By DPA
Colombo : Tamil rebel chief Velupillai Prabhakaran came out of hiding in northern Sri Lanka to pay last respects to his organization’s political wing leader S.P. Thamilselvan and five other slain senior members, a rebel spokesman said Saturday.
The six were killed Friday morning in Kilinochchi when the Sri Lankan Air Force bombed Thamilselvan’s hideout.
Dressed in military fatigues, Prabhakaran turned up Friday night at Thamilselvan’s residence in Kilinochchi, 370 kilometres north of the capital Colombo, and placed a garland on the coffin, which was draped in the Tamil rebel flag.
Prabhakaran had earlier named as successor to Thamilselvan, the head of the rebel police unit P. Nadesan, a former Sri Lankan police officer who later joined the rebels. Thamilselvan was the chief peace negotiator for the rebels after the death of Anton Balasingham in December 2006.
Nadesan was also a member of the peace delegation that held talks with the Sri Lankan government last year in Geneva.
Rebels of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) declared four days of mourning, which started Friday, and called for residents in rebel-controlled areas to fly the organization’s flag at half-mast and conduct religious observances to mark the deaths. All shops and business establishments have been told to shut down in Kilinochchi as a sign of respect.
In the south, the slaying of Thamilselvan has been seen as a major victory for government security forces who portrayed him as a military-wing leader rather than just the political role he played for the organization.
State-run television used pictures of Thamilselvan dressed in military fatigues or carrying weapons and alleged that he was involved in plots to assassinate political leaders and attack military camps in the south.
“From our point of view, he has been a military-wing member promoting terrorism,” Air Force spokesman Group Captain Ajantha Silva said.
Thamilselvan, posthumously prompted to the rank of brigadier, joined the organization in 1984 as a military-wing member and was involved in two of the major offensives against government forces. After being wounded in an attack in 1993 he was involved in political activities.
There have been mixed reactions among the public in the south, with some believing that the war would now escalate as the rebels may carry out retaliatory attacks, while others believe that the strategy of eliminating senior members of the LTTE, which has been involved in nearly 25 years of war, would help to end the conflict.
A cease-fire agreement signed between the Sri Lankan government and the LTTE in 2002 has gone virtually ignored, with fighting escalating during the last two years. The Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission (SLMM), which is supposed to monitor the truce, has been rendered irrelevant.
The SLMM was quoted as saying in the Daily Mirror newspaper Saturday that the death of Thamilselvan “can only contribute to even further escalation of the conflict, unless the parties cease the hostilities and return to talks.”
Thamilselvan was the most senior member of the LTTE to have been killed in the conflict.
Rebels have suffered a series of setbacks during the last year, losing some key bases in the eastern province and allowing government security forces to regain control of the eastern province and push the rebels into parts of the northern province.
On Oct 22, Tamil rebels carried out a combined ground and air attack on an airbase in north-central Anuradhapura, during which nine helicopters and planes were destroyed, according to the government, but other sources say that as many as 24 aircraft were destroyed. At least 22 rebels and 14 security personnel were killed in the battle.
During the last two years, more than 5,400 people have been killed, and the two sides have slipped away from peace talks, despite Norway’s efforts to get the two sides back to the negotiating table.