06-23-2004, 11:17 PM
<span style='font-size:25pt;line-height:100%'>UNP's involvement with Karuna jeopardises peace process </span>
PK Balachanddran
Colombo, June 23
The opposition United National Party's reported involvement with the renegade LTTE commander, Col Karuna, has further complicated the peace process in Sri Lanka, which is already mired in a controversy over the agenda for the peace talks between the Sri Lankan government and the LTTE.
Nilavini, a close associate of Karuna's who sided with Velupillai Prabhakaran last weekend, had said that it was an UNP MP, Ali Zaheer Mowlana, who had escorted Karuna and his entourage to Colombo after the collapse of his 41-day revolt against Prabhakaran.
The pro-LTTE daily Sudar Oli said in an editorial on Wednesday that Mowlana had done so with the knowledge of his party chief, Leader of the Opposition, and former Prime Minister, Ranil Wickremesinghe.
According to the daily, Mowlana had been in touch with Karuna, for a long time. The April 2 parliamentary elections in Batticaloa and Amparai districts, which were held when Karuna was controlling that area, had returned four Tamil MPs who were known as Karuna's nominees. Mowlana saw a major political opportunity in this development. He lost no time in taking these four MPs under his wing. When the foursome had to come to Colombo to attend a post-election meeting of their pro-LTTE party, the Ilankai Tamil Arasu Katchi (ITAK), Mowlana arranged police protection for them, as they could be attacked by Prabhakaran's agents.
Mowlana told his party leader Wickremesinghe, that Karuna and his four MPs were under his control and that they could be useful. This is said to have impressed Wickremesinghe who rewarded him with a seat in parliament under the nominated National List. Mowlana had got the nomination over-riding the claims of many stalwarts of the UNP, who had been cabinet ministers in the Wickremesinghe government.
Sudar Oli said that the Tamils, who believed that Ranil Wickremesinghe and his UNP were more friendly with them than the ruling United Peoples' Freedom Alliance (UPFA), would be very dismayed by Nilavini's revelations. They would again prove to the Tamils that no Sinhala-majority was genuinely friendly and sympathetic to them. They were birds of the same feather which necessarily flocked together.
The Sinhala-majority in Sri Lanka was hoping that Karuna would help weaken the LTTE and drive a wedge between the Eastern Tamils and Northern Tamils. If the latter were to happen the LTTE led by Prabhakaran would not be able to realise its dream of uniting the North and East and form a single Tamil Homeland. The Sinhala fear is that under a united North and East, the Sinhala and Muslim communities in the East will be discriminated against and oppressed by the Tamil majority. It is also felt that a Tamil Homeland or Tamil Eelam without the East will be a very weak one, and that the separatist project will eventually fail. The East is agriculturally fertile and has one of the world's best harbours -Trincomalee. The North, on the other hand, is arid.
When Karuna revolted against Prabhakaran in March this year, he had raised the issue of the Northern Tamils discriminating against the Eastern Tamils. Sinhala leaders and the Sinhala press were overjoyed and it was rumoured that the Sri Lankan armed forces were tacitly helping the rebel.
Eventually, Nilavini, came out with the full story. She told newsmen that Mowlana had arranged for a Sri Lanka police escort to Karuna and 17 others who had fled with him. They were put up in Hilton Hotel in Colombo for three days, before they were shifted to bungalows within Colombo and outside. Sri Lankan security forces provided security and an intelligence officer would frequently come to meet Karuna.
Cabinet minister and pro-government Tamil leader, Douglas Devananda, used to contact Karuna frequently over the phone asking him to join his Eelam Peoples' Democratic Party (EPDP). But Karuna told him that he preferred to start his own party and work with Sri Lankan intelligence, Nilavini said.
She and three other women associates of Karuna's were against this plan and wanted to return to Batticalao. Nilavini said that the mainstream LTTE had been in touch with her over mobile phone and had promised an amnesty if she and others abandoned Karuna. Karuna, who had ceased communicating with his associates for sometime, suddenly disappeared. Once this happened, security was relaxed and the women cadres were able to escape easily.
The current whereabouts of Karuna are not known. But the LTTE believes that he is somewhere under Sri Lankan armed forces' protection.
The LTTE is reported to have decided to take up the issue of the Sri Lankan government's complicity with Karuna and expose it throughout the world. The LTTE sees the government's role as a sign of its insincerity in regard to the peace process.
