This is not the first time that the media have cooked up reports as the basis for anti-Tamil propaganda. But it does pose the question of who did plant the bomb. Such a blast could just as easily have been planted by one of the Sinhala chauvinist groups or the Sri Lankan security forces themselves as a pretext for intensifying operations in the area. It operates in close collaboration with the police, army and local businessmen. The real target of the anti-Tamil propaganda is not so much the LTTE but the plantation workers themselves who are among the most exploited layers of the Sri Lankan working class.
Unemployment is rampant among young people on the plantations and real wages have fallen.
With a slackening export market, the planters have called for a six-rupee cut in the wages of the tea plantation workers. There have already been lightening strikes and other forms of protest against increasing workloads, provocations by management, and poor health facilities. The government can no longer rely on the trade unions to control the anger of workers. Last year hundreds of thousands of plantation workers went on strike, in defiance of the union leaders' call for a return to work after their compromise deal with employers and the government. The police and military, working alongside groups like the Sinhala Heroes' Forum, are increasingly aggressive and routinely detain and question Tamil-speaking youth.