Asian Window

From the Independent:

This photo released by Sri Lanka military shows LTTE leader Vellupillai Prabhakaran swimming in a pool with his son Balachandran.

His whole adult life he has been in hiding, directing Asia’s longest modern war, but as the shells continued to rain down on the strip of land his rebels hold, another, sweeter side of the life of the Tamil Tiger chief Velupillai Prabhakaran was put on view by the Sri Lankan government.

The album of plundered family snaps shows him enjoying the sort of lifestyle his thousands of devoted cadres could only dream of: frolicking in a pool, celebrating his daughter’s wedding, tucking into a banquet.

The ministry contrasted the comforts enjoyed by the man who is presumably still at bay in the Tigers’ last hold-out with photos showing the primitive conditions in which his soldiers have long been required to live and fight.

Meanwhile, as his troops fought on, thousands of civilians trapped in the war’s brutal end game are dying. A doctor inside the 5sq km strip on the island’s north-east coast still controlled by the rebels reported that renewed shelling had killed at least 50 people in the only hospital in the so-called “safe zone”. More:

UN ‘grave concern’ over Sri Lanka: The United Nations Security Council has asked the Sri Lankan government and the Tamil Tiger rebels to ensure the safety of civilians trapped in the conflict. A council statement expressed “grave concern” at the “worsening humanitarian crisis” in the northeast. US President Barack Obama too has urged the army to stop shelling of civilians and the rebels to lay down their arms. From BBC

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