The news of Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam chief V Prabhakaran's death has created ripples across the world, but it makes no difference to Muniyamma, the milk vendor who tipped off the Bangalore police about Rajiv Gandhi's assassins in 1991.What really matters to Muniyamma, 55, is that she is yet to receive the Rs 10 lakh promised to her by the police, for tipping them off about the whereabouts of LTTE operatives Shivarasan and Shubha.
The announcement of the death of Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam leader V Prabhakaran by the Sri Lankan army has not created any flutter in the Lankan refugee camps in Rameswaram and Madurai, but most inmates dismissed the reports as false. "Prabhakaran is not dead. He will emerge stronger... nobody can touch even his shadow," Andrews, a refugee at Mandapam camp, said. "Prabhakaran has been fighting for us for more than 30 years, we know his strength," said another refugee.
Prabhakaran strode in, wearing his trademark safari suit. Well built, very sure of himself. He put his hands on the table and looked around the hall scanning the entire area slowly. There was pin drop silence. We had been told not to get up but those on stage had risen.
'These are people who are anxious to die.' 'We have not seen such type of committed people anywhere.'
Tamil Tiger supremo Velupillai Prabhakaran is dead, the Sri Lankan army stated on Monday.Earlier in the day, the SL army, which had closed in on the last foothold of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, killed several top rebel leaders.The body of Charles Anthony, Prabhakaran' son, was found during mop-up operations in the last rebel-held territory in the no-fire zone on Monday morning.
Is the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam chief Prabhakaran dead? If the Sri Lankan Army is to be believed, Prabhakaran's body was found dead. There are also reports that a huge explosion was heard outside where the LTTE chief was reportedly hiding.
Fresh from their success in capturing the entire North-western coast, the Sri Lankan Air Force fighter jets on Sunday pounded bunkers of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam and seized hundreds of arms and ammunitions while recovering the bodies of two militants, officials said.
Colombo's enduring interests suggest the relationship between the Sri Lanka and China will only strengthen, says Nitin Pai.
Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam chief Velupillai Prabhakaran pays his last respects to senior LTTE strategist Balasegaram Kandiah alias Brigadier Balraj, who died after a cardiac arrest at an undislosed location on Tuesday. The LTTE has announced a three-day mourning for him.
On the verge of annihilation, the Liberation Tigers of the Tamil Eelam announced an unilateral ceasefire on Sunday, saying that that the humanitarian crisis in Sri Lanka's war zone can only be overcome by a truce, but the Lankan government quickly rejected the offer and instead asked the rebels to surrender.
Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam supremo Velupillai Prabhakaran and his top aides were recently missed by a whisker by the security forces, a top Sri Lankan commander said, claiming that the rebel leader had limited options right now."We got to know that Prabhakaran had moved through the Pudukudiryirippu-Iranmalai road on a day between March 29 and 31, just about two days before the army fully laid seige to that area," GoC 58 Division Brigadier Shavendra Silva said.
On the verge of total defeat, the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam on Thursday said that nearly 165,000 civilians in the areas controlled by it were close to starvation and accused Sri Lankan authorities of blocking food and humanitarian supplies to the area. Comparing the humanitarian crisis in the 10 sq km swath of coastal land in Pudukudiyyiruppu to the Dafur crisis in Sudan, the LTTE in a statement asked the United Nations and other international aid groups to intervene.
The United Nations on Friday said that more than 50,000 civilians were still trapped in Sri Lanka's war zone and renewed its call to Colombo to allow an assessment mission into the area to facilitate relief operations and evacuation procedures. The Sri Lankan government had said that an estimated 15,000 people still remained in the war zone.
In a no-holds barred address, Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa has dared Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam chief Velupillai Prabhakaran to a one-on-one clash with him. He said that he would challenge Prabhakaran to clash with him directly to avoid a killing spree targeting innocent civilians, Parliamentarians and Ministers.
As suspense grows about the whereabouts of Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam supremo Velupillai Prabhakaran after the capture of the last bastion of the outfit, the Sri Lankan army chief on Monday said he believed the guerrilla leader could be in an underground bunker or in the no-fire zone.It is widely believed that both Prabhakaran and his son Charles Anthony could be in the 20 sq km no-fire zone, where the rebel remnants are said to be holed up after they were pushed out.
The Sri Lankan army is merely 1.2 miles away from Kilinochchi, the Liberation Tigers of the Tamil Eelam's headquarters in Northern Sri Lanka. The Lankan government believes that the quarter-century old militant movement of the LTTE is in its last phase.
Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam cadres, who escaped the final assault by the Lankan army in May, could give a new lease of life to the now vanquished outfit and are even trying to launch fresh attacks in Sri Lanka, according to a report.
At the village's Dalit colony came more confirmation. One of the men there insisted that the two-tumbler system was very much prevalent in the village, in fact in every village in the area. "Mostly we prefer making tea at home. It is the old men that go to the teashop and drink from different cups. Many shops give us tea in disposable plastic cups."
The LTTE has quietly established a presence in the United States as part of its global expansion plan to raise funds and procure anti-aircraft weapons and other military equipment on a massive scale, the Washington Times reported. The group's political wing has established 'branches' in at least 12 countries as part of a global expansion to purchase millions of dollars worth of weapons, ammunition and other military equipment.
