Tamilnation > Struggle for Tamil Eelam > Conflict Resolution - Tamil Eelam - Sri Lanka > Norwegian Peace Initiative > Pirabaharan using the state of Sri Lanka as a convenience

Norwegian Peace Initiative

Pirabaharan using the state of Sri Lanka as a convenience says Kadirgamar
6 March 2003,  Lacnet

"Mr. Prabhakaran can afford to send his son abroad. There are millions of parents who can't afford that huge luxury because education in the West is very expensive. As for the child soldiers, there is one law for those poor children, another for Mr. Prabhakaran's son."

Bandula Jayasekara in Colombo, SLT 7.35 a.m Thursday 6 March - 

Former Minister of Foreign Affairs Lakshman Kadiragamar says that LTTE leader Vellupillai Prabhakaran is clearly using the state of Sri Lanka as a convenience.

Commenting on the recent news reports that Prabhakaran's son has applied for a passport and a national identity card Kadiragamar said 

" His son needs a passport for which he needs a national identity card and, therefore, he needs a State. He can get a forged passport but it would be better to get a legal one from a solicitous and obliging government. While he is fighting the State, and talking of separation and so on, when it comes to practical considerations like how to get his son out of the country those considerations do not matter. What matters is getting a Sri Lankan passport. I don't think that we should overdo the euphoria that he is accepting the sovereignty of Sri Lanka. He will do so when it suits him. Mr. Prabhakaran can afford to send his son abroad. There are millions of parents who can't afford that huge luxury because education in the West is very expensive. As for the child soldiers, there is one law for those poor children, another for Mr. Prabhakaran's son." 

Responding to a question as to why the Tamils hate him accusing him as a person who had betrayed their cause Kadiragamar said that he was a Sri Lankan first and a Tamil second. The former Foreign Minister said 

"Those who say so believe in a separate state in this country. They will see me as a person who is against the separation of this country. I do not believe that the ethnic communities in our country should have "causes". I believe fundamentally that there should be a united Sri Lanka, which must be a multi-ethnic, multi religious society. I am totally against any divisions, exclusive homelands for some. I am for a solution which allows all Sri Lankans to move freely in this country. Even the Prime Minister has said that there is no such thing as a homeland. He has said that the 25, 000 square miles of Sri Lanka are everybody's homeland. It doesn't bother me in the slightest that some Tamils accuse me of betraying their cause. I regard myself as a Sri Lankan. I do not consider myself a Tamil first and then a Sri Lankan. It has been the competing claims of exaggerated ethnicity that have caused so much trouble for all of us."

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