Daya Master

Velayutham Dayanidhi, better known as Daya Master, was speaking in an exclusive interview with the BBC, the first broadcast interview given by any of the former senior Tiger leaders since their movement was decisively vanquished on the battlefield in May last year.

BBC's Charles Haviland spoke to Daya Master.

Daya Master surrendered to government forces with a colleague in April last year, weeks before the separatist Tamil Tigers or LTTE were destroyed and beaten.

They were released on bail last September but their whereabouts had been unclear.

The BBC has now spoken to Daya Master on the telephone to the northern city of Jaffna, his hometown. He said he was working as the local head of operations for a privately-owned Tamil television channel, Dan-TV, and was living peacefully there, as was his wife who is working as a teacher.

Asked if he was glad the country was now at peace, Daya Master said yes. The Tamil people had not liked the war, he said; what they had wanted was education. Asked if the conflict was a waste of the lives of many people, he said that was true. But he would not comment on whether he regretted being part of such a violent organisation, nor on the case which is to be heard against him next month.When he was released on bail a year ago the police said there was no evidence to charge him under the Prevention of Terrorism Act, but said possible criminal activity was being looked into.

	Jaffna town

Daya Master told the BBC he had no relationship with the Sri Lankan government, and also that he had not met his former senior LTTE colleague, Selvarasa Pathmanathan, who was captured in August 2009 but has been working with government officials to engage with visiting members of the Tamil diaspora.

Shortly after Daya Master surrendered he said in a government video interview that the rebels had shot at least 200 civilians as they tried to leave the war zone. Thousands of other former rebels remain in detention and hundreds are likely to face charges in court.