October 29: Troops poured into curfew-bound central Sri Lanka where police Sunday opened fire at rampaging mobs and killed at least one man and wounded several others, officials said.Inter-communal tensions led to riots Sunday following the massacre of 26 Tamil inmates at a detention centre in the central province, officials said.Prime Minister Ratnasiri Wickremanayake held an emergency meeting with top military commanders to bring the situation under control in the tea-growing Nuwara Eliya district where mobs set fire to a train and attacked buildings.Government officials said the authorities had taken a series of measures, including sending additional troops to the area, to quell the unrest and restore law and order.A local curfew imposed by the police was extended till dawn Monday after thousands of people from the minority Tamil community took to the streets and attacked public transport, shops and state buildings.The violence was triggered during a funeral in the area of a Tamil inmate who was massacred by a mob from the majority Sinhalese community at a rehabilitation centre on Wednesday."There is a tense situation. Vehicles have been stoned by protestors who demand that they must display a white flag as a sign of mourning," said a police official in Nuwara Eliya, 180 kilometres (112 miles) east of here.He said one man was killed and several others wounded when police opened fire on mobs in Talawakele town.The authorities were also grappling with fears that the separatist Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) will try to avenge Wednesday's massacre of 26 Tamil inmates at Bandarawela."It is possible that the Tigers could try to attack a Sinhalese village in the northeast to avenge the killings at Bandarawela," a senior police officer here said.The LTTE said they believed security forces were involved in organising gangs from the Sinhalese community to launch Wednesday's attack."The victims of this savagery are not members of the LTTE nor are they surrendered child soldiers," the LTTE said in a statement sent here from their London office."They are innocent Tamil youths arrested on suspicion and detained without trial under the notorious prevention of terrorism act. These young detainees have been protesting against their unjust arrest and demanding release."Officials said there could be a repeat of the violence seen last year when the air force bombed and killed 21 Tamil civilians in the northeastern Mullaitivu district on September 15. The air force said it was an accident.Four days later, suspected Tamil Tiger rebels massacred 54 Sinhalese villagers in a revenge attack in Ampara district."There could be a re-run of that situation and this means the military will have to step up security for villages that are threatened," a police spokesman said.The LTTE has issued a thinly veiled threat, saying: "The government of Sri Lanka should bear total responsibility for the serious consequences that might arise from continuing such genocide assaults on innocent Tamil detainees."United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan condemned the massacre of inmates and appealed for calm in Sri Lanka.The international human rights watchdog, Amnesty International, has condemned the killings and called for an impartial inquiry as well as a review of laws which allow detainees to be held for long periods without trial.President Chandrika Kumaratunga, who is also the commande-in-chief of the armed forces, appointed two teams of detectives to probe Wednesday's slaughter.
