The White Flag incident is the massacre of surrendering leaders of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam and their families by the Sri Lankan Army on 18 May 2009 in Mullivaikal, Mullaitivu, Vanni, Sri Lanka. The LTTE's Political Wing leader, Balasingham Nadesan and Pulidevan agreed to surrender and contacted the United Nations, the governments of Norway, United Kingdom, United States and the International Committee of the Red Cross. They were given assurance by Mahinda Rajapaksa, the Prime Minister of Sri Lanka, and told to surrender at a particular place by Basil Rajapakse. LTTE's request for a third party witness to oversee the surrender was not granted by the Sri Lankan government. The LTTE surrendered to the 58 Division (Sri Lanka) carrying white flags, but were reportedly shot dead. Sarath Fonseka, then the Sri Lankan Army Chief stated that they had been shot dead on the orders of Gotabhaya Rajapaksa to Shavendra Silva, commander of the 58 Division (Sri Lanka). Balachandran Prabhakaran, Prabhakaran's 12-year-old son, was also killed after surrendering along with his bodyguards. A UN Panel states the LTTE leaders intended to surrender. The Sri Lankan government has denied any accusations of wrongdoing.[1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12]