Sri Lanka says it's captured the new LTTE leader

Writer: AFP

Published: 7/08/2009 at 06:35 PM

Sri Lanka said on Friday it had arrested the acting head of the Tamil Tigers, who had vowed to revive the separatist movement following its military defeat in May and the death of its supreme leader.

Selvarasa Pathmanathan, better known as KP, was "taken into custody by Sri Lankan law enforcement authorities", the island nation's defence ministry said in a statement posted on its website.

Sri Lankan media said the arrest had taken place Thursday in Thailand, but Bangkok denied the reports and insisted he had been captured the day before in the Malaysian capital, Kuala Lumpur.

"The National Intelligence Agency has confirmed with the government that K.P was arrested in Kuala Lumpur on Wednesday night and he was transferred to Sri Lanka via Bangkok airport," Thai government spokesman Panitan Wattanayagorn said.

A privately run newspaper in Colombo reported that Pathmanathan was in Sri Lanka and was being interrogated at an undisclosed location.

A key figure in the overseas operations of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), Pathmanathan took up the leadership of what was left of the group after the death of long-time Tiger supremo Velupillai Prabhakaran.

Prabhakaran was killed by security forces in mid-May as they overran the LTTE's last jungle holdout in the island's northeast and eliminated its military leadership.

The military victory ended the LTTE's four-decade struggle for an independent Tamil homeland, one of Asia's longest running ethnic conflicts.

Pathmanathan, 55, is also wanted by Interpol on gun-running charges and by the Indian government in connection with the assassination of former prime minister Rajiv Gandhi by a Tamil suicide bomber in 1991.

Pathmanathan was believed to be in control of the LTTE's substantial overseas assets as well as a lucrative fund-raising network among expatriate Tamils.

Along with other foreign-based LTTE leaders, Pathmanathan announced plans in June to reorganise what remained of the rebel movement and to form a "trans-national government" with himself at the head.

"The struggle of the people of Tamil Eelam has reached a new state," he said at the time. "It is time now for us to move forward with our political vision towards our freedom."

His capture would appear to halt any such efforts -- a fact trumpeted by the Island newspaper.

"K.P's arrest will effectively neutralise ongoing efforts to revive the LTTE," it said.

There was no comment on the pro-rebel Tamilnet website.

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