Most parts of the country are still carrying out extensive relief efforts. But today all focus of the media went towards the northern part of the country, particularly on the LTTE rebels. Everyone started to heat up when they heard the news that the elusive Tamil Tiger chief Velupillai Prabhakaran and his intelligence chief Pottu Amman are among the dead or missing after last week's tsunami disaster. It didn’t come as a surprise that this sparked fresh tension between the government and rebels who immediately denied the report.

The story unfolded as news broke out reporting that an expensive coffin "for a top LTTE leader" had been smuggled into a northern Tiger area inside a container carrying relief for tsunami survivors. Their swift response came in the form of growing hatred.

This is not the time for gossip mongering and malicious propaganda. At a time of a national catastrophe of this magnitude, it is very ... regrettable that a responsible media of the government takes upon itself the job of spreading rumours and speculation that tend to create confusion in the minds of the people.

Prabhakaran has been the ultimate inspiration for the rebels. His demise would be a major loss to the rebels as well as an outstanding advantage to the government. However, the accuracy of these reports is still on question. Under the given circumstances of growing tension between the two groups on relief supplies this could be another premeditated episode in an apparently never-ending clash. Since I loath getting political and for some reason my mind takes up the gossip mongering pitch, I might as well retire from this plot and leave it to the big guys.

At a time when both sides should be exchanging relief assistance plans they seems to be happy with trading accusations. As a result Mr. Anan, UN Secretary General, who was supposed to visit the northeastern areas was held up due to the revised itinerary. He ended up touring areas of Hambantota, Trincomalee and Galle where he witnessed the destruction caused by the tsunami and met with survivors.

The point I see in this chapter of the story is that, rebel or non-rebel, nature treated everyone equally. So the ones who were fortunate enough to hold themselves out of this disaster should know that they too stand in the same line, none forward or backward. So fighting each other trying to break it would only end up making them fools out of themselves.