Sivaparan grilled in Oslo?

Manjula Fernando

The Foreign Ministry yesterday said it was aware of the rumour that the 33-year-old Penrinpanayagam Sivaparan alias Nediyavan who is a top LTTE operative in Oslo has been grilled by the Norwegian Authorities, but was awaiting an official confirmation.

Nediyavan was reported to be the next in Command in the LTTE international network after Kumaran Pathmanadan (KP) and there were claims that he was appointed the Chief after KP’s arrest by Sri Lankan authorities in a successful operation overseas.

“There was a request by the Sri Lankan mission in Norway not to let this person operate in their soil but we are yet to get a confirmation if he has been actually questioned,” a Foreign Ministry spokesperson said yesterday. A wide section of on-line media reported yesterday that the story of Nediyavan being questioned in a Scandinavian newspaper.

Sivaparan nicknamed Nediyavan (tall man) is managing the Tamil Coordinating Committee office in Norway.

He is married to the daughter of one of the founding members of the LTTE, Ranjanlal Gnanendramohan and this tie resulted in him becoming a relation of Prabhakaran.

During the post Prabhakaran era, Nediyavan publicly opposed the appointment of KP as the new leader and refused to admit that Prabhakaran was killed.

It was rumoured that he was instrumental in KP’s arrest, a claim denied by defence officials who masterminded the operation to arrest KP.