Eight Sri Lankan sailors missing after their vessel was destroyed in an explosion blamed on Tamil Tiger rebels are presumed dead, the navy said yesterday.
"Until now we have only found debris, no survivors and no dead bodies," navy spokesman D.K.P. Dassanayake said. "They were thrown out by the blast and must have suffered severe injuries. After so many hours of searching, we have come to the conclusion that they are presumed dead."
Suspected rebels blew up their fishing boat late on Saturday to avoid capture by the nearby navy patrol vessel, leaving six rebels dead and eight government sailors missing. Eleven of the naval ship's 19 sailors were rescued.
The military blamed the blast on the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), but the rebels have denied involvement.
The incident in Kalpitiya, a fishing village 140km north of the capital, Colombo, was the most serious since government and rebel negotiators met in Geneva last month to try to salvage a four-year-old ceasefire.
The Norwegian-led Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission said yesterday it was too early to establish the details of the attack.
"The LTTE has denied any involvement; however, based on the mission's previous experience during the period of ceasefire, we feel that we cannot at this stage rule out LTTE's involvement," spokeswoman Helen Olafsdottir said.
"There has been a dangerous escalation of violence taking place over the last couple of weeks. This trend is extremely worrying as the parties prepare themselves to meet in Geneva for a second round of talks in four weeks time," she said.
A military statement said yesterday the incident occurred when the navy was conducting an operation to detect vessels suspected of smuggling arms to the rebels.
When the navy ship pulled alongside a fishing boat and ordered it to cut its engines, the trawler suddenly exploded.
"An LTTE craft, disguised as a multi-day fishing trawler, heavily laden with explosives, blew itself up, destroying a naval craft," the statement said. "The naval craft ... caught fire and sank."
Seevaratnam Puleedevan, a top rebel leader, denied involvement by the Sea Tigers -- the rebels' naval wing.
"We have checked with the Sea Tigers' western command. They have confirmed that they are not involved," Puleedevan said.
Tamil Tiger rebels have been battling the government since 1983 to create a separate state for ethnic minority Tamils, alleging discrimination by the majority Sinhalese.
More than 65,000 people died in the conflict before a ceasefire brokered by Norway was signed in 2002.
The truce has recently come under pressure, however, with more than 160 people, including at least 81 government security personnel, killed since last December.
In Geneva, both sides agreed to scale down violence and meet again on April 19-20.
On Feb. 11, suspected guerrillas blew up their boat off Sri Lanka's northwestern coast, killing all four rebels on board and injuring a sailor on a naval vessel that had approached.
CONFRONTATION: The water cannon attack was the second this month on the Philippine supply boat ‘Unaizah May 4,’ after an incident on March 5 The China Coast Guard yesterday morning blocked a Philippine supply vessel and damaged it with water cannons near a reef off the Southeast Asian country, the Philippines said. The Philippine military released video of what it said was a nearly hour-long attack off the Second Thomas Shoal (Renai Shoal, 仁愛暗沙) in the contested South China Sea, where Chinese ships have unleashed water cannons and collided with Philippine vessels in similar standoffs in the past few months. The China Coast Guard and other vessels “once again harassed, blocked, deployed water cannons, and executed dangerous maneuvers” against a routine rotation and resupply mission to
GLOBAL COMBAT AIR PROGRAM: The potential purchasers would be limited to the 15 nations with which Tokyo has signed defense partnership and equipment transfer deals Japan’s Cabinet yesterday approved a plan to sell future next-generation fighter jets that it is developing with the UK and Italy to other nations, in the latest move away from the country’s post-World War II pacifist principles. The contentious decision to allow international arms sales is expected to help secure Japan’s role in the joint fighter jet project, and is part of a move to build up the Japanese arms industry and bolster its role in global security. The Cabinet also endorsed a revision to Japan’s arms equipment and technology transfer guidelines to allow coproduced lethal weapons to be sold to nations
‘POLITICAL EARTHQUAKE’: Leo Varadkar said he was ‘no longer the best person’ to lead the nation and was stepping down for political, as well as personal, reasons Leo Varadkar on Wednesday announced that he was stepping down as Ireland’s prime minister and leader of the Fine Gael party in the governing coalition, citing “personal and political” reasons. Pundits called the surprise move, just 10 weeks before Ireland holds European Parliament and local elections, a “political earthquake.” A general election has to be held within a year. Irish Deputy Prime Minister Micheal Martin, leader of Fianna Fail, the main coalition partner, said Varadkar’s announcement was “unexpected,” but added that he expected the government to run its full term. An emotional Varadkar, who is in his second stint as prime minister and at
Thousands of devotees, some in a state of trance, gathered at a Buddhist temple on the outskirts of Bangkok renowned for sacred tattoos known as Sak Yant, paying their respects to a revered monk who mastered the practice and seeking purification. The gathering at Wat Bang Phra Buddhist temple is part of a Thai Wai Khru ritual in which devotees pay homage to Luang Phor Pern, the temple’s formal abbot, who died in 2002. He had a reputation for refining and popularizing the temple’s Sak Yant tattoo style. The idea that tattoos confer magical powers has existed in many parts of Asia