11 July 2004	Sunday	22 Jamadi-ul-Awwal 1425

COLOMBO, July 10: The woman accomplice of the LTTE suicide bomber who exploded herself at a police station on Thursday told investigators that she had been employed by Tamil Affairs Minister Douglas Devananda , a leader of the anti-LTTE Tamil party, the Elam People's Democratic Party (EPDP).

Sathya Leela Selvakumar said she had been paid Rs 7,000 per month by the EPDP leader while working for him at his party office in Jaffna. A few days before the general election in April, the minister had sacked her, but the woman continued working as an informant, keeping tabs on LTTE members' movements.

The accomplice said the suicide bomber possessed a fake identity card.

Meanwhile, Douglas Devananda, the minister who escaped attempt on his life, said his requests for better security had been ignored by the government.

A close ally of President Kumaratunge and the only Tamil politician not to back the LTTE, Mr Devananda claims that he had been urged by the president to be careful against possible LTTE attacks in the wake of his support to the renegade LTTE leader, Karuna. But, he added, "certain quarters" in the government rejected his pleas for more security.