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'Liberated' Sri Lanka to protect Tamils
Sydney Morning Herald - May 20, 2009
Matt Wade Herald, New Delhi – A triumphant Sri Lankan President, Mahinda Rajapaksa, has declared the country "liberated" from Tamil Tiger rebels after a 26-year sectarian war and vowed to develop a home-grown solution to meet the political aspirations of the Tamil minority.
In a televised address to Parliament, Mr Rajapaksa said the war had been against the Tamil Tigers and "not against the Tamil people". "It is my responsibility and my duty to protect the Tamil-speaking people living in this country," he said. "They should live without fear and with equal civil rights."
Mr Rajapaksa, who has strong support among Sri Lanka's Sinhalese Buddhist majority, said the defeat of the Tamil Tigers was a significant day for the nation and "the entire world".
But as he spoke there was confusion about the fate of the Tamil Tiger leader Velupillai Prabhakaran, who was reported killed in the final bloody battle of the war on Monday.
As speculation grew last night about the whereabouts of the rebel supremo, the army chief, General Sarath Fonseka, said Prabhakaran's body had been recovered yesterday. "A few hours ago the body of terrorist leader Prabhakaran, who ruined this country, was found in the battleground," he told state television.
The Tamil Tigers' head of international relations, Selvarasa Pathmanathan, said in a statement on the pro-rebel website Tamilnet: "Our beloved leader is alive and safe. He will continue to lead the quest for dignity and freedom for the Tamil people."
The army then produced footage of a body in uniform, lying on a bloodstained stretcher, and said it was Prabhakaran. The head was covered by a cloth, the eyes were open and the face bloated. The video also showed a copy of a military ID tag written in Tamil, bearing the number "0:01".
Prabhakaran launched the Tigers' armed struggle for a separate homeland for Tamils in 1983, claiming they were being discriminated against.
Mr Rajapaksa, who used the Tamil language for part of his speech, said ethnic and religious divisions in Sri Lanka should now end. "We must find a home-grown solution to this conflict. That solution should be acceptable to all the communities." But he gave no detail on how this solution would be achieved.
Neighbouring India, home to about 60 million Tamils, said it expected Sri Lanka to address the root causes of the civil war.
Sri Lanka's Foreign Secretary, Palitha Kohona, said "the question of devolution of power is now on top of the agenda" but calls for an investigation to determine whether the army had committed war crimes during its drive to wipe out the Tigers were "ridiculous". "We have taken every measure possible to protect civilians," he said.
In a hint of the carnage that took place during the Tigers' last stand, the military said it had recovered the bodies of 350 Tamil Tiger fighters on the battlefield.
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