Sri Lankan troops won the final battle in one of the world’s most intractable separatist wars, and put the entire nation under government control for the first time since 1983, the military said yesterday.
In the climactic final gun battle, special forces troops killed Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) leader Vellupillai Prabhakaran as he tried to flee the war zone in an ambulance early yesterday, state television reported.
LTTE intelligence chief Pottu Amman and Soosai, head of the “Sea Tiger” naval wing, were also believed killed, the report said.
Prabhakaran founded the LTTE on a culture of suicide before surrender and had sworn he would never be taken alive.
Army commander Lieutenant General Sarath Fonseka said troops yesterday morning finished the task Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa gave them three years ago.
“We have liberated the entire country by completely liberating the north from the terrorists. We have gained full control of LTTE-held areas,” Fonseka said on state TV.
Rajapaksa was scheduled to make his formal declaration of victory before parliament today. He had declared victory on Saturday, even as the final battle in Asia’s longest modern war was intensifying.
It played out on a sandy patch of just 300m² near the northeastern coast, where the military said the last Tiger fighters had holed up in bunkers and surrounded themselves with land mines and booby traps.
The official Media Center for National Security said more than 250 Tigers had been killed in the final battle, which intensified after the military said it had freed the last of 72,000 civilians trapped in the tiny war zone.
News of the Tiger chief’s death came as state TV for the first time broadcast images of the body of his son and heir apparent, Charles Anthony, and other dead rebels.
He was killed overnight, the military said, along with a host of other top LTTE fighters and political cadres, including political chief B. Nadesan and spokesman Seevaratnam Puleedevan.
But Sri Lanka’s triumph was not without controversy. The EU was expected to call yesterday for an independent inquiry into alleged violations of humanitarian and human rights laws and for those responsible to be brought to justice.
A draft EU text due to be put to a foreign ministers meeting in Brussels calls for an end to restrictions on aid agencies and full access to people displaced by the fighting.
In Colombo, demonstrators threw rocks at the British High Commission, tossed a burning effigy of British Foreign Secretary David Miliband inside and spray-painted its wall with epithets and a message: “LTTE headquarters.”
Miliband has been critical of the Sri Lankan government’s prosecution of the war, and is seen in Colombo as sympathetic to the vocal pro-LTTE lobby that has protested outside parliament for weeks in Britain. London has said it backs a war crimes’ probe.
PLA MANEUVERS: Although Beijing has yet to formally announce military drills, its coast guard vessels have been spotted near and around Taiwan since Friday The Taiwanese military is on high alert and is closely monitoring the Chinese People’s Liberation Army’s (PLA) air and naval deployments after Beijing yesterday reserved seven airspace areas east of its Zhejiang and Fujian provinces through Wednesday. Beijing’s action was perceived as a precursor to a potential third “Joint Sword” military exercise, which national security experts said the PLA could launch following President William Lai’s (賴清德) state visits to the nation’s three Pacific allies and stopovers in Hawaii and Guam last week. Unlike the Joint Sword military exercises in May and October, when Beijing provided detailed information about the affected areas, it
CHINA: The activities come amid speculation that Beijing might launch military exercises in response to Lai’s recent visit to Pacific allies The Ministry of National Defense (MND) yesterday said China had nearly doubled the number of its warships operating around the nation in the previous 24 hours, ahead of what security sources expect would be a new round of war games. China’s military activities come amid speculation Beijing might organize military drills around the nation in response to President William Lai’s (賴清德) recent visit to Pacific allies, including stops in Hawaii and Guam, a US territory. Lai returned from the week-long trip on Friday night. Beijing has held two rounds of war games around Taiwan this year, and sends ships and military planes
Five flights have been arranged to help nearly 2,000 Taiwanese tourists return home from Okinawa after being stranded due to cruise ship maintenance issues, the Ministry of Transportation and Communications announced yesterday. China Airlines Ltd (中華航空), and EVA Airways Corp (長榮航空) have arranged five flights with a total of 748 additional seats to transport 1,857 passengers from the MSC Bellissima back to Taiwan, the ministry said. The flights have been scheduled for yesterday and today by the Civil Aviation Administration, with the cruise operator covering all associated costs. The MSC Bellissima, carrying 4,341 passengers, departed from Keelung on Wednesday last week for Okinawa,
US president-elect Donald Trump said he would “never say” if Washington is committed to defending Taiwan from China, but “I would prefer that they do not do it [ an attack],” adding that he has a “good relationship” with Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平). “I never say because I have to negotiate things, right?” Trump said in an interview with NBC’s Meet the Press host Kristen Welker after saying he would not reveal his incoming administration’s stance on Taiwan’s defense in the event of an attack. Asked the question again, Trump, in a reference to China, said: “I would prefer that they
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