‘LTTE responsible for 30,000 Tamil deaths’

V Anandasangaree, President of the moderate Tamil United Liberation Front (TULF) and one of the most senior Tamil leaders of Sri Lanka, has appealed to the political parties in Tamil Nadu to stop supporting the LTTE and protesting against the killing of the group's political commissar, SP Tamilselvan.

In a statement released on Tuesday, the veteran politician said that the people and the political parties in Tamil Nadu were not aware that the LTTE's unrealistic bid to secure an independent "Tamil Eelam" had already resulted in the sacrifice of 30,000 Tamil boys and girls generally hailing from poor families.

Overall, more than 70, 000 Tamils, Sinhalese and Muslims had died and more than 30,000 widowed and orphaned, he noted. Muslims who were driven out from the North by the LTTE and robbed of all their belongings, were languishing in about 160 refugee camps for the past 17 years, seeing no light at the end of the tunnel, Anandasangaree pointed out.

Pointing an accusing finger at the LTTE's Supremo, Velupillai Prabhakaran, the moderate leader said: "I believe he has already sacrificed more than 20 thousand Tamil boys and girls, most of whom had been recruited forcibly against the protests of the parents. Every day, a good number of boys and girls are sent to the battlefront not to return alive. Apart from this, more than 10 thousand Tamils of other Tamil groups also had been killed by them (the LTTE)."

"On the whole over 70,000 lives, Sinhalese, Tamils and Muslims, had been lost, several thousands had become disabled and more than 30,000 widowed and orphaned. Above all, several billions worth of property had been destroyed because of the LTTE's foolish war with the government."

Surprisingly, Anandasangaree held Tamilselvan "solely" responsible for the LTTE’s suicide attack on the Sri Lankan Air Force's base at Anuradhapura on October 22. He said that 21 young men and women were willfully sacrificed in that mission directed by Tamilselvan.

"His leader Prabhakaran, after posing posing for photograph with the twenty one to be victims, vanished into his bunker, leaving the dirty job in the hands of Thamilchlvan."