COLOMBO: Sri Lanka has turned down an Indian request for a meeting between a home ministry team with authorities in Colombo, to thrash out legal aspects of extraditing the LTTE chief, Velupilai Prabhakaran,
Although there has been no official announcement by the Sri Lankan government, it is understood to have made clear its position recently on an Indian request on permission to send a team of legal experts to Colombo.
But, permission has been granted to the Special Investigation Team (SIT) in connection with the Rajiv Gandhi assassination. However, it is unlikely that India will now send the SIT investigators, as the plan was to send both teams together, Permission has also been given for a third team of investigators from Tamil Nadu to probe the murder of Elam People’s Revolutionary Liberation Front (EPRLF) leader K. Padmanabha in Madras in 1990, The team is expected to arrive here,
The Indian request to allow GBI legal experts to visit Colombo had been pending for a few weeks with the Sri Lanka government. What appears to be the final “no” came: during a meeting, between the Si Lankan foreign secretary, Bernard Tilakanratna, and the Indian high commissioner, N.NJha,
Prabhakaran, recently charge sheeted by SIT in the Rajiv Gandhi murder case, is unlikely to fall in custody of Sri Lankan authorities in the near future. The Indian and Sri Lankan experts could only have one over the legal aspects of an extradition request
Meanwhile, some observers believe in Sri Lanka fears that an extradition request will put the country in a spot if it decides to negotiate with the LTTE chief, Si Lanka does not want to close the option of direct talks with the LTTE and the refusal to entertain an Indian team may be seen as a signal to the militants,
The refusal, however, does not close the possibility of India moving a formal extradition request. India and Sri Lanka do not have an extradition treaty.
Article extracted from this publication >> June 10, 1994
