Lakshman Kadirgamar assassinated in Colombo
An Island wide emergency was declared in Sri Lanka following the assassination of
foreign affairs minister Lakshman Kadirgamar in Colombo.Kadirgamar was shot fatally by
unknown snipers at his private residence at 36 Bullers Lane in Colombo Seven referred
to generally as cinnamon gardens. The shooting occurred in the night at about 11. 10
pm on Friday Aug 12th. Kadirgamar was taken to the Colombo National Hospital in a
critical condition. Emergency surgery was begun after 12.05 am but Kadirgamar was
pronounced dead at 12. 17 am.
Kadirgamar, who had presided on 12th night at the launch of a journal he edited,
returned to his private residence for a swim and was going inside after swimming 1000
metres when the sniper shot him thrice in the head and the chest, apparently from a
neighbouring residence, where the police later found ammunition and a tripod.
Kadirgamar had revealed in a media interview that he swam 1000 metres 3 or 4 times a
week. The assassins are suspected of having noted that regularity and planned their
killing accordingly.
The 73-year-old Mr. Kadirgamar, who has been foreign minister from 1994 to 2001 and
again from April last year and played a major role in national and international affairs.
National Hospital Director Dr. Anil Jayasinghe confirmed the death of Minister
Kadirgamar.Dr. Anil Jayasinghe said : "He was nearly dead when he was brought in. We
are not in a position to say how many injuries he sustained. We have to wait for the JMO
inquiry."
Military sources said the minister was shot once on the head and on the chest and the
fatal shot was on the chest.
President Kumaratunga, Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapakse and other senior ministers
rushed to the hospital upon hearing of the shooting. Kumaratunga was in a highly
emotional state and was visibly upset.
Colombo DIG Pujitha Jayasundera who was at the scene said it was suspected Mr.
Kadirgamar had been shot by a sniper around 11 - 11.30 pm.
The area was cordoned off with the police sweeping the area for the assassins.
Mr. Kadirgamar in the evening attended a function at the BMICH to launch the journal of
the Bandaranaike Centre for International Studies from where he had returned to his
private residence.
Addressing the gathering at the BCIS auditorium, Mr. Kadirgamar said the journal was his
dream project and he presented the first copy to Indian High Commissioner Nirupama
Rao. The journal was titled "International Relations in a Globalised World:.
Security was tightened around Colombo city. Helicopters with search lights hovered
around the area searching for the assassin while emergency road blocks were set up at
the main roads.
A fortnight ago three persons with suspected LTTE links were arrested by police when
they were caught videoing Minister Kadirgamar's official residence at Wijerama Mawatha.
They were arrested by the Ministerial Security Division while videoing the residence and
the surrounding area.
Mr. Kadirgamar, a Tamil protestan Christian with Jaffna roots , carried out an intense
international campaign against LTTE" terrorism" to get the organization banned in Britain
and other Western countries.
Mr. Kadirgamar was among the most protected Sri Lankan leaders and lived in a heavily
fortified official residence.
The high security protection continued even after the People's Alliance lost power and
the United National Party took over the reins. Mr. Kadirgamar once again became the
Foreign Affairs Minister after the United People's Freedom Alliance (UPFA) won last
year's snap general poll. Over the years, Mr. Kadirgamar had restricted his public
movements and largely worked from his official residence.
Agency reports said government officials declined to comment on who was to blame for
the shooting, but Inspector-General of Police Chandra Fernando blamed it on the LTTE.
"It's the Tigers,'' he told reporters.
"The Minister had just returned from a swim and was getting inside his home when he
was shot,'' Mr. Fernando said. He said there were two snipers hiding in buildings nearby.
Kadirgamar had been given security second only to that of President Kumaratunga. At
least 100 personnel were detailed on a daily basis.Yet Kadirgamar was always prepared
for death at the hands of the LTTE.
"They [LTTE] can get me anytime. I get very serious reports things are hotting up," Sri
Lankan Foreign Affairs Minister Lakshman Kadirgamar told The Hindu correspondent VS
Sambandan on July 29 during an informal interaction.
Mr. Kadirgamar, an ardent cricket fan, was talking about the possibility of his watching the
tri-series cricket match that was to be held in Colombo.
"There is no question of me going to the ground," he said with a note of trepidation
"Hindustan Times" special correspondent in Colombo PK Balachanddran had this to say
about Kadirgamar-
"Urbane and articulate, with a penchant for an attractive turn of phrase, Sri Lanka's
Former Foreign Minister, Lakshman Kadirgamar (73), had always been a journalist's
delight. Mediapersons would throng his press conferences not just because he would
have something significant to say, but because he had a way with words which made for
excellent copy.
Having been a leading light of the Oxford Debating Society as a student at Balliol
College, Kadirgamar brought to his legal practice and political career back in Sri Lanka
an unusually analytical mind and a persuasiveness which few of his adversaries could
match.
As a lawyer, Kadirgamar touched the pinnacle, becoming a President's Counsel, and as
a politician, he reached a height no other minority Tamil did, as a participant in the
Sinhala-dominated, mainstream Sri Lankan politics. He became Foreign Minister, the first
Tamil to hold that post. He brought to his post the rich international experience he had
gained as a top official of a Geneva-based international organization dealing with
intellectual property rights.
By any yardstick Kadirgamar was an outstanding Foreign Minister. "One of the best in the
world," as former Indian High Commissioner Gopal Gandhi put it. "The best chairperson
for international conferences," said External Affairs Minister K Natwar Singh.
As Foreign Minister, Kadirgamar did what most Sri Lankans thought was impossible - get
the West - the US and UK - to ban the LTTE. And few Sinhalese expected a Tamil to
pursue this objective with such devotion and energy.
Right from the early eighties, the West had been very sympathetic to Tamil militancy and
tended to blame the Sri Lankan state for it. But Kadirgamar's tireless efforts and lobbying
in key world capitals, yielded unexpected results. While stressing the justifiability of the
Tamil cause, he deprecated the separatism, fascism and the crass militarism which had
come to characterize the Tamil struggle for rights since the mid eighties.
"Separatism is a kind of tribalism and I am not a tribalist," he once said. He was also
passionately against the partition of countries, though ethnic nationalisms consider it a
panacea. "Partitions create a haemorrhage which lasts for generations," he said.
In a situation, where separatism had become the accepted and legitimate creed of the Sri
Lankan Tamils, it was not surprising that Kadirgamar had incurred the wrath of the
Tamils. To the LTTE, he was the quintessential "drohi" ie: a betrayer, and, was only too
well known, his life was under severe threat because of that. But Kadirgamar was
unfazed. "I've got used to living with this threat," he would say nonchalantly. A hunted
man, he was ringed by tight security.
In a country which had been craving for the internationalization of its domestic ethnic
problem, Kadirgamar's cry for the preservation of independence and sovereignty was a
voice in the wilderness.
"Sovereignty is another term for self-respect and is the condition for survival in this world,
he would say. "If a nation loses its self respect, nobody would respect it," he told
Hindustan Times recently.
A small nation should not, and need not, cringe and crawl in the presence of bigger and
stronger countries, he felt." A small country can negotiate successfully with bigger and
more powerful countries by presenting its case with self assurance and dignity," he
asserted" [TamilWeek]