"Let us function directly under your leadership"-Karuna

[TamilNet, Friday, 05 March 2004, 03:48 GMT]
"Please let us function independently under your direct leadership. We are not leaving you. We are not opposed to you. I do not want to commit the historical mistake of not pointing out to you the aspirations of our people, disregarding their feelings and those of our fighters here. If you love the people here and if you trust the fighters here please let us function independently and directly under your leadership," said Col. Karuna, senior commander of the Liberation Tigers in a letter addressed to the leader of the LTTE, Mr. Velupillai Pirapaharan Friday.

In the letter published Friday in, Thamil Alai, the daily published by the LTTE from Kokkaddicholai, 15 kilometres southeast of Batticaloa town, Col. Karuna, suggests an administration structure for Batticaloa parallel to the other divisions of the LTTE functioning directly under Mr. Pirapaharan's command.

"In the current opportune situation, I want to do my duty by the people of Southern Thamil Eelam. It is my final goal that I should fight for these people and die at their feet. I do not want anyone to interfere in this."

"I want function directly under you, avoiding the divisional heads of Thamil Eelam," Col. Karuna says in his letter to his leader.