As the Sri Lankan army closed in on the remnants of LTTE, the question on everybody's lips was: where is Velupillai Prabhakaran, the man who spearheaded the fight for an independent Tamil state? A Sri Lankan Tamil minister said on Sunday the guerrilla leader has virtually been “cornered” and cannot escape from the island nation. “Prabhakaran has already tried shifting from one bunker to another or from one hiding place to the next in Vanni. But he cannot escape from the country,” Douglas Devananda, the leader of the Eelam People's Democratic Front, said. The scope of constructions found in Kilinochchi, including a sprawling, well-equipped house where Prabhakaran lived with his family, indicates a high level of preparedness. More than the exact particulars of his whereabouts, speculation that he may have escaped is engaging the attention of Sri Lanka watchers. For those who believe that he is still holed up in the Vanni region in the island's north-east, the doubt on their mind is whether he will be captured alive. Prabhakaran, 54, and father of three, is known to be fanatically committed to the cause and has inculcated a culture of suicide among his cadre — they are trained to bite a cyanide capsule they wear around their neck if captured. He is also believed to have left instructions to his bodyguards that he should be shot if he is in danger of being captured alive. Remarks by officials that Prabhakaran may choose to escape the island by sea or air has also led to speculation that he may have already fled Lanka to seek asylum elsewhere. Some have noted that the army had captured five airstrips in LTTE-held areas, but not come across its small fleet of Zlin
