LTTE leader’s name to be reported to Office of Missing Persons

Colombo, Aug 29 (PTI) With some Tamil nationalists in SriLanka still believing that Velupillai Prabhakaran may still bealive, a Tamil National Alliance leader has said the LTTEsupremo’s name could be reported to the newly setup Office ofthe Missing Persons (OMP). M Shivajilingam, a member of the northern provincialcouncil told a local radio station Neth FM that he was willingto report Prabhakaran’s name to the OMP set up by thegovernment. "If his sister or the brother wants it reported to OMP Iam willing to come forward on their behalf," he said. Prabhakaran, 54, who led a separatist war for the islandnation’s Tamil minority as the head of Liberation Tigers ofTamil Eelam (LTTE) was declared killed by the governmenttroops on May 19, 2009 in Mullaivaikkal in the northernMullaithivu district. The discovery of the body with a fatal head injury markedthe end to the two-and-a-half-decade-long civil war withthousands of remaining LTTE cadres surrendering to thegovernment troops. However, some Tamil nationalist hardliners had alwaysdoubted government’s version of story and believe thatPrabhakaran may still be alive having escaped the final battlezone in 2009. The OMP which the government has agreed to set up underits wider UN Human Rights Council resolution obligations hasrun into controversy with the opposition calling it a betrayalof the government troops who defeated the LTTE. The government claims that the OMP was meant to giveredress to tens of thousands reported missing in the countrydue to various conflicts both in the south and the north. The International Red Cross (ICRC) had last monthannounced results from its survey which said that over 16,000people remain missing in Sri Lanka after the end of theconflict in 2009. PTI CORR SUA AKJSUA