Sri Lankan investigators have arrested six Tamils in
connection with a botched attempt to ambush a ministerial motorcade which left
at least 23 people dead.
Police detained the suspects after recovering documents from
suspected Tamil Tiger suicide bombers involved in the attack.
State-run
radio said officials of the Colombo Crime Detection Bureau were questioning the
six, who had travelled to the capital from the war-torn north.
Officials
said the guerrillas had apparently intended to ambush a motorcade of government
ministers and senior officials - including Deputy Defence Minister Anuruddha
Ratwatte - on Friday after they left parliament.
But one guerrilla blew himself up after being spotted
in a Colombo street before the motorcade set out.
Twenty-three people,
including 14 civilians, died as police and rebels engaged in a gun battle in
crowded streets. Some 80 people were injured.
Amnesty International
accused the Tamil Tigers of shooting indiscriminately.
Peace
efforts
The following day, four of the attackers blew themselves up
as commandos raided a block of flats in eastern Colombo, and security forces
killed a fifth rebel during the raid.
The latest attack came amid efforts to organise peace
talks between the government and Tamil Tiger rebels, with Norwegian
mediation.
President Chandrika Kumaratunga held a meeting this week with
the main opposition leader, Ranil Wickramesinghe, to discuss a proposed package
that would allow more autonomy for Tamil areas of the country.
It is
hoped that once there is cross-party agreement, the Tamil Tigers can be
persuaded to consider the package.
The guerrillas are fighting for a
separate homeland for minority Tamils in Sri Lanka's north and east.
President Kumaratunga said she was still willing to talk to the Tamil
Tigers to find a political solution to the long-running conflict, which has
claimed over 55,000 lives in the past two decades.
The president herself
narrowly escaped assassination in a December suicide bomb attack, which killed
26 people.