On 13 February 2023, senior Tamil Nadu politician Pazha Nedumaran, who was an associate of late Prime Minister Indira Priyadarshini Gandhi announced that the Leader of the LTTE, Velupillai Prabhakaran, who was presumed dead in May 2009, is alive and will come into the public eye soon. I wrote an article regarding this matter in August 2016. My article was about what was said by India’s retired Naval officer, Prof. M. Kagil Subramaniam.
During his visit to Colombo on 13 September 2015, he gave an interview with an English print media, saying: “It could not be Prabhakaran’s body that was photographed and telecast to the public”. The professor went on to say: “There were no chances of Prabhakaran shooting himself as many are claiming now. If so, there would have been a proper fingerprint and a deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) test conducted.”
The two reasons cited by him are (1) that no “death certificate” of his death has been issued by Sri Lanka to India and, (2) that the statement given by Sri Lanka to India was at the request of the Attorney General. The Colombo High Court had stated “presumed dead” and no “genetic analysis (DNA test)” had been conducted either in Sri Lanka or in India. Also, his fingerprints had not been examined. Prof. Subramaniam said that the statement given by Sri Lanka to India reads as follows: “Prabhakaran was presumed to have been killed on the last day of the Eelam War IV at Mullivaikkal in Nandikadal on 17 May 2009, and no evidence exists for him being alive, therefore, he is presumed to be dead judicially”.
In this interview, Prof. Subramaniam also stated that Prabhakaran was said to have died on 17 May 2009. But, his death was officially announced on 19 May. In my article of August 2016, I questioned why the Sri Lankan Government, the Ministry of Defence, former Defence Ministry Secretary Gotabaya Rajapaksa, former President Mahinda Rajapaksa, former Army Commander, Field Marshal Sarath Fonseka, and others never came forward to object to Prof. Subramaniam’s statement, when after all, it had been published in one of the Colombo-based newspapers. But now, after 13 years, especially after Nedumaran’s statement on 13 February, the Spokesperson of the Sri Lanka Army claims that they have the “DNA” of Prabhakaran. However former Naval officer and Minister and incumbent MP Dr. Sarath Weerasekera told the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) on 13 February: “This is our problem, why should we give DNA to others?” Whoever it is, one should “tell the truth and live upright”.
In my articles, I always say: “When the facts are delayed, lies take the space”. Now, huge confusion has been created among the people.
Current situation
If we examine the current political situation of the North and the East, the South has completely forgotten the consequence of 30 years of bloody ethnic conflict and also the “de facto State” that was in existence in large parts of the North and the East for more than two decades. The war was won with the support of the international community on a promise that as soon as the war came to an end, there would be a political settlement, not simply on the basis of the 13th Amendment to the Constitution, but that it would be an enhanced solution called “13th Amendment to the Constitution plus”.
Now, 13 years have passed. There is no light of any political solution to the bloody conflict. It is surprising why now some Southern politicians are objecting and Buddhist monks are demonstrating against the 13th Amendment to the Constitution, which has been a part of the Constitution for more than three decades. It is a mystery as to why, during the war, these politicians and Buddhist monks never demonstrated against the Government, which was telling the international community that, “it will not be the 13th Amendment to the Constitution, but that it will be the 13th Amendment to the Constitution plus”.
Significantly, President Ranil Wickremesinghe agreed to the Oslo Declaration which endorsed: “The principle of internal self-determination in areas of historical habitation of the Tamil-speaking peoples, based on a federal structure within a united Sri Lanka”. There are politicians in the North and the East who have claimed that the 13th Amendment to the Constitution is no solution to the ethnic conflict. Here, we can see a parallel between the extremists in the South and the North and the East. If so, what will be the future of Sri Lanka? It has been a miserable story for the last 75 years. The people in the North and the East are frustrated and losing patience. So, do the extremists in the South expect another bloody conflict on the Island? Is there any way to prevent it and live peacefully as equal citizens? Do the extreme elements pave the way for this? Now, it seems that the time has come for all to think very carefully and get into action rather than continue to fuel hate among innocent citizens.
(The writer is the General Secretary of the France-based Tamil Centre for Human Rights.)
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The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author, and do not necessarily reflect those of this publication.