KP Arrested?
In happier times, KP on the left
Word from the Daily Mirror is that the LTTE’s new leader KP (Selvarasa Pathmanathan) was arrested in Thailand. He’s been arrested before and released by corrupt Thai officials, so I’ll wait and see. However, if so this is a very good thing. He is a major financier of terrorism wanted by Sri Lanka, India and Interpol, most notably for involvement in the assassination of Rajiv Gandhi. The weapons and funds he’s procured have funded more suicide bombings than Hamas, Islamic Jihad and Al Qaeda combined, along with other violence. Seemingly moderate blogging aside, this is not a good guy.
However, I don’t agree with his blogging either. Just yesterday he wrote
Sri Lanka is the identity of the Sinhala people. It does not represent Tamil Nation. We are Eelam Tamil People. We are not Sri Lankans. This is the sense of identity every Eelam Tamil has in their consciousness.
Which is just nonsense. My friends are Sinhala, Tamil, Muslim, Burgher, half-German, half-Austrian, one-quarter Chinese, Malay, etc and we’re all proud Sri Lankans. More to the point, I don’t think it’s productive to say ‘you’re racist, let us be racist too’. The problem isn’t that with one race or another, the problem is racism. That is something we can only fix through unity.
There is racism in Sri Lanka and being a minority is disproportionately hard. There are constitutional rights which aren’t practically extended to minorities, Tamils the most. However, the solution to this isn’t geographical separation based on race, but rather a broad civil rights movement for all the people on this island, regardless of class or creed.
But I digress. KP’s biggest crime isn’t being a Tamil nationalist. It’s being a terrorist, and I use that word in the literal not the political sense. The weapons and funds he procured have blown up buses, assassinated leaders, killed thousands of innocents and ruined millions of lives. The international smuggling networks he’s set up have contributed to global corruption, drug dealing and arms smuggling.
Thailand has caught and let him go before, mostly likely due to KP’s phones calls to well connected corrupt officials. KP is, however, now isolated internationally and within the LTTE (pitched against the hardliners and barely acknowledged by TamilNet). So let’s hope the SMS alert is for real. The only question is who gets to try him first.
KP has been arrested and is now in Colombo. He was apparently arrested in Malaysia and transported through Thailand. As usual, DBS Jeyaraj has the best report.
Indi, do me a small favour, will ya? Don’t blog about KP. You’re just giving him publicity by writing about him..
nah, if there is nasty , nasty in the room I’d rather see it than not see it.
Pretty amazing that the GOSL actually managed to get KP to Lanka in this manner! Looks like it’s another slap in the face of the Tamil diaspora who were hoping that KP would take over the mantles of the LTTE. Seems like things have really sharpened up at the Ministry of Defence over the last few years. I just wonder how they managed to get the Malaysian/Thai authorities to hand over this son of a bitch, because usually no one gives a toss about folks who are “wanted” in Sri Lanka.
[...] It is widely believed that the arrest was made possible through “inside information” supplied by some members of the LTTE abroad who were opposed to KP donning the tiger leadership mantle after the demise of supremo Velupillai Prabhakaran. KP was at one time the chief arms procurer for the LTTE and headed a tiger division known as Overseas purchases dept or simply KP dept. Hat tip for the update indi.ca » KP Arrested?. [...]
I don’t think this is a good thing. According to Jeyaraj there’s a split in the LTTE, with the KP-led faction advocating peaceful resistance and the other side calling for the continuation of the armed struggle. If you remove KP, who is essentially the face of the former group, all you have left is the latter.
KP could have been coopted in a manner similar to Karuna – he could have been cultivated/supported and the LTTE could have been eased into the political sphere, essentially declawed, and in time (with suitable devolution/pacification) be made irrelevant.
It’s not a good thing for Tamil nationalism. But It’s good for Sri Lanka though. Because foreign governments are way less likely to recognize any violent, extremist faction of the LTTE. They will continue to be banned and treated as terrorists. KP was hardly a “moderate” in his views. He is just another racist, fascist bastard like the rest of the Tamil “freedom fighters”
He certainly seemed to be the more moderate of the voices left in the LTTE. (If that is saying much.) I wonder what sorts of human rights violations are taking place right now.
Hope his human rights do get violated. Afterall he was the man responsible for procuring funds for all those bomb attacks, and supplying all those guns and ammuntion that killed thousands of Sri Lankans.
Indi was licking the ass of Ranil [who strengthen the Tigers] sometime back – now good to see this fucker is licking as ass of Mahinda…
This man supported the course – no one can deny it.
I was happy to see him taking the moderate path after the fall of VP.
But it is typical of you sinhalese regime to distroy even the moderates!! this is not a surprise!
Not long to go for another cycle of riots where you start killing innocent Tamils.
Oh cry us a river will you. If you think KP was a ‘moderate’ you need your head examined. He was a man responsible for the deaths of thousands of Sri Lanka – yes, including Tamils.
It’s all kinda relative isn’t it? Within a staunchly dictatorial group, like the LTTE, that was unwilling to compromise on anything, KP was considered a moderate. Compared to the likes of Neelan Liruchelvam, he’s an extremist.
Moderates….I would say it is a big FART……..Any one who is dreaming even about a seperate state in Sri Lanka based on race is not a moderate but a seperatist…..and a terrorist who is capable of following the path of late megolomaniac Pirabaharan…………Sri Lanka is a single country and is the home land of all her inhabitants…..no matter what the race cast religion or creed is……it is a SINGLE COUNTRY ……IT IS A SINGLE NATION of different people…those who do not accept can go to hell……….and KP and all the day dreamers can tag along…….that is mi belief
Or is it happening already?
What is? You’re brain falling out of your ass?