Enigma of Prabhakaran’s Several Deaths

On the Death of Velupillai Prabhakaran

Enigma of Prabhakaran’s Several Deaths

from A Marred Victory and a Defeat Pregnant with Foreboding
- Sri Lanka Special Report No. 32, 10 June 2009

17th – 19th May:

Information about Prabhakaran’s death in the public domain has been dominated by government disinformation and the LTTE’s silence. It is also of interest that no reports of conversations between Prabhakaran, who had his personal sat-phone and his overseas contacts have surfaced in the public domain after the one on the morning of Saturday 16th May seeking an end to the fighting without using the term surrender. Also in surrender talks later on the 17th May reported by Marie Colvin and Andrew Buncombe involving high level persons locally and abroad, there is no mention of Prabhakaran. Also of significance is the announcement of the President’s victory speech in the 17th afternoon.

On the night of the 17th there were reports coming from a high level within the security forces that Prabhakaran’s person or body had been brought to Colombo. This story was soon overtaken by copious material fed to the media the morning after, 18th. Finding of the bodies of Charles Anthony, Nadesan and several others was reported. The Army Commander went on state television to report, “We have also found bodies of several other LTTE leaders, and are carrying out checks to confirm whether one of the bodies is that of the LTTE leader.” Other officers filled it out and told journalists that they had fired thermo-baric weapons at the ambulance carrying allegedly Prabhakaran, Pottu Amman and Soosai, and were doing DNA tests on a charred body that looked like Prabhakaran’s. While celebrations were going on, Pathmanathan said about mid-night that the LTTE leader is alive and well.

On the morning of the 19th journalists got SMS messages that Prabhakaran’s body has been found close to the northern shore of the Nanthikadal lagoon and Karuna and Daya Master were on their way to identify it. There appeared to be a full body, but almost everything else about it was a hoax. Allegedly felled by a bullet in the head, the eyes were clear. It was on a crude stretcher; no signs of charring by a thermo-baric weapon, naked except for a black flap covering its genitals, held in place by a tape around its tummy. The chest neck and jaw were covered with superfluous mud.

The Government and the Army were at pains to explain this development and again there were contradictory stories from within the Army. One was that a soldier who was part of a search operation ran into Prabhakaran, exchanged fire with him and shot him, not knowing who he was.

Another coming from a senior officer says that Prabhakaran was a free man, alive and well on the morning of Tuesday 19th. Prabhakaran sent his younger son (12 years, b. 1st Oct. ‘96) with six body guards to surrender, thinking the soldiers wouldn’t harm the boy. They came and discovered Prabhakaran with his family. He was not certain what happened thereafter except that Prabhakaran died of a shot in the head. Despite constant reports of discovery of her person or body, the Government remained evasive about Prabhakaran’s wife Mathivathani. Brigadier Shavendra de Silva, who commanded the 58th Division told the New Indian Express (21 May.09), “We had to look for Prabhakaran’s body because the world was interested in seeing it. But the body of his wife is not of any importance to us.” That would be the fate of the unknown hundreds of civilians and militants killed in those last days.

A new version of the story fed to the Sunday papers (24th May) is no less fishy: “Prabhakaran was… apparently inside one of the six mangrove islands in the lagoon. Troops using medium calibre guns pounded the small island…Later, infantry troops [about] 10 AM in the morning…found the body of the Tiger chieftain bleeding from a yawning wound on the forehead. His bodyguards lay dead around him (Lakbimanews).” Another variant in the Nation claimed that two of Prabhakaran’s body guards who approached the Army to surrender were killed by their colleagues.

1.5 Prabhakaran: Likely Scenario

We had referred to reports that Prabhakaran was killed or captured when Tiger fighters made a desperate attempt about 1.30 AM on 17th May to get him along with some senior leaders and their families, west across the lagoon, past lines of troops from the 53rd Division, into the jungle. This was Plan 2 above. The evidence suggests that Prabhakaran was killed or captured in the attempt. Information seeping into the public domain from within the Army points to capture or surrender, but the official responses dismissing this are a rehash of stories the public no longer finds credible. It is left to an impartial inquiry to answer this and related questions.

The Army web site reported the recovery of the bodies of 70 Tigers after the breakout attempt on the 17th morning, but said nothing of Prabhakaran’s family. Reuters reported the same day, 17th, quoting a military official on condition of anonymity, “They are taking the body for checks to confirm it is the real Prabhakaran”. Four other military sources confirmed the account to Reuters. CNN-IBN too reported in addition that 150 LTTE bodies were recovered pointing to the early morning attempted break out.

Asian Tribune (7.00 PM, 17 May) placed the number of Tiger bodies collected at 35. AT quoted an army source saying Prabhakan’s wife Mathivathani and sons, Charles Anthony and Balachandran, had been killed. The report presumed daughter Dwaraka was abroad. It said that Prabhakaran’s body had been taken to an army camp in Colombo for DNA testing.

The foregoing is in accordance with what we heard coming from top level army sources. A further piece of evidence is that the next day President Rajapakse called up Indian External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee to confirm that ‘armed resistance by the LTTE had ended and its leader Velupillai Prabhakaran was dead’ (The Hindu 19.05.09). Given the leaders’ personal obsession with Prabhakaran, we may surmise that the President or his brother saw first hand evidence before contacting Mukherjee.

Pathmanathan reversing his earlier denial, by confirming on 24th May that Prabhakaran died on the 17th, adds further substance to this scenario. This makes us bold to speak of other information we received from sources that gave the core story. These sources said that Prabhakaran was tortured probably at Division 53 HQ in the presence of a Tamil government politician and a general. Several army sources have said Prabhakaran’s 12-year-old son Balachandran was killed after capture. Ours said that he was killed in front of his father. These sources added that this information is correct unless officers at the highest level are fibbing to one another. Our sources in addition to several others have said that all the LTTE persons remaining in the NFZ were massacred.

We may now piece together things that we touched on. When President Rajapakse left for the G11 Summit in Jordan on 14th May, the surrender deal with the LTTE in which TNA MPs including Chandra Nehru Jr. and several external actors was ongoing. The Government let the LTTE do its part and played for time keeping its options open. On 16th May the Army captured the last bit of coast under the LTTE and had them boxed in. The President flew back after announcing at the Summit that he will ‘return to Sri Lanka as a leader of a nation that vanquished terrorism’. Before he reached Colombo he would likely have received the news of the attempted breakout.

Rajapakse had no more use for the deal with the LTTE further weakened after the morning’s attempt. UN envoy Vijay Nambiar either lost interest or was following instructions. This is suggested by what he told Muralidhar Reddy of the Frontline (19th June) about events of the 17th May 2009:

“I received a call from KP at Amman while I was on my way to Colombo in preparation for the visit of the U.N. Secretary-General. He told me the Tigers are ready to surrender to a third party. I asked him on the whereabouts of Prabakaran and his reply was that he had no idea. I told him that I would convey to the government his message about the Tigers. I received another call from KP as soon as I landed at Colombo around 5.30 a.m. I conveyed to him that I had passed on his earlier message to the Sri Lanka government and that it was ready to accept surrender but only to the military and not to a third party. Once again I asked him on the whereabouts of Prabakaran and he repeated that he did not know anything on the subject. That was the end of the matter as far as I am concerned.”

When KP told Nambiar he did not know about Prabhakaran’s whereabouts, he was likely being truthful. Nambiar would later have heard the reports doing the rounds in Colombo. The fate of the survivors, the small fry, was sealed. We may disbelieve the Government’s stories about how various LTTE members died, if they did. Much of the drama put on by the Government was to destroy evidence and avoid adverse legal implications.