28 August 2020 09:54 am Views - 8103
Former Norwegian peace negotiator Erik Solheim, in a series of tweets, revealed that LTTE Leader Velupillai Prabhakaran had ordered the killing of former Indian Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi.
Solheim said that during discussions he had with LTTE peace negotiator Anton Balasingham, the latter had admitted that Prabhakaran ordered the killing of Rajiv Gandhi.
Rajiv Gandhi was assassinated by an LTTE suicide bomber in May 1991.
“Balasingham told me Prabhakaran admitted to the killing of Rajiv Gandhi in their private discussions. Bala was not in the slightest doubt as to who ordered the attack. Bala never lied to me. I see no reason why he would have lied on this,” Solheim tweeted.
Solheim, who was the chief Norwegian negotiator during the war, also accused Prabhakaran of failing to compromise by not accepting an offer to evacuate Tamil civilians during the final stages of the war.
“I accuse Prabhakaran of failing to compromise and not accepting the offer to evacuate Tamil civilians. It was the Sri Lanka army who indiscriminately shelled and bombed people to death. I wish we as mediators had the powers to influence the parties to make wiser decisions,” he said.
He also said that no one in the international community agreed to a separate Tamil state.
“Neither we, nor India, US, China, EU or anyone else. The aim of the peace process was a federal solution to Sri Lanka. The vast majority of Tamils would have been happy with that,” he said.
Solheim also revealed that Balasingham had predicted the LTTE could lose the East, may be even the North, because of a failed military strategy.
“Of course the Sri Lankan government and army is responsible for indiscriminately shelling and bombing Tamil civilians. Killing tens of thousands, But it is also true that we offered Prabhakaran a way out and that he refused,” he added. (Easwaran Rutnam)