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Lankan Tigers regret Rajiv Gandhi's assassination

IRNA - Islamic Republic News Agency

New Delhi, June 28, IRNA
India-LTTE-Rajiv Gandhi assassination
The Sri Lankan rebel organization Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), held responsible for the assassination of former Indian prime minister Rajiv Gandhi, said it "deeply regrets" the "monumental historical tragedy."

Talking about Gandhi's assassination on May 21, 1991, LTTE's London-based chief negotiator, Anton Balasingham, told private Indian news channel New Delhi Television (NDTV): "As far as that event is concerned, I would say it is a great tragedy, a monumental historical tragedy for which we deeply regret."

Urging India to "put behind" Rajiv Gandhi's assassination by being "magnanimous," the LTTE asked it to approach the Tamil ethnic issue in a "different perspective" as a cloud of a major war loomed large over Sri Lanka.

As Sri Lanka faces civil war again, the LTTE wants India to intervene.

The organization is prepared for a new relationship with India and expects India to make a positive gesture.

"India has been silent for the last 15 years and has adopted a detached role. Now again there is violence and the possibility of war is emerging, so she can't keep quiet but she has to face challenges.

"I think we are prepared to build up a new understanding, a new relationship with the government of India provided she makes a positive gesture," Balasingham said.

"It's up to them because we have already pledged that we will never do anything or cimmit acts in any way inimical to the geo-political interest of India, so there is possibility of India playing a positive active role in bringing a resolution to this conflict," he added.

Balasingham further said that it was in India's interest to ensure peace in Lanka.

"A civil war will destabilize the region and have political consequences in Tamil Nadu," he added.

India and Sri Lanka signed a peace accord in 1987. During 1987- 1990, the LTTE and Indian troops battled each other.

It was in March 1990 that the Indian Peace Keeping Force (IPKF) withdrew from Lankan territory.

Until the 1980s, India had controversially trained and, some people say, even armed Tamil rebels in training camps in India, which was seen as India's attempt to protect Tamil interests.

India, at that time, was directly involved and helped draft the peace accord between the rebels and Sri Lanka.

But the Tigers rejected the accord and India sent in its troops, which proved to be disastrous.

Since the Indian Peace Keeping Force's misadventure, India's role has been more tacit, both in diplomacy and in military support to the Sri Lankans.

That support has seen the cutting off of the LTTE's supply chains to India, especially in southern Tamil Nadu.

Meanwhile, political support for the LTTE also withered in India, as even the DMK turned away.

Today, the Tigers are wounded, isolated and declared a global terrorist outfit, and it's unlikely that their appeal or apology will change India's stand.

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