Two hand grenades hurled in a clash between Christians and Hindus killed at least three people and wounded 37 on Saturday in a part of eastern Sri Lanka where international aid workers are helping tsunami victims, police said. Two suspected assailants were arrested soon after the attack.

Although clashes between Hindus and Christians are rare since both groups belong to the Tamil minority and believe they are oppressed by the country's Buddhist Sinhalese majority, police suspect the clash was the result of religious tensions between Hindus and Christians.

V.H. Anil, a police officer in the eastern town of Valaichchenai, told the Associated Press (AP) that Christians were angry that Hindus had demolished a church and may have carried out the attack in retaliation.

Officials say no aid workers were injured or near the explosions, however relief workers fear their efforts to get medical aid to the survivors will be hampered by sectarian violence.

Sri Lanka, where more than 30,000 people were killed by the Dec. 26 quake-tsunami disaster, has been torn by a civil war for 20 years between the rebels of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) and the government.

According to AP, hundreds of people protested in the Tamil-majority north on Sunday after U.N. chief Kofi Annan agreed to a government request not to visit the tsunami-stricken areas under rebel control.




Kenneth Chan
Ecumenical Press