Marumalarchi Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam leader Vaiko on Monday, dubbed the photographs released by the Sri Lankan army which shows him with Liberation Tigers of the Tamil Eelam chief V Prabhakaran as old ones and said there is an "ulterior motive" behind it.
Maithripala Sirisena, who scored a stunning victory, was on Friday sworn-in as Sri Lankan president, bringing the curtains down on the 10-year rule of Mahinda Rajapaksa, marking a smooth transition of power.
The ongoing war between the Sri Lankan government and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam cannot be a solution to the ethnic conflict in the island nation and only a negotiated settlement will bring lasting peace in the nation, former Sri Lankan president Chandrika Kumaratunga said in New Delhi on Tuesday.
The Janata Party President Subramanian Swamy was manhandled and abused by a group of lawyers in a court room at the Madras High Court on Tuesday.
AIADMK chief Jayalalithaa is all set to return as Tamil Nadu chief minister for the fifth time following her acquittal in the disproportionate assets case.
"With its maritime supply routes likely to become limited by its loss of land in north-west, unless a new political or military variable enters the equation, the decline of the LTTE is inevitable," it said.
Col Hariharan joins readers on Rediff Chat on February 5, 2009 to answer their queries on the crisis in Sri Lanka and about India's role in the conflict, if any.
Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa has said that he had never met slain Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam supremo Velupillai Prabhakaran and would have preferred to chat with him."I would have preferred to bring him here and have a chat with him. I have never seen this man," Rajapaksa said. The President also said he was not at all interested in knowing how the LTTE chief had been killed.
The UN says that if permission is granted by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, and if a lull in fighting permits, the convoy will cross the frontline on Thursday noon, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon's spokesperson said.
Prabhakaran's extravagant underground bunker is constructed as per his instructions and equipped with air-conditioning and power generators, the Bottom Line newspaper reported, showing a sketch of the alleged bunker mapping. The bunker is 30-feet deep and divided into two sectors. It has a tunnel which connects to a similar bunker complex, and the rebels leader's room is tucked away in the lowermost floor with two exits, the sketch shows.
On the hunt for the elusive Tiger supremo Prabhakaran, Sri Lankan security forces have stumbled upon a damaged bullet-proof car that could have been used by either Lankan Tigers of Tamil Eelam chief or other senior leaders. The rugged-looking covered pick up wagon, fitted with double steel sheets to escape bullet hits, was found in the thick jungles near Mullaittivu, as Lankan forces scour the area for the LTTE topmen, a senior defence official told PTI.
Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam supremo Velupillai Prabhakaran would never face the Sri Lankan security forces closing in on his last stronghold of Mullaitivu and would flee the country, a senior minister has said. "Our troops are on the verge of wiping out the LTTE and most of its leaders are now trying to either surrender or flee the country," Transport Minister Dallas Alahapperuma said.
He made every fighter of his guerrilla outfit wear a cyanide capsule, to be swallowed when they were facing arrest, but Vellupillai Prabhakaran himself did not carry one when he was killed by the Sri Lankan troops, in the last phase of the 30-year-old bloody civil war."Prabhakaran did not have a cyanide capsule on him. We did not find any such thing. Many other LTTE cadres had capsules with them, but not Prabhakaran," top defence sources said.
LTTE's political wing chief, V Nadesan, on Thursday said that the group was ready for a ceasefire now, while accusing the Sri Lankan government of 'abrogating' the six-year-long ceasefire, which came to an end early this year.
Refuting reports that unidentified ships have dumped arms at the Kerala coast, the Coast Guard today said the west coast faced no serious threat from militant outfits including the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam. "The country's western coast is not facing any serious threat from militant outfits like LTTE," said Coast Guard Western Regional Commandant A Rajasekhar, aboard the Coast Guard ship 'Savitribhai Bhule.'
At least 38 Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam cadres, including a woman, and two soldiers were killed in fierce clashes in Sri Lanka's restive north amidst attack by the air force fighter aircrafts to support the ground forces.
Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa's address at the ceremony to pay tribute to the War Heroes on May 23, 2009
Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam supremo Velupillai Prabhakaran was injured last month during an aerial raid by Sri Lankan Air Force jets, the government confirmed on Wednesday night.
Not only our hands, but our whole body and deeper down, our conscience -- what remains of it after the mundane battles of our day-to-day life is also dripping with blood. Prabhakaran's blood. No, it is not only Prabhakaran's, but also of 70,000 Sri Lankan Tamils who have perished in the unspeakable violence through the past quarter century
Political analysts said Sirisena's move to install Rajapaksa as the prime minister could lead to a constitutional crisis as the 19th amendment to the Constitution would not allow the sacking of Wickremesinghe as the premier without a majority.
It is unprecedented in the history of United States-Sri Lanka relations that a US President goes out on the South Lawn of the White House to make remarks expressing his deep concern over the humanitarian crisis in Sri Lanka and berates both the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam and the Sri Lankan government for their actions that have led to tens of thousands of innocent civilians being caught up in the cross-fire.
