Categories: Need to know

Tamil Tigers defeated, leader allegedly killed

President Mahinda Rajapaksa proclaims Sri Lanka’s victory in the 25-year civil war

by macleans.ca on Sunday, May 17, 2009 5:09pm - 4 Comments

The Sri Lankan army proclaimed an end to the 25 years of civil war after defeating the remaining Tamil Tiger rebels and killing their leader Velupillai Prabhakaran. It remains unclear whether there are any civilians remaining in the war zone. This brings to a close the Tigers fight for a separate state, in a war which saw 70,000 lives lost. Around the world, including Toronto, Tamil communities are protesting and holding vigils, asking for international attention and humanitarian aid to the area.

CBC

CTV

BBC

theragingranter

Is this kinda like George Bush declaring victory in Iraq a few years ago? Sure, the government of Sri Lanka won. Now they can enjoy the glorious post-war boom in suicide bombings and sectarian carnage.

hosertohoosier

No, not quite. In 2003 the US defeated a conventional military organization, but had not defeated various underground resistance movements. In Sri Lanka, the government has defeated the non-state terrorist organization LTTE. A better analogy would be the success of the surge in Iraq – I am sure that replacement resistance organizations will spring up in both Iraq and Sri Lanka, However, neither of those organizations will control territory (you have to remember that just a year ago LTTE-occupied territory was basically its own state, nor will either have remotely good prospects of success. In other words, brutal and tough military tactics give both Iraq and Sri Lanka a window of opportunity for peace. However, this is just a battle in a larger war – should either country fail to reconcile different factions, conflict could return quickly.

Maureen

Bravo – you are absolutely correct. Until the Western world gets their head around terrorists and their means, we will always be held hostage to them. They are terrorists because they terrorize unarmed civilians – not well-trained military forces. But unfortunately we have handcuffed our military forces with expectations that are silly – no civilians can be harmed, terrorists can not be interrogated (pardon me tortured) but terrorists can slice the heads off of people, video tape it, put it on the internet and all we do is ‘tut, tut – that was not nice of them’. And don’t give me the nonsense of the ‘root causes’ of terrorism – the root cause is that terrorists cannot convince anyone that their cause is just and noble and they can only achieve their ends by threats, terror and holding civilians hostage.

Savant

I know there are those who suggest he is not really head, but it would seem they are mistaken. The cell-phone image at the link below definately looks like him. http://tinyurl.com/omvaop