Sri Lanka's president declared his country “liberated from separatist terror” Tuesday as the military said it recovered the body of Tamil Tiger rebel leader Velupillai Prabhakaran from the battlefield on which he was slain. But in his victory address to parliament, President Mahinda Rajapaksa appeared to reach out to the minority Tamils, for whom the rebels had said they were trying to carve out a homeland. He also alluded to promises to forge a power-sharing agreement with them. “Our intention was to save the Tamil people from the cruel grip of the (rebels). We all must now live as equals in this free country,” he said, briefly speaking in the Tamil language. Meanwhile, TV footage showed a bloated body resembling the rebel leader, still dressed in a dark green camouflage uniform, laid out on a stretcher on the grass. A blue cloth rested on top of his head, apparently to cover a bullet wound. His open eyes stared straight up. “A few hours ago, the body of terrorist leader Prabhakaran, who ruined this country, was found on the battleground,” army chief Gen. Sarath Fonseka told state television. Speaking before the announcement, a rebel official abroad, Selvarasa Pathmanathan, denied Prabhakaran was killed and said the Tamil Tiger leader was in a safe place. “Our beloved leader Velupillai Prabhakaran is alive and safe. He will continue to lead the quest for dignity and freedom for the Tamil people,” he said in a statement posted Tuesday on the rebel-affiliated TamilNet Web site. He offered no further details or evidence to support the claim. With the war on the northern battlefields over, Rajapaksa delivered a victory address to parliament early Tuesday. “Our motherland has been completely liberated from separatist terrorism,” he said, declaring Wednesday a national holiday. Meanwhile, a protest outside Britain's parliament turned violent as relief agencies and governments called for urgent humanitarian aid in Sri Lanka. Three police officers and five protesters were in hospital and 10 protesters held in London. The clashes broke out when police moved to disperse 2,500 Tamils who staged a sit-down outside parliament, with Scotland Yard claiming another 21 officers got minor injuries.
