Former head of the LTTE's International operations Kumaran Pathmanathan said that he is now focusing more towards humanitarian activities;
Former head of the LTTE's International operations Kumaran Pathmanathan said that he is now focusing more towards humanitarian activities; however he would even consider entering politics if the Tamil political leadership continue to mislead the innocent Tamils with false promises and rotten political ideologies.
Kumaran Pathmanathan expressed his views in an interview, with a Tamil newspaper published by the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) Jaffna district parliamentarian E. Saravanapavan, yesterday.
Pathmanathan also said that it was due to the vacuum created by the death of LTTE leader V.Prabhakaran, leader of the so called Trans National Tamil Eelam in the USA and Nediyavan in Norway continue to mislead the Tamil Diaspora and creating all kinds of problems to the Tamils living in the Island.
Excerpts from the interview are as follows:
“The Tamil leadership in Sri Lanka was described as inefficient by veteran Indian diplomat A. P. Venkateswan to late Anton Balasingham and to myself during a meeting with him in the early eighties. Venkateswaran made this comment to us soon after a discussion he had with late TULF leaders A. Amirthalingam and M. Sivasithamparam in India.
“The Tamil leadership had never been united to fulfil the political aspirations of the Tamils in the country. The Tamil people have been misled during the time of late Tamil leaders such as S.J.V. Chelvanayagam and G. G. Ponnambalam.
“The US and India played a key role in defeating the LTTE. Whereas now both countries are adopting a strategy to see that the island nation is not going out of their control.
“To find a settlement to the ethnic question in the country, the Tamil leadership should talk with the Lankan leadership instead of going behind India and America. Those two countries would keep on manipulating the Tamil leadership to safeguard their geo-political interests”, Pathmanathan elaborated.
Commenting on the UNHRC sessions in Geneva Pathmanathan said that the resolution passed there was to pressurize Sri Lanka on implementing the LLRC recommendations. “But I wonder how far it would help in solving the Tamil question”, he said.
Elaborating on his position Pathmanathan said that he was not a traitor and the outfit he represented had sacrificed immensely when it was active."Now Prabakaran is dead. The Tamils have suffered terribly due to the three decades of war. Therefore, it is high time Tamil leaders adopted non-confrontational politics and went for a meaningful solution to the ethnic question. Otherwise the Tamil politics would continue to remain bleak with failures" Pathmanathan said.
With regard to the recent comments made by former Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M. Karunanithi, on creating Tamil Eelam, Pathmanathan said, in his interview, the Tamil Nadu leaders gave their moral support to the Tamil cause. “However we cannot allow them to make the Lankan Tamils `pawns ' for their own political interests. For his political existence the DMK leader Karunanidhi would keep on telling things of that nature. But we should not get carried away by the comments he makes”, he added.
(CT)