The Sri Lankan Army releases the first images of the body of Prabhakaran

New Delhi, 19 may 2009. - The Sri Lankan Army today released the first images of the body of the head of the Tamil Tigers (LTTE), Vellupillai Prabhakaran, hours after the president of Sri Lanka announced officially ended 26 years of war.
"The body of V. Prabhakaran, leader of the most barbaric psychopath terrorist organization in the world, the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) has been found recently, "the defense ministry said in a statement.
The video released by Defense showed a group of soldiers around the body of the guerrilla leader, rebel uniform provisions on a stretcher and attacked by flies, his face swollen and apparent gunshot wounds to the head.
The discovery was made ​​by the Army in the vicinity of Lake Nanthikadal, where troops on Monday rejected a last attempt by guerrillas to escape the suffering siege, which caused, according to the official, 352 dead in rebel ranks.
"The victory we have achieved by defeating the LTTE is the victory of our country, our homeland. Protect the Tamil people is my responsibility and my duty, "Rajapaksa said in his testimony before Parliament, received continuous applause.
Rajapaksa appealed to the international community to rebuild the north, ravaged by war, but refused to "import" a political solution to give autonomy to minority Tamils, the main victims of the conflict.
"We have no time to experiment with the solutions suggested by other countries," said Rajapaksa, after providing for national reconciliation and advocate for the integration of all.
The fighting guerrillas and the army in recent months have killed at least 6,500 civilians, according to UN figures, 265,000 while others are confined in camps set up by the Government not get out of them.
"Our goal was to protect the Tamils ​​from the clutches of the LTTE. To protect innocent Tamil civilians our soldiers sacrificed their lives, "said Rajapaksa, who declared tomorrow a public holiday in commemoration of the" defeat of terrorism. "
During his speech, Rajapaksa was silent on Prabhakaran, fueling speculation for a few hours of his death, further reinforced because a senior guerrilla in exile denied the death of their leader.
"The Government of Sri Lanka makes unverified claims. I can only say that our national leader is alive and safe, "he said in an interview for the website Tamilnet, akin to the guerrillas, the head of international relations of the LTTE, S. Pathmanathan.
Official sources confirmed on Monday the death of Prabhakaran, who allegedly tried to flee the area aboard an armored vehicle and an ambulance with his number two, Pottu Amman, the head of the naval division, Soosai.
The guerrillas was surrounded for weeks by the army in a small strip in the northeast where it is also crammed tens of thousands of civilians, victims of shelling by the troops and rebel repression when attempting to escape.
After the final match on Monday, the Army published a list of 18 names of dead guerrilla leaders in which Prabhakaran was not, although his closest associates and his eldest son, Charles Anthony, head of technology.
Today, Pathmanathan troops accused of committing a "crime against humanity" by the "murder" of the political leader of the LTTE, B. Nadesan, the head of the secretariat of peace (LTTEPS), S. Puleedevan, who tried to negotiate with the troops unarmed and carrying white flags.
"What happened on Monday was a well-planned slaughter of several officers unarmed civilians by the LTTE in order to annihilate its political structure," the Tamilnet website, which pointed to a "tall figure of Defense" is responsible.
The LTTE launched an armed uprising against Sri Lanka in 1983 to claim an independent state in the north and east of the island controlled by the Sinhalese majority, and since then has killed more than 80,000 victims of violence.
The international community already focused attention on the fate of civilians confined in the fields of government, awaiting the visit Friday to the island of Secretary General Ban Ki-moon.

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.

