ThamilEelam Makkal Viduthalai Puligal (TMVP) has dismissed the kidnapping accusations leveled against them by the LTTE as a propaganda ploy to abandon the proposed talks in Geneva. When Asian Tribune contacted the TVMP spokesperson, Thooyavan (a nom de guerre), he said that it would be a violation of their unilateral declaration of a ceasefire . "TMVP is not that mad to kidnap LTTE personnel soon after declaring a unilateral ceasefire ," he said.
Explaining the reason behind this kidnapping story he said that this, - it is a propaganda ploy of the LTTE to (1) pull out of the proposed talks in Geneva and (2) to throw mud at the TMVP. "My guess is that the LTTE will produce them with some one to come up before a group of LTTE media personnel to allege TVMP was behind the kidnapping, sooner or later once they had got the mileage from their propaganda," he said.
Thooyavan also said that having studied pictures released by the LTTE they are certain that they had not seen any one of them working for the TRO in the east. He also denied carrying out any such kidnapping operations against anyone. He added: "If it is true that the TRO agents of the LTTE were kidnapped then it is an open admission by the LTTE that it has lost its grip in the east because they can't give protection to their own TRO agents."
Thooyavan said that it is not in their interest to commit such acts immediately after declaring unilateral ceasefire against the LTTE.
"If you notice'" he told the Asian Tribune, " their propaganda always link us to the Sri Lankan Army. They always claim that our group has committed atrocities against them within meters of a nearby Army camp, or that our forces had withdrawn into army camps after hitting them. In a devious manner their propaganda is to link us to the Sri Lankan Army. This is done first to blacken our name to give the impression to the Tamil people that we are agents of the Sri Lankan Army and not as a genuine movement of the Tamils of the North and East and secondly to impress the international community that we are operating jointly with the Sri Lankan Army to sabotage the peace process."
"It is possible that this incident was stage-managed by the LTTE to boycott the Geneva talks. The international community should not swallow the propaganda of the LTTE. It is the common practice of the LTTE to cook up all kinds of excuses to abandon talks. This is one of them. If this is promoted as an excuse then the Sri Lankan government has thousands of excuses for not holding talks at all. Besides, the Sri Lankan sources say that no complaint has been lodged with the police about this so-called kidnapping. The LTTE may have lodged this complaint with the NGOs and other agents of the LTTE to gain political mileage. This whole incident must be investigated thoroughly before the international community starts blaming any one in particular," said Thooyavan.
Latest reports from news agencies on the kidnapping
News agencies reported today that two TRO workers who went missing after the alleged kidnapping had surfaced and are now with their families.
TRO consultant Arjunan Ethirveerasingam told Reuters: "They had been with their families from yesterday, but they were too scared to come out. They were abducted and they have testified to that effect. We're still not sure exactly what happened."
Reuters added: "The army had said the report of 10 workers from the Tamils Rehabilitation Organisation (TRO) being abducted was a fabrication. The rebels had blamed the kidnappings on the government, warning they might make attending key talks in Switzerland difficult ."
(http://www.asiantribune.com/show_news.php?id=16908)
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