Sri Lanka hails liberation but Tamils say leader not dead
President of Sri Lanka hails liberation of country but Tamil Tigers insist leader is not dead as claimed
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Tuesday, 19, May 2009 06:10
The president of Sri Lanka has hailed the liberation of his country after the defeat of the Tamil Tigers, but the rebels have insisted the war is not over.
Mahinda Rajapaksa today delivered his victory speech to the country's parliament, a day after the army said the Tamil Tiger leadership had been "wiped out" and the last remaining fighters killed, ending a 26-year armed conflict.
State television has also begun to carry video footage showing what the army claims is the body of Velupillai Prabhakaran, the leader of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), reportedly shot dead as he attempted to flee the Tigers' last stand in an ambulance.
But on Tuesday an LTTE official outside of Sri Lanka said that Prabhakaran was "alive and safe".
"He will continue to lead the quest for dignity and freedom for the Tamil people," a statement carried out pro-Tamil website tamilnet.com said.
In his speech to parliament, Mr Rajapaksa said the defeat of the Tigers was significant not to Sri Lankans but the entire world.
"Today we have been able to liberate the entire country from the clutches of terrorism," he said.
"We have been able to defeat one of the most heinous terrorist groups in the world."
The president began his address in his native Sinhala before addressing the country's Tamil minority in their own tongue.
"We must find a homegrown solution to this conflict. That solution should be acceptable to all the communities," he said.
More than 70,000 people are thought to have died in the country's civil war, fought over the Tamil minority's right to an independent state in the north and east of Sri Lanka.