'Prabhakaran had decided to give up struggle'

COLOMBO: The new head of the LTTE, Selvarasa Pathmanathan alias KP, claimed that the founder-leader of the organisation, Velupillai Prabhakaran, had himself decided to give up armed struggle at the fag end of Eelam War.

Dubbed a betrayer by radicals among the Lankan Tamil diaspora for touting a political and diplomatic path, KP wrote on the LTTE website on Wednesday that it was not he, but Prabhakaran himself who had given up armed struggle and opted for a ceasefire and talks in May.

KP said the LTTE had announced from Mullivaikkal, the last bastion, that it was “silencing its guns in order to bring about an orderly ceasefire and commencement of talks”. This was a clear in­dication that the LTTE chief was giving up the armed struggle and exploring other ways to achieve the goal of independence from Lanka.

“After the incident at Mullivaikkal, the decision to take a political and diplomatic path was not taken by me alone. This decision was made in cons­ultation with the military commanders who were in the field at that time and with other divisional cadre,” he stressed.

“It is important that we use the best form of struggle that gives us the most benefit from time to time to reach our struggle’s goal. Our leader referred to this in 1987 as our methods of struggle may change but not our goal,” KP recalled. In today’s world order, to continue guerilla attacks would only expedite the “genocide” of the Tamils by the Lankan government. The immediate impact would be negatively reflected on the safety of 300,000 plus people in the internment camps and the 10,000 LTTE cadre held in captivity, he said.

“Furthermore, we would be aiding the Sri Lankan government in its intentions, as it retains our people in internment camps, to dilute the majority status of the Tamils of the greater Vanni area th­rough colonising and changing the demography,” he said. Guerilla war would enable Lanka to make other countries dismantle the Tamil diaspora, he said.