Colombo, Mar 16: A top leader of the tamil tiger rebels has said the organisation suspects that the United States was behind the revolt of renegade rebel leader of the eastern Batticaloa district, Colonel Karuna. Addressing a public meeting at the Kailasapathy auditorium of Jaffna university, LTTE leader Sivagnanam Karikalan yesterday said that elusive leader Velupillai Prabhakaran had given Karuna full powers as he had placed a lot of trust on him, but some external forces has made him break away from the closely-knit organisation.
Karikalan, who was with Karuna even after the revolt and left him at the last moment after he was expelled by the Wanni leadership, has said that Karuna through his foreign visits had the opportunity to come into contact with these foreign forces. He has said that the international community has been working with absolute commitment to resolve the ethnic crisis through the process of political dialogue with the LTTE.
''At a time when the situation was conducive to find such a peaceful resolution, some external forces have infiltrated aiming to disturb the peace process, provoke a war and destroy our leader Prabhakaran. They chose Karuna to execute their plan,'' Karikalan alleged.
Accusing the renegade leader of having close links with the Sri Lankan army for his safety reasons, he has said that the chief of defence staff and commander of the Sri Lankan army Lt. Gen. Lionel Balagalle has been calling Karuna very frequently after he announced his decision to go it alone.
''We believe that he is going to function with the Sri Lankan army in the future,'' he claimed. Bureau Report