War in Sri Lanka comes to an end: LTTE gets the final kick in the face
Posted by page11 on May 17, 2009
LTTE can be defeated. Yes.
In a civil war lasting more than 25 years, the LTTE gained a reputation of being nearly invincible. Time is changed now. Sri Lankan Government forces at last made their way through and showed LTTE the exit path.
How was it done?ell, a string of miscalculations and grave strategic mistakes led to the downfall of the LTTE and its leader, Velupillai Prabhakaran.
In 1991, an LTTE female suicide bomber killed former Indian president and National Congress Party leader Rajiv Gandhi, who had sent peacekeeping troops to Sri Lanka in 1987 that become involved in fighting with the rebels. The Congress Party, led by Gandhi’s widow Sonia, heads the government in New Delhi again today, probably one reason why big brother India failed to heed the protests of its own Tamil minority as Rajapakse pressed ahead with his campaign to annihilate the LTTE.
Then, in 2005, it was Prabhakaran of all people who brought about the victory of the hardliner Rajapaksa in the country’s presidential elections. Shortly before the polls, the LTTE ordered an election boycott. Ranil Wickremesinghe, who advocated a political solution to the conflict, narrowly lost the elections without the Tamil vote.
According to analyst Jehan Perera, Prabhakaran might have been gambling that the international community would withdrawing its support from Rajapaksa’s government over his hardline policy. However, the gamble backfired as more and more countries blacklisted the LTTE over the group’s ongoing suicide and other attacks, leading to the Tigers’ increasing international isolation.
With the self-confidence of its military advances against the LTTE, Rajapaksa’s government tried to sell the Tamil Tigers’ defeat as evidence that terrorism could only be quashed by military means while, at the same time, many Western states, chastened by their experience in Afghanistan, have drawn a very different conclusion. Seemingly drunk with imminent victory, Rajapaksa aide Lucien Rajakarunanayake recently wrote that Sri Lankan troops could soon be ‘the most sought-after force in the fight against terrorism.’ He said the world increasingly saw Sri Lanka as ‘an example how terrorism can be fought and defeated.’
Although a majority in the international community is horrified over the bloodbath among the civilian population caused by the fighting, his thesis finds its supporters in the West.
Back in January, the conservative US Wall Street Journal wrote: ‘For all those who argue that there’s no military solution for terrorism, we have two words: Sri Lanka.’ And, directed at the new US president, the paper added, ‘Colombo’s military strategy against Tamil terrorists has worked. Negotiations haven’t. That’s an important reminder as Israel faces its own terrorism problem and as the US works to foster stability and political progress in Iraq. Take note, Barack Obama.’ While the LTTE is unlikely to recover its former strength, it was expected to continue to operate in the underground and continue to carry out attacks.
