பிரபாகரனின் உடல் இன்று தகனம் செய்யப்பட்டுவிட்டது

Top Tiger is cremated, India seeks certificate


R. Bhagwan Singh

Colombo

May 21: The Sri Lankan military cremated LTTE leader Velupillai Prabhakaran and his senior lieutenants on Wednesday at the same place where their bodies were found by the Army — at a lagoon in the battle zone — the previous day.


"We cremated his body yesterday in the same place. All the other LTTE leaders who were killed along with him were also cremated there at the same time," the military spokesman, Brig. Udaya Nanayakkara, told this newspaper here.

Asked if the Tiger chief’s remains were subjected to a DNA test to establish his identity beyond doubt, he said, "Our doctors may have taken some blood samples, but we feel there is no need for any DNA testing because there is absolutely no doubt it’s him."

When it was pointed out to him that there were still serious doubts whether the body was really that of Prabhakaran, the brigadier said minister Vinayagam-oorthy Muralitharan "Karuna", one-time confidant and bodyguard of Prabhakaran, and senior Tiger Daya Master (he had "surrendered" to the Army a few weeks ago) had confirmed it was Prabhakaran’s body. Both were flown by helicopter to the site almost immediately after the body was recovered.

"Our media was there. The TV crew had captured the images and, besides, we had Karuna and Daya Master confirming. What more do we need," Brig. Nanayakkara said.

Meanwhile, India has sought from Colombo the death certificate of Prabhakaran so that the Rajiv Gandhi assassination case, in which he was the prime accused, could be closed. The request was made by national security adviser M.K. Narayanan and foreign secretary Shivshankar Menon during their meeting with President Mahinda Rajapakse and other officials in the course of their two-day trip that concluded on Thursday.

At a brief interaction with the Indian media here before starting back for New Delhi, they were asked if India would insist on a DNA test to clear the doubts about Prabhakaran’s death. "The government of Sri Lanka has made a public announcement and we will go by that. We will of course wait for a death certificate from the government so that the Rajiv Gandhi case can be, sort of, closed. but beyond that it’s not possible for us to do much," Mr Narayanan replied. "This point was raised in our talks with President Rajapakse and they have promised that they would give us a formal death certificate of Prabhakaran."

Though he did not mention Pottu Amman, the LTTE intelligence chief who is listed as the second accused in the Rajiv case and was slain in this battle, it is obvious that Colombo will send his death certificate too to facilitate the closure of the case.