KARUNA ORDERS PROHIBITION OF RELATIONS WITH WANNI AND RAVIRAJ SAYS HE WILL BE REJECTED BY THE EAST IN ELECTIONS
By Walter Jayawardhana reporting from Los Angeles
March 23, 10.30 AM:Renegade Tamil Tiger Commander, Col. Karuna imposed a prohibition of all dealings with the Wanni leadership of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) by any individual in the Eastern Province yesterday while a pro-LTTE Tamil National Alliance candidate Nadarajah Raviraj threatened Karuna that his regionalism would be properly replied to by the Ampara-Batticaloa Tamil people in the coming elections.
Colonel Karuna’s censure ordering people in the East to stop any relationship with the Wanni leadership, meaning Tamil Tiger Supremo Velupillai Prabhakaran and his immediate associates like Spy Chief Pottuamman, and political commissar Thamilchelvan etc. came in the Tamil newspaper Thamil Alai, a pro-Karuna newspaper published in Kokadicholai, near Batticaloa, in the area under his control.
The newspaper, publishing an appeal by the intelligence unit of the pro-Karuna section of the LTTE, Eastern forces said any suspicious activities of any person maintaining relations with the Wanni leadership of the LTTE should be informed to the political offices of the LTTE’s Eastern Forces, that had severed all relations with Wanni.
Highly perturbed by the circumstances caused by the cessation of renegade military leader Karuna from the Prabhakaran led section of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) Jaffna District candidate and former parliamentarian Nadarajah Raviraj attacked Karuna by stating that the LTTE leader rebelling against their Supremo Velupillai Prabhakaran would be properly replied to by the Jaffna Ampara District Tamils at the next general Elections.
Political sources in Batticaloa believe that the LTTE military leader’s rift has caused a division among the TNA candidates in Eastern Province itself while TNA candidate Joseph Pararajasingham taking the side of Prabhakaran in the conflict, and maintaining relations with Wanni regarding his political campaign. . Many other candidates are not having any conflict with Karuna and maintaining cordial relations with him, political sources said.
Nadarajah Raviraj being interviewed by the pro-LTTE Canadian Tamil Radio said , “Tamil people of the Batticaloa Ampara Districts will soon reply with rejection of this call for regionalism” by Karuna.
In this interview , Raviraj admitted that the pro-TNA/ LTTE thugs attacked an EPDP election campaign vehicle in Jaffna and rejected anti-LTTE TULF leader Anandasangaree’s allegation that people were forced to attend election meetings of the Tamil National Alliance.
The pro-LTTE candidate said, “. Our platform is based on our cardinal principles that a solution to the conflict has to be found based on the concept of Tamil Nation, Tamil Homeland and the right to self-determination. The Liberation Tigers have to be recognized as the sole representatives of the Tamil people. In addition, an interim administration should be setup….”
The division of the TNA has also dashed the hopes of United National Front led by Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe who hoped to form a government by coalescing with them, the same political sources said.
