Civil war looms in Sri Lanka after killing

Masked gunmen opened fire at a Catholic Mass commemorating the anniversary of the tsunami in Sri Lanka on Dec. 25, killing a Tamil politician and wounding a dozen others, including two nuns. Joseph Pararajasingham, 71, a political voice for Sri Lanka's Tamil rebels, was murdered as he attended a midnight Mass with his wife and family at his side. It was the latest in a series of attacks that international mediators fear could signal a return to war on the island. The Sri Lankan government and the rebel Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) blamed each other for the shooting at St. Mary's Church in Batticaloa, 190 miles east of Colombo. Witnesses said that the Tamil politicians' bodyguards returned fire but the assailants escaped. According to one witness Pararajasingham had just received Holy Communion when he was shot in the chest. "There was panic after the shots were fired in front of a packed congregation of hundreds. People generally know who did it but they are afraid to talk," he said. The politician represented the Tamil National Alliance, a proxy party of the LTTE, which has been fighting the government for three decades for a homeland for Sri Lanka's 3.2 million Tamil minority. In a statement a Sri Lankan government official blamed the rebel Tamil Tigers, who have spent the past three decades fighting for the partition of the island. But the Tamil Tigers blamed the government for the attack, claiming that it was carried out by a renegade faction of Tamils backed by the Sri Lankan military. Batticaloa, which suffered huge losses in the tsunami, has been the scene of several bloody battles between the rebels and government forces after a Tamil commander and his followers split from the main insurgency group last year. The assassination of Pararajasingham is the most high-profile since Lakshman Kadirgamar, the foreign minister, was shot dead in August. The Batticaloa attack underlines a worsening security situation in Sri Lanka's troubled north and east amid fears of a return to civil war. Five people were killed in clashes near the town on Dec. 24, a day after 18 others, including 15 Sri Lankan sailors, died in suspected Tamil rebel attacks. This week Mahinda Rajapakse, who won presidential elections last month, reiterated an offer to hold talks with the rebels, saying that he was "ready for talks as soon as the Tigers are ready." Japan has offered to host the talks. But the Tigers are insisting that they be held in Norway, a demand rejected by Colombo. On the anniversary of the tsunami, Sri Lanka's key financial backers, the United States, the European Union, Japan and Norway, have urged the Tigers to end the latest cycle of violence. They have promised billions of dollars to rebuild the country's war-shattered economy if the two sides show progress in ending 30 years of bloodshed that has claimed more than 65,000 lives.