If LTTE chief caught, SL to consider Indian plea for handover

Colombo, Jan 10 (PTI) Sri Lanka will "positively"
consider any plea by the Indian government to hand over LTTE
supremo Velupillai Prabhakaran, wanted in the Rajiv Gandhi
assassination case, if he is caught alive, the country's
Foreign Minister Rohitha Bogollagama has said.

"If the Indian government makes a request to hand over
the LTTE leader (Prabhakaran) to India in the event he is
arrested alive by the security forces, Sri Lanka would
consider it positively under the existing law as he is a
murder suspect in India," he said.

"The Indian government is yet to make such a request,"
the Daily Mirror quoted the minister as saying during a
briefing by ruling United People Freedom Alliance (UPFA) on
the fall of rebel-held Elephant Pass Friday.

The minister said only some individuals in India had
requested Sri Lanka in this regard, but did not elaborate.

Since there is only an Extradition Arrangement between
India and Sri Lanka, short of a treaty, deportation of wanted
people could be undertaken only on grounds of mutual requests.

Meanwhile, Bogollagama also said Sri Lankan government
did not believe in a military solution to address the genuine
grievances of the minority communities in Sri Lanka.

On the contrary, the government was firmly committed to a
political solution in finding answers to these issues, "which
should be done in a spirit of give and take by all democratic
forces in the country," he told senior diplomats this week.

On reimposing a ban on LTTE after six years, Bogollagama
said this was done due to acts of terrorism and other excesses
committed by the outfit and "its orchestrated campaign to
collect funds" to commit such acts.

Bogollagama said the reasons for the ban included the
LTTE's activities relating to procurement or smuggling of
arms, ammunition and explosives which he said had the
potential of adversely affecting international and regional
peace.

The Minister said the decision by New Delhi to proscribe
the LTTE and renew the ban periodically also stems from the
threat that the LTTE poses to the territorial integrity of
India.

Bogollagama referred to the repeated calls by President
Mahinda Rajapaksa to the LTTE to renounce terrorism and come
to the negotiating table.

"However, the LTTE spurned all these pleas and continued
to persist on the path of unbridled violence and terrorism,
causing massive loss of innocent lives and destruction of
property," Bogollagama told the diplomats.