Sri Lankan women condemn rebels' use of women as suicide bombers:
(May 23, 2006) In Sri Lanka, about 100 women protested in Colombo on Monday against
the use of female suicide bombers by separatist Tamil Tiger rebels. “We condemn
the use of women, especially pregnant women,” said Dulcy de Silva, a spokeswoman for
Sri Lanka's All Party Women's Congress. Last month, a female suicide bomber attempted
to assassinate the country's top military general by using the fact that she appeared
pregnant to avoid security checks at the capital's military headquarters. Investigators
have not yet determined whether the woman was actually pregnant, but reports that
she deliberately became pregnant to infiltrate the compound have circulated widely
in Sri Lanka. At least 13 people, including the bomber, were killed in the attack,
but the target, Maj. Gen. Sarath Fonseka, escaped with serious injuries. The rebels,
formally named the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, began fighting the government
in 1983 for a separate homeland for ethnic Tamils. The Tiger suicide unit, known
as the Black Tigers, has carried out some 75 suicide attacks, with an estimated one
third by women.