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How KP brought death to his leader

The local and international media on Wednesday (July 22) reported appointment of Selvarasa Pathmanathan or alias KP, the most wanted leading terrorist by the Interpol for arms smuggling rackets, as the new leader of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam which is now operating internationally without having a base for their operations.

“The LTTE Executive Committee wishes to officially let our beloved Tamil people and the international community know that Selvarasa Pathmanathan, who had been appointed as Head of International Relations by our national Leader, will lead us into the next steps of our freedom struggle according to the vision of our esteemed Leader,” the international media quoted a statement said to be released from the LTTE headquarters located in an unknown destination.

It is not quite sure how the Tamil Diaspora would react to this new development within the LTTE now reduced to an organization without any base following total defeat at the hand of the Sri Lankan Security Forces two months back, despite their clandestine operations at international level.


The second LTTE submersible vehicle recovered by troops from the Mullaitivu seas. Courtesy: www.army.lk

Even if he is recognized as the leader of the LTTE by the Tamil Diaspora, the ex-Tiger cadres who fought along with Prabhakaran till the last moment of the battle and the Tamils who lived till the last moment of the LTTE’s existence in the No Fire Zone expecting a silver line in dark clouds, will undoubtedly reject his leadership as they now aware that it was the KP who put their lives in jeopardy even at the last moment of the battle.

The Tiger cadres who had lived until the last moment of the battle, and were fortunate enough to secure their lives after surrendering to the Security Forces declaring themselves as Tiger cadres, now narrate how their leader Velupillai Prabhakaran hanged on to a precarious hope of an international backing at the last moment trusting the words of KP who had been appointed as the international negotiator of the LTTE in April, 2009.

Tiger Leader Velupillai Parabhakaran and other Tamil leaders were not aware of the fact that they were clinging onto a dead rope given to them by KP during the last phases of the battle.

According to military officials, the Tiger cadres now under detention orders after their surrender to the Security Forces are in total disbelief what had happened in the last phases of the battle in the Visuamadu, Puthukudiyiruppu and Mullaivaikkal areas as they were aware that they had enough strength, ammunition and all other facilities to fight with the Security Forces.

What is echoing in the minds of these Tiger cadres, according to the Security Forces who interrogated them under detention, is the way the Tiger leader Velupillai Prabhakaran was counting the days until the international community would intervene in the conflict. They were hoping for a high profile meeting he held to brief all the Tiger leaders, when troops had not yet reached closer to the Visuamadu area.


LTTE leader Prabhakaran

According to these surrendered Tiger cadres who had lived with the Tiger leader Velupilla Prabhakaran till the last days, Prabhakaran had instructed the Tiger leaders to carry on their military plan till May 10, 2009 with a strong hope that a miracle would happen by that time.

His hopes for miracles to happen were based on three strong beliefs he held, according to Tiger cadres who were close to him during the last phases of the battle.

The first strong hope was that there would be an European Union involvement in the Sri Lankan conflict to salvage them from the humiliating defeat they were heading for. The Tiger leader also had a strong belief that a ship would arrive to evacuate them even at the last moment. Lastly he also had the hope that there would be a Government change in India following the Indian general election that was announced by that time, resulting in the arrival of an Indian Peace Keeping Force to Sri Lanka to bail them out.


Kumaran Padmanadan(KP)

Those were the three strong beliefs which ran inside the Tiger leaders mind at the final phases of the battles. However, he was not aware of the fact that he was clinging onto the words of KP for the implementation of two of his three beliefs.

The LTTE’s newly appointed Head and their Chief negotiator KP, was unable to keep to his word to his leader. No wonder, Tiger leader Velupillai Prabhakaran had distanced KP from the organization due to his failures in his mission to procure armaments for the outfit with the destruction of their floating warehouses by the Sri Lanka Navy.

But it was the second level leadership of the LTTE who had persuaded the Tiger leader to keep faith in the words of KP.

According to revelations by the Tiger cadres, although Prabhakaran had his chances to flee the country at the last stages of the battles, did not leave the country keeping faith in the words of KP.

On the other hand, the Tiger leadership has also been misinformed about the battle progress by the ground commanders giving false information about the battle leaving hundreds of their cadres dead whilst keeping its leader in total darkness about the ground realities like the other civilians who were living around him.

There was no doubt that the Tiger leadership would be vanquished by the Security Forces under any circumstances, but it is quite evident it was KP who had compelled the LTTE leadership to take such a risk at the last stages of the battle until the Security Forces boxed them into a 400 meter land stretch in the Mullaivaikkal area on August 18.

Tiger leader Velupillai Prabhakaran had to think of his own plans of escape, as none of KP’s words was translating into action. No ship, no European Union involvement were visible, when the Tiger leader was giving orders to prepare plans for their escape either to a foreign country or into the thick jungle patches in Mullaitivu.

And his last hope was also shattered with a landslide victory of the Congress party at the Indian Government election.

