Prabhakaran killed 14 people to marry his love? Even his critics are stunned

A Tamil Nadu politician’s charge that Sri Lanka’s now slain Tamil Tigers leader Velupillai Prabhakaran massacred 14 people to marry a young woman he loved has sparked outrage in the island-nation’s Tamil areas.

Both Prabhakaran loyalists and critics say that they have never heard of such an allegation hurled at the insurgent leader, who was a father of three children when he and his family perished in the long-drawn separatist war in May 2009.

TN MP's sensational claim

Thol Thirumavalavan, a member of Parliament and one of the vocal supporters in India of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), made the sensational claim at a public meeting in Tamil Nadu, separated from Sri Lanka by a narrow strip of sea.

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The 63-year-old leader of the Viduthalai Chiruthaigal Katchi (VCK) claimed to have been told by Prabhakaran that he married Mathivathani Erambu, then a student, in 1984, but only after killing 14 fellow Tamils because they objected to their inter-caste marriage.

Prabhakaran, whose Tamil Tigers at one time controlled a third of Sri Lankan land territory and two-thirds of its winding coast, hailed from Velvettiturai in the island's northern coastal tip. He belonged to the Karaiyar community — among those who specialise in seafaring — and was the youngest of four siblings born in a middle-class family.

In contrast, Mathivathani was a Vellalar, the dominant Hindu community in Jaffna, Sri Lanka’s Tamil heartland.

Prabhakaran was among a half-a-dozen Tamil militant leaders on a self-imposed exile in India when the LTTE broke up a hunger strike by some college students in Jaffna, saying the time for Gandhian protests was over in Sri Lanka.

The LTTE transported all the students by sea to India, and they were introduced to Prabhakaran at the group’s office in Chennai. Tamil sources say it was love at first sight for Prabhakaran, then 29, and Mathivathani, who was younger in age.

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The two married, with the consent of their families, at a Hindu temple on Old Mahabalipuram Road, on the edge of Chennai, in October 1984, with only a handful of the rebel leader's close friends present.

It was the one and possibly the only occasion when Prabhakaran wore a tie. Tamil sources admit that there were some convulsions in the LTTE ahead of Prabhakaran’s marriage, but it had nothing to do with their respective castes.

Prabhakaran had after forming the LTTE, demanded total commitment to the Tamil cause from its members — there were not many in the early stages — and declared that love could cause guerrillas to stray from the path of revolution.

He had axed a senior fellow militant, Uma Maheshwaran, from the Tigers after he fell in love with a young divorcee, Urmila.

So, when Prabhakaran himself fell in love, eyebrows were raised within the outfit. But close aides, including then LTTE ideologue Anton Balasingham, pressed him to marry Mathivathani. The couple had three children in quick succession — two boys and a girl.

'Nonsense talks'

Tamil sources say there had never been even a murmur that any killing took place in connection with Prabhakaran’s wedding.

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Bashir Kaka, a former LTTE guerrilla who was with Prabhakaran when the latter presided over an ambush that killed 13 Sri Lankan soldiers in Jaffna in July 1983, truly igniting the separatist war, outrightly denounced Thirumavalavan.

Addressing the media at the Jaffna Press Club, he said the Indian politician’s allegation was preposterous. He said he guessed that the VCK leader hurled such a charge to be in the news ahead of Tamil Nadu’s upcoming Assembly elections.

“Prabhakaran did not kill anyone to marry Mathivathani. I am 100 per cent sure about it. Thirumavalavan is talking nonsense,” Bashir said.

“Prabhakaran was a different kind of a person. He wouldn’t kill for love. If Mathivathani had stood against his vision of Tamil Eelam, he would have killed her too,” added the man, one of the few from the LTTE’s old guard still alive.

A former Indian official, who has monitored the Tamil Tigers closely, was equally dismissive of the allegation.

“This is complete nonsense,” he said. “The marriage took place with the consent and blessings of both families. There was no quarrel of any sort. And Prabhakaran always opposed differences among (Hindu) castes.”

Even Prabhakaran's critics are shocked

Even Sri Lankan Tamils who had opposed Prabhakaran’s policy of putting the gun above politics — which critics say caused his ultimate demise — have been taken aback.

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“Look, there are many things for which we can fault Prabhakaran,” said a member of a former Tamil militant group, many of whose members were killed over the years by the LTTE. “But this allegation just cannot be true.”

The ex-rebel, who has been involved in Tamil militancy since the early 1980s, added, “If there was even an iota of truth in the claim, we would have certainly known about it.”

Some others in Jaffna spoke disapprovingly of Thirumavalavan, but they did not want to be quoted by name.

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“The problem with Tamil Nadu’s politicians is that they think they can say anything and get away with it,” said another former Tamil militant. “They have no sense of responsibility. This is not the first time a Tamil Nadu politician has uttered nonsense. I believe this won’t be the last occasion either.”

Many political leaders and activists in Tamil Nadu openly backed Prabhakaran for many years. The support cracked when the LTTE was outlawed in India after it assassinated former prime minister Rajiv Gandhi in May 1991.

Along with Prabhakaran, his wife Mathivathani and their three children were also killed in the closing stages of the Tamil separatist war in 2009. While his elder son was reportedly killed in a battle, the younger son was captured and allegedly shot dead in cold blood by some Sri Lankan soldiers.

Prabhakaran’s wife and their only daughter also perished, although there is no definitive word as to how they met their end.