Prabhakaran could be dead claims CNN-IBN UPDATES

Chennai, 8 JULY: A few days after Tamil Nadu chief minister, Mr M Karunanidhi told the state Assembly of a story of a “hero's escape on a horseback with none in the know of his whereabouts” inferred here to mean LTTE leader V Prabhakaran, a close associate of the elusive LTTE leader who has known him for decades, Mr P Nedumaran, today said that Prabhakaran was alive. 

Colombo, May 27 (PTI) Slain Tiger supremo V Prabhakaran's wife and teenage son had fled last year to Tamil Nadu from where they were to fly to Singapore and then to an undisclosed location, a key aide of the rebel chief said amid speculation that the entire family had been wiped out in the conflict.

"When intelligence agents interrogated a close aide of Prabhakaran, he had said that, last year, Prabhakaran's wife (Mathivathani) and younger son (13-year-old) Balachandran had escaped by boat to Tamil Nadu, where they were to meet with an LTTE cadre who was to arrange for them to fly to Singapore, from there to an unknown destination," the 'Bottomline' newspaper reported.

However, an officer from the battlefront said they had not recovered any bodies of children, it said.

"Prabhakaran's daughter, Duwarka, who was said to be studying in Ireland, during the height of the final battle, hadn't returned to Sri Lanka, but had been in touch with her father via phone," it said quoting "a credible source" from Norway.

"She (Prabhakaran's daughter) had arrived in Oslo as instructed by her father, as there were many to take care of her there," the Bottomline said.

The slain Tiger supremo's wife and daughter were earlier believed to have fled to Europe as the conflict intensified in Sri Lanka's north.

"But I cannot confirm this personally... If they were in the no-fire zone, they could not have escaped," Karuna, now a federal minister, said.

The slain Tiger supremo's wife Mathivathani and daughter Duwarka were earlier believed to have fled to Europe as the conflict intensified in Sri Lanka's north.

Sri Lankan army has not yet found their bodies or revealed any information about them. The whereabouts of Prabhakaran's 13-year-old son Balachandran are also not known.

At first glance, the admission by the LTTE's head of international relations, Selvarasa Padmanathan, that their supreme leader Velupillai Prabhakaran is dead might seem like the Tamil Tigers simply bowing to the inevitable.

The DDA is completely unheard of, according to seasoned Sri Lanka-watchers - although many among the Tamil diaspora spread across numerous countries do indeed refuse to believe that Prabhakaran has perished.

The ambiguities surrounding his death were added to by the government and the army here.

State television announced his death on Monday last week.

But by that night, although the army chief was saying his body was among hundreds found, the military spokesman was saying there was no confirmation.

Only on Tuesday was footage broadcast which, it was claimed, showed the guerrilla leader's body.

The authorities gave varying accounts of how and when he died, including that he and two senior colleagues were trying to flee by ambulance and were ambushed, or that he was found dead near the lagoon bordering the combat zone.

In due course, they said DNA samples had been taken for tests to confirm that the body was Prabhakaran's - but not long after that, the army chief said the authorities had cremated the body and scattered his ashes in the sea.

Conspiracy theories

The hurried cremation and varying accounts of what happened may foster further conspiracy theories.

Even before the cremation was announced, and despite the body being publicly identified by LTTE defector and minister Vinayagamurthy Muralitharan ("Colonel Karuna"), one Tamil parliamentarian was saying he doubted it was really Prabhakaran.

It may be that the two nascent streams of reaction to the news of his death will crystallise into something more solid.

One is Mr Padmanathan's approach - to acknowledge the death and continue some form of struggle for Tamil rights - according to his interview, within a democratic framework.

The other - aired on tamilnet.com - is not to acknowledge that Prabhakaran was killed by the Sri Lankan military, and to perpetuate the idea that he is somehow invincible.

The question, then, would be which will hold sway.

The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) have confirmed their leader, Velupillai Prabhakaran, has been killed.

"We announce today, with inexpressible sadness and heavy hearts that our incomparable leader and supreme commander ... attained martyrdom fighting the military oppression," Selvarasa Pathmanathan, the LTTE's head of international relations, said in a statement on Sunday.

The Tigers said Prabhakaran had been killed on Tuesday during fighting between the LTTE and the Sri Lankan military and declared a week of mourning.

Coimbatore, May 21 (ANI): Though the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam’s chief Vellupillai Prabhakaran’s dead body was shown all over media channels on Tuesday by Sri Lanka Army, many Tamil refugees in the State don’t accept that he is dead.

The refugees are not willing to subscribe to the Sri Lankan Government’s view that Prabhakaran has been killed.

Thousands of Srilankan refugees in Coimbatore still believe that Prabhakaran is alive and safe.

Many of these people even say it’s nothing but computer trick on graphics and plastic surgery.

Many of these refugees allege that the story has been spread by the Sri Lanka government for publicity.

