Prabhakaran attained martyrdom : Selvarasa Pathmanathan !!!

The mythology and legends began to grow almost as soon as the death of the leader of the rebel Tamil Tigers was announced last week:

His followers insisted he had escaped the final battle as if by a miracle, the Sri Lankan military was faking his death, and the body laid out and photographed in the jungle was not actually Velupillai Prabhakaran.

Despite the post-mortem photos of the familiar, chubby face with the black bottle-brush mustache, there was just enough doubt for the true believers to keep believing.

But the Prabhakaran mythology was finally deflated Sunday night when the overseas spokesman for the defeated Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, or L.T.T.E., acknowledged that the leader had been killed.

Selvarasa Pathmanathan said Prabhakaran “attained martyrdom fighting the military oppression of the Sri Lankan state on 17 May,” according to a statement on TamilNet, the pro-rebel Web site that the separatist movement uses for its official comments and editorials.

In the wake of the defeat of the Tamil Tigers after their 26-year war against the government, an angry debate about Prabhakaran’s fate now appears to be taking place among Tamil diaspora groups. Another report on TamilNet said “the Intelligence Department of the Tigers reiterated on Sunday that the L.T.T.E. leadership is safe, and it will re-emerge when the right time comes.”
That report also said that Indian intelligence agencies, which at one point had Prabhkaran in custody, certainly had specific details on “his physiognomy” but had failed to produce any scientific evidence to confirm his death.

The government’s photographs showed Prabhakaran on a canvas stretcher, a blue handkerchief placed over the top of his head, reportedly to cover a gaping head wound. Pictures of his Tamil Tiger dog tags (with the number 001) and a blue identification card also were shown.

The commander of the army, Gen. Sarath Fonseka, in an interview with Rivira, a Sri Lankan newspaper, said the body was later cremated and the ashes scattered in the Indian Ocean. The government apparently wanted to ensure that a Prabhakaran grave did not become a Tamil pilgrimage site.

“Even before Prabhakaran was killed, I knew we had won the war,” General Fonseka said, “but I was overjoyed when I had confirmation of his death.”