Tamil Tiger founder Vellupillai Prabhakaran has done one thing better than anything else for 37 years: avoid capture.

Now the 54-year-old guerrilla leader and architect of Asia's longest-running civil war faces near certain defeat at the hands of the Sri Lankan military, and his longstanding vow of no surrender appears near a final test.

For once since he first got the authorities' attention after accidentally setting off explosives in 1972, there is little doubt about the elusive Tiger chief's whereabouts.