14.1.2008
Sri Lanka Government would willingly
hand over Velupillai Prabakaran to India, if he was apprehended
and if New Delhi made such a request, said Sri Lanka President
Mahinda Rajapakse.
“If
they ask for him, I will send him there... Why not? He
has killed so many people. If India wants him, certainly
I will send him to India,” the Sri Lankan President
said.
He
said Prabhakaran, who is accused of being behind the assassination
of former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi, would not be granted
pardon by India.
In
an interview to The Indian Express Editor-in-Chief Shekhar
Gupta, for NDTV’s “Walk the Talk”, Rajapakse
also said that LTTE would have been finished if former
President Premadasa hadn’t pulled out the Indian
troops. He said he was willing to hand over LTTE chief
V Prabhakaran, when caught if India wants him.
Twenty
years after the Indian Peacekeeping Force (IPKF) had a
disastrous stint in Sri Lanka; Sri Lankan President Mahinda
Rajapaksa has acknowledged the IPKF’s contribution
and said a memorial for the Indian soldiers would be ready
by February this year
In
the interview set in Colombo’s presidential palace,
Rajapakse said that a memorial for the IPKF soldiers is
being built near the Sri Lankan Parliament and is expected
to be ready by the Sri Lankan Independence Day, February
4. When asked whether there isn’t any gratitude
for IPKF’s actions in Sri Lanka, Rajapakse was candid:
“In the past, I will admit that they have not done
that. We have not shown gratitude. But as soon as I came
(to power on November 18, 2005) I ordered to build a monument
for them and I will see that they finish that work before
our Independence Day on 4 th February. It is under construction...
near (Sri Lanka’s) Parliament.”
He
added he didn’t think that this will be “an
unpopular move”, although “LTTE may not like
it”. On what the IPKF achieved for Sri Lanka that
people at that point of time did not appreciate, he said,
“That was a political campaign by Premadasa. If
Premadasa had allowed IPKF at that time to continue for
another few months, they would have done something substantial.”
Asked
if that meant “finishing the LTTE”, the Sri
Lankan President said, “In a way, yes, they would
have at least given the Sri Lankan Army a better position.”
On
Premadasa’s sabotage of the IPKF operation, Rajapakse
said, “The problem was that he wanted to become
the president of this country and wanted support of some
of the extremists, some of the left parties.” On
IPKF’s coming close to breaking the back of LTTE,
he said, “First I think, they miscalculated the
power of LTTE... but then only they were catching on.
They were studying the ground situation and trying to
consolidate themselves and that was the time they were
sent out (by Premadasa)... only for a political issue.”
Courtesy - Asian
Tribune