Fear and loathing in Serendib

The Rout of Prabhakaran by MR Narayan Swamy provides fresh insight into the mind of the LTTE chief, and the roles played in the Sri Lankan civil war by India, the West, and by local politicians

- Padma Rao Sundarji

A myriad stories shroud Velupillai Prabhakaran, chief of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE). Sixteen years after he met his gory end, veteran journalist MR Narayan Swamy's fourth book on the Sri Lankan civil war, The Rout of Prabhakaran, provides fresh insight into the man whose megalomania proved to be his nemesis.

Reporters covering a multilayered armed conflict often risk being struck by the journalistic equivalent of Stockholm Syndrome. MR nimbly sidesteps that danger and remains firmly centered throughout, beginning with his opening description of the most controversial final stage of the war, in May 2009, for which the Sri Lankan Army (SLA) still faces international censure for the alleged slaughter of 40,000 Tamil civilians. The author is unambiguous and points out that the civilians moved towards—not away from—the SLA, while their "Sun God" Prabhakaran, tried to escape, using them as human shields: "The LTTE had created a bund...partly to prevent civilians from escaping...Once the troops managed to dent these...thousands...began to stream towards the government soldiers...This...dramatically brought down the number of civilians in the battle zone."

His revelations about Mahinda Rajapaksa, Sri Lanka's most popular former president, who was in power at the time, will also be a blow to armchair critics. After 30 years of civil war, the hardline Sinhala politician ended the conflict by ignoring Western interference, which had earlier forced repeated ceasefires upon the SLA. Those ceasefires had allowed the LTTE to replenish weaponry, recruit more child soldiers and teenage suicide bombers, and launch fresh attacks.