Lanka to hand over Prabhakaran to India if caught: Prez

T V Sriram

Colombo, Sept 16 (PTI) Sri Lankan President Mahinda
Rajapaksa has said his government will seriously consider any
plea from India to hand over L.T.T.E. supremo Vellupillai
Prabhakaran if he is caught, asserting that his troops were
advancing towards tiger nerve centres.

At the same time, Rajapaksa ruled out the possibility of
any ceasefire with the rebels, implying that the current
offensive would be taken to its logical end.

On the elusive L.T.T.E. chief, he said, "You should
realise Prabhakaran was involved in the assassination of
former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi and the Sri Lankan
government will consider any request for his extradition if he
is caught".

"The law of the land will take its own course if and when
he is nabbed," the President, who is also the defence minister
and commander-in-chief of the armed forces, said.

India and Sri Lanka only have an Extradition Arrangement
short of a treaty and apparently any deportation of wanted
people can be undertaken only on grounds of mutual requests.

At a dinner with foreign corespondents at his heavily
guarded official residence last night, Rajapaksa talked at
length on the ongoing army advance against L.T.T.E.
strongholds in the north, especially their nerve centres at
Killinochchi.

Describing the advances made by his forces as
"unprecedented in the last 20 years," the Sri Lankan President
said his troops were running past L.T.T.E. outposts one after
the other.

However, he declined to give any time frame for fully
defeating the L.T.T.E., saying the security forces were moving
forward successfully for liberating the areas under the rebel
control.
Rajapaksa said the top brass of the Sri Lankan defence
including the service commanders were satisfied with the
progress in their campaign.

"We will completely crush the L.T.T.E., but I do not want
to set a time frame for it. It can be done though it will
definitely take some time," the President said.

During his interaction with the media, the Sri Lankan
President ruled out any question of declaring a ceasefire with
the L.T.T.E., saying there could be nothing short of total
surrender acceptable to it.

On reported feelers from L.T.T.E. for a ceasefire,
Rajapaksa said, "they have not contacted us in this regard but
the L.T.T.E. should surrender along with their arms and
ammunitions".

"They (L.T.T.E.) will be allowed to surrender, but there
is no question of having another ceasefire agreement (with
them). I don't think there is any need to hold talks with the
L.T.T.E. in the future," the President said.

"Prabhakaran and (L.T.T.E. intelligence chief) Pottu
Amman will have to surrender with the weapons," he added.

Rajapaksa assured protection to the Tamils in the rebel
controlled areas and asked them to come to the "liberated"
areas.

"You will see that this will also be fully accomplished
(when the whole lot of people in L.T.T.E. areas move to the
government areas)," he said.

Rajapaksa said the government rejected the ceasefire
declared by the L.T.T.E. during the South Asian Association
for Regional Co-operation (S.A.A.R.C.) Summit "because we knew
they could not do anything".

So confident appeared the Sri Lankan President of the
success of the campaign by his troops, he said in reply to
questions that post-L.T.T.E., provincial elections would be
held in the north after clearing the area.

"Of course we want to do that to allow the Tamil people
to elect their own leaders and representatives democratically
as they did in the east," he said.

Rajapaksa said he always favoured neutrals to be
appointed chief ministers of any provinces and referred to the
election of Pillayan as the chief minister of the eastern
province, who had the maximum backing.

On his reaction to Indian Defence Minister A K Antony's
remarks that India has concerns over the plight of Tamils
caught in the war between the army and the L.T.T.E. in the
rebel controlled areas, Rajapaksa merely said "our defence
authorities would have been contacted in this regard".

On relations with India, Rajapaksa said he was "very
happy" with the assistance being rendered to Sri Lanka, while
not elaborating.

It may be recalled that the Sri Lankan Army Chief Sarath
Fonseka recently said that though India was not giving arms to
the Island nation due to its own compulsions, nevertheless it
was providing training to about 800 Sri Lankan security
personnel every year free of cost.