Killing Rajiv was a mistake: former Tamil Tiger

Colombo: The assassination of former Indian Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi was a big mistake by the LTTE, former Tamil Tiger commander Karuna Amman has said.

Vinyagamoorthy Muralitharan alias Karuna Amman, who is also the deputy minister of resettlement in the Sri Lankan government, today told a top panel looking into events during the ethnic war, that he received arms training in India in early 1980s when he was with the LTTE.

The government set up the 'Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission (LLRC) to look into events during the ethnic war and make recommendations to avoid such

repetition.

Things changed when the former Indian Prime Minister was assassinated by the LTTE. India had then turned against the LTTE and banned it, Karuna said.

He said that he joined the LTTE after ethnic riots in 1983 and denied responsibility for attacking religious places and massacring 600 policemen surrendered to the LTTE in the East.

Karuna's one time ally and now Eastern Province Chief Minister Sivanesathurai Chandrakanthan alias Pillayan had claimed on an earlier occasion before the LLRC that Karuna was responsible for the massacre.

The former LTTE eastern commander, who was one time confidente of the leader of the LTTE Velupillai Pirabhakaran, said that the LTTE entered in to the ceasefire agreement with the government in 2002 not to search for peace but as a tactic

to cover up the organization's military weaknesses.

He alleged the Norway, TRO (Tamil Rehabilitation Organisation) and the Tamil diaspora donated money to the LTTE which they used for purchasing arms.

Karuna, who is also a vice president of the Sri Lanka Freedom Party, the main party in the ruling coalition, praised President Mahinda Rajapksha for defeating the LTTE.

He emphasised the need for a political solution for ethnic minority Tamils but said the provincial council doesn't need police powers, which will cause suspicions among the majority Sinhala community.

The LTTE had launched their armed struggle to create an independent homeland for Sri Lanka s Tamils to protect them from alleged discrimination at the hands of the ethnic Sinhalese majority.

Government forces crushed the rebels in May last year, ending three decades of civil war that killed between 80,000 and 100,000 people.