Concocted stories to discredit Sri Lanka bared:

Jegatheeswaran confesses, ‘I’m an LTTE sympathiser’

Dinesh WEERAWANSA reporting from Australia

Perth, October 29 - Arunachalam Jegatheeswaran, the man who accused Sri Lanka of war crimes allegations and filed a case in the Melbourne Magistrate’s Court last week to sling mud at his native country during the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) in Perth, has eventually admitted that he is an LTTE sympathiser.

“Yes, I’m an LTTE sympathiser”, he told an interview with the widely-read The Australian on Saturday.

The intention of Jegatheeswaran alias Jegan Waran, who has obtained Australian citizenship, is now crystal clear following his own confession that he is a Tiger sympathiser.

His confession came days after Colombo accused him of being a “terror activist” and an LTTE sympathiser who helped the terrorist group build underground weapons’ depots. However, Jegatheeswaran contradicted his own statement when he denied allegations that he had assisted the LTTE in any way.

Now that his charges had been quashed by Attorney-General Robert McClelland on Tuesday, on the grounds that President Mahinda Rajapaksa enjoys diplomatic immunity, Jegatheeswaran is coming out with a different confession.

Jegatheeswaran related many concocted stories to discredit Sri Lanka on the eve of the CHOGM but the efforts of the sympathisers of the now defunct terrorist outfit LTTE failed to attract even 50 people for Friday’s demonstration, that too after free return air tickets were offered apart from accommodation in Perth for Tiger activists residing in Sydney and Melbourne. Jegatheeswaran claims that he had worked in the North as a “freelance volunteer” from February 2007 - May 2009, when the Security Forces were engaged in the humanitarian operation to rescue nearly half a million people from the jaws of LTTE terror.

It has now been revealed that Jegatheeswaran had been “a committed LTTE militant, who was well connected to the Tiger hierarchy”.

It was also disclosed that Jegatheeswaran had been handpicked by LTTE leader Velupillai Prabhakaran to escort his family to safety in the final stages of the battle against terrorism. Jegatheeswaran had reportedly used his technical expertise to build military infrastructure for the LTTE. Though he denies such allegations, Jegatheeswaran had contradicted his own statements when he told The Australian that he “had seen Prabhakaran’s parents in the conflict zone at the end of the war”.

Jegatheeswaran’s going to courts on alleged war crimes allegations was nothing new as LTTE sympathisers and former terrorist activists had made similar attempts in various countries to discredit Sri Lanka and mislead the international community. A similar attempt was made in New York prior to last month’s United Nations General Assembly by Tiger activists, including the wife of Ramesh, the former LTTE leader for the East.