Wounded tiger or hidden dragon?

This is a story from the early 8217;80s. The setting was a small building housing the office of a committee coordinating the activities of ...

This is a story from the early 8217;80s. The setting was a small building housing the office of a committee coordinating the activities of Sri Lankan Tamil militant groups in Madras.

A group of Tamil leaders were involved in an animated discussion when the lights went off suddenly.

A few minutes later, when the power supply was restored, all but one of them were still in their chairs. One man was at the doorstep, his pistol at the ready. The man8217;s name was Velupillai Prabhakaran.

It is a name and a face that surfaced before the world media last week after a spell of 15 years. Recalled one of the leaders who had taken part in that meeting, 8216;8216;He was simply acting according to his sense of caution. Some of us considered it an overreaction. But then it was his alertness that has enabled him to survive.8217;8217;

Today, the 48-year-old supremo of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam LTTE may be a hero to some but, to others, he is nothing but a monster. There is no denying though that his single-minded dedication to the objective of an independent Tamil Eelam, backed by amazing military genius and appalling ruthlessness, has seen him through two bloody decades, never mind the enormous losses both the LTTE and the country have suffered.

He has a wife, Madhivadhini 8212; who came into his life after she had been abducted by LTTE cadres 8212; and two children.

For Prabhakaran, the process of indoctrination started early. He recalled in an interview how 8216;8216;Venugopal, a Tamil teacher from my village, used to din into our ears that the Tamils should take up arms8230; Even as a child, I grew to detest the army.8217;8217;

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According to official LTTE history, it was Prabhakaran who founded the New Tamil Tigers NTT in 1972, when he was only 17. His first victim was Alfred Durayappa, the Tamil mayor of Jaffna.

Prabhakaran has not looked back since, nor has he changed. Frontline editor N. Ram, who has been keeping track of the LTTE for years, perceptively points out that in swearing by the Tamils8217; right to self-determination at Killinochi last week, Prabhakaran has shown that he remains obdurate, some cosmetic concessions by his interpreter Anton Balasingham notwithstanding.

Ram recalls that in 1987, after the signing of the Indo-Sri Lanka accord, he had flown into Jaffna at Prabhakaran8217;s request to sort out some thorny issues with the Indian government.

At that point, the guerrilla leader was full of despair, saying, 8216;8216;What we8217;ve been offered is so pitiful. Is it for this that so many of my boys laid down their lives?8217;8217; Ram goes on, 8216;8216;It was indeed moving.

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When he said that he would dedicate himself to community service after Eelam was realised, I was taken in. I failed to take note of the fanatic in him.8217;8217;

Prabhakaran has mowed down every potential challenger to his reign within and outside his organisation. The last big hit was Mahataiya, who was once billed as the second-in-command.

He was first kept under detention 8212; on charges of switching loyalties to RAW 8212; and then the news of his execution was casually revealed to the world. There is this leading Lanka expert, a Jaffna Tamil, who squirmed over Mahataiya8217;s downfall but could not bring himself to blame Prabhakaran. He put it this way, 8216;8216;Certainly Mahataiya8217;s arrest is regrettable. Still can we afford to protest? Prabhakaran is a rare jewel. He8217;s the one leading the struggle from the front. The success of our Eeelam project depends on him.8217;8217;

A young, otherwise sober, man currently living in London once told me, 8216;8216;Look, many of us agree with what people say about Thambi younger brother, as Prabhakaran is called. But he is the only person who can save us from the Lankan army. And he has given us self-respect.8217;8217;

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But there are many who cannot be so forgiving. The University Teachers for Human Rights, a small Jaffna-based organisation, which has courageously stood up to the authoritarian LTTE, has declared that it has become imperative that Prabhakaran and his ilk be exposed at every available opportunity since 8216;8216;thousands of our impressionable young are sacrificing their lives for a cause8230;without being aware that in essence this very cause is destroying our community8217;8217;.

There are numerous questions that remain unanswered.

The biggest, of course, is whether Prabhakaran is genuinely interested in peace or whether he is just trying to extricate himself from a tight corner when the world is less kind to those like him.

N. Ram offers another intriguing angle. He suspects that Prabhakaran is suffering from an unidentified ailment and is no more in full control of his faculties.

Says he, 8216;8216;Maybe I8217;m wrong but that was my impression after watching him at the press conference. He certainly looked nervous but what was striking was that he seemed to be under Balasingham8217;s influence. He spoke so little, and haltingly at that. I8217;ve interviewed him many times. He may not be very articulate, but he used to be very fluent, quick, cracking jokes, completely at ease. All that8217;s gone.8217;8217;