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“Prabakaran still holed up in Wanni”

COLOMBO: LTTE chief Velupillai Prabakaran is still holed up in Wanni and is holding an estimated 75,000 to 80,000 civilians as human shield in 140 sq km area still under the control of the Tigers, according to confessions made by two Black Tiger (suicide squad) cadre who surrendered to the military over a fortnight ago.

The state-owned English weekly, Sunday Observer, in an interview with the Tiger cadre quoted them as saying Prabakaran’s elder son, Charles Anthony, is among the top leaders leading the cadre in their last-ditch attempt to halt the military advance.

The paper quoted the two cadre as saying the LTTE is holding civilians as human shield. In February, nearly 35,000 civilians have managed to escape from the area under the control of the Tigers and there have been four incidents of targeting of fleeing civilians.

The paper said the two Black Tigers in their twenties had surrendered to the troops at Therumurukandy on January 28, after they failed in their mission to bomb the bund of the Iranamadu Tank.

They told the paper that Anthony and Soosai, Sea Tigers chief, had briefed them on the mission for an underwater demolition on January 20 but they chose to surrender as they were fed up with the “behaviour” of the LTTE and its leadership.

“The LTTE is abducting lots of children who are in their teens. They want to sacrifice civilians as common fodder. Sons and daughters of the LTTE leaders are living luxury lives,” they have been quoted as saying.

The two told the paper that innocent youth were being brain-washed and sent on suicide missions. According to them, after the military began zeroing in on the strongholds of the LTTE in Wanni, Prabhakaran had sent his wife and the youngest son, Balachandran away to a “safer location”.

As per media reports, Anthony returned from Ireland in 2006 after obtaining a degree in aeronautical engineering and took charge of the nascent air wing and computer unit of the LTTE.

Separately, the SLAF claimed to have launched precision strikes at identified LTTE attack craft sinking two, while destroying another, north of the Mullathivu lagoon.

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