LTTE chief Prabhakaran lived in the lap of luxury
4 Feb 2009, 0327 hrs IST, TNN
LTTE chief Velupillai Prabhakaran lived in the lap of luxury, even as his guerrilla force fought pitched battles with the Sri Lankan army. A look at the underground bunker which the advancing Lankan army discovered in Mullaitivu tells you how.
A fully air-conditioned structure with four furnished compartments, the bunker had surveillance cameras, an oxygen plant, an insulin container and a deep-freezer. There were also three sound-proof power generators and an M-16 machine gun. The Lankan military also reported discovering an LTTE prison, which indicated the presence of a possible torture chamber. (((Let's be charitable here – maybe it wasn't an abduction torture chamber. Maybe it was just the place where they strapped the suicide bombs onto teenage girls.)))
According to the military, the two-storied underground-built residential complex was located in a two-acre coconut-cultivated land, which was well fortified, provided with all-round protection from adjacent gun positions and bunker locations.
The Lankan defence ministry also published photographs of the bunker, located about 50 feet below the earth and protected with a three-foot thick layer of concrete. “The underground bunker was fully air conditioned and consisted of four furnished compartments and tiled floors,” it said. Surveillance cameras had been fitted at the entrance of the bunker complex. (((It won't be long before OSPREY Press and the military modellers are on those plans like tramps on a hot biscuit.)))
Apparently to underscore how it was insulated from aerial bombing, the defence ministry said the air force had previously bombed the location. (((See, it really was the "lap of luxury.")))
Troops found an oxygen plant in what could have been Prabhakaran’s room along with an M-16 machine gun and an insulin container. The LTTE leader is said to be diabetic. Four guard points were located adjacent to the compartment and possibly manned by personal bodyguards. An interesting find was the presence of sound-proof power generators for electricity supply.
On Tuesday, troops got possible confirmation of long-suspected prisons run by the LTTE to incarcerate Tamil dissidents. The defence ministry said it found “a colossal torture chamber-cum-open prison” west of Visuamadu, the last habitation that the army captured a few days ago.
The five-acre prison complex had 10-foot high barbed wire fencing around it, and consisted of tiny cells of concrete and cement with what the army called “thin openings for ventilation”.
The jail chambers had metal doors that could be padlocked from outside....
(((You gotta love the pro-LTTE letters responses to this Times of India article, which protest that the luxurious bunker was actually a humble cot where His Worship there was not torturing anybody and that his M-16 was actually a paintball gun. Yeah, that paintball gymnastics musta been pretty relaxing after a bloody secession that's lasted since 1972.)))
