets of Manila in the nation’s biggest annual religious event. The day-long procession began before dawn, with barefoot volunteers pulling the heavy carriage through narrow streets where the devout waited in hopes of touching the icon, believed to hold miraculous powers. Thousands of police were deployed to manage crowds that officials believe could number in the millions by the time the statue reaches its home in central Manila’s Quiapo church around midnight. More than 800 people had sought
DENIAL: Pyongyang said a South Korean drone filmed unspecified areas in a North Korean border town, but Seoul said it did not operate drones on the dates it cited North Korea’s military accused South Korea of flying drones across the border between the nations this week, yesterday warning that the South would face consequences for its “unpardonable hysteria.” Seoul quickly denied the accusation, but the development is likely to further dim prospects for its efforts to restore ties with Pyongyang. North Korean forces used special electronic warfare assets on Sunday to bring down a South Korean drone flying over North Korea’s border town. The drone was equipped with two cameras that filmed unspecified areas, the General Staff of the North Korean People’s Army said in a statement. South Korea infiltrated another drone
COMMUNIST ALIGNMENT: To Lam wants to combine party chief and state presidency roles, with the decision resting on the election of 200 new party delegates next week Communist Party of Vietnam General Secretary To Lam is seeking to combine his party role with the state presidency, officials said, in a move that would align Vietnam’s political structure more closely to China’s, where President Xi Jinping (習近平) heads the party and state. Next week about 1,600 delegates are to gather in Hanoi to commence a week-long communist party congress, held every five years to select new leaders and set policy goals for the single-party state. Lam, 68, bade for both top positions at a party meeting last month, seeking initial party approval ahead of the congress, three people briefed by
Cambodia’s government on Wednesday said that it had arrested and extradited to China a tycoon who has been accused of running a huge online scam operation. The Cambodian Ministry of the Interior said that Prince Holding Group chairman Chen Zhi (陳志) and two other Chinese citizens were arrested and extradited on Tuesday at the request of Chinese authorities. Chen formerly had dual nationality, but his Cambodian citizenship was revoked last month, the ministry said. US prosecutors in October last year brought conspiracy charges against Chen, alleging that he had been the mastermind behind a multinational cyberfraud network, used his other businesses to launder
RSS