RI condemns Sri Lankan FM's assassination
RI condemns Sri Lankan FM's assassination
Ivy Susanti, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
Indonesian government condemned on Sunday the assassination of
Sri Lankan Foreign Minister Lakhsman Kadirgamar and expressed
hope that the minister's death would not create instability in
the country.
"We are saddened by the news of Foreign Minister Lakshman
Kadirgamar's murder. We strongly condemn the incident. It is our
hope that this tragic incident will not cause negative
repercussions on peace and stability in Sri Lanka," said
Indonesian foreign ministry spokesman Marty Natalegawa.
He said Indonesia extended its condolences to Kadirgamar's
family and the Sri Lankan government and its people.
"Mr. Kadirgamar was a good friend of Indonesia, and we will
surely miss him," Marty said over the phone.
Kadirgamar was shot in the head and heart about 11 p.m. on
Friday (midnight Jakarta time) by suspected rebel Tamil Tiger
snipers though the rebel group has denied involvement in the
assassination. The 73-year-old minister died in the National
Hospital after midnight.
He had visited Jakarta several times, most recently during the
tsunami summit in January and the Asian-African Summit in April.
Kadirgamar, an Oxford-trained lawyer who belonged to the
minority ethnic Tamil, spearheaded a campaign that led to the
Tigers being outlawed abroad, including in the United States and
Britain, and was one of the most tightly protected Sri Lankan
ministers with nearly 100 elite bodyguards.
He was bitterly opposed to the decades of civil war that have
claimed more than 60,000 lives on the island nation since 1972.
President Chandrika Kumaratunga declared a state of emergency
after the assassination, but the capital Colombo was calm on
Sunday with lightly stepped up security checks.
Top Sri Lankan officials warned that the killing was a major
setback to the fragile peace process -- and cast doubt on the
rebel Tamil Tiger's insistence that they were not behind the
attack.
Sri Lankan Defense Ministry's Spokesman, Brig. Daya Ratnayake,
said on Sunday that security forces had arrested 12 minority
Tamils in connection with Kadirgamar's assassination
The overnight arrests came during raids by police and soldiers
deployed to search the capital for suspects, Ratnayake said.
The 11 Tamil men and one woman arrested were "being
interrogated, but at this moment of time we don't want to say
anything," he was quoted by AP as saying.
He said a three-year-old cease-fire with the rebel Tamil
Tigers was holding. "From our side there is no change. We are
honoring the cease-fire," he said.
The Tigers began fighting in 1983 for a separate homeland for
ethnic Tamils, claiming discrimination by the majority Sinhalese.
The civil war killed nearly 65,000 people in the country of 19
million before a Norwegian-brokered cease-fire in 2002.
But subsequent peace talks broke down over rebel demands for
greater autonomy in the areas under their control in eastern and
northern Sri Lanka.