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Provisional Transnational Government of Tamil
Eelam
LTTE names Selvarasa Pathmanathan as new leader
21 July 2009
[see also
Associated Press
Report titled 'Sri Lanka's defeated Tamil rebels name new leader' 22
July 2009
TamilNet Report titled 'New political formation of LTTE claimed' , 21 July 2009
and
Selvarasa
Pathmanathan (KP) Blog, 22 July 2009 ]
Channel 4 Interview - 22 July 2009
Executive Committee of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, wishes to officially let our beloved Tamil people and the international community know that Mr Selvarasa Pathmanathan, who had been appointed as Head of International Relations by our National Leader, will lead us into the next steps of our freedom struggle according to the vision of our esteemed leader�, said LTTE�s Executive Committee in a press statement released today.
Full text of the statement by the Executive Committee of the Liberation Tigers
of Tamil Eelam is as follows: [also in PDF]
�The Eelam Tamil people are in the midst of a critical and sorrowful period in the history of the struggle for freedom of our Nation, Tamil Eelam. No one can deny the fact that we have experienced massive and irreplaceable losses, losses we would not accept even in our worst dreams.
Against the backdrop of Sri Lanka�s boastful propaganda that the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam have been annihilated and destroyed, it is our historic duty to rise up and fight for our legitimate rights � a duty that has been left in our hands by our peerless leader and those martyred heroes and civilians who have given their lives in defending our soil. At this historic juncture, cognizant of the new circumstances, we have set out to take our freedom struggle along new pathways. Accordingly, we humbly announce to our beloved Tamil people that we have reformulated the administrative structures of our liberation movement.
Like all liberation struggles, we will modify the form and strategies of our struggle according to times and demands. Yet, our ultimate goal of a free Tamil Eelam does not ever change. In view of this, we, the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, wish to join hands with our people in order to take forward our freedom struggle to its next phase. Hon Mr Veluppillai Pirabakaran was then, now, and shall remain forever, the leader of Tamil Nationhood.
We are determined to overcome all the hurdles ahead of us in order to strengthen our actions towards our liberation. We have undertaken a long, elaborate and deep process of consultation among our members, including our cadres who bravely fought their way out of the battlefield and our representatives abroad and in the Diaspora, in order to make some firm decisions. According to this collective decision, we, the Executive Committee of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, wish to officially let our beloved Tamil people and the international community know that Mr Selvarasa Pathmanathan, who had been appointed as Head of International Relations by our National Leader, will lead us into the next steps of our freedom struggle according to the vision of our esteemed leader.
We have set up a head office for our liberation movement, and formulated various sector-based working groups and an executive committee, in order to take our struggle vigorously forward. We shall share the details of these in due course. We look forward to the support and wise counsel of the Tamil people in realising our future plans. If the Sinhala nation and those countries that support it consider that the Tamil people's freedom struggle has been defeated through the capture of historical homeland areas of the Tamil people and the massacre of thousands of Tamil civilians, we shall shatter that illusion. Let us demonstrate to the world through our actions that the fire of freedom awakened by our great leader V.Pirabakaran continues to burn in the hearts of all Tamils, and that only a free Tamil Nation has the power to extinguish it.�
Thank you
Yours Sincerely,
Mr.Suresh(Amuthan), Mr.Ram,
On behalf of Executive committee,
Headquarters, Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam
Sri Lanka's defeated Tamil rebels name new leader
Associated Press Report, 22 July 2009 COLOMBO, Sri Lanka � Sri
Lanka's defeated Tamil Tiger rebels have named a man accused of running a vast
arms smuggling operation as their new leader, two months after government forces
crushed the separatist movement.
The new leader has pledged to remake the insurgents into a nonviolent separatist
movement. Selvarasa Pathmanathan was the rebels' chief of international
relations and allegedly ran an international weapons smuggling ring. The Sri
Lankan government has appealed to foreign governments to find and arrest him.
Pathmanathan "will lead us into the next steps of our freedom struggle according
to the vision of our esteemed leader," said the Tiger's executive committee in a
statement released Tuesday.
He replaces Velupillai Prabhakaran, the cult-like figure who led the Tigers for
decades before being shot dead by Sri Lankan forces in May.
The defeated Tigers said they have set up a head office and an executive
committee to move forward their campaign for an independent homeland for ethnic
minority Tamils, who have claimed discrimination at the hands of Sri Lanka's
majority Sinhalese.
Pathmanathan said earlier the Tigers would abandon their armed struggle and use
nonviolence to achieve their goals, and he promised the group would reorganize
itself based on democratic principles � a major change from Prabhakaran's
dictatorial leadership style.
"Like all liberation struggles, we will modify the form and strategies of our
struggle according to times and demands," the statement said.
The government declared in May that its forces had crushed the Liberation Tigers
of Tamil Eelam and ended the civil war that began in 1983.
The rebels once controlled a shadow state across northern Sri Lanka backed by
thousands of guerrilla fighters, a navy and even a nascent air force. In the
final days of the battle, the military killed much of the senior Tiger
leadership, including Prabhakaran.
About 10,000 former insurgents are held in government custody.
It was not immediately clear whether Pathmanathan would get the support of an
estimated 800,000 Tamil expatriates living in Britain, Canada, Australia and
other countries.
Signs have emerged that the Tamil diaspora is divided over whom to support. The
TamilNet Web site, seen as a mouthpiece for the rebels, has refused to carry
statements from Pathmanathan.
Reports have surfaced that many Tamils are furious with Pathmanathan for quickly
acknowledging Prabhakaran's death while others refused to believe the rebel
chief had been killed.
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New political formation
of LTTE claimed
- TamilNet,
Tuesday, 21 July 2009
Addressed as originating from the headquarters of the Liberation Tigers
of Tamil Eelam, an Executive Committee on Tuesday, announced restructure of
the organization and the leadership of Selvarasa Pathmanathan in taking up
the future course of the movement. �We have set up a head office for our
liberation movement and formulated various sector-based working groups and
an executive committee," a press release on behalf of the Executive
Committee said adding that the details will be shared in due course.
Meanwhile, LTTE watchers said that the new formation has the burden to prove
its credibility with the grass root at home and among the diaspora that
aspire not incumbencies but a strong mass organisation to address the
national cause.
The press release claimed the announcement is a collective decision
arrived at after consultations "among our members, including our cadres who
bravely fought their way out of the battlefield and our representatives
abroad and in the diaspora."
TamilNet, while re-iterating its stand as an independent media, committed to
the cause of Eezham Tamil nationalism, requests readers not to take cues
from it on the organisational matters of the present. Political steering of
the Eezham Tamil cause is entirely a prerogative of the masses concerned,
who have hitherto shown solidarity with a movement that did not surrender
either the aim or the struggle.
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