Prabhakaran accuses Lankan govt forces of 'terrorism'

Breaking his silence amid claims that he was injured in a Sri Lankan Air Force raid, elusive Tiger supremo V Prabhakaran has awarded one of the LTTE's highest honours to a slain Tamil lawmaker and charged the government forces with "terrorism."

51-year-old K Sivanesan, a Tamil National Alliance (TNA) MP from Jaffna district, was killed along with his driver in a roadside bomb attack on Thursday. While the LTTE claim that he was killed by army's Deep Penetration Unit near Mankulam area, defence officials insist that he died in the rebel-held Wanni.

Honouring Sivanesan with the title of 'Mahamanithar' or a great man, the LTTE chief said in a letter signed by him that "freedom of the Tamils and the liberation of the Tamil homeland are his life goals."

Sivanesan "yearned for a free and honourable life for the Tamil people in their land without the torments that have afflicted them," Prabhakaran said.

"He longed to see free Tamil Eelam. To achieve these goals he accepted our movement, its political aim, the struggle we have launched and served dedicatedly," the Tiger supremo said in the letter released by the LTTE.

"This planned, brutal assassination (of Sivanesan) is the latest cruelty in the ongoing ethnic genocide of the Tamils. This vicious killing ... is another illustration of the Sinhala State terrorism," Prabhakaran said.

His letter follow claims by the Sri Lankan military that Prabhakaran may have been injured in a November air raid. The military has intensified its offensive against the rebels after scrapping a tattered 2002 ceasefire in January.

Rejecting the army claims, TNA MP Selvarajah Gajendran said in Parliament that Prabhakaran was "hale and hearty and ruling skilfully".

Source: Times Of India