LTTE celebrates `Hero's Day' today

COLOMBO: All attention in the island nation would be focused on the so-called `Hero's Day' annual speech of LTTE chief Velupillai Prabhakaran scheduled to be delivered on Monday. The speech is a policy statement of the Tamil Tigers for the year and on Sunday Mr. Prabhakaran turned 52. The 2006 speech has evoked interest as last year Mr. Prabhakaran had described the Sri Lanka President Mahinda Rajapaksa who had just assumed office as a `pragmatic leader' and said his organisation was prepared to wait for a year to enable Mr. Rajapaksa work out a `reasonable political solution' to the ethnic conflict.
"This is our urgent and final appeal. If the new government rejects our urgent appeal, we will, next year... establish self-government in our homeland," the LTTE chief had said in his 2005 speech. Political observers and diplomats here are concerned over the possibility of escalation of tensions in the island nation at a juncture when the undeclared war has taken a heavy toll.
Mr. Rajapaksa , now on a visit to India, does not appear to be unduly bothered about the `deadline' set by Mr. Prabhakaran to his Government on the ethnic issue. In an interactive session with a small group of reporters here, before embarking on his India visit he said he had proved the LTTE chief right. "I am indeed a pragmatic person. I do not believe in theories," he quipped.
Separately the TamilNet reported the LTTE chief took part in a commemoration event held at the Tiger-controlled territory of Vanni on Saturday when the three-day long `Tamil National Heroes Day' remembrance events were inaugurated. It said 18,742 fighters have been declared `war heroes' by the LTTE since November 27 1982, the date when the first LTTE `fighter', Lt. Sankar had fallen, until November 2006. These include 818 LTTE cadres, 568 men and 250 women in 2006. According to the official count, over 3,400 persons have been killed in the fighting between Government forces and the LTTE this year.