COLOMBO, Sri Lanka – The president of this island country has declared Sri Lanka to be at last, "Liberated from sparatist terror". This comes today (Tuesday) as the state owned TV is broadcasting pictures of the leader of the Hindu Tamils body - taken from the battlefield.
Even in his victory speech to parliament, the president was obviously reaching out to the Tamils, who 
rebels had said - they were working to make a homeland for themselves. He also referred to promises of working out a deal to share in restructuriing a power agreement with the Tamils.
"It is our intention to save the Tamil peoples from cruel grip of them (the rebels). We must all live like equals in our free country," (translated from Tamil).
At the same time the TV station was broadcasting video a dead body appearing like the rebel leader, still wearing the camouflage uniform and laying in the grass on a stretcher. The eyes of the corpse were seen staring upwards and there was a cloth over part of the head, likely to cover wound.
"Several hours ago," Chief General Sarath Fonseka of the army was saying...
...."the terrorist's body who destroyed our country, was discovered on the battlefield".Prabhakaran's body was later identified by Vinayagamoorthi Muralitharan, a former rebel commander known as Col. Karuna, who defected from the group and is now a government minister, the government said in a statement.
Defense spokesman Keheliya Rambukwella said they government might conduct a DNA test as well. He declined to reveal what the plans were for the disposal of the body.
The death of Velupillai Prabhakaran (Ve-LU'-pi-lay PRAH'-bah-ka-ran), the unquestioned leader of the Tamil Tigers, would make it far more difficult for the rebel movement to re-form and continue its nearly three decade separatist war.
Speaking before the announcement, a rebel official abroad denied Prabhakaran was killed and said the Tamil Tiger leader was in a safe place.
With the war on the northern battlefields over, Rajapaksa delivered a victory address to parliament early Tuesday.
Recounting how the rebels, known formally as the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, once controlled a wide swath of the north and east, Rajapaksa said that for the first time in 30 years, the country was unified under its elected government.
"Our motherland has been completely liberated from separatist terrorism," he said, declaring Wednesday a national holiday.
The rebels, listed as terrorists by the U.S. and European Union, had been fighting for a homeland for the mainly Hindu Tamil minority after decades of marginalization at the hands of governments dominated by the mainly Buddhist Sinhalese majority. Tamils make up nearly 20 percent of the country's 20 million people. About 75 percent are Sinhalese.
U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said Tuesday he was relieved the war appears over in Sri Lanka but said he wants the government to address the "concerns and aspirations" of the Tamils. The U.N. Human Rights Council is to meet Monday on Sri Lanka.
"We urgently need to treat the wounds of a war that has alienated the communities on the island for almost three decades," Ban said.
Rajapaksa has said in the past he would negotiate some form of power-sharing with the Tamil community following the war and he alluded Tuesday to the need for an agreement.
"We must find a homegrown solution to this conflict. That solution should be acceptable to all the communities," he said.
He also called upon Sri Lankans — especially Tamils — who fled the country to return and help it rebuild.
"There are no minority communities in this country. There are only two communities, one that loves this country and another that does not," he said.
But there were also signs that the tension between the government and the Tamil community in the north would continue.
Rambukwella said the government hoped to resettle the estimated 265,000 Tamils displaced by the fighting as soon as possible. But when they return to their villages, they will be accompanied by a heavy deployment of troops.
"They are now used to a certain type of lifestyle; they quarrel (with) each other, and we need a law and order situation to be maintained," he said. "We will perhaps need another 40,000-50,000 (troops)."
The war killed more than 70,000 people over the past quarter-century. Another 265,000 ethnic Tamils were displaced in the recent offensive and many of them have been sent to overcrowded camps in the north.
The chubby Prabhakaran turned what was little more than a street gang in the late 1970s into one of the world's most feared insurgencies. At the height of his power, Prabhakaran controlled a virtual country in the north and a rebel army of thousands backed by artillery, a navy and a nascent air force.
He was also branded a terrorist abroad and his fighters waged hundreds of suicide attacks, including the 1991 assassination of former Indian Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi, and forcibly recruited child soldiers.
A rebel official overseas, Selvarasa Pathmanathan, denied Prabhakaran had been killed.
"Our beloved leader Velupillai Prabhakaran is alive and safe. He will continue to lead the quest for dignity and freedom for the Tamil people," he said in a statement posted Tuesday on the rebel-affiliated TamilNet Web site. He offered no further details or evidence to support the claim.
With the rebels' conventional forces eliminated, many in Sri Lanka were waiting to see what concessions Rajapaksa was willing to make.
"Now (there) is a historic opportunity, and hopefully things will change. But the demonstrable record so far is not particularly encouraging," said Paikiasothy Saravanamuttu, a political analyst and executive director of the Colombo-based Center for Policy Alternatives.
Though Rajapaksa promised political compromise, the defeat of the rebels leaves a vacuum in the Tamil leadership.
Prabhakaran killed many community leaders seen as a challenge to his authority. Others moved abroad, while many of those who remained active in politics either allied themselves with the government or were linked to the rebels and effectively sidelined.
The bloody end to the war, which reportedly killed thousands of ethnic Tamil civilians, could also complicate peace efforts.