Sri Lanka: Curious Death Of a Rebel

• Share

About one matter there was no dispute: three terrorist leaders were shot dead last week in the suburbs of Sri Lanka's capital, Colombo. Government security forces killed Rohana Wijeweera, 46, fugitive founder of the terrorist Sinhalese People's Liberation Front (J.V.P.), as well as two other J.V.P. officials.

Much more uncertain were the circumstances surrounding the deaths. The government said that shortly after Wijeweera had been captured and had led security forces to the group's headquarters, a J.V.P. official tried to gun down his leader. Government forces then supposedly started shooting, and both Wijeweera and his would-be assassin died in the fire fight. The third J.V.P. leader was shot in a separate incident. Skeptics suspected that the security forces simply murdered the rebel leaders, who had led a two-year terror campaign against the government's decision to admit Indian military forces in a bid to settle another insurgency.