EU condemns suicide blast which killed minister

The European Commission, the executive of the European Union, on Monday strongly condemned the suicide bombing in Sri Lanka on Sunday which killed 14 people including a government minister.

"I am deeply shocked by yesterday's heinous attack on minister of roads Jeyaraj Fernandopulle near Colombo," said Benita Ferrero-Waldner, EU commissioner for external relations in a statement on Monday.

"I strongly condemn this suicide attack, which not only killed Minister Fernandopoulle and 14 civilians but also injured many innocent bystanders," she said.

Fernandopoulle was killed by a suicide bomber as he flagged off a marathon race near Colombo on Sunday. He was reportedly a vocal critic of the separatist rebels of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam.

The government blamed the LTTE rebels for the attack.

"The EU condemns all forms of terrorism and violence against civilians. The EU continues to believe that there can be no military solution to the conflict in Sri Lanka and only a negotiated settlement can open the way for a lasting peace," said Ferrero-Waldner.

Reports said that Sri Lankan airforce jets on Monday bombed and destroyed a base used by the Tamil Tiger rebels.

The Sri Lankan defence ministry said that the airforce jets destroyed a base suspected of being used to train suicide bombers in the rebel-held north.

Tamil rebels have been blamed for a series of blasts in Colombo and elsewhere in Sri Lanka this year after the government pulled out of a 2002 Norwegian-brokered ceasefire in January this year.

The minister for nation building, DM Dassanayake, was killed in a bombing on 8 January, days after the government pulled out of the ceasefire.

Since 1983, the Tamil Tigers have been fighting for an independent homeland for ethnic minority Tamils after decades of marginalisation by governments run by the Sinhalese majority. More than 70,000 people have been killed in the fighting.

Source: adnkronos.com