The LTTE in a startling revelation yesterday admitted to a meeting with President Mahinda Rajapakse’s brother Basil in the Wanni before the presidential elections. This revelation was made by the LTTE Political Wing Leader S.P. Tamilselvan in an interview with the Sudar Oli newspaper on Monday.

The revelation by Tamilselvan comes in the teeth of a denial by Senior Presidential Advisor Basil Rajapakse in parliament last week that he had met with LTTE before the presidential election. Rajapakse had said he had never met with any LTTE representative before the presidential election.

However, Tamilselvan in his interview had said that a delegation representing Mahinda Rajapakse, which included his brother Basil had come to the Wanni to hold talks with their Administrative Division before the election.

" I am aware that a delegation of the Mahinda Rajapakse group came to the Wanni and held talks, not with the politburo but with our administrative division. It was reported that Basil, a brother of Mahinda Rajapakse was also in the delegation.

There was nothing beyond that. Our administrative division listened to their proposals and duly conveyed them to us. That was the end of it. Similarly, Ranil’s group also made efforts to contact us," Tamilselvan had said.

However, Tamilselvan had not said that a delegation of the UNP had visited the LTTE in the Wanni.

Tamilselvan had also denied accepting money from the Rajapakse group to boycott the presidential elections but said he did not know whether any person used the organisation’s name and collected the money.

It has been established through documentary evidence that government monies had been transferred after the presidential elections to front companies setup by a person identified as Emil Kanthan whom the Terrorism Investigation Department (TID) has identified as a top LTTE intelligence operative. Kanthan is a close associate of Pooannan, the head of the LTTE’s administrative division.

Tamilselvan had also said, "Furthermore, since this issue was related to our organization, we waited till the issue was fully exposed in the south and the truth of the matter surfaced. We presumed that somebody might have made use of the name of our organization and made off with money. We wanted to wait till such a truth was exposed. We wanted to ascertain who had obtained money from the Mahinda group. Now we expect the truth to reveal in case any money transactions had actually taken place between any parties. But we want to categorically state that the LTTE has no connection whatsoever with any such transaction."

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