Colombo, June 21 (DPA) Sri Lanka’s defence secretary warned Monday that an international Tamil rebel network was still active a year after the separatists were defeated militarily.
Gotabhaya Rajapaksa, who is also President Mahinda Rajapaksa’s brother, said Tamil groups in Europe and the US still carry the ideology of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE).
‘The intelligence units of the army and other security services have to be vigilant,’ he said, while inaugurating a military base in the former rebel stronghold of Mullaitivu, 350 km north of the capital.
‘Security forces should now concentrate on maintaining peace that was achieved amidst difficulties. They have an important role to play to prevent the country sliding back to that dark era,’ he said.
The LTTE was defeated in May 2009, ending a 26-year war.
Also Monday, a court remanded a man for carrying a photograph of the ex-Tamil rebel chief, Velupillai Prabhakaran, who was killed in the final stages of the conflict.
A. Chandana, a civilian of the majority Sinhala community, said he had kept the photograph to show to his children.
Police arrested him on charges of promoting the banned LTTE.
