Govt wants Nediyawan arrested

The government has begun negotiations with a few European Union nations in an effort to seek their support to arrest and repatriate to Sri Lanka the notorious and still active Norway-based LTTE Leader Perimpanayagam Sivaparan alias Nediyawan, who is believed to be flitting from one European country to another to dodge detection. Nediyawan was even last year responsible for launching an LTTE Tamil Television channel named Deepam to reach and indoctrinate Tamil youth in European nations, in Sri Lanka and targeting a huge South Indian Tamil audience too. Nediyawan coordinated LTTE activities overseas on behalf of the LTTE International Secretariat.

Nediyawan, who is said to have received personal orders from LTTE Leader Velupillai Prabhakaran during the latter stages of the war, is currently believed to be the de facto leader of the LTTE following the arrest of Selvarasa Pathmanathan alias KP. The government has intensified its investigations in a bid to secure the repatriation of Nediyawan to Colombo in an effort to gather evidence of alleged war crimes committed by the LTTE during the last phase of the war. Our source added that efforts to arrest and bring down Nediyawan to Sri Lanka are being synchronized to coincide with the setting up of a domestic mechanism to probe alleged war crimes committed by the Lankan Security Forces during the closing stages of the civil war. The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra'ad Al Hussein said in the course of his recent visit to Sri Lanka that it was imperative to look into whether war crimes had been committed by the LTTE and the government's own Security Forces during the final stages of the 30-year war. The government is determined to get Nediyawan arrested and deported to Colombo and prove through him to the UN that the LTTE had committed war crimes during the final phase of the conflict.