Sri Lanka rebels fete 20 years of suicide bombers

COLOMBO, July 5 (Reuters) Draping garlands over photographs of dead comrades to the sound of rebel anthems, Sri Lanka's Tamil Tigers today marked the 20th anniversary of the first attack by their elite Black Tiger suicide wing.

Hoisting flags emblazoned with roaring golden Tigers and crossed rifles, insurgents and residents in the rebels' northern stronghold of Kilinochchi remembered the 322 Black Tigers who have blown themselves up in suicide attacks since 1987.

But the group's shadowy leader Velupillai Prabhakaran was nowhere to be seen. Nor were any serving suicide fighters, who in past years have marched in their trademark black uniforms, their faces covered with cloth.

''This morning people gathered in public places to remember the Black Tigers who have died. They put garlands on photos of them,'' Tiger humanitarian affairs spokeswoman Selvy Navaruban said by telephone from the northern rebel stronghold of Kilinochchi.

''We are commemorating our martyrs,'' she added. ''There will be drama programmes and music this evening.'' Tiger suicide fighters have killed hundreds of mostly soldiers in the past 20 years in their campaign for a separate state in the north and east of the country.

Their primary targets have been politicians and military top brass in land attacks, though suicide fighters have also been used in a string of attacks on navy vessels using small speedboats packed with explosives.

A 2002 ceasefire pact between the Tigers and the government collapsed last year, opening a new chapter in a two-decade civil war that has killed nearly 70,000 people.

SUICIDE TOLL UP SHARPLY The Black Tiger death toll given by the rebels this year is up sharply from the 273 commemorated in 2006.

The Tigers revere the first Black Tiger, Captain Miller, who rammed a truck packed with explosives into an army camp in 1987. The military says 15 soldiers died in that attack. The Tigers claim he killed 40 people.

Black Tigers have been blamed for a spree of attacks, including a 1996 attack on the Central Bank that killed more than 100 people and the 1991 assassination of former Indian Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi after India became embroiled in the conflict in the late 1980s.

The elite fighters are traditionally granted a last supper with Prabhakaran, who sees them as the lynchpin of the rebel group he founded to fight for an independent state.

''I created the Black Tigers to be the strongest weapon of our powerless community,'' Prabhakaran, who has spent much of the past 20 years in hiding, once said in tribute.

Tiger folklore has it that where a Tiger cadre falls, a tree will grow.

''It is a figure of speech. Cadres have different beliefs, and we respect those,'' said Tiger military spokesman Rasiah Ilanthiraiyan, saying suicide fighters must meet certain qualifications.

''Of course there are basic requirements a candidate should possess,'' he added. ''He or she should not be an only child and (must have) the physical ability.'' Reutrs AGL DB1907