LTTE chief 'is' Good and Bad as Dead

The ‘killing’ of Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) chief V Prabhakaran has evoked mixed response even among those who hated him most for being a ‘ruthless and adamant’ man whose incessant quests for the Tamil Eelam brought tragic end to the lives of thousands.

Prabhakaran had set out with a single mission of creating a separate state for the Tamils in Sri Lanka’s East and that mission remained ultimate throughout. Several rounds of peace talks were here under the Norwegian initiatives but Prabhakaran wanted nothing less from what he called “the exploitative Sinhalese Lankan government”.

After the peace talks failed in the 1990s there was no looking back for him. He strengthened the LTTE with the most sophisticated weapons and also commissioned a rudimentary LTTE air force which conducted air raids on the Sri Lankan capital several times.

Accused for killing India’s prime minister Rajiv Gandhi and Sri Lanka’s president Ranasinghe Premadasa, Prabhakaran took the path “most violent” in modern revolutionary warfare. Had he been more flexible the ending to the so-called ‘Eelam War IV’ could have been much more rewarding for the Sri Lankan Tamils.

On the personal front, there is no denying that Phabhakaran ‘was’ a brave and determined person. From a band of boys, he transformed the LTTE into one of the most feared “revolutionary” force. His love for the Tamils who were “ill-treated” by the Sinhalese government can never be doubted but the means he adopted finally put the life out of his body in a gruesome manner.

On the other side, Prabhakaran ‘dead’ is good as well as bad news for Sri Lanka. Good because it has eliminated the man who single-handedly run the LTTE according to his whims. At the sametime, Prabhakaran ‘dead’ will only elevate him to a martyr status, which the Tamils needed badly. There is also a possibility of splinter groups trying to fill the vacuum left by Prabhakaran. These groups in trying to emulate their ‘late’ leader could even be more violent and difficult to deal with.

It is now up to President Rajapaksa and his government to immediately and sincerely implement a political solution in the war-ravaged Tamil areas. Any delay could provide time for rebels on the run to regroup and start another ‘Eelam War V’.