Year 2009 saw the Sri Lankan government declare that it had finally killed LTTE chief Velupillai Prabhakaran and proclaimed victory against his Tamil Tiger rebels, crushing a 25-year rebellion that the UN estimates had cost between 80,000 to 100,000 lives.
Year 2009 saw the Sri Lankan government declare that it had finally killed LTTE chief Velupillai Prabhakaran and proclaimed victory against his Tamil Tiger rebels, crushing a 25-year rebellion that the UN estimates had cost between 80,000 to 100,000 lives.
Prabhakaran and his top aides came out of their last hiding place in a small convoy and an ambulance and tried to drive out of the war zone, but were gunned down.
Prabhakaran, who was 54, was a larger-than-life character who championed the dreams of Sri Lanka's minority Tamils. He was seldom seen in public, yet his word was unquestioned.
Even Tamils who abhorred the Tigers' suicide bombings and assassinations embraced him as their hope for dignity and equal rights in Sri Lanka.
The Sri Lankan army said that Prabhakaran was among the last to die in the civil war's final battle. His body was found in a thicket of mangroves along a shallow lagoon on the desolate northeastern coast.
Photographs of the familiar mustachioed face, a handkerchief covering the fatal head wound, were splashed on the front pages of Sri Lanka's national papers. His dog tags and ID card were also put on display for the cameras.
