8A
Thursday, February 1, 1996
UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
Attack ravages Sri Lankan capital
Suicide bombing collapses bank kills at least 53
The Associated Press
COLOMBO, Sri Lanka — In one of the worst attacks in Sri Lanka's 12-year civil war, a truck packed with explosives rammed into the Central Bank yesterday, igniting towering fires in the business and tourist district. At least 53 people died, including the driver, and 1,400 were wounded.
Authorities blamed the attack and a fireball caused by a rocket-propelled grenade moments earlier on the Tamil Tiger rebels, whose 12-year armed campaign for an independent homeland has killed almost 40,000 people. There were no immediate claims of responsibility.
In the chaos after the midday attack, dozens of people were trapped atop burning buildings waving for help. Helicopter gunships tried to pluck survivors from rooftops but were repelled by the heat. Many were rescued by ladders. Those on the streets were taken away in public buses and private cars.
As darkness fell, soldiers armed with assault rifles patrolled the center of Colombo, and drizzling rain forced rescuers to scale back their hunt through unsteady buildings for bodies and survivors.
The director of the National Hospital's trauma unit, Hector Weerasinghe, told The Associated Press that 53 people died. About 1,060 injured people were admitted to two hospitals, 100 in critical condition. Scores of people released after treatment raised the estimated number of injured to 1,400.
Most of the dead and wounded
were in the Central Bank building, where Sri Lanka's gold reserves are held and the country's financial policy is made.
Bank guard Prasanna Wijewardana said a blue truck with three men drove into the security barricade outside the bank. Two men leaped out and started firing automatic weapons.
During the gunfire, a rocket-propelled grenade landed in front of a nearby office building, gougling a crater and shattering windows at The Associated Press office 100 yards away.
Police said the driver of the truck died in the explosion. Hours later, they arrested two others seen fleeing with automatic rifles about a mile from the blast.
The bank building burst into flames, which spread to a half-dozen other buildings. The fires raged for much of the day and thick black smoke blanketed the city, hampering rescue efforts.
The explosion caused the first two floors of the 10-story Central Bank to collapse. The building is a few hundred yards from President Chandrika Kumaratunga's office, the naval headquarters and other government buildings.
City streets were an impenetrable mass of twisted metal, fallen bricks and wrecked office furniture.
Amid the debris outside the bank, police found a small card printed with the message: "This vehicle is carrying 4,000 kilograms (8,800 pounds) of explosives. If you try to stop us, we will blow it up."
Officials blamed Tamil Tiger rebels, and claimed that they were trying to unhinge a government plan to give the Tamil minority greater regional autonomy and end the war. There was no immediate statement from the Tigers, who rarely claim responsibility for their attacks.
NATO removes barriers, rejoins Sarajevo
The Associated Press
SARAJEVO, Bosnia-Herzegovina — NATO troops have rejoined a Serb-held section of Sarajevo to the rest of the city. They pushed away metal containers and other barriers that had divided the capital's inhabitants for 3 1/2 years.
Sarajevo residents awoke to a surprise yesterday. The Bridge of Brotherhood and Unity, a link over the Miljakara river was open again.
"It's so wonderful," said Maja Davic, a Serb woman. "This is a symbol of the normal life we can live
again."
Serbs on the southern side could watch the streetcars hurtling by in the government-held sector. Muslims looking south saw the avenue leading into the Grbavica neighborhood.
Still, suspicions threaten Sarajevo's Serbs and Muslims later the physical barricades are swept aside.
In Ildza, another Serb-held section of Sarajevo, unidentified gunmen wounded a British NATO driver late yesterday and fired at a NATO Land Rover. Two days before, a U.S. officer was hit in the neck by a sniper's bullet.
NATO officials attribute the shootings to apprehension in Serb-held areas about handing territory to the Muslim-led government by March 19.
Many Serbs would rather leave than have their sectors submit to government control, as stipulated by the U.S.-brokered peace agreement.
The government, meanwhile, has
been demanding that Serbs account for Muslims missing in the war. Muslims seeking information about their loved ones rioted Monday and Tuesday in Tuzla, the northeastern city, headquarters for the 20,000 U.S. troops.
However, the city was peaceful Monday and a Red Cross representative denied reports the organization had suspended operations.
Despite the will for reconciliation, difficulties persisted at the Grbavica crossing.
Serb police arrested and slapped two teen-agers who tried to cross without official permission. Both sides were letting in only those on the approved lists.
The list system began during the war to permit brief reunions of a few
aging or dying relatives.
French NATO troopers supervising shrugged when asked why people were not allowed to cross.
"It's up to the two sides to get their act together," a French soldier said.
Sinisa, a Serb policeman, said he was enforcing orders. But he said he went to the other side to bum a local cigarette available only in government-held Sarajevo.
"I was the first one over last night when they cleared away the barriers," he said. "I approached one of their cops and said, 'how about a Drina?'
"We shook hands and we talked, I knew him from before the war," he said. "It was like darkness was lifting and was being replaced by sunshine."
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
please pick up all of it..
ATTN:STUDENTS
Board of Class Officers(BOCO) will be taking nominations for
the C.L.A.S.S. Award Citation for Leadership and Achievement in Student Services
Nominations will be taken Jan. 31 and Feb. 1 at a table in the Kansas Union from 10-2:00 p.m.