Rajiv Gandhi's assassination historical tragedy: LTTE

New Delhi, June 27: In an open admission of its role in the assassination of former Indian Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi, the LTTE today regretted the killing as ''a monumental historical tragedy'' and assured that the rebel Sri Lankan outfit would never act again against the interests of the Indian government.

''As far as that event is concerned, I would say that it is a great tragedy, a monumnetal historical tragedy for which we deeply regret and we call upon the Government of India and people of Indian to be magnanimous to put the past behind and to approach the ethnic question in a different perspective,'' LTTE chief negotiator and ideologue Anton Balasingham told NDTV in an interview.

During the interview, which was conducted in an undisclosed location in Europe, Mr Balasingham denied that the assassination of Rajiv Gandhi was carried out because of LTTE's unhappiness over the accord between India and Sri Lanka.

''No, it happened later on. What has happened is, since we rejected the Sri Lankan accord there were a lot of events that took place, creating a gulf between the LTTE and the Government of India and the Indians later the IPKF to disarm the LTTE and eventually broke out in an open confrontation.'' He said the LTTE fought a guerilla war against the Indian Army for two years and finally the Sri Lankans. ''We had a negotiation with Sri Lanka and secured the withdrawal of the Indian troops in the 90s, and, of course, finally it was followed by the assassination of Rajiv Gandhi.'' The LTTE ideologue said India helped the Liberation Tigers at a particular historical time to train and arm ''our soldiers, to protect our people from state oppression'', but the intention was not to create a separate state as such but to help the Tamils to protect themselves.

''...there was a period of Indian intervention from 1983 up to 1987 during which the Sri Lankan-Indian accord was written and it was during that time India wanted to find a political solution to the conflict. It is a very complicated history...'' Mr Balasingham also dwelt on the finer nuances of why the LTTE was not shy of the accord. ''We were not very happy with the political solution proposed by India because it did not satisfy the political aspirations of our people. If India has offered a federal solution as she has in her own country then we would have definitely responded positively but the provincial administration suggested by India was totally inadequate to meet the demands of the Tamil people so that is why we did not support the accord.'' Asked whether the LTTE could gibe any assurance to India that this kind of thing would not happen again, Mr Balasingham said, "We have made pledges to the Government of India that under no circumstances we will act against its interest and that ever since the assassination of Rajiv Gandhi, India played a detached role.

What we feel is India should actively involve in the peace process.'' UNI