The last days of Thiruvenkadam Veluppillai Prabhakaran | dbsjeyaraj.com Page 1 of 201 DBSJEYARAJ.COM DBSJeyaraj.com on Facebook Like Share 32,683 people like this. Sign Up to see what your friends like. The last days of Thiruvenkadam Veluppillai Prabhakaran Posted by Administrator on 22 May 2009, 2:16 pm by D.B.S. Jeyaraj Thiruvenkadam Veluppillai Prabhakaran is no more! The body of the 54 year old supreme leader of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam(LTTE) was found on Tuesday May 19th near the Mullaitheevu lagoon known as “Nanthikkadal” (sea of conches). He had gunshot wounds in the head and forehead. [Thiruvenkadam Veluppillai Prabhakaran] http://dbsjeyaraj.com/dbsj/archives/615 28/02/2016 The last days of Thiruvenkadam Veluppillai Prabhakaran | dbsjeyaraj.com Page 2 of 201 Thus ended the life of the man who was once described by the LTTE’s political strategist, Anton Stanislaus Balasingham, as both “the president and prime minister of Tamil Eelam”. Army commander Sarath Fonseka announced the death officially at 12.15 pm on the 19th. SOORIYATHEVAN The ephemeral nature of power was illustrated vividly by the death of Prabhakaran who controlled what was perhaps the most powerful guerilla organization in the world and was raised to divine status as “Sooriyathevan” (Sun God) by his sycophantic followers. The circumstances of his death were , just as in life , mired in controversy.His demise was anticipated before it happened. The discovery of his corpse was revealed in sections of the media even before it was found.Then the LTTE’s chief of International relations , Selvarasa Pathmanathan alias KP issued a denial of the death of his leader. This has resulted in a bizarre situation where the Tamil diaspora remains overtly calm and cool while the media in Sri Lanka and abroad are going to town with news of his death as well as obituaries . What is worse , there seems to be division among LTTE and pro-LTTE ranks overseas about how to respond to the leader’s death. One faction wants to acknowledge it , pay homage to Prabhakaran and proceed from there. The others want to deny it and perpetuate the myth that the LTTE leader is alive. Elaborate efforts are on to circulate doctored images of Prabhakaran and also audio cassettes. The idea is to project an impression that Prabhakaran is safe in the north-eastern jungles leading a guerilla campaign with the participation of remaining cadres. It remains to be seen as to how this charade will be played out in the future. At the heart of this diaspora dilemma is the fact that fund-raising will dwindle if the people realize that Prabhakaran is dead. Also there are many money-making concerns run by “front” persons on behalf of the enemy. Let us also remember that the “Mafia” had its roots in the freedom movement of Sicily. Furthermore there is also the “cold war” going on between LTTE factions. The overseas branch officials are the loyalists of Castro who was in charge of Overseas administration. They resent the appointment of Selvarasa Pathmanathan alias KP as the new global tiger chief. In addition the intelligence chief Pottu Amman has also established his own network of operatives and spies. At present the Castro and Pottu factions are ganging up to dislodge and undermine KP whose “strength” was his closeness to Prabhakaran. http://dbsjeyaraj.com/dbsj/archives/615 28/02/2016 The last days of Thiruvenkadam Veluppillai Prabhakaran | dbsjeyaraj.com Page 3 of 201 While these sinister games are on the departed LTTE leader is being denied his due after death. Given the sycophantic praise showered on Prabhakaran by diaspora and Tamil Nadu acolytes during his lifetime one would expect a series of ceremonies worldwide to honour the memory of the man who fought for his cause for more than 30 years. But with the tiger camp divided there seems to be no indication about any of his supporters trying to write or talk about Prabhakaran’s death let alone paying tribute . It is against this backdrop that I write this piece. It is neither a biography nor an eulogy. It is not even a critique or analysis. What I hope to do is to try and shed some light at least on the circumstances leading to Prabhakaran’s death. I have attempted to piece together the events preceding his demise and compile a brief account of his last days from various “informed” sources on either side of the ethnic divide. ASSESSMENT It appears that Prabhakaran and the LTTE had not been unduly concerned about the advancing Armed forces for quite a while. The tigers were confident that the army would not be able to proceed beyond a certain point. This assessment got skewered after the fall of Paranthan which was a major turning point. Paranthan was followed by Kilinochchi and then Elephant pass. The hasty evacuation