Velupillai Prabhakaran met with a violent death as he ignored pleas to shun violence and join the mainstream, by rejecting recent overtures from the Sri Lankan government for a peaceful settlement, a former close confidant of the slain Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam chief said on Tuesday.
Colonel Karuna, the LTTE commander of the Eastern region before he fell out with Prabhakaran in 2004, said he identified Prabhakaran's body in the 'No Fire Zone' in northern Lanka.
"The body is of Prabhakaran's... there is no doubt about this... Though I am bit saddened that he is no more but the fact is he never listened to anyone. He always believed that violence is the only solution," Karuna, who is now a federal minister, said.
"He is the sameĀ there is no change in his body. He met with this fate for his own deeds," he said after his return from the war zone.
Prabhakaran rejected all overtures made by the Lankan government, Karuna said, adding that he lost all the opportunity given by the government to shun violence and join the mainstream.
Karuna said he always wanted a political solution to the decades-old ethnic conflict, a view that was never subscribed by the once elusive Tamil Tigers leader.
"Due to Prabhakaran, lots of young people were killed and many were forced to join the LTTE. He even forced women to join the outfit," he said. Karuna, who formed the Tamil Makkal Viduthalai Puligal, quit the party following differences with his deputy leader Pillayan, and joined the ruling Sri Lanka Freedom Party as its vice president.
Sivanesan Chandrakanthan alias Pillayan of TMVP was sworn in as the chief minister after elections for the Eastern Province in May last year. Karuna was recently made the minister for National Integration and Reconciliation in the Mahinda Rajapaksa cabinet.
