February 23, 2007	Friday	Safar 5, 1428

COLOMBO, Feb 22: At least seven people were killed in Sri Lanka’s north-eastern provinces on Thursday as the country marked the fifth anniversary of the violence-rigged ceasefire between the government and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE).

Two men and a woman were shot dead by unidentified gunmen in Trincomalee and a soldier was killed in Batticaloa by suspected LTTE cadres, reports said. Three bodies were found in Vavuniya, sources said.

The killings came amidst fears that fresh violence would erupt as political groups in the country’s south demanded the abrogation of the ceasefire agreement signed on Feb 22, 2002.

The international ceasefire monitors, the Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission (SLMM), releasing a statement to mark the fifth year of the unravelling truce, said nearly 4,000 people had lost their lives in the past 15 months.

Pandemonium prevailed in Sri Lanka’s parliament on Thursday when members of the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP), removed the mace from the speaker’s table, demanding an immediate answer from the government for not having formally abrogated the ceasefire agreement.