The Hindu : International : 'Some individuals in military supported Karuna'

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, Jun 25, 2004

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International

'Some individuals in military supported Karuna'

By V.S. Sambandan

COLOMBO, JUNE 24. The Sri Lankan Government today conceded that some individuals in the military supported the former commander of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), V. Muralitharan (`Col.' Karuna), but maintained that there was "no official involvement, directly or indirectly with the breakaway group.''

"Obviously there have been military personnel involved. We are not denying it," but "the Government is not officially involved," the Government spokesman, Mangala Samaraweera, told a press conference. "It is rather disturbing,'' he said, when asked to comment on the recent statement by a former associate of `Col.' Karuna that the Sri Lankan military intelligence had sheltered the breakaway group in Colombo after it left rebel-held Batticaloa in April.

In a subsequent clarification released to the press, Mr. Samaraweera said the Government was making the inquiry "to ascertain if some individual elements in the Army were involved in the issue."

"We are conducting an investigation ourselves," the Media Minister said. The Sri Lankan defence establishment, which had offered `Col.' Karuna "safe passage, if requested'' maintains that it had no role in the LTTE's "internal problem.''

'UNP's duplicity'

Launching a political offensive against the island's main opposition, the United National Party (UNP), Mr. Samaraweera said the admission by one of its members, Ali Zahir Moulana, who stepped down from his MP's post yesterday, that he had escorted `Col.' Karuna to Colombo "exposed the duplicity of (the former Prime Minister) Ranil Wickremesinghe and the UNP.''

The UNP spokesman, G.L. Peiris, termed the Government's charges as "entirely false.''

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