Five held over attack on Sri Lanka ambassador in Malaysia

Kuala Lumpur, Sep 5 (AFP) Malaysian police said todaythey have arrested five people after a group of protestersassaulted the Sri Lankan ambassador at Kuala LumpurInternational Airport. Malaysian authorities said the attack on HighCommissioner (ambassador) Ibrahim Sahib Ansar yesterday lefthim with minor injuries, but they have so far given no detailson the identities or background of the attackers. "Five people have been arrested and we are investigatingthe motive for the attack," Abdul Samah Mat, police chief ofSelangor state, told AFP. In Colombo Sri Lanka’s Foreign Secretary Esala Weerakoonsummoned Malaysia’s top envoy, Wan Zaidi Wan Abdullah, anddemanded adequate security for Colombo’s diplomatic mission. The foreign ministry expressed "disappointment that theMalaysian authorities had failed to provide necessaryprotection" despite warnings of a possible threat. Almost 100 ethnic Indian protesters had gathered in KualaLumpur last week to rally against former Sri Lankan presidentMahinda Rajapakse, who was attending an internationalconference, local media reported. Rajapakse ordered the bloody military assault which endedSri Lanka’s war with Tamil separatist guerrillas in 2009. International rights groups have said up to 40,000civilians may have been killed in the final offensive, acharge denied by Colombo. Sympathisers of the Tamil victims in the almostthree-decade long civil war burnt an effigy of Rajapakseduring the protests in Malaysia. Police have warned local Indian groups not to showsupport for the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE)themselves. "I want to warn these groups which support the LTTE thatit is a group that is banned by the United Nations," nationalpolice chief Khalid Abu Bakar was quoted as saying by TheStar. More than two million of multi-ethnic Malaysia’s 31million people are ethnic Indians. Most are descendants of labourers brought from ethnicTamil areas of southern India by Malaysia’s former Britishcolonial masters. (AFP)AJR