LTTE father Prabhakaran killed

Agencies quoted the Lankan military as saying Prabhakaran,his deputies and remnants of LTTE cadres were killed as they tried to stage a dramatic breakout,attempting to flee in an armour-plated van and a bus. After a two-hour firefight,troops fired a rocket at the van to end the battle. Prabhakaran’s body was pulled out and identified,the military said.

With the fighting over — Lankan army chief Lt Gen Sareth Fonseka told state television “we can announce very responsibly that we have liberated the whole country from terrorism” — India is looking at the road ahead. It is learnt that a massive humanitarian assistance package to the tune of nearly Rs 500 crore ($100 million) is in the works.

With India assessing that over 10,000 people have been killed in the last few days of the military campaign,Narayanan and Menon will convey strong concerns over the large-scale displacement of Tamils and press for early movement on devolution of power. After the phone call from Rajapaksa,Mukherjee is said to have discussed the approach with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.

Colombo has so far been accommodative to Indian concerns and delayed the final military surge till the elections in Tamil Nadu were completed. Narayanan and Menon had travelled to Colombo last month just as the Lankan army made spectacular progress,narrowing the conflict to a small strip of land in the north.

The two Indian officials had made it clear to Rajapaksa that the Lankan army’s advance with heavy artillery and air raids was leading to civilian deaths,and also creating a “domestic security situation” for India at a time when elections were taking place. Rajapaksa assured,and eventually did follow up,that he would stop heavy artillery bombing and aerial raids.

But on May 13 evening,barely hours after polling concluded in Tamil Nadu,Rajapaksa gave the green signal for completion of the campaign. He was visiting Jordan when the Lankan army went ahead with heavy artillery and mortar fire to capture the last bit of territory under LTTE control. Photographs of LTTE leaders killed in the operation were sent to Rajapaksa in Jordan who then boarded a flight to Colombo,saying he was confident that he had returned to a Sri Lanka rid of terrorism. He is expected to address the nation soon.

India,on the other hand,remains guarded because the LTTE’s defeat could prompt an ultra-nationalist Sinhala response that would ignore the legitimate demands of the Lankan Tamils. According to reliable sources,India is looking for time-bound assurances on Sri Lanka’s devolution plan which essentially must include police and financial powers. New Delhi feels that unless Colombo moves swiftly on these issues,the possibility of LTTE remnants resorting to guerilla tactics cannot be ruled out.

While Indian agencies are yet to independently confirm Prabhakaran’s death,sources said there were enough indications that several LTTE cadres may have escaped. Indian officials,in fact,cautioned against the euphoria over what they think is just the end of the conventional phase of the war.

“It is our view that as the conventional conflict in Sri Lanka comes to an end,this is the moment when the root causes of conflict in Sri Lanka can be addressed. This would include political steps towards the effective devolution of power within the Sri Lankan Constitution so that Sri Lankans of all communities,including the Tamils,can feel at home and lead lives of dignity of their own free will,” said the MEA spokesperson in a statement.

India is also in touch with the US and European powers to ensure there is a concerted approach followed on these lines by all these countries so that the Rajapaksa government feels the pressure to act soon.