Tigers destroy Jaffna building with time bomb
Tigers destroy Jaffna building with time bomb
COLOMBO (Reuter): A time bomb planted by Sri Lankan Tamil
Tiger guerrillas demolished the main administration building in
Jaffna yesterday as troops mopped up resistance in the former
rebel northern stronghold, defense officials said.
"Terrorists had set up an explosive device inside the
kachcheri (administration) building in Jaffna town," a military
spokesman said. "Around 11.45 a.m. one side of the building
collapsed as a result of an explosion."
He said there were no casualties in the blast, which came as
the government prepared to restore basic services to the battle-
scarred town.
Troops worked to flush out remaining Liberation Tigers of
Tamil Eelam (LTTE) rebels from newly captured areas of the town
center and to defuse a maze of mines and boobytraps planted to
delay their advance and inflict maximum casualties, officials
said.
On Sunday troops raised the national flag over the Jaffna
Fort, an ancient Dutch citadel which was the army's headquarters
before it pulled out of the town five years ago.
The military said any rebels caught in their net would have to
surrender or commit suicide.
The guerrillas' Voice of Tigers radio, monitored by Reuters in
the frontline town of Vavuniya, said yesterday that rebel
resistance and boobytraps had slowed the army's advance.
"While the government is engaged in false propaganda that the
LTTE have bolted from the Jaffna peninsula to escape the oncoming
army, it is very silent about the current fierce resistance of
the LTTE," the radio said.
The rebels have withdrawn to Killinochchi, on the northern
mainland, and to the jungles of Mullaitivu and Batticaloa in the
east.
Tiger radio reported firefights between rebel defenders and
government troops at the weekend after two army columns linked up
in the Jaffna fort area on Saturday, ringing the town center.
Troops were searching for hidden arms dumps which the rebels
were suspected to have left behind in Jaffna town for use later
by infiltrators, defense officials said.
They said the military was bracing for a massive Tiger
counterattack to avenge the loss of Jaffna, the rebels' spiritual
capital in their war for an independent homeland for minority
Tamils in the island's north and east. More than 50,000 people
have died in the 12-year war.
Officials said they want to restore power, water and other
basic supplies to the town to try to woo back its population,
forced by the rebels to evacuate before the army took control.
The government says at least 180,000 people have fled the
fighting in the Jaffna peninsula and crossed the Jaffna lagoon to
the northern mainland. Aid agencies put the number of people
displaced by the fighting at as high as 800,000.
Analysts say it will not be easy to get Tamil civilians to
resettle in Jaffna as they fear reprisals from the LTTE.
But they say the army must win the hearts and minds of the
refugees if President Chandrika Kumaratunga's "peace package"
offering devolution to minority Tamils is to succeed.
The government plans to rehabilitate Jaffna after liberating
it from the rebels, Housing, Construction and Public Utilities
Minister Nimal Siripala de Silva was quoted as saying in
yesterday's state-run Daily News.
De Silva urged southern Sinhalese youths to show goodwill and
help the government to rebuild the north. Youths who wished to
help would get free transport and other facilities, he said.