LTTE's Prabhakaran was shot dead after 'surrender'
Just a day after the world reacted in horror to a video showing the body of LTTE chief Velupillai Prabhakaran's 12-year-old son, with five close-range gun wounds to the chest, it has emerged the Tiger leader himself was killed in cold blood after surrendering to the Sri Lankan army.
The surrender has long remained a secret because those who knew refused to let the Tamils know their leader had surrendered towards the end of the war.
Was hoping to be picked up by UN-backed ship
Reliable sources claim Prabhakaran was led to believe Western powers, the UN and India had brokered a surrender plan which would allow top Tiger leaders and families a safe passage out of the battle zone. Surrounded by the Lankan army, the Tiger chief had no option but to give up his fight.
Many believe Prabhakaran was expecting to be picked up by a foreign rescue vessel - perhaps UN sponsored - and live to fight another day.
But now, it has been revealed that the Prabhakaran family - wife Mathivathani, daughter Duvaraka and son Balachandran - were in government custody for days before being flown to Nanthikadal and executed. He was the last to die, sources said, adding that elder son Charles Antony was killed a couple of days earlier, while trying to break through a Lankan cordon. Many also believe Prabhakaran was made to watch the executions.
Mismatch in TV visuals of LTTE leader's body
The Sri Lankans had first claimed Prabhakaran and co. were shot on the night of May 18 and that an army search party had found the body next day. Another version was the Tiger chief was gunned down on the morning of May 19 while trying to break through Lankan army lines at Nanthikadal. Army commander Sarath Fonseka announced at about 12.15pm that Prabhakaran was dead and less than an hour later, visuals of the body were on Lankan TV - claiming the Tiger boss' killing was 'Breaking News'.
That government claim and the TV visuals do not match.
The clip clearly shows blood under Prabhakaran’s head, spreading into nearby shallow water.
"Bleeding stops within about 25-30 minutes after death, depending on how big the wound is," says top surgeon T.K. Neelamegam in Chennai. Any forensic expert or pathologist will agree with that.
And that punctures a big hole in the Sri Lankan government's claim that the Tiger chief was gunned down several hours before his body was found by the army in a lagoon. In reality, the TV visuals came just a short while after the execution.
"This is yet another claim that needs verifying," says Suren Surendiran from the Global Tamil Forum in London.
“Prisoners of war (PoWs) must be treated with dignity and not summarily murdered. This report needs to be verified independently by experts and that’s why the GTF has been calling for an international independent inquiry. Madam Jayalalithaa has already gone on record saying what happened in Sri Lanka was genocide. We want India to be sensitive to the Tamil feelings and vote for the US resolution at Geneva."
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