Prabhakaran's Eyes

CNN-IBN showed the dead body of Velupillai Prabhakaran, mastermind and supreme commander of the LTTE. It was clear that he had been killed point-blank: the top of his head had been blown off. For somebody who was killed in an ambush, the rest of the body hadn't sustained any injury.

Couple of thoughts: Was it "right" for the Sri Lankan army to kill him like that? It is an accepted protocol among civilized but warring factions that a person who has been arrested in the battlefield is given amnesty. The Sri Lankan army has been saying it took them overnight to locate the body, implying that he was killed in combat. I don't doubt that the army will reiterate this "fact" over the next month. But, to anyone paying attention, it is obvious that he was shot in the head, possibly after being disarmed.

Prabhakaran operated from the pedestal of a reputation of ruthlessness, even towards himself: he reputedly carried a cyanide capsule with which to commit suicide in case he was captured by the enemies. Although morality and a code of civilized warfare would suggest that it is wrong to kill anybody after disarming him in the battlefield, should it apply to Prabhakaran, with his cyanide pill?

The obvious, correct answer is yes. Even Prabhakaran should have been given amnesty from a violent death, and referred to national and international courts where he could be tried for his crimes against humanity, which, no doubt, were numerous.

But, I think the meritoriously Machiavellian answer would be "No." I think the Sri Lankan army has managed to simplify the logistics of victory by removing one individual: to have him alive would have no doubt lead to numerous more suicide-bombings and other acts of terror. He would have attracted funds from the Tamil diaspora to fund an effort to take hostages or lay siege upon civilian targets in order to negotiate his release. The government would have been forced to put more Sri Lanka army personnel in harm's way while he sat safe in a jail cell somewhere. The cost would have come in lives of the ordinary people, not in the lives of statesmen or army generals or top LTTE operatives.

I think this one war crime committed by the Sri Lankan army--and I mean specifically the execution of Prabhakaran--will result in lives saved.

For the scores of innocent Tamil civilians killed by the Sri Lankan army, there has to be a second reckoning.

However, the nation of Sri Lanka failed terribly as a civilized nation in forgetting to give a dead man's body the simplest significant due: Prabhakaran's eyes were left wide open, staring at the sky, unable to shake off the flies that settled on them. I think a civilized people should have ensured that the dead man's eyes were closed after his death. There was something terrible about the pictures on TV because of the open eyes. Sri Lankan army shouldn't have invited TV cameras before closing Prabhakaran's eyelids. That's what I think, at least.

Survive in Peace, Sri Lanka!