Outfit did not negotiate honestly:

LTTE’s withdrawal from talks, a severe blunder - Dr. Joy Maheswaran

by Ananth Palakidnar

Dr. Joy Maheswaran, one of the key negotiators of the LTTE when the outfit engaged in talks with the Government from 2002 to 2005, said that the LTTE made a severe blunder by withdrawing from the peace talks and had dug its own grave.

Dr. Maheswaran who is currently domiciled in Melbourne, Australia was delivering the Professor Eliazer memorial lecture at the University of Monash last week.

Elaborating on the blunders that the LTTE had committed, Dr. Maheswaran said that the outfit did not negotiate honestly to reach a durable settlement to the national question in Sri Lanka and did not conduct themselves in a reliable manner. Commenting on the LTTE, he said that the LTTE had been defeated completely and there was no way the outfit could regroup again.

“The LTTE could have exploited the opportunity it gained in winning the rights of the Tamils and establishing peace in the island. However, the outfit had blundered in everything and toppled the apple cart,” Dr. Maheswaran said.

The Government is now in a strong position and the Tamils should talk to the Government to win their rights.

Dr. Maheswaran also called upon the Tamil diaspora to support the rehabilitation and the reconstruction process in the North and the East by coordinating with the Government.