"We don't believe that our leader is dead. Something has been done to the body shown yesterday with plastic surgery and termed it Prabhakaran's body. We are very much sure that when we go to our motherland, our leader Prabhakaran will welcome us. We will not go to our motherland on the invitation of Sri Lankan President Rajapakse. Earlier also, many a times such stories ave been floated about our leader by Sri Lankan government," said UdayaRaja, another refugee.

Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M Karunanidhi today (May 19) refused to believe that LTTE supremo Velupillai Prabhakaran had died, saying it is "not yet confirmed".

Karunanidhi said even pro-LTTE leaders in Tamil Nadu like Nedumaran have issued a statement saying that it is a "Sri Lankan lie".

Close-up photographs of the face left little doubt, but how did they establish it through DNA fingerprinting? What tissue did they have to refer and compare the DNA collected from the body?

There was no sample from Prabhakaran's own body collected anytime earlier. Neither were there samples of his father or mother. The reference material could have come from the DNA samples of Prabhakaran's son Charles Antony, whose body the authorities claimed to have recovered on Monday. DNA fingerprinting is vital, as several countries including India are likely to ask for Prabhakaran's DNA profile for closure of cases including the Rajiv Gandhi assassination.

State-of-the-art laboratories worldwide use a technique called short tandem repeats (STR) of sequences of DNA by amplifying some regions of the DNA strand using polymerase chain reaction (PCR). This is the standard test followed in cases of paternal disputes. There are 23 pairs of chromosomes in a human cell, including 22 pairs of autosomes and one pair of sex chromosomes. A person inherits 50% of chromosomes from the father and the rest from the mother.

"By running a simple autosomal DNA fingerprinting on the samples and comparing with each other, one can see if they are related or even if they are father and son," said Dr J Nagaraju, chief of DNA fingerprinting at the Centre for DNA Fingerprinting and Diagnostics, Hyderabad.

What could be clinching scientific evidence in such cases would be to compare the son's samples with those of the mother's too, to see if the DNA sequence matches with that of both the parents. But, in this case, samples of Prabhakaran's wife Mathivadani were not available.

"Another opportunity here is the Y chromosome amplification technique," said Dr Lalji Singh, director of Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology, who set up the CDFD. "If they are father and son, sequences in the Y chromosomal strand should match 100%, as the Y chromosome is found only in males and is inherited by a male from his father." 

"They (Sri Lanka) have not explained the method they have followed. To my knowledge, there is no sophisticated lab there which can do the Y-chromosome amplifying technique so fast. It may be doable in a few hours, but if you ask me to do it, I will ask for 24 hours," Dr Singh said.

"The government is eager to present this as its Ceausescu moment - with photographs of the body of the tyrant widely released to give the impression that a defining moment has been reached," one Colombo-based diplomat told the BBC - drawing an analogy with the filmed execution of the Romanian dictator in December 1989.

"But there are questions surrounding Prabhakaran's identity tag. Is it really credible that a man reputed to have numerous lookalike doubles to avoid capture by the army would really carry this around with him?"

The army says Prabhakaran's bullet-ridden body was found on the banks of the Nanthikadal lagoon, his last stronghold in north-east Sri Lanka.

Army spokesman Brig Udaya Nanayakkara said the rebel leader had been shot in scrubland - probably in fierce fighting on Monday morning.

That statement contradicted an earlier announcement - made on state television but never verified by the army - that Prabhakaran's badly burnt body was discovered on Monday.

It said Prabhakaran had been killed after he was ambushed by commandos as he made a desperate attempt to break through government lines in an ambulance. He had been badly burnt when his vehicle burst into flames, it said.

State TV also said the rebel leader's body had been found with those of intelligence chief Pottu Amman and Soosai - the Tamil Tiger naval commander.

But on Tuesday the army said Soosai's death had not been confirmed.

Its version of events was first given by Gen Sarath Fonseka.

"The good news from the war front is that the body of the leader of the terrorist organisation which destroyed the country for the last 30 years, Prabhakaran, has been found (on Monday) morning by the army. We have identified the body," he said.

Moments later, the private TV stations Derana and Swarnavahini showed soldiers surrounding what the troops said was Prabhakaran's body, with his distinctive moustache and regulation tiger-stripe camouflage fatigues.

Denial

The government argues that there are perfectly innocent explanations for the differing accounts of Prabhakaran's death - that in war time what is happening on the battlefront can sometimes get confused.

The government had announced Prabhakaran's killing on Monday, but later said they had not yet found his body. A rebel official abroad denied Prabhakaran was killed and said he was in a safe place.

As speculation grew about Prabhakaran's fate, army chief Gen. Sarath Fonseka announced that his body had been recovered.

"A few hours ago, the body of terrorist leader Prabhakaran, who ruined this country, was found in the battleground," he told state television. "I take responsibility for this statement."

He and his top deputies then drove an armor-plated van accompanied by a bus filled with rebel fighters toward approaching Sri Lankan forces, sparking a two-hour firefight, the officials said, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the media.

Troops eventually fired a rocket at the van, ending the battle, they said. Troops pulled Prabhakaran's body from the van and identified it as that of the rebel leader, they said. The attack also killed Soosai, the head of the rebels' naval wing, and Pottu Amman, the group's feared intelligence commander, the officials said.

