Lanka
The longest running civil war in Asia between LTTE and Sri Lankan government will be soon over.
Lalith Athulathmudali, Ranasinghe Premadasa, Amrithalingam, Neelam Thiruchelvan and Rajiv Gandhi if you thought these are alphabet soups, the answer is no, these are the names of real people, real presidents, real prime ministers killed by LTTE.
LTTE which claimed to protect ethnic minority Tamils in Lanka, I hope will be soon part of history, and no terror organization will ever match its ruthlessness and network.
Ever since a civil war started LTTE has been pushing Tamil minority to create a huge diaspora to fund LTTE. There is a large diaspora in Europe created by the liberal asylum policies and European countries failed to see that Tamils were also part of the problem. The presence of large number of Sri Lankan Tamils in Europe shaped a policy which was antagonistic to Sri Lankan state. I think Lankan government was right in sending back the Swedish foreign minister this morning who arrived in Colombo to press for cease fire, Sweden has recalled its ambassador but in this era of Hugo Chavez sending diplomats and kicking them out is like playing cards
LTTE spread the word Tamils can't live safely in Sri Lanka when there are suburbs in Colombo like Welawetta dominated by Tamils. I remember once meeting a Sri Lankan Tamil in a train in India he started lamenting about how unsafe it is for Tamils to live in Lanka. I told him about my very long stay in Lanka as part of my work and discussed about my trips to Tamil neighborhoods for dinners, he became quite and didn't utter a word for the rest of the journey.
LTTE's ruthless strategy, European support to Tamil cause and effective propoganda made it a controlling force in Tamil speaking parts of Lanka.
Now with relentless pursuit by Lankan army and government refusing to accept cease fire which doesn't allow LTTE to regroup, I hope it's over for LTTE.
The bloody battle shifted focus from grievences of Tamil minority who suffered from affirmative action that favored the majority Sinhala and Sinhalese official language policy. The affirmative action was introduced because when British left Lanka the beaurcracy was dominated by Tamils. Major reforms have happened like official business can be done in Tamil and trivial ones have happened like removing the Sinhalese character Sri from license plates, but much more needs to be done.
Sri Lankan goverment will do a great favor by addressing the problems of all its citizens, and make use of the opportunity created by the defeat by LTTE to achieve lasting peace.
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