Vaiko releases Prabhakaran’s letter to DMK chief
MDMK general secretary Vaiko has released a letter written by LTTE leader V. Prabhakaran to DMK leader M. Karunanidhi in 1989 in which he had asked the latter to bring to the attention of opposition parties the “atrocities” committed by the Indian Peace Keeping Force (IPKF).
“Prabhakaran gave the letter when I met him in the jungles of Sri Lanka. A few months after I handed over the letter, Kalaignar (Karunanidhi) said he had destroyed it. But I kept a copy of the letter for 28 years and have released it now because the world should know its contents,” Mr Vaiko told The Hindu on Friday.
The hand-written letter calls Mr. Karunanidhi as “ Anna (elder brother)” and tells him that while the Tamil leaders in Sri Lankan Parliament had “left the Tamils in lurch for their own benefits, Mr. Vaiko, risking his life, had met us and our comrades.”
Prabhakaran adds that “His (Vaiko’s) love for Tamils and his courage make us feel that we can die a thousand times for the cause of our people and language. We have respect for your party of selfless cadres.” “It is his love for our people, that has made him to undertake the adventure,” he says in the letter dated February 22, 1989.
“I am sending Gopalasamy (as Vaiko was known then) Annan to Tamil Nadu because of the dangerous situation,” he says. (The Hindu)