TOUGH FOR LTTE TO REVIVE, SAYS TAMIL LANKAN MINISTER

BY P.VIJAIN

COLOMBO, May 25 (Bernama) -- It is unlikely for the Liberation Tigers of
Tamil Eelam (LTTE) to stage a comeback in Sri Lanka to champion the Tamil
minority's cause, says a top Tamil minister.

Douglas Devananda, Minister of Social Service and Social Welfare in
President Mahinda Rajapaksa's government, said no one could resurrect the
militant group, which was once a feared terrorist outfit in the world.

"Nobody can revive (LTTE), it has been eliminated. Nor can anyone use
(Velupillai) Prabhakaran's name to revive the movement, the road is clear now
and we can address the grievances of the Tamil speaking people in Sri Lanka,"
Devananda told Bernama in an exclusive interview at his heavily-fortified
residence in Colombo.

Last Tuesday, the Sri Lankan government officially announced that the LTTE
had been crushed by the armed forces and its founder-leader Prabhakaran had been
killed, along with his top aides.

The separatist group was fighting for a separate homeland for the minority
Tamil population in the north of Sri Lanka for almost three decades but failed
to achieve its "eelam" (home) dream after so much bloodshed.

Devananda said Prabhakaran was the main hindrance for a peaceful political
solution in the past and the Tamil population had suffered as a consequence of
those political mistakes.

"Some of the Tamil leadership including Prabhakaran destroyed the 1987
Indo-Lanka peace accord. It was a golden chance for us, but it was a missed
opportunity," he added.

Devananda, a former Tamil militant, abandoned his armed struggle and later
joined the mainstream politics to continue struggling for the less-privileged
Tamils, especially in the north.

An arch-foe of Prabhakaran, the LTTE had tried at least nine times to
assassinate Devananda, the last in November 2007, when a woman suicide bomber
blew herself up in his office, but he escaped. He even lost an eye in the
attacks.

He said with the end of the decades-long violent struggles, the
Rajapaksa-led government is now chalking out plans to assist the Tamils in the
north and thousands residing in refugee camps.
-- BERNAMA