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Tamil candidate for Sri Lanka's Parliament slain in eastern Sri Lanka

Associated Press , March 30. COLOMBO, Sri Lanka (AP) _ Unidentified gunmen on Tuesday stormed the home of a Tamil parliamentary candidate who was allied to a renegade rebel leader, killing him and one of his relatives, police said.
Another relative was seriously wounded in the attack in the eastern town of Batticaloa, police spokesman Rienzie Perera said.

Rajan Sathiyamoorthy of the Tamil National Alliance was shot at point-blank range and declared dead after he was taken to a hospital, Perera said.

Supporters of the Tamil Tiger rebel movement are running as candidates of the mainstream Tamil National Alliance. Party leaders could become kingmakers after Friday's vote if the results _ as expected _ do not conclusively favor either of the country's two main political blocs.

However, the Tamil alliance has been in crisis since a split in rebel ranks in early March. A powerful Tiger leader broke away from the main guerrilla group with about 40 percent of its fighting force.

A policeman in Batticaloa said on condition of anonymity that Sathiyamoorthy was a staunch supporter of the breakaway leader, Vinayagamoorthy Muralitharan.

Seven of the eight Tamil National Alliance candidates running in Batticaloa are believed to support Muralitharan. Many of them have complained of anonymous telephone threats urging them to withdraw from the election, the policeman said.

The pro-Tiger TamilNet Web site referred to Sathiyamoorthy as a ``close confidante'' of Muralitharan.

The incident took place just four days after the Tamil Tigers warned Muralitharan's cadre and supporters to ``keep away from him.'' Muralitharan has been expelled from the Tiger group and branded a traitor.

The rebel split, which has raised fears of renewed fighting that could draw in the Sri Lankan army, comes on top of a power struggle between the country's president and prime minister that has prompted Friday's election.

Political violence has spiked in recent days in Sri Lanka, though it remains far beneath the country's last election, in 2001, when dozens of people were killed in political attacks.

Tuesday's shooting was the third in three days, and the second in that area. It took place amid heightened police and army presence in Batticaloa, about 220 kilometers (140 miles) east of the capital, Colombo.

``Police have been put on red alert,'' said Co. Sumeda Perera, a military spokesman, with roadblocks and spot checks increased in the region.

The Tigers are suspects in at least one other shooting, of a university professor believed to support the dissident rebel leader.

No arrests had been made so far.

On Monday, Muralitharan's spokesman, Varathan, blamed the Tigers' northern-based leadership for the professor's shooting and one other attempted murder, and predicted more such violence.

The killings took place hours before campaigning for the decisive poll drew to a close.

The April 2 election is being fought mainly on the issue of who can best lead the government's peace negotiations: President Chandrika Kumaratunga or her rival, Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe.

Sri Lanka's civil war _ pitting Tamil rebels against the Sinhalese-dominated government _ has been on hold since a 2002 cease-fire, but peace talks on a comprehensive solution have stalled. Nearly 65,000 people were killed before the truce.

Thanx: Associated Press