Culture of Violence Threatens to Engulf Whole Country

The assassination of Minister of Nation Building D M Dassanayake by a suspected LTTE claymore mine in a suburb of Colombo while on his way to Parliament has come within a week of the assassination of Opposition Parliamentarian T Maheswaran , said the National Peace Council.
The National Peace Council condemns this latest mindless killing of an elected politician, and the incidental deaths and injuries to civilians in the vicinity, which will further consolidate the culture of violence in the country and may be an indication of mayhem to follow.
Minister Dassanayake was essentially a provincial politician not playing any key role in the government nor was he in the front line of the prosecution of the war or an important protagonist in the ethnic conflict. His killing therefore suggests that any government politician can become a target for assassination by the LTTE.  In addition, that same day another claymore mine exploded in the vicinity of the Air Force Headquarters in Colombo, apparently targeting the Air Force Commander who had passed by a few minutes earlier. This followed the killing two days earlier of the LTTE’s internal intelligence head in an ambush by government forces. All these attacks have come in the immediate aftermath of the government’s termination of the Ceasefire Agreement, confirming the country’s continuing downward fall into violence.
The government claims that it has weakened the LTTE through military operations in the north, but we need to ask the question whether it can ensure safety and security for the civilian population who live in the north and east and elsewhere. The people of the north in particular are in great apprehension about the collateral damage that is being and can be inflicted on them.  We also fear that even if the government regains LTTE-held territory through military means, its inability to halt guerilla attacks within the north and east and outside it will sooner or later lead to a situation of mutual destruction. Therefore we believe that the sooner the conflicting parties decide to negotiate a new Ceasefire Agreement and arrive at a negotiated political solution, the more lives will be saved.
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