Tamil Tigers leader to give annual speech

Tamil Tigers and bereaved families lit lamps and garlanded portraits of fallen fighters in rebel-held parts of Sri Lanka to mark the end of Hero’s Week, as the rebels’ reclusive leader prepared to make his annual policy speech today.

Velupillai Prabhakaran’s speech comes amid an undeclared civil war that has virtually destroyed a 2002 cease-fire with the government, leaving more than 3,200 people dead this year alone.