"Through these attacks, the LTTE has attempted to thwart the Government's efforts to find a peaceful solution to the grievances of the Tamil community," the President said in a statement.

The public must exercise patience, he said, urging them to extend their support to the police and security forces to prevent the repeat of such attacks. He urged the public, especially employees of public transport services, to be vigilant More... Discuss this story Published: Sun Jan 7 17:53:02 EST 2007

They said he could only take 150 rupees ($1.40) and a set of clothes, and that he would be allowed to return once the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, fighting for a separate homeland for minority Tamils in the north and east of the island, had won the conflict with the government.

Seventeen years later, Haniffa and his family of eight remain in a dirt camp of thatched huts in an obscure corner of western Sri Lanka, forgotten and barely a footnote in the deepening ethnic conflict between the majority Sinhalese, who mostly follow Buddhism, and the mainly Hindu Tamils. More... Discuss this story Published: Sun Jan 7 20:17:11 EST 2007

Later Sunday, a roadside blast in eastern Ampara district left five people wounded, the government's national security media center said on its Web site, blaming insurgents for the attack. Ampara is 220 kilometers (130 miles) east of Colombo.

The rebels, formally known as the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, have been fighting for decades for an independent homeland for the Tamil ethnic minority in Sri Lanka - 's north and east, because of discrimination at the hands of the majority-Sinhalese government.

Japan, a major foreign donor called for an end to the escalating violence that killed more than 3,600 in 2006.

In an e-mailed statement Sunday, Tokyo called the bus attacks ``cowardly acts of terrorism'' that must not be repeated,'' the Japanese Embassy said in a statement.

On the Web: www.nationalsecurity.lk Discuss this story Published: Sun Jan 7 08:52:42 EST 2007