Prabha: Confusion and contradiction

Soon after the devastating tsunami of 2004, he re-appeared to scotch rumours that he was dead. Now, the Government claims that the same man, Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) leader Velupillai Prabhakaran, was injured in an air raid.

The official claim came in a news release put out by on Wednesday by the Media Centre for National Security (MCNS) under the name of its Director General Lakshman Hulugalle. It said intelligence sources had confirmed Mr. Prabhakaran sustained injuries in air strikes carried out by four Sri Lanka Air Force fighter bombers at 5.25 p.m. on November 26. This was just a day ahead of his annual “Maveerar (Great Heroes) Day” address. It was also the day before Air Force bombers carried out aerial attacks on the clandestine Voice of Tigers (VoT) radio station.

Reports of minor injuries being sustained by the LTTE leader first surfaced in a report in a Sunday newspaper. According to the report, he had sustained a minor injury during an air raid on his Wanni hideout on November 28. However, Air Force sources said there had been no air raids conducted on this day. These reports also claimed that members of the Christian clergy and well wishers had met the guerrilla leader after the incident. However, he remains incommunicado and does not meet visitors due to security reasons. LTTE military spokesman Rasiah Ilantheriyan told Tamil language newspapers that the reports were incorrect and “no such incident took place.”

The official news release that said Mr. Prabhakaran had sustained injuries came after Wednesday’s meeting of the National Security Council. Defence sources said the matter had come up for discussion there. According to a high ranking defence official, the injuries had been to both his hand and leg. The official announcement also sparked widespread rumours, strongly denied by intelligence sources, that Mr. Prabhakaran was to be taken to India for medical treatment. “If indeed there were minor injuries, the LTTE has the medical facilities to treat the wounded,” said one source.

Soon after the tsunami JVP’s K.D. Lalkantha, a Cabinet Minister then, declared publicly that there was evidence that the LTTE leader had died when his house and its environs were devastated. During a visit to Dubai, he told the Khaleej Times newspaper that although there was “no definitive” information, the destroying of his house made it difficult for one to assume that he escaped.

The reports of Mr. Prabhakaran’s death then gained so much currency that his photographs in the media thereafter were questioned. Some strongly believed that a look-alike was posing off as the LTTE leader and his physical features were quite different. The story was taken seriously by the defence establishment. So much so, then President Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga inquired from the then Chief of Defence Staff, then Vice Admiral Daya Sandagiri, whether his body has been found.

At that time, the LTTE chose to remain silent and did not contradict the reports of the death of their leader. Months later, one of the senior members told a Norwegian official their silence was ‘studied and deliberate’. “Aircraft from some leading countries, having surveillance capabilities, were over flying the Wanni during tsunami relief operations. If we said he was living, they would have been further encouraged to find out where,” quipped the LTTE senior.