| |
NEIGHBOURS: SRI LANKA
Body Blow
More than crippling the Colombo airport and the air
force, the Tamil separatists' suicide mission has grounded Kumaratunga's
peace initiative
By Christine Jayasinghe in Colombo
|
|
|
|
|
DEVASTATED: Officials inspect the body of a suicide bomber
and the havoc he caused at Bandaranaike airport
|
The security guards
at the Bandaranaike International Airport, 33 km from Colombo city, should
have noticed the luxury passenger bus that drove up and parked at a field
nearby on July 23 evening. After all, the airport and the adjoining air
force base at Katunayake are among the most heavily guarded complexes
in Sri Lanka. The passengers wore uniforms and pretended to be soldiers
on a picnic-not an unusual sight in the area. But as darkness descended,
they were seen unloading sacks and walking along the railway line that
runs parallel to the road encircling the air force base. They are then
supposed to have cut a hole in the wire fence, inexplicably left unguarded,
and slipped into the air base.
For the Government it proved to be a costly
lapse. At 4 a.m. the next morning, 14 suicide bombers of the Liberation
Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) crippled Sri Lanka's national passenger airliner,
seriously dented its air force capability and caused a major setback to
the peace process in the war-torn island. Armed with AK-56 rifles, machine
guns, grenade launchers, explosives chargers and bombs, the rebels first
attacked the air force facility. Within minutes they destroyed eight aircraft
including two Israel-built Kfir supersonic bombers, a Ukrainian MiG 27
and and two Mi-24 helicopter gunships.
The rebels then ran into the airport, firing
mortar shells that destroyed three Airbus aircraft of the SriLankan Airlines
parked at the apron and damaged two others. Fortunately, there were no
passengers aboard the airliner. The explosions sparked panic among the
1,000 travellers inside the airport terminal. Abandoning passports, luggage
and money, they grabbed their children and rushed out of the building,
dodging bullets. Later, recounting their harrowing experience, tourists
related that they had to hide in ditches to evade whizzing rockets. It
was around midday that the government forces finally managed to regain
control of the airport. While all the LTTE fighters were killed in the
attack, the security forces lost seven of their personnel.
To hasten normalcy, the Government was quick
to lift the curfew around the island's only international airport, declaring
it operational barely 12 hours after the attack. But the stark images
of the charred wreckage of 13 aircraft and the mutilated bodies of Black
Tiger suicide bombers linger. Tourism officials scrambled to limit the
damage but could do little about the spate of cancellations that poured
in for the busy winter season this year-and perhaps the next. Cancelled
flights meant that around 4,000 people were left stranded on Tuesday,
including tourists from Britain, Italy and Germany as well as Indian business
travellers. Several foreign governments have advised their citizens not
to travel to Sri Lanka. For an economy crippled by almost two decades
of violence, it portends grim times ahead. The Central Bank has already
lowered this year's GDP growth target to 4.5 per cent, down from last
year's 6 per cent.
|
|
METRO TODAY
Web
Exclusives
