DATE=1/8/2000
TYPE=CORRESPONDENT REPORT
TITLE=SRI LANKA DETAINEES (L-ONLY)
NUMBER=2-257896
BYLINE=VANDANA CHOPRA
DATELINE=COLOMBO
CONTENT=
VOICED AT:
INTRO: The Sri Lankan government has released all but
50 ethnic Tamils detained in Friday's anti-rebel
crackdown when curfew was imposed in the Capital
Colombo. Police officials say some 14-hundred people
detained during the surprise 12-hour curfew were
released after questioning. Vandana Chopra has the
details from Colombo.
TEXT: The Sri Lankan government ordered a strict
curfew Thursday night during which five-thousand
police and soldiers combed Colombo receiving
intelligence reports that several rebel suicide
bombers had infiltrated the city.
Government authorities ordered the search after
Wednesday's bomb blast that killed 13 people and
wounded 27 others.
The explosion was triggered by a suspected Tamil rebel
suicide bomber near Prime Minsiter Sirimavo
Bandaranaike's office in Colombo. It was the third
bombing in recent weeks blamed on Tiger separatists.
The police later arrested the parents and sister of
the suicide bomber.
Last month, President Chandrika Kumaratunga was
wounded by shrapnel in an assasination bid by a
suspected Tamil rebel suicide bomber on the last day
of presidential election campaigning. A second bomb
exploded the same night nearby at an opposition
election rally. More than three dozen people were
killed and scores injured.
Days after surviving the assassination bid Ms.
Kumaratunga won a second six-year term as president
with just over 51 percent of the vote in the December
21st elections.
Meanwhile, life returned to normal in Colombo
Saturday as banks, offices and shops re-opened.
However police said two Tamil rebels were arrested
yesterday (Friday) after they confessed to planning
bomb attacks in the town of Kandy.
Tiger rebels are fighting for a separate homeland for
the minority Tamil commnunity in Sri Lanka's north and
east. (SIGNED)
NEB/VC/PLM
08-Jan-2000 06:09 AM EDT (08-Jan-2000 1109 UTC)
NNNN
Source: Voice of America
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