Tamil Tiger Supremo Velupillai Prabhakaran, whose outfit conceded defeat, was very clear about his demand for an Tamil Eelam and asked his cadres to shoot him if he ever swayed away from it, his former confidante has said.
"But his commitment for Tamil Eelam could not be doubted. He even told the LTTE members that in case he (Prabhakaran) swayed away from the desire to carve out a separate Tamil Eelam, then he should not be spared and killed," said his former aid turned foe D Siddharthan who formed the People's Liberation Organisation of Tamil Ealam after falling out with the LTTE leader.
Siddharthan, who along with the former LTTE leaders Krishnan and Guhan opened the first LTTE office in London in the 1970s, split with Prabhakaran following differences.
Their enmity became so acute became that Prabhakaran had ordered for Siddharthan killing.
The PLOTE leader said that Prabhakaran failed to realise the ground realities because of his "intransigence and lack of understanding of the geo-political "reality."
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"Prabhakaran failed to use the military might to benefit the Tamil community. He pushed the Tamils into an abyss," he said.
LST Siddharthan, who has been provided adequate government security due to the LTTE threat, said that Prabhakaran was a dangerous man. "Prabhakaran could not be trusted. He never liked a no. He is a survivalist," Siddharthan said.
Siddharthan said he remembered of an incident in the late 1970s when the LTTE leaders during a meeting in a house in Jaffna heard of a police jeep sound.
"Prabhakaran ordered the light of the house to be switched off and make it pitch dark. But when the danger was over and the lights came on. I was surprised to see that Prabhakaran who was seated next to me had vanished."
"I could not realise where he slipped. After the lights came, I saw a smiling Prabhakaran emerging from one of the entrance of the house," Siddharthan said.
"We also subsequently realised that the keep that had moved past the house was not a police convoy," he said.
Siddharthan said nobody could easily gauge his "survivalist" mentality. "I split with Prabhakaran in the beginning of 1980 and he then considered me his enemy and was looking to finish me," Siddharthan said.
On the death of Prabhakaran’s son Charles Anthony, Siddarthan said it was possible that Prabhakaran would have tried to save him.
"But in warfare, things so happen sometimes that even if your kith and kin is very near you, it becomes difficult to save him," he said. Sri Lanka Army special forces soldiers found the body of Charles Anthony, the elder son of LTTE chief V Prabhakaran in the Karayamullavaikkal area this morning.