Sri Lankan army claims Tamil Tigers defeat after 26 years at war

New Delhi, 18 may 2009. - The Sri Lanka Army today gave terminating the nearly 26 years of war in the country after finishing with the top and the last fighters of the "tigers" Tamils, in an offensive for several months that has killed thousands of civilians.
"All leaders of the LTTE (Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam) have died," he told Efe by telephone the director of government information, Anusha Palpita.
Soon after, the Sri Lankan Chief of Staff, Sarath Fonseka said in a statement released by the Ministry of Defense that troops have "defeated militarily," the LTTE and "liberated the nation from three decades of terror."
The guerrillas was surrounded for weeks in a small coastal strip in northeastern Sri Lanka, which also crammed tens of thousands of civilians who have suffered heavy bombing military and rebels shot if they tried to flee.
This weekend, the Army managed to isolate the guerrillas last less than one square kilometer, until this morning, the LTTE carried out a desperate operation to achieve the flight of the ruling clique.
"Trying to escape was their only chance. Now everyone is dead and there is no survivor in the area, "Efe said military spokesman Udaya Nanayakkara, who announced that the military control and" all over ".
During that final battle, the troops ended the lives of some 250 guerrillas, according to the spokesman, who was assumed that among the dead are both the supreme guerrilla leader, Vellupillai Prabhakaran, as his number two, Pottu Amman.
The guerrilla leader, 54, tried to leave the combat zone near Amman and the head of the guerrilla navy, Soosai, in a convoy of an ambulance and a van were shot by the army.
The news of his death came hours after the Army announced the firstborn of Prabhakaran, Charles Anthony, and six other prominent leaders of the longest-running and bloody guerrilla group fighting for Tamil independence in the island.
Among them were the maximum charge of political affairs, B. Nadesan, the head of the Peace Secretariat (LTTEPS), S. Puleedevan, and the police chief rebel, Ilango.
"This is the first time that a terrorist group has been completely annihilated by a democratic government," he told Efe by telephone on Sri Lankan Foreign Secretary, Palitha Kohona, who dismissed the credibility of allegations of civilian deaths.
In a statement posted on a website Tamilnet, the LTTE-related, the guerrillas claimed today that the Army has conducted a "slaughter committed" against the last redoubt Tamil, which were only "1,000 wounded guerrillas, officials and civilians."
"Colombo has decided not to allow any opportunity for the LTTE to negotiate and destroy its leadership," continued the guerrillas with connections outside the country.
This Sunday, the Tamil Tigers have already declared that the battle had reached its "bitter end" and announced a unilateral cessation of fighting to prevent more bloodshed among civilians.
It was the government response to the announcement about the "rescue" of the 50,000 civilians who remained in the latest guerrilla areas and have been transferred to camps set up by the authorities to house the displaced.
"We believe that the Army has taken between 50,000 and 80,000 civilians in recent days and is moving to camps. He has won the war, but an obvious question arises: what now, "he told Efe UN spokesman in the country, Gordon Weiss.
Heavy fighting has caused since the beginning of the year killed more than 6,500 civilians, according to UN estimates, failing to add the data of recent weeks, and with the guerrillas surrounded with thousands of people who used to wear.
And in the camps, according to Kohona, there are currently 250,000 people waiting for the Government to rehabilitate their areas of origin, though aid agencies report that the Tamils ​​are not allowed to leave them.
The death of the guerrilla leaders fighting for Tamil independence obtain marks the end of a stage in this ancient conflict Asian Asia today and was greeted with celebrations in Colombo by the Sinhalese majority.

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