LTTE 'liberation movement': Ramadoss

A week after Tamil Nadu chief minister M Karunanidhi called Velupillai Prabhakaran his "good friend", PMK chief S Ramadoss on Sunday said the Tamil Tigers chief is "not a terrorist" and that the LTTE is a "liberation organisation" fighting for the cause of Tamils in Sri Lanka.

Prabhakaran is "not a terrorist" but he is the leader of a "liberation movement" like former South African president Nelson Mandela and late PLO chief Yasser Arafat, Ramadoss told a press conference here.

Even Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose, when he started the Indian National Army, was described as a "terrorist" by the then British empire, he said.

"Likewise, Prabhakaran, who is fighting for the liberation of 50 million Sri Lankan Tamils, is not a terrorist," said Ramadoss, whose party quit the DMK-led alliance and joined the AIADMK front.

He welcomed AIADMK chief Jayalalithaa's statement that Tamil Eelam was the only solution to end the decades-long ethnic strife in the island nation.

"Though the DMK chief had also said the same thing, what has he done to achieve Tamil Eelam? What is his contribution in achieving the separate homeland for Sri Lankan Tamils?" Ramadoss asked.

Karunanidhi had last week created a flutter by calling Prabhakaran a "good friend" who is not a terrorist. But, he later retracted his statement.