"Has KP betrayed the best of the LTTE?"

(May 21, New Delhi, Sri Lanka Guardian) According to a reliable source of the foreign intelligence wing, the newly appointed international relations officer of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, Shanmugam Kumaran Tharmalingham aka Kumaran Pathmanathan (52) (KP) , who was in charge of weapons smuggling, has given personal details of the LTTE leaders who are trapped in the No Fire Zone. He claimed to be the one who gave the misleading message to the leadership that they would be allowed to surrender if they laid down their arms.

According to the source, “The Tiger leadership knew on Saturday that they could not fight against the miliary. After that, a top level leader sent the message to KP, saying that the Tigers were ready to silence their gun and surrender to the Military.”

While the International Community including the US, UN and India openly called for the Tigers to negotiate after laying down their weapons, the Tigers continued to fight on while using the Civilians as hostages.

But later on Saturday, unconfirmed reports stated that some Tiger officers may have surrendered to the Army. Further reports state that five soldiers who had been captured by the tigers in recent a previous engagement had been freed. It is thought that their captors had hoped to exchange those prisoners to ensure their own survival. It is clear that if the Tigers have become masters of anything, it is taking hostages to use as human shields.

-Sri Lanka Guardian