The Tamil media reported on Wednesday that Devananda had admitted that he was in touch with Karuna, over the phone. But all that he had done was to encourage the rebel to join the national democratic mainstream. Mowlana was quoted as saying that he helped Karuna as he had been a childhood friend.
http://www.hindustantimes.com/news/181_844...58,00050002.htm
PK Balachanddran
Colombo, June 23
The opposition United National Party's reported involvement with the renegade LTTE commander, Col Karuna, has further complicated the peace process in Sri Lanka, which is already mired in a controversy over the agenda for the peace talks between the Sri Lankan government and the LTTE.
Nilavini, a close associate of Karuna's who sided with Velupillai Prabhakaran last weekend, had said that it was an UNP MP, Ali Zaheer Mowlana, who had escorted Karuna and his entourage to Colombo after the collapse of his 41-day revolt against Prabhakaran.
The pro-LTTE daily Sudar Oli said in an editorial on Wednesday that Mowlana had done so with the knowledge of his party chief, Leader of the Opposition, and former Prime Minister, Ranil Wickremesinghe.
According to the daily, Mowlana had been in touch with Karuna, for a long time. The April 2 parliamentary elections in Batticaloa and Amparai districts, which were held when Karuna was controlling that area, had returned four Tamil MPs who were known as Karuna's nominees. Mowlana saw a major political opportunity in this development. He lost no time in taking these four MPs under his wing. When the foursome had to come to Colombo to attend a post-election meeting of their pro-LTTE party, the Ilankai Tamil Arasu Katchi (ITAK), Mowlana arranged police protection for them, as they could be attacked by Prabhakaran's agents.
Mowlana told his party leader Wickremesinghe, that Karuna and his four MPs were under his control and that they could be useful. This is said to have impressed Wickremesinghe who rewarded him with a seat in parliament under the nominated National List. Mowlana had got the nomination over-riding the claims of many stalwarts of the UNP, who had been cabinet ministers in the Wickremesinghe government.
Sudar Oli said that the Tamils, who believed that Ranil Wickremesinghe and his UNP were more friendly with them than the ruling United Peoples' Freedom Alliance (UPFA), would be very dismayed by Nilavini's revelations. They would again prove to the Tamils that no Sinhala-majority was genuinely friendly and sympathetic to them. They were birds of the same feather which necessarily flocked together.
The Sinhala-majority in Sri Lanka was hoping that Karuna would help weaken the LTTE and drive a wedge between the Eastern Tamils and Northern Tamils. If the latter were to happen the LTTE led by Prabhakaran would not be able to realise its dream of uniting the North and East and form a single Tamil Homeland. The Sinhala fear is that under a united North and East, the Sinhala and Muslim communities in the East will be discriminated against and oppressed by the Tamil majority. It is also felt that a Tamil Homeland or Tamil Eelam without the East will be a very weak one, and that the separatist project will eventually fail. The East is agriculturally fertile and has one of the world's best harbours -Trincomalee. The North, on the other hand, is arid.
When Karuna revolted against Prabhakaran in March this year, he had raised the issue of the Northern Tamils discriminating against the Eastern Tamils. Sinhala leaders and the Sinhala press were overjoyed and it was rumoured that the Sri Lankan armed forces were tacitly helping the rebel.
Eventually, Nilavini, came out with the full story. She told newsmen that Mowlana had arranged for a Sri Lanka police escort to Karuna and 17 others who had fled with him. They were put up in Hilton Hotel in Colombo for three days, before they were shifted to bungalows within Colombo and outside. Sri Lankan security forces provided security and an intelligence officer would frequently come to meet Karuna.
Cabinet minister and pro-government Tamil leader, Douglas Devananda, used to contact Karuna frequently over the phone asking him to join his Eelam Peoples' Democratic Party (EPDP). But Karuna told him that he preferred to start his own party and work with Sri Lankan intelligence, Nilavini said.
She and three other women associates of Karuna's were against this plan and wanted to return to Batticalao. Nilavini said that the mainstream LTTE had been in touch with her over mobile phone and had promised an amnesty if she and others abandoned Karuna. Karuna, who had ceased communicating with his associates for sometime, suddenly disappeared. Once this happened, security was relaxed and the women cadres were able to escape easily.
The current whereabouts of Karuna are not known. But the LTTE believes that he is somewhere under Sri Lankan armed forces' protection.
The LTTE is reported to have decided to take up the issue of the Sri Lankan government's complicity with Karuna and expose it throughout the world. The LTTE sees the government's role as a sign of its insincerity in regard to the peace process.
The Tamil media reported on Wednesday that Devananda had admitted that he was in touch with Karuna, over the phone. But all that he had done was to encourage the rebel to join the national democratic mainstream. Mowlana was quoted as saying that he helped Karuna as he had been a childhood friend.
http://www.hindustantimes.com/news/181_844...58,00050002.htm
Truth 'll prevail