Colombo: Strongly rebutting reports that he was responsible for the split in the now vanquished Tamil Tigers, former Sri Lankan Prime Minister Ranil Wickremasinghe has appealed to the Tamil community to come together to resolve the country's ethnic issue.
Wickremasinghe said the LTTE in 2005 elections had told the Tamils not to vote for him and which apparently cost him the Presidential post, which he lost to the incumbent Mahinda Rajapaksa. "In 2005, there was a mistake (by the LTTE) and now we have to get together and resolve this issue. In 2005, you missed the opportunity," he told the Europe-based Tamil television GTV.
On the split in the LTTE with the Karuna Amman parting ways with the Tiger Supremo V Prabhakaran, he said "it was an internal matter of the militant organisation and he had nothing to do with it".
The UNP leader said LTTE had humiliated him by calling him names after he lost the 2005 elections.
Wickremasinghe said that after the Mavil Aru incident which resulted in an all out war being launched on the LTTE, the then Army Commander and now Presidential Candidate General Sarath Fonseka had to follow orders from the government to eliminate the Tigers within a time frame, the Daily Mirror Online reported.
The closure by the LTTE of the sluice-gates of Mavil Aru waterway on July 26, 2006 was a crucial turning point in the Sri Lankan civil strife.
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