Prabhakaran 'alive and safe' Tigers claim??????

Sri Lanka's Tamil Tiger rebels today denied the Government’s claims that their leader Velupillai Prabhakaran had been killed by the military yesterday.
"Our beloved leader is alive and safe. He will continue to lead the quest for dignity and freedom for the Tamil people," the Tigers' chief of international relations, Selvarasa Pathmanathan, said in a statement carried on the pro-rebel Tamilnet website.

Mr Pathmanathan gave no indication of the whereabouts of Prabhakaran, who was the prime architect of a 26-year war that claimed at least 70,000 lives.

Military officials said yesterday that Velupillai Prabhakaran had been killed after he was ambushed by Army commandos as he made a desperate attempt to break through Government lines in an ambulance.

Prabhakaran, who had sworn never to be taken alive, was badly burnt when his vehicle burst into flames, officials said. No pictures were released of his body and DNA tests were ordered to prove his identity.

The Tigers' claims came as the Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapakse announced the "complete defeat" of the rebels and vowed to press ahead with a "homegrown political solution" to end ethnic divisions between the majority Sinhalese population and the minority Tamils.

Addressing Parliament, Mr Rajapakse said the government now controlled “every inch” of the island state and had rid the island nation of “terrorism” after crushing the rebels on Monday

TAMIL NET

While rejecting Colombo's claim of the killing of LTTE leader V. Pirapaharan and assuring his safety and well-being, LTTE's International Relations Head S. Pathmanathan Tuesday accused Colombo of treachery in the killing of the political wing leaders B. Nadesan and S. Puleedevan. Mr. Pathmanathan said it is a crime against humanity that needs to be investigated. Meanwhile, informed sources told TamilNet that what happened in the early hours of Monday was a well-planned massacre of several unarmed civil officers of the LTTE with the aim of annihilating its political structure.

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