Malaysia admits arresting and deporting Sri Lankan rebels

Kuala Lumpur - Malaysia has arrested and deported several leaders of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) since the end of the civil war in Sri Lanka last year, officials confirmed Friday.

Key members of the Tamil Tigers were caught and then deported by Malaysian police between August last year and March, Home Ministry officials said.

"We did not want them here any longer than necessary," Director of Special Operations Fuzi Harun said.

"Our preventive action was to stop them from turning the country into their hub or base for global terrorist operations," he was quoted as saying by the New Straits Times newspaper.

Sri Lanka's military defeated the LTTE last year after 26 years of civil war. Rebel leader Velupillai Prabhakaran was killed, and the surviving leaders went into hiding.

In a statement issued Thursday, Home Minister Hishammuddin Hussein said the arrest of the LTTE leaders was made known to Sri Lanka's Defense Secretary Gotabaya Rajapaksa at the time.

Source: Earth Times.
Link: http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/320185,malaysia-admits-arresting-and-deporting-sri-lankan-rebels.html.