Lankan PM tells West to crack down on separatist Tamils

Sri Lanka today asked western countries to crack down on Tamils trying to revive Tiger separatist movement, which was crushed last year. 

Declaring that Colombo will not tolerate moves by LTTE remnants to form a transnational government, the new prime minister D M Jayaratne said the government was aware of moves by some sections of the 1.5 million ethnic Tamils living abroad to revive separatist movement in the north.

"We will never allow any secessionist forces of any western or any country to function on our land. Similarly we also expect those countries to reciprocate and not allow the Pro-LTTE groups in their country," he said.

Some pro-LTTE groups are also planning to hold meetings in this regard later this month in one of the western countries, Jayaratne told foreign correspondents during an interaction.

"We have even received reports that one of the Pro-LTTE group is planning to wage a military war and is accumulating weapons for the purpose," he said while appealing to the western countries not to permit such activities on their soil.

"Western nations are not doing enough to stop LTTE remnants from using their soil to plot against us," he said. 

In his first major interaction with media, Jayratne assured that emergency provisions in place in the island since 1983 would be gradually scaled back in the coming months as the security situation in the country had improved after the defeat of Tamil Tigers.

However, he cautioned that Tamils living overseas were planning to resurrect the Tiger moment by using some dormant militants within the country. 

But at the same time the prime minister pitched for devolution, saying that the process would bring in greater equality in the society. 

"Yes I am in favour of devolution. It will minimise the gaps in the society and bring about greater equality," Jayaratne said.