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Sri Lankan president seeks further medical treatment for blind eye |
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April 13, 2000
COLOMBO, APR 12 (AP) - President Chandrika Kumaratunga has left for the United States and Britain to seek further medical treatment for her right eye, blinded in a suicide bomber attack in December, a government official said Wednesday.
Kumaratunga left the island late Tuesday, said the official, speaking on the condition of anonymity. He did not answer when asked whether Kumaratunga would seek medical care in both countries and did not explain what treatment she was seeking.
Although Kumaratunga has been observed to be without sight in her right eye, government officials have not officially commented on the extent of her injury, and usually refer to it only as "damage."
Kumaratunga narrowly escaped assassination when a woman suicide bomber detonated explosives strapped to her body at a Dec. 18 election rally. Twenty-five people were killed and more than 100 were wounded in the bombing police blamed on the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam.
The group has been fighting since 1983 for a Tamil homeland in the northeast and has a separate unit of fighters called the Black Tigers that carries out suicide bomb attacks.
Many politicians and military personnel have been killed in suicide attacks since the insurrection began.
More than 61,000 people have died in the 17-year civil war. |