Tiger dies again on his birth anniversary

Chennai: LTTE supremo Velupillai Prabhakaran's death is finally sinking in, on his birthday. Sri Lankan refugees in 115 camps across 25 Tamil Nadu districts were hopeful of his resurrection. They initially denied he was killed, strongly believing he would resurface on November 27, which the LTTE observed as Maaveerar Naal (Heroes' Day) following his birthday on November 26.

However, the refugees are slowly coming to terms with the fact that Prabhakaran will not resurface. Neither will the LTTE be revived to fight for their cause of a life of dignity and equality in Sri Lanka.

"This thought of Prabhakaran returning and rejuvenating the LTTE is diminishing. Today is his birthday and some people were hoping he would dramatically re-appear, as he had done in 2007 to spike rumours of his death. But now we doubt he will actually surface tomorrow... we have more or less lost hope. And irrespective of whether or not he returns, we are given to understand that life is becoming better for Tamils in Sri Lanka," J Rasilda Mary, 25, whose family fled Mullaitheevu when she was a kid, said.

"We believe, many refugees at Menik Farm have returned to their native villages. Our relatives have returned to Trincomalee, but we aren't sure what kind of future awaits them. The signs appear encouraging though. Students affected by the prolonged war have been given some concessions for promotion. Some of the refugees here want to return to Sri Lanka as we don't have citizenship rights here despite living for over two decades," Rasilda, who works for a lawyer in Goomdipoondi, said.

There are about 74,000 Sri Lankan refugees in Tamil Nadu. There are also 26,000 non-camp refugees. Tamil Nadu CM M Karunanidhi has written to prime minister Manmohan Singh seeking to confer citizenship on Lankan refugees staying in India. He had deputed ministers, including deputy CM and son MK Stalin, to the camps to study their condition. Following a report submitted by the ministers, the CM announced a Rs100 crore package to provide better amenities and relief to the camp inmates.


D Ram Raj / DNAFriday, November 27, 2009