COLOMBO, Sri Lanka (AP) — Sri Lanka's state television station announced Monday that Tamil Tiger rebel chief Velupillai Prabhakaran has been killed.

Footage broadcast on the private Swarnawahini television station showed a body that appeared to be the rebel leader, still dressed in his dark green camouflage uniform, laid out on the grass as soldiers stood nearby. A blue cloth covered the top of his head, apparently to cover a bullet wound there. His open eyes stared straight up and his face appeared bloated.

COLOMBO: A pro-LTTE website on Tuesday claimed that the Tamil Tiger supremo Velupillai Prabhakaran is still "alive and safe," a day after Sri lankan army announced that it has killed the top rebel leader.

The army had claimed Prabhakaran and his top aides came out of their last hiding place in a small convoy of van and an ambulance and tried to drive out of the war zone, but were gunned down.

Pathmanathan said the Sri Lankan army and government deliberately came up with the story detailing the demise of the leader of the LTTE.

Pathmanathan went on to accuse the Sri Lankan government and military of "crimes against humanity," saying senior LTTE leaders had been shot dead after being invited to negotiate their surrender.

"I wish to inform the global Tamil community distressed witnessing the final events of the war that our beloved leader Vellupillai Prabhakaran is alive and safe," www.TamilNet.com quoted LTTE diplomatic head Selvarajah Pathmanathan as saying.

COLOMBO, Sri Lanka (AP) — Sri Lanka's state television station announced Monday that Tamil Tiger rebel chief Velupillai Prabhakaran has been killed.

Prabhakaran's death would spell the end of a more than three-decade quest by the rebel leader for a separate state for minority Tamils across northern and eastern Sri Lanka.

Rupavahini television, the state broadcaster, broke into its regular programming Monday afternoon to announce Prabakharan's death. They gave no details of how he was killed.

He and his top deputies then drove an armor-plated van accompanied by a bus filled with rebel fighters toward approaching Sri Lankan forces, sparking a two-hour firefight, the officials said, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the media.

Troops eventually fired a rocket at the van, ending the battle, they said. Troops pulled Prabhakaran's body from the van and identified it as that of the rebel leader, they said. The attack also killed Soosai, the head of the rebels' naval wing, and Pottu Amman, the group's feared intelligence commander, the officials said.

New Delhi, May 18 (IANS) The Indian government has sought details from Sri Lanka about the military action in which LTTE chief Velupillai Prabhakaran was killed, the ruling Congress party said Monday.

“It is a very sensitive issue. The Indian government is talking to the Sri Lankan government,” Congress spokesperson Janardhan Dwivedi told reporters here when asked about reports on Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) chief Prabhakaran’s fate.

COLOMBO: Sri Lanka's defence ministry said on Sunday its advancing troops had found no trace of defeated Tamil Tiger leader Vellupillai Prabhakaran, although the bodies of two mid-ranking rebels were recovered. Spokesman Lakshman Hulugalle said the military had not found Prabhakaran dead or alive during their offensive and dismissed a flurry of rumours about the fate of the 54-year-old veteran guerrilla leader.

"We have no information about Prabhakaran," Hulugalle said.

"We do not have any reports of Prabhakaran's death and such reports are not true. Even the stories on the (recovery of) burnt LTTE bodies is incorrect," Minister for Mass Media and Information, Lakshman Yapa Abeywardena, told PTI.

Military spokesman Brigadier Udaya Nanayakkara said the security forces were yet to come across Prabhakaran and his top aides, including intelligence chief Pottu Amman and Colonel Soosai, the head of the Sea Tiger unit.

"We have still not come across Prabhakaran and his senior leaders," Nanayakkara told reporters here. "We believe they are still in this land. We hope to meet them soon." 

COLOMBO: A body believed to be that of Tamil Tiger founder leader Vellupillai Prabhakaran has been found but the identity of the corpse has not been confirmed, Sri Lankan military sources said on Sunday.

COLOMBO (Reuters) - A body believed to be that of Tamil Tiger founder leader Vellupillai Prabhakaran has been found but the identity of the corpse has not been confirmed, Sri Lankan military sources said on Sunday.

"They are taking the body for checks to confirm it is the real Prabhakaran," one military official told Reuters on conditions of anonymity. Four other military sources confirmed the recovery and said identity checks were under way.

Military spokesman Brigadier Udaya Nanayakkara denied the report.

New Delhi: Liberation Tiger of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) chief V Prabhakaran could be dead with Sri Lankan army sources telling CNN-IBN that his body has been recovered and is being taken to an army camp in Colombo.

Sri Lankan army sources say they have recovered 150 bodies of LTTE cadres but the bodies are still being identified.

According to reports all civilians held hostage by the LTTE have now been freed from the battle zone.

The report comes even as the Lankan government announced it had captured the final stronghold of the LTTE, and that the top LTTE leadership may have committed mass suicide.