COLOMBO,Sun:
It is unlikely for the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) to stage a comeback in Sri Lanka to champion the Tamil minority’s cause, says a top Tamil minister.
Douglas Devananda, Minister of Social Service and Social Welfare in President Mahinda Rajapaksa’s government, said no one could resurrect the militant group, which was once a feared terrorist outfit in the world.
“Nobody can revive (LTTE), it has been eliminated. Nor can anyone use (Velupillai) Prabhakaran’s name to revive the movement, the road is clear now and we can address the grievances of the Tamil speaking people in Sri Lanka,” Devananda told Bernama in an exclusive interview at his heavily-fortified residence in Colombo.
Last Tuesday, the Sri Lankan government officially announced that the LTTE had been crushed by the armed forces and its founder-leader Prabhakaran had been killed, along with his top aides.
The separatist group was fighting for a separate homeland for the minority Tamil population in the north of Sri Lanka for almost three decades but failed to achieve its “eelam” (home) dream after so much bloodshed.
“Some of the Tamil leadership including Prabhakaran destroyed the 1987 Indo-Lanka peace accord. It was a golden chance for us, but it was a missed opportunity,” he added.
Devananda, a former Tamil militant, abandoned his armed struggle and later joined the mainstream politics to continue struggling for the less-privileged Tamils, especially in the north.
An arch-foe of Prabhakaran, the LTTE had tried at least nine times to assassinate Devananda, the last in November 2007, when a woman suicide bomber blew herself up in his office, but he escaped. He even lost an eye in the attacks.
He said with the end of the decades-long violent struggles, the Rajapaksa-led government is now chalking out plans to assist the Tamils in the north and thousands residing in refugee camps. – Bernama
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