LTTE chief told cadres to shoot him if he swayed from his path

Siddharthan,who along with former LTTE leaders Krishnan and Guhan opened the first LTTE office in London in the 1970s,split with Prabhakaran following differences. Their enmity became so acute became that Prabhakaran had ordered Siddharthan’s killing.

Siddharthan said that Prabhakaran failed to realise the ground realities because of his “intransigence and lack of understanding of geo-political reality”. “He failed to use military might to benefit the Tamil community. He pushed the Tamils into an abyss,” he said.

Siddharthan,who has been provided adequate Government security due to the LTTE threat,said that Prabhakaran was a dangerous man. “Prabhakaran could not be trusted. He never liked a no. He is a survivalist,” Siddharthan said.

Siddharthan related an incident that took place in the late 1970s. The LTTE leaders were in a meeting at a house in Jaffna when they heard the sound of a police jeep. “Prabhakaran ordered the lights to be switched off… But when… the lights came on,I was surprised to see that Prabhakaran,who was seated next to me had vanished… I could not see where he slipped…. I saw a smiling Prabhakaran emerging from one of the entrances,” Siddharthan said.

“We also subsequently realised that the keep that had moved past the house was not a police convoy,” he said. Siddharthan said nobody could easily gauge his “survivalist” mentality.

“I split with Prabhakaran in the beginning of 1980 and he then considered me his enemy and was looking to finish me,” Siddharthan said.

Meanwhile,Foreign Minister Rohitha Bogollagama on Monday said in a statement that United Nations Secretary General Ban ki Moon will visit Sri Lanka on May 22 to take stock of the situation here.