What ordinary Indians think of the LTTE

Pro-LTTE groups in Tamil Nadu have been campaigning for a pardon for the four LTTE cadres who assisted in the murder of Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi of India and were subsequently sentenced to death by the Indian courts. We publish below a letter sent to the Editor of the prestigious Indian international news magazine, Frontline (part of the same group in South India that publishes the Hindu newspaper) by an Indian gentleman from South India and reported in the Frontline of 07 January 2000.

LTTE and sympathy factors

P. Nedumar and the pro-Liberation Tigers of Tamil Ealam (LTTE) groups should campaign against the death penalty in the LTTE-controlled areas of Sri Lanka and not in Tamil Nadu and elsewhere in India. Rajiv Gandhi was killed after Velupillai Prabakaran’s "kangaroo court" passed a "death sentence" against him. The LTTE leader passed death sentences against even his one-time confidant, Mahatiya, and moderate Tamil leaders such as A. Amirthalingam. The LTTE also ruthlessly killed, among others, Sri Sabarathnam, and K. Padmanabha, leaders of the Tamil Eelam Liberation Organisation (TELO) and the Eelam People’s Revolutionary Liberation Front (EPRLF), and Sri Lankan leaders such as R. Premadasa and Lalith Athulathmudali. While the LTTE killing spree continues, it is meaningless to talk about showing mercy to the killers of Rajiv Gandhi.

S. T. Prakash

Murtharasanallur, Tamil Nadu.