Arrest warrant issued for Prabhakaran

An arrest warrant was issued for Tamil rebel leader Velupillai Prabhakaran who was yesterday sentenced by a Sri Lankan court to life imprisonment for his part in bombing the Central Bank building in Colombo six-and-a-half years ago.

More than 100 people died and scores were injured in the attack.

The sentence coincided with the first day of the second round of peace talks between the Colombo government and Prab-hakaran's Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) in Bangkok.

Colombo high court judge Sarath Ambepitiya issued an open warrant for the arrest of the elusive 47-year-old guerrilla leader who operates from the jungles of the north-east region of the island.

Ten LTTE members were indicted by Sri Lanka's attorney general, but only two of them were apprehended. The two men, W. Pathivan and K.T. Shivakumar, were each sentenced to life imprisonment. LTTE's intelligence wing leader Pottu Amman, who has been convicted along with Prabhakaran for the assassination of former Indian Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi, was acquitted due to lack of evidence.

Three others along with Pottu Amman were acquitted, but the judge ordered the country's Crim-inal Investigations Depart-ment to arrest Prabhakaran and three others and bring them to justice.

The judgment comes at an embarrassing time for the government which has launched a peace initiative with the LTTE, and lifted the banning order on the terrorist organisation to pave the way for the talks.

"We don't see any effect on the peace talks," said G.L.Peiris, the government's chief negotiator. "Obviously we will not comment on the judgement itself because it is not proper for me to say anything about a decision of a court of law." The chief negotiator for the rebels, Anton Balasingham, would not comment.