Bishops repeat call for 'peace zone' after terror attack

Church leaders in Sri Lanka have repeated demands for a "peace zone" around the popular Roman Catholic shrine at Madhu near Mannar in the north of the country after an anti-personnel mine killed 18 Catholics and injured many more near the religious site.

"It is sad that the government and the LTTE [Tamil rebels] have not responded positively to the repeated requests to declare the area around the Madhu church as a peace zone," said Anglican Bishop Duleep de Chickera of Colombo.

The blast on January 29 took place in a region of Sri Lanka under the control of the rebel Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, who are fighting for autonomy for Tamil-majority areas in the north and east of the island.

The rebels accused a government "deep penetration" unit of laying the mine, while the government said the rebels were responsible for the blast.

The fighting in Sri Lanka, where the Sinhalese ethnic group is in a majority, pits government forces against rebels from the Tamil minority.

All the victims of the attack near Madhu were children or relatives of staff at the shrine, which is the biggest Catholic pilgrim center in Sri Lanka.

"Had this daunting concept [of a peace zone] received the co-operation of both sides, civilian casualties in this area would have been reduced," Chickera said.

Catholic Bishop Rayappu Joseph of Mannar has also called for the area around the Madhu shrine to be designated as a zone of peace.

"The perpetration of war and violence that is plunging our country into darkness, chaos and destruction has resulted in another unbearable civilian tragedy one kilometer away from the Sacred Shrine of Our Lady of Madhu," he said.

Meanwhile, a series of further bomb blasts struck Sri Lanka in the days leading up to the 60th anniversary of this Indian Ocean island's independence from Britain on February 4.

On February 2, an explosion killed 20 people on a bus packed with Buddhist pilgrims on their way to the Anuradhapura Buddhist shrine. The following day, the Fort railway station in Colombo was rocked when a female suicide bomber detonated explosives. Another 12 people died on February 4 when a civilian bus hit a roadside bomb at Ethavatunuwawa in Sri Lanka's north-central province.

Source: episcopal-life.org