Blood-splattered

It was a shocking and dangerous lapse of security that allowed a suicide bomber to get close enough to President Chandrika Kumaratunga at ...

It was a shocking and dangerous lapse of security that allowed a suicide bomber to get close enough to President Chandrika Kumaratunga at her final election rally to cause her injuries. Fortunately those injuries are said not to be serious and will leave her eyesight and other faculties unimpaired.

That it was a close shave is clear from the fact that 20 were killed, including several members of the presidential guard and a police chief. Two commissions of enquiry have been set up to go into this blast and one a few hours earlier at an opposition UNP rally which also killed several people. Only the most rigorous investigations followed by action will reassure Sri Lankans that internal security is in good hands.

Rarely has there been an assassination attempt as predictable as the one at Colombo’s Town Hall. It had all the marks of the LTTE. The whole scenario of a suicide bomber targeting a political leader in the confusion of an election meeting is tragically familiar from Sriperambudur. Then as now not only were lives lost because of weak security but the democratic process of elections was jeopardised as well.

Some form of ruthless action at this juncture could have been foreseen for reasons related to the military campaign in the north. In the irresponsible way of many Sri Lankan politicians, ministers in the government are pointing fingers at the opposition for being in league with V Prabhakaran. It is monstrous absurdity for the political establishment to be so divided at a time like this and not to recognise the LTTE’s game plan. The LTTE is not targeting one or other political formation, its aim is to demoralise the whole political establishment.

It is futile to relate the attempt on Kumaratunga’s life as a sign of willingness on Prabhakaran’s part to negotiate with the UNP’s Ranil Wickramasinghe should he emerge victorious at the polls. By now the LTTE has made it only too obvious it has no intention of seeking a compromise solution nor does it believe it can achieve its aims by any other means but violence.

Last month the Tigers overran ten Lankan army positions in the north and they have now forced the army to retreat from the Parantha base near Elephant’s pass. Political assassination was a means of pressing home these military advantages. The intention appears to have been to bring about widespread panic and confusion during which the LTTE would hope to make decisive military-political gains in the battle for the north.

A sympathy wave may well put Kumaratunga back in the saddle. Whoever does come to power will have to contend primarily with what amounts to the most serious setback to the sustained military campaign launched by the Kumaratunga government four years ago. A military debacle of this order raises questions about that strategy itself and about the means of pursuing it. However Sri Lankans vote on Tuesday, they must ardently hope that their politicians will see the light and realise they cannot defeat the LTTE when they are so divided themselves. A political consensus on devolution and related constitutional issues is the need of the hour.