12-year-old Son of Sri Lanka's Tamil Tiger Chief Allegedly Murdered

Photos depicts Balachandran Prabhakaran, 12, eating some chocolate while a Sri Lankan soldier keeps watch. Afterwards, a second photo shows the teen's body riddled with bullet wounds.

British-base documentary includes new evidence (photos) that the teenage son of Tamil Tiger chief was murdered.

By H. Nelson Goodson

February 20, 2013

India - On Tuesday, several photos were released by the Journalists for Democracy in Sri Lanka providing clear evidence that Balachandran Prabhakaran, 12, had been executed by government troops on May 19, 2009, the last day of the nearly three decade war with Tamil Tiger rebels. Government officials had claimed in 2009 that the teen had been killed in cross fire in the battle field. He was the son of Velupillai Prabhakaran, founder and leader of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam who was reportedly killed in battle on the same day.

The photographs were included in a documentary as new evidence, which will be shown in Geneva next month at the same time the U.N. Human Rights Council meeting will take place. Callum Macrae, the British director of the Channel 4 documentary,  "No fire zone: The killing fields of Sri Lanka" wrote in an article in the Hindu, an Indian daily newspaper, that the photos show Balachandran was not killed in crossfire or in the battle field as the government claims. "...His death was deliberate and calculated," Macrae wrote.

Digital analysis indicate that the photos were taken by the same camera, in the time span of 1 hour and 45 minutes apart. One photo shows Balachandran alive, which was taken at 10:14 a.m. and then at 12:01 p.m. a photo shows his body riddled with five bullet wounds.

The Sri Lankan government denied Balachandran was ever murdered by soldiers. But a U.N. panel reported, that tens of thousands of civilians were killed in the final months of the war. Credible evidence indicate both the Sri Lankan government and the Tamil Tiger rebels committed atrocities, but the Rajapaksa regime who continues in control of the government committed most of the atrocities, according to the U.N. panel. 

The Sri Lankan government has not allowed the U.N. to come in and investigate the atrocities.
Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J. Jayalalithaa on Wednesday during a press conference condemned the cold blooded murder of Balachandran and wants those who committed "war crimes" brought to trial in an international court. “He was only 12 years. He was only a child. He did not commit any crime. As he was the son of Prabhakaran, the Sri Lankan army killed him,” Jayalalithaa said. She asked for the Indian government, the U.S. and other nations to begin discussions in an effort to come up with a U.N. resolution against the government of Sri Lanka and the Rajapaksa regime.Jayalalithaa also called for India and other nations to impose an economic embargo against Sri Lanka's government until the Tamils still being held in camps since the war ended are freed and allowed the same rights as those of the Sri Lankan population.