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| Sunday, 14 March 2004 |
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Rift within LTTE Tamil politicians urge negotiated settlement by Ananth Palakidnar The Eelam People's Democratic Party (EPDP) leader Douglas Devananda and the Eelam People's Revolutionary Liberation Front (EPRLF) (Suresh Wing) leader Suresh Premachandran have said that the current dispute within the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam should be settled through negotiations without creating room for deadly clashes. Devananda and Premachandran, who were at one time militant commanders in the EPRLF, were even in the hit list of the LTTE. Premachadran is now a candidate for the Tamil National Alliance (TNA), which is supported by the LTTE. Devananda still remains a rival of the LTTE and leads his party, EPDP, against the TNA in the forthcoming polls. Devananda, speaking to the Sunday Observer from his Jaffna office, said that there would have been acceptable reasons for the LTTE's former Eastern Special Commander Karuna Amman to reject the Vanni leadership and create his own outfit in the East. "Not only the LTTE, but the other militant organisations were also fighting for the integrity of the Northern and Eastern Provinces as one entity. "It is an unfortunate situation to see the former Eastern Commander of the LTTE, Colonel Karuna, who was also considered one of the top leaders in the LTTE, now all out to crush the unity of the North and East by fanning regional feelings among his people," Devananada said. He also said that the current split between the LTTE's Vanni hierarchy and the LTTE's former Eastern command has made the organisation politically and militarily demoralised. Premachandran, commenting on the split within the LTTE, said the TNA was created mainly to go hand in hand with the LTTE . "The people from the North and East expect the TNA to support the LTTE politically. Therefore, at this juncture, any confrontation within the LTTE should be sorted out amicably. "I believe the present crisis will not lead to a difficult situation. Not only in Sri Lanka, even at international level, the expectations are more to bring the LTTE back into the peace process. So the LTTE leadership should find a solution to the current crisis within its own rank and file by negotiations and stabilise itself to face the challenges in the future," Premachandran said. |
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