Last words of Nadesan

(May 24, London,) The LTTE political head Nadesan was apparently making frantic efforts to surrender when the situation became impossible for him and the men around him. According to a person who spoke to Nadesan few hours before his fateful death, he had confirmed in detail there was international engagement to help rescue Nadesan & Co from the conflict zone. Even one high profile diplomat was ready to go by boat to rescue them. A UN official was not supportive of engaging in the rescue effort initially, but had supported it later.


During the conversation Nadesan had said: ‘Inga Pinnak Kadu. Saakira udambellam aluthu kidakithu. Ayirak kanikila Seththu kiddakithu. Nadakkave Kastam. Melum sanath-thida alivai thadu-kka thaan saran adaya-poram. (It is a jungle of corpses here. The dying bodies are crying. There are thousands of dead around here. It is difficult to walk even. To avoid further deaths of our people, we are going to surrender).

Another person who had spoken to Nadesan about an hour or so later told me: ‘Eric Solheim had spoken to the President and had obtained them to go ahead for Nadesan and Pulithevan to surrender to the army. On Eric Solheim’s advice, they proceeded to surrender. The contact could not believe Nadesan & Co had been killed when they had followed the instructions to surrender.

When I asked him later about Foreign Secretary Dr Palitha Kohena’s comment that disgruntled LTTE cadres had killed Nadesan & Co, he said: ‘This is war crime and Dr Palitha Kohana as usual is coming out with his creative stories to help him escape from the crime he was instrumental in committing.’