LTTE got most of its arms from Ukraine: Karuna

“There were many other supply sources in Asia and Africa,but the main source was Ukraine,” Karuna,a former bodyguard to slain Velupillai Prabhakaran told Japan’s Kyodo News in an interview.

Asked if North Korea was a supplier,Karuna,now minister for National Integration and Reconciliation in President Mahinda Rajapaksa’s government,said there was a lot of talk about procuring arms from the country,but those efforts never succeeded.

But other well-informed military sources in Colombo quoted by Kyodo said on condition of anonymity that the LTTE had obtained Chinese arms with North Korean end-user certificates.

“An investigation team from Japan was here in this connection some months ago and met with very senior officials,” one of the sources said,adding that “Tokyo knows the facts.”

Karuna,a vice-president of Rajapaksa’s Sri Lanka Freedom Party,said most of the arms used by the LTTE were of Russian and Chinese manufacture.

Kumaran Pathmanathan,also known as KP,who was arrested in Malaysia and is now in the custody of the Sri Lankan government,was the chief arms procurer.

“The LTTE had bases in Cambodia,Thailand,Malaysia and Laos,and KP operated from these places,” Karuna said. “In those days it was very difficult for him to get into Europe.” PTI

Lanka hints at LTTE-Maoist links

COLOMBO: A top Sri Lankan official on Thursday said the rebel LTTE may have had links with the Maoists in India,days after Union Home Minister P Chidambaram said that the Left wing extremists were acquiring arms from abroad.

“Going by the way they (LTTE) operate and plan things it is possible that they can have links with any terrorist organisation like the al-Qaeda and the Maoists,” Rajeeva Wijesingha,secretary in the Ministry of Disaster Management and Human Rights,said. He said the links could have been there through training of operatives.

“Their (LTTE) motive is destabilisation of any country,” Wijesingha said adding,slain Tamil Tiger supremo Velupillai Prabhakaran had a “visceral hatred” towards India. PTI