The "tiger" Tamil Prabhakaran, leader of a bloody guerrilla-resistant

New Delhi, 18 may 2009. - The elusive leader Vellupillai Prabhakaran, died today at the hands of the Sri Lanka Army after 26 years of struggle, has been the face of the Tamil Tigers, a bloody body that once had an aviation own patented suicide bombing as a weapon.
The uncompromising founder of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) and other guerrilla leaders "are all dead," said Efe a military spokesman, who said that only need to confirm officially the identification of the body.
Hero to his followers and the Sri Lankan government's terrorist, Prabhakaran led with an iron hand well trained and disciplined guerrilla who put in check for decades in the Army today claimed to have wiped out what remained of the LTTE, a few hundred men who resisted cornered in less than one square kilometer.
Far is the time that Prabhakaran came to control two thirds of the costs and one-third of the total territory of Sri Lanka.
For two and a half decades of struggle, the "tiger" Prabhakaran has not hesitated to remove by any means any hint of dissent among the Tamil community, and to finish his men fired on the people who wanted to flee the fighting.
Born in November 1954 in the Jaffna peninsula (north) as the youngest of four brothers, your life can be summed up in a vicious race to achieve independence for the island Tamils ​​after decades of discrimination by the Sinhalese majority.
Although during his command has granted very few interviews, it is said that Prabhakaran was a shy student who, angered by the abuse suffered by the Tamils, signed up for martial arts and began his militancy in independence movements.
In 1975, he was bluntly accused of murdering the then mayor of Jaffna, Alfred Duraiappah, shortly after founding an organization called New Tigers (TNT), the germ of what would become the LTTE.
Now renamed, the LTTE guerrillas began a campaign of low-level violence that had a substantial popular support in 1983 and resulted in open warfare against the Government of Sri Lanka has caused over 70,000 deaths (nearly 6,500 of them this year , according to UN estimates).
Prabhakaran built a totalitarian organization prepared to carry out terrorist attacks and bold dramatic effects, but also to manage a state of fact, hospitals, police and even a customs service itself.
Undisputed leader of the LTTE, Prabhakaran was adamant against dissent in the armed movement, which has led from their bunkers and tunnels networks in forested areas now conquered by the army.
"Prabhakaran is not the kind of man who lives on the surface. I'm sure you're living underground, "he told reporters a few days ago, Brigadier Shavendra Desilva, who gave for granted that the" tiger "would fight" until the last moment. "
Each year, the LTTE leader gave a speech to mark the Day of the Heroes of Tamil Eelam.
"There are three foundations: the Tamil homeland, Tamil nationality and the right to self determination of Tamils. Those are the fundamental demands of the Tamils, "he told a crowded press conference and outstanding in 2002 when the LTTE reached a ceasefire with the government.
Subject of constant rumor and speculation, it is said that the historic guerrilla leader, who suffered from diabetes, survived several assassination attempts and capture, and he wore around his neck a cyanide capsule to avoid getting caught alive.
Prabhakaran Erambu Mathivathani was married with three children, two boys and a girl.
According to the Sri Lankan Army, his wife, daughter and her younger son out of the country, but the largest of 23 years and followed his father in the front, also died today shortly before his father.
Prabhakaran was wanted by Interpol for terrorism, murder, organized crime and terrorist conspiracy.

Two kings in Lanka

The historical poem "Mahavamsa", a count of eight centuries the kings of Sri Lanka, includes the legendary fighting the Sinhalese king against a king Dutugamunu said Tamil usurper Elara, who had seized the north after invading the island from India with his troops. In battle, Dutugamunu stood before his enemy and the two fought on the backs of their elephants, until the Sinhalese mortally wounded with a dart at Elara, older and less agile.

"The water tank is red red with the blood of the dead," cries the poem about the battle. Of that history has been more than 2,100 years, but Dutugamunu is today one of the most beloved by the nationalist elements of the Sinhalese majority, which dominates the state in the Indian Ocean island. In Sri Lanka keeps running blood. And it's no secret that its President, Mahinda Rajapaksa, dreams of emulating the legendary Dutugamunu, in view of the military surge has brought to its knees in the north to the Tamil Tigers.

"If there were civilians there, we would soon destroy even a day," replies the other end of the line military spokesman in Sri Lanka, Udaya Nanayakkara. In the past year and a half, the troops have conquered a territory larger than the province of Seville, about 14,800 square kilometers and have cornered the Tamil Tigers (LTTE) in a jungle in the northeast corner of Sri Lanka.

