Domestic Violence

Nov 22, 2007 (LBO) – The residence of a rebel Sri Lanka lawmaker had been bombed by unidentified persons Thursday, but the attackers had fled after a security guard fired back, the parliamentarian said. Former Minister Sripathi Sooriyaarachchi told LBO only his wife and children were at his home in the Colombo suburb of Borella, when it was attacked.

Sooriyaarachchi was a government minister representing the ruling Sri Lanka Freedom Party until February 2007, when he and ports minister Mangala Samaraweera were sacked by President Mahinda Rajapakse.

Earlier in the day Sri Lanka's Supreme Court heard a case Sooriyaarachchi had filed to block the sale of the country's wireline telecom operator to a Malaysian firm by its current shareholder-manager NTT of Japan.

Sooriyaarachchi said the deal lacked transparency and was against the anti-privatization policy of the government.

Sooriyaarachchi and Samaraweera had formed a common front with the main opposition United National Party to agitate against the government.

"This was done to intimidate me," Sooriyaarachchi said.

Earlier in the week armed gunmen stormed and set fire to the press of an independent newspaper house.