On November 27 each year, Velupillai Prabhakaran, the leader of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), delivers a "Heroes' Day Message" to climax a week-long series of events intended to honour the Tiger cadres who have died in the course of their secessionist campaign of war and terrorism. This routine event, staged on the day following the leader's birthday, tends to be looked upon by most observers as part and parcel of the cult-perpetuating ritual on which the LTTE has always placed great emphasis. The annual message, regularly published in journals espousing Tamil nationalism, has also been occasionally scrutinised for guidelines it could provide to the thinking among the LTTE leadership.
Prabhakaran's message this year has attracted greater media attention than it usually does. Broadcast in the context of the on-going peace negotiations - a process that began in December 2001 with the suspension of the military confrontation between the Government of Sri Lanka and the LTTE - the message was expected to contain clues on the extent to which the LTTE would deviate from its secessionist commitments in order to reach a compromise with the government.