जिजीविषा: Velupillai Prabhakaran - father of LTTE (Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam) KILLED

Saturday, June 27, 2009

Velupillai Prabhakaran - father of LTTE (Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam) KILLED - pictures & file photos

Velupillai Prabhakaran (November 26, 1954 – May 18, 2009) was the founder and leader of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (the LTTE or the Tamil Tigers), a militant organization that sought to create an independent Tamil state in the north and east of Sri Lanka. For over 25 years, the LTTE waged a violent secessionist campaign in **Sri Lanka that led to it being designated a terrorist organization by 32 countries. Prabhakaran was wanted by Interpol for terrorism, murder, organized crime and terrorism conspiracy. He also had arrest warrants against him in Sri Lanka and India.

On May 18, 2009, the Sri Lankan Government led by President and Commander in Chief Mahinda Rajapaksa announced that Prabhakaran had been killed while trying to escape advancing Sri Lanka Army troops, but UK-based Tamil Tiger spokesperson Selvarasa Pathmanathan claimed that Prabhakaran was "still alive".

On May 19, Sri Lanka's Defence Ministry announced that a body found by the shore of Nandikadal Lagoon had been identified as Prabhakaran's and the body was later shown on Sri Lankan media. A week later Pathmanathan, on behalf of the LTTE, admitted that Prabhakaran had died on May 17. Two weeks later a DNA test confirmed Prabhakaran's and his son Charles Anthony's deaths.

Velupillai Prabhakaran was born in the northern coastal town of Velvettithurai on November 26, 1954, to Thiruvenkadam Velupillai and Vallipuram Parvathy. Angered by what he saw as discrimination against Tamil people by successive Sri Lankan governments, he joined the student group TIP during the standardization debates.

In 1972 Prabhakaran founded the Tamil New Tigers (TNT) which was a successor to many earlier organizations that protested against the post-colonial political direction of the country, in which the minority Sri Lankan Tamils were pitted against the majority Sinhalese people. In 1975, after becoming heavily involved in the Tamil movement, he carried out the first major political murder by a Tamil militant group, assassinating the mayor of Jaffna, Alfred Duraiappah, by shooting him at point-blank range when he was about to enter the Hindu temple at Ponnaalai. The assassination was in response to the 1974 Tamil conference incident, for which the Tamil radicals had blamed Duraiappah, because he backed the then ruling Sri Lanka Freedom Party. He was also seen by Tamil militants as betraying the Tamil nationalist sentiments in the Jaffna Peninsula, by allying with the Sinhalese majority government.

On May 5, 1976, the TNT was renamed the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), commonly known as the Tamil Tigers.

Tamil Eelam territorial claim (green) and approximate de facto territory controlled at the time of the launching of the 2008–2009 Sri Lankan Army Northern offensive (yellow). During the final army offensive, however, all of this area was recaptured by Sri Lankan forces.Tamil Eelam territorial claim (green) and approximate de facto territory controlled at the time of the launching of the 2008–2009 Sri Lankan Army Northern offensive (yellow).[105][106] During the final army offensive, however, all of this area was recaptured by Sri Lankan forces.

** Sri Lanka (from the Sanskrit “Venerable Island”), officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka also known as Ceylon before 1972 and as Taprobane in ancient times, is an island country in South Asia, located about 31 kilometres (19.3 mi) off the southern coast of India. It is home to around twenty million people.

Special Feature:

Is peace near at hand in Sri Lanka? Is a political settlement in sight? Or will the armed conflict in the Tamil areas continue? What will come out of the Colombo talks? How will the militants involve themselves in an India-promoted follow-up? Is Eelam negotiable? In this extended tape-recorded interview with N. Ram of The Hindu, the leader of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), Mr. Velupillai Prabakaran responds to these questions and also some on the ideology, strategy and tactics of his organisation and on his own political evolution. Mr. Prabakaran's responses in Tamil have been translated; the interview is being published in two parts (on September 4 and 5, 1986).

Rare pictures of Prabhakaran