But his successful offensive, supported by an overwhelming superiority of arms and an army 15 times more numerous than the guerrillas, now faces the barrier humanitarian aid organizations and various powers remind the Government: UN says that in recent guerrilla strongholds there are 250,000 civilians trapped and helpless before the government aircraft bombing, fighting and alleged incessant pressures-and-shots of the guerrillas to not flee the last areas under their control.

"We can not give a deadline, because we have to minimize the harm caused to civilians," Nanayakkara said. That is also the Sri Lankan government's official version, but so far the factor has not stopped previous civil progress. And the standalone versions are very nice: the UN spokesman in the country, Gordon Weiss, last week accused the army of a slaughter of 52 civilians died. Reason for the hawks in the government calling for the evacuation of foreign aid: the witnesses are at risk because they pose a risk.

"We have about 20 workers in the field, but I can not specify where they are. Some are with patients, others have been displaced. We are concerned about hygiene, shelter, medicine. Since late January has not been possible to carry humanitarian aid to war zones, "says the Red Cross spokeswoman, Sarasi Wijeratne. His is the only organization authorized by the contenders to operate.

The antipathy of both sides for the standalone versions crystallizes in the difficult working conditions faced by the Red Cross in its relief efforts to civilians or banning reporters access to the battlefields. In the environment outweigh the threats and murder against journalists, as the famous case of editor Lasantha Wickramatunga. Critical of the government and aware of his danger, Wickramatunga, shot his way to work on January 8, left ready for a devastating article that was published after his death:

Others walked, he wrote in reference to President Mahinda Rajapakasa-in the shadow of death that your Presidency has been for the freedom they once fought hard. You can never forget that my death took place before your eyes. As anguished as I know you'll also know that you will have no choice but to forgive my murderers. "

"It's just another murder," he later told the BBC the defense secretary, Gotabhaya Rajapaksa (blood brother of the president). He himself, considered one of the toughest defenders of the final solution against the guerrillas, was the subject of an assassination attempt by the LTTE. As was the current chief of staff Ceylon, Sarath Fonseka, who heads the Army operations.

The offense of Fonseka and Rajapaksa clan has so far had an undoubted success: the LTTE has shifted from controlling large swathes of eastern and coastal north where the Tamils ​​have more presence, to be cornered in an area of ​​140 square kilometers in Mullaitivu jungle areas, the historic feud that has always retreated when things against the Army got rough.

But things look bad for the guerrillas, worse than other times, according to the Army, the LTTE has only 600 guerrillas "in direct control disposal", which are surrounded by some 50,000 soldiers covering all sides. He even speculates the possible sea escape their supreme leader, Velupillai Prabhakaran, as his old hideouts fall one after another in the hands of the troops.

The Tamil Tigers are aware of its obvious military inferiority, so his strategy so far has been based on as much as possible to resist the advance and retreat of the troops taking with civilians when their positions were untenable. Using this technique, limiting their losses, they say, have so far lost their fiefs main their de facto capital, Kilinochchi, the strategic Elephant Pass and Mullaitivu town.

The strategy has the support of one of its most experienced wings: the division of advertising, communications expert and counter-information from sites like Tamilnet, in English, or Puthinam, in Tamil, with trying to attract the attention of the diaspora and the international community to achieve a cease-fire or mediation. These days, the Tamil media are recreated in attacks against hospitals, shooting at civilians and, in short, the word "genocide."

In this beautiful island of India hanging on maps and in the offices, the indictment raises old ghosts in the minds of the Tamil community. Comprise 18 percent of the population, or approximately two million people (no reliable census) but have seen since independence the state was built by the Sinhalese majority following exclusionary criteria and even discriminatory. A widely cited example is the declaration of Sinhala as the sole official language.

