The Sri Lanka Government has succeeded in co-opting Kumaran Pathmanathan (KP), former arms procurer of the LTTE currently under the custody of the Sri Lankan authorities, along with few other rebels abroad on to its side.According to a report in Sunday Observer, state owned English weekly, at least nine former LTTE rebels along with KP have agreed to cooperate with the efforts of the Government in rehabilitation of the nearly three lakh war displaced Tamil civilians and help in the reconstruction of the war ravaged northern province.It quoted KP saying that the change of heart of the Tamil Tiger sympathiers was due to the fact that they have `now begun to understand the ground realities’.It said that the former rebels have decided to float an NGO to collect funds for the welfare of the war displaced from the Tamil Diaspora. Besides channelising funds from the Diaspora, the NGO will also work towards creating awareness among the Tamils abroad on the post-conflict humanitarian programsKP was picked up by the Sri Lankan authorities from a country in South East Asia within weeks after the military defeat of the LTTE and the death of its chief Velupillai Prabakaran.At the time of the death of Prabakaran KP was functioning as head of the LTTE’s newly created International relations department. He was assigned the job by the LTTE t in January last year and after Prabakaran’s demise he took charge of LTTE leadership despite opposition from some of the LTTE overseas factions.According to Sunday Observer the delegation of sympathisers of former militants domiciled in Canada, Switzerland, Germany, United Kingdom, France and Australia met Defence Secretary Gotabhaya Rajapaksa and Minister of External Affairs G. L. Peiris in Colombo and discussed the role they could play in strengthening the hands of the Government.Pathmanathan who played a key role in bringing down the nine-member delegation to Colombo was also present at the meetings. There was no immediate comment on the report from any of the oversea functionaries of the LTTE.