The leader of the Tamil Tigers has said Sri Lanka is “living in a dreamland of military victory”, moments after government jets for a second year running destroyed a rebel radio station broadcasting his annual address. Even with a Sri Lankan military offensive besieging the separatist Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam’s (LTTE) self-declared capital, leader Vellupillai Prabhakaran remained defiant in his yearly rallying cry.
“The Sinhala state has, as never before, placed its trust on its military strength,” he said, referring to Sri Lanka’s government. “It is living in a dreamland of military victory. It is a dream from which it will awake. That is certain.” Prabhakaran’s speech, usually recorded beforehand at one of his jungle hideouts, went out worldwide on the Internet despite the air raid.
Air force spokesman Wing Commander Janaka Nanayakkara said the strike completely destroyed a radio station close to Kilinochchi, the northern town the LTTE has declared as capital of the separate state it wants to create and calls Tamil Eelam.
(Source: Reuters/R Netherlands Media Network Weblog)