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LTTE MILITARY LEADER KARUNA CAUTIOUSLY APPEALS TO SINHALA VOTERS TO PUT RANIL WICKREMESINGHE BACK IN POWER
Senior LTTE military leader and their Eastern Commander Karuna
(Photo: TamilNet)
By Walter Jayawardhana reporting from Los Angeles
February 11, 12.15 PM: The pro-LTTE “Sandeshaya”, the Sinhalese language service of the BBC said that LTTE military leader Karuna’s statement in Karadiyanaru in the Eastern Province, Tuesday (February 10) had been analyzed as an appeal to Southern voters to vote for Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe led United National Front.
The LTTE news website Tamil Net quoted Karuna of having said, “We urge the Sinhala people to reject obscurantism and chauvinism and to choose political forces that are forward looking for the sake of peace and progress."
He made the statement at a press conference held at a building called , Thenaham Conference Center of the LTTE in Karadiyanaru , 24 kilometers North West of Batticaloa. Karuna, who was known earlier, as V. Muralidharan, before he was renamed by the LTTE, made the statement after meeting with Major General (retired) Trond Furuhovde in the conference center.
Known as a ruthless military leader , Karuna, is alleged to have ordered the killing of 650 Sinhalese and Muslim Police officers in cold blood who surrendered to him under the then President of Sri Lanka, the late President Ranasinghe Premadasa in whose government the present Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe also served. Both Premadasa and Ranil reportedly believed that Karuna would save the peace talks if the Police officers surrendered. But instead Karuna re-started the war by killing the Police officers.
Karuna’s cautious statement at Karadiyanaru said that the LTTE was now committed to observing the Ceasefire agreement and prepared to talk to any government that comes to power in Sri Lanka with clear authority and power.
The military leader of the fully armed terrorist group, that openly controls the coalition of the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) that would contest the next general elections in the Northern and Eastern provinces said, “We will not interfere in the general elections in the east. The polls will be free and fair here.” But in the past, the LTTE has assassinated members of political parties not belonging to the TNA in a ruthless manner
Obviously attacking the JVP who recently said the LTTE proposals for a Interim Self Governing Authority were not negotiable, Karuna said it was up to the Sinhala leaders who get elected to respond to them
This is the second time the LTTE is appealing to the Sinhalese voters to vote for the Ranil Wickremesinghe led United National Front.
On November 27 2001 the LTTE Supremo delivering his annual Heroes Day speech requested the Southern voters to vote for Ranil Wickremesinghe and even declared that lifting of the proscription of the terrorist group was a pre-condition to start the peace talks. The terrorist group’s main propaganda organ, the Tamil Guardian, in its editorial published a day later, directly appealed to the voters of Sri Lanka to cast their ballots for the United National Party on December 5, 2001 elections and warned of severe consequences in the event of failure to do so. The Tamil Guardian editorial said Ranil Wickremesinghe led UNP had despite its rightwing heritage pragmatically emphasized the need to halt war
But while the UNP said it did not have any secret talks with the LTTE and promised to lift the proscription the LTTE itself later released scanty details of both secret talks and the UNP promises. The UNP later lifted the proscription of the LTTE, as promised paving the way to the de-proscription in other countries.
The November 28 2001 editorial of the pro-LTTE journal also revealed the UNP’s recognition of the LTTE “as the sole authentic leadership of Tamils” that was later used by the LTTE to legitimize assassinations of members of the opposition Tamil political parties
In a final warning the editorial , commenting on December 5 2001 elections said
“ On December 5 the Sinhala people will empower their leadership to either seek lasting peace with the Tamils or to wage unrelenting war against them. Once that decision becomes clear , the Tamil (LTTE) leadership will , no doubt, respond appropriately.”
Acting on Prabhakaran’s warnings or not the people in the South responded by putting Ranil Wickremesinghe in to power. But it is history now that the elusive peace never came, but the LTTE continued to kill its opponents and intelligence officers of the Sri Lanka security forces and started smuggling in heavier weapons for a future war.
Sri Lanka News, update throughout the day....