Vinayagamurthi Muralitharan alias Karuna told the parliament yesterday that the IPKF who conducted peacekeeping operations in Sri Lanka between 1987 and 1990, had raped several Tamil women while also killing Tamils.

Muralitharan was a former LTTE leader and now is a deputy minister in the Mahinda Rajpaksa government.

"There is evidence for that," Muralitharan, who was then the LTTE's feared eastern leader said. The IPKF was invited into north and eastern Sri Lanka in terms of the Indo-Lanka Accord of 1987.

Karuna brokeaway from the LTTE in 2004, to form his own movement and later his own political party.

He was later allied with Rajapaksa's ruling coalition to become a deputy minister. He was also appointed a Vice President of the dominant party in the ruling coalition, Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP).

Meanwhile, the opposition United National Party (UNP) said that Karuna, a terrorist leader has become a senior member of the SLFP. Karuna warned the UNP saying he will not hesitate to reveal a lot of information which will cause the main opposition party much embarrassment if they continued to raise allegations against him.

In his speech in the parliament he praised the Sri Lankan Navy of preventing poaching in Lankan waters by Indian fishermen. He accused former President Ranasinghe Premadasa of strengthening the LTTE by giving the rebels more weapons.

Muralitharan said that around 1989 only 350 LTTE cadres remained in the outfit but it eventually grew in numbers as a result of the actions of Premadasa.

"He gave 5000 weapons to the LTTE. That 300 changed into 6000 in 3 months," he said.

The Deputy Minister also accused the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) of attempting to scuttle the peace by promoting the UN led investigation on Sri Lanka.
(with inputs from PTI)