But it was too late when he realized the fact that it was too late for their escape as the Security Forces have already surrounded them on all fronts from the beach side and the land side of the Nanthikadal lagoon as their first attempt was foiled in the wee hours of May 17 killing at least 80 well trained Tiger cadres. On the other hand the sea front was also sealed off by the 58 and 59 Division troops. That was why they made a desperate attempt by launching a do or die attack on the defences of the Security Forces manned by the 53 Division and the Task Force 8 troops.

However, the most astonishing betrayal of Tiger leader Velupillai Prabhakaran by KP was evident only on May 18 evening, the day the Army surrounded his hideout inside the mangroves of the Nanthikadal lagoon and killed him along with his inner ring security.

The international community and the Tamil Diaspora were aware that they were totally in the dark about the existence of the Tiger leader by May 18 evening as there was no confirmation about his death although troops have recovered hundreds of bodies of the slain Tiger cadres on the banks of the Nanthikadal lagoon.

Although there were wild rumours about the Tiger leader, the Security Forces were baffled as they had no idea in which direction Prabhakaran had escaped as they failed to trace the whereabouts of the Tiger leader before darkness on May 18. It was only a guessing game for them and they were trying to locate him from the mangroves of the Nanthikadal lagoon where fierce fighting was continuing and troops were tired and almost gave up searching Prabhakaran by that time.

When the entire world was in suspense about the death of Tiger leader Velupillai Prabhakaran, it was KP who had given oxygen to the troops to launch their search operation with new vigor.

It was one senior Army official whilst browsing the internet whilst on alert on the development in the search operations, noticed a terse statement given by KP to the Tamil Net website that their leader is still alive in a secure place.

It is now believed that it was Sea Tiger leader Soosai who was the one who contacted KP it the last few hours and passed the message that the Tiger leader was alive. In return KP announced it to the media, unaware of the deadly impact on the chances available for his leader to survive.

Whether true or not the information was passed onto all the field commanders in the early hours of May 19 to renew their search operation.

It is true that the Security Forces would continue their search operation despite this statement by KP, but it gave determination to them to search for Tiger leader Velupillai Prabhakaran as soon as possible to silence the boasting of Tiger leaders in exile.

Then they were aware that there was no chance available for the LTTE to take cover except within the mangroves in the small islets in the Nanthikadal lagoon which was to be searched by the troops after intense fighting continued there during the noon hours.

It was after this information, that field commanders changed the search teams who were exhausted after their day long operations and fighting with the LTTE and deployed a fresh group of troops from the 4 Vijayabha Infantry Regiment under the Command of Lt. Colonel Rohan Aluvihare to continue their search operations.

That brought an end to the life of Velupilla Prabhakaran as troops after fierce fighting killed the inner ring security of the Tiger leader and then claiming his life as KP had reduced his chances of hiding inside the mangroves and think of an alternative chance of escape.

In the final analysis it was the KP who brought death to his leader through his narrow minded and inefficient accomplishment of duties as the international negotiator and had virtually staged a coup against the Tiger leadership whilst enjoying an extravagant life with Tamil Diaspora money.

Therefore, the Tamil Diaspora and the Tamil community in Sri Lanka will decide whether they are going to be misled by another rogue who had betrayed the entire LTTE at the final count even putting their lives in jeopardy.

Although, it is a matter for the Tamil community to decide about his leadership of the LTTE. It is incumbent on the international community to decide the fate of Kumaran Pathmanathan, the most wanted by the Interpol as his free circulation would pose a threat to the entire world one day.

There is no doubt that Tiger activists like KP are giving those signals to the Tamil community to obtain their support of the Tamil people once they are peacefully resettled in their villages.

Therefore, the challenges for the Security Forces in the months to come will be much bigger as they will have to continue their operations among the civilian settlements.

The continuous unearthing of stocks of arms and ammunition gives a clear picture about the fears about the security in those settlements once the civilians are resettled there. That was why the Security Forces are now continuing with their extensive operations to weed out the Tiger cadres out of the 300,000 civilians now living in welfare villages.

If not for this screening process and the interrogation of the LTTE cadres the unearthing of Tiger arms and ammunition and their vital documents would be a challenging task.

The recovery of the second submersible vehicle of the LTTE was also done due to a revelation by a diver attached to the Sea Tiger wing.

If not for his assistance, the second submersible vehicle would have vanished in the deep blue seas of Mullaitivu.

According to Security Forces after lengthy interrogation by then, the Sea Tiger cadre revealed the way in which they submerged their two submersible vehicles in the sea when they were under an air attack.

Seelan, the Sea Tiger cadre had thrown a fishing net to the sea to locate this submersible vehicle which was lying 30 feet deep in the water in the Mullaitivu seas enabling the troops to salvage it.

An unprecedented number of arms and ammunition and vital equipment still remains to be unrecovered by troops in the Mullaivaikkal, Puthukudiyiruppu and Visuamadua area. Troops are making a renewed effort to recover them with the assistance of the Tiger cadres now mingling with the civilians in the welfare centres. This has become a difficult task as separate LTTE groups have been entrusted with the task of hiding the arms and ammunition whilst others engage in fighting.

Therefore, the Security Forces believe that if true victory against the LTTE is to be enjoyed, they have to go through the entire process patiently to unravel the mysteries yet to be uncovered.

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