Faleiro denies major role in Lanka talks

Former minister of state for external affairs Eduardo Faleiro (Congress) is at present in Colombo enroute to Jaffna in the north of Sri Lanka.

Faleiro who flew to Colombo through Trivandrum is in Colombo to attend a seminar. He told Gulf News on telephone from Colombo that his Jaffna visit was not as much connected with the now limping peace talks as with finding out what could be done for the welfare of the suffering Tamils in that nation.

He said he would drive to Jaffna today and be back in Trivandrum on February 19 on his way back to New Delhi.

The news of Faleiro's visit to Sri Lanka was broken in Chennai by Janata Party leader Dr Subramanian Swamy, a bitter critic of Congress President Sonia Gandhi.

In a press note here, Dr Swamy said that "Faleiro is being received in Jaffna as the emissary of Congress President Sonia Gandhi, by the LTTE... Faleiro is expected to be taken to a secret location in Killinochi, north of Jaffna tomorrow to meet LTTE terrorist-in-chief and Rajiv Gandhi killer V Prabhakaran.

"The three-point agenda for talks between Faleiro and Prabhakaran was decided last month in London between Sonia Gandhi's mother Paola Maino and the LTTE exile Anton Balasingham after Sonia agreed to meet the pre-condition of the LTTE to join the DMK–led coalition."

Dr Swamy had written to Deputy Home Minister Lal Krishna Advani and has spoken to him on telephone about the visit. He has demanded that Faleiro should be interrogated on his return from Jaffna after being arrested under POTA (Prevention of Terrorism Act).

He added that the Indian High Commission in Colombo had no previous information about Faleiro's visit to Jaffna and that they had advised Faleiro against it.

He said that Faleiro had declined a High Commission offer to send an official to accompany him to Jaffna. The Indian High Commission in Colombo was not available for comment.

Back in the late 80s a furore had been created over the secret visit by V. Gopalasamy of the DMK then – now Vaiko head of the MDMK – to Jaffna and a meeting with Prabhakaran.

This was one of the grounds on which Vaiko had to part company with the DMK. Now the MDMK is part of the Democratic Progressive Alliance headed by Karunanidhi.

Vaiko who spent more than 19 months in jail after arrest on POTA charges had on his release on bail declared that he still supported the LTTE who were fighting for the people of Tamil origin in Sri Lanka.