DATE=10/02/2000
TYPE=CORRESPONDENT REPORT
TITLE=LANKA / BLAST (L ONLY)
NUMBER=2-267351
BYLINE=VANDANA CHOPRA
DATELINE=COLOMBO
CONTENT=
VOICED AT:
INTRO: At least 19 people have been killed and more than 45 wounded in a bombing at an election rally in eastern Sri Lanka. Vandana Chopra reports from Colombo.
TEXT: A Sri Lankan military spokesperson says the blast at the election rally was triggered by a suicide bomber. Security officials say the blast occurred at the end of the rally, and the election candidate, a retired police intelligence officer, Mohammed Bayatullah was among those killed.
The election rally was organized by the ruling People's Alliance coalition at Muttur, 240 kilometers east of the capital, Colombo.
Police officials blame Tamil Tiger rebels for the blast.
Meanwhile, an independent monitoring group, the Center for Monitoring Election Violence, says there have been more than one-thousand incidents of election-related violence since campaigning began on September Third. At east 30 people have been killed in bomb attacks and other clashes between political parties.
Tamil Tiger rebels have stepped up attacks in the north and east as the country prepares for parliamentary elections on October 10th.
The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam are fighting a war for a separate homeland for the minority Tamils in a predominantly Sinhalese Sri Lanka. More than 60-thousand people have died in the 17-year ethnic war. (Signed)
NEB/VC/JWH
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