of cadres trapped in the peninsula through a “mini-Dunkirk” type of operation indicated that the tigers were indeed caught napping. Even after losing the Jaffna-Kandy road or A-9 highway and all areas to its west the LTTE was yet confident of withstanding the army for a much longer period in areas east of the A-9 highway. The final option was to “carve” out an area of about 350-450 sq km in Mullaitheevvu district with access to the coast and then defend it strenuously. But the rapid progress of the Army during this phase took the LTTE by surprise. Within a relatively quick period the various military divisions and task forces had made sweeping strides into tiger territory. As a result the LTTE and hundreds of thousands of civilians were boxed into a small space that kept on shrinking as the army began advancing. MISCALCULATIONS http://dbsjeyaraj.com/dbsj/archives/615 28/02/2016 The last days of Thiruvenkadam Veluppillai Prabhakaran | dbsjeyaraj.com Page 4 of 201 It was then that the alarm bells began ringing. The civilian casualty toll also started rising as more and more people were crammed into less and less land while the armed forces intensified operations. Now the diaspora got into the act. Tamils began engaging in world-wide protests and demonstrations. There was a powerful intensity to these.Tamil Nadu too started boiling. New Delhi was under pressure. It was here that Prabhakaran made four grave miscalculations. Underestimating in two and overestimating in two. He overestimated the impact and influence of the diaspora in the west and the pro-tiger lobby in Tamil Nadu. The unfolding civilian catastrophe was his trump card. Prabhakaran thought the western nations could be made to exert adequate pressure on Colombo and make it call off the war. Likewise he thought the passionate emotions of Tamil Nadu could sway New Delhi into moving against the war. If these were overestimation errors , he also underestimated badly the Rajapakse regime as well as the armed forces. Prabhakaran did not expect the armed forces to keep on progressing relentlessly as they did.But despite heavy losses the military juggernaut kept on rolling forward. More importantly he expected President Mahinda Rajapakse would cave into pressure and call it quits. Then again Rajapakse too did not succumb and went ahead with the military campaign. BLUNDER But the biggest blunder of all was to believe wrongly that the LTTE could at some point deliver a crippling blow on the battlefront and exact a heavy casualty toll. This would demoralize the army and help reverse the process , he surmised. The politico-military situation deteriorated but Prabhakaran living in a fool’s paradise was pretty sure that at some point the military drive would come to a halt. Thus he continued to stay put. If Prabhakaran was so inclined he could have either relocated clandestinely to the Wanni or Weli- Oya/Manal Aaru jungles or escaped by sea to South-east Asia. But he did not do so. Apparently he was relying very much on the massive counter-offensive being planned to destroy army defences in the Puthukkudiyiruppu region. But the debacle at Aanandapuram resulting in http://dbsjeyaraj.com/dbsj/archives/615 28/02/2016 The last days of Thiruvenkadam Veluppillai Prabhakaran | dbsjeyaraj.com Page 5 of 201 the deaths of 623 cadres including his northern force commander “Col” Theepan soured those plans. Even as the army drew closer and closer to the beleaguered tigers the senior deputies began entreating Prabhakaran to withdraw from the war zone. But Prabhakaran , stubborn and obstinate, would not listen. As the situation became increasingly perilous Prabhakaran’s point man overseas KP tried to salvage the situation. KP the LTTE’s former chief arms procurer proclaimed as wanted by Interpol was now the global tiger chief. CONTACTS Using perhaps the wheeler-dealer techniques learnt through hands on experience in the arms bazaars of the world the talented Mr. Pathmanathan tapped into his vast reservoir of contacts . In a remarkably short time span KP was interacting with many influential people. The diplomats of at least four western nations, UN functionaries in Geneva and New York,a foreign cabinet minister, a few prominent western journalists were all in touch with KP. A tentative plan was conceived. Basically it envisaged the LTTE surrendering to a third party namely the UN but with firm guarantees from two powerful nations in the Western hemisphere. The possibility of troops from those countries landing in Mullaitheevu to supervise the “surrender” was also not ruled out A three-tiered formula regarding the future of LTTE leaders and cadres was also mooted. The top leaders not exceeding fifty along with families were to be given safe passage outside Sri Lanka to a secret destination.