As protests against the Sri Lankan government continued in Colombo last week, one demonstrator defied authorities and publicly praised LTTE leader Velupillai Prabhakaran, stating he was “the person who truly fought for our country”.

The woman’s remarks, which came to rapturous applause from the protesting crowd, were in an interview given to LankaSri from a Colombo suburb last week.

See translated extracts from the interview below.

We all gathered here to obtain cooking gas. They deceive us by saying there is no gas and will come soon. We are spending nights in this place. Our small children are not able to drink tea. We don’t have electricity. How can we survive without anything? We voted for them and they made us stranded on roads. We are forced to do all our works on roads. We need a solution for this. Gota must leave this country. If we can get a solution only by chasing him away, our people will come from every corner of this country to do that.

Now I am talking to the media. Even if they identify me and kill, I am not going to fear. I would like to say one thing. The person who truly fought for our country – our leader Prabakaran. No one can fight for us at the level he fought.

I don’t have any fears. We all going to die one day and I don’t have any fears for death. They are going to kill me, let them do it. If my death brings justice to the people, I am ready for it. For this reason we all gathered here.