Chennai: Tamil nationalist leader and President of the World Tamil Confederation Dr P Nedumaran claimed on Monday that Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) chief Velupillai Prabhakaran is still alive.

Nedumaran, who was speaking to reporters in Thanjavur, said that the outlawed leader will appear in public at the right time.

He also claimed that Prabhakaran is doing well, his family is in touch with him and he is revealing it with Prabhakaran's family's permission. Prabhakaran was pronounced dead in the ethnic war by Sri Lankan military in May 2009. 

In a press conference, Pazha Nedumaran prefixed his declaration as a 'true announcement' and said the international (political) atmosphere and fierce opposition to Rajapaksas by the Sinhalese people in Sri Lanka has created the right conditions for the leader of the Eelam Tamils, Prabhakaran to emerge.

"Sri Lanka has not released any official records of Prabhakaran's death. Only one photograph was released. The whereabouts of his wife Mathivathani Erambu and daughter Duvaraga are yet to be revealed," said Nedumaran.

Asserting that the LTTE leader is doing well, Nedumaran said the announcement would end 'planned' suspicions spread about him. "Prabhakaran is all set to soon announce a plan for the dawn of the Eelam Tamils in Sri Lanka," he said.

He appealed to Tamils in Sri Lanka and across the world to stand together and extend him their full support. Till such time the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) was powerful, they did not allow any forces inimical to India to find a toehold in the regions held by them in Sri Lanka, he said.

They not only opposed such forces but also have not received any support from such nations opposed to India, he added.

Sri Lankan military dismisses claim

Sources with the Sri Lankan military dismissed Nedumaran's claim that Prabhakaran is alive and well, and said there was evidence to prove the same.

President Ranil Wickremesinghe said last Saturday he was committed to the devolution of power within a unitary state as a solution to Sri Lanka's ethnic issue and underlined the need for the Tamil diaspora's engagement for the development of the conflict-battered northern region.

On May 18, 2009, the campaign led by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) to establish a separate Tamil homeland in the northern and eastern provinces of the island nation came to an end with the killing of LTTE supremo Velupillai Prabakaran by the Sri Lankan Army in Mullaithviu's Vellamulivaikkal.

The Tamils allege that thousands were massacred during the final stages of the war, a charge the Sri Lankan Army denies.

According to a UN report, at least 40,000 Tamil civilians may have been killed in just the final months of the civil war.