Fresh killing in Lanka mars peace move

Sri Lankan activists of the nationalist Patriotic National Movement Group shout slogans and wave placards as they stage a demonstration opposite the Norwegian Embassy in Colombo yesterday. They claim that Norwegian peace facilitators are helping the Tamil Tigers to achieve their aim of creating a separate state in the north and eastern provinces and therefore should be asked to quit their facilitation role. PHOTO: AFP

Vanniasingham Vigneswaran, who spearheaded the Tamil Resurgence Movement, a known front organisation of the rebel Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), was gunned down in the town of Trincomalee, police said.

His movement had often clashed with the Sinhalese majority groups in Trincomalee where he opposed the erection of a Buddhist statue last year. He had also led several strike actions in the area in support of the Tigers.

Police in the multi-ethnic port town said investigations were at a very early stage and it was unclear who carried out the attack.

The killing came as Norway's International Development Minister Erik Solheim and his deputy Jon Hanssen-Bauer left the island after separate talks with President Mahinda Rajapakse and the Tiger leadership on saving their ceasefire.

The Norwegian peace brokers who travelled to neighbouring India to brief New Delhi on Friday about Oslo's latest peace moves in Sri Lanka had warned that escalating violence could undermine efforts to hold a fresh round of talks this month.

The talks, tentatively scheduled for April 19, were thrown into doubt after the Tigers insisted that Colombo should deliver on a promise made at a previous meeting in Switzerland last February to stop the paramilitary activities of rival Tamil groups.

"We urge both to stick to the letter of the agreement and deliver on what was promised," Solheim said Thursday, just before leaving the island.

He said the two "major issues" since the February talks were the suspected Tiger involvement in a suicide attack against a navy boat and Tamil demands that Sri Lanka disarm paramilitary units.

The Tiger proxy Tamil National Alliance (TNA) had planned to nominate Vigneswaran to replace a TNA legislator who was shot dead by an anti-Tiger gunman on Christmas day, the pro-rebel Tamilnet website said.