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Lankan President wanted to 'chat' with Prabhakaran

July 14, 2009 17:20 IST

Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa has said that he had never met slain Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam supremo Velupillai Prabhakaran and would have preferred to chat with him.

"I would have preferred to bring him here and have a chat with him. I have never seen this man," Rajapaksa said.

In an interview to TIME magazine, when asked what he would have wanted to know from Prabhakaran if he had got the opportunity to talk to him, Rajapaksa said, "Why he did all these mad things? What else can I ask him?"

On what went through his mind when he learnt about Prabhakaran's death, he remarked "Thank the Lord. Thank the [Buddhist] Triple Gem. That was a gift."

The President also said he was not at all interested in knowing how the LTTE chief had been killed.

"We know that he was shot. That's all. I am not interested in finding out how he was shot, but whoever did it, deserved some credit. The most important thing is that he is no more," he said.

T V Sriram in Colombo
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