So the guerrillas underpins their messages with references to discrimination, genocide. And yet, apart from that there is no independent verification of their claims, a possible mediation of the international community or a ceasefire are proving difficult. Mainly because the Government of Sri Lanka feel too close to military victory as a carrot to accept different, but also because India, the main regional power, rubs his hands with the possibility of Prabhakaran's head, responsible for the murder of former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi.

But the pressure on the government increases. India, which provides a quiet supply weapons to the island can not afford to support Rajapaksa too openly because this would earn the wrath of its own Tamil population, 66 million people who share culture and traditions with their "brothers" of the north Sri Lanka. And the United States, the European Union Japan and Norway have requested a temporary ceasefire to allow trapped civilians to flee. Rajapaksa even received a call from the UN secretary general, Ban Ki Moon, who asked him to stop the fighting a few hours. "Thank you for your interest, sir, but it is not possible," Rajapaksa said.

The government estimate, the coffins of soldiers arriving each month to Colombo, the humanitarian crisis or possible international scolding are a price worth paying: for the first time in decades, Rajapaksa has managed to convince the population that is possible to sweep the guerrillas militarily, who at 25 years of existence is one of the bloodiest organizations worldwide and has kept the country divided in two with his violent challenge.

Since the beginning of the war in 1983 almost 100,000 people have died, as told by phone the Minister of Minorities, Dev Gunasekara, between sporadic outbreaks of ethnic violence, military actions or attempts suicide Division of the guerrillas, the Tigers Black, who was photographed with its supreme leader before going to certain death and dragging with them you get in your way.

Tamil guerrillas like to cultivate the mystique of the revolution: its symbol is a roaring tiger uniform and go as if they were. With the uniform, get a cyanide pill to be swallowed as if capturados.Cuentan-or had-with an air force (a couple of Czech-made aircraft) and a Armada.Hasta this offensive the army, had set up a mini de facto state hospitals, police, courts and customs of their own.

And at the same time maintaining discipline among their ranks with an iron hand and fed with a striking loyalty marketing attention (to sell patriotic songs online), thanks in part to funds raised by contributions from the powerful Tamil diaspora in abroad, where they developed a powerful system of client connections that go from Paris to Toronto and was hit hard from 11-S in New York.

Prabhakaran has shown himself always offensive disregard of human rights. Militant from the origin of the guerrillas, has committed several murders he has ordered another as the Rajiv Gandhi mentioned and is wanted by Interpol for multiple counts. Dryness gives an idea of ​​the expulsion order of 80,000 Muslims living in the Tamil areas, who set a deadline (completed) within 24 hours. They left with nothing.

In its relentless race for the independence of the Tamil minority and establish itself as the unique voice of ethnicity in Sri Lanka, Prabhakaran has not hesitated to eliminate its political opponents, near or far-, using child soldiers, and to resort to attacks suicide or shot in the neck to end any dissent or threat.

So capture the Tamil leader would head to crown the best military offensive Rajapaksa. It would be a blow, the total defeat and a violent symbolic strikes a Elara Dutugamunu stripped of his former righteousness. But when the Sinhalese king key will end the dart to the guerrillas, will the real challenge: making the Tamils ​​feel comfortable in Sri Lanka.

It is not easy. For the next day, the government is preparing for several detention camps to house Tamil refugees, similar to others that languish Muslims. In the Tamil area, the LTTE has dominated political life until the point where military to dismantle a vacuum will probably dangerous to the community, which will be disorganized. For the Tamils, the challenge will be to build a political movement away from violence.

Put another way, depend on their ability to adapt to the day after, but also the hitherto nonexistent compassion and magnanimity of Rajapaksa, when the blood stops flowing.

As if the president lacked will, history offers clues: despite its defeat, the invader King Elara went down in history as a righteous king and respected, who managed to ensure consistency throughout their subjects regardless of their ethnicity. After defeat in the battlefield, Dutugamunu himself regretted his action and ordered the fallen king cremated with honors. The pain was so great that he ordered to build a mound. "He never knew the joy, remembering the destruction of both his enemies and his own soldiers," the "Mahavamsa". Let's see.