Reacting to the possibility of being sent to a Sri Lankan government—run rehabilitation camp meant for LTTE detainees, a TNA woman councillor of the northern provincial council has said she would resist the move.
Speaking to local media, Ananthi Saseetharan said that putting her under rehabilitation would require her arrest and any attempt to do so would have international repercussions for the government.
Saseetharan said she was never a member of the LTTE but wanted justice for her husband and several others who had disappeared during the three-decade ethnic conflict.
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The Island, an English language daily close to the government reported that the Defence Ministry was seriously considering accommodating Saseetharan, the wife of a former senior LTTE member, at a rehabilitation facility to prevent her from propagating separatist sentiments.
The newspaper quoted a senior Defence Ministry source as saying that those who had not been arrested or surrendered at the conclusion of the conflict in May 2009 missed the government’s rehabilitation programme and Saseetharan was among those who had avoided rehabilitation.
Her husband Sinnathurai Sivakumar alias Elilan was the LTTE’s political commissar in the eastern port district of Trincomalee. He was among the top LTTE leaders killed during the final battle.
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Saseetharan had met the visiting US Ambassador at large on criminal justice Stephen J Rapp when he toured the Tamil—dominated Sri Lankan north last week.
The government has released the 11,000 surrendered LTTE members after rehabilitation and feels that Saseetharan would not be espousing the separatist cause if she were to go through the process.
She had been elected to the northern provincial council in the landmark election held last September.