Not much to celebrate

摘要

When it gained independence from the British, Sri Lanka was an island of peace in a subcontinent bloodied by religious strife. February 4th, the 60th anniversary of independence, was marked by a military parade in Colombo. But it did not pass without reminders of what Sri Lanka has become: a blood-soaked victim of ethnic strife and terrorism. A bus bomb killed 12 civilians in Weli Oya, in the north-east. A spate of bombings across the country had a day earlier seen 15 people killed at Colombo's main rail station. On February 1st 20 Buddhist pilgrims were slaughtered in a bombed bus in north-central Sri Lanka. In all of these outrages could be detected the hand of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, which has been waging a separatist insurgency since 1983. However, a mine blast in north-west Sri Lanka on January 29th, in which 11 schoolchildren perished, was blamed on government soldiers.