Date:31/10/2007 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2007/10/31/stories/2007103157011800.htm

International

Give up violence, LTTE urged

B. Muralidhar Reddy

INTERNATIONAL

COLOMBO: Condemning the LTTE attack on the Anuradhapura airbase, Tamil United Liberation Front (TULF) leader V. Anandasangaree has urged the militant leader, Velupillai Prabhakaran, to give up violence and come to the negotiating table.

In an open letter addressed to Prabhakaran, Mr. Anandasangree charged him with pursuing an elusive goal of Eelam to “safeguard” his prestige and said even now, it was not too late for the LTTE leader to settle for a reasonable solution to the ethnic conflict.

Mr. Anandasangaree said he would have hailed Mr. Prabhakaran as a brave man if all the 22 persons, including the 21-member suicide squad posing with him before the attack, in the photograph that appeared in the local papers with him in the centre, had died.

“You are fully aware that Tamil Eelam is not achievable, and if achieved you cannot hold it even for a day. The international community will not allow it. Then what is the purpose in sacrificing human lives for a cause which you could not achieve during the last quarter of a century?” he asked.

Mr. Anandasangaree said after causing the loss of 70,000-80,000 lives, leaving thousands of widows, orphans, disabled and destroying billions worth of property, Mr. Prabhakaran is now back to square one.