COLOMBO, Nov 28: Sri Lankan Foreign Minister Rohitha Bogollagama told parliament here on Friday that India would ignore LTTE chief Veluppilai Prabhakaran’s call for support to his “separatist and fascist” agenda.
“The LTTE leader’s overtures to India will not find accommodation” the minister said in a statement.
Giving reason, Mr Bogollagama recalled that the LTTE had carried out the “cold-blooded assassination” of former Indian Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi in Sriperumbhudur in Tamil Nadu on May 21,1991.
Described Rajiv Gandhi as “one of the greatest sons of India and an outstanding prime minister”, the minister said Mr Rajiv “had to sacrifice his life for his unshakable support to Sri Lanka’s sovereignty and territorial integrity, and for his outright rejection of the LTTE’s separatist and fascist agenda”.
He pointed out that it was only recently that the Delhi High Court had upheld the Indian government’s May 14 order to extend the ban on the LTTE. The government had argued that there was a likelihood that the LTTE might carry out acts of aggression against India, he added.
The Sri Lankan minister urged Mr Prabhakaran to heed the call of President Mahinda Rajapakse, lay down arms, renounce terrorism and enter the democratic fold to be part of the political process that was underway in the recently-liberated Tamil areas of the island.FAILURE: Sri Lankan Air Force (SLAF) failed again to thwart LTTE chief Velupillai Prabhkaran’s annual policy-enunciating broadcast on Nov 27, a pro-LTTE Tamil website said.
