An epic day

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**Frazzled**

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20090518/ts_nm/us_srilanka_war_40

Sri Lanka says wins civil war, kills rebel leader
Buzz Up Send
COLOMBO (Reuters) – Sri Lankan troops won the final battle in one of the world's most intractable separatist wars, and put the island nation under government control for the first time since 1983, the military said.

In the climactic final gun battle, special forces troops killed Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) leader Vellupillai Prabhakaran as he tried to flee the war zone in an ambulance early on Monday, state television reported.

LTTE intelligence chief Pottu Amman and Soosai, head of the "Sea Tiger" naval wing, were also believed killed, the report said. Prabhakaran founded the LTTE on a culture of suicide before surrender, and had sworn he would never be taken alive.

Army commander Lt-Gen. Sarath Fonseka said troops on Monday morning had finished the task President Mahinda Rajapaksa gave them three years ago.

"We have liberated the entire country by completely liberating the north from the terrorists. We have gained full control of LTTE-held areas," Fonseka announced on state TV.

The end of combat and Prabhakaran's death sent the currency and stock markets to one-month and seven-month highs respectively by 0900 GMT. They had already surged at the opening in anticipation of the war's end.

Rajapaksa declared victory on Saturday, even as the final battle in Asia's longest modern war was intensifying.

It played out on a sandy patch of just 300 sq meters (3,230 sq ft) near the Indian Ocean island's northeastern coast, where the military said the last Tiger fighters had holed up in bunkers and surrounded themselves with land mines and booby traps.

But Sru Lanka's triumph was not without controversy. The European Union will call on Monday for an independent inquiry into alleged violations of humanitarian and humans rights law and for those responsible to be brought to justice.

A draft EU text due to be put to a foreign ministers meeting in Brussels calls for an end to restrictions on aid agencies, and full access to people displaced by the fighting.

COUNTING BODIES

The LTTE on Sunday conceded defeat in a 25-year civil war, after a relentless Sri Lankan military offensive that retook the 15,000 sq km the rebels ran as a separate state when a 2002 truce began falling apart three years ago.

The official Media Center for National Security said more than 250 Tigers had been killed in the final battle, which intensified on Saturday after the military said it had freed the last of 72,000 civilians trapped in the tiny war zone.

News of the Tiger chief's death came as state TV for the first time broadcast images of the body of his son and heir apparent, Charles Anthony, and other dead rebels.

He was killed overnight, the military said, along with a host of other top LTTE fighters and political cadres, including political chief B. Nadesan and spokesman Seevaratnam Puleedevan.

In Colombo, demonstrators threw rocks at the British High Commission, tossed a burning effigy of Foreign Secretary David Miliband inside and spray-painted its heavily fortified wall with epithets and a message: "LTTE headquarters."

Miliband has been critical of the Sri Lankan government's prosecution of the war, and is seen here as sympathetic to the vocal pro-LTTE lobby that has protested outside parliament for weeks in Britain. London has said it backs a war crimes' probe.

Sri Lanka has been furious that a number of its embassies in foreign capitals have been vandalized by Tamil Tiger backers.

Rajapaksa prorogued parliament on Monday, the required step for him to take the role of speaker and address the body. He was due to make his formal declaration of victory there on Tuesday.

In less than three years, Sri Lanka's bulked-up military has answered critics who said there was no way to defeat the LTTE, which had carefully crafted an aura of military invincibility.

The LTTE at the height of its power had run a de facto state for Sri Lanka's Tamil minority that it called Tamil Eelam.

The Tigers collected taxes, ran courts and kept a standing army, naval wing and small air force, even though the government paid for health and education services there.

**Deff Dread red Edition**

Saw it yesterday on CNN,I for one am happy.

Did the rebels have a proper claim to independence though?

**Cheese Elemental**

Goodo. No more internal strife... for now. Sooner or later, another aspiring independent will rise up and gain supporters and therefore power, continuing the cycle. It's saddening.

**Kilkrazy**

The Sri Lankan goverment admits to its troops firing on an ambulance?

I suppose it doesn't matter because they didn't allow the Red Cross in to check on the state of the civilian population.

**whatwhat**

I reserve judgement untill I know what this means for their cricket team.

**Kilkrazy**

Deff Dread red Edition wrote:Saw it yesterday on CNN,I for one am happy.

Did the rebels have a proper claim to independence though?

What [i]is[/] a proper claim for independence?

As Clemenceau said, "Must every little language have its country?"

**Deff Dread red Edition**

I see what you mean.

**LuciusAR**

Just out of interest where the Rebels the goodies or the baddies?

Are we celebrating the crushing of an evil collection of malcontents or mouring the slaughter of freedom fighters by an evil empire?

*Before I get flamed my tounge is very firmly in my cheek!*

**bigfood**

LuciusAR wrote:Just out of interest where the Rebels the goodies or the baddies?

Are we celebrating the crushing of an evil collection of malcontents or mouring the slaughter of freedom fighters by an evil empire?

*Before I get flamed my tounge is very firmly in my cheek!*

Really good question, asked that to myself this morning, too. From what I read ( and I just had a quick glance ) it´s mainly been a religious problem. 90% of the inhabitants are buddhists, 10% are hindus. The country has 20.000.000 inhabitants. It was a small debate in the beginning until 13 soldiers got killed ( contra rebels ) and the government began with a mass-killing of the Tamils ( contra governement ). From that point everything went downhill.
Terry Pratchet once used a good metapher.: ,, There´s as less a different like between terrorists and freedom-fighters." Pretty matching.
There´s nothing to celebrate, except the fact that it´s over.

**Frazzled**

This is one of the longest ongoing guerilla wars in the last several centuries. A hallmark has been terrorist activities by both sides against civilians, including the joy of homicide bombers, rarely seen outside of islam terrorist circles.