SRI LANKA: Powerful Blast in Colombo Shatters Economic Recovery

By Feizal Samath Reprint | | Print |

Feizal Samath

COLOMBO, Oct 15 1997 (IPS) - A massive bomb blast that rocked Sri Lanka’s capital Wednesday morning and killed at least nine people and injured scores of others, including many tourists, is a severe setback to the country’s tourist industry and economy just as it was on the road to recovery, officials said.

“We are back to square one, just as we were getting out of the woods,” said a top government economist, who is involved in drafting a key economic policy.

Military sources said suspected Tamil rebels drove a vegetable truck into the car park of the plush Galadari hotel, just opposite President Chandrika Kumaratunga’s office, and blew up the vehicle around 0710 hours, in a typical suicide attack.

The blast destroyed the car park, parked vehicles, wrecked the hotel’s ballroom and the back of the towering World Trade Centre, the tallest building on the island. It shattered windows and property of the president’s office and other buildings in the city centre.

The explosion could be heard at least 10-15 km away, residents reported. The sources said the rebel group, believed to be between 10 to 30, broke away in various directions firing at will and were involved in a two-hour gun battle with troops who rushed from the nearby army headquarters and airforce base.

At least one hundred people were injured, many foreign tourists, in the attack. The centre houses many posh offices and buildings but few people were around since Wednesday is Full Moon Poya — a sacred day revered monthly by Buddhists and also a national holiday.

Everything shuts down including bars and small restaurants on ‘poya’. Details of the attack were sketchy as very little information percolated from official channels. In a brief statement, the Ministry of Defence was quoted as saying that “the security forces were able to kill a number of terrorists who were involved in the explosion.”

“Over 50 civilians were injured and a number of private properties and office buildings were damaged in the explosion. It is believed that this brutal action was carried out by LTTE terrorists,” it said.

The Tigers, in a statement from an overseas office, have reportedly denied the attack but the rebels are known to have previously denied such massive strikes.

Military sources said the attackers had taken some workers hostage at the nearby offices of the state-run ‘Daily News’ and were holed up in the building surrounded by troops.

Intermittent gunfire could be heard, they said. Up to 1400 hours local time, the rebels were still inside the building. All roads to the city were sealed off and security tightened.

The motive for Wednesday’s attack was not immediately known but could be linked to last week’s ban by the United States on 30 groups, including Sri Lanka’s LTTE. The rebels are fighting for a separate state in the north and the east in a 14-year campaign that has killed more than 50,000 people, including combatants from both sides, and has left scores injured or maimed.

The United States, after much prodding by Sri Lanka to curb massive fund-raising by Tiger guerrillas, finally announced that the rebels were among 30 groups listed as banned in the U.S.

The rebels raise most of their cash, to buy weapons and keep the organisation afloat, through Tamil expatriates living in western capitals. The group is also known to own several seemingly-respectable companies that are involved in different kinds of business, some in shipping to ferry arms to Sri Lanka’s northern and eastern territories.

Kumaratunga was not in her office at the time of the blast but later in the morning was due to chair a serious political discussion at the Bandaranaike Memorial International Conference Hall of her People’s Alliance coalition group to discuss the government’s proposals to end the island’s ethnic conflict.

However, party officials said, the meeting was not held in view of the security situation. The government economist, who declined to be named, told IPS that the attack would deal a severe blow to the economy, and tourism in particular. The country’s usual winter season is due to begin and tourist arrivals were expected to improve this year.

It was just three days ago, that Kumaratunga officially declared open the 39-storey twin-towers of the World Trade Centre owned by Singaporean property tycoon S.P. Tao, and promised to make the country the financial hub of South Asia. The complex which has been in operation for several months houses the Central Bank, the Colombo stock exchange, several banks and private

offices.

The president is also due to lead a high-powered government and private sector delegation for a Commonwealh summit next week where she is expected to promote Sri Lanka as a growing financial centre.

“All this (promotion) would be on the backburner now. We can’t achieve our targeted growth rate of 6 percent this year,” the economist said.

Early last year, the rebels drove a similar truck into the front of the Central Bank — also in the vicinity of the Galadari hotel — and triggered a massive blast that destroyed several floors and killed at least 80 people. Again tourism was the first casualty from that attack, with the number of tourists falling sharply after that.