Arjun Sengupta
On February 13, Tamil nationalist leader Phala Nedumaran said that Velupillai Prabhakaran, leader of the Sri Lankan Tamil separatist group LTTE, was still alive and “he himself will soon announce his next plan for the liberation of Tamil Eelam”.
The Sri Lankan military announced Prabhakaran’s death on May 18, 2009, as Sri Lanka’s three-decade civil war ended in a frenzy of violence in rebel-held areas in the north and east of the island.
Also Read: Prabhakaran is said to be alive. Is there truth in what Nedumaran says? How was the LTTE leader killed?
The LTTE finally had a foothold in Mullaitivu, a small fishing village in Sri Lanka’s northern province. Prabhakaran’s death ended the war and effectively signaled the end of the LTTE, which was militarily decimated and leaderless.
What happened in the final days of the Sri Lankan Civil War that ended with Prabhakaran’s death?
The beginning of the end
In February 2002, the Sri Lankan government and the LTTE brokered a ceasefire with Norway. By 2006, however, the cease-fire had ended, with both sides accusing the other of non-compliance with ceasefire terms.
While the LTTE carried out a series of guerilla attacks and suicide bombings, the Sri Lankan Army penetrated fully into the rebels’ eastern enclaves and then moved north.
In January 2008, President Mahinda Rajapakse’s government officially announced the abrogation of the ceasefire agreement after a bus carrying government troops to a military hospital in Colombo was hit by a Claymore landmine.
Over the next year, Sri Lankan forces advanced north, and finally in January 2009 the military captured Kilinochchi, the LTTE’s de facto administrative capital. Apart from a few counter-attacks in Jaffna, the Tigers were unable to mount a counter-attack.
Prabhakaran is believed to have told his intelligence chief Pottu Amman at the time that “the LTTE had lost 75 percent of its strength and that they should be patient until the international community stopped the war,” security analyst Ashok K Mehta wrote in a 2010 news article (Sri Lanka’s Ethnic Conflict: How the Eelam War IV Was Won) ) wrote.
Last stage in Mullaithivi
By April 2009, the LTTE was confined to within 8 kilometers of Mullaitivil Beach with few civilians. Under international pressure, particularly in the midst of India’s Lok Sabha elections, the Sri Lankan government announced a freeze on the use of heavy weapons, including aircraft and anti-aircraft weapons. The area was declared a ‘No Fire Zone’.
But this gave little relief to the LTTE. Sri Lankan forces besieged the rebels on land and sea. “By May 11, the conflict zone had been redrawn as the New Security Zone (NSZ) and had shrunk to 1.5 sq km with 700 LTTE and 50,000 civilians,” wrote Ashok K Mehta. For the military, it was an internal hostage crisis, meaning that the LTTE held thousands of civilians by force, using them as human shields.
The LTTE had no choice. While the Sri Lankan government believed that the LTTE “might resort to mass suicide”, Prabhakaran himself hoped to negotiate a ceasefire. When the government rejected a negotiated ceasefire, a daring escape plan was hatched.
According to Ashok K Mehta, “The impossible escape plan consisted of three phases: in the first phase, a group led by Prabhakaran would cross the Nandikadal lagoon and split into three groups in the east; In the second phase, a group led by B Natesan was to negotiate the surrender of the sick and wounded; Thirdly, a rearguard action was launched under Prabhakaran’s son Charles Antony.”
However, less than 24 hours after the rebels launched their final assault, government forces won a swift and complete victory: not a single LTTE was left alive, not even those waving white flags from the beaches they had controlled.
After the massacre, the Sri Lankan government came under heavy criticism for human rights abuses and the use of heavy artillery in the NSZ.
Death of Prabhakaran
While the international media stayed away from the conflict zone, several versions of Prabhakaran’s death emerged. The army said he was killed when rebel commanders joined them in a bus and tried to escape with a group of disciples in an armored van. After a two-hour firefight, Prabhakaran was killed when Sri Lankan soldiers fired a rocket and attacked the van, the military said. Some versions of the story say he was in an ambulance instead of a van.
Another version says that Prabhakaran was killed while trying to break the blockade of the Sri Lankan forces and died fighting with his men.
One version also says that Prabhakaran committed suicide. Sri Lankan Tamil journalist DPS Jayaraj reported in 2021, “Prabhakaran’s body was found before dawn on Tuesday. The bodies of six bodyguards were found nearby. “All indications were that Prabhakaran had committed suicide by shooting himself upwards with a gun in his mouth,” he wrote.
Another version states that Prabhakaran was captured by the army and later hanged, citing a single bullet wound to his temple as evidence. The Indian Express reported in 2009 that the Jaffna-based University Teachers for Human Rights-Jaffna (UTHR-J), wrote in a special report that “Prabhakaran may have been tortured in the presence of Tamil government politicians and generals at the 53rd Division headquarters before the execution.” The Sri Lankan government denied the allegation.
Paz.Nedumaran’s latest claims have renewed speculations regarding Prabhakaran’s death.
At the end of the war, Sri Lankan forces released a picture of the dead Prabhakaran and claimed to have confirmed his identity through DNA testing.
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